Teaching public law in a comparative paradigm: virtues and vices

Comparison in legal education matters. In its mission statement, the International Society of Public Law suggests that, “a full explication and understanding of today’s ‘constitutional’ [law] cannot take place in isolation from other branches of public law or in a context that is exclusively national”. Not only is comparative content of itself enlightening, but this paper argues comparison as a teaching method has at least four virtues. First, teaching in a comparative paradigm better prepares graduates for an interconnected and global legal marketplace. Second, it helps illuminate curriculum content. Third, it makes for good citizenry. And, fourth, it enhances the research/teaching nexus. In so doing, this paper explores the use of comparative law as a teaching methodology in core public law subjects rather than by way of additional curriculum content. As with all things, however, where there are virtues, there are also vices. In this context, such vices include questions of relevance and threats to space, time and coherence in legal education. To that end, the disadvantages of comparative approaches in teaching public law are also considered.     

Measuring Puberty and Understanding Its Impact: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Twins

Pubertal development is an important focus of current biopsychosocial research. The Pubertal Development Scale or PDS (Petersen, Crockett, Richards, and Boxer, J. Youth Adolesc. (1988) 17: 117–133) has become a widely used measure in school-based and longitudinal research, because it incorporates several indices of pubertal development. This study reports normative data on the PDS for two population-based birth cohorts of Finnish twin boys and girls, assessed at ages 11–12 and 14. Additionally, we report longitudinal analyses of the associations between pubertal development and substance use, suggesting that the impact of pubertal timing is more complex than previously reported; associations commonly assumed between pubertal development and substance use held only for those whose developmental level, relative to peers, remained stable across follow-up. Finally, we report twin correlations for the PDS which suggest that sibling similarity for pubertal development arises from both shared genes and shared environments and that the patterns of these influences vary between sexes and across time.     

Building capacity in indigenous governance: Comparing the Australian and American experiences

This paper compares key aspects of governance structures for Indigenous populations in the United States and Australia. The paper focuses on policy coordination and administration, in particular the nodes of decision-making in the two countries in relation to government contracting and accountability. The U.S. approach to funding Indigenous organizations stems from the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Act and its subsequent expansions. Through the development of contracting into permanent compacting via block grants, this approach builds established nodes of Indigenous government and facilitates whole-of-government coherence at the level of the American Indian tribe. The U.S. approach seems correlated with better performance and may lighten bureaucratic loads over the long term. The Australian model, on the other hand, seeks to create whole-of-government coherence through top-down financial accountability in a way that hampers the development of Indigenous political capacity. The paper traces the development of these practices through time and illustrates how they contribute to the fragmentation rather than growth of Indigenous political capacities. It suggests ways the Australian model could be improved even in the absence of fundamental reform by drawing on the contracting-to-compacting framework of longstanding U.S. practices.     

Does One Size Fit All? Ethnic Differences in Parenting Behaviors and Motivations for Adolescent Engagement in Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has become a growing concern for adolescents. This study examined differences in cyber-aggression for 518 Canadian adolescents of either East Asian or European descent (61 % female; M age = 15.24; SD = 1.68). Associations between parenting behaviors (parental control, parental solicitation, and child disclosure) and engagement in cyber-aggression, as well as motivations for engaging in cyber-aggression were explored. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires about their engagement in cyberbullying, perceptions of their parents’ behaviors about their online activities, their motivations for cyberbullying (reactive vs. proactive), as well as several other relevant psychosocial and demographic variables (e.g., sex, age, Canadian born, mother’s education level, using a computer in a private place, and average amount of time spent online). Regression analyses showed that East Asian adolescents were less likely to engage in cyberbullying. In addition, higher levels of parental control and lower levels of parental solicitation were linked more closely with lowered reported levels of cyber-aggression for East Asian adolescents relative to their peers of European descent. In addition, East Asian adolescents were more likely to be motivated to engage in cyber-aggression for proactive reasons than reactive reasons, with the opposite found for adolescents of European descent. A significant 3-way interaction suggested that this pattern was more pronounced for East Asian males relative to East Asian females. Findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences based on the doctrines of Confucianism and Taoism.     

The red herring of adolescent mental health

An increase in adolescent distress and mental health symptoms has been clearly documented since the COVID-19 pandemic, as has increased exposure to adverse childhood experiences. Layer on top of these stressors being a youth of divorcing or separating high conflict families, and adolescent symptomatology can suddenly become a flashpoint for parental attention, division and conflict. Approaching cases using an ecological and family systems framework is necessary for accurate conceptualization and assessment of best interests in the context of child custody evaluations. Doing so ensures that adolescent mental health does not become a red herring in high conflict cases, leading to undue focus on the adolescent's mental health without considering other salient factors in the case, such as the broader parent conflict. Programs offered at the Center of Excellence for Children, Families & the Law at William James College designed to improve the lives of youth by addressing parental conflict are described.