The phenomenon of conservative terrorism

In his studies of loyalist terrorism in Northern Ireland, Steve Bruce introduces the concept of ‘pro‐state’ terrorism, whereby terrorists carry out attacks in order to eliminate threats which they believe should have been eliminated by the state's security forces. This article argues that whilst the actions of loyalist terrorists may have a pro‐state element, they can more properly be seen in the wider context of conservative terrorism.     

Experts Judging Experts: The Role of Expertise in Reviewing Agency Decision Making

What role does judicial subject matter expertise play in the review of agency decisions? Using a data set of decisions in which the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) is reviewed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, we investigate this question and find that greater subject matter expertise does make it more likely that a judge will vote to reverse an agency decision.     

Individual differences in interrogative suggestibility: life adversity and field dependence

Since the turn of the century much research has explored the concept of interrogative suggestibility, with recent research highlighting a sizeable link between the reported experience of negative life events (NLEs) and performance on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 1 (GSS1). The present study sought to reinvestigate the previously found novel relationship, as well as explore the role of field dependence as a possible coping mechanism implemented during interview by such vulnerable interviewees. As expected, highly significant correlations between NLEs and the suggestibility components of the GSS emerged. Field dependence, however, failed to correlate significantly with either NLE or GSS scores. Nonetheless, some additional findings relating to age, NLEs, and shift scores on the GSS were noted, which may help further our understanding of the NLE to interrogative suggestibility relationship. A new group of vulnerable interviewees, who are as yet unrecognized by the police or courts, has also been identified.     

The river of inter-civilisational relations: the ebb and flow of peoples,ideas and innovations

As a tool for understanding the world in which we live the study of the history of political thought is stunted because of a preoccupation with the Western canon as the history of political thought to the exclusion of other histories and traditions. This ongoing exclusion is itself facilitated by a deeply entrenched select reading of the Western canon; a reading that overlooks a tendency within the canon to not just ignore but suppress and dismiss the value of other accounts of history and traditions of thought. An opening of the Western mind to these assumed to be alien traditions of social, legal and political thought reveals that, in the global market place of ideas, these purportedly competing and non-compatible traditions of thought might in fact have considerably more in common than what sets them apart: thus opening the way for an authentic inter-civilisational dialogue that focuses more on co-operation and less on clashes.