Donald Davidson and section 2.01 of the model penal code

Abstract

In a 1967 article that is considered a classic of criminal justice scholarship, Abraham Blumberg portrayed defense attorneys for accused offenders as more responsive to the demands of the court entourage for smooth and expeditious functioning than to the needs of their clients for a stalwart representation. The article suggests that Blumberg's view, while provocative and with a considerable element of accuracy, may have reflected a somewhat jaundiced and overstated perspective when he was on the verge of leaving law practice for academia. The article also speculates about the current accuracy of Blumberg's observations.     

The Legally Disruptive Nature of Climate Change

Climate change gives rise to disputes and problems not easily addressed by existing legal doctrines and frameworks. This is because it is a polycentric problem; the assessment of future climate impacts must deal with uncertainty; climate change is socio‐politically controversial; and addressing climate change requires recognising a dynamic physical environment. As such, climate change can be thought of as legally disruptive in that it requires lawyers and legal scholars to reconcile the legal issues raised by climate change with existing legal orders. The legal disruption catalysed by climate change has not only led to the creation of new legal regimes but also given rise to a multitude of legal disputes that require adjudication. A study of some of these cases highlights the need for active and deliberate reflection about the nature of adjudication and the legal reasoning embedded in it when confronted by a disruptive phenomenon like climate change.     

Crime and punishment in Rwanda

In 1994 Rwanda was devastated by genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. The credibility of the criminal justice system was questioned following the genocide because it had failed to stop the slaughter and may have contributed to it. In order to address these concerns, Rwanda rebuilt its criminal justice system in light of its history and troubled past. The success of the reestablishment may be debated but there can be no question that Rwanda had a tabula rasa with which to form an effective criminal justice system. Examining the law details the ideals of the criminal justice system as established post-genocide. These ideals exemplify the democratic process. Examining current events allows for a practical assessment of the success of the new system. In both theory and practice the country’s criminal justice system has changed drastically since 1994.     

Using court culture to strengthen the administration of trial courts

Managerial culture defines the character of administrative practices in trial courts, shaping the way cases are handled, participants in the legal process are treated, and how a court functions as an institution. In fact, the notion of local legal culture is part of the conventional wisdom. What is missing in such discussions are the benefits of a comprehensive methodological approach to translate rich ideas and hunches into the measurement of court culture. In response, researchers at the National Center for State Courts have developed an analytical framework including a conceptual typology of culture, an instrument for measuring managerial culture and a schema for interpreting results within and between courts. The essay concludes with an invitation for the People＇s Republic of China to adapt the framework to understand the nature of culture in their courts of first instance.     

DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND THE POSTDIVORCE FAMILY: IMPLICATIONS OF A PARADIGM SHIFT1

Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the way the legal system handles most family disputes—particularly disputes involving children. This paradigm shift has replaced the conventional model of adjudication with a more collaborative, interdisciplinary, and forward‐looking family dispute resolution regime. It has also transformed the practice of family law and fundamentally altered the way in which disputing families interact with the legal system. This essay examines the elements of this paradigm shift in family dispute resolution and explores the opportunities and challenges it offers for families, children, and the legal system.     

地位与策略:“大调解”中的人民法院

本文是对当前部分地方推行的,力图追求法院在大调解中占据主导地位的本土实践的反思,并试图通过论述证明:法院在现有的制度环境下很难真正地扮演起大调解中的主导角色。这与执政党对法院的定位、社会公众对解纷机构的选择倾向和司法的固有限度息息相关。法院的这种角色决定了其在追求大调解格局主导地位过程中所采用的各种策略。这些策略的采用虽然极大提升了法院解决疑难纠纷的能力,但却同时进一步限制了法院对主导地位的追求。二律悖反的事实说明准确定位才是法院在大调解中发挥更大作用的基础和关键。     

Problem-Solving Courts in China: Background,Development, and Current Status

ABSTRACT

As a judicial system, the Chinese problem-solving courts are more deeply rooted in traditional judicial approaches than in therapeutic jurisprudence that fueled the movement in the West. Nevertheless, they share many similarities with problem-solving courts developed elsewhere in the world. To provide a better understanding of the courts, the authors first introduce the cultural and legal tradition that served as background for the judicial innovations. They then review the social and economic conditions that provided the impetus for the judicial reform. Next, they examine the two most common forms of the problem-solving court—the juvenile court and the family court—and identify their key functions and procedures. Last, the authors discuss the significance of the legal reform, the challenges it confronts, and improvement it can achieve.     

A Criminological Fly in the Ointment: Specialty Courts and the Generality of Deviance

ABSTRACT

Specialty courts—such as drug courts, mental health courts, or domestic violence courts—tend to assume, either implicitly or explicitly, that particular groups of offenders have unique problems that can be best met with specialized case processing. Put simply, specialty courts assume that offenders themselves are specialists when it comes to offending. There is, however, a criminological fly in the ointment. The problem is that criminological theory and research have long demonstrated that offenders tend to be generalists and that they rarely specialize in any given form of misbehavior. Accordingly, the authors argue here that the notion of the “generality of deviance” presents a problem for the potential effectiveness of specialty courts because they are likely operating on a faulty set of ideas about offending behavior. The authors offer strategies for moving forward to better integrate the notion of the generality of deviance into specialty courts: in particular, embracing a rehabilitative philosophy and adopting well-documented correctional treatment approaches such as cognitive-behavioral interventions and the risk-need-responsivity model. They conclude by highlighting the risks associated with granting system efficiency a position of privilege among the multiple goals of corrections.     

Taking Stock of Drug Courts: Do They Work?

ABSTRACT

Although researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike have long known about the established link between substance abuse and criminal behavior, criminal justice agencies in the United States are still tasked with managing an influx of individuals who display symptoms of abuse and dependence. By the late 1980s, the drug court model emerged as an innovative response to this problem, and this reform has since proliferated to such an extent that it is the most common type of problem-solving court in America. Still, there remains much variation in how drug courts are implemented across jurisdictions, which can have strong implications for the outcomes among the courts’ participants. In this review, we summarize the key research on drug court implementation, followed by an assessment of whether they can be said to “work” in terms of reducing criminal behavior and relapse among adults. We conclude that the model remains an evidence-based practice and suggest some directions for future work, including increased emphasis on theory and causal dynamics and key measurement issues.     

Volatile and Violent Relationships Among Women Sentenced for Homicide in Sweden Between 1986 and 2005

Data from Swedish court judgments of all 124 women convicted of homicide during 20 years was analyzed. The typical pattern was an abused woman who kills her intimate partner at home with a knife, often with alcohol involved. A subsample (n = 66) was analyzed qualitatively, with a focus on intimate partner relationships. The findings indicate that female homicides usually take place after a long progression of violence and reflect women’s subordinate gendered position. Situational triggers finally lead up to the killing event. Gender equality and the so-called woman-friendly welfare state in Sweden do not appear to reduce women’s volatility in violent relationships.