The lay component in Scottish juvenile justice

A recently completed study of the Scottish juvenile justice system, employing a variety of methodological approaches, is used as a source of information on the behavior and attitudes of the lay volunteers who make up children's panels and are responsible for decisions concerning young people who are alleged to have committed an offense or are believed to be in need of care and protection. The reported data relate to the beliefs of panel members as to the causes of delinquency and the objectives of intervention and alternative disposals; the topics they raise for discussion in children's hearings and the factors which influence the decisions they make; and the manner in which they are perceived by the children and parents who have appeared before them.     

Assessment of methods of homicides in a Brazilian city: a preliminary study

Homicides in the city of Ribeir?o Preto, state of S?o Paulo, Brazil, were analyzed with regard to methods (firearms or others) and gender, in a retrospective study from 1993 to 1997. There was a progressive increase in the number of homicides, mainly after 1995, with an increment of 86.6% in 1997 in comparison to 1993. The incidence of homicides was higher among males, with firearms being the most common method in this group since 1993. In addition, a 10% increase in this method was observed since 1995, in association with a proportional reduction in the use of other methods. The incidence of homicides among females remained stable until 1996 and increased by 51.3% in 1997. Simultaneously, firearms have become the most common method among female victims (71.4%), pattern similar to that observed among males. Attention is drawn to the social and economic conditions and their relationships with drug traffic in the city.     

Farmer Representation in Australia: Avenues for Changing the Political Environment

This paper focuses on changes in the way Australian farmers have sought to influence their political environment. A taxonomy of avenues for change is constructed and used to illustrate the broad transitions in the way farmers have engaged with the formal political process. It is argued that Australian farmers have proceeded from parliamentary/electoral through militant/sectoral forms of action, and are currently pursuing sectoral action supplemented by promotional and consultative actions. Using the New South Wales Farmers' Association (NSWFA) as an example, we show how these changes in political engagement relate to a number of trends in the economic and political environment, for example economic deregulation, electoral change, administrative change, the declining economic significance of agriculture and the increasing impact of sociopolitical movements. These trends and perceived inadequate responses by sectoral interest groups and political parties have also led to rural people experimenting with alternative political avenues such as new 'populist' movements, rural summits and social movements such as Landcare and Women in Agriculture. The significance of Landcare as an avenue for renewal of rural identity and new forms of rural governance is briefly outlined.     

Havel versus Klaus: Public Policy Making in the Czech Republic

In Central and Eastern Europe, we can observe and analyze an ongoing social experiment euphemized as the process of the transformation of totalitarian countries with centrally planned economies into democratic countries with market economies. This article offers an analysis of what has been happening in the Czech Republic in this regard. Attention is given to the impact of political philosophies (those represented by names of Václav Havel and Václav Klaus) upon legal and institutional changes. Key terms for better understanding of these processes are the free market, civil society, civic sector, and participation of citizens in public affairs. Channels, developmental threats, and opportunities for public policy formation and implementation are studied as well.     

The National Transportation Act and Western Canada: a case study in co-operative federalism

Abstract. The transformation of the Canadian federal system from classical to co-operative federalism has placed greater importance on consultations between federal and provincial governments prior to the balkation of policy within their respective jurisdictions. There is, however, an absence of case studies that examine the interaction among provincial governments, provin-cially or regionally based pressure groups, Members of Parliament from a particular region or province and the federal cabinet in the formulation of policies in areas of federal jurisdiction. Using the enactment of The National Transportation Act of 1967 as a case study, the paper examines the policy-making process within the Canadian federal system as it affects the Western Canadian provinces. The central thesis of the paper is that the consultative mechanisms employed by the federal government in areas of provincial jurisdiction limit the extent to which provincial policy inputs are injected into the decision-making process. Co-operative federalism is entering a new phase that will be characterized by the establishment of specialized structures to permit the input of regional views at the federal level on a regularized basis. Furthermore, the provinces will attempt to develop regional policies in the hope that this will strengthen their bargaining position with the federal government. Sommaire. La transformation du système fédéral canadien, de fédéralisme classique en fédéralisme coopératif, a donné une grande importance aux consultations entre le gouvernement fédéral et les gouvernements provinciaux avant l'adoption définitive de politiques dans leurs juridictions respectives. On manque cependant d'études portant sur des cas d'espèce qui illustreraient l'interaction des gouvernements provinciaux, des groupes de pression provinciaw ou régionaux, des députés d'une région ou d'une province donnée et du cabinet fédéral, dans la formulation des politiques du ressort fédéral. En se servant comme cas d'espèce de l'adoption de la loi nationale sur les transports de 1967, l'auteur de la communication étudie le processus d'é'laboration des politiques dans le cadre du système fééral canadien, du point de vue de ses répercussions dans les provinces de l'Ouest. Sa thèse centrale, c'est que les mécanismes consultatifs employés par le gouvernement fédéral dans les domaines qui sont du ressort des provinces limitent l'incorporation des apports provinciaux dans le processus de prise de décision. Le fédéralisme coopératif entre dans une nouvelle phase qui sera caractérisée par la création de structures spécialisées afin de permettre l'apprt méthodique des opinions régionales au niveau fédéral. De plus, les provinces essaieront d'élaborer des politiques régionales, espérant ainsi renforcer leur position dans les négociations avec le gouvemement fédéral.     

Reviews

Robert V. Daniels, Russia: The Roots of Confrontation, Cambridge, Mass. and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1985, xiii + 411 pp. £22.75.

Harry Gelman, The Brezhnev Politburo and the Decline of Detente. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984, 268 pp. £9.95.

Stephen F. Cohen, Rethinking the Soviet Experience. Politics and History Since 1917. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985, xiii + 222 pp. £15.00.

Shugo Minagawa, Supreme Soviet Organs: Functions and Institutional Development of Federal and Republican Presidia and Standing Commissions, Nagoya: University of Nagoya Press, 1985, xxi + 346 pp., 5000 yen.

Pekka Sutela, Socialism, Planning and Optimality. A study in Soviet economic thought (Helsinki, The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters). Commentationes Scientiarum Socialium vol 25. 1984, 230 pp. No price.

Christopher T. Saunders, ed., East‐West Trade and Finance in the World Economy. London: Macmillan, 1985, ix + 338 pp., £30.00.

P. T. Wanless, Taxation in Centrally Planned Economies, London & Sydney: Croom Helm, 1985, xi + 141 pp., £16.95.

Christopher Coker, NATO, the Warsaw Pact and Africa, London: Macmillan for RUSI, 1985, xii + 302 pp. £25.00.

Ellen Jones, Red Army and Society: A Sociology of the Soviet Military. London: Allen & Unwin, 1985, xviii + 230 pp. £18.00.

Thomas F. Remington, Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia. Ideology and Industrial Organization, 1917–1921, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984, x + 222 pp., $19.95.

Teodor Shanin, Russia as a ‘Developing Society’: The Roots of Otherness: Russia's Turn of Century, Volume 1, Basingstoke and London, Macmillan, 1985, XVI + 268 pp., £27.50 h/c, £8.95 p/b.

Olimpiad S. Ioffe, Soviet Law and Soviet Reality, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1985, Law in Eastern Europe series No. 30, 234 pp., Dfl. 135, U.S. $45.50, £34.50.

James M. Swanson, Scientific Discoveries and Soviet Law: A Socio‐historical Analysis. Gainesville, Florida, University of Florida Press, 1985, viii + 150 pp. $11.00.

Martin Fincke, ed. Handbuch der Sowjetverfassung, vols. I and II. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin, 1983, XVI + 1336 pp. including index and synopsis of Constitutions. Vol. I DM 236.00. Vol. II DM 270.00.

Laszlo Antal, Gazdasagiranyitsai és pénzügyirendszerunk a reform útján (The Changes in Our Economic Policy and Monetary System in Connection With the Reform). Budapest, Kozgasdasagi es Jogi Konyvkiado, 1985, 326 pp. 72 forints.

Harold Lydall. Yugoslav Socialism: Theory and Practice. London and New York, Oxford University Press, 1984, 302 pp. £18.50.

Saul Estrin, Self‐management: economic theory and Yugoslav practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, x + 264 pp., £27.50.

Nora Beloff, Tito's Flawed Legacy, Yugoslavia and the West: 1939 to 1984. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London 1985, maps, bibliography, index; 287 pp; £12.95.

Adam Bromke, Eastern Europe in the Aftermath of Solidarity. Boulder: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York. 1985. viii + 206 pp. $29.00.

Stanley M. Max, The United States, Great Britain and the Sovietisation of Hungary, 1945–48. Colorado: Eastern European Monographs, 1985, 195 pp. $26.00.

Phillip J. Bryson, The Consumer Under Socialist Planning: The East‐German Case, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1984, x + 206 pp. £33.95.

Roy Allison, Finland's Relations with the Soviet Union 1944–84. London and Basingstoke: (Macmillan in Association with St Antony's College, Oxford), 1985. ix + 211 pp. £25.

Paolo Spriano, Stalin and the European Communists, London, Verso, 1985. 315 pp. £16.95.

Gwyn Prins ed, The Choice, Nuclear Weapons versus Security. (London, Chatto and Windus, Hogarth Press, 1984, xvii + 251 pp. £12.95 hardback, £6.95 paperback.)

Anthony Arnold, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective (Revised and enlarged edition). Stanford University, Stanford, Ca, Hoover Institution Press, 1985, xix + 179 pp. $10.95 (paperback).

Nish Jamgotch, Jr. ed. Sectors of Mutual Benefit in U.S. ‐ Soviet Relations. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1985, xxii + 254 pp. £35.00 (hardback).

John Massey Stewart and Alan Wood, Siberia: Two Historical Perspectives, The Great Britain‐USSR Association and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies: London, 1984, 50 pp. £4.50 (UK), £4.95 (elsewhere in Europe), £6.25 (Rest of World [airmail]).

Tatyana Mamonova, ed. Women and Russia. Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1984. xxiii + 273 pp. £19.50 h/b £5.95 p/b.

D. V. Filat'ev, Katastrofa Belogo dvizheniya v Sibiri: Vpechatleniya ochevidtsa. Paris: YMCA‐Press, 1985. 142 pp.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences ed., Information Bulgaria, A Short Encyclopaedia of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, translated by Sofia Press Agency, Pergamon Press, Oxford 1985, 976 pp, index, bibliographies, maps, tables, £98.

Robert Weiner, Romanian Foreign Policy and the United Nations. (New York: Praeger, 1984), 206 pp. $28.95).

Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski, The Polish Economy in the Twentieth Century. (Croom Helm, Beckenham, 1985). vi + 346 pp. £25.00.

John N. Stevens, Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, xiv + 349 pp., $35.00.

Karel Vítek, Problémy man?elské rovnováhy. [Problems of marital equilibrium] Prague, 1985, 284 pp. p/b K?s 26.00.     

Law as tradition

This essay argues that to understand much that is most central to and characteristic of the nature and behaviour of law, one needs to supplement the time-free conceptual staples of modern jurosprudence with an understanding of the nature and behaviour of traditions in social life. The article is concerned with three elements of such an understanding. First, it suggests that traditionality is to be found in almost all legal systems, not as a peripheral but as a central feature of them. Second, it questions the post-Enlightenment antinomy between tradition and change. Third, it argues that in at least two important senses of tradition, the traditionality of law is inescapable.This article is part of a project on law and tradition, research for which has been aided by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Committee. It was written while I was a visitor at the Cente for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley, and revised while I visited the Centre for Criminology and the Social and Philosophical Study of Law, University of Edinburgh. I am grateful to the members of both centres for generously providing me with extremely congenial and stimulating conditions for work. Versions of the paper were presented to seminars at these centres, to the 12st World Congress on Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, held in Athens in August, 1985, and to seminars at the universities of Warsaw, Lodz and Glasgow. I am grateful to participants in these seminars, especially Nel MacCormick, Philip Selznick, Wojciech Lamentowicz, Daniel Sinclair and Jerzy Szacki, and to Edward Shils for useful discussions and criticism.