bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strategies for Maintaining Change Over Time
Authors: Sulzer-Azaroff Beth
Published: July 2016

Relapse following a behaviour modification program is not unusual, especially when contingencies indigenous to the system tend to favor baseline performance. To avoid such a risk, a preliminary analysis of current and past contingencies operating within the system needs to be conducted. Sometimes, alterations need to be made to permit specific strategies of change to match system demands. Important to examine also are the target response's schedule history, contemporary rates, degree of fluency, intrinsically reinforcing and/or punishing properties and the stimuli, such as rules, routine events and others that set the stage for its occurrence. Rule governance and time management may be especially helpful in the latter regard. Ultimately, lasting change depends upon both the immediate and ultimate long range impact of an intervention upon a system. Benefits must outweigh costs right away and later on, and be clearly reflected on the bottom line.
Behavioural Treatment of Childhood Recurrent Abdominal Pain: Relationships Between Pain, Children's Psychological Characteristics and Family Functioning
Authors: Sanders Matthew R. , Morrison Margaret , Rebgetz Margaret , Bor William , Dadds Mark , Shepherd Ross
Published: July 2016

This study examined the impact and side effects of a cognitive behavioural program for the treatment of recurrent abdominal pain (R.A.P.) on children's behavioural adjustment and family functioning. It assessed the extent to which changes in children's pain symptoms covaried with family processes thought to be etiologically significant in cases of R.A.P. Results showed that pain symptoms of both experimental and control children improved significantly six months after initial assessment. Treatment achieved its objectives more quickly with a higher proportion of completely pain-free children. None of the measures of child adjustment or family conflict, expressiveness, independence or achievement orientation were associated with changes in pain intensity ratings or parent observational measures of pain behaviour. There was no evidence that treatment was associated with any negative side effects.
Behavioural Marital Therapy in the Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Authors: Halford W. Kim , Sanders Matthew R.
Published: July 2016

There is a well established relationship between marital discord and individual psychopathology in family members. This paper reviews evidence relating to patterns of marital interaction related to the co-occurrence of marital discord and three common psychological disorders: depression, alcohol abuse, and childhood conduct disorders. The effects of behavioural marital therapy (BMT) on dysfunctional marital interaction in such cases, and the impact of BMT on individuals' psychological disorders, are evaluated. It is concluded that BMT is often a useful component of treatment in each disorder reviewed. Further it is argued that it is important routinely to assess the relationship context in which these disorders occur. Finally, some of the difficulties and limitations of the application of BMT in cases where the presenting problem is an individual psychopathology are considered.
The Coping With Depression Course: A Group Psychoeducational Intervention for Unipolar Depression
Authors: Clarke Gregory , Lewinsohn Peter M.
Published: July 2016

Cognitive-behavioural interventions developed from a variety of theoretical orientations have been demonstrated to be safe and effective treatments for unipolar depression. In this article, one specific intervention is described: the Coping With Depression (CWD) Course, a multi-modal group psychoeducational treatment. The theoretical rationale and development of the CWD Course is reviewed, as well as the specific course content. Evidence for the efficacy of the CWD Course is presented and discussed. Also described are several modifications of the CWD Course, developed for use with special populations such as depressed adolescents, caretakers of frail elderly, health-impaired Native Americans, and English and Spanish-speaking medical outpatients. Future research and development directions for the CWD Course are examined, including replication of outcome results, generalization to real-life clinical settings and to diagnostically co-morbid populations, and the prevention of depression among individuals at elevated risk of affective disorder.
The Relationship between Affect, Behaviour, and Cognition in Behavioural and Cognitive Treatments of Depression and Phobic Anxiety
Authors: Eifert Georg H. , Craill Lyn
Published: July 2016

Cognitive theories and therapies of emotional dysfunctions are based on the premise that the affective, behavioural, and cognitive response repertoires are fused and highly interdependent. Such views have been criticised with the argument that affect and cognition are relatively independent and that there is a much more direct and stronger link between affect and behaviour. In an attempt to clarify potential differences in the interplay between affect, behaviour, and cognition in unipolar depression and phobic anxiety, a quantitative review of the relative efficacy of performance-based (behavioural) versus cognitive intervention for these disorders was conducted. The relative superiority of cognitive over performance-based interventions in the treatment of unipolar depression supports the notion of a reasonably direct link between cognition and affect for this disorder providing a fairly effective pathway for treatment. On the other hand, the relative success of performance-based techniques in the treatment of phobias suggests that for these disorders the link between behaviour and affect is more direct and much stronger than the link between cognition and affect. It is concluded that the relative effectiveness of cognitive and performance-based intervention techniques depends on and points to differences in the specific type of affect-behaviour-cognition interface that underlies and is controlling depression and phobic anxiety.
Reinforcement Delay and Across-Setting Generalization in an Intermediate School Special Class
Authors: Dixon Robyn S. , Fitzharris Anne , Moore Dennis W.
Published: July 2016

This study investigated the effect of delayed reinforcement on the across-setting generalization of behaviour change. Eight children aged between 11 and 13, members of a special class at an intermediate school, served as subjects. Off-task behaviour was monitored during two classroom lessons: the contingent lesson, performance in which determined subsequent reinforcement, and the generalization lesson, in which no reinforcement contingencies were provided. Two forms of delayed reinforcement: early — delivered immediately following the setting in which the critical behaviour occurred — and late — delivered only after several other settings had been encountered — were sequentially presented in an ABCB design. Off-task behaviour decreased under both reinforcement conditions. However generalization was only evident when the late delayed reinforcement was operating. Results suggest that a temporal delay in the delivery of reinforcement is more likely to lead to generalization of behaviour change than is the delivery of reinforcement immediately following the contingent lesson.
Treatment of Primary Nocturnal Enuresis in a Boy with Down's Syndrome
Authors: Hamilton David I.
Published: July 2016

Primary nocturnal enuresis in a nine-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome was treated successfully with an enuresis alarm. A criterion of four consecutive dry weeks was reached after fourteen weeks and the child remained dry at six-month and twelve-month follow-up. Treatment included a gradual withdrawal phase. The study replicates others showing that a simple ‘bell and pad’ procedure can suffice. Client, family and procedural variables associated with success and failure of alarm treatments are discussed.
A Note on Waiting List Attrition
Authors: Mali Dorothy , Hudson Kenneth J.
Published: July 2016

Cognitive-behavioural group treatment programs for agoraphobia were held over a sixteen-month period, and waiting lists were generated. Retrospective analysis of the data revealed the apparent importance for attrition of such factors as the availability of helpers and the timing of treatment programs. Suggestions are offered to reduce waiting list attrition.
Minimal Intervention: A Little Quality for a Lot of Quantity?
Authors: Ryder David
Published: July 2016

Since the helping professions are not immune to current conditions of economic stringency, effective treatments that require reduced therapist contact should be seriously considered. A selective review of the literature is presented, and it is concluded that minimal intervention is more cost effective particularly for less severe problems. Issues related to the nature of minimal intervention therapy are discussed.
Biofeedback as a Procedure for Teaching Blood Pressure Control to Normotensives
Authors: Mullins Robyn M. , Sharpley Christopher F.
Published: July 2016

The previous research into training normotensives to control their blood pressure via biofeedback is reviewed. Beginning with the early ‘Harvard’ studies, methodological limitations are apparent in many of the ‘accepted’ reports. Issues of type and incidence of feedback, systolic vs. diastolic pressures, and number of training sessions necessary to achieve success are discussed, leading to a summary of the relevant research from the viewpoint of methodological considerations including: adequacy of adaptation and baseline periods, confounding of reward with feedback, use of post-tests and follow-ups, and generalisation of training to stressful situations. Several areas for future research are raised for discussion.
Vividness of Imagery and Locus of Control as Predictors of Normotensives' Ability to Learn Downward Control of Blood Pressure
Authors: Mullins Robyn M. , Sharpley Christopher F.
Published: July 2016

Two ‘individual’ variables (level of imagery, locus of control) were investigated for their effects upon subjects' ability to learn and generalise downward control of blood pressure via biofeedback procedures. Also investigated was the effect of visual numerical feedback versus no-feedback combined with instructions. Subjects were volunteers with normal blood pressure who were randomly assigned to feedback of systolic blood pressure, feedback of diastolic blood pressure or no-feedback under an interrupted time-series design which consisted of an adaptation period, baseline, training, rest, and post-test (generalisation of task without feedback). Results indicated that neither of the two ‘individual’ variables was associated with any significant reductions of blood pressure within either the training or generalisation periods. Feedback was negatively associated with training effects. Findings are discussed in terms of the ease of comprehension of numerical feedback of a fluctuating variable, with suggestions for future research using fine-grained and stable measures of cardiac performance.
Biofeedback for Cardiac Control as a Preventative Procedure with Normotensives: Directions for Future Research
Authors: Sharpley Christopher F. , Fleming Richard K.
Published: July 2016

The prevention of cardiovascular disease in at risk persons poses a major challenge to behavioural health educators. Previous research on the development of reliable methods for teaching such people to control their blood pressure, thereby avoiding the development of essential hypertension and associated health dangers, has been reviewed elsewhere (Mullins & Sharpley, 1988). Data from previous studies are inconclusive, principally due to major methodological limitations in that research, but also because of failure to focus upon generalisation and maintenance to the real world of the subject. Several issues for future research are discussed in the present paper, with some specific suggestions made regarding dependent and independent variables, experimental design, subject population and procedure.
Staff Attitudes Towards Data Collection in Behavioural Programming for the Intellectually Disabled
Authors: Bays Kathryn , King Neville
Published: July 2016

Attitudes of staff responsible for the implementation of behavioural programs toward the collection of data were assessed. A questionnaire was devised to evaluate three aspects of attitude towards data collection: perceived importance and/or usefulness of information gained, practical feasibility of data collection and professional support aspects of data collection. Seven items were pooled to generate an Attitude Score which was found to have high reliability and internal consistency. The remaining individually considered items were also reliable. Responses from 191 subjects indicated an overall positive attitude towards data collection. Theoretical and methodological problems are addressed and suggestions for further study are made.
In Memory of Robin Winkler: His Contribution to Behaviour Modification in Australia
Authors: Wilson Peter H.
Published: July 2016

This article was written as a tribute to Robin Winkler, who died on 26 November 1986 after a long illness. The aim of the paper is to highlight Robin's major achievements in his research activity and to point out the themes that run through his work. These themes include his emphasis on the just and humane treatment of the disadvantaged, the recognition of the social context in which psychological treatment and research is conducted, and the interrelations between psychology and economics. The changes that took place in the direction of his work thoughout his career are discussed. Robin's impact on psychology in Australia will continue to find expression through the influence he has had on his many friends and colleagues.
Cognitive Behavioural Treatment of Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood Following Marital Breakdown
Authors: Halford W. Kim
Published: July 2016

Marital breakdown is common, and often associated with depression. A model is outlined in which such depression may be maintained by avoidance of depression eliciting stimuli. A 27-year-old recently-separated male with severe depression was treated with systematic exposures to depression eliciting stimuli, with cognitive coping self statements being used during exposures. The worst self ratings of depression reported by the client and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory improved greatly from baseline to treatment phases. Gains were maintained at 4 week, 3 and 6 month follow-ups. Further research is warranted to evaluate the efficacy of this potentially useful approach to treating marital breakdown, and possibly other adjustment disorders, which are associated with depressed mood.
Parent Management of Sleep Difficulties in Young Children
Authors: Seymour Frederick W.
Published: July 2016

Difficulties in settling children to sleep and night waking are common problems faced by parents with young children. The effectiveness of parent-managed behavioural intervention is examined in this study of four children which employs a multiple-baseline-design across subjects. Components of the intervention included: establishing regular bedtime routines; paying attention to the children before bed in the living areas and staying with the children only briefly when settling them in bed; adopting procedures for ignoring disruptive bedtime behaviour and night waking; and giving praise for appropriate behaviour. Complete success in settling the three children who were difficult at bedtime was achieved in five to fourteen days. Persistent night waking in all four children was eliminated in five to thirteen nights.
“Beat the Buzzer” for Early Morning Dawdling: Two Case Illustrations
Authors: Hudson Alan , Vincent Jenny , Wilks Ray , Drabman Ronald
Published: July 2016

Many parents experience considerable difficulty in getting their children ready for school or kindergarten in the morning. The “Beat the Buzzer” procedure described by Drabman and Creed on (1979) has been used extensively by clinicians to eliminate morning confrontations between parents and their children. The steps to be followed in the use of the procedure are outlined, and two case studies illustrating modification to the basic procedure are presented. Finally, discussion is given to issues that need to be considered when using the procedure and suggestions for further research evaluations are made.
A Case Study of the Behavioural Treatment of Chronic Stomach Pain in a Child
Authors: Linton Steven J.
Published: July 2016

Behavioural treatment of an adolescent girl with chronic stomach pain is described. The client was treated with a broad spectrum behavioural package including applied relaxation and coping skills. Results indicated considerable improvements in ratings of down-time, nausea, health, and mood. Moreover, she was nearly pain-free, and her activity and depression levels were substantially improved. The effects of treatment generalized to the natural environment and were sustained at a 9 month follow-up.
Behavioural Sport Psychology
Authors: Lee Christina , Owen Neville
Published: July 2016

The strong media and public interest in sport psychology has had the unfortunate effect of publicising its sensational aspects, rather than its scientific and professional substance. The articles in this issue of Behaviour Change show that sport psychology does have strong connections with the mainstream of scientific and professional psychology, and that sporting settings provide a substantial and stimulating focus for a behavioural approach. Sport psychology's subject matter has overlaps with clinical psychology and with behavioural health care, there is a large and growing research literature, and issues of accountability and quality control have received considerable attention.
The Social Character of Freedom of Expression
Authors: Farrelly Colin
Published: July 2016

Richard Moon’sThe Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Expressionis an insightful and comprehensive study of the right to freedom of expression in Canadian constitutional law. Moon begins by stressing the importance of the distinction between freedom of expression as a moral or political ideal and as a constitutional right. The former certainly informs the latter. But the general structure of constitutional adjudication will also play an important role in determining how these issues are resolved and this may, in turn, influence our understanding of the right as a moral and political ideal. Moon focuses on the most important Canadian freedom of expression decisions which cover a wide range of topics from the regulation of racist expression and pornography to access to state and private property.
The Impossibility of General Strict Liability
Authors: Perry Stephen R.
Published: July 2016

Both the history of tort law and the recent theoretical literature on the subject suggest that there are two intellectually tenable and more or less equally respectable answers to the question of what should be the general standard of liablity in tort, namely fault and strict liability. Each is generally thought to have represented, at one time or another, the dominant approach of the positive common law. Each has its modern theoretical proponents: a fault-based approach has been argued for on grounds of economic efficiency by Richard Posner, for example, and on grounds of individual moral right by, among others, Ronald Dworkin and Ernest Weinrib; strict liability, on the other hand, has received an economic defence in the work of Guido Calabresi, and a rights-based defence in the writings of Richard Epstein. Each of these theorists has felt compelled not only to offer positive arguments in favour of fault or strict liability but also to answer the intellectual case, whether perceived as being founded on a conception of efficiency or of individual rights, for the rival approach.
Mercy and Criminal Justice: A Plea for Mercy
Authors: Brett Nathan
Published: July 2016

Are justice and mercy incompatible with each other, so that it is unjust for a judge to be merciful? In a recent article Jeffrie Murphy generates and explores some interesting paradoxes concerning the virtue (or supposed virtue) of mercy. Murphy argues for a skeptical position concerning mercy in relation to criminal justice: mercy has no place in the sentencing decisions of judges
Penal Policy and Sentencing Theory in Finland
Authors: Lappi-Seppälä Tapio
Published: July 2016

The ideology of treatment, as well as confidence in the special preventive effects of punishment, was severely attacked in the late 1960’s. In Scandinavia, this criticism quickly led to a series of legislative reforms. The first target was the system of preventive detention. The lack of legal security was considered to be most obvious flaw here. After the reforms concerning the use of preventive measures—for example, for dangerous offenders—were implemented, attention shifted to the structure of the whole penal system. From the mid 70’s on, the Finnish criminal justice system was reformed in a “neo-classical” spirit. Instead of individualization and rehabilitation, the emphasis is now placed on legal security and the principles of proportionality, predictability, and equality. These ideas and principles received their most manifest expression in the 1976 reform of sentencing provisions (Chapter 6 in the Finnish penal code).
Habilitation: Sentencing of Female Offenders
Authors: Graydon Charalee F.
Published: July 2016

Women have largely been ignored in the criminal justice system and in discussions of sentencing in Canada. Existing theories of punishment and the underlying philosophy of sentencing have developed from essentially patriarchal models. As a result, the existing theory and the practice of sentencing in Canada is flawed both by the absence of a feminist theoretical analysis and the absence of a practical appreciation of issues which impact on sentencing female offenders. The framework of accepted sentencing theory and practice has been built upon particular conceptions about women which reinforce the oppression of women. This is evident when one focuses on the reality of the sentence imposed rather than on mere compliance with equal treatment.
Performance and Pragmatism in Constitutional Interpretation
Authors: Halewood Peter H.
Published: July 2016

Is there the possibility of a critical standpoint from which to adjudicate the correctness or validity of constitutional interpretation? This basic question has been given considerable attention in contemporary constitutional theory and has been the focus of the pragmatist law as literature movement born of the interpretive turn in legal theory. At issue is the very purpose of constitutional practice: is it to recover the truth of a set of foundational, moral ideals from the constitution and apply it to a particular factual conflict? Or is it to preserve continuity between the various elements of our cultural practices, to keep the peace?
“Our Real Need”: Not Explanation, But Education
Authors: Eisele Thomas D.
Published: July 2016

The preconceived idea of crystalline purity can only be removed by turning our whole examination around. (One might say: the axis of reference of our examination must be rotated, but about the fixed point of our real need.)

Wittgenstein wrote nothing on legal theory or law, so there is no obvious textual basis on which to draw possible connections between Wittgenstein and legal theory. And Wittgenstein abhorred theorizing in philosophy. So the odds are slim that Wittgenstein would have accommodated himself or his work to similar activity in the law. Where does this leave us?

At sea, which is where we normally are in life and, thus, where Wittgenstein wants us to recognize ourselves as being when doing philosophy too. But theory can disguise this fact from us, as it also can make us think that we have unrivalled powers of knowledge and understanding and explanation. Wittgenstein’s criticism of theory, or the activity of theorizing, is meant to get us to see, and to acknowledge, our limits in this respect. But even though his terms and intent are mostly negative in tone and thrust, his criticism of theorizing has positive implications for how we should try to understand what we are doing and what we have done, including what we are doing and have done in the law. So, if understanding the law better is something that legal theory does or tries to do, and Wittgenstein’s later work can help us understand the law better, then Wittgenstein’s later philosophy is connected to the task set legal theory.
Marxist Jurisprudence: Historical Necessity and Radical Contingency
Authors: Belliotti Raymond A.
Published: July 2016

Rather than advancing a refined theory of judicial decision making or puzzling over the nature of law, Marxist jurisprudence offers a critique of liberalcapitalist conceptions of law. As part of its general undermining of bourgeois consciousness, Marxism aspires to manifest the legitimating functions of law as a contributor to ideological distortion and as a solidifier of the political status quo. Accordingly, there is not so much a Marxist theory of law as there is a Marxist unmasking of law’s alleged unsavoury participation in domination and oppression.
Constitutional Commands of Human Dignity: A Bicentennial Essay in Honor of Mr. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.
Authors: Parent W.A.
Published: July 2016

The first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution received final ratification on December 15, 1791. This year, then, marks the bicentenary of what is arguably the single most significant political event in my country’s history—the adoption of a Bill of Rights. So I write this essay in a celebratory spirit, to honor a most distinguished and influential U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Of the recently retired William J. Brennan, Jr.’s many outstanding contributions, his tireless promotion of human dignity as a preeminent legal principle stands out. Government should maintain and protect the dignity of those it serves, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights constitute nothing less than “a bold commitment by a people to the ideal of libertarian dignity protected through law”, are certainly attractive, even noble ideas. Yet, like so many abstract concepts, they are exasperatingly obscure.
Moral Philosophy, the United States Supreme Court, and the Nation’s Character, 1860–1910
Authors: Bailey Mark Warren
Published: July 2016

The charge that the United States Supreme Court exercised a conservative influence upon the nation’s constitutional life during the period from 1864 to 1938 is impossible to refute. The Supreme Court during the period from the end of the Civil War to the New Deal era has been portrayed as having largely abdicated its obligation to protect society’s common interests in favour of a laissez-faire constitutionalism reflecting the social and political views of new and powerful economic interests. The judicial conservatism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conflicted with the political ideals of Progressives and with the direction taken by American policy-makers since the acceptance of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s. Historians have labelled the Court’s laissez-faire conservative style as undesirable, if not consciously immoral.

Nevertheless, the problem of understanding the ideas which lay at the foundation of judicial conservatism should be addressed. General legal historians have preferred to begin and end their inquiries into early influences on the judicial mind with a short overview of legal education and leave aside the possible influence of college studies. In recent years, historians have broadened their investigations of the intellectual underpinnings of late nineteenth-century legal thought in an attempt to provide the sort of synthetic account of legal thought suggested by Perry Miller’s Life of the Mind—a work which attempts to connect the thought of leading members of the bar to intellectual currents outside the legal sphere. The result has been a limited rehabilitation of the Supreme Court’s reputation during the Gilded Age.
Beyond Justice: The Consequences of Liberalism for Immigration Law
Authors: Dauvergne Catherine
Published: July 2016

In November 1994 the Canadian government released its Immigration Plan for 1995 and an immigration and citizenship strategy mapping policy direction until the year 2000. This strategy, developed after extensive public consultations, was the government’s response to increasingly contentious public discourse about immigration. The 1994 document was the government’s attempt to reorient Canadian immigration law and policy. The 1996 and 1997 Immigration Plans, tabled in November 1995 and October 1996 respectively, are consistent with the five year plan announced in 1994, demonstrating that the change of direction set out in 1994 has met at least some of the government’s objectives.

This paper assesses the reorientation of Canadian immigration law contained in the 1995 Immigration Plan and accompanying documents. Much of the public debate about immigration concerns whether current immigration levels and policies are fair, or just. As Canada is a liberal society, it is appropriate to begin the search for standards of fairness—or justice—in liberal theory. But because liberal theory presumes a community and then explores theories of fairness and justice within that community, it does not yield a standard of justice which is useful for assessing changes in immigration law. Nor, I argue, can liberalism’s tenets be extrapolated to address this question. This conclusion leads to insights about the role of immigration law in liberal society and points to particular ways to assess this law. While other theoretical paradigms may contain ways of determining the fairness of immigration law, such paradigms are less useful in the Canadian setting, where liberal discourse is hegemonic and hence is the language in which debates about immigration law must take place to be immediately politically relevant. The first half of this paper examines liberal theory’s failure to address the justice of immigration laws, and evaluates attempts to extend classical liberalism to meet this challenge.
Questions Raised and Questions Begged: Some Doubts about Ronald Dworkin’s Approach to Law-and-Economics
Authors: Kramer Matthew H.
Published: July 2016

In Law’s Empire, Ronald Dworkin combines his role as a legal theorist with his role as a political theorist. He sets forth a view of jurisprudence and law as modes or fields of interpretation, and he likewise propounds the notion that our current law can best be interpreted as a system pointing to the ideal of equality-of-resources. Nowhere does Dworkin’s combination of views emerge more piquantly than within his chapter entitled “The Common Law.” There Dworkin grants that much of English and American common law has had the effect of simulating markets—in other words, the effect of allocating productive forces in ways that would have come about via costless bargains among all relevant people. But he disputes the added thesis that the judicial simulation should be interpreted as the maximizing of wealth. Pitting himself against the economic approach to legal matters, Dworkin holds that we can best understand market-simulation as the achievement or pursuit of equality.
Myth, Misogyny and Male Neurosi
Authors: Gochnauer Myron
Published: July 2016

In the past half century most legal philosophy has been limited to a fairly narrow range of traditional topics such as adjudication, legal reasoning, interpretation, legal persons, obligation and authority, the possibility of legal knowledge, the relationship of law to power, morality, economics and class struggle, and positivism vs. natural law. For those of us comfortable in the tradition, the range of questions appeared to outline an intellectually and politically adequate domain. The basic problems fell neatly into the major philosophical departments of epistemology, logic, value theory and, in some cases, metaphysics, and allowed participation by everyone along the political spectrum from the radical Marxist left through the liberal center to the fascist right.
The Inconsistencies of Aristotle’s Theory of Corrective Justice
Authors: Neyers Jason W.
Published: July 2016

Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, Aristotle first elucidated his theory of morality in the Nicomachean Ethics by systematically examining and analyzing the virtues which he felt were necessary for the attainment of the Good in the here and now. One of the most controversial and perhaps least understood portions of this magnum opus are those that pertain to the now famous building blocks of legal philosophy: corrective and distributive justice. These terms remain as relevant today as when they were first “discovered” in large part due to modern legal theory’s increasing tendency to rely on Aristotle’s corrective and distributive ideas as the organizing and distinguishing principles of the private and public law, respectively. If corrective justice is to define the limits and form of the private law, however, a blind reliance on Aristotle’s interpretation is mistaken. An examination of Aristotle’s corrective justice shows that his legal philosophy is incomplete and often paradoxical—asserting premises that are irreconcilable on a plain reading of Aristotelian texts. In order to demonstrate these inconsistencies, this paper will first distinguish between corrective and distributive justice. It will then examine three of the most difficult and least understood aspects of corrective justice: namely, Aristotle’s conception of equality, reciprocity, and correlativity in gain and loss.
Internal and Engaged or External and Detached?
Authors: Allan James
Published: July 2016

A legal theory, any legal theory, necessarily adopts one of two perspectives or vantages or points-of-view. The author of a legal theory may take up the internal, engaged vantage or the external, detached vantage. If he seeks to explore, say, how judges should decide hard cases then his theory, explicitly or implicitly, will adopt an internal participant’s perspective. Most likely, he will be putting himself in the shoes of the judge (or alternatively, asserting that we are all judges of a sort) in order to convince others of how best this role can be performed. Less likely, will be he who is a revolutionary and who thinks that the judge should decide cases in such a way as to contribute to the subversion of the legal system. In either event, both will be prescribing. Prescription, answering the ‘ought’ and the ‘should’, presupposes an involvement in the question and a concern with some evaluative dispute (though the revolutionary clearly does not accept the norms of his legal system as binding).
Positivism and Conventionalism
Authors: Green Leslie
Published: July 2016

All positivists hold that law has social foundations. According to H.L.A. Hart, for example, the legal system rests on customary social norms followed by judges and other officials: norms that recognize other norms as belonging to the system and norms that provide for the application and alteration of the system’s primary norms. Even if this view requires amendment, it is likely any plausible account of the nature of law needs some account of social norms. Finding a fully satisfactory one, however, has proved surprisingly difficult.
Taking Codes of Ethics Seriously: Alternative Dispute Resolution and Reconstitutive Liberalism
Authors: Wellington Alex
Published: July 2016

Alternative dispute resolution has the potential to be many things to many people, although it cannot, of course, be everything to everybody. A careful reflection on the appropriate role and scope of alternative dispute resolution will evidence that it has much to offer the legal profession and the legal system. For one thing, it can rejuvenate the practice of law for its practitioners, being both fun and fascinating. It can also help to improve the public perceptions of lawyers, which may be sinking to all time lows. One way of approaching the topic is to suggest that lawyers need alternative dispute resolution—they need it both to enhance their public image and in order to drum up new business opportunities. Another way of approaching the topic is to focus on the contribution of treatments of alternative dispute resolution to the “growth of the modern social scientific study of law.” Studies along these lines may emphasize the development of the Alternative Dispute Resolution movement in terms of attempts to “recast the market for dispute resolution services by different interests attempting to advance their own professional projects.”.

Yet a different way of examining alternative dispute resolution is to explore the self perceptions of its practitioners and theorists—what they think it has to offer to its consumers and society at large. Alternative dispute resolution certainly can provide a fertile source of ‘satisfaction’ to the parties to disputes. The “mediation alternative”, for instance, is said to provide a more complex form of ‘satisfaction’, one in which the needs and interests of the parties determine the final outcome. It is not only that there are some disputants—who currently are not aware of, or encouraged to pursue, opportunities to resolve their disputes by negotiation or mediation—who would benefit from access to ADR. It is also that even those who might fail to reach agreement if they tried negotiation or mediation would still benefit from the attempt and may be less likely to be disaffected or disappointed from the adjudicative outcome to their dispute having tried the “other way” beforehand. Perhaps even those who might decline to avail themselves of the option to try ADR even if offered would benefit just from having the choice. All disputants, therefore, benefit to some degree from the processes of ADR being readily available and carried out reliably and responsibly.
Identitarisation du droit et perspectivisme épistémologique. Quelques jalons pour une saisie juridique complexe de l’identitaire
Authors: Gaudreault-DesBiens Jean-François
Published: July 2016

Le droit n’est pas un objet pur; il n’existe pas, on le fait. Et qu’il en ait ou non conscience, le juriste défend une cause. Décrire pour lui c’est choisir.

Marquée par le positivisme, la modernité juridique a fait de l’objectivité et de la neutralité non seulement des idéaux mais des postulats. Plusieurs juristes, gravitant principalement dans l’orbite anglo-américaine, estiment cependant que ces postulats n’ont en bout de ligne servi qu’à masquer l’imposition à toute la société des systèmes normatifs en vigueur au sein des seuls groupes dominants, consacrant ainsi non seulement l’exclusion effective de plusieurs segments de la population mais également l’occultation symbolique de leur réalité sociale. Ce constat en incite d’ailleurs un nombre croissant à remettre en question le rôle que jouent l’objectivité et la neutralité dans les processus intellectuels et institutionnels d’élaboration et d’interprétation des normes juridiques. Ces juristes, qui se réclament de courants de pensée voués à l’affirmation sociale de groupes historiquement défavorisés, font un impératif catégorique de la prise en considération par la société majoritaire de l’expérience distincte qu’ont vécue et que vivent encore les membres de ces groupes, dont l’exclusion se fonde généralement sur la possession d’une identité quelconque, longtemps présumée moins digne de respect. C’est cette référence fondatrice à la variable identitaire qui unit leurs discours, de sorte qu’au-delà des différences méthodologiques et philosophiques les opposant, tous ces juristes participent à une mouvance que nous avons qualifiée ailleurs de «critique juridique identitaire». De fait, qu’ils se réclament de l’analyse féministe du droit, de la Critical Race Theory ou de la critique postcoloniale du droit, tous militent pour que soit enfin entendue la parole des groupes avec lesquels ils se solidarisent. De même, tous communient au projet d’ouvrir l’epistemologie du droit à cette parole. A une critique politico-philosophique soulevant la question de la justice intrinsèque des normes positives s’en adjoint ainsi une autre, encore plus fondamentale peut-être, de nature épistémologique. C’est de cette critique qu’il sera question dans cet article.
Interpretivism Naturalized: Dworkin’s Minimalist Metaphysics
Authors: Presby Shannon S.
Published: July 2016

Law is an interpretive enterprise. To grasp the meaning of any corpus of law, whether it is found in a statute, a series of common law decisions, or a constitution, requires an interpretation of the texts which comprise the law in question. The interpretation of legal texts is informed and disciplined by the principles which best support those texts as perceived by present day readers. The best interpretation is the one which both coheres with the body of law interpreted (fits the substance of past decisions), and is consistent with the most principled justification for those past decisions.
Socratic Civil Disobedience: Some Reflections onMorgentaler
Authors: Wardhaugh Bruce
Published: July 2016

Plato’s dialogueCrito, as is well known, presents Socrates’ response to the question why must one obey the law. The facts surrounding Socrates’ trial, imprisonment and subsequent execution are all well known, I shall not repeat them here. Rather my present task will be to analyze the other side of the Socratic argument, in order to determine Socrates’ possible response to the question of when (or under what circumstances) may we chose to disobey the law. The purpose of this present analysis is three-fold: first, to determine what in fact might be the Socratic response to the question. Second, to show – as against at least one recent writer – that Socrates could be said to have a theory of civil disobedience. My third task, given that such a theory could be attributed to Socrates, is to assess the adequacy of this theory.
The Autonomy-Based Liberalism of Joseph Raz
Authors: Norman W. J.
Published: July 2016

Ask a practising liberal to define her political creed, and more likely than not she will begin by describing the wonderful life of the free person. That is, in the parlance of modern political philosophers, she will begin with a conception of the good. The good life is the free life, and the good society is the one where people are as free as possible. By contrast, recent liberal philosophers have for the most part grounded their theories in principles of right or rights. Indeed, some have argued that what is unique about liberalism as a political doctrine is that it is not committed to the advancement ofanyparticular conception of the good, let alone to that of the free person. In his celebrated recent book,The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz sides with the practitioner and confronts the pedlars of right-based or deontological liberalism head-on. Believing the history of liberal theory to be against them, he labels his opponents ‘revisionists’.The Morality of Freedomhas already been hailed as the most significant new statement of liberal principles since Mill’sOn Liberty. And while this may be a bit over-enthusiastic, Raz would welcome at least one philosophical aspect of the comparison with Mill. Both are teleologists who ground their theories of political morality on considerations of the value of the free or autonomous life. I shall dub such theories ‘autonomarian’. And I shall examine Raz’s autonomarian reaction in detail here, for it may well be the most important such theory in the post-Rawlsian era.
Semantics and Legal Interpretation (Further Thoughts)
Authors: Brink David O.
Published: July 2016

In my article “Legal Theory, Legal Interpretation, and Judicial Review” I tried to do three main things. First, I tried to establish a link between familiar issues within legal theory about the nature and determinacy of the law and familiar issues within constitutional theory about the scope and record of judicial review via their common dependency on assumptions about the nature of legal interpretation. Second, I argued that a proper theory of interpretation has at least two important components: a theory of the semantics of legal terms and a theory about how best to characterize the purposes or intentions underlying legal provisions. Third, I sketched my own account of these two components of legal interpretation and then explored their implications for these familiar disputes within legal theory and constitutional theory. In particular, the semantic claims that I outlined require us (a) to distinguish between the meaning or reference of legal terms and people’s beliefs about the extension of those terms and (b) to rely on theoretical considerations, of various kinds, in ascertaining the extension of general terms occurring in legal provisions. The account of underlying purpose that I sketched requires legal interpreters to identify the purpose of a legal provision with the abstract values that the framers of that provision sought to implement, rather than with the specific activities that they sought to regulate, and then to determine the extension of these values (i.e., the activities that these provisions, properly understood, do regulate) by appeal to theoretical considerations about the nature of these principles and policies. These interpretive claims, I argued, tend to vindicate a belief in the determinacy of the law in hard cases and the style, if not the content, of the Court’s exercise of judicial review in cases concerning individual rights, against worries that in these cases it has exceeded the scope of legitimate judicial review.
The Priority of Abstract Right, Constructivism, and the Possibility of Collective Rights in Hegel’s Legal Philosophy
Authors: Benson Peter
Published: July 2016

A first task of a philosophy of law and morals is to try to make explicit and authenticate a standpoint that allows for the evaluation of things in normative terms. It cannot begin straightaway with conceptions of the right, the good or the moral worth of persons. For these are notions whose adequate elucidation presupposes that we are already occupying a standpoint which, taken by itself, is unqualifiedly normative and complete. The account of what I shall refer to as “the standpoint of the normative” is thus prior to the explication of the criteria and contents of our normative conceptions.
Language Laws and Collective Rights
Authors: Brett Nathan
Published: July 2016

This paper focuses on Quebec language legislation which has the effect of prohibiting the use of the use of English on signs. The controversial “Frenchonly” sign law is considered in spelling out an argument for collective rights and assessing some of the obstacles which a collective rights thesis must overcome. No attempt is made in this discussion to resolve the question of the relative weight of the collective and individual rights which come into conflict in this situation. No doubt this latter is itself a difficult task. If the argument of this paper is sound, however, a solution phrased wholly in terms of individual rights and the public good is simpler only because it omits important dimensions of the problem.
Ronald Dworkin and the Defense of Homosexual Rights
Authors: Nordahl Richard
Published: July 2016

For years Ronald Dworkin has been a leading academic defender of individual rights. The political and jurisprudential theory underlying his defense has had enormous influence. Defense of the rights of homosexuals has been a prominent theme in his writings. In 1966 he published his well-known critique of Lord Devlin’s critical essay on the Wolfenden’s Committee’s recommendations that sexual relations in private between consenting homosexual adults be de-criminalized (reprinted in 1978b, ch. 10). In recent writings, he has condemned key rulings by American courts that denied certain basic rights to homosexuals. References to the rights of homosexuals are made in many of his works. But nowhere does Dworkin present a developed argument for homosexual rights. He appears to think that support for the rights of homosexuals follows naturally from his political-legal theory. But does it? If so, how? And how adequate is such a defense?