Hybrid law and human rights – banning and behaviour orders in the appeal courts

The desire of the New Labour Government to be seen as responsive to popular concerns and moral panics over hooliganism and anti-social behaviour is resulting in the increased use of legislative responses that bridge criminal and civil law. Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Football Banning Orders are two key examples of this ‘Hybrid Law’, imposed as a response to criminal conduct, supported by criminal law sanctions, but operating under a civil law procedure providing fewer protections for defendants. These hybrid orders have the power to severely restrict the freedom of individuals who have not been found guilty of any criminal offence, and have been challenged in two important cases under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The decisions of the Appeal Courts that the purpose of the orders is merely preventative rather than punitive, and can therefore be justifiably imposed under a civil law procedure, is controversial and indicates an unwillingness to use the powers of the Human Rights Act to challenge such legislation and protect the fundamental human rights of defendants.Dr Geoff Pearson is Lecturer in Law, Management School, University of Liverpool     

PUBLIC PROTEST AND PUBLIC POLICY: THE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT AND POLITICAL INNOVATION*

With the Comprehensive Anti-apartheid Act of 1986, Congress instituted economic sanctions against South Africa, thereby reversing the historic course of U. S. foreign policy. This political innovation constituted a great victory for minority interests. This article utilizes the agenda-setting literature to examine the relationship between Anti-apartheid movement activity in the United States and adoption of economic sanctions against South Africa. The analysis is based upon an events data set consisting of 1353 events appearing in the New York Times between 1960 and 1986, interviews with activists and legislators, and archived materials. The ar- ticle concludes that although the Anti-apartheid movement was only in- directly involved in moving sanctions legislation to the policy agenda, the movement exerted direct influence in the policy process once the legislation had agenda status.     

‘Male sexual politics and men's gender practice’

The responses to feminism and women's liberation, which men make when we define ourselves as ‘supportive’ of women's demands, are problematic. There continues to be debate within gender politics around the polarization ‘men's liberation’ and ‘men against sexism’, and critiques made from within various feminist understandings of, in particular, ‘men's liberationist’ preoccupations. The assumptions and contitutuent practices within the discourse of men's sexual politics in general are described and analyzed, rather than such debates reproduced. The assumption of ‘the sexual’ which men bring to our politics, and how our sexual politics is defined through these assumptions, is opened up. In particular, men's sexual politics seems precisely ‘male sexual politics’, in that it is defined through masculinist understanding of the sexual. Men's sexual politics is also male sexual politics, and our assumptions about the political, including the attempt to live from theory to action, are also instrumental in the ‘how’ of men's sexual politics.     

Determination of Fracture Patterns in Glass and Glassy Polymers,

The study of fractures of glass, glassy‐type materials, and plastic has long been of interest to the forensic community. The focus of this interest has been the use of glass and polymer fractures to associate items of evidence under the assumption that each fracture is different. Generally, it is well‐accepted that deviations exist; however, the emphasis has been on classifying and predicting fracture rather than determining that each fracture is different. This study documented the controlled fracture patterns of 60 glass panes, 60 glass bottles, and 60 plastic tail light lens covers using both dynamic impact and static pressure methods under closely controlled conditions. Each pattern was intercompared, and based on the limited specimens tested in this study, the results illustrate that the fracture patterns are different. Further repetitive studies, under controlled conditions, will be needed to provide more statistical significance to the theory that each fracture forms a nonreproducible fracture pattern.     

The detection of clandestine graves in an arid environment using thermal imaging deployed from an unmanned aerial vehicle

The Middle East is one of the world regions that has frequently suffered from armed conflicts that resulted in mass burials. However, the detection of clandestine graves in such an arid environment by deploying remote sensing payload on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has received little attention. The present study used a UAV equipped with a thermal sensor aimed at narrowing down the search area of possible gravesites in the arid climate of Kuwait. The enclosed research area, which includes both control and experimental mass graves, was imaged for 18 months. The variation in topsoil temperature and soil moisture between the graves and their surroundings was evaluated. The results of the analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of thermal imaging techniques in detecting heat produced from buried sheep carcasses and detecting the change in grave soil moisture for our research environment for 7 and 10 months, respectively. The buried animals significantly influenced the topsoil temperature (p = 0.044), while the height from which the images were captured had an insignificant effect on the measured temperature within the range tested (p = 0.985). Furthermore, there was a negative correlation (−0.359) between grave temperature and the calculated soil moisture. The results from these cost- and time-effective search methods presented in this study confirm their potential for the detection of burial sites in an arid environment.