Do Jurors “Know” What Isn’t So About Child Witnesses?

Are expert witnesses needed in child sexual abuse cases to educate jurors about children’s memory, suggestibility, and reactions to abuse, or do jurors already know what such experts could tell them? To cast light on this question, we surveyed jurors and jury-eligible college students and compared their beliefs with what is known via scientific research regarding children’s memory and ability to testify, reactions to interrogation, and reactions to sexual abuse. We also asked participants to infer results of four widely cited studies of children’s suggestibility. Participants’ beliefs were consistent with findings from research on some issues (e.g., that children can be led to claim that false events occurred) but diverged from the scientific consensus on other issues (e.g., whether children can remember painful events in infancy). Similarly, participants sometimes overestimated and sometimes underestimated the level of suggestibility observed in empirical studies. Individual differences in accuracy were related to participants’ gender, education and ethnicity, and there was considerable disagreement among participants on many questions. Implications of findings for the admissibility of expert testimony in child abuse cases are discussed.     

死刑案件中证据审查与采信的反思

刑事诉讼中应确立“法律真实”的证明标准,也就是通过证据来证明犯罪构成的事实和量刑轻重的事实,并达到排除合理怀疑的程度。为此,应确立证人、被害人、鉴定人出庭作证规则和排除传闻证据规则,并建立完善的非法证据排除规则。这些制度的确立和完善,对于防止死刑案件中的误判误杀,坚持“少杀慎杀”死刑政策,具有重要的意义。     

The Effect of Intellectual Disability on Children's Recall of an Event Across Different Question Types

This research examined the performance of 80 children aged 9-12 years with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability when recalling an innocuous event that was staged in their school. The children actively participated in a 30-min magic show, which included 21 specific target items. The first interview (held 3 days after the magic show) provided false and true biasing information about these 21 items. The second interview (held the following day) was designed to elicit the children's recall of the target details using the least number of specific prompts possible. The children's performance was compared with that of 2 control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with either a mild or moderate intellectual disability can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information. However, their recall is less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both the mainstream age-matched groups. The implications of the findings for legal professionals and researchers are discussed.     

Cultural associations,clothing and food as markers of cultural identity in testimonies of Cameroonian forced migrants in Johannesburg

Abstract

The article examines the construction of cultural identity and the expression of cultural exclusivity in the testimonies of Cameroonian forced migrants in the metropolitan city of Johannesburg. It also explores the way the social conditions of Cameroonians have forged a process of culture integration as a survival mechanism, subverting their impassioned attachment to cultural roots and claims of cultural exclusivity. Here, the article addresses three mediums for the formation of cultural identity, namely cultural associations, clothing and traditional cuisine and one main signifier of integration – intermarriage. It draws on the premise that because of the discrepant political ideologies of Cameroonians in Johannesburg, the construction of identity within this community of migrants has tended to fracture along cultural lines. It also draws on the theoretical underpinning that the upsurge in global migration has increased the chances of culture hybridization.     

原则与例外——清代民事证据制度的表达与实践

清代的民事诉讼立法虽没有对证据法的原则做出明确规定,但从这一时期官方的表达与司法实践中我们可以归纳出民事证据运用所应遵循的原则。这些原则主要有情证兼用原则、关联性原则、直接言词原则、遵循伦理原则及尊重民事习惯原则。证据原则的非法定化特征导致其约束力不强,实践中有较多的例外情形。     

精神病被害人证人资格及其陈述的证明力探析

对精神病被害人的证人资格及其陈述的证明力,我国《刑事诉讼法》规定不明确,导致实践中认识不一致。从国外立法和司法实践看,精神病被害人具有证人资格,其陈述在一定条件下具有证明力;深入探析我国刑事诉讼法的立法精神,可以发现,精神病被害人亦可以具有证人资格,其陈述在他具有一定记忆能力、表达能力并符合刑事诉讼证据规则的条件下也具有证明力。     

民事判决书中的证据分析

民事判决书是法院对民事案件进行审理后作出处理结论并维护法律尊严、保障民事当事人合法权益的重要法律文书。为使当事人服判息讼和增强社会效果,它应当具有很强的说理性。说理的方法之一,就是对诉讼证据加以分析。民事判决书中的证据分析有自己的特点和价值,但在我国当今司法实践中,这一工作做得并不理想,因而需要加强和改进。     

Can Jurors Recognize Missing Control Groups,Confounds, and Experimenter Bias in Psychological Science?

This study examined the ability of jury-eligible community members (N = 248) to detect internal validity threats in psychological science presented during a trial. Participants read a case summary in which an expert testified about a study that varied in internal validity (valid, missing control group, confound, and experimenter bias) and ecological validity (high, low). Ratings of expert evidence quality and expert credibility were higher for the valid versus missing control group versions only. Internal validity did not influence verdict or ratings of plaintiff credibility and no differences emerged as a function of ecological validity. Expert evidence quality, expert credibility, and plaintiff credibility were positively correlated with verdict. Implications for the scientific reasoning literature and for trials containing psychological science are discussed.     

论仲裁协议效力的确定与扩张

仲裁协议是整个仲裁制度的基石,本文就仲裁协议在理论和实践中几个容易发生争议的问题阐明了作者的观点。首先,一份有效的仲裁协议必须具备书面形式,信息技术的发展促使新的仲裁协议形式不断涌现。其次,我国仲裁法要求仲裁协议明确约定仲裁机构,这使仲裁协议的成立要件过于严格,并且在实践中造成了理解和适用上的混乱,立法上有待于进一步完善。最后,本文探讨了仲裁协议的扩张问题。当合同被转让或在涉他合同中,仲裁条款作为合同的一部分,其效力就会突破签订协议的双方而对第三人生效。此外出于对公司治理制度的需要,“揭开公司面纱”理论被应用到仲裁领域,仲裁协议效力也扩张至第三人。