The use of a virtual learning environment: The Hong Kong experience

This paper argues for the teaching of ethics in financial services law through blended learning comprising face-to-face and online case studies. It draws on the insights of previous blended teaching in business management and corporate law to provide the justifications for its application in the teaching of ethics in financial services law. The measured success for the use of blended teaching in prior situations, the limitations of existing teaching through the conventional lecture method and the coming through of students increasingly exposed to active-based learning via information communications technology further justifies its application in financial law courses. The paper addresses the why, what and how issues in connection with the teaching of ethics in financial services law. It advocates strongly why teaching of ethics should cover hard and soft laws and even beyond to incorporate the relationships at play in the marketplace to provide more balanced and practical insights for law students. Though the article relies primarily on secondary data, it generated significant implications for the teaching of ethics in financial services law through a pervasive approach in contrast to stand-alone legal ethics courses.     

Organizing a Proficiency Testing Program on Stamp Impressions Examination in Accordance with ISO/IEC 17043 Requirements

Stamps and stamp impressions examinations are based on matching defects and design details on the questioned and control samples. These examinations are routinely carried out by document examiners around the world. International proficiency tests for questioned documents examination have been available for decades while similar programs specifically focusing on stamp impressions examination are rare. This study reported a recent proficiency testing program on stamp impressions examination organized by an accredited provider in accordance with ISO/IEC 17043 requirements. Twenty‐four forensic laboratories registered for the program. Apart from giving details on the design and operation of the program, this study also aimed to provide the limitations and difficulties encountered in sample preparations, homogeneity, and stability tests of the testing materials. Various comments and feedbacks received from the participants, particularly in respect of examination approaches, challenges faced by the participants in forming conclusions and their suggestions for further improvement would be evaluated.     

Gender equality without democracy? Higher education expansion and authoritarian values

How does social policy affect authoritarian values? Leveraging exogenous variation, I evaluate how higher education expansion as a social policy program in China has influenced authoritarian support and traditional gender attitudes. I use an instrumental variable approach and regression analyses with marginal effects to assess multiple waves of Chinese national representative surveys coupled with regional statistics. The study differentiates between two types of authoritarian support: specific support (authoritarian support based on evaluation of recent policies) and diffuse support (long-term authoritarian traits independent of recent policies). I find that education expansion has significantly decreased specific authoritarian support; however, it has not influenced diffuse authoritarian support. Moreover, a decrease in traditional gender attitudes is driven by a cohort effect rather than an education expansion effect. The findings have broader implications for understanding the effects of social policy on attitudinal change in an authoritarian context.     

Designing Ethical Online Dispute Resolution Systems: The Rise of the Fourth Party

As the pandemic forces public and private institutions to move online, many court and business leaders are looking to the field of online dispute resolution (ODR) for best practices and lessons learned. Developed over the last twenty years, largely in response to the growth of e‐commerce, the ODR field has generated a deep well of theory and practice while also identifying potential ethical dilemmas and risks. The application of technology, the “fourth party,” plays an increasingly integral role in how we negotiate resolutions to our disputes, with or without a third party. A brief overview of the history of ODR’s development will set the context for the exploration of the range of tools and techniques encompassed by online dispute resolution. Consideration of the ethical challenges raised by ODR practice will illuminate key questions and choices that need to be made in designing ODR systems and in governing their use.     

The Supreme Court's spring term: abortion, the right to die, and the decline of privacy rights

Wing analyzes the constitutional significance and the important long-term implications for health policy of three 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Hodgson v. Minnesota, Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health. Hodgson and Ohio upheld state statutes requiring parental notification of a minor's impending abortion. Cruzan upheld a state court decision refusing to allow the family of a patient in a persistent vegetative state to discontinue life-sustaining treatment. Wing argues that these decisions reach far beyond "the abortion issue" or "the right to die." Not only have they narrowed the constitutional protection of individual privacy, but they allow states to regulate activities like abortion in a manner that indicates that the Court is prepared to repeal the notion that individual privacy is entitled to enhanced judicial protection.     

Factors Associated with the One-year Probation Outcome: A Self-report Study in Hong Kong

Why are some probationers able to comply with the sentence? Why do some fail to do so? In order to answer these questions, the article examines cross-sectional data collected from a selected group of Chinese offenders who were put on a one-year probation sentence in Hong Kong. It, in particular, aims at identifying the relative effects of four types of predictors, namely demographic, socio-economic, criminal history and probation intervention, on the probation outcome. For the purpose of this study, the probation outcome is the self-report data of the probationer at the end of the sentence. Logistic regression analyses revealed that self-reported reoffending was significantly related to peer involvement in criminal activities and triad association, a previous probation sentence, a urine test requirement and the offenders’ positive view of probation officers.     

A comment on racial discrimination in prisons in England and Wales

This paper revisits systematically some of the evidence regarding racial discrimination against ethnic minority groups in prisons in the British context. Police racism has been openly discussed after the death of Stephen Lawrence, and the time is ripe to extend the discussion to the Prison Service. Based on limited data from Home Office reports, and some research on race and crime, there is real evidence of direct and indirect racial discrimination in prisons. Although we may find it difficult to admit that many current practices lead to discriminatory outcomes, prima facie some of the black and Asian prisoners reported being treated unfairly in many respects such as racial stereotyping and biased allocation of jobs; they perceived their treatment subjectively as racism. Finally, recommendations on what can and should be done to eradicate racial discrimination and how to research this sensitive topic are discussed.     

Polysarcia adiposa: morbid obesity

From October 1988 to March 2005, there were at least 92 autopsy cases where morbid obesity was present and/or where it was attributed to the cause of death in the coronial district of Auckland, New Zealand, a city with a population of over 1 million people. Obesity has been researched internationally, and much is known about associated comorbidities such as atherosclerotic disease, hypertension, and diabetes, to name a few. However, in the morbidly obese (body mass index>or=40 kg/m2), only 14 of 92 cases were found to have ischemic heart disease due to coronary atherosclerosis as the principal cause of death, and slightly over half (48/92) have some degree (mild, moderate, severe) of coronary atheroma. There is a strong positive correlation between heart weight and body weight. Only 8 livers were normal, all others showing some form of steatosis, venous congestion, and fibrosis/cirrhosis. The mean weights of the heart, lungs, and liver were above the normal reference range in almost all cases. In conclusion, the study did not follow the widely published finding of the positive correlation between morbid obesity and ischemic heart disease in terms of mortality, but the study was consistent with other studies on the organ manifestations of morbid obesity, particularly for the heart, lungs, and liver.     

警察训练学校学员管理正规化建设的基本原则初探

学员管理的正规化建设就是在管理工作中推行统一的制度、统一的规范、统一的程序和统一的标准。正规化强调的更多的是管理手段、管理方式方法的科学性、规范性、系统性。搞好学员管理的正规化建设必须确立正规化管理的科学理念,统一思想,统一步调;必须实行科学管理,提高管理效能;必须坚持管理的人性化原则;必须加强管理干部队伍自身的正规化建设。