bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Skills for Children: Training Empirically-derived Target Behaviours
Authors: Weist Mark D. , Borden M. Christopher , Finney Jack W. , Ollendick Thomas H.
Published: July 2016

We evaluated the empirical validation model of target selection for two boys with interpersonal problems. Behaviours previously identified as distinguishing popular from rejected boys on a role-play measure of social behaviour were targeted for change in these boys who had histories of peer rejection. We trained three of these empirically-derived behaviours — appropriate body orientation, adequate speech intonation, and providing reasons for denying unreasonable requests — in a multiple-baseline-across-behaviours design. On a role-play measure of social behaviour, improvements in the targeted behaviours occurred upon, but not before, introduction of the intervention, confirming the controlling effects of the intervention. Behavioural improvements generalised to untrained role-play scenes and to a novel role-play partner, and were maintained for two of the three behaviours at 4- and 6-month follow-up assessments. The boys also showed improvements in parent-reported child behaviour from pre- to post-training. The study demonstrates use of an empirical approach to the selection of treatment targets for children.
Cross-cultural Application of Behaviour Therapy
Authors: Higginbotham Nick , Tanaka-Matsumi Juriko
Published: July 2016

The potential application of behaviour therapy to cross-cultural situations is explored as societies move to recognise their bicultural or multicultural composition. First reviewed are the moral and epistemological underpinnings of behaviour therapy and questions involving the universality of behaviour principles and technologies. Expected competencies of cross-cultural therapists are next raised. The basic message, told through examples from Australia, North American, and elsewhere, is that cultural norms and values penetrate every facet of client–therapist interaction and clinical decision-making. Competently performed functional analyses can produce culturally accommodating interventions that respond to culture-specific definitions of deviancy, accepted norms of role behaviour, expectations of change techniques, and approved behaviour change practitioners.
Behaviour Modification with Children: The Generalisation Trap
Authors: Drabman Ronald S. , Allen J. Scott , Tarnowski Kenneth J. , Simonian Susan J. , Elliott Debra
Published: July 2016

In order to encourage research in generalisation, Drabman, Hammer, and Rosenbaum (1979) introduced a framework to categorise the various generalised effects of child behaviour therapy. Sixteen different potential classes of generalisation were identified. To ascertain the current status of generalisation in the child behaviour therapy literature and further encourage generalisation research, we reviewed articles that appeared in 28 journals over the past 12 years. Of 15,141 studies, only 424 involved children and presented data on generalisation. Results indicated that: (a) a small percentage of studies both involved children and presented data on generalisation (2.77%), (b) of these studies, most failed to meet our methodological criteria for demonstrating generalisation, (c) the generalisation map categories of time, maintenance, setting, and setting-time were the most frequently encountered, (d) there was a significant increase in reported instances of maintenance generalisation effects over the past 10 years when compared with data from our earlier paper, and (e) generalisation data were found concerning 15 of the 16 map classes. Implications of these data, methods of conceptualising generalisation, the generalisation trap, and antecedent strategies for promoting generalisation are discussed.
Being SunSmart: Changes in Community Awareness and Reported Behaviour Following a Primary Prevention Program for Skin Cancer Control
Authors: Borland Ron , Hill David , Noy Sue
Published: July 2016

This paper evaluates the impact of a large scale campaign to encourage increased protection from solar ultra violet radiation (UVR). Broadly representative household surveys were conducted both before and after the campaign. The initial survey showed high levels of awareness of a skin protection message. The survey following the campaign showed large increases in awareness of the campaign slogan. There were high levels of reporting about taking extra precautions for sun protection and of encouraging other people, particularly children, to increase their sun protection. Within the limitations of the design, the results are interpreted as demonstrating an impact of the campaign. There is high community awareness of the need to take precautions against overexposure to solar UVR, coupled with high knowledge of appropriate behaviours and increased reporting of actually taking these precautions.
A Hostel-Based Psychoeducational Intervention for Schizophrenia: Program Development and Preliminary Findings
Authors: Higson Mary , Kavanagh David J.
Published: July 2016

Past research on interpersonal relationships and schizophrenia has typically focused on the relationships between clients and their families. However, many ex-patients live in other settings, such as boarding houses and hostels, where their main contact is with other residents. This paper represents a preliminary demonstration of a program to reduce levels of negative communication within two hostels, using a multiple baseline design. The intervention comprised a seven-session group program that was adapted from a psychoeducational family approach. Negative communication within hostels was measured in a brief interview with each resident. Results showed a marginally significant effect of the program on critical comments within the interviews.
The Role of Social-Cognitive Skills in the Determination of Children's Social Competence
Authors: Spence Susan H.
Published: July 2016

Very few attempts to enhance children's social competence have incorporated both cognitive and overt skill components. A case is made for the importance of cognitive influences upon children's social functioning. These include not only social-cognitive skills such as social perception, social problem solving and self monitoring but also the role of maladaptive cognitive events which interfere with adequate social response. Evidence concerning the importance of social-cognitive skills is discussed and the need for an integrated cognitive-behavioural approach in children's social enhancement programs is highlighted.
Utilising Family Resources to Manage Tantrum Behaviour: A Home-based Single-subject Study
Authors: Ralph Alan
Published: July 2016

The mother of a 7-year old boy with Down's syndrome was taught to use and to instruct others how to implement a behavioural management program to eliminate tantrum behaviour at home and in other social settings which was both frequent and persistent. The mother was the only person contacted throughout the program, which comprised three brief visits to the home and three telephone conversations. The program consisted of the extinction of tantrum behaviour using time-out from reinforcement coupled with differential reinforcement of appropriate behaviour. The behavioural objective of three consecutive days without tantrums was reached 18 days after the program was implemented and was maintained for a further 7 days, with only one minor relapse which occurred in a new setting. Six months later the improvement was being maintained. A brief discussion of factors affecting generalization and maintenance is included.
Visual Screening versus Auditory Screening: An Alternating Treatments Design
Authors: Dolan Gerard
Published: July 2016

An alternating treatment design was used to measure the differing impact of visual screening and an auditory blocking procedure in the suppression of the screaming behaviour of a profoundly retarded girl. The auditory blocking procedure made use of white noise to mask any background or personal sounds. During separate sessions both screening procedures were applied for a duration of 1 minute following an occurrence of the screaming behaviour. Results showed that both techniques were successful in reducing the frequency of the behaviour. The visual screening procedure was the preferred treatment for maintaining and generalizing the suppression, because of ease of use and mobility.
The Time-Series Analysis of Self-reported Headache Sequences
Authors: Gregson Robert A. M.
Published: July 2016

Individual case histories collected variously in Europe and in Australia, recorded over long unbroken sequences, on a daily self-report basis, are potentially analysable as time series. The assessment of spontaneous changes in the dynamics of headache generation and attenuation, and the consequences, if any, of superimposed therapeutic intervention, require that we treat the self-report ratings of headache intensity and duration as a multistate process which is highly autoregressive. Some strong insights into individual differences both in chronic headache patterns, and in response to treatment, are obtained. Of particular interest are individual differences in cyclical and quasi-periodic headaches and in the possible causality of such differences.
Implications of Individual Differences in Vascular Reactivity for the Management of Migraine
Authors: Drummond Peter D.
Published: July 2016

The view that dilatation of scalp arteries is a major source of pain in migraine was examined in a series of clinical and psychophysiological investigations. Examination of patients during unilateral migraine or tension-vascular headache demonstrated evidence of extracranial vasodilatation in only a minority of patients. Studies of psychophysiological reactivity indicated that the amplitude of superficial temporal artery pulsations increased more on the side habitually affected by headache than on the non-symptomatic side after light exercise, and increased more readily in migrainous subjects than in non-headache controls during psychological stress. In patients who had previously shown thermographic signs of an increase in blood flow at the site of headache, scalp arteries dilated readily to mental arithmetic stress and exercise. Although extracranial vasodilatation sometimes contributes to migraine, it does not appear to be the primary source of pain in the majority of patients. Regulation of scalp artery diameter may be most effective in the subgroup of patients whose scalp arteries contribute to pain.
Clinical Strategies for Enhancing Generalization in Behavioural Parent Training: An Overview
Authors: Sanders Matthew R.
Published: July 2016

Behavioural parent training as a treatment approach for conduct disordered children and their families has been a remarkably successful endeavour. However, both clinical experience and research findings have shown that some families can be considerably more difficult to treat than others. Families in which there is significant marital disharmony, maternal depression, low income, and lack of support networks, often drop out from treatment and fail to generalize or maintain treatment gains. This paper explores some of the potential ecological obstacles to programming generalization and maintenance effects in parent training. It also reviews a range of clinical strategies that can be employed to facilitate generalization effects in families. It is argued that if generalization enhancement strategies are to be effective they need to be derived from a fine grained functional analysis of each parent's ecological environment and individually tailored to that setting.
An Interview Schedule for Use in the Behavioural Assessment of Children's Problems
Authors: Murphy Gregory C. , Hudson Alan M. , King Neville J. , Remenyi Andrew
Published: July 2016

A crucial aspect of behavioural assessment and intervention is the initial interview with the client. Although the interview is the most frequently employed method of assessment, very few published behavioural interview schedules are available to clinicians. The authors present an interview schedule for the behavioural assessment of children's problems. Hopefully, such devices will improve the reliability and validity of problem identification and facilitate effective case management.
Schizophrenia: An Overview
Authors: Minas I. Harry , Jackson Henry , Doherty Peter , McGorry Pat
Published: July 2016

An overview of schizophrenia is presented. The epidemiology and clinical features of this common but serious psychiatric disorder are outlined. Four case vignettes illustrate different presentations and, to some extent, the varying course of the disorder. Diagnostic issues are discussed and the heterogeneity of the disorder highlighted. The major aetiological hypotheses are outlined, including evidence for genetic and biochemical involvement, the role of family, social and personality factors, psychological mechanisms and life events. A diathesis-stress view is presented, in which biological vulnerability and psychological and environmental factors are necessary for the development of the clinical disorder. Somatic and psychosocial treatments are briefly discussed as are the course, possible outcomes and factors affecting prognosis. Finally some future research directions in both the biological and psychosocial areas are considered.
Behavioural Family Interventions in the Management of Schizophrenia: A Review
Authors: Dadds Mark , Dooley Roger , Pakenham Ken
Published: July 2016

A change has taken place in the role ascribed families in the treatment of schizophrenia. Rather than being implicated etiologically, families are seen more as the natural support system in preventing relapse of schizophrenic illness after discharge from hospital. The factors predicting relapse are reviewed including expressed emotion, communication deviance and medication compliance. From these, a set of objectives for treatment have been derived and the behavioural family intervention programme of Falloon and Liberman is described. Outcome research on the efficacy of this and the psychoeducational family approaches show short term benefits in relapse prevention and symptom amelioration but that more long term follow up data are needed. Further research also needs to address the relationship between outcome, specific treatment modality, medication use and the behavioural disturbance of the patient.
Home-School Reinforcement: A Case Study
Authors: Leach David J. , Ralph Alan
Published: July 2016

A home-based reinforcement programme was implemented to decrease classroom rule violations by a 16-year-old boy with a long history of disruptive behaviour in a secondary school classroom. The critical features of the intervention are described and discussed, including the fading procedure employed to maintain the behavioural gains exhibited during the programme's operation. The usefulness of minimal interventions, such as home-based reinforcement programmes, in the management of problem behaviour in schools is discussed, and comment is made on some possible benefits to behavioural practice of the collaborative style of intervention exemplified.
Competitive Behaviour as a Function of Attributional Manipulation
Authors: Grove J. Robert
Published: July 2016

Attributions are typically examined as dependent variables in sport-related research. As a result, the behavioural consequences of competitive attributions have been largely ignored. This paper summarizes four experiments that have attempted to manipulate attributions for competitive outcomes and assess the behavioural consequences of this manipulation. The results of these experiments are generally consistent with findings from noncompetitive settings and suggest that effort attributions may benefit competitive performance. Discussion focuses on the unrealised potential for using effort-oriented attribution training in sport.
Attentional Style Profiles and Sport Performance
Authors: Summers Jeffery , Maddocks David
Published: July 2016

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between attentional style profiles of cricketers as measured by Nideffer's (1977) Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) and a performance component, playing level. A method of scoring and comparing attentional style profiles was developed. Cricket players (N = 68) at three different skill levels served as subjects. Results revealed that higher level players exhibited a higher proportion of profiles predicted to be associated with superior performance in fast-ball games, and lower proportions of inappropriate profiles, than the lowest playing levels subjects. The present results provide support for the use of attentional profile scores as a predictor of sport performance.
The Role of Social Research in Effective Social Change Programs
Authors: McLoughlin Lynne , Young Geoff
Published: July 2016

Social research is a critical foundation for programs that seek to engage communities in change and in the development of more sustainable societies. Without appropriate research, programs aimed at change are likely to be based on implicit or assumed problem identification and/or inferred community needs and wishes. If we are to achieve community participation in activities that lead to real change, research to find out about those communities is the first step. Over the past ten years the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) has developed a considerable body of social research, conducted with both the general community and specific community segments, to underpin its environmental education programs. This paper includes a review of some models for integrating social research into education programs, and examines the extent to which social research has impacted on both the environmental education programs and the organisational culture of the DEC. From this are drawn learnings from the perspective of a major State environmental agency, about the integration of social research into any program or organisation seeking to achieve social change towards sustainability. As well as program specific benefits, the ultimate outcome of this process is to assist in producing an organisational culture which values evidence-based decision-making and develops policies and structures that incorporate a social research dimension into both programs and policy.
A Participatory Approach to University Teaching About Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation
Authors: Gladstone William , Stanger Robin , Phelps Liz
Published: July 2016

Loss of biodiversity and habitats is one of the greatest threats to the environment and education has a critical role to play in addressing this issue. This paper describes a teaching activity for first-year university students studying sustainable resource management at the University of Newcastle which established a partnership between education, government and the community to rehabilitate a nature reserve where biodiversity values were threatened by weed invasion. Students research the problem (weed invasion), quantitatively assess the impacts of weed invasion and management interventions, and work alongside a community-based bushcare group and government agency during on-ground rehabilitation of the reserve. Key outcomes for students have been knowledge and skills relevant to a critical issue for the Australian environment; a more optimistic attitude towards environmental issues and their potential to develop solutions; a positive perspective about the role of community involvement; continued participation in community bushcare groups outside the classroom; and personal involvement in solving a critical environmental issue.
Promoting Learning for Sustainability: Principals' Perceptions of the Role of Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres
Authors: Ballantyne Roy , Packer Jan
Published: July 2016

Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres provide programs that are designed to address a range of environmental education aims, and contribute broadly to student learning for sustainability. This paper examines the roles such Centres can play, and how they might contribute to the Australian Government's initiative in relation to sustainable schools. Interviews with the principals of 23 such Centres in Queensland revealed three roles or models under which they operate: the destination model; the expert/advisor model; and the partnership model. Principals' understandings of these roles are discussed and the factors that support or hinder their implementation are identified. It is concluded that while the provision of programs in the environment is still a vital role of outdoor and environmental education centres, these can also be seen as a point of entry to long-term partnerships with whole school communities.
The Recreational Use of Natural Environments by Danish and New Zealand Tertiary Students
Authors: Mygind Erik , Boyes Mike
Published: July 2016

The purpose of the study was to compare demographic profiles, agents of socialisation on participation in outdoor activities and preferences for spending time in natural areas of New Zealand and Danish physical education students. The data were gathered by questionnaire from 270 Danish and 241 Mew Zealand students. New Zealand students expressed a stronger perception of being an outdoor person and may be linked to the fact that 12% of the Danish students have lived their lives in rural areas in contrast to 30% of the New Zealand students. Further, school and sport clubs were ranked higher by New Zealand students as factors of influence on outdoor life activities. Friends and parents/family were the most influential agencies of socialisation with no differences between nations. More than 92% of the Danish and New Zealand students had previous experiences of longer lasting outdoor trips. The study provide data for ongoing interpretation and create a basis for questions and reflections for the benefit of students in both institutions.
Learning as We Go: Catchment Management in the Urban Rural Fringe
Authors: Western Liz , Pilgrim Alan
Published: July 2016

The Swan Mundaring Community Catchment Project (SMCCP) was a three year Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funded partnership project between the Wooroloo Brook Land Conservation District Committee, the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council, the City of Swan, the Shire of Mundaring and Agriculture WA. The project was established in 1997 in response to a clear community demand for catchment-based coordination for existing initiatives and the recognised advantages of a strategic approach to future catchment management activities.

The SMCCP was one of the key Landcare initiatives of the Shire of Mundaring's Environmental Management Strategy. The success of the catchment project and a broad range of other Landcare and environmental initiatives within the shire was recognised in September 1999, when the Shire of Mundaring was awarded the biennial Telstra Local Government State Landcare Award. In addition a local community group, the Hovea-Parkerville Community Conservation Group was equal winner of the State Living Streams Award, sponsored by the Water and Rivers Commission. These awards are testimony to the ongoing commitment of the community and the Shire of Mundaring to valuing and protecting the environment.
Research in Environmental Education: Some Thoughts on the Need for Conceptual Analysis
Authors: Jickling Bob
Published: July 2016

When considering a topic as broad as research in environmental education it seems worthwhile, at the outset, to make some basic distinctions. First, establishing research priorities is not simply an empirical question. While it is undoubtedly useful to try to establish perceived needs and interests, and to consider them when establishing research priorities, this can only describe part of the task at hand. There are surely some logical requirements as well.

Second, a much more challenging task, it seems to me, is to more clearly understand the nature of the questions to which we seek answers. We must seek to distinguish between those research techniques which are more or less consistent with the nature of our task. Unfortunately, research in education generally, and in environmental education, in particular, has been hindered by a failure on the part of the research community to recognize the need for a more complete range of research perspectives than those customarily found, and by a failure to recognize the occasional and inevitable misapplications of technique which can occur when appropriate methodologies do not seem available.

With some misgivings about the scope of research in environmental education in mind, I am led to my concern: How do we go about furthering our understanding of concepts central to our field of study? In exploring this question I propose that conceptual analysis is an important research area. Further, I also argue that it is not simply an option, but rather a logical necessity if we are to establish greater coherence within environmental education and avoid unnecessary confusion (see for example: Barrow & Milburn, 1986; Scheffler, 1960; Soltis, 1978; and Wilson, 1969). Further, it is in the nature of this question that we find appeal for this particular approach to research.
Australian Tertiary Environmental Courses: A Status Report
Authors: Thomas Ian
Published: July 2016

During the 1970s and 1980s there has been a growing awareness of the environment. This has been particularly evident in the general community through:

• passing of environmental legislation;

• growth in status of environment groups;

• media coverage of environmental issues.

As a result the direction of formal education has been influenced. For example, through the Victorian State Conservation Strategy, the community has indicated the direction for tertiary institutions, where one of the objectives of this strategy is to:

promote and strengthen inter-disciplinary environmental education programs in schools and tertiary institutions. (Victorian Government, 1987, p.89)

Similarly, the Australian Government's Ecologically Sustainable Development process (ESD) has proposed the incorporation of ESD, in tertiary curricular (Ecologically Sustainable Development Steering Committee, 1992).

Linke (1979) has described the development of environmental education curricula during the 1970s whereby consideration of aspects of the environment became more common. Most activity was noted to be in primary and secondary sectors, however, at tertiary level a range of subjects focussing on the environment were apparent, as were several courses which were specifically designed to provide training in environmental understanding.
The Climate Change - Social Change Relationship
Authors: Russell David
Published: July 2016

Modern technology has its own momentum. Our very seeing and experiencing of the world changes as a consequence of the techno-scientific innovations that have been so instrumental in shaping our culture. There is a risk that, given the pride of place that we have allotted to techno-science, we will be further seduced by the hubris inherent in our cultural beliefs about how humankind relates to Nature.

Historically we have accepted a dominant role in the relationship with the environment, now our technology allows for a near absolute acting out of this role. Should we be won over by this seduction, then our exploration of the relationship between climate change and social change will be severely limited as will be our action to effect useful change.

The development of instrumentation for experiment, embedded in a social milieu of optimism about cultural progress, revealed to us micro-worlds and macro-worlds that our forebears could only dream about. It has also generated and subsequently named the unexpected and unwanted problem of a threatening climate change.

The rise of our technology-dominated culture has inevitably resulted in the quasi-religious belief that sees technology as socially salvific; for whatever problems we might have in society, there will be a new technological solution just around the corner that will save us from the threatening peril.

It is important to demythologise this near absolute belief so as to break the vicious cycle of technology being the dominant vehicle for producing progress (and some unforeseen associated problems), and that in order to have progress, there will always be an acceptable cost. So often one hears the stated hope: “There will be new technology that will address these problems” - the belief being that the path of progress will only temporarily be thwarted.
Consuming Passions: Educating the Empty Self
Authors: Hillcoat John , van Rensburg Eureta Janse
Published: July 2016

The paper considers the connections between the environmental crisis and patterns of consumption in the Western, and Westernised, worlds. These patterns are named as ‘malconsumption’, a concept which is defined and then discussed In terms of its importance to the work of environmental educators. Malconsumption as a means of ‘meaning-making’ and of countering ‘the empty self, and as a consequence of the activities of the advertising and other industries is explained. The paper closes with a summary of the orientation and activities associated with the practice of permaculture, and a proposition that a consideration of this practice in environmental education might contribute to a countering of the drive towards malconsumption.
Revolutions and Constitutions: Hannah Arendt's Challenge to Carl Schmitt
Authors: Scheuerman William E.
Published: July 2016

No two names better recall the polarized character of political life in mid-century Europe than Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt. Like so many of his peers in the Weimar intelligentsia, Schmitt eagerly polemicized against the Weimar Republic and actively sought its destruction. In 1933, he sold his soul to the Nazis and soon became one of their most impressive intellectual apologists. In striking contrast, Arendt risked her life to help anti-fascists and fellow Jews struggling to escape Germany in the immediate aftermath of the Nazi takeover. Forced to join the ranks of the thousands of “stateless” persons stripped of their German citizenship by the new regime, she ultimately found her way to New York City and a stunning career as one of our century's most impressive critics of totalitarianism. While Schmitt would continue to seize every opportunity to belittle the achievements of liberal democracy, even after the establishment of the relatively robust German Federal Republic in 1949, Arendt refused to abandon her chosenHeimat, the United States, even in its darkest hours. For Arendt, Vietnam and Watergate offered indisputable proof that the republican legacy of the American founding demanded our critical loyalty, but hardly—as one can imagine Schmitt arguing—of the inevitability of senseless political violence and authoritarian government.
Justice and the War of Reasons
Authors: Lehman Warren
Published: July 2016

No one has ever adequately described, either in poetry or in private conversation, what the very presence of justice or injustice in his soul does to a man, even if it remains hidden from gods and man....
Does It Help to Transform the Problem?
Authors: Wilkins Leslie T.
Published: July 2016

My lack of training in the discipline of academic philosophy will be evident in the following comments on the Conference papers. Nonetheless, having been associated with criminal justice research and policy over many years, my thinking may serve as an example of what philosophers have to put up with if they attempt to communicate with persons of my background.
The Revisionist Challenge: Can the liberal do without “liberty”?
Authors: Norman W. J.
Published: July 2016

It seems a truism that,

(1) the liberal believes in liberty.

But, even ignoring the vagueness of “believes in”, this tells us even less about liberalism than,

(2) the Catholic believes in God,

tells us about Catholicism. Neither statement distinguishes one creed from its rivals. Socialists, conservatives, anarchists and Buddhists can all believe in liberty (sometimes, but not always, different concepts of liberty); just as Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Hindus all believe in God (sometimes, but not always, different gods). (2), though, has at least the virtue of conveying one definite, fundamental and necessary belief of the Catholic: that there exists a supreme being. It is agreed, even by sympathizers, that (1) gives the liberal no such thing. “By definition, a liberal is a man who believes in liberty,” says Professor Cranston, “but because different men at different times have meant different things by liberty, ‘liberalism’ is correspondingly ambiguous.” If Liberty be its god, it should come as no surprise that liberalism is a schismatic church.
Rights and Right Conduct, Presumptions and Validity
Authors: Wueste Daniel E.
Published: July 2016

According to Sir Henry Maine, “a clear and consistent meaning was for the first time given to the expression ‘a right’ by the searching analysis of Bentham and Austin.” There is no question at least that clear thinking respecting the concept of ‘a right’ has been — and still is — closely associated with the work of legal philosophers, in particular, legal philosophers working in the positivistic tradition of Bentham and Austin. In Bentham’s case, clarity and consistency of thought respecting rights are purchased by confining attention to the legal arena. In truth, Bentham writes, “there are no such things as natural rights — no such things as rights anterior to the establishment of government — no such things as natural rights opposed to, in contradistinction to, legal [rights].” In short, all rights are artificial, products of human action. Consequently, that a certain “point of conduct” is a right does not turn on whether that point of conduct passes a moral test. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for the truth of such a claim of right that the conduct in question is right conduct. To think otherwise is to confuse questions of existence with questions of merit. One may have a right, say, to burn the flag of the United States in a peaceful political protest even though, in terms of widely accepted criteria of right conduct, say, of conservative Americans, this is wrong. So it has become a commonplace among contemporary rights theorists that there is a distinction between ‘a right’ (moral or legal) and ‘the right thing to do’ (morally or legally), unless a point were being pressed with respect to natural rights.
Intention in Criminal Law
Authors: Thornton Mark
Published: July 2016

Intention is a central concept in our system of criminal liability. And in recent years it has been much discussed, both by lawyers and philosophers. However, there remain disagreements, and some unclarity. My purpose in this paper is to examine, and propose solutions to, the main problems concerning the concept of intention in the criminal law.
Republican Authority
Authors: Sellers Mortimer
Published: July 2016

The proper jurisdiction of lawful authority has always been a central issue in Anglo-American jurisprudence. English and American legal institutions both grew out of a seventeenth-century British culture that valued liberty, and sought to defend it legally by carefully defining the scope and purpose of lawful authority. Yet after 1776 the two nations diverged. This paper will evaluate English conceptions of legal authority from an American perspective. My thesis is that English lawyers discuss the authority of law in language developed to counter seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European revolutionary thought. British reactions to the English, American and French Republics preserved Hobbesian conceptions of legal authority that still influence common-law jurisprudence today, and mislead English-speaking lawyers who have adopted British terminology. I will suggest a more precise vocabulary, and use it to criticise certain positivist conceptions of the authority of law.
Critics, Nietzsche, and the Criminal Law
Authors: Nowlin Christopher
Published: July 2016

Power can be evil, but it also protects the weak. The figure of justice...carries a sword in one hand. The use of power...is a key philosophical and moral problem....Power is a condition of life: a thing that must be handled.
The Impersonal Rule of Law
Authors: Henley Kenneth
Published: July 2016

The rule or supremacy of law is a political ideal requiring that the authority of the political community be exercised only within the confines of ordained structures, established procedures, and known legal rules and standards, creating reasonable expectations on the part of those subject to the law. Recent accounts of this ideal often include a list of principles or precepts of the rule of law. Lon Fuller’s list has been rightly influential: generality of law, promulgation, non-retroactivity, clarity, consistency of laws, not requiring the impossible, constancy of law through time, and congruence between official action and declared rule; these principles of the ‘internal morality of the law’ can conflict with each other, so that practical wisdom is required in balancing their demands.
Provocation as a Defence for Abused Women Who Kill
Authors: Baker Brenda M.
Published: July 2016

After the decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in Lavallee, Canadian women who are victims of serious domestic abuse have been able to invoke an ‘enlarged’ conception of self-defence to exonerate some acts of killing abusers. While concern remains about Lavallee, this judgement broke important ground in insisting on a more sensitive account of the actual experience of abused women, and in giving recognition to the reasonable fears that such women have for their lives. However, other than self-defence, there is no criminal law defence or plea that has been effective as a (partial) excuse or justification for killings by abused women. In this paper, I will consider the potential for a plea of provocation to serve such a role. Provocation has acquired some standing in other jurisdictions as a defence for abused women who kill but it has not as yet been effectively used in Canada. I will look at the appropriateness of provocation as a plea in some abuser homicides. The paper will discuss some ways in which the plea of provocation could be enlarged in scope and in normative power; the paper will also examine some shortcomings of the current understanding of provocation to serve a defence for women who kill. Since homicides by women make up a small fraction of all homicides, even a reformed defence of provocation would be rarely used. But the more important question is whether a plea which has been available to men for several centuries should not also be (much more) available to women who kill, and whether closer attention to the situations and perspectives of women in abusive relationships yields good grounds for thinking some kill as excusable or reasonable responses to serious provocation. The underlying concern is an equality concern; that women have equal access to suitable defences for their putative breaches of the criminal law, and that standards of reasonableness operative in criminal case deliberation be as responsive to women’s experience and women’s values as they are to men’s.
Property, Justification and Need
Authors: Waldron Jeremy
Published: July 2016

It is said that hard cases make bad law. But one of our tasks in jurisprudence is to consider the justification of legal institutions. If this enterprise is to be conducted in a spirit of argument rather than ideology, then hard cases—indeed the hardest cases—must be our primary point of reference. To undertake with any integrity to defend an institution, one must be willing to contemplate the existence of serious moral objections. In many cases, that involves confronting the possibility that the institution under discussion has an unacceptable impact on people’s lives—that it imposes unbearable costs, for example, or unacceptably constrains their freedom or their dignity. To defend an institution in an ideological way is to ignore or conceal such possibilities. Justification, by contrast, involves a willingness to confront the issue of unacceptable hardship. Its success (if indeed the institution is justified) turns on one’s ability to show that the hardship will not in fact occur, or that it is unavoidable or for some other reason not morally unacceptable in the circumstances.
Property in Potential Life? A Relational Approach to Choosing Legal Categories
Authors: Nedelsky Jennifer
Published: July 2016

The problem of what property is or should be can take many different forms. The debate can focus on what kinds of powers or entitlements should flow from defining an object as someone’s property, or what the grounds are for limitations on those powers and entitlements. One can ask whether the right to property is the sort of right that should be treated as a constitutional right. One can focus on how to define the contours of a particular kind of property, like land or copyright. Or one can ask what sorts of things should be treated as property. And in fact a legalregime of property rights cannot avoid at least some of these questions; they are entailed in the task of defining and subtly redefining property that is inherent in the ongoing process of adjudication.
Bankruptcy vs. Environmental Protection: A Case Study in Normative Conflict
Authors: Hill H. Hamner
Published: July 2016

Environmental protection laws are a recent legal development. As soon as these statutes first began to appear, it was evident that the fundamental principles of environmental protection would conflict, at some point, with fundamental principles from other, older, substantive bodies of law. In the American legal system, nowhere has the conflict been more serious than between environmental protection law and the law of bankruptcy. While this problem has attracted significant attention in the law reviews, it has been little noticed outside legal circles. This conflict sheds important light on the nature of normative conflicts generally, and points to the need for a well-developed theory of conflict resolution which courts can use when deciding cases. The root of the problem lies in a conflict between the underlying policy goals of these substantive bodies of law such that satisfying one policy objective necessarily undercuts the other. As such, the conflict between bankruptcy and environmental protection should be classified as a normative collision. This discussion examines this normative collision as it exists in American law in some detail. Such an examination provides interesting insights into the nature and pervasiveness of normative conflicts in our legal system. It also serves to illuminate both the theoretical and practical need for a coherent, well developed mechanism for resolving normative conflicts when conflicts arise.
Real Respect for the Rule of Law
Authors: Milde Michael
Published: July 2016

Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves is an excellent book for at least three reasons. First, it is a critically engaged, firsthand account of a unique legal and political event: the inquiry by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the operation of that country’s legal system under Apartheid. Second, it develops an extended argument for a challengingly normative conception of the rule of law, complete with compelling practical illustrations of what can happen if officials charged with maintaining the integrity of a legal system adopt a less substantive standard. And third, the book is well written and a pleasure to read.

South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) represents an unusual attempt to confront, acknowledge and overcome the devastating injustice, violence and hatred generated during the Apartheid era. What makes it unusual is the conscious decision to set aside demands for retributive justice. Instead, by exposing abuses and violations of human rights, and then compensating victims and pardoning confessed perpetrators, the TRC aimed to establish a framework in which former antagonists could set aside adversarial postures and work together to create a new, integrated and just South Africa. Whether this laudable experiment will succeed remains to be seen.

What was clear early on was that the TRC could not hope to complete its task if it did not investigate the performance of the legal system and the legal profession under the Apartheid regime. Apartheid was a social and political construct that systematically denied basic human rights to the vast majority of South Africa’s population on the basis of race. A substantial amount of state violence was required to secure this result. But it is a singular, remarkable fact that the racial divide was maintained by a legal system which in many respects resembled its counterparts in liberal democratic societies where the courts actively and successfully protect civil liberties. What is particularly striking is that gross human rights violations were permitted, even approved, by legal institutions that appeared to respect such fundamental legitimacy-conferring principles as the rule of law and judicial independence. Equally troubling is the observation that the system was staffed by functionaries many of whom had unimpeachable credentials as advocates of human rights. So how could this justice system have produced such iniquitous results?
Professional Status and the Freedom to Contract: Toward a Common Law Duty of Non-Discrimination
Authors: Reichman Amnon
Published: July 2016

This paper suggests that Canadian common law doctrine, according to which businesses providing goods and services to the public at large are allowed to refuse service because of a customer’s group-based characteristics such as race, is inconsistent with previous case law as well as with the underlying reason-based structure of the common law. After suggesting that the common law has not been fully displaced by human rights legislation, the paper demonstrates that the common law contains three concrete articulations of a duty to provide equal service. It argues that at the core of the rationale that best fits these bodies of case law is a status-based demand placed on those interacting in their capacity as members of an impersonal profession to refrain from taking into account any personal or group-based characteristics beyond those relevant to the provision of goods and services around which the profession is organized.
Making Inclusive Positivism Compatible with Razian Authority
Authors: Breslin Jonathan M.
Published: July 2016

Inclusive Legal Positivism (ILP) is the view that morality may, but need not be part of the criteria for valid law. Joseph Raz has argued against this position by showing that law cannot be authoritative on the ILP view. In this paper I argue that ILP and Razian authority can in fact be made compatible by developing Jules Coleman's distinction between authority and legality. While the rule of recognition is a necessary condition for legality (in order to validate law), it need not be a condition for authority (for citizens to identify law). By elaborating on this distinction and further developing the argument, I conclude that one can be an inclusive positivist about law and a Razianabout authority.
Can Pragmatism Overcome the Impasse in Contemporary Legal Theory?
Authors: Jenkins Maricarmen
Published: July 2016

In recent years, there has been a renewed interested in examining the nature of legal theory and finding ways to resolve impasses that may exist in contemporary legal theory. One suggestion made by some prominent philosophers of law (for example, Raz and Leiter) is the need to supplement arguments in legal theory with pragmatic considerations. By appealing to pragmatic considerations, it is thought that we can decide between competing conceptions of law. In this paper, I will examine how the appeal to pragmatism would work in the context of contemporary legal theory, and I will show why such an appeal to pragmatic considerations cannot solve the main problem that it was meant to solve.