Candidate ideology and electoral success in congressional elections

In examining the factors that contribute to electoral success in congressional elections, legislative scholars often consider the actions of elected representatives; however, other research suggests that one must consider what challengers are (or are not) doing as well. For instance, inexperience and poor funding can significantly inhibit challenger success. We expand this list of potential shortcomings by arguing that ideological congruence with a constituency may be another factor in explaining challenger defeat. Using ideology measures derived from campaign contributions, we find that unsuccessful challengers in the U.S. House are generally more extreme than those who win, but ideological extremity is not a disadvantage to those seeking to represent an extreme constituency. More importantly, our existing political institutions may actually serve to mitigate the already high levels of partisan polarization in Congress.     

The Politics of a New Legal Regime: Governing International Crime through Domestic Immigration Law

Through an analysis of a unique and understudied unit within the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit (HRVWCU, or “the Unit”), this article addresses the following theoretical and policy question: once someone has been admitted to the United States and granted permanent residency, or even citizenship, how does the law facilitate the reversal of that decision based on acts committed long ago and far away? We argue that the HRVWCU has created a significant new way to govern immigration through crime—specifically international crime—while simultaneously trying to ensure justice for mass atrocities through immigration law. In offering an overview of the Unit's origins and approach in blending international criminal law, domestic criminal law, and immigration law, we show how this Unit reflects an expansion of crimmigration in the United States and abroad. In order to illustrate the dilemma of internationalized crimmigration, the article focuses on the Unit's cases related to war crimes in Liberia and Bosnia, which have two very different (at least from the perspective of international criminal law) types of alleged perpetrators: those who allegedly gave orders and those who allegedly followed orders.     

Distant Relations: Identity and Materiality in Elite Discourse on Britain's Overseas Territories

This article examines representations of identity in two British Overseas Territories: St Helena in the South Atlantic and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. While local forms of representative government exist here, political authority over several significant areas of political life is retained by the British state. As such, the connections between sovereignty, politics and identity are less clearly demarked than in many states. Based on interviews carried out on the islands in 2011, the article explores the way in which national and local identities in the territories are understood in relation to their link with the United Kingdom. The research identifies the importance of geography and economics as key elements in the construction of identity discourses in these territories. This emphasis points to the importance material factors have in shaping the way communities are imagined, particularly where sovereignty is held externally.     

Uganda: constitutional law

The implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL) is a continuous and evolving process. As such, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) co-operates closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat with the aim to advise and support Commonwealth states on developments in IHL and to assist them in meeting their IHL treaty obligations. The present update highlights some of the key issues and recent developments in IHL that are of interest to Commonwealth states.     

Using a cognitive analytic approach to formulate a complex sexual and violent offender to inform multi-agency working: developing a shared understanding

Abstract

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is a collaborative time-limited psychotherapy developed by Ryle. The approach aims to formulate how early experiences influence the development of unhelpful patterns that maintain a person's current difficult experiences. Within the UK, forensic services personnel are increasing their uses of CAT approaches within contextual, i.e. treatment teams, settings. Offending behaviour is relational (perpetrator to victim), and CAT is a relational model. Within the context of National Health Service consultation service (Serious Offender Liaison Service) working with the Police and Criminal Justice Social Work to assess, formulate and give advice regarding working with serious sexual and violent offenders, often with personality disorders, a case example is presented. The paper suggests that utilising a relational model, such as CAT, and applying one of the main the tools of this approach, through diagrammatic representations (maps) of the formulation, can enable agencies working with an individual to share a common formulation and language.     

National and regional technology policies in the USA,Japan and Western Europe

State Policies and Techno‐Industrial Innovation. Edited by Ulrich Hilpert. Routledge, 1991. Pp. 372. £40 hb.

Regional Innovation and Decentralisation: high tech industry and government policy. Edited by Ulrich Hilpert. Routledge, 1991. Pp. 331. £40 hb.