Law Commons^™

Critical Review Of The Use Of The Rorschach In European Courts, Igor Areh, Fanny Verkampt, Alfred Allan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In relation to the admissibility of evidence obtained using projective personality tests arose in F v. Bevándorlási és Állampolgársági Hivatam (2018). The Court of Justice of the European Union has held that an expert’s report can only be accepted if it is based on the international scientific community’s standards, but has refrained from stipulating what these standards are. It appears timely for European psychologists to decide what standards should be applied to determine whether or not a test is appropriate for psycholegal use. We propose standards and then apply them to the Rorschach because it was used in this case …

Promoting Awareness Of Sex Trafficking In Tourism And Hospitality, Joshua Aston, Jun Wen, Edmund Goh, Oswin Maurer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: This cutting-edge short commentary is intended to raise awareness of sex trafficking in the tourism and hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to also advocate for further research to identify and hopefully prevent sex trafficking in related settings. Design/methodology/approach: This paper provides a descriptive overview of the current knowledge base on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality. Based on gaps in the literature, future research agendas and directions are suggested. Findings: Academic research on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality remains limited. More scholarly attention is needed to this matter. The tourism industry is directly and indirectly …

Openness Through The Lenses Of The Three-Step-Test: International Perspectives On Copyright Protection, Marinos Papadopoulos, Nikos Koutras

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper is focused on openness movement and the principles that said movement declared regarding the use of works set under copyright protection to enable for open access works. The three-step-test legal edifice is deeply rooted in international copyright law; its meaning and application is of vital importance for any consideration of amending copyright law with the aim to include provisions for openness. Unless a provision for openness passes the three-step-test there can be no sustainable amendment of copyright law in favour of openness.

Copyright Through The Prism Of The Law And Economics Movement: A Scientific Approach, Nikos Koutras, Marinos Papadopoulos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper discusses aspects of economic analysis of law developed because of the status quo existing on the Internet and of the evolution of legal theory on copyright. It also explores the massive increase of interest in the law and economics of intellectual property during the first decade of twenty-first century. The paper argues that law and economics discourse on copyright foregrounds policymaking with a focus on copyright’s economic ramifications. This paper also examines Coase’s theorem and its influence on considerations about copyright regulatory frameworks and potential reform to keep abreast of ongoing technological advancements and their impact on copyright …

The Mediating Effect Of Strategic Posture On Corporate Governance And Environmental Reporting, Abdalla Shwairef, Azlan Amran, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Noor Hazlina Ahmad

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The aim of this study is to explain how corporate governance affects environmental reporting through the mediating effect of strategic position. The data were collected from chief executive managers and chief financial managers of 197 large companies in Malaysia. The partial least squares technique was used to test the proposed relationships. The results show that managers’ strategic posture mediates the impact of four aspects of corporate governance, namely, board size, board independency, CSR committee presence, and institutional ownership on environmental reporting. These findings extend the literature on the relationship between corporate governance and environmental reporting by providing insight into the …

Perceptions Of Lgbtqi+ Diversity In The Legal Profession: "It's Happening Slow, But It's Certainly Happening", Aidan Ricciardo, Stephen Puttick, Shane Rogers, Natalie Skead, Stella Tarrant, Melville Thomas

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article reports on a qualitative study aimed at understanding how LGBTQI+ law students and recent graduates perceive and experience the legal profession. While we found that several participants self-censor in interactions with the profession, others considered their LGBTQI+ identity as advantageous, enabling them to benefit from ‘diversity hiring’. Despite this, many participants regarded the legal profession as ‘conservative’ and influenced by the ‘old guard’, which remains unaccepting of LGBTQI+ identities. Participants also considered the profession to be more accepting of some LGBTQI+ identities than others. We conclude by suggesting strategies to improve perceptions and experiences of the profession.

Commodity Futures Returns And Policy Uncertainty, Deepa Bannigidadmath, Paresh Kumar Narayan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. This paper investigates whether economic policy uncertainty is predictable using three sets of commodity futures market variables, namely the equal-weighted average of futures excess returns, the excess returns on a portfolio of going long in backwardated commodities, and the excess returns on a portfolio of going short in contango commodities as predictors. We find significant evidence of both in-sample and out-of-sample predictability. Combination forecasts also reveal strong evidence of predictability. Our findings remain unchanged following several robustness tests.

Forensic Experts’ Perspectives On Australian Indigenous Sexual Offenders And Factors Important In Evaluating The Risk Of Recidivism, Alfred Allan, Cate L. Parry, Hilde Tubex, Caroline Spiranovic, Frank Morgan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Law and ethics require that risk assessment should be cross-culturally valid and fair, but Australian research in this regard is underdeveloped. A logical first step in progressing the work required to build a strong evidence base on culturally sensitive risk assessment in Australia is to determine the expert views of those in the field. We interviewed 13 Australian evaluators who assess Indigenous sexual offenders’ recidivism risk to determine their perceptions of the risk assessment instruments they use and the attributes they believe evaluators doing cross-cultural assessments should have. Our central findings are that evaluators use the available instruments because they …

Sustainability And Waste Imports In China: Pollution Haven Or Resources Hunting, Bowen Li, Antonio Alleyne, Zhaoyong Zhang, Yifei Mu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Motivations behind a country’s importation of waste are categorized into the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the resource hunting hypothesis (RHH). The importation of wastes can lead to environmental sustainability concerns, requiring governments to intervene when the market fails to reduce the negative externalities by strengthening and implementing environmental regulations. Motivated by China’s position within a rapidly growing but environmentally damaging sector of trade, this paper has three goals: (1) to classify the primary hypothesis that governs China’s flow of traded wastes; (2) to verify the heterogeneous impact of the pollution …

Big Data Analytics Adoption: Determinants And Performances Among Small To Medium-Sized Enterprises, Parisa Maroufkhani, Ming-Lang Tseng, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail, Haliyana Khalid

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Big data analytics (BDA) adoption is a game-changer in the current industrial environment for precision decision-making and optimal performance. Nonetheless, the determinants or consequences of its adoption in small and medium enterprises remain unclear, hence the objective of this study. Data analysis of 171 Iranian small and medium manufacturing firms revealed that complexity, uncertainty and insecurity, trialability, observability, top management support, organizational readiness, and external support affect significantly on BDA adoption. The findings confirm the strong impact of BDA adoption in small to medium-sized enterprises, marketing and financial, performance enhancement. Understanding the drivers of BDA adoption …

From The Tree Of Knowledge And The Golem Of Prague To Kosher Autonomous Cars: The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence Through Jewish Eyes, Nachshon Goltz, John Zeleznikow, Tracey Dowdeswell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article discusses the regulation of artificial intelligence from a Jewish perspective, with an emphasis on the regulation of machine learning and its application to autonomous vehicles and machine learning. Through the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as Golem legends from Jewish folklore, we derive several basic principles that underlie a Jewish perspective on the moral and legal personhood of robots and other artificially intelligent agents. We argue that religious ethics in general, and Jewish ethics in particular, show us that the dangers of granting moral personhood to robots and in particular to autonomous vehicles lie not …

Open Access Publishing In The European Union: The Example Of Scientific Works, Nikos Koutras

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Access to information resources and publicly-funded research outcomes have been considered in Europe during the last decade. Open access practice became part of the European institutions’ agenda since 2006 within the final report of the European Research Advisory Board. The Lisbon Treaty (2007) explicitly confirmed the European Union’s commitment to free circulation of scientific knowledge (Article 179 TFEU) and the dissemination of research results (Article 183 TFEU). In this regard, the Horizon 2020 program illustrates the importance of open access policy towards further dissemination of scientific information. The European Commission also introduced in July 2012 a scientific information package to …

Structuring The Debate About Research Ethics In The Psychology And Law Field: An International Perspective, Alfred Allan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Forensic psychologists’ role is well established, and they are rightly well regulated because their decisions and behaviour can have a significant impact on people’s rights and interests. Their ethical integrity, however, partly hinges on the psycholegal research products (data, methods and instruments) that they and others use. The ethical regulation of researchers who produce products and their research processes is, however, fragmented, limited and narrow and largely focuses on domestic research. Relatively few scholars have examined the regulation of psycholegal research or commented on the ethical implications of recent court decisions. The purpose of this paper is to start a …

The Clash Of Empires: Regulating Technological Threats To Civil Society, Tracey Leigh Dowdeswell, Nachshon Goltz

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines the regulation of technology platform companies providing a platform for user-generated media content while playing an increasingly dominant role in the global flow of news and information. In doing so, platform companies play a crucial role in modern civic life, by deciding which content will reach users, engage the public's attention, and be deemed credible. It is therefore crucial that we choose means of regulation that foster democratic values and robust civic engagement. In this paper we focus on the regulation of ‘computational propaganda', including misinformation and ‘fake news', the rise of synthetic media and so-called ‘deep …

Film Tourism Impacts: A Multi-Stakeholder Longitudinal Approach, Timo Thelen, Sangkyun Kim, Elisabeth Scherer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study examines multiple local stakeholders’ perceptions of film tourism impacts to shed light on the complexities of film tourism planning and development, using a longitudinal exploratory research approach. The Japanese TV series Mare (2015) was chosen as the case study. Qualitative interviews with various local stakeholders were conducted over a 21-month-long period of a film tourism development project in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The study found that this film tourism project was initiated with high expectations. However, due to several incidents, such as the controversial rebuilding of a local highway road for promotional purposes, the audience’s mixed reception of the …

The Macroeconomic Factors Affecting Government Bond Yield In Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, And The Philippines, Benny Budiawan Tjandrasa, Hotlan Siagian, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The author(s) 2020. This publication is an open access article. © Benny Budiawan Tjandrasa, Hotlan Siagian, Ferry Jie, 2020 The government bond (GB) has become the most attractive investment portfolio option, even though many macroeconomic factors affect the bond yield. This paper aims to investigate the determining factor of local currency government bond yield by considering the inflation rate, credit default swap, stock market index, exchange rate, and volatility index. This study used 240 data panel from the Bloomberg stock market in the form of data panel covering Southeast developing countries, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, for …

The Influence Of The Chinese Government's Political Ideology In The Field Of Corporate Environmental Reporting, Hui Situ, Carol Tilt, Pi-Shen Seet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, Hui Situ, Carol Tilt, Pi-Shen Seet. Purpose: In a state capitalist country such as China, an important influence on company reporting is the government, which can influence company decision-making. The nature and impact of how the Chinese government uses its symbolic power to promote corporate environmental reporting (CER) have been under-studied, and therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the various strategies the Chinese government uses to influence CER and how political ideology plays a key role. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses discourse analysis to examine the annual reports and corporate social responsibility …

A Corrective Justice Justification For Considering The Response Of The Hypothetical Person Of An “Ordinary Level Of Susceptibility” When Assessing Reasonable Foreseeability In Cases Involving Negligently Inflicted Psychiatric Injury, Martin Allcock

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The law has long been concerned with limiting recovery for pure psychiatric injury in negligence in order to prevent liability to plaintiffs who are unusually susceptible to this type of injury. The justifications provided by courts for this concern have often centred on the idea that holding a defendant liable to such a plaintiff will be unreasonable. However, there is a gap in the reasoning of the courts and in the scholarly literature as to the potential theoretical justifications for measuring the reasonableness of the defendant’s conduct against the effect of that conduct on the hypothetical person of an “ordinary …

A Note On Science, Legal Research And Artificial Intelligence, Sean Goltz, Giulia Dondoli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper discusses the principles of scientific research and in turn review legal research that was done using Artificial Intelligence arguing that it is the tools (Artificial Intelligence) that take center stage while the meaning (legal research) is left back stage. In turn, this kind of research does not adhere to the fundamentals of scientific research nor comply with scientific and industry ethical codes.

An Overview Of Psychology And Law And Forensic Psychology In Australia, Alfred Allan, Anthony D. Cole, Donald M. Thomson, Cate L. Parry

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Psychology’s roots in Australia go back to 1881, but the first documented evidence of psychology-and-law (psycholegal) research and psychologists working in court and correctional settings only emerged in 1949. The activities of psycholegal researchers and psychologists providing services to the correction, investigative and justice systems are not well-documented. Our aim in this paper is to start recording the histories of these people and the development of the psycholegal and forensic psychology fields. We do this primarily by examining publications and conference papers and recording our and other people’s personal recollections. We specifically record psychologists’ interaction with lawyers, their concerns about …

Generalized Correlation Measures Of Causality And Forecasts Of The Vix Using Non-Linear Models, David E. Allen, Vince J. Hooper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper features an analysis of causal relations between the daily VIX, S & P500 and the daily realised volatility (RV) of the S & P500 sampled at 5 min intervals, plus the application of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to forecast the future daily value of the VIX. Causal relations are analysed using the recently developed concept of general correlation Zheng et al. and Vinod. The neural network analysis is performed using the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) approach. The results suggest that causality runs from lagged daily RV and lagged continuously compounded daily return on the …

Measuring The Judicial Performance Of The European Court Of Human Rights, Elizabeth Lambert Abdelgawad

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Faced with a sharp rise in the number of individual applications, the European Court of Human Rights has been forced to provide greater accountability to governments eager to downsize its budget and staff. This has resulted in the introduction of quantitative criteria, to the detriment of quality and of the service rendered to individual victims. These new management policies have admittedly reduced the number of pending cases, but they have also considerably eroded the right of individual application. The new managerial policy has definitely shaped a new Court.

Impact Of Family-Friendly Prison Policies On Health, Justice And Child Protection Outcomes For Incarcerated Mothers And Their Dependent Children: A Cohort Study Protocol, Helen Myers, Leonie Segal, Derek Lopez, Ian W. Li, David B. Preen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Introduction

Female imprisonment has numerous health and social sequelae for both women prisoners and their children. Examples of comprehensive family-friendly prison policies that seek to improve the health and social functioning of women prisoners and their children exist but have not been evaluated. This study will determine the impact of exposure to a family-friendly prison environment on health, child protection and justice outcomes for incarcerated mothers and their dependent children.

Methods and analysis

A longitudinal retrospective cohort design will be used to compare outcomes for mothers incarcerated at Boronia Pre-release Centre, a women’s prison with a dedicated family-friendly environment, and …

Beyond Proximity: The Importance Of Green Space Useability To Self-Reported Health, May Carter, Pierre Horwitz

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Access to parks and green spaces within residential neighbourhoods has been shown to be an important pathway to generating better physical and mental health for individuals and communities. Early research in this area often failed to identify specific attributes that contributed to reported health outcomes, with more recent research focused on exploring relationships between health outcomes and aspects of access and design. A mixed methods research project conducted in Perth, Western Australia examined the role that neighbourhood green space played in influencing residents' self-reported health status, and this paper identifies significant relationships found between perceptions of green space quality and …

The 'Oldest Tricks In The Book' Do Not Work! Reports Of Burglary By Duma Detainees In Western Australia, Natalie J. Gately, Jennifer Fleming, Nathalie Mcginty, Anthony M. Scott

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Foreword : Research investigating the methods and motivations of burglars has typically focused on incarcerated offenders. The Australian Institute of Criminology’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program provided an opportunity for the authors to explore the methods and motivations of those actively involved in committing burglaries, whether or not they had actually been caught or detained for that offence. The findings support Routine Activity Theory, indicating that offenders consider a number of factors in determining whether a property will be targeted for a break and enter offence. As might be expected, opportunistic burglars choose easy to access properties, stay …