Underpinning success in the real world of corporations law

This paper reports on an action research project which sought to evaluate and guide ongoing teaching and learning development in Principles of Corporations Law, a semester-long unit of study. Typically, enrolments in this subject area include students from a range of cultural contexts for whom the legislative and administrative concepts of the unit are unfamiliar and who also experience significant difficulties with cultural conventions of communication and business practice. At our university, unit enrolments include a high proportion of distance education as well as non-English speaking background (NESB) students, predominantly from China, who have not studied units formerly considered as prerequisite, and many of whom experience difficulties with basic academic skills. As the development team planned and created teaching features to ensure better learning outcomes for these students, it was clear that some truly contextual thinking as well as some practicable solutions would be required. While we had determined in the redesign planning that scenario- or problem-based learning (PBL) with its emphasis on finding, understanding and using information in context, was best suited to help students acquire the skills that underpin success in the unit, our experience in the project indicated students had a broader range of more basic needs. It emerged that students were struggling with fundamental issues that would need to be addressed before real change could occur.     

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance in Police Organizations

The aim of the current study is to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance in a sample of 310 police officers. The results show significant correlations between EI levels and police job performance. After controlling for general mental abilities and personality traits, EI has been found to explain additional incremental variance in predicting police job performance. Applied implications of the findings for police organizations are discussed.     

Identification of the Edentulous Individual: An Investigation into the Accuracy of Radiographic Identifications*

Abstract: The dental identification of edentulous individuals can be challenging based on the lack of antemortem materials and unique features visible on radiographs. The constant resorption of the alveolar ridges further complicates the process. The purpose of this study was to quantify the error rate and reliability of dental identifications based on a comparison of synthesized antemortem and postmortem radiographs of edentulous individuals. Ten observers examined ten cases on two occasions and reported dichotomous and conclusion level decisions. These were analyzed using Kappa and Receiver Operator Characteristics. The mean area under the curve was 0.75 and the mean sensitivity was 0.57 and specificity was 0.83. These results suggest that dental identifications of edentulous individuals using radiographs alone have a high error rate and should be dual reported. These data add further weight to the argument that all dental prostheses should be labeled.     

Members' survey on theory,practice and innovation in public administration

Abstract: This paper summarizes the results of a survey of ipac members carried out in the winter of 1987–88. Members' views were sought about the education and training of good senior public servants, administrative change and reform and the sources of innovation in public administration. In spite of great diversity in background and present condition, the members showed a high degree of unity in regarding public administration as a practical activity very much under the control of administrators. It is a world of nuances, where change does occur, but never quite as planned and seldom according to theory. Sommaire: Cet article résume les résultats d'une enquête menée auprès des membres de I'IAPC pendant I'hiver de 1987–1988. On a demandé les opinions des membres sur la formation et le développement des cadres supérieurs du secteur public, sur le changement et la réforme des administrations et sur les sources de I'innovation administrative. Malgré la grande diversité de formation et de carrières, les membres ont affiché un degréélevé d'unité de pensée concernant I'administration publique comme activité pratique dominée par les praticiens. C'est un monde de nuances où le changement se fait, certes, maisjamais exactement comme prévu et rarement sous la gouverne d'une théorie.     

UK OC OK? Interpreting Optimal Classification Scores for the U.K. House of Commons

Iain McLean Nuffield College, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 1NF, United Kingdom. e-mail: iain.mclean{at}nuffield.ox.ac.uk e-mail: spln{at}mail.rochester.edu (corresponding author) Poole's (2000, Non-parametric unfolding of binary choice data.Political Analysis 8:211–37) nonparametric Optimal Classificationprocedure for binary data produces misleading rank orderingswhen applied to the modern House of Commons. With simulationsand qualitative evidence, we show that the problem arises fromthe government-versus-opposition nature of British (Westminster)parliamentary politics and the strategic voting that is entailedtherein. We suggest that political scientists think seriouslyabout strategic voting in legislatures when interpreting resultsfrom such techniques.     

Mental health expertise at prison reception

Although screening has become an established procedure in prison health care, some difficulties persist. In attempts to improve this, many local adaptations have been introduced, but few have been evaluated. We introduced an adaptation – mental health expertise (a Community Psychiatric Nurse, CPN) – into the reception area of a busy remand prison, and compared standard and enhanced assessment procedures over a six-month period. Referrals (n = 67) were significantly more likely to be suitable for onward caseworking by the clinical team after a CPN was introduced. The team showed little evidence of the ‘mission creep’ (where teams operating at a secondary level absorb mental health problems at a primary care level) that has been described elsewhere in the literature. Despite its limitations, this evaluation suggests that prison pathways can be improved by relatively inexpensive local initiatives, and that advancing specific mental health expertise into prison reception areas can enhance existing processes.     

The Reality of Conducting a War Crimes Trial

Since proceedings at the international criminal tribunals areessentially adversarial in nature they inevitably are party-led,rather than judge-led. The inherent challenges of conductinga large-scale war crimes trial are further exacerbated whenthe accused chooses to represent himself. However, the authorbelieves the bench has the opportunity, by robust applicationof a number of rules already available, to exert considerableinfluence over the course of events at all stages of proceedings,thereby ensuring fair and expeditious war crimes trials. Thereal benefits of the judicial process are to be found in thesuccessful prosecution of the guilty and exoneration of theinnocent: in view of the massive size of cases before the tribunals,that is only achievable by judicial control and focus on thereal issues in dispute, even if this implies that the tribunalscan no longer satisfy some of the original expectations withwhich they were set up. The author identifies a number of practicalissues, to which judges at tribunals should always be alert,and illustrates some by reference to events during the trialof Slobodan Miloevi, as well as current proceedings before theICTY.     

The evolution of regulatory enforcement action in the UK capital markets: a case of 'less is more'?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• Formal enforcement action is a relatively rare occurrencewithin the UK capital markets regulatory framework. This characteristicdistinguishes the UK from the US, where there is a more intensefocus on enforcement, both public and private.
• Several featuresof the UK regulatory system contribute towards a low incidenceof enforcement. Some of these features are embedded in the statutoryframework, but the FSA has played a key role in the developmentof enforcement policy, while the continuing presence of self-regulationin the form of the Combined Code has also played a part.
• Thefocus on risk-based regulation in the UK has been a major influencefor enforcement policy. The move to more principles-based regulationhas also been a factor but one that is more difficult to interpret.If it is correct to assume that principles-based regulationdoes not affect the intensity of regulation, then the effecton the . . . [Full Text of this Article]