Judicial Checks Research Articles

Cross‐national criminal databases: The ongoing search for safeguards

Abstract With the abolition of most internal border controls within the EC cross‐border police information networks are increasingly important in fighting cross‐border crime. But the existence of databases ranging from the relatively unsophisticated Schengen Information System and the proposed European Information System to the UCLAF system to combat fraud raises many legal and criminological issues. There is a danger that the database and profiling approach exaggerates the scale of organised crime to excuse unwarranted interference with civil liberties, and it is not easy to keep large databases secure from hackers. There is no proper mechanism for complaining about abuses, and there may be inadequate protection for political dissidents. On the other hand pooling of information enables the authorities to allocate scarce resources to the most harmful crimes and can help to minimise unwarranted invasions of privacy. National SIRENE bureaux provide judicial and administrative checks by filtering individual ...

Quality Control in Child Care

This article takes as its starting point recent evidence about poor practice in child care social work. It identifies a large number of mechanisms for ensuring quality control, and considers why they appear to be having so little effect. The writer suggests that because of the complexity of cases and the need for discretion, and also because of disagreements about what is 'quality' in child care, bureaucratic or procedural mechanisms have serious limitations as the major means for ensuring good practice. She focuses on the statutory review as the solution most frequently suggested but concludes that too much is being expected of it. Whilst accepting the need for procedural, inspectorial, judicial, and political checks and for more appropriate resources for family support, she suggests that the main remedy for poor practice must lie in professional mechanisms. These include increased specialization, more time, improved training, and consultation. The weight of evidence and the intractable nature of the problem may call for drastic measures, such as the introduction of the Approved Social Worker (Child Care).

Judicial Checks on Command Influence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice

Judicial Checks on Command Influence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice