Legal News Research Articles

JURIST: Legal News and Research

JURIST: Legal News and Research

Contemporary Issues in Family Law and Mental Healthby Michael G. Brock and Samuel Saks; Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas Publisher, 2008, 141 pages, $32.95

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessContemporary Issues in Family Law and Mental HealthPeter Ash M.D.Peter Ash M.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Jan 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2009.60.4.560aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Many of the contemporary issues this volume addresses center on sexual abuse allegations that are "confirmed" in treatment for suspected abuse. The authors, an attorney and a clinical social worker, write in a lively style, and they don't pull their punches. This is a book with a message: the authors insist that child sexual abuse allegations should be first investigated in a well-conducted forensic interview.In a series of chapters, the authors condemn the problems that arise in an all-too-common sequence that starts when a parent brings a child to treatment with a suspicion of abuse; this is followed by the therapist who begins treatment for "possible abuse" before determining whether abuse has actually occurred. The therapist hears only one side of the story, attempts to confirm abuse—often through multiple sessions and suggestive questioning—and then, when the child has "confirmed" the abuse, the therapist hands the case—already decided in what the authors aptly term "therapy court"—over to the judicial system. The final chapter addresses the question of whether such treatment should be considered malpractice. Although these problems are familiar to forensic experts who become involved in litigation in such cases, they are much less familiar to many therapists, who would be well advised to read this book before beginning treatment for possible but unsubstantiated abuse.Other chapters cover introductory material about the roles that mental health professionals play in family courts and issues related to conducting custody evaluations. The book grew out of a series of the authors' articles in the Detroit Legal News and reflects Michigan law. Michigan has been at the forefront of states in establishing clear legal procedures relevant to mental health litigation involving children, such as spelling out components of the best-interest tests and requiring state evaluators of child abuse to use an approved protocol; the authors rightfully applaud this standardization. There is considerable variation among the states, however, and the authors do not caution the reader that these standards and other practices in Michigan, such as Daubert rules or court-appointed expert witness immunity, do not apply in all jurisdictions. Dr. Ash is director, Psychiatry and Law Service, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 60Issue 4 April, 2009Pages 560-560PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES April 2009 Volume 60 Number 4 Metrics PDF download History Published online 13 January 2015 Published in print 1 April 2009

Legal developments–legal and regulatory news as the Bush administration winds down

Legal developments–legal and regulatory news as the Bush administration winds down

Legal news

Publicació electrònica dels Estudis de Dret i Ciència Polí­tica de la UOC que té per objecte la comunicació i la difusió cientí­fica de recerca, anàlisi i investigació de reptes i qüestions plantejats per les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació referents al dret i la ciència polí­tica. Els articles publicats ofereixen resultats de recerca original. Així­ mateix, IDP mira d'actuar com a plataforma per a la reflexió i la discussió sobre el contingut i l'abast de canvis provocats per les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació i, en particular, el fenomen d'internet en els camps del dret, la polí­tica i l'administració pública. La democràcia digital, el tractament de dades personals, la responsabilitat dels proveïdors d'internet, la propietat intel·lectual i la llibertat d'expressió en el web, l'administració electrònica, noves formes de participació polí­tica i la protecció del consumidor a internet són alguns dels temes que es tracten en les contribucions a la revista. Tot això es presenta tant per mitjà de reflexió teòrica com amb la representació d'experiències especí­fiques en aquestes àrees. Cada número d'IDP s'estructura entorn a un tema en particular, juntament amb altres articles relacionats amb les àrees temàtiques principals de la publicació. La revista també conté una secció especí­fica dedicada a les activitats acadèmiques i de recerca dels Estudis de Dret i Ciència Polí­tica de la UOC, i una secció sobre les últimes qüestions legislatives i jurisprudencials.

Legal news

Legal news

Legal news

Publicación electrónica de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC que tiene por objetivo la comunicación y la difusión científica de investigación, el análisis y la investigación de retos y cuestiones planteados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación referentes al derecho y a la ciencia política. Los artículos publicados ofrecen resultados de investigación originales. Asimismo, IDP trata de actuar como plataforma para la reflexión y la discusión sobre el contenido y el alcance de los cambios provocados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y, en particular, el fenómeno de internet en los campos del derecho, la política y la administración pública. La democracia digital, el tratamiento de datos personales, la responsabilidad de los proveedores de internet, la propiedad intelectual y la libertad de expresión en el web, la administración electrónica, nuevas formas de participación política y la protección del consumidor en internet son algunos de los temas tratados en las contribuciones a la revista. Todo ello se presenta tanto mediante reflexión teórica como con la presentación de experiencias específicas en estas áreas. Cada número de IDP se estructura alrededor de un tema en particular, junto con otros artículos relacionados con las principales áreas temáticas de la publicación. La revista también contiene una sección específica dedicada a las actividades académicas y de investigación de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC, y una sección sobre las últimas cuestiones legislativas y jurisprudenciales.

Development and Maintenance of the Ethiopian Legal Information Website

Information and Communication Technology in general and the internet in particular have been creating unprecedented opportunities in facilitating and streamlining access to information. Websites have become a common way of publishing legal information for the public in many countries. In Ethiopia, however, the availability of legal websites has been very limited or non-existent. Except for the constitution, no other basic Ethiopian law has ever been published online. To benefit from the tremendous potentials of the internet, a project was initiated to develop an Ethiopian Legal Information Web Site.Based on users' requirements obtained from questionnaire analysis, and current paradigms and implications, the Ethiopian Legal Information Website was designed, developed, implemented and maintained. The website is an online database of Ethiopian basic laws developed by Mekelle University, Ethiopia, in cooperation with the Non-Western Law Department of Ghent University, Belgium.Basic laws included on the site at present are the Ethiopian Constitution, Civil Code, Criminal Code, Civil Procedure Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Commercial Code and Family Code. The laws can be viewed and used in full text html, whereas some of the laws including the 2004 Criminal Code, Family Code, FDKE Constitution and the Tigray Regional State Constitution are available in pdf Laws can be searched by keywords using the site search engine. Comments and suggestions from experts and Ethiopian laws users have been collected, hence modifications, improvements and additions have been made to the website. The Ethiopian Legal Information Website was first hosted on the University of Ghent internet server and currently in the Mekelle University server at http://mail.mu.edu. et/~ethiopialaws/.1 The Ethiopian Legal Information Website has been found to be a useful web portal to access and use the basic Ethiopian laws. The University of Ghent, ILO, the Library of Congress, AUSTLII, WASHLAW, WIKIPEDIA and other major legal web portals make citations in reference to the site. While the website currently contains only the basic laws of the federal government, an action plan is prepared to include regional laws of Ethiopia. Other legal information including amendments to the laws, decisions and legal news will also be included on the site, hence a comprehensive Ethiopian Legal Web Portal will be developed and maintained. Key Words: Legal Information, Legal Information Website, Digital Divide

Development and Maintenance of The Ethiopian Legal Information Website

Development and Maintenance of the Ethiopian Legal Information Website Information and Communication Technology in general and the internet in particular have been creating unprecedented opportunities in facilitating and streamlining access to information. Websites have become a common way of publishing legal information for the public in many countries. In Ethiopia, however, the availability of legal websites has been very limited or non-existent. Except for the constitution, no other basic Ethiopian law has ever been published online. To benefit from the tremendous potentials of the internet, a project was initiated to develop an Ethiopian Legal Information Web Site. Based on users' requirements obtained from questionnaire analysis, and current paradigms and implications, the Ethiopian Legal Information Website was designed, developed, implemented and maintained The website is an online database of Ethiopian basic laws developed by Mekelle University, Ethiopia, in cooperation with the Non-Western Law Department of Ghent University, Belgium. Basic laws included on the site at present are the Ethiopian Constitution, Civil Code, Criminal Code, Civil Procedure Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Commercial Code and Family Code. The laws can be viewed and used in full text html, whereas some of the laws including the 2004 Criminal Code, Family Code, FDRE Constitution and the Tigray Regional State Constitution are available in pdf Laws can be searched by keywords using the site search engine. Comments and suggestions from experts and Ethiopian laws users have been collected, hence modifications, improvements and additions have been made to the website. The Ethiopian Legal Information Website was first hosted on the University of Ghent internet server and currently in the Mekelle University server at http://mail.mu.edu.et/~ethiopialaws/ The Ethiopian Legal Information Website has been found to be a useful web portal to access and use the basic Ethiopian laws. The University of Ghent, !LO, the Library of Congress, AUSTLII, WASHLAW, WIKIPEDIA and other major legal web portals make citations in reference to the site. While the website currently contains only the basic laws of the federal government, an action plan is prepared to include regional laws of Ethiopia. Other legal information including amendments to the laws, decisions and legal news will also be included on the site, hence a comprehensive Ethiopian Legal Web Portal will be developed and maintained.

Legal news

Publicación electrónica de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC que tiene por objetivo la comunicación y la difusión científica de investigación, el análisis y la investigación de retos y cuestiones planteados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación referentes al derecho y a la ciencia política. Los artículos publicados ofrecen resultados de investigación originales. Asimismo, IDP trata de actuar como plataforma para la reflexión y la discusión sobre el contenido y el alcance de los cambios provocados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y, en particular, el fenómeno de internet en los campos del derecho, la política y la administración pública. La democracia digital, el tratamiento de datos personales, la responsabilidad de los proveedores de internet, la propiedad intelectual y la libertad de expresión en el web, la administración electrónica, nuevas formas de participación política y la protección del consumidor en internet son algunos de los temas tratados en las contribuciones a la revista. Todo ello se presenta tanto mediante reflexión teórica como con la presentación de experiencias específicas en estas áreas. Cada número de IDP se estructura alrededor de un tema en particular, junto con otros artículos relacionados con las principales áreas temáticas de la publicación. La revista también contiene una sección específica dedicada a las actividades académicas y de investigación de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC, y una sección sobre las últimas cuestiones legislativas y jurisprudenciales.

Legal news

Legal news

Legal news

Publicación electrónica de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC que tiene por objetivo la comunicación y la difusión científica de investigación, el análisis y la investigación de retos y cuestiones planteados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación referentes al derecho y a la ciencia política. Los artículos publicados ofrecen resultados de investigación originales. Asimismo, IDP trata de actuar como plataforma para la reflexión y la discusión sobre el contenido y el alcance de los cambios provocados por las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y, en particular, el fenómeno de internet en los campos del derecho, la política y la administración pública. La democracia digital, el tratamiento de datos personales, la responsabilidad de los proveedores de internet, la propiedad intelectual y la libertad de expresión en el web, la administración electrónica, nuevas formas de participación política y la protección del consumidor en internet son algunos de los temas tratados en las contribuciones a la revista. Todo ello se presenta tanto mediante reflexión teórica como con la presentación de experiencias específicas en estas áreas. Cada número de IDP se estructura alrededor de un tema en particular, junto con otros artículos relacionados con las principales áreas temáticas de la publicación. La revista también contiene una sección específica dedicada a las actividades académicas y de investigación de los Estudios de Derecho y Ciencia Política de la UOC, y una sección sobre las últimas cuestiones legislativas y jurisprudenciales.

Access to Justice, Costs, and Legal Aid

If the ideal of justice is not pervasive in the United States, the issue of justice is-not so much in its rendition, but in its penetration of news, politics and entertainment. Current media issues include the death penalty-erroneous convictions and the lack of lawyers for appeals'; tort reform-conflicting data on medical malpractice litiga tion2 and a perceived abuse of class actions; and the judiciary itself judicial selection, political attacks on so-called activist judges,3 and the sometimes hidden issue of court budgets. Within this fascination, the multiple problems in accessing justice are lost. Legal news becomes entertainment with the periodic carnival of celebrity criminal trials which cluster like natural disasters. Taking a half-step back to fictional accounts, television programming in the United States presents the irony of numerous series concerning law yers and/or law enforcement, but dealing little with access to the sys tem it depicts. CSI (for Crime Scene Investigation) is a police drama about forensic work and was American television's top-rated show for the 2002-03 and 2003-04. For the week June 20-26, 2005, the top 20 broadcast television shows included eight crime or court-related shows,4 likely with no mention of access issues. To the contrary, these shows create the impression that litigants have lawyers as a matter of course and that courts are readily available within the hour. Justice-as-politics is another aspect of entertainment. Wrench ing public policy questions parade in front of us, yet political plat

Legal news

Legal news

Metatags and banner advertisements – do they infringe trade mark rights?

Metatags and banner advertisements have been very much in the legal news recently. The point in issue is whether their use amounts to registered trade mark infringement and/or “passing off” or unfair competition.

Lawbore: a legal Gateway for City University

Lawbore is a subject-orientated gateway to legal resources developed at City University, which has been created as a community site for the law department. Lawbore's features include regular polls, articles written by City staff and students, legal news and useful legal quotes. It aims to attract students with its time based structure, snappy resource descriptions, direct links into articles within databases, interactive qualities, relevance to module content and easy navigation. Although launched at the end of April, it is expected that usage will be low-key at a time when most students are frantically revising. The real test will not come until the new academic year.

Analysis of racial profiling as policy analysis

Policy analysis techniques emphasize the tension between efficiency and equity in public decision-making (Friedman; 1984, 2002). This tension is aptly illustrated by the problem of racial profiling. The following case study and accompanying problem set help to underscore the difficulty of making public choices that pit cost-effectiveness or efficiency against civil liberties, civil rights and the equity goals of society. There is a growing literature pointing to racial disparities in traffic stops. Knowles, Persico and Todd (1999) report that in a stretch of interstate highway in Maryland (I-95) from 1995 to 1999, 63 percent of all motorists searched were African American. They report, however, that only 18 percent of the motorists on the road were African American. Similar patterns of disproportionality have been found in studies accusing the New Jersey State Patrol of racial bias (Kocieniewski and Hanley, 2000). The findings of racial profiling have resulted in a number of high-profile class action suits against police departments (Wilson, 2000; Higgin and Mihalopoulos, 2000; Nando Times, 2000; Still, 1999). These allegations have resulted in a number of different policy responses. Some states or police departments have focussed on banning racial profiling (Eddings, 2001; Times Union, Albany, 2001). Others have focused on collecting racial data on stops and searches (Poughkeepsie Journal, 2001; Doxsey, 2001; Jones, 2001; Find Law Legal News 2000; Bustillo, 2000). Many have instituted training and education programs to assist their law enforcement agencies in surviving costly litigation.

Sources for Further Reading on Affirmative Action

* Nordquist, Joan, comp. Affirmative Action: A Bibliography. (Contemporary Social Issues, no. 41) Santa Cruz, CA: Reference and Research Services, 1996. This unannotated bibliography lists 753 items published since 1989, arranged in thirteen categories including Effects of A.A., Debate, and A.A., and Race and A.A. The items were chosen from 43 databases and printed indices. Formats include books, book chapters, government reports, theses and dissertations, and magazine and journal articles. They reflect an impressive array of voices and perspectives. Besides the variety of scholarly disciplines and professions, there are items representing southerners, Hispanics, liberals, conservatives, socialists, Amerasians, and women and African Americans in various occupations. * DeCoste, F. C., comp. Feminist Legal Literature: A Selective Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1991. Lists primarily English-language journal articles published between 1980 and 1990 that are of interest to feminists or written from a feminist perspective. See the section on (pages 301-3 10), as well as the many additional listings under in the Topical Index. * United States Law Week. Washington, DC: BNA (Bureau of National Affairs). This weekly survey of legal news, Supreme Court decisions, and context-and-analysis discussions has been published for 65 years. Consult the cumulative nine-month index in back of the binder to follow progress on * Women's Resources International. 1992 to present. Updated twice a year. Found mostly in academic libraries, this subscription-only, Web-based database is produced by NISC (National Information Services Corporation). A subject search on affirmative action conducted in July 1998, yielded more than 500 items: articles in women's studies journals, feminist magazines, and gender studies journals; reviews of new books; book citations; government reports; and more. The database is a composite of nine sources including Women Studies Abstracts (since 1984) and Women's Studies Database (since 1972). It provides detailed abstracts for items published in recent years and makes each item accessible through a large number of

Opposing verdicts in the Webb/Dotson rape case: Legal vs. news constructions

This essay compares legal and mainstream news discourses surrounding the Webb/Dotson rape recanting case, focusing on reasons why the two discourses derived opposing conclusions about Dotson's guilt. It argues that the tendency of mainstream news media to highlight emotional and personal elements helped construct a picture of Dotson as innocent and affable, while the tendency of legal discourse to emphasize mutually exclusive categories contributed strongly to a picture of Dotson as guilty regardless of Webb's recanted story.

Legal Views and News — Update

Legal Views and News — Update

Legal News

Legal News