ASSESSMENTS FOR POSTSEPARATION PARENTING DISPUTES IN CANADA

There is controversy in Canada about the use of assessments by mental health professionals to assist in the resolution of postseparation disputes between parents about their children. Although the principles developed by the Supreme Court of Canada to govern the admission of expert evidence in criminal law cases provides guidance for judges in family law cases, in deciding whether to order an assessment or admit expert evidence, family law judges must also take account of the child-related context. Mental health professionals can provide valuable information that would otherwise be unavailable when making prospective decisions about children. Court-appointed assessors also have a significant institutional role in the family law cases that has no equivalent in the criminal law context. Assessors are important not only for the relatively rare cases that go to trial, but they also play a central role in helping to resolve the much larger number of cases that are settled.     

Political culture,postmaterial values,and the new environmental paradigm: A comparative analysis of Canada and the United States

This study investigates the relationship between postmaterial values and the New Environmental Paradigm in Canada (Ontario) and the United States (Michigan). Based on survey data collected among both citizens and environmental activists, it is evident that among both Canadian and American respondents of both citizen and activist type the two value dimensions are similarly multidimensional and separate. Rather than reflecting a single larger dimension of value orientation, as claimed by some, it is clear that the Inglehart postmaterialist value measure and the Dunlap and Van Liere NEP index are separate constructs in the thinking of the Canadians and Americans surveyed. While these findings were parallel in the Canadian and American settings, a number of cross-national differences in how these values influence attitudes and behaviors are reported. In general, these findings underscore the need to continue to focus on variations in the cultural context of citizen responses to postindustrial change.     

Effects of Judicial Instructions and Case Characteristics in a Mock Jury Trial of Battered Women Who Kill

This study examined the effects of judicial instructions on the outcome of a mock jury trial that involved a woman who pleaded self-defense after killing her abusive spouse. Jurors were instructed to adopt either an objective or a subjective standard of reasonableness when reaching a verdict. Within objective/subjective instruction conditions, half of the juries viewed a case in which the woman killed her abuser while he was attacking her (confrontational) and the remaining half viewed a case in which she killed him while he was asleep (no confrontation). Juries in the subjective conditions returned significantly more not guilty verdicts than jurors in the objective conditions. At the individual juror level, participants hearing subjective instructions were significantly more likely to rate the defendant as not guilty than jurors given objective instructions when the abuse was nonconfrontational.     

Reviews

Paul Dukes, The Last Great Game: USA Versus USSR. Events, Conjunctures, Structures. London: Pinter Publishers in association with John Spiers, 1989, xii + 209 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b

Walter C. Clemens, Jr., Can Russia Change?: The USSR Confronts Global Interdependence. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989, xxix + 384 pp., £38.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Neil Malcolm, Soviet Policy Perspectives on Western Europe. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs/Routledge, 1989, viii + 117 pp., £7.95 p/b.

R. A. Longmire, Soviet Relations with South‐East Asia. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1989, x + 176 pp., £35.00.

Geoffrey Roberts, The Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact with Hitler. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989, xviii + 296 pp., £19.95.

Anthony Jones & William Moskoff, eds., Perestroika and the Economy. New Thinking in Soviet Economics. Armonk, NY, London: M. E. Sharpe, 1989, xxii + 277 pp., $45.00.

Kristian Gerner & Stefan Hedlund, Ideology and Rationality in the Soviet Model: A Legacy for Gorbachev. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xii + 455 pp., £30.00.

J. L. Porket, Work, Employment, and Unemployment in the Soviet Union. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, St. Antony's/Macmillan Series, 1989, xv + 250 pp., £37.50.

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Public and Private Life of the Soviet People. Changing Values in Post‐Stalin Russia. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, 281 pp., $24.95.

David Joravsky, Russian Psychology: A Critical History. Oxford and Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989, xxii + 583 pp., £45.00.

W. O. McCagg & Lewis Siegelbaum, eds., The Disabled in the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989, 304 pp., $34.95.

Thomas F. Remington, ed., Politics and the Soviet System: Essays in Honour of Frederick C. Barghoom. London: Macmillan, 1989, 235 pp., £35.00.

Julian Graffy & Geoffrey Hosking, eds., Culture and the Media in the USSR Today. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan in association with SSEES, University of London, 1989, viii + 168 pp., £35.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

Carlo Frateschi, ed., Fluctuations and Cycles in Socialist Economies. Aldershot: Avebury, 1989, xiii + 157 pp., £25.00.

Martin Myant, The Czechoslovak Economy 1948–1988: The Battle for Economic reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, xii + 316 pp., £30.00, $54.50.

Michael Simmons, The Unloved Country: A Portrait of East Germany Today. London: Abacus, 1989, viii + 184 pp., £4.99 p/b.

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David Turnock, Eastern Europe: An Economie and Political Geography. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xiv + 360 pp., £35.00.

David Turnock, The Human Geography of Eastern Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xii + 345 pp., £35.00.

Theodore H. Friedgut, Iuzovka and Revolution. Volume 1: Life and Work in Russia's Donbas, 1869–1924. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989, xviii + 361 pp., illustrations, tables, $45.00.

Graham Smith, Planned Development in the Socialist World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, vi + 106 pp., £10.95 h/b, £5.95 p/b.

Lynn Turgeon, State and Discrimination. The Other Side of the Cold War. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989, xii + 169 pp., $32.50.

Gerald D. Surh, 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989, xvii + 456 pp., $45.00.     

The Impact of EU Membership on UK Economic Performance

The relatively deep level of economic integration achieved by the European Union (EU) has been highly successful in increasing trade for its members. Larger trade volumes have had positive effects on productivity levels. In the case of the United Kingdom the gain from joining the EU was probably around 10 per cent of GDP and this far exceeded any costs of membership, possibly by a ratio of seven to one. A major reason for this outcome was a significant increase in competition as protectionism was abandoned. The economic implications of Brexit are much less clear because there are many permutations of what it would entail. Future trade barriers rather than budgetary transfers are the main issue. Brexit could be quite costly if the UK left the single market and used its new policy space badly. Ironically, while Brexit clearly appeals to free traders, it could end up empowering protectionists.