Book reviews

Handbook of Legal Information Retrieval Edited by J Bing, Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law, Oslo, in co‐operation with T Fjeldvig, T Harvold and R Svoboda North‐Holland 1984, US $96.25

Information Technology: The Challenge to Copyright. James Lahore, Gerald Dworkin and Yvonne Smyth Sweet & Maxwell and The Centre for Commercial Law Studies 1984, £12.00

Data Processing and the Law Edited by Colin Campbell Sweet and Maxwell 1984, £20.00

Le droit des Contrats Informatiques — Principes — Applications Centre de Recherches informatique et droit des Facultes Universitaires de Namur Maison Ferdinand Larder (Brussels), 1983, 45 FB

Computer Insecurity Adrian R.D. Norman Chapman and Hall 1983, £14.95

The Data Protection Act Richard Sizer and Philip Newman Gower Publishing, 1984, £16.95

The Data Protection Act 1984 Professor Bryan Niblett Oyez Longman Publishing, 1984, £18.00

The Data Protection Act 1984 — A Guide to the New Legislation J. A. L. Sterling CCH Editions, 1984, £15.00

Privacy and Data Protection — An International Bibliography Professor David H. Flaherty Mansell Publishing, 1984, £23.50

Computer Contracts R Morgan & G Stedman Oyez Longman Publishing 1984, 2nd Edition, £27.50

Computer Contracts Handbook Michele Rennie Sweet & Maxwell 1984, £15.00

Computer Contracts — An International Guide to Agreements and Software Protection Hilary Pearson Financial training 1984, £14.95     

Repairing the Crack in New Orleans' Black Vote: VRA's Results Test Nullifies "Gerryduck"

In 1982, Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act was amendedto allow plaintiffs to prevail in voting rights litigation ifthey demonstrate that a challenged law or practice has a discriminatoryresult. One of the first applications of this new statutoryprovision invalidated a congressional districting plan for theNew Orleans metropolitan area, a plan that had divided the city'sblack population virtually in half. This article reviews boththe making and the unmaking of that plan, derisively known asthe "gerryduck." Although the judicial action invalidating thisexercise in racial cartography demonstrates the potential importanceof this new section of the VRA as a legal weapon against minorityvote dilution, the results test provides federal judges withenormous discretion, and the application of the test may thereforebe quite capricious.     

Wrongful termination lawsuits: the employers finally win a few

Much attention has been given of late to the erosion of the "employment-at-will" doctrine. Exceptions to this doctrine began to emerge when courts held that at-will employees could sue if their termination violated public policy. The at-will doctrine was further eroded by court rulings that a contract requiring good cause in order to terminate could be inferred from employee handbooks, company personnel policies, and circumstances of employment. As the initial flood of wrongful termination lawsuits now reaches the appellate level, some guidance on the standards employers must observe can be drawn from court decisions. The authors examine these decisions as well as the legislative reform being proposed in response to them.     

An examination of the psychological aspects of bite marks

The intent of this paper is to present some psychological threads which appear to be operative for the perpetrator of bite marks. In the catalogue of multiple motivations, there appears to be a current theme of power, control, potency, and the attempt to have a psychological symbolization of the perpetrator's omniscient capacity for absorbing life essences. In an examination of these highly complex needs, the modern perpetrator appears to act out consistently with cultural biases coupled with immediate psychological needs which have pressed for expression. Due to a pattern of psychologically expressed ritualism, the perpetrator will often inadvertently leave important psychological clues at the crime scene. The attack style, mode of death, characteristics of the victim, etc.--these components reveal the information on the type of psychological needs that the perpetrator is trying to satisfy. In the cases of bite marks associated with violent crime, it becomes crucial to an "investigator" what type of personality characteristics are welded together to form this kind of need complex. After reviewing cases reported in the literature and after conducting psychological interviews with perpetrators, three major groups of perpetrators seem to be apparent. The first group is motivated out of an anger track, the second group is motivated out of sadistic biting, and the third is out of the more traditional "cannibal complex" motif.