公私协力所生国家赔偿责任归属之研究

依台湾地区现行"国家赔偿法"和"国家赔偿法修正草案"规定,委托行使公权力行为产生国家赔偿责任时,应以委托机关为赔偿义务机关。然而,受托行使公权力之私人团体或个人,对所行使之内容为公权力已有客观认识,应本着与委托人为同一注意义务。从"行政程序法"、"诉愿法"和"行政诉讼法"更可推断出受托者在行使公权力之范围内应当负公法上之责任,不能因不具有公法人格而免除其公法上法律责任之立法意图。现行"国家赔偿法"和"国家赔偿法修正草案"规定的合理性及妥适性,仍有深究之余地。     

Assessing the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency: An Evaluation of a Court‐Based Delinquency Prevention Program

In 2002, the State of Ohio mandated juvenile courts to provide prevention for at‐risk youth. This study examined official court records to evaluate the effectiveness of a prevention program administered by the Greene County Juvenile Court. A sample of 362 youth referred to the program for the years 2002 to 2009 by concerned caretakers, teachers, and police was analyzed. Consistent with intake goals, 81.7% of clients were referred for at‐risk but not actually delinquent behaviors. Completion of the prevention program did not predict future court referrals, but neither did seriousness of referral behavior. Children with two biological parents were significantly more likely to complete the program, whereas referrals to Strengthening Families Program and substance abuse screening significantly predicted program noncompletion. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• This article highlights efforts by county juvenile court to implement a secondary prevention program for at‐risk but not officially court‐referred youth.
• Delinquency prevention research depends on good juvenile court data and adequate comparison groups.
• Evidence‐based predelinquent interventions with external process and outcome evaluations should be the standard.

     

The EU,Economic Partnership Agreements and Africa

Africa has been divided into four groups of states by the European Union in the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that will define the relationship between Africa and Europe in the future. The EPAs are unfair. They demand reciprocity between the EU countries collectively and each African country individually and they set conditions that will be demanded by any other country or groups of countries with which African countries seek trade arrangements. Further, separate EPAs among different groupings of African countries will undermine Africa’s wider integration efforts, leaving it in thrall to EU companies. In their present form the EPAs are not in Africa’s interest and will unnecessarily undermine the potential for Europe’s improved relationship with the continent.     

Community filmmaking as research: (re)considering knowledge production through the camera's lens

In southern Chile, Mapuche Indigenous communities are using video and digital filmmaking to collectively reflect on and communicate knowledge. This article shares their experience, arguing that with the increasing accessibility of information and communication technologies, we should be rethinking and broadening the acceptable ways to generate and convey knowledge about development. Acknowledging the diverse ways of knowing and communicating knowledge, this article suggests that video can be a powerful tool for self-representative knowledge-sharing by Indigenous communities. Only by expanding our debates beyond written media can we engage equitably with a plurality of knowledge-holders to resolve development challenges.     

Toward purposeful individual capacity strengthening: alternative considerations for Western NGOs

The international donor community continues to emphasise country-led development strategies designed to equitably engage public and civil society agents in managing development assistance. Similarly donors who fund Western NGOs to implement development programmes on their behalf in recipient countries are increasingly pushing for cost-effective programme implementation that actively engages local actors. This article proposes an alternative theoretically grounded model for individual capacity strengthening to responsive and mission-driven Western NGOs that claim to be committed to ideals of capacity strengthening and indigenisation of programme leadership.     

Partnership between academics and practitioners – Addressing the challenges in forensic science

This research discusses the development of academic-practitioner partnerships in forensic science and examines the opinions and experience of those involved in the field. An anonymous online survey was completed by 56 participants who work in the field of forensic science. The questions related to their work experience, their experience of research and partnership, and their opinions on the benefits and barriers that exist. The results were analysed using a mixed methods approach, with quantitative analysis of the responses to closed questions using two-way chi-square statistical analysis, and qualitative analysis of the free text responses using reflexive thematic analysis. This work identifies the demand for partnership, the perceived benefits and barriers that exist, and establishes how the role of the participant (academic, pracademic or practitioner) impacts their view of partnership. We include the term pracademic to mean an individual who has worked as a practitioner and an academic, not necessarily simultaneously. Quantitative analysis identified that there was very little statistically significant difference in the responses between groups. Pracademics considered that ‘institutional and cultural’ and ‘lack of the respect of the other role’ were more significant barriers than the other groups. Association was also found between those with greater experience of research and the view that partnership ‘improved legitimacy in practice’ and ‘increased legitimacy of research’. There was also statistical significance in those with more than average experience of partnership who identified ‘improved legitimacy in practice’ as a benefit of partnership.Reflexive thematic analysis of free text comments identified a need and demand for partnership with three key themes developed as being necessary for successful partnership. These are the ‘three ‘R’s’ – the need for effective communication and the development of a Relationship; the Relevance of the partnership to the participants role; and the inclusion of personal Reward such as improved practice or better research.     

The Implications of Brexit for the Caribbean’s Future Relationship with Britain and the EU

Abstract

The UK Brexit referendum to leave the EU has created concerns internationally, particularly for countries that have formal trade, aid and investment treaties with the EU and none with Britain alone. The notion of a Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a non-starter and would bring no benefits to the Caribbean. But, Britain outside the EU deprives the Caribbean of a sympathetic voice on a range of issues, including financial services, and alters the level of official development assistance that will be available from remaining EU members that have no historical relationship with the English-speaking Caribbean. The importance of the UK as a market for their goods and services make it imperative for Caribbean countries to start early ‘talks’ with London so as not to be crowded out by FTAs that the UK will conclude with countries larger and richer than the Caribbean. At the same time, Brexit provides an opportunity for the Caribbean to revisit its unsatisfactory Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. Caribbean countries need to determine their objectives and take early initiatives to realise them.     

Community-supported models for girls’ education in Pakistan: the transformational processes of engagement

This article presents the case for promoting girls’ education in the contexts of geographic isolation, social conservatism, fragility, and severe financial hardship, with localised services delivered through community supported initiatives, contextualised approaches, and flexible strategies. To examine the significance of using localised approaches for improving girls’ access to education, the article explores three case studies from Pakistan in three different contexts. These cases highlight lessons learnt for establishing responsive and flexible girls’ education initiatives which are relevant in the cultural, social, financial, and political contexts of the girls and their communities.     

The European Union and Belarus: democracy promotion by technocratic means?

Is Belarus an enviable constant in international relations: a maverick, isolated from the West and inseparable from the East? On the surface, there seems to be business as usual: Lukashenko's regime remains unchallenged; Belarus’ relations with the European Union – spasmodic at best; while its absorption into Russia's Eurasian project continues apace. Yet, some critical disjunctures – manifested in government tacit resistance to Russia's influence, and more instructively, in people's growing affinity with Europe – may indicate a sea-change transformation in the very fabric of society. This article, utilizing extensive and subject-focused research, conducted in the country between 2009 and 2013, examines the nature and causalities of the occurring change. It argues that democracy promotion, in Belarus’ case, may work better when depoliticized and inculcated, through norms, regulations, and practices of international order, into the daily lives of individuals. Through its continued technocratic, inclusive, and sector-level engagement, European Union governance, even under the conditions of limited bilateral dialogue, have succeeded in fostering much-needed space for reciprocal learning and critical reasoning, which may have far greater transformative potential than manufacturing a single collective will for democracy building.     

Explaining the failure of the ASEAN economic community: the primacy of domestic political economy

All reliable indicators suggest that ASEAN's (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community (AEC) will not be successfully established by its 2015 deadline. Why? Against technocratic, realist and constructivist accounts, this article offers an explanation rooted in the political economy of ASEAN's member-states. Economic liberalisation agreements promote the rescaling of economic governance, involving regulatory changes that may radically redistribute power and resources. Consequently, they are heavily contested between coalitions of social and political forces, without outcomes reflecting the outcome of these struggles. The argument is demonstrated by exploring the uneven sectoral liberalisation achieved under the AEC, the constrained integration of ASEAN's energy markets, and the limited deregulation of skilled labour migration.