“Experts by Experience”: The Involvement of Service Users and Families in Designing and Implementing Innovations in Family Justice

Drawing on international research, policy, and practice, this article explores what is meant by service user involvement, how it has developed, and how it has been implemented across different areas of practice. Using examples from across the health and social care fields, it reflects on how the learning from other areas of practice in which service user involvement has been successful may be applied to the family justice field. The arguments presented highlight the value of taking a bottom‐up approach in designing and implementing innovations in family justice, which would embrace the views of family members, including children, as ‘service users.’ It is important, however, to balance both the challenges and the opportunities offered by involving those who are ‘experts by experience’ in the family justice processes, in order to lead to improved services and experiences.     

Narcotics and Drug Abuse

Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice saw drugs as a modest but growing problem for the criminal justice system. The reemergence of heroin occupied the Commission's attention. Many recommendations are admirable, such as a focus on public health interventions and a concern about the appropriateness of criminal prohibitions on marijuana use. Throughout the past 50 years, the problem has both massively expanded and changed in many ways; the principal drug of abuse has shifted multiple times, as has the populations most affected by them. Policy, largely stuck on tough enforcement for 30 years, is now moving in a direction more consistent with the Commission's views. Researchers have made only modest advances in understanding what enforcement can do to reduce drug use and related problems, but society has made some progress in developing interventions that have both a sound theoretical base and the promise of avoiding the unintended negative consequences of the highly punitive system of the 1980s and 1990s. A Commission in 2018 would face a much different and larger problem that has transformed many aspects of criminal justice. Investing in more data collection and evaluation research would be among its major recommendations, as would an admission of considerable uncertainty about what to do with the latest twist in the U.S. drug problem, the addition of the much more dangerous fentanyls.     

A generalization of the obligation to prevent: From genocide convention to racial discrimination convention

The decision of the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (“Genocide Convention”) highlights states’ obligations under the Convention, especially the obligation to prevent. When it comes to the case concerning the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“Racial Discrimination Convention”), the decision of the Court indicating provisional measures seemingly purported to generalize its jurisprudence in the Genocide Case. By elaborating this kind of new jurisprudence, the Court echoed to the responsibility to protect, as well as to Article 48 and Article 54 of the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (“Draft Articles of State Responsibility”). It appears that each State Party should have an obligation to intervene in the coming genocide incidence, perhaps as well as in the coming racial discrimination cases. Nevertheless it is unclear in what manner a state could implement it effectively.     

ECJ rules on acts of “Extraction” that infringe database right

Four years from the European Court of Justice's seminal rulings on database right in the British Horseracing Board and Fixtures Marketing cases, the Court has once again looked at the extent of protection this right affords. The earlier decisions had suggested the right was weak, with many databases not qualifying for protection and the extent of infringement required being difficult to meet. However, the ECJ's recent ruling in the Directmedia case (C-304/07) handed down in late-2008 is more positive for database owners. Adopting the reasoning of the Advocate General, the ECJ has clarified the types of acts which can constitute infringement of database right and confirmed they are broad in scope. The outcome and implications of the ruling are discussed below.     

Why privacy is at risk

Dr Chris Pounder has been professionally involved in delivering data protection services since the time of the Lindop Report in 1978. Here he argues for an express link between the data protection and human rights regimes. Amberhawk is a new company founded by Chris in 2008 with Sue Cullen as the vehicle for the continuation of the information law training business previously operated by Pinsent Masons LLP.     

Exploring the “Lost and Found” of Justice Theory and Research

Scientific interest in the nature of how people think about justice and fairness began approximately 70 years ago with Stouffer’s classic study on the American soldier. Since then there have been numerous theoretical frameworks and thousands of research studies conducted on what people perceive as fair and the consequences of making a fairness judgment. The goal of this article is to dig through the “lost and found” box of justice research in an attempt to re-examine where we have been, issues and ideas we may have forgotten, and to gain insight on directions we may want to go in the future. The key rediscovery of this review is that perspective matters. Specifically, how people interpret fairness depends critically on whether they are viewing a situation in terms of their material, social, or moral needs and goals. The implications of adopting a contingent theory of how people reason about fairness are discussed.

全球减排路线图的正义性——对胡鞍钢教授的全球减排路线图的评价与修正

任何全球减排路线图的绘制都无法脱离国际正义而具有生命力。气候变化问题的特性要求全球减排路线图尊重具有两面性的国际气候正义:环境正义和发展正义,需要考虑国家间公平、人的公平和代际公平。仅以人类发展指数(HDI)作为衡量国家承担减排责任的标准缺乏足够的正义,至少还需要加入人均历史累积排放和气候变化脆弱性两个指标。三者分别体现气候变化正义性中的人的平等发展权、减排责任分担和对受害者在排放权上的补偿。综合三大指标后的四分组分类,才是更体现正义性、更容易被接受和执行的路线图。从正义性出发,中国应承担相应的减排责任,并努力推动全球减排进程,但也要注意维护自身的发展权益。中国在全球减排中的作为,应是在国际正义与国家发展战略间取得平衡。     

Are There Any Global Egalitarian Rights?

This article considers whether or not there are any global egalitarian rights through a critical examination of the political philosophy of Ronald Dworkin. Although Dworkin maintains that equal concern is the special and indispensable virtue of sovereigns and the hallmark of a fraternal political community, it is far from obvious whether the demands of equality stop at state borders. While some scholars in the field—most notably Thomas Pogge—posit the existence of negative rights in relation to social and economic inequalities at the global level, here I try to defend the existence of positive global egalitarian rights by appealing to Dworkin’s own two principles of ethical individualism. I also set out the framework for a version of what I call global luck egalitarianism based on Dworkin’s equality of resources and try to respond to David Miller’s charge that comparative principles of justice do not apply at the global level.

关于恐怖活动、正义与自卫的一些想法

在20世纪90年代,那些自诩为"开化国家"建立了"国际关系的新规范",即他们有权动用武力去保护惨遭邪恶怪兽蹂躏的人们。任何熟悉历史的人都清楚,所谓"动用武力拯救被压迫人民"的规范革命决非什么新东西,而是欧洲帝国主义的老调重调和日本法西斯的花言巧语。美国及其盟国对南联盟的轰炸及对米诺什维奇的审判,中东政策,对国际恐怖主义的谴责和对阿富汗和伊拉克的反恐战争等等,都是他们这一游戏规则的范例。这些范例说明这一"规范"是强者制定的,也是符合强者利益的。     

Can We Talk? What We Have Learned About How to Have Productive Conflicts About Family Policy and Family Law

How we handle professional conflicts affects our capacity to help others in conflict. Two AFCC dialogues, one about domestic violence, the other about shared parenting, illustrate the challenges of taking on professional differences. The former resulted in considerable consensus. The latter involved a frank exchange of differences but little overall consensus. It was, however, an important beginning of a critical conversation. Other issues calling out for constructive conflict engagement, include the crisis in providing access to justice for family litigants who cannot afford legal representation. Professional groups must move beyond defending their own self interests to addressing this crisis.