What Determines Judicial Prestige? An Empirical Analysis for Judges of the Federal Court of Australia

This article examines judicial citations to analyze the determinantsof judicial prestige in the Federal Court of Australia. Firstwe construct two alternative measures of judicial prestige forall current and retired judges of the Federal Court. Second,we regress these measures of judicial prestige on a series ofexplanatory variables covering age on appointment, appointinggovernment, prior experience, which law school the judge attended,how many law review articles the judge has published, gender,and tenure. We compare our results with those of previous studiesthat examine the determinants of judicial influence and prestigein courts in the United States and the High Court of Australia.One of the main contributions of the article is to provide evidencefrom an intermediate appellate court that can be used to testthe general application of findings as to what determines judicialprestige in the United States to courts in other countries withdifferent institutional frameworks.     

Image repair in the aftermath of inaccurate polling: How the news media responded to getting it wrong in 1948 and 2016

The US presidential elections of 1948 and 2016 produced surprise outcomes when the predicted winners ended up losing the election. Using image repair theory, this article explains the strategies the media used to repair their image in light of predicting the wrong winner. Using a qualitative analysis of news coverage that immediately followed the 1948 and 2016 presidential elections, this study finds that the media utilized similar image repair strategies of offering explanations for poor information, highlighting the media’s good reporting, diminishing the harm caused by the inaccurate predictions, and justifying the inaccurate predictions of both elections. However, the media responses in 1948 and 2016 differed greatly in tone and in the utilization of a new attack strategy to deflect criticism of the media itself. These strategies suggest that media use of image restoration is limited because of the unique societal expectations placed on the press, and that the media’s inaccurate 2016 predictions and subsequent attack strategies may have been contributed to the heightened criticism of mainstream news.     

Exploring Options Including Class Action to Transform Military Mental Healthcare and End the Generational Cycle of Preventable Wartime Behavioral Health Crises

This article examines three major options for transforming military mental healthcare in order to end the pattern of self-inflicted and largely preventable wartime behavioral health crises plaguing American veterans, their families, and broader society since the turn of the twentieth century. Evidence is provided that the first option of maintaining the status quo consisting of internal incremental changes has proven largely ineffectual in addressing the broader issues responsible for perpetuating wartime crises. The second option describes necessary transformative changes required to end the cycle of mental health neglect and preventable crises. However, there are no signs that responsible government agencies are inclined to compel the military to overhaul its system. Lastly, we offer a legal analysis for an unprecedented class action against the Department of Defense to effect change. After reviewing the history of tort law and the US military’s immunity from the Feres Doctrine, we examine legal precedents both domestic and aboard. Legal strategies are described in detail from a landmark class action by British soldiers against the Ministry of Defense (MoD) or Multiple Claimants v. MoD (2003) who sued for failure to properly identify and treat predictable war stress injury like post-traumatic stress disorder. The successful claims from individual military plaintiffs have been instrumental in compelling the MoD to implement necessary reforms of its mental health services and possibly end their cycle of neglect and preventable wartime crises. If successful, the proposed American class action will establish a critical precedent to elevate the importance of mental healthcare on equal footing with physical medicine both within and outside of the military.     

Beyond Orthodoxy: Asserting Latin America's New Strategic Options Toward the United States

This essay explores the possibility that Latin America may deploy new strategic options in its relations with Washington at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. It starts by evaluating what have been the five major foreign policy models of the region with regard to Washington since the end of the Cold War. It proceeds by evaluating the recent dynamics of Latin American insertion into world affairs. Then it introduces three new alternatives for handling U.S. Latin American relations in the coming years. It concludes by pointing out the importance of understanding the scope of the hemispheric challenges for both the region and Washington.     

Are Developmental Assets Protective Against Suicidal Behavior? Differential Associations by Sexual Orientation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Sexual orientation disparities in suicide behavior are well-documented. Yet, few studies have examined how developmental assets – key values,...     

Women,Godliness and Personal Appearance in Seventeenth‐Century England 1

This article discusses Lady Jersey's brief sojourn in New South Wales in 1891-92, as the wife of the colonial governor. In the context of colonial anxieties and hopes about the contemporary women's movement, Lady Jersey's aristocratic confidence and imperial authority gave her the appearance of an ‘Advanced Woman’. A published writer and confident public speaker before she arrived in the colony, Lady Jersey took a keen interest in local political affairs, and her demeanour and activity were swiftly satirised in the radical nationalist and frequently misogynist Bulletin. Local feminist groups, perhaps craving some of the legitimate public authority she so readily exercised, sought her patronage and support but were generally doomed to disappointment. The article suggests that Lady Jersey, despite her own conservatism, offered an ambiguous role model for those seeking positive ways in which to imagine female power.