Shadow Writing and Participant Observation: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Work Around Sentencing

The study of decision‐making by public officials in administrative settings has been a mainstay of law and society scholarship for decades. The methodological challenges posed by this research agenda are well understood: how can socio‐legal researchers get inside the heads of legal decision‐makers in order to understand the uses of official discretion? This article describes an ethnographic technique the authors developed to help them penetrate the decision‐making practices of criminal justice social workers in writing pre‐sentence reports for the courts. This technique, called ‘shadow writing’, involved a particular form of participant observation whereby the researcher mimicked the process of report writing in parallel with the social workers. By comparing these ‘shadow reports’ with the real reports in a training‐like setting, the social workers revealed in detail the subtleties of their communicative strategies embedded in particular reports and their sensibilities about report writing more generally.     

Towards a Comparative Theory of the Contractual Construction of Personal Work Relations in Europe

This article seeks to build upon the earlier article ‘Fromthe Contract of Employment to the Personal Work Nexus’(2006) 35 ILJ 1, and further to substantiate the theoreticalbasis for our work on the European comparative law of personalwork contracts. Two associated but distinct hypotheses are presented;the first one concerns ‘institutions’ and exploresthe ways in which the contract of employment has become andbeen a central institution of European labour or employmentlaw systems, but an institution differently constructed anddisplaying normative diversity as between those different systems.The second hypothesis postulates a contrast in juridical methodologyas between English common-law-based systems and continentalEuropean civil-law-based systems, the former being characterisedby a ‘regulated self-designed contracts’ approach,and the latter by a ‘standardised contract typology’approach. In conclusion, these two hypotheses are integratedinto a composite tentative comparative theory, which, we argue,can usefully be related to the theoretical discourse about the‘varieties of capitalism’ in Europe.     

Global Production Networks, Chronic Poverty and ‘Slave Labour’ in Brazil

For large parts of the world's poor labour force, participation in global production networks (GPNs) is associated not with poverty reduction and ??social upgrading??, but with highly precarious, unprotected and exploitative forms of work and employment, resulting in a perpetuation, rather than alleviation, of chronic poverty. In this article, we seek to understand these dynamics of ??adverse incorporation?? in the context of Brazilian agriculture, focusing on the extreme ends of the spectrum of exploitation associated with what, in Brazil, is usually termed ??slave labour??. We explore two questions which reveal the circular character of adverse incorporation. First, to what extent, in what ways and under what circumstances does chronic poverty foster patterns of precarious and exploitative employment within GPNs for poor workers? Second, to what extent, in what ways and under what circumstances can the workings of GPNs, and the terms on which poorer workers are incorporated into them, be said to produce and reproduce chronic poverty?     

Companions on a Serendipitous Journey

This article is a contribution to the occasional series dealing with major books that have influenced the authors. Previous contributors include Stewart Macaulay, John Griffith, William Twining, Carol Harlow, Geoffrey Bindman, Harry Arthurs, André‐Jean Arnaud, Alan Hunt, Michael Adler, Lawrence O. Gostin, John P. Heinz, Roger Brownsword, and Roger Cotterrell.     

A method for the determination of syringe needle punctures in rubber stoppers using stereoscopic light microscopy

The ability to accurately determine the number of syringe needle penetration holes through the rubber stoppers in pharmaceutical vials and rubber septa in intravenous (i.v.) line and bag ports has been a critical factor in a number of forensic cases involving the thefts of controlled substances or suspected homicide by lethal injection. In the early 1990s, the microscopy and microanalysis group of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Forensic Chemistry Center (FCC) developed and implemented a method (unpublished) to locate needle punctures in rubber pharmaceutical vial stoppers. In 1996, as part of a multiple homicide investigation, the Indiana State Police Laboratory (ISPL) contacted the FCC for information on a method to identify and count syringe needle punctures through rubber stoppers in pharmaceutical vials. In a joint project and investigation using the FCC's needle hole location method and applying a method of puncture site mapping developed by the ISPL, a systematic method was developed to locate, identify, count, and map syringe punctures in rubber bottle stoppers or i.v. bag ports using microscopic analysis. The method requires documentation of punctures on both sides of the rubber stoppers and microscopic analysis of each suspect puncture site. The final result of an analysis using the method is a detailed diagram of puncture holes on both sides of a questioned stopper and a record of the minimum number of puncture holes through a stopper.     

Assessing the pros and cons of the EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment: an introduction to the special issue

Asia Europe Journal - The announcement of the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) at the end of December 2020 triggered an intense debate. The deal has found many supporters inside...     

3D documentation of footwear impressions and tyre tracks in snow with high resolution optical surface scanning

The three-dimensional documentation of footwear and tyre impressions in snow offers an opportunity to capture additional fine detail for the identification as present photographs. For this approach, up to now, different casting methods have been used. Casting of footwear impressions in snow has always been a difficult assignment. This work demonstrates that for the three-dimensional documentation of impressions in snow the non-destructive method of 3D optical surface scanning is suitable. The new method delivers more detailed results of higher accuracy than the conventional casting techniques. The results of this easy to use and mobile 3D optical surface scanner were very satisfactory in different meteorological and snow conditions. The method is also suitable for impressions in soil, sand or other materials. In addition to the side by side comparison, the automatic comparison of the 3D models and the computation of deviations and accuracy of the data simplify the examination and delivers objective and secure results. The results can be visualized efficiently. Data exchange between investigating authorities at a national or an international level can be achieved easily with electronic data carriers.