Correlates of partner violence for incarcerated women and men

This study examines partner violence within an incarcerated sample of women and men. Specifically, it focused on the relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes to the perpetration and victimization of violence. Findings revealed that violence was bidirectional, with males and females equally likely to report being the perpetrator or victim of violence. The attitudes and beliefs associated with violence were similar regardless of gender, type of violence (physical or psychological), or whether individuals were the victim or perpetrator of violence. Hostility to women was the most significant factor associated with perpetrating and condoning partner violence. Hostility to women in combination with implicit beliefs condoning violence were the strongest predictors for suffering physical violence. Victims' self-reported communication problems uniquely predicted their suffering of psychological violence. The explanation for and consequences of these results are discussed.     

Legal Theory for Legal Empiricists

There is a widespread view that one does either theory or empirical work, and that theory and empiricism represent distant concerns, opposing worldviews, and perhaps distinct mentalities or personalities. This prevalent view has deep roots and is also the result of pragmatic and understandable tendencies toward division of intellectual labor. Against this view, this essay suggests that the relations between theory and empirical study ought to be understood as more intimate and that making legal theory an explicit focus can improve empirical scholarship. We pursue this claim by articulating a basis for legal theory and by showing how that basis illuminates both the application and design of empirical research on law. Legal theory, we argue, follows jurisprudence in interrogating the law as a set of coercive normative institutions. The upshot of this approach is a recognition that an interdisciplinary analysis of law must rely on both a theory (explicit or implicit) of the way law's power and its normativity align and an account of the way in which this discursive cohabitation manifests itself institutionally. We thus argue that legal theory is necessary in order to draw fruitfully on empirical research and further claim that legal theory provides guidance both for setting up an empirical research agenda on law and for designing research into specific topics.     

Local Democracy and the Transformation of Popular Participation in Chile

Structural reforms, institutional arrangements, and the dominant mode of political party-base linkage all militate against effective popular participation in Chilean local democracy. Structural reforms have constrained local leaders' resources as well as their policymaking prerogatives; institutional arrangements limit public officials' accountability to their constituents and citizens' opportunities for input in decisionmaking. The parties of the center-left Concertación have reinforced this vicious cycle by pursuing a mode of linkage with civil society designed to promote their electoral success with only minimal organization and participation by their grassroots constituents. Such conditions fit well with the desire of elites of the Concertación and the right to depoliticize civil society in order to preserve macroeconomic and political stability. Yet they leave in doubt the efficacy of popular participation and the strength of local democracy in Chile.     

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act: 1996 and Beyond

The first year of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act was greetedwith great expectations in much of the intergovernmental community.State and local governments did, in fact, realize some importantvictories in the Congress, both in softening the impact of newmandates and in reversing some existing ones. Viewed historically,these achievements certainly break with established trends.Yet, 1996 did not prove to be a watershed year. Significantnew mandates and preemptions were passed, while state and localvictories were largely achieved in modifying how new mandateswere to be implemented, not in determining whether new mandateswould be enacted.     

How Terrorism Upsets Liberty

As terrorism increasingly penetrates Western democracies, liberals and libertarians are obliged to ask themselves whether contending with it justifies restricting civil liberty and, if so, to what extent. Neither personal security nor individual liberty is ever fully realised – both are a matter of degree – and they are often perceived as being at odds with each other. Hence it has been suggested that we reconsider the existing trade-off between them, or reassess their 'rate of exchange'. While such questions are sometimes raised by left-leaning liberals, they are in fact particularly acute for liberals on the right, or libertarians, who would normally resist any increase in government intervention. Right-wingers who advocate 'hands off' policies on all other occasions now call for an increase in government intervention as regards security measures. Many left-liberals, on the other hand, are reluctant to concede any further power to the state in order to combat terrorism.     

An economic analysis of the use of citations in the law

This paper examines the use of citations analysis as an empiricaltool for understanding aspects of the legal system and for improvingthe performance of the system. Emphasis is laid on the use ofsuch analysis as a means to evaluate courts and judges (andtherefore as a judicial-management tool), to test hypothesesabout judicial behavior, and to evaluate and improve legal scholarship.It is argued that economic models, particularly of reputationand of human capital, can frame and guide the use of citationsanalysis in law.     

New foundations of cost–benefit analysis

This article responds to the criticisms of New Foundations of Cost–Benefit Analysis that appeared in a review by Amy Sinden, Douglas A. Kysar, and David M. Driesen. We argue that their criticisms are either based on misunderstandings of our approach or are too demanding, in the sense that no reasonable decision procedure would satisfy them. We illustrate this second argument by demonstrating that their preferred approach – feasibility analysis – has little to recommend it.