Support for the environment post-transition? Material concerns and policy tradeoffs

Though many individuals are aware of the need to address environmental concerns, fewer are willing to pay for climate action or think the environment should be a priority for government spending. One compelling reason is that they prioritize using scarce resources to address immediate material concerns. This is particularly likely for individuals facing absolute material scarcity or for those who think they are relatively economically worse off, especially in contexts characterized by rapid transformation and volatility in the levels and quality of social welfare provision. To test these expectations, we analyze survey data from formerly Communist economies, which today find themselves with vastly different fortunes. Empirical findings suggest that absolute and relative material scarcity affect opinions regarding government spending on, and the willingness to pay more for, environmental action. However, willingness to pay more for government public services, inclusive of anti-poverty initiatives, has an impact on willingness to pay more for climate action, but in counter-intuitive ways. Overall, the results appear to suggest that explicitly addressing and relating individual living standards and inequality with environmental concerns may expand support for climate action.     

Spatial Patterns of Robbery at Tourism Sites: A Case Study of the Vieux Carré in New Orleans

This paper looks at the connection between spatial patterns of robbery within the framework of routine activities theory. This theoretical perspective sees robbery (and other crimes) as occurring when three factors converge: suitable targets, motivated offenders and guardianship. The Eighth and part of the First Police Districts of New Orleans become target rich environments during periods of time when large numbers of tourists and conventioneers are in the city. The city certainly has the neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty and disorganization that tend to be criminogenic and produce motivated offenders. The spatial distribution of robbery is hypothesized to be a function of the presence or absence of guardianship. In order to test this hypothesis two types of data are examined: robberies (simple, armed, both successful and attempted) that occurred during the convention and tourism season and patterns of deployment and patrol in these areas. Preliminary results indicate that simple tourist/conventioneer robbery victimizations tend to be concentrated within tourist attraction areas while aggravated tourist/conventioneer robbery is concentrated in places that are primarily residential and where there are no attractions and no concentrated police presence. This is also an area of ingress and egress for people from perimeter neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty and disorganization.     

Complaints against higher education establishments – an evaluation of recent reform

As a result of the Higher Education Act 2004, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) was established to deal with student complaints against universities. This reform was essential for various reasons including human rights legislation compliance and disparity between universities established by royal charter and post-1992 universities (former polytechnics). However, it is arguable that the new system is ill conceived and not performing the required function. As we are all obliged to ensure students are receiving the required pastoral care, this issue has significant and potentially far reaching impact on our practice.     

Restraint in order to feed: justifying a lawful policy for the UK

In the UK, restraining medical patients in order to provide care is widely considered to be outmoded and difficult to justify. The prevailing clinical intuition that restraining patients is generally wrong (even when restraint is essential in order to provide artificial nutrition and hydration) has prompted us to develop a policy that is compatible with common law, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Human Rights Act 1998. The nature and scope of the problem are illustrated with clinical cases. These, in turn, serve to demonstrate the tension that arises between article 2, article 3 and article 8 rights, when incompetent patients are restrained in order to feed.     

‘It is necessary that the issue be heard to cry or squall within the four [walls]’: Qualifying for Tenancy by the Curtesy of England in the Reign of Edward I

This article considers the test used to determine the presence or absence of life in newborn babies, in relation to a widower’s entitlement to remain in land brought to the marriage by his wife, as tenant by the curtesy of England. To qualify for curtesy, a widower needed to have produced a live and legitimate child, but, since even a short period of life was sufficient, there might be disputes as to whether a child which was now dead had ever been alive. The common law therefore had to develop a way of settling this difficult matter of confirming or denying the presence of life. Several thirteenth-century sources show an emphasis on a sound as an indicator of life. This article considers the use of a sound criterion in this area, arguing that thinking and practice surrounding the appropriate test were more complex, less settled, and more interesting than has been represented in somewhat perfunctory accounts in the work of later lawyers and legal historians. This is significant for the understanding of this area of medieval law, but also has broader implications within legal history and historiography, and for scholars from other fields such as medieval social and medical history.     

学生事务管理在国家建设中的作用

美国高校学生事务管理工作是美国高等教育的重要组成部分,其主要职责就是要为学生提供一个既强调责任又能充分享受自由的成长环境;只有学生事务管理者与教师及其他相关人员达成良好合作,学校才能为学生创设良好的成长氛围;学生事务管理的功能主要体现在生活-学习项目、学术指导、实习、职业发展、领导能力提高项目、评价评估等方面;其对国家建设至关重要。     

Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London: The Usury Trails of 1421

This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most importantly the law and practice of the church. It concludes that church courts dealt with different types of usurious conduct to that shown in the 1421 London cases. The broad conclusion of the article is that the 1421 London cases show that the law against usury was by no means a dead letter outside the jurisdiction of the church in late medieval England: in London at least, it was part of a burgeoning and increasingly sophisticated commercial jurisdiction.     

The Impact of Negative Forensic Evidence on Mock Jurors’ Perceptions of a Trial of Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault

Legal concerns with regard to the adverse impact of a negative toxicological screening for date-rape drugs in a case of drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) were the focus of a recent Canadian case (R. v. Alouache, 2003). To assess the impact of a negative forensic report, as well as the impact of expert testimony explaining the many factors that may contribute to a negative outcome, participants (N=171) received a written trial stimulus in which the forensic evidence (negative report, negative report plus expert testimony, no negative report and no expert testimony control) and the complainant's beverage consumption (alcohol, cola) were systematically varied. Results indicate that a negative finding in the absence of expert testimony produced greater verdict leniency and more favourable evaluations of the defendant's case. In contrast, no differences were found between the case in which the expert testified and a case in which the negative report and expert testimony were omitted.

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