Political Offence Research Articles

Cur crux: is the method significant?

While most recognise the centrality of the cross to Christianity, there is not the same consensus as regards its meaning. Then while it is clear that both the suffering and death of Jesus were instrumental in salvation, why did he die in the horrible way that he did? Crucifixion was the preferred method of execution for political offences by the Romans, and by its horror was intended to deter. Paul understands that the crucified, by being hanged, bears a curse, which is carried by Christ so that people can be blessed in the declaration of justification. The actual suffering and death were due to enforced immobility, a total loss of freedom, and is the ultimate in the process of self-emptying by the son of God in incarnation. As such it is an appropriate penalty for sin which is an abuse of the liberty given to humanity. These three reasons for the cross then relate to the main theories of the atonement which are aspects of a full understanding. Union with Christ in his suffering is then atoning. Opsomming Terwyl die kruis algemeen aanvaar word as die hoeksteen van die Christelike geloof, is daar nie dieselfde ooreenstemming wanneer dit kom by die betekenis daarvan nie. Terwyl dit ook duidelik is dat die lyding en sterwe van Jesus onlosmaaklik verbind word met die verlossingsplan, onstaan die vraag, waarom moes hy so ‘n wrede dood sterf? Kruisiging was die gekose metode van straf vir politieke oortredings gedurende die Romeinse oorheersing en primêr bedoel as afskrikmiddel. Paulus redeneer, dat omdat die gekruisigde aan die kruis hang, hy ‘n vloek dra wat dan ook op Christus rus waardeur die mensdom deel kan hê aan die vryspraak en regverdigmaking. Die werklike lyding en sterwe aan die kruis was as gevolg van geforseerde inperking van die liggaam en ‘n algehele verlies van vryheid. Dit is ook die uiteinde van die proses van self-ontlediging as die seun van God in sy menswording. Dit is dan ook ‘n gepaste straf vir sonde wat ‘n misbruik is van vryheid wat aan die mensdom toegestaan is. Hierdie drie redes vir die kruis hou dus verband met die vernaamste teorieë oor versoening wat weer aspekte is van ‘n groter geheelbeeld. Verbintenis met Christus in sy lyding kan dus gelykgestel word aan versoening.

Hitler’s Judges: Ideological Commitment and the Death Penalty in Nazi Germany

We examine the role of judicial policy preferences in influencing whether judges in Nazi Germany sentenced defendants charged with serious political offences to death. We find that judicial policy preferences, measured by the depth of the ideological commitment of the judge to the Nazi Party worldview, were an important determinant of whether judges imposed the death sentence. Judges more committed to the Nazi Party were more likely to impose the death sentence on defendants belonging to organised political opposition groups, those accused of violent resistance and those with characteristics to which Nazism was intolerant. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Latin America and China: What Next for China–Latin American Strategic Relationship?

The long neoliberal night that descended on Latin America since the military coup against Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, began to be reversed with the arrival of Hugo Chavez to the presidency of Venezuela in 1998 inaugurating with it the Pink Tide of progressive and radical governments in the region. Pink Tide governments undertook a steady reversal of neoliberalism that included the nationalization of natural resources, poverty eradication, economic growth, social inclusion, redistribution of income, and much more. Simultaneously, most of the region began to orient itself commercially toward Asia, especially China, in a mutually beneficial relationship that through growing trade and investment links brought the two sides closer together in an unprecedented development for a region that had hitherto been firmly under the economic and political hegemony of the United States. Thus, political developments and economic trends seemed to guarantee the inexorable emergence of a new world geopolitical architecture within which Latin America would drastically rearrange its institutional and structural links with the United States, bringing about what many Latin American political leaders proclaim as the region's “second economic independence.” The growing trade, commercial, and political links between Latin America and China, especially the incorporation of Brazil to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), inaugurated the rise of new institutional, political, trade, and commercial structures leading the region to seek to link its economic development to the ever expanding economic weight of the Asiatic giant. Though these highly positive developments have not quite come to a halt, they have been substantially complicated by the negative impact of the world economic crisis since 2008 and the US-led conservative, neoliberal political offensive that has already taken its toll in the victory of Macri in Argentina, the impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff and the installation of the hard-line neoliberal interim government of Michel Temer in Brazil, and the severe economic difficulties faced by Bolivarian government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, just to mention the most important ones. This article seeks to examine the huge potential of Latin America's growing relations with China.

Apostasy (Irtidâd) in Islamic Jurisprudence; is it a Creedal or a Political Crime: Ibn al-Humam (d. 861/1457)

This article aimed to explore the nature of the penalty of the apostasy (irtidâd) to what extent it is creedal or political crime, with particular reference to Hanafite penal law which served as the law of Islamic world for a period of a millennium. In expounding this law I have chosen the text of jurist-author of this School, Ibn al-Humâm (d. 861/1457) which offered a mere document for the subject-matter. The analysis in this essay exposed that Hanafi juristic conception considered the act of apostasy not a creedal but a political offence. Thereof the ratio legis (‘illa) of death penalty imposed to the apostate (murtad) is not his commitment of disbelief (kufr) but his renouncement of the social, legal and political authority and system of the state and abandoning his membership of Muslim community after once accepted it. Consequently he has been accounted as a potential threat as a warring enemy to the survival of the Muslim community and its state. I understand that the jurists did not give the state legal authority to interrogate and punish the disbelief of its subjects. Belief of the individual rests between him and God.

Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls: The Matter of Obscenity in Nineteenth-Century Germany by Sarah L. Leonard

Reviewed by: Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls: The Matter of Obscenity in Nineteenth-Century Germany by Sarah L. Leonard Esther K. Bauer Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls: The Matter of Obscenity in Nineteenth-Century Germany. By Sarah L. Leonard. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. Pp. 272. Cloth $55.00. ISBN 978-0812246704. In Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls, historian Sarah Leonard traces changes in the meaning and use of the term "obscenity" in descriptions of certain secular printed texts and images in nineteenth-century Germany, predominantly Prussia (a focus determined by the availability of sources). Leonard proposes that during this period, legal concepts of immorality and obscenity were intricately linked to culturally constituted notions of the delicacy of the human mind and soul. Underlying this connection was the belief that inappropriate publications could cause intellectual and emotional damage, thus harming the individual and, by extension, society. Uncovering the intertwined histories of legal approaches to obscene publications, of the creation and distribution of these works, and of the development of notions of the mind and soul, Leonard suggests a shift in the concept of obscenity that was directly linked to new ways of defining the self and its relationship to society. The main part of Leonard's study is organized into five chapters, of which the first three focus on the period between 1788 and 1840, when obscenity was not yet prosecuted as a criminal offense. Chapter 1 explores texts that strove to define obscene publications in order to justify censorship, e.g., police codes, local ordinances, court reports, and writings by pedagogues, theologians, and scientists. To these critics, the [End Page 644] immoral works' potential harm lay in their "ability to damage the heart and mind, distort the intellect, and inflame the imagination" (11), and consequently to influence the behavior of susceptible readers, especially women and the lower uneducated classes. As Leonard emphasizes, at this point the term obscenity was not limited to sexual transgressions, but covered a wide range of offenses that could disturb readers' mental and emotional balance. Censorship aimed at controlling the generation and access to knowledge that might stir politically, socially, or sexually unruly behavior—effectively shifting from protecting political or religious authorities to protecting fragile individuals and, by extension, the bourgeois social order, which depended on dutiful citizens. The author shows that texts were more likely to be censored if they were associated with certain minorities (e.g., Jews), or with specific geographical and social spaces or the crossing of borders, or for instance if texts came from abroad, were sold by itinerant peddlers or ill-reputed booksellers, or were available through lending libraries thought to foster "frivolity, the loss of time, and the cultivation of fantasy" (78). Leonard then analyzes the ways in which those producing and disseminating books defended erotica and thus contributed to the debates on the dangers of reading and the right to knowledge and Bildung. Responses to the threat of censorship varied from careful stretching of contemporary notions of decency within narratives to prefaces or afterwords that "proved" the validity of publications or that problematized contradictions in censors' expectations regarding the rendition of reality. Thus texts were supposed neither to distort reality nor to harm readers' minds and souls with "too realistic" depictions. Detailed analyses of the contemporary discussions surrounding Casanova's Memoirs (1822–1828) and Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon (1796–1808) provide vivid illustrations of these efforts. The final chapters study the narrowing in the meaning of "obscenity" to a sexual transgression, which effectively separated moral and political offenses. This began during the Vormärz, when obscenity was also first classified as a crime. Leonard proposes that the semantic change was driven by liberal desires to move control of printed publications from the police to the courts and to largely achieve freedom of the press, while still controlling "immoral" publications. Simultaneously, obscene publications' effects were redefined as hurting readers' Sitten- or Schamgefühle, potentially decreasing their capacity for "shame" or "empathy" (129). The involvement of physicians and psychiatrists in the obscenity debates shifted the emphasis to medical questions and the "mechanics of the inner life." Consequently, books appeared as stimuli that could trigger certain responses and hence could be...

Death Penalty in Jordan between Abolition and Retention

Death Penalty in Jordan between Abolition and Retention Ahmed Al-Nuemat, Asma Ghnaimat Abstract This article addressed death penalty in national legislations; the opinions about the penalty have been divided into two trends: Calling for its abolition due to cruciality as well as the impossibility to return after execution in case of error when judged, whereas the other trend stipulates that this penalty is fair and suits the seriousness of the committed crime, in addition to the criminal who is being too dangerous by committing such crime, and there is no hope to reform him. At the end of the article, we have realised that it was not possible and unacceptable to abolish the death penalty; it was punishable for the most serious crimes because it was commensurate with the harm it had caused, nor could there be an alternative punishment for execution and appropriate to the committed act. But the imposition of punishment must be restricted to the extent of the most serious crimes, not imposed against political offenses, and the maximum guarantees must be followed to limit the error in judgment or execution. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v5n1a6

Politics and Newspapers: Race Relations and its Influence on Gold Rush San Francisco

Politics and Newspapers: Race Relations and its Influence on Gold Rush San Francisco Victor Toste D uring and immediately after the American Gold Rush, the city of San Francisco became the largest city in the American West. This growth was fueled by the consistent migration of easterners travelling west in hopes of hitting it rich with gold, or gaining steady work that the new industry of gold mining had created. This idea of “going out west” created a distinct difference in what people considered to be the culture of the American North and South vs. that of the West. The term “Wild West” is used to describe the lack of structure and general unknown of the west compared to the rest of the United States. The rapid growth of the city of San Francisco and the surrounding area led to the first instances of consistent economy and infrastructure that near to the Pacific. One of these infrastructures was journalism, and in October of 1855, James King of William published the first issue of the “Daily Evening Bulletin.” By the New Year, it had become one of the more popular newspapers in the area. In the final issues of its inaugural year, sections and stories focused on the selling of meats and pastries for the holidays, but it is stories discussing the appointment of local officials that stands out amongst all other advertisements. Like The American West, California, and specifically large cities like San Francisco were still trying to form an identity in a country that was already being divided over issues of slavery and labor. In the early nineteenth century, most of the North had abolished slavery, but it was still strong in the South. With the Gold Rush making California economically viable for a large population to settle in, it became a point of contestation among pro and anti- abolitionists. 1 One of the men that opposed slavery in California was the former state senator and rising political figure, David C. Broderick. His rapid advance through the California political system, and his political views created friends, but also enemies and doubters. Soon, the California State Senator was being accused of using his power to influence elections in and around the city. King, the editor of the “Daily Evening Bulletin,” felt this was an abuse of his power and thus he began to run articles against Broderick; accusing him of stuffing ballots and other political offences. In a time where the city of San Francisco was growing, like an infant child, it absorbed what it learned from those around it. Thus, King and Broderick fell on two sides of the growth of California. Broderick wanted to use the lessons learned in his birthplace of Washington D.C. and eventually made the party system of San Francisco irrelevant. “It was Broderick and anti-Broderick.” 2 The relationship between David C. Broderick and James King of William is a representation of the questions being asked of slavery not only in the North and South, but also in the West, as well as the struggle for identity of the people within California and the state as a whole during the Gold Rush and prior to the American Civil War. Junius P. Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World, (Armock: Sharpe Reference, 2007), XLVIII. Jeremiah Lynch, A Senator of the Fifties: David C. Broderick, of California, (San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 2011), 73.

Galimybės tobulinti tarptautinio teisinio bendradarbiavimo baudžiamosiose bylose pagrindus Lietuvos teisėje

The topicality of the issue concerning the international legal cooperation in criminal cases did not fade away until the beginning of the 19th century when on 2nd March 1802 the first multilateral international treaty intended for the extradition question was signed. Nevertheless, the fact that on the basis of this treaty neither person was surrendered actually became a significant signal that the fluency of the legal cooperation in criminal cases of states may be ensured only with the alternative of the international treaty – national law. Despite the fact that in 1994 Lithuania sent a message to the world that the legal cooperation at least in the sphere of extradition shall take place on two legal grounds (international treaty or national law), in the real world the second ground of legal aid in principle was not developed. The reason of such situation is that in Lithuania the regulation of this question regarding the international legal cooperation of states in criminal cases did not have nor has coherent concept. Breaches of legal regulation and discrepancies as well as Lithuania’s practice initiating extradition procedures in the absence of international treaty, in author’s opinion, enable to speak more decidedly about the necessity to build the so called unconventional bridge of legal cooperation in criminal cases with foreign states. Only under this condition Lithuania has a right to speak about concrete and not illusory actions securing efficient crime control based on the principle aut dedere aut iudicare. It is assumed that improving Lithuania’s legal base it would be useful to refine cases when international legal aid in criminal cases is possible only on the basis of international treaty and when on the basis of national law. The question regarding the content of corresponding national legislation is an issue of a wider discussion. Points of view may be diverse. For every form of the international legal aid in criminal cases a separate law (special procedural legislation) may be adopted or one specialised procedural law regulating all issues related to the international legal cooperation may be passed. Moreover, the question of the status of legal aid requests received by foreign states may also be a debatable matter. In this case, author offers to draw attention to the practice of Canada when extradition requests presented not on the grounds of international treaty are regarded as ad hoc contracts. Arguing the need of the national extradition law or the law standardizing questions of other international legal aid forms, the author suggests solving series of important issues among which the most urgent are the following: concept of the political offence, term of the reciprocal criminalisation, humanitarian conditions prohibiting the legal cooperation. Furthermore, in the opinion of the author, resolving the valid problems of states’ international legal cooperation, Lithuania should also improve norms regulating criminal jurisdiction principles as the existing system of these principles does not ensure the inevitability of responsibility. The other author’s position of principle concerns the fact that issues of states’ legal aid in criminal cases should not be regulated by the norms of the Criminal Code as they have no direct connections neither to the purpose of the Criminal Code nor to main regulations of the criminal liability, nor to the validity of the criminal law. Meanwhile, the procedural nature of norms regulating legal grounds and order of states’ international legal aid in criminal cases is evident because concerned norms inter alia help shortly and comprehensively to disclose offences and properly apply the law.

O Tratamento Dual dos Crimes Políticos no Contexto dos Direitos Humanos

A expressão crime político designa genericamente todo o ato atentatório contra a ordem pública interna ou externa e contra a segurança nacional. No entanto, há um duplo tratamento para essa conduta no ordenamento brasileiro. De um lado, a expressão foi utilizada especialmente durante a época dos regimes autoritários brasileiros para designar toda a atividade contra a ordem pública e a segurança nacional. Nestes casos, a qualificação de crime político serviu de justificativa para a perda de direitos e garantias processuais, como a proibição do habeas corpus, o julgamento de civis por militares e o agravamento de penas. De outro, a caracterização de um crime como político pode obstar a extradição de estrangeiros e lhes conceder a possibilidade de obter asilo no país, o que impede a atividade persecutória penal do outro Estado. Assim, o presente artigo tem por objetivo demonstrar essa duplicidade de tratamento dos crimes políticos no direito brasileiro, bem como os critérios utilizados para a sua categorização. A metodologia utilizada consiste numa análise histórica do conceito mencionado e apresenta o estado da arte quanto aos seus usos no Brasil contemporâneo. Para a realização dos nossos objetivos, utilizamos como fontes as normas nacionais e internacionais que versam sobre a categoria de crime político e a sua interpretação jurisprudencial desde a Era Vargas até o período atual, tendo como base empírica os julgados do Supremo Tribunal Federal.

A national role for local media

If there is one thing that unites the main parties in the forthcoming election, it is how they can overcome the widespread disaffection and disenchantment felt by many voters. Minority parties such as Ukip and the Green Party have capitalised on this disconnect to exploit the sense of antipathy felt by many that the big three are all the same. As the political landscape has changed and a more diverse and congested electoral battleground has emerged, campaign managers and spin doctors are refining their media strategies. In particular, they are planning to court local media as much as national media. Campaign managers have always built local media coverage into their battle plans, alongside the set-piece speeches, manifesto launches, television debates and rallies geared towards a national audience. The difference now is that local and regional newspapers are key targets in the mass political charm offensive. This is partly a strategic response to the damaging perception that the electorate sees them as an out-of-touch Westminster elite. One way of addressing this cynicism is to connect their policy pledges to local issues in local communities. The best vehicle for this is the local media, which they see not only as lacking the bias of national titles but also better informed about the issues that matter to their readers, and therefore voters. We had a taste of this new strategy during the byelection in Rochester and Strood, an acrimonious and bitterly contested fight. Within days of the defection of the Conservative MP Mark Reckless to Ukip and the news

Pieniądz i zagregowany popyt w polskiej ekonomii marksistowskiej

Rosa Luxemburg significantly expanded economic thought for the first time seriously putting the issues of effective demand and money in a capitalist economy. Although her attempts to unravel how capitalism expanded reproduction takes place in the universal acceptance were considered to be incorrect, but it was close to a good solution pointing to a possible role for the public sector and quite accurately guessing the role it plays in the dynamics of capitalism export. Her idea was developed by Michal Kalecki, who proved that private investment can drive economic situation developed capitalism, which by nature have a tendency to crash, as described in his simulations Henryk Grossman. However, Kalecki predicted that public investment and debt will save capitalism, that he had no illusions that these solutions except the crises and political offensive of the capitalists. The prospect of Kalecki is in most aspects in line with contemporary neo-chartalist monetary theory, which assumes stable growth thanks to the possibility of endogenous money creation by the state and commercial banks. But is it broader and more mature politically, because the polish marxists predicted that about the prospects of capitalism will not decide even the most realistic economic policies of the democratic government, but in fact not entirely predictable class struggle between the capitalists and the working class.

Extradition Law; Issues and Challenges

Extradition is a process of handover a fugitive to a state with a jurisdiction based on reciprocity. No crime is left unpunished is a key principle of extradition. Extradition legislation of home country and extradition treaty guides extradition process between and among two or more countries. In fact, extradition provides a means and methods to transfer a person to a country with jurisdiction on the ground of involvement in any terrorizing and grave issues. Double criminality, jurisdiction, and rule of specialty are precondition of extradition. No person is a subject of extradition in case of the involvement of political offence. Earlier, extradition was not granted in the case of financial offence but it is no longer applicable with the emergence of money laundering and terrorism financing offences.

State Induced Theft

In this article I argue that one of the main tools that allowed the Romanian communist state to control oppositional activities, far better than many of its Eastern European neighbors, was the transformation of political opponents into petty criminals and felons. I contend that in the two decades that preceded 1989, communist Romania witnessed a pragmatic shift from hard rule (based on simply imprisoning political opponents under the category of “political detainees”) to subversive criminalization. The main operative tool for the subversive criminalization of so-called political offenses was Law 18/1968 (subtitledLaw regarding the control of the provenance of goods that have not been acquired through legal means). I argue that Law 18 was the result of two interconnected political drives. The first drive was the desire of the Ceauşescu regime to gain favor with the West by perpetuating the rhetoric launched as a result of the general amnesty for political detainees in 1964, under the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej administration. The second drive was the political imperative of the Ceauşescu regime to suppress political opposition. My argument is that this transformative shift was accomplished through the development of what I call amechanism of state induced theftbacked by the deployment of a subversive legal instrument of criminalization, which was Law 18/1969. This paper analyzes the role, essence, and implications of Law 18 while supporting a theory of a strategic shift in communist policy.

International Criminalization of International Terrorizm

Analysis and studying of the terrorism in all its facets is a complex entangled problem with less clear legal regulation that it might seem at first glance, especially after its transformation from local phenomenon into a world threat. Hitherto terrorism and actions connected to it have been criminalized by the majority of states. There are in modern criminal law whole systems of rules on criminal liability for terrorism which differs considerably from country to country. Terrorism has been criminalized in numerous international regional and universal antiterrorist legal instruments. The author notes that differences in definitions that are enshrined in them hinders international cooperation in criminal matters with respect to terrorist cases. Difficulties reside in the necessity to meet the dual criminality requirement and in the political offense exception. These difficulties can only be overcome through elaboration of a universally recognized definition of the notion of international terrorism and making it legally binding via its inclusion into a universal convention. The issue of definition of international terrorism is an important part of an efficient mutual assistance among states in fight against this crime. In this article the author accounts of actual ways of tackling by the international community of the issue of criminalization of international terrorism and of factors influencing them.

Taming the Beast: West Germany, the Political Offence Exception, and the Council of Europe Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism

In the 1970s, Western European countries were hit hard by terrorism, especially by international terrorism that crossed borders easily and allowed terrorists of different origins to carry out attacks against both governments and people. Consequently, the necessity of fighting this menace also extended to international organisations. This article looks at how the Council of Europe dealt with the issue, and assesses the negotiations that led to the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism from the German perspective. West Germany was very interested in establishing a sounder international legal framework against terrorism and thought that the Council of Europe would be able to make an important contribution by abolishing the political offence exception that had so far been a core feature of most extradition treaties. This clause allowed political criminals to escape punishment by fleeing to a country that would deny extradition to a different country on the grounds of the political nature of the act committed by the person in question. The article gives an account and analysis of the complex negotiations that finally resulted in the adoption of the Convention in 1977, as well as of the problems encountered and compromises reached during these negotiations.

Making the Political Offence Legal? The Interpretative Role of the Jury in the Belgian Legal Tradition

The 1831 Belgian Constitution restored the jury trial for criminal matters, press offences and political offences. The latter was copied from the 1830 French Charte constitutionnelle, but despite the fact that this was a terminological novelty in the western legal tradition, no definition was given. The Belgian constituent did so on purpose, as it enlarged the interpretative role of the jury. In this regard, it was even attributed a double role, the jurors did not only have to judge on the substance of the case, but on the interpretation of the criminal provisions as well, which were often vague in political matters. However, in Belgian legal practice, the judicial authorities soon lost faith in jury trials and a case-law was developed which substantially narrowed the definition of the political offence, which eventually led to a fossilization of the constitutional ideal. Hence, professional magistrates have succeeded in developing a strategic way to avoid a popular judgment in political matters without violating the constitution.

The Political Offence and the Safeguarding of the Nation State: Constitutional Ideals, French Legal Standards and Belgian Legal Practice, 1830–70

Both the French Constitutional Charter (1830) and the Belgian Constitution (1831) stated that a jury was required to judge press offences and political offences. While the latter was a terminological novelty in the Western legal discourse, no precise definition of its legal meaning was given. The French law of 8 October 1830 provided a non-delimiting list of all offences that were considered political, but the Belgian legislature gave barely any indication. In this paper, after stressing a number of similarities in the conception of the political offence as a key element in political thought, a comparison is made between the French legal standards and Belgian legal practice. Despite the obvious French influence, there were substantial differences in Belgium, especially where Church-State relationships were involved. This clearly reveals the pragmatic approach of the Belgian judiciary towards the safeguarding of the young nation state.

Prisoner Disenfranchisement: Prisoner and Public Views of an Invisible Punishment

A prison sentence is often geared toward punishment of offenders, reduction of crime, and/or protection of the public. However, in many jurisdictions, those in prison may suffer from collateral or “invisible” consequences such as denial of their voting rights. Despite the growing global social and legal debates on prisoner disenfranchisement policy, there have been few empirical studies of this issue. We explored and compared a sample of the prisoners’ and the public's views of prisoner disenfranchisement policy in the United Kingdom. Although the public were more likely than prisoners to consider voting as important, they were less aware of prisoner disenfranchisement. A high proportion of prisoners said they would vote in prison, however, only a third had voted in the past (outside prison). Prisoners and the public held different attitudes toward prisoner disenfranchisement, and the public were more likely to view this policy as fair. Prisoners were more likely to believe that their vote could influence elections, and this best predicted their intentions to vote. These findings are further considered in relation to political party affiliation, prisoner populations, and offense types. We identify future directions for research on prisoner disenfranchisement.

Peace in Northern Ireland and the Remaining Issue of the “On-the-Runs”

The return of devolution to Northern Ireland in May 2007 marks an important turning point in the Northern Ireland peace process, but there remains the issue of the “on-the-runs”—a term used to describe persons suspected of committing a range of terrorist acts during the Troubles, who were never arrested, charged, prosecuted, or tried. It is thought that the On-the-Runs want to return to Northern Ireland, but determining the conditions for their return is a difficult and controversial issue, raising legal and moral concerns and causing strong and painful reactions among the victims of terrorist violence on all sides of the Northern Ireland conflict. It is also an issue that is complicated by the fact that while the Belfast Agreement of 1998 did not address expressly the situation of the On-the-Runs, it did provide for the accelerated release of a significant number of paramilitaries, both republican and loyalist, from prisons in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. This paper reviews the possible options in law for addressing the situation of the On-the-Runs, including extradition and prosecution, as well as trial and amnesty, and pardons. While the paper makes clear that the political offence exception to extradition is no longer the obstacle it once was, it also concludes that politics, rather than law, or simply the passage of time is more likely to offer the solution to the problem posed by the On-the-Runs.

Discovering Xingkaihu: Political Inmates in a PRC Labor Camp

During the years of 1955–1969, the Xingkaihu labor camp in China’s northeastern borderland of Heilongjiang Province detained large numbers of social undesirables, a considerable portion being charged with political offenses. The authorities used them as forced laborers for land reclamation and other projects in conjunction with “ideological remolding.” This research examines the experiences of intellectual political inmates in Xingkaihu. They suffered physically and psychologically. Their attempts to redeem themselves exacerbated their misfortune and came to define one aspect of the tragedy of intellectuals in Mao’s China. I also outline the development of Xingkaihu, its managerial features, and the camp authority’s alleged efforts to remold the inmates ideologically through combined use of indoctrination, manipulation, intimidation and coercion.