Tort Law Culture: Image and Reality

This article highlights two contrasting images of tort. The first reflects the traditional portrayal of justice, depicting tort as an independent ‘natural’ system of rules of universal application forming the foundation of a just society. The second is more recent and relates to the perceived development of a damaging compensation culture. Focusing on personal injury litigation, we show how these portrayals differ from the reality of tort. In practice it is heavily influenced by institutional arrangements: the importance of both welfare provision and liability insurance is highlighted, and the effects of a ‘no‐win no‐fee’ claims market are examined. The operation of tort is very much affected by commercial interests and the economic demands of the institutions which surround it. Overall we conclude that the images of tort fail to reflect how the personal injury compensation system actually operates.     

Having a Bad Month: General Versus Specific Effects of Stress on Crime

We examine whether particular types of stress are related to particular types of crime or whether all types of stress are related to all types of crime. Our estimates are based on analyses of within-individual change over a 36 month period among recently incarcerated offenders. We find that assault is most strongly related to family stress, suggesting that conflicts between family members lead to assault. Economic crimes (property crimes and selling illicit drugs) are most clearly related to financial stress, suggesting that these crimes often reflect attempts to resolve financial problems. On the other hand, crime is generally unrelated to stress from illness/injury, death, and work. The results support the idea that criminal behavior is a focused response to specific types of problems rather than a general response to stress. They are more consistent with explanations that focus on perceived rewards and costs (e.g., the rational-choice approach) than with explanations that portray negative affect as a generalized impetus toward violence or crime (e.g., frustration aggression approaches).     

Using Systems Theory to Study Legal Pluralism: What Could Be Gained?

This article examines the ability of modern systems theory to provide a foundation for understanding the problematic notion of legal pluralism, and to the ability of scholars to apply that understanding to engage in the study of pluralistic legal orders. In particular, it develops the observations of systems theory of the relationship between state law and violence by adopting one of its linked ideas, that of structural coupling. It also considers the role played by translation when law is identified by reference to the application of the legal code: legal/illegal. The whole analysis is underpinned by systems theory's account of the differences between studying premodern and modern societies.     

Assessing the Dayton Accord: The structural weaknesses of the general framework agreement for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina - the Dayton Accord — brought a formal end to the war in Bosnia, but the prospects for an enduring peace remain uncertain. One of the obstacles to peace is the accord itself. This article outlines the main provisions of the agreement and then examines its structural weaknesses. These weaknesses, it is argued, though significant, may not be insuperable. There is broad scope for interpretation of the treaty's terms and for innovation within its framework. Its effectiveness in the long term will depend in part on whether the implementing powers succeed in exploiting this potential.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Best Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age by Bruce D. Berkowitz and Allan E. Goodman. National Insecurity: U.S. Intelligence After the Cold War edited by Craig Eisendrath.     

Peer‐learning at university,trusting the students

This paper is a development of the Association of Law Teachers’ annual Lord Upjohn lecture, delivered on 29 January 2015 at City Law School, London, by the principal investigators of the Legal Education and Training Review’s (LETR) research team. In it, each of the authors takes a different theme arising from the LETR Report, and explores its implications and application, focusing on research and innovation; access and flexibility; deprofessionalisation, and, finally, reflecting on the way the Report addressed themes of common training, oversupply and access to justice. As our title indicates, the paper comprises both individual performances and performance as a consort, and we hope that in this way, we enact one of our key themes: the social nature of legal education and its regulation.