A Practical Guide for the Formulation of Propositions in the Bayesian Approach to DNA Evidence Interpretation in an Adversarial Environment

The interpretation of complex DNA profiles is facilitated by a Bayesian approach. This approach requires the development of a pair of propositions: one aligned to the prosecution case and one to the defense case. This note explores the issue of proposition setting in an adversarial environment by a series of examples. A set of guidelines generalize how to formulate propositions when there is a single person of interest and when there are multiple individuals of interest. Additional explanations cover how to handle multiple defense propositions, relatives, and the transition from subsource level to activity level propositions. The propositions depend on case information and the allegations of each of the parties. The prosecution proposition is usually known. The authors suggest that a sensible proposition is selected for the defense that is consistent with their stance, if available, and consistent with a realistic defense if their position is not known.     

Changing regulation and the future of the professional partnership: the case of the Legal Services Act, 2007 in England and Wales

The UK Legal Services Act 2007 permits external financing and unlimited non-lawyer ownership of legal practices through the formation of Alternative Business Structures (ABSs). For many, the impact of this changed regulation on the ‘professional partnership’, as the dominant organisational form through which legal services are delivered, will be considerable. However, to date few studies have explored this empirically. This paper addresses this gap by examining organisational changes within ABSs to assess how far these firms have departed from the professional partnership model. Focusing upon the ABS population licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority between January 2012 and August 2015, the study findings show a continuum of organisational responses against four specified indicators: incorporation; multi-disciplinary practices; non-lawyer ownership; and external investment. These range from those that depart little from traditional practices to those that are more radical. We conclude that, whilst regulatory reform has yet to dislodge the dominance of the professional partnership, it has disturbed the status quo and increased the variety of ‘economic units’ within which legal services are delivered.     

Time and Politics: Parliament and the Culture of Modernity in Britain and the British World

Time and Politics: Parliament and the Culture of Modernity in Britain and the British World. By Ryan A. Vieira (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp.vi + 199. £60.00 (cloth).     

Belarusians between East and West

Belarus has a divided identity that reflects its complex history and culture. A mixed-methods investigation incorporating focus groups and national representative surveys conducted over a decade or more suggests that Belarusians themselves are more likely to regard themselves as “European” than their counterparts in Ukraine and Russia, but less likely to do so than in other European countries. There is substantial support for a hypothetical European Union membership, particularly among younger respondents, but there is also strong and widely distributed support for a closer association with the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Consistently, it is the “multidirectional” foreign policy promoted by the current leadership, which seeks closer relations with East and West at the same time, that finds the greatest support. But a “Slavic choice” is also popular, and much more so than a “Western choice” or isolationism.     

The NATO Warsaw Summit: Reflections on Unfinished Business

The deterioration of the European security environment has put NATO back at the centre of transatlantic strategy. The recent Alliance summit in Warsaw focused on some critical priorities, above all strengthening European security vis-à-vis an increasingly assertive Russia. But the summit left some other pressing matters to be addressed, including the difficult questions of strategy toward the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the south in general. Concerns about Brexit, the US elections and the challenge of trust on both sides of the Atlantic were just below the surface in Warsaw.     

Reviving the Russian empire: the Crimean intervention through a neoclassical realist lens

Although many policy-makers and scholars maintain that international norms have altered the motivations underlying state behaviour, this article argues that states continue to pursue national self-interest, but in ways that remain understudied. While traditional realist assumptions explain a great deal of state behaviour, they have not been widely used to account for important alternative tools of state intervention, such as economic and normative strategies. Focusing on the case of Russia's 2014 intervention in Ukraine, this article offers insights into how, and under what circumstances, these tools are used to accomplish traditional state objectives. Guided by the tenets of neoclassical realism, the article argues that in the case of Russia, military force is no longer the sole, or even the primary, means used to accomplish traditional security goals. Such dynamics have significant theoretical and policy implications for contemporary international relations.     

Masks,Mingling and Magic: Gibberish Law in the Age of Covid

Liverpool Law Review - The experience of Covid-19 has taught us many things, not least the consequence of what John Milton termed ‘gibberish law’. Law drafted amidst the ‘throng...     

The Role of Competition in Best Value: How Far Does it Differ from CCT?

This article investigates the role of ‘competition’ within Best Value (BV) and compares it with that of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). Utilising results of a survey of BV lead officers, the article reveals that ‘competition’ is not being used as widely as may have been expected. However, in terms of outcomes, services subject to BV seem to be at least as likely to be provided externally as would have been the case under CCT. Further analysis also considers the impact that party political control and service type have on the use and outcomes of competition.     

Contemporary radical right‐wing violence in Canada: A quantitative analysis

Despite the presence of radical right‐wing movements, groups, and individuals in Canada, a paucity of academic research on this topic exists. Concurrently, the majority of material on this particular area has employed either journalistic or ethnographic methodologies. What remains is several thesi and dissertations and a couple of excellent case studies describing not only membership, but also the most salient activities of radical right‐wing groups and parties. These studies, however, have been short on examining these actors’ proclivity to engage in violence. In contrast, this article, uses an events data methodology to show the dynamics of radical right‐wing violence in Canada over the last three decades. The author then maps out the attributes of this particular type of violence and where possible specifies its correlates. This work is a part of a larger project on violence in Canada.     

Research note: Hypotheses about political terrorism during the gulf conflict, 1990–1991

Based on a review of the literature and a logical deductive approach, the author develops 12 testable research hypotheses in connection with the possibility of oppositional political terrorism during the 1990–91 Gulf Crisis and War. The article represents the foundation of future research on one of most important anomalies of this political crisis.