Changing the immigration rules and withdrawing the ‘currency’ of legal aid: the impact of LASPO 2012 on migrants and their families

The provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO 2012) will remove almost all immigration cases from the scope of legal aid with effect from 1 April 2013. Part One of this paper describes the expected changes LASPO 2012 will make and then explores their anticipated impact. It explains that large numbers of migrants and their family members are likely to be without legal advice and representation after April 2013, including in cases where the state-enforced removal or deportation from the UK of a parent is contemplated, with the consequence of separating parent from child. Part Two explores the possibility that an ‘exceptional case determination’ might provide a route back into legal aid funding, and finds that this is likely to be restricted, in immigration cases, to those making applications relying on Article 8 ECHR and who can demonstrate a particular and individual requirement for legal aid. Part Three explores the rationale for these changes, and concerns about access to justice for migrants and their family members in cases involving acute interference with rights to family and private life. It places these concerns in context, specifically the fundamental and restrictive amendments to the Immigration Rules relating to family migration introduced from July 2012. These amendments are enormously complex and their full legal implications have yet to be tested in the higher courts. Part Four questions whether the changes will in fact achieve their stated aim of cost savings or whether the costs will simply be transferred to other parts of the State (especially to the Tribunal system, in dealing with litigants in person). The paper additionally questions, in Part Five, whether the regulators are equipped to regulate the quality of the fee-charging immigration advice services to which at least some individuals will turn. The paper concludes that, at the very least, it is particularly harsh that the Government has removed the ‘currency’ of legal aid at this time, so that those with limited financial resources have neither access to legal aid advice about the meaning of those Rules nor legal aid representation to test their proper interpretation.     

The impact of cuts in legal aid funding on charities

This article focusses on the specific impact of the cuts in legal aid funding on the charitable sector. The sector plays a significant role in advice giving. Some charities have the provision of legal advice as their sole purpose, whilst the work of other charities includes the giving of legal advice. Funding comes via a number of sources including legal aid, local authorities and charitable trusts. Whilst this volume highlights the legal aid reforms that will lead to significant cuts in funding, this article notes that charitable providers of legal advice have also suffered major cuts from their other traditional funding sources. Against this background, the article considers the serious and often unforeseen consequences for charities of the legal aid reforms, which go far beyond the impact on the high street law firm and access to justice for claimants.     

少数民族地区法律援助的现状、问题与对策研究——以凉山彝区某县调研为基础

我国是多民族国家,少数民族是其中的一大民族种群,由于民族发展的特殊性、生产力水平低下以及其独特的社会关系等多方面的原因,在少数民族地区形成了“德古调解机制”,调整着民族生活的方方面面。在凉山彝区,“德古”调解在化解本民族的生活纠纷过程中起着举足轻重的作用。随着社会发展的需求,法律援助解决机制也在彝族地区得到适用,那么,在解决彝区法治问题上该如何将德古调解机制和法律援助结合,值得深思。     

卧底侦查相关法律问题探讨

卧底侦查是侦破有组织犯罪、团伙犯罪等案件的有效手段,但其衍生的相关法律问题很少有人关注。文章对卧底侦查的概念、法律基础、应注意的问题等进行了深入探讨,以期对实践有帮助。     

援助安全：一个基于援助载体的新议题

对外援助是国际政治学与国际政治经济学研究中的重要议题。一方面,作为一种由援助国提供的特殊性国际公共物品,它是全球治理和国际发展领域的重要变量;另一方面,作为国家的一种对外政策工具,对外援助在国际竞争舞台上发挥着战略性功能。在国际政治中,有志于发展的对外援助都与安全问题息息相关。援助与安全之间的联结经历了从一般关联到深入互嵌再到"安全化"的演变历程,安全思维越来越多地影响对外援助过程,冲击着连接援助国和受援国的援助资源载体。面对嵌入对外援助过程的"安全化"趋势,通过聚焦援助与安全之间的复杂关系和发展趋势,试图诉诸安全视角来审视援助载体,并因此提出了"援助安全"概念框架。该框架致力于从国际结构转型、援助国和受援国关系及相关国家国内政治等不同角度探寻援助过程中财力资源、人力资源与制度资源分别面临的多元安全威胁和风险来源。援助安全可以从技术条件性、透明性、实施预算管理、提供援助安保人员训练和改革全球援助体系等举措得以保障。     

对公安干警培训应增设急救内容的思考

各种意外伤害事故、灾害和危重急症,均需要在现场进行急救,第一个到达现场的往往是公安干警。社会的需求要求公安干警具备一定的救护能力,也需要具备自救能力。因此,在对公安干警的培训中,应增加急救内容。在具体的培训过程中,要注意实践技能的掌握,注重教学方法,以实现教学目标,达到教学目的。     

Local aid workers in the digital humanitarian project: between “second class citizens” and “entrepreneurial survivors”

This paper examines the experiences of Filipino workers recruited for technology and communications work by international aid agencies involved in the Typhoon Haiyan response. Filipino workers, many of whom were personally coping with the social and economic impact of this disaster, were hired on short-term contracts to test and implement various digital humanitarian innovations such as feedback and hazard mapping technological platforms. These workers were doubly marginalized: first, as tech workers whose work was viewed by aid officers on the ground as less substantial than that of food or shelter programs; and second, as local voices often drowned out by national and international colleagues. Moving beyond the usual figure of the cosmopolitan and adventure-seeking Western humanitarian acting on distant suffering, this paper draws attention to local aid workers’ aspirations for personal and professional mobility as they seize novel opportunities opened up by the digital humanitarian agenda. It outlines how the digital humanitarian project’s ambition to facilitate the inclusion of disaster-affected communities is fundamentally undermined by labor arrangements that doubly marginalize local aid workers.     

全球公共产品视角下的中国国际发展合作

中国的对外援助事业随国际、国内形势而变化。近年来官方对国际发展合作的重视不仅促成中国对外援助指导思想的转变,也为对外援助向国际发展合作转型奠定了理念基础。中国为发展合作提供全球公共产品的实践不断丰富:一是基于本国成功经验而开展的减贫国际合作成为重要公共产品,二是通过创新农业技术合作方式为解决全球粮食安全问题提供更多公共产品,三是借助三方合作更好地创新公共产品供给模式,四是持续加强全球卫生公共产品供给。中国对外援助在取得积极成效的同时,也面临经济、技术实力有限、援助项目可持续性不足、受援国国家治理与互不干涉内政之间协调困难、国际发展合作的话语权有待提升等挑战。未来,中国应注重从制度建设、资金筹集、可持续性提升、受援国能动性发挥、国际话语权提升等方面做更充分准备。     

Greasing the squeaky wheel: News media coverage and us development aid, 1977–1992

This study explores the role that news media coverage plays in influencing US foreign policy in general, and foreign aid policy in particular. It is expected that foreign policy officials will be responsive to the content of the domestic news media and will attempt to align their actions with what they expect is the public's perception of the importance of a particular issue. In this study, it is hypothesized that that higher levels of news coverage of a potential recipient country will lead to higher aid commitments. The analysis examines the levels of US aid commitments to those it provided aid during the period 1977–1992. Even with an admittedly simple measure of news media coverage, the empirical findings are clear. The level of news coverage is a statistically significant factor in the levels of aid offered by the US. Thus a domestic political motive may be considered to be operative along with more widely studied determinants of aid based upon humanitarian motives and national self‐interests.