RELYING ON THE UNRELIABLE: HOW A COURT RULE COULD ALLEVIATE THE PROBLEMS INHERENT IN THE NEUTRAL MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATION PROCESS IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES

Many states lack standards as to who should be conducting neutral mental health evaluations in child custody proceedings and what these evaluations should be comprised of. This will occasionally result in an unqualified evaluator giving a recommendation to the court as to which parent should receive custody of their child[ren]. This Note advocates for courts to adopt a court rule which specifically enumerates the qualifications of neutral mental health evaluators in the hopes of regularizing the evaluation process. The first part of the proposal addresses who should conduct evaluations by establishing the required credentials of the evaluator and minimizing the amount of evaluator bias by screening the process. The second part of the proposal focuses on the training needed before an evaluator may conduct an examination, as well as the amount of experience required.     

ALIENATING AUDIENCES FROM INNOVATION: THE PERILS OF POLEMICS, IDEOLOGY, AND INNUENDO

When judging innovative programs like Family Bridges™, it is important to balance careful scrutiny with openness to new ideas. Judicial responses to children who reject a parent are best governed by a multifactor individualized approach. A presumption that allows children and one parent to regulate the other parent's access to the children is unsupported by research. A custody decision based solely on the severity of alienation leaves children vulnerable to intensification of efforts to poison their affections toward a parent. Concern with possible short-term distress for some children who are required to repair a damaged relationship should not blind us to the long-term trauma of doing nothing. Professionals are urged to minimize the infusion of polemics, rigid ideology, and rumors when offering opinions with inadequate information, particularly public statements that risk harming children.     

FAMILY BRIDGES: USING INSIGHTS FROM SOCIAL SCIENCE TO RECONNECT PARENTS AND ALIENATED CHILDREN*

This article describes an innovative educational and experiential program, Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent‐Child Relationships^TM, that draws on social science research to help severely and unreasonably alienated children and adolescents adjust to court orders that place them with a parent they claim to hate or fear. The article examines the benefits and drawbacks of available options for helping alienated children and controversies and ethical issues regarding coercion of children by parents and courts. The program's goals, principles, structure, procedures, syllabus, limitations, and preliminary outcomes are presented. At the workshop's conclusion, 22 of 23 children, all of whom had failed experiences with counseling prior to enrollment, restored a positive relationship with the rejected parent. At follow‐up, 18 of the 22 children maintained their gains; those who relapsed had premature contact with the alienating parent.     

基于和谐视角的选择性行政行为制度探索

选择性行政行为的合理运用对和谐社会的建设具有现实意义。从社会整体利益出发,围绕补偿范围和合理性标准,并结合群众监督及应急保障措施等制度内容,探索了选择性行政行为的制度完善。     

语篇分析在司法语境中的应用

法律语篇分析是从法学语言的视角研究与法学有关的种种语言现象,并运用语篇学的研究方法分析法学语言,包括立法语言、司法语言、法律科学语言、法学翻译以及法学古文等一切有关法律规则和法学研究的口语和书面语。司法语境中的语篇分析,是从微观的角度分析司法人员、律师和涉案当事人的各种语言现象,旨在解决司法过程中的语言证据收集、话语标记识别、语言环境分析、控辩双方对同一语言证据材料的不同理解可能导致不同审判结果等可能存在的一系列问题,促使我国司法实践部门对法律语言的更多关注,以拓宽我国法学语言界的研究视野,进一步提高工作效率。     

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.     

ANALYSIS OF MEDIATION AGREEMENTS OF FAMILIES REPORTING SPECIFIC TYPES OF INTIMATE PARTNER ABUSE

The purpose of this study was to carefully measure Intimate Partner Abuse (IPA) behaviors among a large ( n  = 864 couples) sample of pairs of husbands and wives who were mandated to attend divorce mediation and then to: categorize the behaviors into theoretically-driven types of IPA, determine the number of cases screened out of mediation for any reason, and investigate whether measured outcomes of mediation (primary physical and legal custody) were related to IPA. Results indicated that rarely was IPA not reported—the most frequently reported IPA behavior was psychological abuse (98% of wives; 97% of husbands), followed by physical abuse (58% of wives; 54% of husbands), escalated physical abuse (62% of wives; 50% of husbands), and sexual intimidation, coercion and rape (56% of wives; 29% of husbands). Rarely were couples reporting IPA screened out of mediation (5%), and rarely were supervised parenting time or restrictions on contact between parents included in mediated agreements made by couples reporting IPA (6.5%). The overall level of IPA was unrelated to the specific terms of mediated agreements; however, by far the most frequent type of mediated agreement the couples' negotiated in mediation was for primary physical custody to go to the wife and for the husband and wife to have joint legal custody (59% of cases). Analysis of the implications of these findings and policy recommendations are included.     

从经典判例之行为人处置看强制监护治疗

中国司法精神病学研究人员对野兽条例、妄想标准、不可抗拒冲动检验、M＇Naghten规则等关于精神病人刑事责任能力评定标准的典型案例耳熟能详,但对这些案例中的行为人处置却不甚熟悉。介绍这些行为人的最终处置,并结合国内外监护治疗研究现状,对肇祸精神病人的强制监护治疗制度进行探讨。     

试论行政听证主持人的选任

行政听证主持人肩负着引导听证会顺利进行的重任;要保持听证主持人的中立地位,使其独立而又公正地行使职权,就必须建立一套科学、合理的听证主持人选任制度。我国的听证主持人选任制度尚处于初建阶段,有必要逐步完善。