How Large Should the Strike Zone Be in “Three Strikes and You're Out” Sentencing Laws?

So-called three strikes and you're out sentencing laws for criminal offenders have proliferated in the United States. The laws vary considerably in their definitions of what constitutes a strike. This paper adapts the classic Poisson process model of criminal offending to investigate how varying sentence lengths and definitions of what constitutes a strike affect the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these sentencing laws. In particular, it asks whether, by using different definitions for the first, second, and third strikes or different sentence lengths, one can make the resulting incarceration more efficient in the sense of incapacitating more crimes per cell-year served.     

Holding Back the Tide— a Review of Recent Developments in Copyright Law in the United Kingdom

This article surveys recent developments in UK copyright law. It sets these developments in the context of broader trends in copyright law and policy. Significant decisions concerning subsistence of copyright, authorship, infringement, defences, remedies and collective licensing are analysed. The author notes that copyright, and other intellectual property rights, have been given extra force as a result of recent legislative developments. He argues that, against this background, it is possible to discern increasing judicial concern to ensure that such an expansion in monopoly power does not operate against the public interest.     

Party expenditure and electoral prospects: a national level analysis of Britain

The effectiveness of campaign spending is a hotly contested issue. Much of that debate concentrates upon predetermined or assumed campaign periods. Yet, in a party and electoral system such as Britain, parties are continually campaigning. Party expenditure may therefore have a constant and cumulative effect. This article examines whether increased party spending at the national level is electorally significant. It analyses annual data from 1959 to 1994 and concludes that there is insufficient consistent evidence wholly to support this proposition.