‘Til death do us part’: surviving spouses,civil partners and provision on intestacy in Ireland

The Succession Act 1965 brought, it was said, a ‘revolutionary change’ in the law of succession to Ireland (Re Urquhart [1974] IR 197 at 208). However, despite the enormous impact it has had on citizens, in the 50 years since its enactment, the Act has never been subject to a comprehensive review or reform. This lack of legislative engagement in Ireland stands in marked contrast to a number of other common law jurisdictions. In the past decade alone, the Law Commission for England and Wales, the Scottish Law Commission, the New South Wales Law Reform Commission and the British Columbia Law Institute have each placed their respective succession law regimes under the microscope. Responding to this gap in the literature, this article considers the extent to which surviving spouses or civil partners are adequately protected on intestacy, specifically, in Ireland. Highlighting the potentially serious shortcomings of the Irish fractional share approach, and drawing on the experience of a number of common law jurisdictions, the article presents a proposal for reform. In this regard, it places a particular focus on the need to strike an appropriate balance between the competing interests of spouses/civil partners and children in the distribution of an intestate estate.     

Intimate Partner Violence in the African American Community: Risk,Theory, and Interventions

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is devastating to individuals, families, and communities. IPV is considered the most prevalent type of violence in families (Owen et al. in Journal of Family Violence, 24(7), 433–445. doi: 10.1007/s10896-009-9239-2, 2009; Williams et al. in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 16(3), 296–310. doi: 10.1080/10926770801925726, 2008a). Unfortunately, IPV occurs far too frequently within African American families. Research suggests that African Americans are more likely to report experiencing IPV than any other racial groups (Bent-Goodley in Health & Social Work, 29(4), 307–316, 2004; Hampton and Gelles in Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 25, 105–119, 1994; Rennison and Welchans 2000). Despite this, there is a paucity of research that highlights the specific factors that may contribute to the high rates of IPV within the African American community. This article will explore the risk factors associated with IPV in this, while highlighting the way in which psychoanalytic theory can be used to understand these rates. Treatment approaches that use a multicultural framework will also be discussed.     

The EU-China investment treaty: challenges,themes, competence

China-EU Law Journal - Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) improves the global economy. Both inward and outward FDI contributes to EU competitiveness and international trade. The importance of the...     

The rise and fall of “Novorossiya”: examining support for a separatist geopolitical imaginary in southeast Ukraine

In the spring of 2014, some anti-Maidan protestors in southeast Ukraine, in alliance with activists from Russia, agitated for the creation of a large separatist entity on Ukrainian territory. These efforts sought to revive a historic region called Novorossiya (“New Russia”) on the northern shores of the Black Sea that was created by Russian imperial colonizers. In public remarks, Vladimir Putin cited Novorossiya as a historic and contemporary home of a two-part interest group, ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, supposedly under threat in Ukraine. Anti-Maidan agitation in Ukraine gave way to outright secession in April 2014, as armed rebel groups established the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhans’k People’s Republic on parts of the eponymous Ukrainian oblasts. Rebel leaders aspired to create a renewed Novorossiya that incorporated all of eastern and southern Ukraine from Kharkiv to Odesa oblasts. To examine the level of support for this secessionist imaginary in the targeted oblasts, our large scientific poll in December 2014 revealed the Novorossiya project had minority support, between 20 and 25% of the population. About half of the sample believed that the concept of Novorossiya was a “historical myth” and that its resuscitation and promotion was the result of “Russian political technologies.” Analysis of the responses by socio-demographic categories indicated that for ethnic Russians, residents of the oblasts of Kharkiv and Odesa, for older and poorer residents, and especially for those who retain a nostalgic positive opinion about the Soviet Union, the motivations and aims of the Novorossiya project had significant support.     

Internal constraints on the process of industrialization in Gaza

This paper examines the internal constraints on Gaza's manufacturing sector during the Israeli occupation. Manufacturing development was constrained by the Israeli occupation, but the authors chose to look at the situation from Gaza's point of view, and examine the attitudes and the effects of the lack of industrial experience on manufacturing.

Internal constraints include the ‘lack of an adequate skills base’, ‘a misunderstanding and distrust of marketing’, ‘unsophisticated attitudes towards finance and the value of time’, ‘price being seen as more important than quality’ and ‘authoritarian attitudes to management practice’. Local education and training are struggling to remedy aspects of this situation but they presently lack the resources.

There was a widespread lack of understanding of the concept of a company as a separate entity.     

Finding of Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna During the Autopsy Procedure: Forensic Issues

Hyperostosis frontalis interna is a common phenomenon, which may have been overrated in its significance in the past, and may, currently be underrated in its significance. We present three cases of hyperostosis frontalis interna found during medicolegal autopsies and discuss their forensic considerations. The patients were all middle‐aged women with metabolic and endocrine manifestations and psychiatric ailments; thickening of the inner table of the frontal bone of the skull was found during each autopsy. We describe the relationship between hyperostosis frontalis interna, metabolic manifestations, and neuropsychiatric symptoms as part of Morgagni‐Stewart‐Morel syndrome. There is still considerable disagreement in the scientific community as to whether this syndrome is a clinical entity. Nonetheless, awareness of Morgagni‐Stewart‐Morel syndrome can be of help in understanding the circumstances surrounding death. In some other cases, hyperostosis frontalis interna could be used by forensic pathologists as criteria for sexing and aging a skeleton.     

Legal Statements and Normative Language

Can there be a non-reductivist, source-based explanation of the use of normative language in statements describing the law and legal situations? This problem was formulated by Joseph Raz, who also claimed to have solved it. According to his well-known doctrine of ‘detached’ statements, normative legal statements can be informatively made by speakers who merely adopt, without necessarily sharing, the point of view of someone who accepts that legal norms are justified and ought to be followed. In this paper I defend two theses. I argue, first, that the notion of a detached statement cannot be made to work, and that Raz’s problem is thus not thereby solved. But the problem itself, I also suggest, is a false one.