Law In Other Jurisdictions Research Articles

Gypsies: A National Group or a Social Group?

This article examines whether Gypsies are to be considered a national group or a social group with regard to their eligibility for asylum in the United States. The definition of these terms is contained in the UNHCR Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Thus the law of other jurisdictions would also be impacted by this discussion. The Note proposes that the difference should be based on whether the group is a subset found within a national group such as a caste, a family or clan, a profession, etc., or whether it constitutes a politically distinct nation, with such features as a unique religion, language, history, government, and/or physical characteristics. The article concludes that Gypsies should be classified as a national group and not a social group, because they have characteristics more closely associated with a nation than with a social group.

Law reform, politics and mental health.

A major problem of democratic government is to get lawmakers to address controversial and sensitive subjects such as mental health law reform. By reference to current and past projects in the Australian Law Reform Commission, its Chairman outlines the way in which permanent law reform agencies can mobilise expert and community opinion to help the lawmaking process address sufficiently the needs of law reform. After outlining briefly the history of mental health law reform in English-speaking countries, the author suggests that moves for reform tend to come in 'cycles' or 'waves'. This is especially so in federations such as Australia. Reforms introduced in South Australia in 1976 are now working their way into the laws of other jurisdictions of Australia, where mental health law is basically a state concern. The reforms deal with such matters as legal representation for persons involuntarily committed and stricter definitions of circumstances for and objectives of hospitalisation of the mentally ill. Some comments are offered on new approaches to the defence of insanity in criminal trials following the jury verdict in the Hinkley case arising out of an attempt on the life of a President of the United States. The implications of this and other cases for the 'anti-psychiatry' movement are referred to and discussed. The author concludes with comments on the implications of mental health law reform for democracies. He suggests a law for law reform agencies in reconciling needs for law reform and community tolerance of change.

On the Choice of Remedies

Abstract At a time when misuse of the power to zone seems to be increasing—some say rampant—when such misuse is frequently ignored even sanctioned by the courts, e.g.; Belle Terre v. Boraas, Steelhill v. Sanbornton, U.S. v. Black Jack (lower federal court), it is heartening to find a powerful court unite behind an articulate and powerfully worded opinion which strikes down an exercise of the police power (zoning) which legislates local biases and unreasonably excludes low income housing. There is an appropriateness too in that it is Justice Hall, some 12 years after his classic dissent in the Vickers case, who rationalizes a long line of often misunderstood New Jersey cases and the case law of other jurisdictions and concludes: “that every … municipality must, by its land use regulations, … make realistically possible an appropriate variety and choice of housing.” A strong concurring opinion further notes; “the use of the zoning power by municipalities to maintain themselves as enclaves of affluence or of...

The Pennsylvania Requirement of Trial by Jury in Criminal Cases Compared with the Law of Other Jurisdictions

The Pennsylvania Requirement of Trial by Jury in Criminal Cases Compared with the Law of Other Jurisdictions

The Law of Pennsylvania Relating to Illegitimacy

The aim of this committee has been to collect and summarize the authorities bearing upon the present attitude of the law of Pennsylvania toward the various problems arising out of the birth of illegitimates, and further to examine the existing laws of other jurisdictions with a view to securing from such jurisdictions any administrative or substantive features which might tend to improve the Pennsylvania law or procedure. It may be said of practically all jurisdictions, however, by way of introduction, that the general attitude of the law has reflected the general change of public opinion, and has been steadily advancing from the old, rigid English notion that an illegitimate was a filious nullius with no right of inheritance or name,3 toward the much more just and equitable view that, wherever the blame may belong, certainly it does not belong upon the unfortunate child who has thus, without any choice in the matter, been furnished with the responsibility of a life to live. All present day tendencies, therefore, are toward relieving the unfair legal and social position of the child by compelling the father to provide for the adequate support of the child and by removing the disabilities, legal, moral and social, under which the child has formerly struggled. For the purpose of better analyzing the questions to be considered, we have divided our report under seven headings which we shall consider in turn; and first: