Divergent Perspectives: Exploring a Multiple Informant Approach to Cyberbullying Victimization and Perpetration

The present research adopts a multiple informant approach to identify victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying. Similar approaches have been successfully applied in the field of traditional bullying, and they are highly relevant for studying cyberbullying as well. Three informants can provide key perspectives on cyberbullying incidents: victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. To collect data on these actors, all eighth-grade students in 11 secondary schools were invited to participate in a survey. In total 1458 respondents completed peer-nomination questions on cyberbullying involvement. The results indicated that the prevalence of cyberbullying varied depending on the type of informants that was consulted. In addition, limited overlap was observed between the reports of different informants, resulting in different profiles of victims and perpetrators, depending on the informants that identified them. In sum, different informants tended to have divergent views on cyberbullying, which has important implications. It warrants accurate reporting and critical reflection on the sources of data in cyberbullying research. Moreover, it demonstrates the need to study a more diverse set of informants to advance the understanding of cyberbullying and to enhance prevention efforts.     

LEGISLATION AND REPORTS: Copyright and Parody: Taking Backward the Gowers Review?

In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property made a series of recommendations for reforming the intellectual property regime to better serve the interests of both consumers and industry. Among the proposed recommendations was that an exception for parody be introduced within the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. In January 2008 the Intellectual Property Office (the IPO) launched the first part of a two‐stage consultation process on exceptions to copyright. As part of that consultation process, the IPO proposed a ‘fair dealing style exception’ for parody, and sought views on whether a new exception should be introduced as well as what form it might take. In December 2009 the IPO launched the second stage of this consultation process. The second consultation document rejected the case for a new parody exception. This article considers the place of parody within the copyright regime and the objections levelled against the introduction of an exception set out within the IPO's second consultation document. It invites the IPO to reconsider its decision not to recommend the introduction of a specific exception for parody within the UK.     

Editorial

The massive influx of Russian-speaking eastern Slav groups (Russians, Belorussians, Ukranians) from the rest of the Soviet Union laid a fundamental basis for the nationality conflict and political power struggle in post-Soviet Estonia. After Estonia re-established its statehood, this conflict evolved more into one between indigenous people and immigrants, citizens and non-citizens. What deserves additional attention is the previous economically defined centre-periphery conflict in the Soviet period (the north-east of Estonia versus Leningrad) which is now transforming into a new kind of ethnic and political cleavage separating the Russian-speaking north-eastern towns from the rest of Estonian-speaking Estonia. Moreover, here ethnicity and class mesh, while ethno-cultural differences also contribute to unemployment in the north-eastern towns. The centre-periphery dichotomy in Estonia provides the preconditions for peripheral political mobilisation aiming at a more equal social participation in economic, cultural and political affairs. However, ethnic mobilisation and autonomist attempts have not yet taken the lead.     

Prerogative legislation as the paradigm of bad law-making: the Chagos Islands

Legislation made by way of the Royal Prerogative is a paradigm of bad law-making. This is examined via the case study of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Constitution) Order 2004. The Order was made without reference to a legislature and without proper scrutiny or legislative drafting. It is unclear, ambiguous and imprecise. It does not use plain language or gender-neutral language. It is deliberately inaccessible, making it extremely hard for the citizen to know its contents. In form and substance, it offends against the rule of law.     

Competency Restoration: An Examination of the Differences Between Defendants Predicted Restorable and Not Restorable to Competency

According to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Jackson v. Indiana (1972), examiners must determine if a defendant has substantial probability of regaining competency through treatment in the foreseeable future. Previous research has indicated that, given the low base rate of defendants unable to be restored to competency, examiners are relatively poor at predicting which defendants will regain competency. Determining the characteristics of not restorable incompetent defendants and restorable incompetent defendants is a necessary first step toward improving examiners' ability to predict a defendant's likelihood of regaining competency. This study examined the competency evaluation reports of 468 defendants evaluated for competency to stand trial. Incompetent defendants significantly differed from competent defendants with regard to age, employment status, ethnicity, criminal charges, and psychiatric diagnosis. Few significant differences existed between defendants predicted restorable and those predicted not restorable by mental health examiners—the differences that did exist were related mainly to nonpsychiatric variables.     

Secularism before the Strasbourg Court: Abstract Constitutional Principles as a Basis for Limiting Rights

The justification for the restrictions on religion inherent in secularism is the subject of lively debate in constitutional and political theory. As a rights‐focused text, the ECHR struggles to accommodate constitutional principles such as secularism whose aims and justifications may go beyond the protection of the rights of others and include abstract goals such as upholding the religious neutrality of the state. Rights alone cannot provide an adequate account of the relationship between religion, state and law, and in Ebrahimian v France, the Strasbourg Court rightly reaffirmed that secularism and strict neutrality can be in harmony with the values of the Convention. However, the Court needs more clarity about the reasons for this stance and to be vigilant in its protection of private autonomy so that the use of abstract principles to restrict religious expression does not give excessive latitude to states to restrict individual autonomy and minority rights.     

Wiltshire Council v Cooper Estates Strategic Land Ltd: Development Plans and the Restriction of Town and Village Green Applications

The Court of Appeal has, for the first time, considered the scheme of ‘trigger events’ introduced in the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 which preclude the registration of land as a town or village green (or TVG). The event in question concerned identification for potential development in a development plan document. The court was required to determine what constitutes ‘identification for potential development’ for the purposes of the statute. This note suggests that the court's interpretation of ‘identification for potential development’ is unconvincing, and was motivated primarily by policy: to render it more difficult to register land as a TVG. It argues that the judgment constitutes a further and significant restriction on the future viability of TVG applications, rendering entire settlements liable to lose the application of TVG law.     

A lively and engaging series of essays

Intellectual Property Stories is the latest title in the ‘LawStories Series’ from Foundation Press (a Thomson/Westimprint), which sets out to explore the stories behind variousnoteworthy US Supreme Court decisions in different areas oflaw, including tax, torts, constitutional law, civil procedureand property. The series was launched in 2003 when ProfessorCaron P (the series editor) published Tax Stories, which workis complemented by an excellent companion website providinga complete record of each of the ten cases discussed in thebook, including lower court opinions, briefs of the partiesand amicus curiae, oral arguments (where available), and theSupreme Court's opinions (www.law.uc.edu/TaxStories). IntellectualProperty     

Violent Couples: Coping and Communication Skills

Twelve married couples court-ordered to attend a violence reduction treatment program completed self-report measures of anger, social problem-solving skills, and strategies employed for dealing with high-conflict situations. They were subsequently videotaped while discussing 3 different scenarios. Three raters independently coded the videotapes for the use of effective and ineffective communication strategies used by the participants. Aggregate reliability estimates were acceptable. No gender-based differences were found on the self-report measures or the communication skill ratings. When couples discussed low-conflict situations use of effective skills exceeded use of ineffective skills, and when couples discussed high-conflict problems use of ineffective skills exceeded use of effective skills. Implications for treatment of spousal assault are presented.