Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the past thirty years, as have the policy approaches to deal with it. During this time criminologists and other scholars have helped to shed light on the role of incarceration, prevention, drugs, guns, policing, and numerous other aspects to crime control. Yet the latest research is rarely heard in public discussions and is often missing from the desks of policymakers. This book accessibly summarizes the latest scientific information on the causes of crime and evidence about what does and does not work to control it.
Thoroughly revised and updated, this new version of Crime and Public Policy will include twenty chapters and five new substantial entries. As with previous editions, each essay reviews the existing literature, discusses the methodological rigor of the studies, identifies what policies and programs the studies suggest, and then points to policies now implemented that fail to reflect the evidence. The chapters cover the principle institutions of the criminal justice system (juvenile justice, police, prisons, probation and parole, sentencing), how broader aspects of social life inhibit or encourage crime (biology, schools, families, communities), and topics currently generating a great deal of attention (criminal activities of gangs, sex offenders, prisoner reentry, changing crime rates).
With contributions from trusted, leading scholars, Crime and Public Policy offers the most comprehensive and balanced guide to how the latest and best social science research informs the understanding of crime and its control for policymakers, community leaders, and students of crime and criminal justice.

The Law of Evidence in South Africa, Third Edition offers a clear, concise, and applied introduction to the principles governing the law of evidence in South Africa, including the verification of truth within customary law contexts.

This third edition is revised and updated to reflect key legal developments that have emerged since the publication of the previous edition. It also provides insightful analysis of the evolving technological landscape and its implications for evidentiary principles and practice.

Structured to promote clarity and comprehension, the text presents content in a logical sequence that supports both learning and application. A conceptual and inquiry-based approach encourages independent, critical, and reflective engagement with the subject matter.

Private Law in a Changing World honours the work of Professor Danie Visser and celebrates his return to research after almost a decade as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. It considers the ways in which the law of obligations has evolved in response to external forces in both the recent and remote past – or, to switch perspectives, the high degree of internal coherence and continuity which it has maintained over time despite the operation of such forces.

Leading scholars of legal history and private law from six jurisdictions consider topics drawn from across the law of contract, delict/tort and unjust/unjustified enrichment.

Their insights shed light on contemporary debates around the world regarding the value of doctrinal scholarship, and on the debates regarding the decolonisation of private law currently unfolding in South Africa.

The long-awaited consolidation of the UK merchant shipping legislation finally arrived with the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 which replaced the thirty or so Acts dating from the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. This new edition of Merchant Shipping Act 1995 - An Annotated Guide provides an authoritative and practical guide to the implications of this important legislation. Written in a clear and accessible style, the authors guide you chronologically through each of the Act's 313 sections. They include expert commentary and analysis to assist your understanding and interpretation of the Act. Merchant Shipping Act 1995 - An Annotated Guide is an essential first-stop reference guide, providing guidance on the appropriate authorities and more detailed texts to which further reference can be made. It is also annotated throughout with comprehensive tables and indexes, making it a truly practical working tool. Thoroughly revised and up-dated, the second edition includes details of: Amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 The Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1997 Statutory instruments and regulations introduced to supplement the Merchant Shipping Act The most recent case law Updated references to other texts, which have themselves been updated in the last 4 years

Why do decision-makers in similar liberal democracies interpret the same legal definition in very different ways? International law provides states with a common definition of a 'refugee' as well as guidelines outlining how asylum claims should be decided. Yet, the processes by which countries determine who should be granted refugee status look strikingly different, even across nations with many political, cultural, geographical, and institutional commonalities. This book compares the refugee status determination (RSD) regimes of three popular asylum seeker destinations - the United States, Canada, and Australia. Despite similarly high levels of political resistance to accepting asylum seekers across these three states, once asylum seekers cross their borders, they access three very different systems. These differences are significant both in terms of asylum seekers' experience of the process and in terms of their likelihood of being found to be a refugee.
The book moves beyond the claim by some scholars that asylum seeker destinations are uniformly becoming more exclusionary, and the contrary assertions of other scholars that the same destinations are converging on a new inclusive internationalism leading to the decline of state sovereignty. Instead, Hamlin finds these states to be running on three distinct trajectories, none of which are totally restrictive or expansive. Based on a multi-method analysis of all three countries, including a year of fieldwork with in-depth interviews of policy-makers and asylum-seeker advocates, observations of refugee status determination hearings, and a large-scale case analysis, Hamlin finds that cross-national differences have less to do with political debates over admission and border control policy than with the level of insulation the administrative decision-making agency enjoys from either political interference or judicial review. Administrative justice is conceptualized and organized differently in every state, and so states vary in how they draw the line between refugee and non-refugee.

This introductory-level textbook provides a clear and concise overview of commercial law for undergraduate law students.

Covering all the key areas of law that may be included in a commercial law module, including agency, sale of goods, bailments, carriage of goods, commercial financing, and conflict of laws, it also introduces relevant elements of related fields such as banking and insolvency law and touches on emerging issues such as cryptocurrencies.

Key Features:

• Accessible and conversational prose
• A tight focus on core knowledge with manageable levels of detail
• Important concepts, cases and legislation are highlighted for ease of reference
• Student-friendly layout with key lessons and learning objectives clearly identified

Principles of Commercial Law is perfectly suited to law students studying undergraduate commercial law modules in their second or third years. It will also be beneficial as an accessible introductory text on higher level courses for students who are newer to the topic.

South Africa's property law teachers have been convening annually since 1985 to exchange ideas, subject their work to peer scrutiny and build a collegial network. Over time, the agendas of the annual meetings became snapshots of the development of a discipline. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of this meeting, the property law teachers' colloquium was expanded into an International property law conference, giving South African property law teachers an opportunity to exchange their ideas on a much broader platform, with some of the world's best property law scholars and teachers. Property law under scrutiny brings together pieces that give an overview of property law twenty-five years after the establishment of the South African property law teachers' colloquium. A recurrent theme in all the contributions at the conference, and the ones included in this publication, is the tension between well-established principles of property law and the policies that drive legal development in the field. The topics addressed are organised into four themes, as follows: The first cluster relates to an age-old issue in conventional property law: The accession of movables to immovables; The second cluster concerns the centrality of the real agreement in transfers and in the real security context; A third cluster deals with questions about the public law aspects of property; The fourth cluster captures some of the dilemmas and challenges concerning the abandonment and neglect of property. It ties together the underlying concerns aired in debates about the conventional property rules and issues surfacing in the crossover between private and public law, and the role of property law principles. In capturing the interaction between South African and international scholarship, Property law under scrutiny serves to introduce a new era in this developing discipline. Teachers and practitioners of property law, locally and internationally, will find this to be an invaluable resource.

In Legislating International Organization, Kathryn Lavelle argues against the commonly-held idea that key international organizations are entities unto themselves, immune from the influence and pressures of individual states' domestic policies. Covering the history of the IMF and World Bank from their origins, she shows that domestic political constituencies in advanced industrial states have always been important drivers of international financial institution policy. Lavelle focuses in particular on the U.S. Congress, tracing its long history of involvement with these institutions and showing how it wields significant influence. Drawing from archival research and interviews with members and staff, Lavelle shows that Congress is not particularly hostile to the multilateralism inherent in the IMF and World Bank, and has championed them at several key historical junctures. Congress is not uniformly supportive of these institutions, however. As Lavelle illustrates, it is more defensive of its constitutionally designated powers and more open to competing interest group concerns than legislatures in other advanced industrial states. Legislating International Organization will reshape how we think about how the U.S. Congress interacts with international institutions and more broadly about the relationship of domestic politics to global governance throughout the world. This is especially relevant given the impact of 2008 financial crisis, which has made the issue of multilateralism in American politics more important than ever.

The framers of the Constitution chose their words carefully when they wrote of a more perfect union-not absolutely perfect, but with room for improvement. Indeed, we no longer operate under the same Constitution as that ratified in 1788, or even the one completed by the Bill of Rights in 1791-because we are no longer the same nation. In The Revolutionary Constitution, David J. Bodenhamer provides a comprehensive new look at America's basic law, integrating the latest legal scholarship with historical context to highlight how it has evolved over time. The Constitution, he notes, was the product of the first modern revolution, and revolutions are, by definition, moments when the past shifts toward an unfamiliar future, one radically different from what was foreseen only a brief time earlier. In seeking to balance power and liberty, the framers established a structure that would allow future generations to continually readjust the scale. Bodenhamer explores this dynamic through seven major constitutional themes: federalism, balance of powers, property, representation, equality, rights, and security. With each, he takes a historical approach, following their changes over time. For example, the framers wrote multiple protections for property rights into the Constitution in response to actions by state governments after the Revolution. But twentieth-century courts-and Congress-redefined property rights through measures such as zoning and the designation of historical landmarks (diminishing their commercial value) in response to the needs of a modern economy. The framers anticipated just such a future reworking of their own compromises between liberty and power. With up-to-the-minute legal expertise and a broad grasp of the social and political context, this book is a tour de force of Constitutional history and analysis.

Combined Transport Documents provides a comprehensive guide to combined transport or multi-modal contracts. It examines the main contracts that deal with combined transport logically, from those concerned with the procuring of tonnage through to those that deal with general average and salvage. It also focuses on the complicated chains of indemnity particular to multimember consortium operations and explains in substantial detail a recommended draft bill of lading contract of carriage which the author himself developed. Combined Transport Documents provides a comprehensive guide to combined transport or multi-modal contracts. It examines the main contracts that deal with combined transport logically, from those concerned with the procuring of tonnage through to those that deal with general average and salvage. It also focuses on the complicated chains of indemnity particular to multi-member consortium operations and explains in substantial detail a recommended draft bill of lading contract of carriage which the author himself developed.

Clinical legal education (CLE) is a springboard for entry into legal practice, preparing students for the professional challenges they will face after completing their studies and embarking on their legal careers.

In her eight years of conducting research on CLE in South African universities, the author has found that the most urgent needs are in the area of student assessment. Designing a curriculum with assessable content is therefore essential for clinicians who, in certifying students’ capabilities, are the gatekeepers to practice.

This book identifies curriculum requirements across a number of jurisdictions and proposes a menu of assessment methods which may enhance the choices of assessment methodologies available to South African university law clinics. It also covers the setting of parameters for assessment, grading, grade descriptors and moderation systems, and discusses different forms of tests, assignments, essay and oral examinations, as well as self- and peer-evaluation, peer editing, case portfolios, and trial advocacy skills. The book addresses challenges such as clinicians’ heavy workloads and differing levels of experience in supervision and assessment. It discusses challenges students face and presents solutions enabling clinicians to help them depending on their individual experience and needs.

Also discussed are the potential conflicts between the needs of students and those of the local community being served by the law clinic.

Although the aim of this book is to find appropriate assessment methods for CLE, the effectiveness of an assessment programme can only be determined when measured against a curriculum. The proposed curriculum is therefore measured against the identified assessment criteria.

A Reasonable Man: Essays in honour of Jonathan Burchell is a collection of essays published in honour of Jonathan Burchell in recognition of his commitment to the academe and his strong sense of loyalty to the institutions in which he has worked, particularly to students and colleagues.

The breadth and impact of his research in the fields of both delict and criminal justice are attested to by the esteemed multidisciplinary scholars who contributed to this work.

Americans have a deeply ambivalent relationship to guns. The United States leads all nations in rates of private gun ownership, yet stories of gun tragedies frequent the news, spurring calls for tighter gun regulations. The debate tends to be acrimonious and is frequently misinformed and illogical. The central question is the extent to which federal or state governments should regulate gun ownership and use in the interest of public safety. In this volume, David DeGrazia and Lester Hunt examine this policy question primarily from the standpoint of ethics: What would morally defensible gun policy in the United States look like? Hunt's contribution argues that the U.S. Constitution is right to frame the right to possess a firearm as a fundamental human right. The right to arms is in this way like the right to free speech. More precisely, it is like the right to own and possess a cell phone or an internet connection. A government that banned such weapons would be violating the right of citizens to protect themselves. This is a function that governments do not perform: warding off attacks is not the same thing as punishing perpetrators after an attack has happened. Self-protection is a function that citizens must carry out themselves, either by taking passive steps (such as better locks on one's doors) or active ones (such as acquiring a gun and learning to use it safely and effectively). DeGrazia's contribution features a discussion of the Supreme Court cases asserting a constitutional right to bear arms, an analysis of moral rights, and a critique of the strongest arguments for a moral right to private gun ownership. He follows with both a consequentialist case and a rights-based case for moderately extensive gun control, before discussing gun politics and advancing policy suggestions. In debating this important topic, the authors elevate the quality of discussion from the levels that usually prevail in the public arena. DeGrazia and Hunt work in the discipline of academic philosophy, which prizes intellectual honesty, respect for opposing views, command of relevant facts, and rigorous reasoning. They bring the advantages of philosophical analysis to this highly-charged issue in the service of illuminating the strongest possible cases for and against (relatively extensive) gun regulations and whatever common ground may exist between these positions.

This is a concise and accessible introduction to fundamental rights in Europe from the perspectives of history, theory and an analysis of European jurisprudence. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the book equips readers with the tools to understand the foundations and the functioning of this complex and multi-layered topic. Key Features: A combination of historical and philosophical approaches with analysis of significant legal cases A multidisciplinary outlook, in contrast to the strict legal approach of most textbooks on the subject A European perspective which refers throughout to central European values such as freedom, equality, solidarity and dignity A specific focus on fundamental rights, which have received less attention in the fields of legal history and theory in comparison to human rights This textbook will be an important resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in law, philosophy and political science. It will be particularly useful to those studying the law of fundamental rights or human rights as a complement to more traditional legal approaches.

Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers of the Constitution. But Posner and Vermeule find fault with James Madison's premises. Like an ideal market, they write, Madison's separation of powers has no central director, but it lacks the price system which gives an economy its structure; there is nothing in checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority, noting that among strong presidents only Nixon has come in for severe criticism, leading to legislation which was designed to limit the presidency, yet which failed to do so. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution. Piety toward the founders and a historic fear of tyranny have been powerful forces in American political thinking. Posner and Vermeule confront them both in this startlingly original contribution.

For the first time in legal history, an indictment was filed against an acting head of state, Slobodan Milosevic, for crimes that he allegedly committed while in office. Seeking to change the concept of ethnic cleansing from a rationalizing euphemism to an incriminating metaphor, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established precedents and expanded the boundaries of international criminal and humanitarian law.
In Reclaiming Justice: The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Local Courts, Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich and John Hagan expand on prior literature about the ICTY by providing a comprehensive view of how people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia view and evaluate the ICTY. Kutnjak Ivkovich and Hagan raise crucial questions about international justice in a systematic and comprehensive manner, focusing on the ICTY's legality and judicial independence, as well as specific issues of substantive and procedural justice and collective and individual responsibility. They provide an in-depth analysis of perceptions about the ICTY and the subsequent work and decisions reached by its local courts. In addition, they examine the relationship between the views of the ICTY and ethnicity as the war was fought largely along ethnic lines.

Just as Latin American countries began to transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the region also saw gains in social, cultural and economic gender equality. In accordance with modernization theories, women in the region have also made significant inroads into elected office. However, these gains vary a great deal between countries in Latin America. They also vary significantly at different levels of government even within the same country. Inside government arenas, representation is highly gendered with rules and norms that advantage men and disadvantage women, limiting women's access to full political power. While one might expect these variations to map onto socioeconomic and cultural conditions within each country, they don't correlate. This book makes, for the first time, a comprehensive comparison of gender and representation across the region - in seven countries - and at five different levels: the presidency, cabinets, national legislatures, political parties, and subnational governments. Overall, it argues that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in democratic institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing the region. Institutions and political context not only influence the number of women and men elected to office, but also what they do once in office, the degree of power to which they gain access, and how their presence and actions influence democracy and society, more broadly. Drawing on the expertise of scholars of women, gender, and political institutions, this book is the most comprehensive analysis of women's representation in Latin America to date, and an important resource for research on women's representation worldwide. The causes, consequences, and challenges to women's representation in Latin America are not unique to that region, and the book uses Latin American patterns to draw broad conclusions about gendered representation in other areas of the world.

The relevance of lawyers and jurists in the process of state-building in nineteenth-century Latin America has been widely acknowledged. This collection of essays assembles a series of studies dealing with the interaction between the legal world and the wider political, economic, social and cultural processes in which the transition from colonial status to independent nationhood took place. Rather than viewing this transition as a radical transformation of judicial institutions and practices, emphasis has been put upon the continuities between those two phases. The chapters range from general overviews of both colonial and republican Spanish America to more detailed case studies of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. contributors include: Linda Arnold, Virginia Tech; Osvaldo Barreneche, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina; Charles R. Cutter, Purdue University; Thomas H. Holloway, Cornell University; Victor M. Uribe, Florida International University.

New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms, edited by James A. Gardner and Jim Rossi, projects a new vision for state constitutional law through a collection of essays that reflect a shift in legal thinking about the relationship between national and subnational systems of constitutional law. This work charts a new course that gives voice to a recent, rising chorus of dissent among scholars and judges, namely that national and subnational systems of constitutional law cannot be adequately understood in isolation from one another. To the contrary, they are linked in a web of jurisprudential, social, and pragmatic connections structured by the American system of federalism. Here, multiple layers of constitutional law function together in a complex, interdependent process in which constitutional norms are developed, articulated, and enforced.
The essays illuminate the role that state constitutions must play in any theory of federalism, and exemplify a fresh approach to state constitutionalism by discussing a range of issues, including recent debates regarding state constitutional protections for same-sex marriage.
The entire work embraces the struggle between state and national power for dominance in American law and places both on equal ground. It contends that constitutional meaning in a federal system is never static and that it evolves over time. In addition to covering methods of judicial review, it discusses the handling of constitutional claims by courts at the state and national level and closely examines the way that courts and constitutions protect individual rights in a federal system.

This extensively updated textbook introduces the transport system and its societal impacts in a holistic and multidisciplinary way. A timely second edition, it includes new analyses of travel behaviour and the transport system’s impacts on health and well-being. Key Features: Guidance for transport policy evaluation methods and modelling approaches Systematic approach to analysing higher-order impacts of interventions in the transport system Discussion of topical issues in transport policy, including analysis of current transport innovations The use of case studies to highlight interconnected aspects of the transport system and their relevance to decision making Exploration of the role of transport systems in providing accessibility and their impact on the environment, safety, health and well-being International in scope, this textbook will be invaluable for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying disciplines such as transport policy and transport geography. It will also be useful to the professionals and policymakers in the transport industry.

Political theory is traditionally concerned with the justification and limits of state power. It asks: Can states legitimately direct and coerce non-consenting subjects? If they can, what limits, if any, constrain sovereign power? Public law is concerned with the justification and limits of judicial power. It asks: On what grounds can judges 'read down' or 'read in' statutory language against the apparent intention of the legislature? What limits, if any, are appropriate to these exercises of judicial power? This book develops an original constitutional theory of political authority that yields novel answers to both sets of questions. Fox-Decent argues that the state is a fiduciary of its people, and that this fiduciary relationship grounds the state's authority to announce and enforce law. The fiduciary state is conceived of as a public agent of necessity charged with guaranteeing a regime of secure and equal freedom. Whereas the social contract tradition struggles to ground authority on consent, the fiduciary theory explains authority with reference to the state's fiduciary obligation to respect legal principles constitutive of the rule of law. This obligation arises from the state's possession of irresistible public powers. The author begins with a discussion of Hobbes's conception of legality and the problem of discretionary power in administrative law. Drawing on Kant, he sketches a theory of fiduciary relations, and develops the argument through three parts. Part I shows that it is possible for the state to stand in a public fiduciary relationship to its people through a discussion of Crown-Native fiduciary relations recognized by Canadian courts. Part II sets out the theoretical underpinnings of the fiduciary theory of the state. Part III explores the implications of the fiduciary theory for administrative law and common law constitutionalism. The final chapter situates the theory within a broader philosophical discussion of the rule of law.

The American legal system is experiencing a period of extreme stress, if not crisis, as it seems to be losing its legitimacy with at least some segments of its constituency. Nowhere is this legitimacy deficit more apparent than in a portion of the African American community in the U.S., as incidents of police killing black suspects - whether legally justified or not - have become almost routine. However, this legitimacy deficit has largely been documented through anecdotal evidence and a steady drumbeat of journalistic reports, not rigorous scientific research. This book offers an all-inclusive account of how and why African Americans differ in their willingness to ascribe legitimacy to legal institutions, as well as in their willingness to accept the policy decisions those institutions promulgate. Based on two nationally-representative samples of African Americans, this book ties together four dominant theories of public opinion: Legitimacy Theory, Social Identity Theory, theories of adulthood political socialization and learning through experience, and information processing theories. The findings reveal a gaping chasm in legal legitimacy between black and white Americans. More importantly, black people themselves differ in their perceptions of legal legitimacy. Group identities and experiences with legal authorities play a crucial role in shaping whether and how black people extend legitimacy to the legal institutions that so much affect them. This book is one of the most comprehensive analyses produced to date of legal legitimacy within the American black community, with many surprising and counter-intuitive results.

This book provides law enforcement officials with the essential legal knowledge and practical acumen needed for the performance of their duties.

Bunkers are the lifeblood of the shipping industry - their availability, quality and, above all else, cost often determine whether a shipowner can operate efficiently and profitably. Cockett on Bunkers provides those involved in the shipping and oil industries with an understanding of the worldwide bunker fuel industry and a comprehensive manual that can be used as a reference in day-to-day bunker management and operation. Cockett on Bunkers contains up-to-date information on marine fuel standards and monitoring services, bunker buying techniques, bunker suppliers and the art of blending, pricing and bunkering operational procedures and takes into account recent developments in these areas.;Written in an accessible style with the emphasis on practical interpretation.