Convenient and Inconvenient Truths in Family Law: Preventing Scholar‐Advocacy Bias in the Use of Social Science Research for Public Policy

This is the second of two articles on the risks of advocacy bias in the reporting of research findings when boundaries are blurred between social science research and advocacy in the pursuit of public policy. In the first article we identify common ways in which social science researchers and reviewers of research—wittingly or unwittingly—can become advocates for ideological positions and social policies at the expense of being balanced reporters of research evidence. The first article discusses the difference between truth in social science and truth in law and identifies a range of scholar‐advocacy strategies that bias research evidence, illustrated by recent debates about overnight parenting of infants and toddlers. In this second article we show how biased research evidence by scholar advocates results in increased confusion and controversy that diminishes the credibility of all parties and stalemates progress in the field, using a case illustration of intimate partner violence in family court. We also show how adherence to scientific methods prevents the misuse of research and suggest a number of collaborative, integrative measures that can help transcend the adversarial stalemate. In a look to the future we consider some unbiased, standardized ways of assessing the strength and generalizability of research evidence.     

A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court‐Connected Programs for High‐Conflict Families

Parents who experience great amounts of legal conflict as they dissolve their relationship and arrive at their parenting arrangements require an outsize proportion of courts’ time and resources. Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that conflict has a deleterious effect on their children. We partnered with the family court to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of two programs for families deemed by their judge to be high conflict and thereby mandated to a program. Both involved one 3‐hour session; the existing program, Parent Conflict Resolution (PCR), used exhortational lecture and video; the newly designed experimental program, Family Transitions Guide (FTG), based on motivational interviewing, employed exercises attempting to get parents to decide for themselves what they needed to do for the sake of their children. Parents were assigned at random to one of the two programs (the literature often terms this a randomized clinical trial) and were interviewed just before it began and 9 months later, as was a child. Results showed that child's report of their own well‐being was significantly improved by FTG as compared to PCR and that these effects were mediated by children feeling less caught in the middle. On several variables, parent report showed that parents in PCR as compared to FTG felt decreased problems in co‐parenting and less interparental conflict, although the effects were not consistent across mother and father report. There was also evidence of diminished legal conflict over 9 months in FTG as compared to PCR.     

May Mediators Draft Settlement Agreements?

This article surveys the current law in various states as well as the Model Rules of Professional Conduct regarding whether a mediator‐lawyer may draft a settlement agreement at the conclusion of a mediation. It includes a look at the traditional boundaries between a lawyer and a mediator and concludes with a recommendation on how California should approach whether a mediator‐lawyer should be allowed to draft a settlement agreement for parties at the conclusion of a mediation.     

开放政府与修改《政府信息公开条例》的内容定位

修改《政府信息公开条例》要处理好《政府信息公开条例》与其他行政公开立法的分工,重大行政决策过程公开、行政执法公开等为行政行为中的公开机制,可在行政程序立法中予以规定。修法应当回归《政府信息公开条例》作为权利法的法律属性,实现知情权法定,确立公开原则,扩展公开范围,取消限制公民知情权实现的相关机制。修法还应回应互联网时代对开放政府数据提出的立法需求,完善政府数据开放的内部与外部机制。     

Passive forensics in image and video using noise features: A review

Due to present of enormous free image and video editing software on the Internet, tampering of digital images and videos have become very easy. Validating the integrity of images or videos and detecting any attempt of forgery without use of active forensic technique such as Digital Signature or Digital Watermark is a big challenge to researchers. Passive forensic techniques, unlike active techniques, do not need any preembeded information about the image or video. The proposed paper presents a comprehensive review of the recent developments in the field of digital image and video forensic using noise features. The previously existing methods of image and video forensics proved the importance of noises and encourage us for the study and perform extensive research in this field. Moreover, in this paper, forensic task cover mainly source identification and forgery detection in the image and video using noise features. Thus, various source identification and forgery detection methods using noise features are reviewed and compared in this paper for image and video. The overall objective of this paper is to give researchers a broad perspective on various aspects of image and video forensics using noise features. Conclusion part of this paper discusses about the importance of noise features and the challenges encountered by different image and video forensic method using noise features.     

滨海新区构建生态新城的生态学解析及立法思考

天津滨海新区要建成生态城区,其开发开放离不开生态环境的保护与恢复。该文着眼于滨海新区开发开放中生态环境保护,基于该区生态环境现状,在分析天津市十一五环境规划相关内容的基础上,从生态哲学、环境立法角度对滨海新区的生态环境保护与建设进行了理论探索。     

论律师法的修改及对刑事诉讼理念的影响

修改后的律师法,扩大了执业律师在刑事诉讼活动中的权利,从理论上解决了律师执业中"会见难"、"阅卷难"和"调查取证难"的三大难题.从立法机关的立法理念上来讲,这次律师法修改,是一种刑事诉讼理念上的进步,赋予了律师与司法机关在刑事诉讼中更加平等的权利,给予了律师以充分的法律信任,表明律师的政治地位和法律待遇在不断提高,他们将在刑事诉讼中发挥越来越大的作用.     

《刑法》罪名确定机制的演进与革新——由全国人大常委会确定《刑法》罪名的建议

目前,《刑法》或《刑法修正案》出台后由最高人民法院、最高人民检察院以司法解释形式确定新规定犯罪之称谓的传统罪名确定机制存在诸多弊端．如易背离立法本意、效率低下等。以与时俱进之理念革新现行《刑法》罪名确定机制势在必行,考虑我国刑事司法的实际状况,在经过与《刑法修正案》同步出台立法解释和在《刑法修正案》中直接规定罪名两个阶段的过渡后,最终将实现由最高立法机关在刑法典中直接规定罪名的理想目标。     

妙喻连珠串《围城》

比喻是《围城》中运用得最多,也是最有特色的表现手法。在《围城》中,作者几乎调动了所有用得上的比喻手法,不仅有显喻、隐喻、曲喻,而且还有意向比喻、官感比喻、哲理比喻,等等。这些比喻如一颗颗熠熠发光的珍珠,缀满整部作品,使抽象化为形象,深奥化为浅显,复杂化为简约,平淡化为神奇,给语言增添了鲜明的艺术色彩,对增强作品的感染力也起到举足轻重的作用。     

民事再审启动事由中新证据的界定

“有新的证据,足以推翻原判决、裁定的”是启动民事诉讼再审的事由,如何理解新的证据成为是否透彻理解法律条文的关键问题。文章从规则、理论、实务三方面展开论述,并对“新的证据”的界定、审查和确认提出了合理阐释。