Interpreting the Threshold Criteria under section 31(2) of the Children Act 1989 – the House of Lords decision in Re B1

The casenote considers the decision in Re B which confirms the threshold criteria in establishing the likelihood of future harm under section 31(2) of the Children Act 1989 and clarifies the civil standard of proof.     

The Scots Statute Style and Substance

New or renewed legislatures afford opportunities for reassessingold legislatures, and introducing new and improved forms oflegislative composition. Thus the North American experience,derived from the breakaway Colonies, came down heavily againstreferential legislation, the Australian and New Zealand experienceimplemented many Benthamite reforms ahead of the Old Country,and the tabula rasa afforded generally by Colonial and Commonwealthlegislation at first enabled, and eventually enforced on itsparent legislature, an explicit and consistently adhered tosystem of textual amendment. In view of the opportunities affordedby Scottish Devolution, what innovations may we expect of thenew Scottish statute? Thanks to the earlier work of Coode,¹to the continuing surveillance of the Statute Law Society,²to the committed enthusiasm of parliamentary counsel such asDriedger,³ Dale,⁴ and Bennion,⁵ and especially to the seminalwork of linguistic analysts such as Plowden,⁶ Mellinkoff,⁷ Frye,⁸and Bowers,⁹ new theories, practices, forms, and precedentsabound as never before for statute law. Nevertheless, thereare also questions of tradition, culture, and national identityat issue—especially for a restored or reborn legislaturesuch as the present Scottish Parliament.¹⁰ This paper examinessome of the issues, both in terms of legislative style and legislativesubstance, which pertain to the new Scottish statute.     

The gap between law student career aspirations and employment opportunities

Most law students in the UK embark upon their degrees hoping to become solicitors or barristers and yet the current legal landscape is in a state of flux. Students are incurring significant costs to try and break into an increasingly competitive market and are concerned that they do not have the skills and experience that many employers expect. With this in mind, Plymouth Law School tracked the aspirations and destinations of its LLB students and graduates over a number of years, exploring factors that encouraged or inhibited them along the path to their careers. This article evaluates the data from our students and considers its relevance to the employability issues highlighted by the LETR.     

Green Criminology and Crimes of the Economy: Theory, Research and Praxis

This paper describes several key developments and dimensions in the field of ‘green criminology’ and discusses some of the relevant debates and controversies arising. It then outlines overlaps and connections with other areas of work within critical criminology. The central focus of the paper is on crimes of the economy as they affect the environment and a substantive, illustrative case study is provided on environmental crimes and harms associated with the oil industry. The paper concludes with some critical observations on where directions in theory, policy and practice may need to turn in a post-growth world.     

MPs and their e-Newsletters: Winning Votes by Promoting Constituency Service

Commentators are divided on the electoral effect of constituency service, whether it provides unfair advantage or has limited electoral impact. The arrival of the Internet has added to this debate. This research note considers how pioneering MPs are using e-newsletters effectively to communicate their constituency service. A web-hosted survey of subscribers to two MPs' e-newsletters, with over 1,100 respondents, was conducted. The data suggest that receiving an MP's e-newsletter did have an effect on subscribers' voting behaviour at the 2005 General Election. Rather than something to fear, this vote-winning capacity of an e-newsletter may actually encourage MPs to have more dialogue between MPs and constituents.     

Stressful life events and adolescent drug use: Moderating influences of the MAOA gene

Purpose

Though stressful life events appear to impact the likelihood and frequency of substance use among adolescents, these effects are often varied and inconsistent. We suggest that the polymorphic MAOA gene may be partially responsible for variable susceptibility to environmental pressures and substance use. More specifically, we hypothesize that adolescents possessing low activity alleles for the MAOA genotype are more likely to respond to stressful life experiences by initiating substance use.

Methods

The genetic subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was analyzed (2,574 adolescents) using logistic regression models for each gender. Respondents’ self-reports of eight key stressors were used to create a composite life stress scale which was allowed to interact with a variable that represented the number of low activity MAOA alleles.

Results

For males, a significant interaction emerged between stressful life experiences and the MAOA gene for alcohol (p = .029) and marijuana (p = .039) initiation. For females, the interaction was not significant in each model.

Conclusions

MAOA interacts with life stress to increase the likelihood of substance use initiation for males. Those with a low activity MAOA allele are more likely to initiate substance use than those with a high activity allele when exposed to stressful experiences.