The Role of the Jurist: Reflections around Radbruch

Many different kinds of professionals work with law, but often they seek to use law for particular governmental or private purposes, they focus on some specific areas or aspects of its creation, interpretation or application, or they study it for its interest judged by criteria that are given by fields of scholarly practice outside it. Is there a special significance for a role exclusively concerned with analysing, protecting and enhancing the general well‐being or worth of law as a practical idea? This article argues that such a role is important. Building on Gustav Radbruch's juristic thought, it asks how that role could be elaborated and how a professional responsibility for discharging it might be envisaged. Many professionals concerned with law adopt such a role incidentally or intermittently, but it needs more prominence and clear demarcation. The article suggests that it might be seen as the specialised role of the jurist, treated as a particular kind of legal professional. The term “jurist” would then have not just an honorific connotation. It would indicate a Weberian “pure” type that may approximate some current understandings of “juristic” practice; but it would also identify a normative ideal—something intrinsically valuable. Seen in this way, the jurist is one who assumes a certain unique responsibility for law.     

Jock Young (1942-2013)

More than any other criminologist of his generation, Jock Young shaped the nature and direction of the discipline and has been at the forefront of almost every major development in the sociology of crime and deviance over the past four decades. Revered and respected for his scholarly activities, he will also be remembered for his charisma, humour and famously warm and relaxed manner that inspired all those who knew and worked with him.     

Federalism: Distance and Devolution

Is the current federal system in Australia still relevant? Have the historical forces which made federation a necessary step in Australia's journey toward nationhood largely disappeared? Australian federalism has united six disparate states into one nation and established national infrastructure to enhance our position domestically and internationally. The geographic tyranny of distance that divided the colonies has been overcome through improved transport, telecommunications and information technology. This article explores the historical basis of Australian federalism and asks whether federalism remains relevant for meeting the challenges facing Australia in the twenty‐first century.     

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Refugee Studies Centre and the 20th Anniversary of the Journal of Refugee Studies.

As the founding editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies from1988 to 2001, and the not-so-new Director of the Refugee StudiesCentre, I am delighted to write the introduction to this specialissue of JRS. First and foremost, this     

Subverting Orthodoxy, Making Law Central: A View of Sociolegal Studies

The promise of sociolegal research varies for different constituencies. For some legal scholars it has been a promise of sustained commitment to moral and political critique of law and to theoretical and empirical analysis of law's social consequences and origins. To continue to deliver on that promise today, sociolegal studies should develop theory in new forms emphasizing the variety of forms of regulation and the moral foundations on which that regulation ultimately depends. It should demonstrate and explore law's roles in the routine structuring of all aspects of social life and its changing character as it faces the challenge of regulating relations of community not bounded solely by the jurisdictional reach of nation states.     

Risk Aversion,Heterogeneity and Contests

We introduce a novel method of modellingcontests that avoids the complexitiesencountered by the `best response function'approach. We analyse contests in which (i)there are many risk averse players, (ii)attitudes to risk may differ acrossindividuals, and (iii) the technology thattransforms rent-seeking effort intoprobability of winning may also differacross individuals. We establish that, ifevery player has a constant degree ofabsolute risk aversion, a uniqueequilibrium exists. We also establishcomparative static results and examine howthe level of rent dissipation is affectedby the heterogeneity of attitudes towardsrisk and the precise nature of the technology.