Creating Stable Agreements in Marine Policy: Learning from the California South Coast Marine Life Protection Act Initiative

In this article, we examine the California South Coast Marine Life Protection Act Initiative stakeholder process, evaluate its shortcomings, and consider what could have been done differently. Our objective is to make recommendations to improve future multi‐stakeholder marine policy processes. In our view, while the South Coast stakeholder process had many positive outcomes, it failed to reach what we call here a “stable agreement.” Our analysis is based on two of the authors’ involvement (one as a facilitator and the other as a stakeholder representative) in the process and a post‐hoc survey of participants. We find that several ill‐advised process design and management choices significantly destabilized the negotiations, leading to an ultimately unstable agreement. We highlight four major problematic process design and management decisions, including the following: representation on the multi‐stakeholder group was imbalanced, the pre‐meeting caucuses were not paired with training in interest‐based negotiation, adequate incentives to negotiate toward a consensus agreement were not provided, and the use of straw voting at one point in the process was unclear and inconsistent. As a result of these and other process design and management flaws, many stakeholders believed that the process was biased and that their ends would be better achieved by anchoring negotiations and engaging in positional bargaining. Ultimately, this meant that near‐consensus on a single cross‐interest marine protected area proposal was not reached, the scientific guidelines put forth were not fully met, the process was not and is not viewed as fair by the stakeholders directly or indirectly involved, and the marine protected area regulations lack broad‐scale support. These pitfalls of the South Coast stakeholder process could have been avoided had the management and facilitation team consistently followed best practices in dispute resolution. We recommend that future marine planning processes learn from this example, particularly those occurring in highly complex, urban ocean environments.     

The sex of participatory democracy. An analysis of the theoretical approaches and experiences of participatory democracy from a feminist viewpoint

The generalist theory of participatory democracy and the non-essentialist feminist approach to forms of democratization have developed in parallel despite sharing an agreement to work towards more shared forms of managing power. The origin of this disunity lies, partly, in the first theoretical body's tendency to present citizen participation as a tool for democratizing the neutral and universal public space. As a result, both theoretical bodies have parallel points of view regarding the elements that structure women's participation. This article explores, through the qualitative analysis of two experiences of participatory democracy in which the feminist viewpoint has been unequally incorporated (Porto Alegre's participatory budgeting?Porto Alegre PB?and the 15M movement), the relationship between the parallel development of the general proposals of the two theoretical bodies and the elements that restrict the participation of women in the practice of participatory democracy.     

The effect of choice reversals on blindness for identification decisions

The present study examined blindness for identification decisions from target-present (TP) and target-absent (TA) lineups using a field study methodology. Eighty pedestrians were exposed to a staged theft. Subsequently, they were asked to identify the thief and the victim from separate, simultaneous six-person lineups. Their identification decision concerning the thief lineup was manipulated such that participants’ selections were exchanged with a previously unidentified lineup member (choice exchange) and lineup rejections were turned into identifications (choice reversal). Participants were 7–10 times less likely to detect choice exchanges (66.7%) compared with choice reversals (11.2%). Furthermore, identification accuracy was not a prerequisite for detection. Thus, rejections and particularly selections made from both TP and TA lineups are susceptible to choice blindness. Finally, our study implies that for blindness in eyewitness identification decisions between-category changes (i.e. choice reversals) are easier to detect than within-category changes (i.e. choice exchanges).     

The influence of pretrial exposure to community outrage and victim hardship on guilt judgments

Although the courts have explicitly expressed concerns about the effects of public sentiment on juries in highly publicized cases, no research has isolated the degree to which jurors’ exposure to community outrage and/or prospective social interactions in the community independently influence judgments of guilt. In the current research, jury eligible undergraduates were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (negative defendant facts pretrial publicity (PTP): present vs. absent)?×?2 (community outrage PTP: present vs. absent)?×?2 (anticipated social interaction: present vs. absent) between subjects factorial design. In an online session, participants read articles containing PTP (or not), and two days later they arrived at the lab to serve as mock jurors in a murder case – before the trial they were instructed (or not) that they would interact with people from the community in which the case was taking place. Neither PTP containing extra-evidentiary facts about the defendant nor prospective interaction with the community had main or interactive effects on guilt measures; however, mock jurors rated the defendant as more likely to be guilty when they read information about community outrage and hardships on victims. These findings suggest future avenues of PTP research focusing on community outrage and victim impacts.     

警察临战决策模式及其风险辨识

警察临战决策作为一种非常规的决策,由于面临的不确定性因素较多,因而其决策风险远远高于普通决策。文章首先界定了警察临战决策风险的内涵,设计了分阶段加循环警察临战决策模式,分析了警察临战决策的主要风险类型,最后在常规风险识别技术的基础上,提出了基于流程图加环境扫描方法的警察临战决策风险识别的方法,并指出了其实施要点。     

张力与协调：民间规范在司法过程中的运用

民间规范不仅植根于我国民间传统,而且本身就是我国的一种本土法文化,因而有顽强的生命力,就像看不见的手支配着人们的行为,对现行社会秩序发生重大影响,影响着国家法的实际运行及其社会效果,对构建和谐社会有极大的促进作用。在不违反国家法律和政策的前提下,如何对民间规范进行准确功能定位,将民间规范运用到司法实践中成为实务界和理论界都应该深入探讨的问题。     

论给付行政中的听证制度及其构建

行政听证的理论需要在实践之中得到充分应用与发展,如此才能推动行政程序法制建设之完善与健全。在中国大力发展民生事业、推动给付行政体系建立的现实背景之下,从规范及制度层面探讨给付行政中的听证制度及其面临的课题是具有理论及现实意义的。行政听证制度的构建应当与所适用的对象相协调,强调多样性与正当性,进而全面提升行政质量及保障公民基本权利的实现。     

Not separate but equal? The impact of multiple-defendant trials on juror decision-making

Suspects accused of involvement in the same crime can be tried in one multiple-defendant trial. While research has long demonstrated the difficulties of being a juror, no published work has examined whether multiple-defendant trials compound these difficulties. The current research recruited both student and community samples to determine whether trying multiple defendants would increase conviction rates for individual defendants. Every participant watched one of three trial videos – a single defendant against whom the State had a strong case (single-strong), a single-defendant against whom the State had a weak case (single-weak), or a multiple-defendant trial combining both defendants (multiple-defendant). The findings demonstrated an overshare effect – when the defendants were tried together, overall conviction rates for both defendants increased relative to when they were tried alone, though the pattern of results differed by study sample. Although we are unable to provide a definitive mechanism underlying the results, the best explanation seems to be that multiple-defendant trials prompt jurors to engage in a joint evaluation of the defendants, rather than single evaluations of each. Consequently, participant-jurors’ perceptions of each defendant are impacted by how they compare with one another. Thus, the current research casts some doubt on the fairness of multiple-defendant trials.     

The approach in Scotland to child contact disputes involving allegations of domestic abuse

ABSTRACT

This article considers the approach taken in Scotland to the processing of child contact cases in which there are allegations of domestic abuse. Four key features of the processing of cases which may facilitate outcomes that prioritise safety are considered. These are: the availability of legal aid; the cautious process of successive child welfare hearings; the use of child welfare reports; and the taking of the child’s views. All these features occur within a policy context that recognises domestic abuse as gender-based violence and where courts have a statutory duty to protect a child from abuse. Drawing on the author’s court based analysis of papers from 208 child contact disputes and from interviews with sheriffs, this article discusses the strengths and limitations of all four process features in terms of protecting women and children, and the risks to these features posed by perpetually reducing government budgets.     

有效证明与维护程序正当性的矛盾及其解决--非法证据排除规则的理念与制度设置

主要从价值论的角度对当前在刑事诉讼中"非法证据可采性"问题进行研究,在凸现程序正当性要求的同时,提出了自己对"非法证据"是否具有可采性的观点,认为非法证据是对程序正当性价值的破坏;在个案真实和程序正当性之间,应该选择程序的正当性;并对非法证据排除在我国的具体制度设置提出了建议。