Subjects with agency? Children’s participation in family law proceedings

Galvanised by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, many jurisdictions now recognise children’s rights to participate in decisions that affect them. While such legal rights have increased, research on family law proceedings shows how children’s views can still be undermined, ignored or not even sought in decisions about them. This article uses the academic resources of childhood studies, to consider dominant and alternative narratives of children’s participation within Scottish family law. Drawing upon reported case law and empirical research, the article concludes that children’s participation gains protection by being institutionalised but children’s participation is attenuated because it is not recognised as relational and contextual. As rationality, consistency and autonomy are privileged, the weight given to children’s views is lessened by concerns about children being manipulated or distressed. Courts and their decisions may be child-focused, centring on children’s welfare, but they are not child-inclusive, involving children in decision-making.     

The Relevance of Intention to Criminal Wrongdoing

In this paper, we defend the general thesis that intentions are relevant not only to moral permissibility and impermissibility, but also to criminal wrongdoing, as well as a specific version of the Doctrine of Double Effect that we believe can help solve some challenging puzzles in the criminal law. We begin by answering some recent arguments that marginalize or eliminate the role of intentions as components of criminal wrongdoing [e.g., Alexander and Ferzan (Crime and culpability: a theory of criminal law. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2009), Chiao (Crim Law Philos 4:37–55, 2010), Walen (Crim Law Philos 3:71–78, 2009)]. We then turn to some influential theories that articulate a direct role for intentions [e.g., Duff (Answering for crime: responsibility and liability in the criminal law. Hart Publishing, Portland, 2007), Husak (Crim Law Philos 3:51–70, 2009)]. While we endorse the commitment to such a role for intentions, we believe that extant theories have not yet been able to adequately address certain objections or solve certain puzzles, such as that some attempt convictions require criminal intent when the crime attempted, if successful, requires only foresight, and that some intended harms appear to be no more serious than non-intended ones of the same magnitude, for example. Drawing on a variety of resources, including the specific version of the Doctrine of Double Effect we have developed in recent published work, we present solutions to these puzzles, which in turn provide mutual support for our general approach to the role of intentions and for thinking that using others as means is itself a special kind of wrongdoing.     

Detention and treatment down under: human rights and mental health laws in Australia and New Zealand

Mental health law reform in recent decades has drawn on the international human rights movement. The entering into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on May 3 2008 has been hailed by some as signalling a new era in relation to how domestic mental health laws should be reformed. Both Australia and New Zealand have ratified the CRPD and Australia has acceded to its Optional Protocol. New Zealand and the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria have statutory bills of rights which have an interpretive effect, but are unable to render other statutes invalid. Drawing on the results of interviews conducted with fifty-two representatives of consumer and carer organisations, lawyers, and mental health professionals across Australia and New Zealand, this paper examines the current thinking on human rights and mental health laws in these countries and outlines what changes, if any, may be brought to domestic legislation in light of the Convention.     

Quantifying the Accuracy of Forensic Examiners in the Absence of a “Gold Standard”

This study asked whether latent class modeling methods and multiple ratings of the same cases might permit quantification of the accuracy of forensic assessments. Five evaluators examined 156 redacted court reports concerning criminal defendants who had undergone hospitalization for evaluation or restoration of their adjudicative competence. Evaluators rated each defendant’s Dusky-defined competence to stand trial on a five-point scale as well as each defendant’s understanding of, appreciation of, and reasoning about criminal proceedings. Having multiple ratings per defendant made it possible to estimate accuracy parameters using maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches, despite the absence of any “gold standard” for the defendants’ true competence status. Evaluators appeared to be very accurate, though this finding should be viewed with caution.     

A Prototype of Mathematical Treatment of Pen Pressure Data for Signature Verification

A prototype using simple mathematical treatment of the pen pressure data recorded by a digital pen movement recording device was derived. In this study, a total of 48 sets of signature and initial specimens were collected. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to compare the data of the pen pressure patterns. From the 820 pair comparisons of the 48 sets of genuine signatures, a high degree of matching was found in which 95.4% (782 pairs) and 80% (656 pairs) had rPA > 0.7 and rPA > 0.8, respectively. In the comparison of the 23 forged signatures with their corresponding control signatures, 20 of them (89.2% of pairs) had rPA values < 0.6, showing a lower degree of matching when compared with the results of the genuine signatures. The prototype could be used as a complementary technique to improve the objectivity of signature examination and also has a good potential to be developed as a tool for automated signature identification.     

Interdependence,interaction and metaphor in multisemiotic texts

Systemic frameworks for discourse analysis of visual/verbal and mathematics texts are used to examine the functionality of language? visual display and mathematical symbolism, and the meaning arising from interaction and interdependence between these semiotic codes in joint constructions. The nature of the interaction between options, classified as unmarked or marked, determines the meaning made in that instance and, more generally, provides an impetus for the expansion of the meaning potential of each semiotic. The phenomenon where semantic shifts occur when functional elements are reconstrued in another semiotic is called semiotic metaphor. Rather than the notion of an overlay of meaning typically associated with grammatical metaphor, the potential exists here for more dramatic forms of semantic shift. Examples of semiotic metaphor categorised as ‘parallel semiotic metaphor’ and ‘divergent semiotic metaphor’ are given in the text analysis.     

Why East Asia overtook Latin America: Agrarian reform,industrialisation and development

Scholars and policy makers have long debated the causes of the spectacular economic success achieved by the East Asian newly industrialising countries ( NICs ) as well as the lessons that other developing countries can learn from this development experience. Latin America started to industrialise many decades before the East Asian NICs and yet was quickly overtaken by them in the last few decades. This article explores the agrarian roots that may explain the different development trajectory and performance of the East Asian NICs, particularly South Korea and Taiwan, and Latin America. The analysis focuses mainly on three interconnected factors in seeking to understand why the East Asian NICs outperformed Latin America: 1) state capacity and policy performance or 'statecraft'; 2) character of agrarian reform and its impact on equity and growth; 3) interactions between agriculture and industry in development strategies.