What is a Crime?

This article presents a philosophical account of the natureof crime. It argues that the criminal law contains both fault-basedcrimes and strict liability offences, and that these two representdifferent paradigms of liability. It goes on to argue that thegist of fault-based crimes lies in their being public wrongs,not (as is often thought) because they wrong the public, butbecause the public is responsible for punishing them, i.e. becausethey merit state punishment. What makes wrongs deserving ofpunishment is that they are seriously blameworthy, inasmuchas they evince a disrespect for the values violated. But theyonly merit state punishment when they violate important values,not simply due to the well-known pragmatic considerations againstthe use of the criminal law, but to the intrinsic expressiveforce of criminal conviction. Finally, the analysis of fault-basedcrimes points to a role for strict liability in regulating actionsthat are not seriously blameworthy but do increase the riskof values being damaged.     

The ballot order effect is huge: evidence from Texas

Primary and runoff elections in Texas provide an ideal test of the ballot order hypothesis, because ballot order is randomized within each county and the state offers many counties and contests to analyze. Doing so for all statewide offices contested in the 2014 Democratic and Republican primaries and runoffs yields precise estimates of the ballot order effect across 24 different contests, including several not studied previously. Except for a few high-profile, high-information races, the ballot order effect is large, especially in down-ballot races for judicial positions. There, the empirical results indicate that going from last to first on the ballot raises a candidate’s vote share by nearly ten percentage points. The magnitude of this effect is not sensitive to demographic and economic factors.     

Public International Law and the Regulation of Private Spaces: Does The Convention on the Rights of the Child Impose an Obligation on States to Allow Gay and Lesbian Couples to Adopt?

Opposition to the adoption of children by gays and lesbiansis invariably based on the claim that such a practice is contraryto the rights and best interests of children. The aim of thisarticle is to examine this claim in light of the provisionsof the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.It will be argued that an approach to the interpretation ofa child's rights and best interests which is based on empiricalevidence reveals that there is no basis for sexual orientationto be a relevant consideration in assessing a person's suitabilityto adopt a child.     

Thomas Craig,Sir Martin Wright,and Sir William Blackstone: The English Discovery of Feudalism

F.W. Maitland claimed that Sir Martin Wright propagated among English lawyers the view that English law had a feudal origin and was part of a European family of law and that Wright's opinions were popularized by Blackstone. This article demonstrates that Wright's opinions on feudal law, its history, and its impact on English law owed a considerable amount to the Scottish author Thomas Craig, who, through Wright, Blackstone, and others, as well as independently, had a significant impact on English lawyers’ understanding of their legal history and in overturning theories of the ‘immemorial’ nature of the common law. The infusion of Craig's European learning on feudalism into discussion of English law helped English legal history to develop.     

The Positive Psychology of Youth and Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence -