Contracts for Legal Aid: A Critical Discussion of Government Policy Proposals

In this paper, we examine the UK government's proposals for the reform of legal aid, which are based on block franchising. We identify several potential incentive-compatibility problems mainly concerned with the possibility of chiseling on quality after contracts are awarded or with supplier control of access to legal aid. Our suggestions for improving the scheme are based around awarding vouchers for legal aid.     

National Parliaments and the Eurozone Crisis: Taking Ownership in Difficult Times?

The eurozone crisis suggests a significant reinforcement of executive dominance in EU policy-making. Opaque emergency decisions taken at European summits as well as treaties established outside of the EU legal framework facilitate the side-lining of democratically elected chambers. This development entails the risk of a new wave of de-parliamentarisation in EU policy-making. An effective scrutiny of crisis management by national parliaments is, however, indispensable for taking national ownership of the reforms in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper investigates national parliaments’ involvement in the development of instruments to combat the crisis. Based on a quantitative dataset of crisis-related parliamentary activities in 2010–2012, the article observes a very uneven engagement in the scrutiny of crisis management. Institutional prerogatives in EU affairs as well as macro-economic factors can partly explain the observed variation. Surprisingly, however, crisis-related parliamentary activity is not a reaction to Eurosceptic attitudes either in parliament or among the public.     

Differences That Matter: Overcoming Methodological Nationalism in Comparative Social Policy Research

Abstract

Welfare states are often discussed as if they were territorially homogeneous state-wide institutions measurable by state-wide expenditure averages and explained by country-level variables. It is rare in comparative policy studies to investigate the role of territorial politics in the outcomes of even federal countries. This article argues, using social policy examples in the UK and US, that the impact of intergovernmental finance and division of labour profoundly shapes social investment and redistribution – producing almost as much expenditure variance within the US as within the OECD. The findings show the importance of incorporating territorial politics and intergovernmental arrangements into comparative welfare state and policy analysis.     

Constitutional Reasoning in Private Law: The Role of the CJEU in Adjudicating Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts

This article explores the—often controversial—role of the CJEU as an interpreter of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms. A fundamental problem that any modern system of private law must address is how to combine two types of provisions: those that are intended to facilitate private ordering through voluntary transactions, and those setting out certain mandatory terms that are intended to protect vulnerable consumers against risks inherent to free market transactions. This article argues that, in response to the failure of various legislative initiatives, the Court's jurisprudence has acquired both a regulatory dimension and a constitutional dimension. The emergent judicial regime illustrates an important departure from a rule‐based conception of private law, based on private autonomy as a stand‐alone value, towards an innovative conception that extends proportionality analysis into substantive private law but avoids one‐sided outcomes.     

Legislating Crime Policy from the White House: Presidential Success with Congress in the Passage of Federal Crime Control Policy

Previous research has found that presidents, in general, have the power to influence congress in the passage of federal crime control policy. What has not been fully explored is whether presidential supported bills are more likely to influence congress to pass federal crime control bills. Therefore, this study draws upon the theory that presidents influence congress to test the hypothesis that president supported legislation on crime will achieve greater success in congress than non-supported bills. Analysis of legislative, presidential and congressional data from 1946 through 1996 suggests support for the theory that presidential supported bills are 2.8 times more likely (or 185% more likely) to become law.     

The population of coloured fibres in human head hair.

In 2002 a population study of textile fibres in human hair was carried out using 26 volunteers in Cambridgeshire, UK. Over 12,000 fibres were recovered from a variety of hair lengths using low adhesive tape and classified according to colour, generic type and fibre length. The results of the study showed that the most common fibre colours were black/grey (48%), blue (29.1%) and red (12.7%), the least common being green, orange/brown and yellow which each accounted for less than 5% of the total. Natural fibres (mainly cotton) were predominant (72.3%) and man-made fibres were considerably less frequent. When colour and generic type were classified together, the most common combinations were black and blue cottons. The least common were the man-made fibre/colour combinations with the most frequent of these accounting for less than 7% of the sample. Fibre loads carried by long hair were found to be significantly less than that carried by short hair. The results of this study are in accordance with previous fibre population studies using other types of recipient surfaces and are likely to be influenced by factors such as seasonal and geographical variation.     

Law's Polyarchy: A Comment on Cohen and Sabel

This comment links Cohen/Sabels' idea of a 'directly-deliberative polyarchy' to the contemporary debate on the deficit in democratic legitimation of the European Union. Within this constitutional-legal debate the conventional options are either to defend a vision of the EU which separates global economic law from national sovereignty, and thus relies on the legitimising powers of free markets, or to regard the legitimation problem (at least under present conditions) as beyond solution: that is to say that any further progress towards an 'ever closer union' would inevitably increase the legitimation deficit, and to suggest that the capacity for political action of the nation state should be protected or restored. This comment seeks to show that the concept of a 'directly-deliberative polyarchy' offers an attractive alternative to these traditional positions because it breaks the stranglehold of the false dichotomy 'global market vs national democracy' and thus permits an extension of the idea of radical democracy to European Supranationalism.