Studying Law by Association: Bruno Latour Goes to the Conseil d'État

This essay provides an overview of actor-network theory (ANT) and its potential interest for sociolegal scholars. It focuses on Bruno Latour's 2002 ethnography of La fabrique du droit: une ethnographie du Conseil d'État [The factory of law: an ethnography of the Conseil d'État] (2002b), which provides an analysis of the workings of the French Conseil d'État. The essay seeks to introduce non-French-reading sociolegal researchers to this work and draws out methodological and theoretical implications for research on legal institutions, legal knowledge, and bureaucracies.     

Indirect Co-Perpetration

National and international criminal law systems are continually seeking doctrinal and theoretical frameworks to help them impose individual liability on collective perpetrators of crime. The two systems move in parallel and draw on each other. Historically, it has been mostly international criminal law that leaned on domestic legal systems for its collective modes of liability. Currently, however, it is the emerging jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court that is at the forefront of innovation, with the doctrine of indirect co-perpetration taking the lead in international prosecutions. The article assesses the potential contribution as well as the limits of this compound doctrine to domestic criminal law jurisprudence, particularly with regard to small-group criminality. Four modes of indirect co-perpetration are discussed, namely shared control, concerted control, controlling board, and flawed triangle perpetration. A doctrine of indirect co-perpetration would enable liability in these modes of perpetration, perhaps with the exception of the latter, which marks the limits of its applicability.     

Playing with Information: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Russian Press

This article examines how the modern Russian press covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both historically and currently. Since print media are some of the most popular sources of information in Russia, such analysis helps us understand the media's priorities in presenting the conflict to Russian society. The article focuses on the inherently manipulative, albeit hidden, essence and layout of this material, which increases the likelihood of information bias. While the quality of the reporting on this conflict demonstrates the proximity of contemporary Russian media to the interests of the country's ruling powers, it also provides opportunities for the government to influence its audience's comprehension of Middle East politics.     

Choosing to limit choice: Self-binding directives in Dutch mental health care

In certain cases of chronic mental illness (for example bipolar disorder) a self-binding directive or Ulysses contract may be a helpful intervention to prevent harm to the person him- or herself and/or others. By choosing such an arrangement, the patient can indicate when and how mental health professionals may intervene against his or her will and provide indicated care which may lead to an improvement of the patient's mental condition. In the Netherlands, since 2008 the Compulsory Admissions Act has been amended and now includes a paragraph on self-binding. Starting from the Dutch debate and statutory regulation of self-binding in mental health care, a number of issues with broader relevance are discussed, particularly as these pertain to the legal regulation and juridification of self-binding. It is argued that too many detailed rules are a threat to increasing patient empowerment.     

"We are also normal humans, you know?" Views and attitudes of juvenile delinquents on antisocial behavior, neurobiology and prevention

This paper presents and discusses the views and attitudes of juvenile delinquents regarding the implications of genomics and neurobiology research findings for the prevention and treatment of antisocial behavior. Scientific developments in these disciplines are considered to be of increasing importance for understanding the causes and the course of antisocial behavior and related mental disorders. High expectations exist with regard to the development of more effective prevention and intervention. Whether this is a desirable development does not only depend on science, but also on the ethical and social implications of potential applications of current and future research findings. As this pilot study points out, juvenile delinquents themselves have rather mixed views on the goals and means of early identification, prevention and treatment. Some welcome the potential support and help that could arise from biologically informed preventive and therapeutic measures. Others, however, reject the very goals of prevention and treatment and express worries concerning the risk of labeling and stigmatization and the possibility of false positives. Furthermore, interventions could aim at equalizing people and taking away socially disapproved capacities they themselves value. Moreover, most juvenile delinquents are hardly convinced that their crime could have been caused by some features of their brain or that a mental disorder has played a role. Instead, they provide social explanations such as living in a deprived neighborhood or having antisocial friends. We suggest that the hopes and expectations as well as the concerns and worries of juvenile delinquents are relevant not only for genomics and neurobiology of antisocial behavior, but also for prevention and intervention measures informed by social scientific and psychological research. The range of patterns of thought of juvenile delinquents is of great heuristic value and may lead to subsequent research that could further enhance our understanding of these patterns.     

Holding Organized Crime Leaders Accountable for the Crimes of their Subordinates

Criminal law doctrine fails to provide an adequate solution for imputing responsibility to organized crime leaders for the offenses committed by their subordinates. This undesirable state of affairs is made possible because criminal organizations adopt complex organizational structures that leave their superiors beyond the reach of the law. These structures are characterized by features such as the isolation of the leadership from junior ranks, decentralized management, and mechanisms encouraging initiative from below. They are found in criminal organizations such as the American Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, and even outlaw motorcycle gangs. The paper offers a doctrine that may transcend this shortcoming. Referred to as “leaders’ liability,” this doctrine will be assessed and appraised through a comparison with competing theories such as accomplice liability, Organisationsherrschaft, and conspiracy.     

Regulating for compassion?

In 2009, the Health and Disability Commissioner considered whether a right to be treated with compassion should be added to New Zealand's Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. Before making his recommendation, the Commissioner explored the nature of compassion, its place as a virtue in medicine, and the implications of the proposed law change.     

Validation of a DNA IQ™-based extraction method for TECAN robotic liquid handling workstations for processing casework

A semi-automated DNA extraction process for casework samples based on the Promega DNA IQ™ system was optimized and validated on TECAN Genesis 150/8 and Freedom EVO robotic liquid handling stations configured with fixed tips and a TECAN TE-Shake™ unit. The use of an orbital shaker during the extraction process promoted efficiency with respect to DNA capture, magnetic bead/DNA complex washes and DNA elution. Validation studies determined the reliability and limitations of this shaker-based process. Reproducibility with regards to DNA yields for the tested robotic workstations proved to be excellent and not significantly different than that offered by the manual phenol/chloroform extraction. DNA extraction of animal:human blood mixtures contaminated with soil demonstrated that a human profile was detectable even in the presence of abundant animal blood. For exhibits containing small amounts of biological material, concordance studies confirmed that DNA yields for this shaker-based extraction process are equivalent or greater to those observed with phenol/chloroform extraction as well as our original validated automated magnetic bead percolation-based extraction process. Our data further supports the increasing use of robotics for the processing of casework samples.     

Criminal Law,Parental Authority,and the State

In the recently published collection, Criminal Law and the Authority of the State, two contributions allude to an analogy with parental authority as a means to a better understanding of the institution of criminal punishment, but reach different conclusions. Malcolm Thorburn uses the parental authority analogy to justify the institution of state punishment as an assertion of robust authority over offenders. Antje du Bois-Pedain uses the same analogy to advocate the idea of punishment as an inclusionary practice, designed to reintegrate offenders into society. I argue that Thorburn’s theory of robust authority is inconsistent if not self-contradictory when it tries to assume a liberal posture, and that du Bois-Pedain’s reintegrative model provides a better account of the justification and objectives of state punishment.