THE POTENTIAL OF THE FAMILY LAW EDUCATION REFORM PROJECT FOR FAMILY LAWYERS1

Family lawyers are major beneficiaries of the reforms set out in the Family Law Education Reform Project (FLER) Report. This commentary from a veteran family law practitioner explores the needs of the family law bar for the training of law students in practical, interdisciplinary, client‐centered lawyering that goes beyond the traditional case method. I trace many of the current innovations evolving in family law practice and how FLER reforms will not only benefit law schools but also have a major impact in the courts and private practice sector.     

Long-term success in mediation

This article reports the results of a study of the antecedents of long-term success in community mediation. Seventy-three mediation sessions were recorded and content analyzed. The participants were interviewed at two points: immediately after mediation and 4 to 8 months later. No relationship was found between the quality of the agreements—i.e., the extent to which they solved immediate problems- and long-term success as measured by compliance, improved relations between the parties, and the absence of new problems. On the other hand, joint problem solving by the disputants was related to complainant perceptions of improved relations with the other party. Also respondent perceptions that the mediation had been fair and that all the problems had come out were related to all aspects of long-term success in the eyes of the complainant. The latter results support a procedural justice analysis of mediation and underline the importance of mediator attention to the respondent.     

The legal aspects of corporate computer usage policies

In this paper we examine the legal aspects of corporate computer usage policies including their creation, management, and their relevance to corporate computer forensic investigations. Misuse of corporate computing facilities cannot only lead to a reduction in employee productivity and network bandwidth, but can also increase the risk of infection of such facilities by computer viruses and other malicious code. Moreover, it may lead to the risk of liability and legal action.     

On Giving Legal Form Its Due. A Study in Legal Theory

Abstract.  The four theses of this paper are: (1) that an appropriate organizational form is used to design, define, and organize a functional unit of a legal system, (2) that the functional units of a legal system, contrary to the emphasis in Hart and Kelsen, consist of far more than rules, and include institutions, interpretive and other methodologies, sanctions and remedies, and more, (3) that frontal and systematic study of the forms of these units is a major avenue for advancing understanding of them as duly organized wholes, and, (4) that such study reveals that much credit is due these forms, along with complementary material or other components of the units, for values realized through law.     

加纳经济的增长谜题:国外援助是不是重要的决定因素

重新审视研究了国外援助及其他因素对加纳经济增长的意义和影响。自加纳共和国独立以来,外商通过不同的渠道在加纳进行投资,目前约占国家预算的40%。那么,这些来自发达国家的资源是否对加纳的经济发展产生了积极的影响呢?为了解决这一难题,运用简单的最小二乘法(OLS),选取了包括国外援助在内的5个独立变量对加纳26年的经济增长进行了回归运算。其中,经济的波动体现在加纳1982年到2007年之间国内生产总值(GDP)的变化上。文中数据取自历年相关书籍,经合组织档案与公共文献。本文的研究证明,国外援助是一国经济增长的重要决定因素。数据显示,国外援助在1982年至2007年的26年里对加纳的经济增长产生了重大而积极的影响。