Australian mental health tribunals--'Space' for rights, protection, treatment and governance?

This paper draws on a multi-year Australian collaborative study of mental health review tribunals ('MHTs') in three jurisdictions (Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory) undertaken in conjunction with the NSW Law and Justice Foundation, using qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the role of MHTs in advancing goals such as fairness, legality and access to treatment. Study findings regarding stakeholder and client concerns - about access to quality treatment and associated support services, review of treatment adequacy and drug regimes, and their 'participation' or dignity of engagement in review processes - are presented as variants of the need for adequate hearing 'space': temporal, jurisdictional, cognate/relational, physical and symbolic, and 'connective'. Building on earlier arguments for MHTs to engage not only legal, but also clinical and social domains, and for adopting some processes more characteristic of case-conferencing, this paper examines the implications of tribunal 'flexibility' and a wider overall 'governance' jurisdiction in mental health.     

Developing Sentencing Guidelines in Massachusetts: A Work in Progress

Sentencing guidelines legislation is currently under consideration by the Massachusetts legislature. This paper discusses the process used by the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission in formulating the sentencing guidelines legislation. The conceptual model and key substantive considerations associated with the sentencing guidelines are summarized, with special attention to two salient issues – intermediate sanctions and mandatory sentencing and their relationship to the sentencing guidelines. The paper concludes with a discussion of the reactions to the guidelines legislation and the prospects for passage.     

School uniform revisited: procedure,pressure and equality

The House of Lords’ decision in R. (on the application of Begum) v. The Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School considered whether a particular school uniform policy infringed a student's right to manifest her religion under Article 9. This paper analyses the content of this decision, and explores how schools should approach the issue of balancing reglious rights with other interests in designing their uniform policy.     

Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence: A Historical Review

Intimate partner violence (IPV), also known as domestic abuse or relationship violence, has generated a large research literature for the last half-century, particularly in the areas of criminal justice, psychology, and the social sciences. Interventions for victims and perpetrators of IPV have largely been sequestered to separately evolving efforts of law enforcement and the psychotherapeutic community (Chang et al. Women’s Health Issues, 15(1), 21–30, 2005; Dalton Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 15(1), 59–75, 2007; Dobash and Dobash 2000; Feder et al. 2008; Gerbert et al. Journal of Family Practice, 49(10), 889–895, 2000; Wathen and MacMillan. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(5), 589–600, 2003). This article presents a brief overview of the historical evolution and development of these discrete perspectives and identifies and assesses current collaborative interventions rooted in these historical precedents. In conclusion, the authors provide a summative discussion of the most current findings of research into IPV interventions, with a particular focus on the changing roles of race and gender in both the criminal prosecution of IPV and services provided to IPV perpetrators and victims.     

Inter-Governmental Policy Implementation: State Inducements to Encourage Implementation at the Local Level

This article investigates how State departments can best equip Local government to implement State environmental protection legislation effectively. Research on joint implementation by the then New South Wales Environment Protection Authority and NSW Local government authorities is reviewed to explore inducements and constraints on intergovernmental policy implementation, including the multi-jurisdictional nature of policy.