1,720,994 research outputs found
The individual voice in a collective court: Insights from judicial lectures
No full textIn 2012, Rackley wrote ‘once we accept that who the judge is matters, then it matters who our judges are’.1 Indeed, this is central to the call for increased diversity in the UK Supreme Court (UKSC). Diversity in this context typically centres on overt diversity, but there is increasing recognition of the importance of cognitive diversity which is central to high quality decision making. Social identity theory suggests that recruitment of diverse candidate to the bench requires an institution to display both. The UKSC espouses a commitment to diversity, yet we know very little about the diversity of the individuals who populate the bench. It is characterised as a collegiate court and the practices of the Court have resulted in a consistent decline in the number of single author judgments, as such increasingly judicial individuality is slipping from view. In this context, the judicial public lecture offers one of the few opportunities to hear an individual judicial voice in this collective court. This chapter draws on a dataset of 80 public lectures delivered by the UK Supreme Court Justices in the first four years of the presidency of Lord Reed (July 2020 and January 2025). The analysis provides an opportunity to reflect on how the court displays overt diversity, through who represents the court and the audience they choose. Within the constraints of the judicial office, the content of the lectures provides an insight into the individual Justices and offers an opportunity to reflect on the individual within the institution and evidence cognitive differences including the norms, values, and experiences of the decision makers. Despite the limited overt diversity on the UKSC bench, analysis of the content of the lectures provides evidence of differences, but also the presence of dominant narratives, principles and values. It is argued that the significant turn away from the individual to focus on the collective court, may embed the dominant norms, values and experiences and in doing so, mask and silence difference and thus limit the potential for diversity on the bench
Beside the bench: education, outreach and the role of judicial assistants in extrajudicial discourse
No full textA brief history of (controversial) extrajudicial communication
No full textThis chapter presents a historical survey of controversial extrajudicial discourse in the area in which it arguably comes under greatest scrutiny, namely, discourse that relates to the political views, activities, and affiliation of judges. The chapter focuses on six judges who held office between the early modern period and the present day - Ellesmere, Coke, Hardwicke, Diplock, Denning, and Dilhorne - all of whom were active in extra-judicial discourse on politically sensitive or contested issues. It uses published and unpublished records of their activity to analyse how and why they engaged extrajudicially on controversial matters. I suggest that their extrajudicial communication falls into three broad types of activity which I term lobbying, evangelising, and problem-solving. The chapter concludes by arguing that the nature of the judicial role in the UK makes extrajudicial communication inevitable, including on controversial matters. History demonstrates that while this can raise genuine concerns, it can also be fundamental to the effective development of the legal system. The task for law is to manage the tensions created by the judiciary’s extrajudicial role, rather than seeking to avoid it altogether
‘Civis Romanus Sum’ and the Legal Protection of Nationals Abroad
No full textIn the first century AD a Roman Citizen could proudly declare ‘Civis Romanus Sum’ anywhere in the world in order to assert the rights and protections which were owed to them by their powerful city state. The phrase was emphatically repeated by Lord Palmerston in 1850 in a call that, even when abroad, every British citizen should receive the state’s protection. For both Roman and Briton, the shared sentiment was that regardless of geographic location they would be protected by their government. The modern day protection offered to the citizen abroad is of a more subtle manner and much less intrusive than before, yet it is arguably more necessary than ever. The effects of globalization, specifically cross-border tourist travel and mass emigration, have generated renewed calls for clarity of the extent to which citizens will receive protection from their home state when outside its territorial borders. This paper explores this legal relationship between a citizen and state through a comparative analysis of the extraterritorial protections offered to nationals of Britain, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The ‘Deterrent Argument’ and the Responsibility to Protect
No full textStates have presented a range of arguments against the expansion of human rights law into the extra-territorial military sphere. This article focuses on one argument in particular – the ‘deterrent argument’. This is the idea that if States are expected to uphold human rights obligations during extra-territorial military operations, it will deter them from contributing troops to UN peace support missions, which would naturally include those sanctioned under the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. This article considers how the ECtHR’s jurisprudence could actually apply to such military operations in practice and whether States should logically be deterred from participating in such missions. We argue that the involvement of the UN and the types of missions undertaken under R2P should not deter States from participation, but rather that UN involvement neutralises or mitigates many of the negative issues States fear in this area, reducing the likelihood of human rights liability for States
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Membership and the UN Human Rights Council
No full textEstablished in March 2006 by General Assembly Resolution 60/251 to replace the discredited Commission on Human Rights, the Human Rights Council carries the heavy burden of restoring credibility to the United Nations’ principal human rights institution. This article examines one aspect of this restoration process - the Council’s specific membership provisions.
Beginning with a detailed synopsis of the downfall of the Commission this article aims to answer whether the provisions included at the Council’s creation are rigorous enough to prevent criticisms of its membership similar to those which effectively crippled its predecessor. Through analysis of the structure and rules enacted at the Council’s creation, pre-election provisions and election process it will be seen that the current provisions have thus far yielded only moderate success. This article concludes with a series of suggestions for how the current membership framework could be improved for the underlying intention of GA 60/251 to be fulfilled
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