To Crack or Crumble: Use of the Thin Skull and Crumbling Skull Rules

The psycholegal and medicolegal assessment of injury-related physical and psychological impairments and disabilities is fraught with difficulties, including assessing for physical and psychological risk factors. In the injury litigation context, in Canada, issues related to pre-injury physical and psychological risk factors are best captured by the thin skull and crumbling skull rules. A review of court cases in which these rules have been considered suggests that the rules are not applied consistently. This inconsistency in the application of these rules has contributed to conflicting determinations of cause and damages across trial court, appeal court, and Supreme Court cases. This article provides operational definitions of the thin skull and crumbling skull rules, presents a case that involves a series of court decisions that exemplify the difficulties associated with the application of these rules, and provides recommendations for more effective application of the two rules.     

Technology,Reason and Globalisation?—O Brother!

The Coen Brothers' movie O Brother Where Art Thou is a ragbag of intertexts and gags that also pays very serious attention to questions of community and culture, class and race. In tracing the path of the protagonists through De-pression-era Mississippi, it takes its audiences through the experience of social transformation, from superstition and local concerns to a supposedly brave new (global and technological) world. Although the film is set in a distant time and place, it is informed by a very contemporary issue—the politics of technology, and its relation to the forces of globalisation. It is also a film that exemplifies what Certeau describes as the "cleavage which organizes modernity", a cleavage designated by the terms "science" (which is predicated on a law of rationality, and an imperative to explain, control and order) and "culture". We analyse the work of the film by drawing on the writings of Manuel Castells, Arjun Appadurai and Armand Mattelart to trace its explication of the questions of progress and communication in a world increasingly dominated by neo-liberal values.     

Regional Economic Governance: A Technology of Government or Regional Autonomy in New South Wales?

The focus of this paper is on the extent to which emerging forms of regional economic governance may be read as the burgeoning formation of regionally constituted, self-governing communities, and yet, somewhat ambiguously, as a new technology of central government. It begins by considering the distinction between ‘governance’ and ‘government’ and the extent to which current regional economic governance practices in the state of New South Wales, Australia, hold the promise of regional autonomy. With reference to the French philosopher and historian, Michel Foucault, a brief history is sketched of government rationality, indicating how the historically changing aims of government implicate various concomitant technologies. With this in mind, it is argued that contemporary regional economic governance practices in NSW do not so much reveal a new-found regional autonomy but rather a new technology of government.     

Ensnared in a gay health controversy: a comparative study in responding to issue activism

This case study describes competing activist campaigns triggered by a provocative poster promoting safe gay sex, which became one of the most complained‐about outdoor advertisements in Australia. Drawing on issue management theory and personal interviews, the study analyses the contrasting strategies followed by two outdoor advertising companies caught up in the controversy, where family value advocates failed to consistently present their objections, whereas supporters of the same‐sex equality effectively mobilised traditional and social media to frame the case as advertising free speech. One company held firm against issue activism, whereas the other wavered in its response and suffered reputational damage. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shorter notices

The Future of Political Science. By Harold D. Lasswell. Tavistock Publications, 1964. Pp. xii+256. 50/‐.

Mass Persuasion in Communist China. By Frederick T. G. Yu. Pall Mall Press, 1964. Pp. viii+168. 40/‐.

The Emerging Elite: a Study of Political Leadership in Ceylon. By Marshall R. Singer. M.I. T. Press, 1964. Pp. xx+204. $7.50.

The Allocation of Economic Resources. By Moses Abramovitz and others. Stanford University Press, paper‐back edition, 1966. Pp. 244. 22/6.

The Ohlin‐Heckscher Theory of the Basis and Effects of Commodity Trade. By J. L. Ford. Asia Publishing House, 1965. Pp. viii+88. 25/‐.

Essays in Southern Economic Development. Edited by Melvin L. Greenhut and W. Tate Whitman. University of North Carolina Press, 1965. Pp. xx+498. 60/‐.

Scarcity and Growth: the Economics of Natural Resource Availability. By Harold J. Barnett and Chandler Morse. Johns Hopkins Press. 1965. Pp. 304. 18/‐.     

Lord Cottenham and the Court of Chancery

Lord Cottenham was a significant legal figure in nineteenth-century Britain. He was a Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal in both Lord Melbourne's and Lord Russell's administrations. Yet compared with his peers he has faded into obscurity, because his contribution to the reform of the Court of Chancery and the development of the law, particularly equity, has not been fully appreciated. It will be argued that Lord Cottenham was not as successful as his successors in reforming Chancery because his attempts to do so were flawed by the view that incremental reform would redress the problems which beset the Court. However, he made some highly significant contributions to equitable doctrine, sometimes taking a practical approach to judicial decision-making and laying the foundation for some modern doctrines.     

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (“empirical facts”). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how “empirical facts” are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.     

Can Reinforcement Induce Children to Falsely Incriminate Themselves?

This study examined whether reinforcement can induce children to falsely incriminate themselves. Ninety-nine children in kindergarten through third grade were questioned regarding the staged theft of a toy. Half received reinforcement for self-incriminating responses. Within 4 min reinforced children made 52% false admissions of guilty knowledge concerning the theft, and 30% false admissions of having witnessed it. Corresponding figures for controls were 36 and 10%. Twelve percent of children admitted to participating in the theft, but the effect of reinforcement was only marginally significant. The findings indicate that reinforcement can induce children to falsely implicate themselves in wrongdoing.