Truth and Justice, Inquiry and Advocacy, Science and Law

Abstract. There is tension between the adversarialism of the U.S. legal culture and the investigative procedures of the sciences, and between the law's concern for finality and the open‐ended fallibilism of science. A long history of attempts to domesticate scientific testimony by legal rules of admissibility has left federal judges with broad screening responsibilities; recent adaptations of adversarialism in the form of court‐appointed experts have been criticized as “inquisitorial,” even “undemocratic.” In exploring their benefits and disadvantages, it would make sense to look to the experience of other legal systems.     

Policy, Politics, and the Criminal Courts

This case study of criminal process in a middle-sized western city in the United States employs quantitative data, interviews, and library research to explore the politics of criminal process and its impact on the operative policies of the criminal courts from I964 through 1980. The research reveals significant policy change but a very elusive relationship between politics and policy. Judges and prosecutors preserve a significant measure of autonomy for dealing with the bulk of their caseload by giving up much of their independence in those cases that are inescapably politicized. Both judges and prosecutors use this partial political insulation to advance their own versions of criminological wisdom. On the other hand, they are constrained by the prevailing ethos and by institutional limitations to operate well within conventional definitions of crime and criminality—even when those conventional views run counter to their own practical experience.     

Development and morphology of the sternal foramen

Bony defects (foramina) in the sternum were found in 6.7% of a large contemporary autopsy population. Usually solitary and located in the body of the sternum, these defects rarely occur multiply and in the manubrium. They have been found in children as young as 8 years as well as in persons of advanced age. Multiple mesosternal foramina and a manubrial foramen are described here for the first time. Sternal foramina form along lines of fusion of multiple centers of ossification and are the result of incomplete fusion. They have been misinterpreted as acquired lesions, usually gunshot wounds.     

The Management of Power in Municipalities: Psychoanalytically Informed Negotiation

The paper takes the view that the psychoanalytic process is a form of negotiation or mutually constructed reality and applies these clinical insights to dispute resolution between two municipal entities: a fire department and a city government. The success of the mediation process is described as depending on the disputants' developing awareness of the impact of power struggles on their own thinking and functioning, and how group dynamics shape perceptions. Operating as a change agent, the mediator needs to be aware of three commonly recurring issues that interfere with the negotiation process: transference/counter-transference enactments, enactment by fundamental attribution error, self-serving enactments, and self fulfilling enactments. Vignettes are given to illustrate these conceptual issues.     

The nature of the beneficiary's interest and the role of the personal representative in the administration and distribution of an estate

who at the time of writing this article was a part-time tutor at Cardiff Law School.