Informal interference in the judiciary in new democracies: a comparison of six African and Latin American cases

This article focuses on the efforts of power holders – at the executive or the legislative level – to influence or curb court activity informally or extra-legally, an acknowledged but under-researched topic in studies of judicial politics. We first define informal judicial interference and operationalize the concept; we then explain how we collected information on the topic through systematic cross-country interviewing. Our concept focuses on judicial intervention actions exercised by political actors once judges are on the bench. We distinguish these actions according to type – direct or subtle – and further differentiate each type according to six different modes. We provide new empirical data on informal interference in six third-wave democracies, three in Africa (Benin, Madagascar, and Senegal) and three in Latin America (Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay). Our empirical findings, first, confirm the importance of informal practices in shaping political-judicial relations. Second, they point to long-standing legacies and to the level of socio-economic development as possible explanations for different performances in terms of the prevalence and severity of informal interference in the judiciary in these newly established democratic regimes     

The importance of appropriate allocation to offending behavior programs

This study examined the impact on reconviction of appropriate allocation to three general offending behavior programs involving adult male offenders in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Appropriate allocation was defined by level of risk for reconviction. There were three allocation groups: too low, appropriate, and too high. Using a quasi-experimental design, the reconviction rates of offenders who were allocated to and completed a program, offenders allocated to a program who failed to start, and a comparison group were compared. It was found that the appropriateness of allocation affected reconviction independently of treatment group. Furthermore, in line with the risk principle, there was an interaction between treatment group and the appropriateness of allocation.     

Hemispheric reconfigurations in Northern Amazonia: the ‘Three Guianas’ amid regional change and Brazilian hegemony

Regional and hemispheric reconfigurations in Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly mediated by Brazilian power, and the engagement of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana with this emerging context is intriguing. They are tentatively moving away from a Caribbean region with which they are culturally contiguous, towards a South American continent in which they are geographically located. This is partly a reflection of the gradual opening up of the Northern Amazonian space that they share collectively, and also with Venezuela and Brazil. These processes are occurring as cause and effect of Brazil’s emergence as a regional – and even regionally hegemonic – power. With reference to wider debates on regionalism and hegemony, we analyse the uncertain consequences of these shifts.     

Colouring Within the Lines: How the International Legal Operating System Influences Rule Creation∗

Some of the most visible changes in the international legal system occur when treaties specify new rules or norms of behaviour for its members. Each of these is a component of what has been referred to elsewhere as the “normative system”, or the part of the international legal system that is quasi-legislative in character by mandating particular values and directing specific changes in state and other actors' behaviour. Yet the normative system is only part of the international legal system; we adopt the term “operating system” to refer to the other segment. This article identifies six different ways that extant provisions or changes in the international legal operating system condition international rule creation: (1) setting the parameters of acceptability, (2) clarifying credible commitment, (3) providing flexibility, (4) actor specification, (5) forum specification and (6) direct law-making.

     

Body and Self: learning to be modern in 1920s–1930s Britain

Observing the divergent tracks taken by historians of the ‘modern self’ and those of the ‘modern body’ the article focuses on health and fitness movements in Britain, c.1920s–1930s. Asking whether there is a place for the body in the history of women performing ‘the self’ in this context, the article suggests a way in which contemporaries found a way to have a ‘self’ in the body. Contemporary notions of the body emphasised its interdependence with ‘the mind’, health and happiness being functions of each other. In the language of health and beauty was a language of inner vitality and outer radiance, a modern formulation of the individual as a ‘self’ equipped to embrace the exciting but uncertain possibilities of the ‘modern world’. Popular print culture on ‘healthy living’, reports by the BMA and the National Fitness Council are considered along with more extensive discussion of the Women's League for Health and Beauty founded in 1930 by Mollie Bagot Stack and inherited by her daughter, Prunella, ‘Britain's Perfect Girl’, in 1935.     

Customizing a commercial laboratory information management system for a forensic genetic laboratory

The need for high-throughput laboratories to comply with regulatory requirements makes data management an important aspect of forensic genetics. A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) enables efficient workflows and ensures traceability if designed and implemented properly. We customized a commercial LIMS to support STR typing of reference samples according to in-house defined requirements. The customization focused on data validity, traceability and automated solutions.     

Brexit: Challenges and Opportunities for Small Countries and Territories

This article is based on a round table discussion that was held at the Centre for Small States, Queen Mary University, London, on 18 September 2017. The article uses the presentations from the event, together with answers to questions that were posed, to construct an analysis of how Brexit has affected, and will probably continue to affect, small states and subnational island jurisdictions in Europe and beyond. There is still no real clarity in relation to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s declaration that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, but the effects of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) are starting to be felt – whether that involves redefining Euroscepticism across Europe, marginalising the diplomatic and economic profile of the UK’s overseas territories, or creating anxieties in the Commonwealth Caribbean regarding future trading relations. Thus, Brexit is creating a significant ripple effect and the article provides some reflections on how these are affecting small countries and territories, many of which are already highly vulnerable.     

Fighting for the right to play: women’s football and regime-loyal resistance in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the scholarship on women and social change in Saudi Arabia through the case of female football players in Riyadh. Officially, there has been no women’s football in the kingdom, but beneath the surface women have been playing for more than a decade. The women are actively promoting and engaging in change and women’s opportunities to practise sport by building organisations, creating awareness, and negotiating norms and regulations. They are not in opposition to the regime, but supportive of reforms in favour of increased rights for women, while seeing conservative elements in the society as their opponents and the royal family as their allies. They are thus engaging in what O’Brian and Li termed ‘rightful resistance’, by deploying the language of the rulers to express their perspectives and aims, and are engaged in a three-party game with the rulers and conservatives, where divisions within the state and elite allies matter greatly.     

Can latent fingerprint disclose the sex of the donor? A preliminary test study using GC–MS analysis of latent fingerprints

While fingerprints are a highly used means of identification, not every fingerprint left behind on a potential crime scene can be used for identification purposes. In some cases, the fingerprint may be smudged, partially preserved or overlapping with other prints hence distorting the ridge pattern and may therefore be not appropriate for identification. Further, fingermark residue yields a very low abundance of genetic material for DNA analysis. In such cases, the fingermark may be used to retrieve basic donor information such as sex. The focus of this paper was to assess the possibility of differentiating between the sexes of the donor of latent fingermarks. Analytical method was GC–MS analysis of the chemical compounds of latent fingermarks using 22 male and 22 female donors. Results showed 44 identified compounds. Two alcohols, octadecanol C₁₈ and eicosanol C₂₀, were found to show a difference that was statistically significant between male and female donors. There is also some evidence for the possibility of distinguishing sex of the fingermark donor based on the distribution of branched chain fatty acids, as free compounds or esterified in wax esters.