Search Results (15)

Globally, 1–3% of the population has an intellectual disability, but some remain undiagnosed, resulting in limited access to essential health and social care services, poor health outcomes, and higher risks of homelessness, substance abuse, and imprisonment. A formal diagnosis enables early intervention and support. A scoping review was conducted to explore research on undiagnosed intellectual disability, screening processes, and identifying indicators. Method: The scoping review search was conducted using academic databases such as CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, and PubMed, along with eight grey literature sources. In addition, the reference lists of the included studies were explored. Information specialists supported and guided the search process. The search included qualitative, quantitative, review, and mixed-method research studies published in English between 2000 and 2024. Two reviewers screened papers for eligibility by title, abstract, and full text. Result: A total of 11,475 papers were screened, with 57 papers from various countries included in the review. Indicators of intellectual disability were identified in three settings: (1) educational settings (preschool, primary, and secondary schools); (2) social care services, including homeless and community services; and (3) criminal services, such as courts, probation, and prisons, highlighting the wide applicability of findings. These indicators were linked to “experiences”, “behaviours”, “challenges”, and “observations”. Conclusion: This review emphasised the importance of early diagnosis by adopting appropriate assessment tools, which require national screening policies. It also highlighted the essential role of professionals working in intellectual disability services in identifying and supporting undiagnosed individuals, particularly within high-risk populations. Implication: The review’s findings will guide policy, practice, and research recommendations for enhancing the early identification of people with intellectual disabilities. Full article

Background: The United States has the highest number of immigrants in the world, with over 46 million foreign-born residents as of 2022. A growing number of migrants originate from Latin America, driven by factors such as economic instability, food insecurity, and crime. This study explores their experiences and perceptions regarding trust in the criminal justice system (CJS) in both their home countries and the United States. Methods: This study surveyed 500 migrants at a transitional institution in a U.S.–Mexico border city in the summer of 2023. The survey assessed confidence in law enforcement, immigration officers, courts, and government institutions using a 5-point Likert scale. Results: Migrants reported significantly higher confidence in the U.S. CJS compared to that of their home countries. Multivariate analysis revealed that satisfaction with border officials, documentation status, English proficiency, and health were positively associated with confidence in the U.S. CJS, while employment status, traveling with family, and fear of crime correlated with lower confidence. Conclusions: This study highlights the stark contrast in migrants’ confidence levels between their home countries and the U.S. criminal justice system. While migrants view the U.S. system as more legitimate, challenges such as fear of crime and legal uncertainties persist. Full article

Konparu Zenchiku (1405–c. 1470) was the son-in-law of Zeami Motokiyo. Zeami is the most famous nō actor–writer–composer–showman–impressario, but Zenchiku brought nō back from the shōgun’s court to the temples, effectively resacralising the art form for a troubled, violent age. This paper asks whether Zenchiku’s approach to theatre has anything to teach us as contemporary creators and audiences in our own unstable era and, simultaneously, whether contemporary modes of interpretation, such as queer musicology, can highlight new aspects of Zenchiku’s work. Focusing on the under-studied and under-performed play Mekari—which dramatises a ritual cutting of seaweed at the Kanmon Strait between the islands of Kyūshū and Honshū as the new lunar year dawns—this paper explores how Zenchiku’s work plays with—crosses back and forth over—multiple physical, temporal, and spiritual boundaries in both its text and performance, leaving the audience with a sense of ambiguity and questioning the received wisdom of conventional capitalist reality. This paper concludes with a look at Kyōto School philosopher Ueda Shizuteru’s concept of the hollow expanse, or a place of limitless possibility. This paper argues that the audience viewing these ambiguities cultivated by Zenchiku’s sacred dramas—via the music, words, and staging together—might themselves be given a glimpse into the radically open place of the ‘hollow expanse’. The first full English translation of Mekari is included in Appendix A. Full article

The “Dana Gas” case is considered one of the pivotal cases in the development of the Islamic financial industry. The case raised concerns about the limits of legal certainty, particularly the judiciary’s right to exercise “ijtihad” (juristic interpretation). This study highlights the extent to which Islamic financial institutions adhere to their contractual obligations in good faith based on Shariah compliance. It also outlines how the judiciary preserves its inherent right to exercise due diligence in relation to protecting the public economic order and applying its authority in evaluating the practical application of Islamic finance contracts and instruments. Based on the dialectical approach, this article analyzes the case by presenting the background of the dispute and its legal dimensions, emphasizing the necessity of achieving legal certainty in the Islamic financial industry. This study also advocates for applying judicial jurisprudence in resolving disputes related to sukuk. Finally, it unfolds the legal lessons learned from this case. This study concludes that more effort should be made to localize judicial jurisdiction in resolving disputes related to sukuk, regulating the process of selecting the applicable law, and to develop the legal infrastructure in systems participating in Islamic finance. Accordingly, this study highlights the significant role that Shariah standards could play in this field in the future. Full article

This paper offers the first English-language philosophical treatment of Master Liu (Liuzi 劉子)—a treatise that gives a unique insight into the intellectual life of sixth-century China. Most probably written by Liu Zhou (d. 565) and known at the Tang court, the work was later neglected due to its eclectic label. This article argues that Liuzi integrated Confucian moral philosophy with selected Daoist ideas and responded to post-Buddhist transformations of key categories of Chinese thought in a manner that anticipates many solutions characteristic of neo-Confucian lixue. This includes an innovative understanding of such categories as spirit (shen) and heart-mind (xin), feelings (qing) and desires (yu), and, finally, reliability (xin) and balancing (quan). Full article

The introduction of ‘special measures’ within England and Wales (i.e., provisions for vulnerable and intimidated witnesses at court) marked a significant change in legal tradition and trial procedures such that victim and witness care was repositioned as a primary concern alongside the longstanding rights afforded to defendants. As public perceptions towards the legitimacy of criminal justice procedure remain a key concern among legal scholars and social scientists, this study aimed to examine individual differences in attitudes held towards the rights afforded to complainants and defendants within English courts. Adopting a cross-sectional study design, 114 UK adults were recruited to take part in an online survey. Questions centered around the importance of providing adequate witness care whilst protecting defendants’ rights to a fair trial. A new measurement tool was developed to allow these attitudes to be systematically assessed and understood, termed the Attitudes Towards Vulnerable Victims Scale (ATVVS). Results indicate that respondent age, gender, level of education, and belief in a just world are important determinants of public support for the use of special measures at trial as well as perceptions towards complainant and defendants’ rights. Taken together, findings indicate that misconceptions about vulnerable victims appear to underlie a lack of support for the use of special measures. Full article

The popularisation of legal knowledge is a critical issue for equal access to law and justice. Legal discourse has been justly criticised for its obscure terminology and convoluted phrasing, which notably led to the Plain Language Movement in English-speaking countries. In Canada, the concept of Plain Language has been applied to French since the 1980s due to the official policy of bilingualism, while the concept has only been recently discussed in France. In this paper, we examine the impact of Plain Language rewriting on legal phraseology in French popularisation contexts. The first aim of our study is to see if plain texts published in France contain more traces of legal phraseology than French Canadian texts. Our second objective is to determine if a ‘phraseology of plain language’ can be identified across genres and languages. To do this, we compare two corpora of expert-to-expert legal texts written in French—made up, respectively, of legislative texts published in France and judicial texts published by the Supreme Court of Canada—with two corpora of texts that are claimed to have been written in Plain French Language for a non-expert readership—texts that guide laypersons through legal and administrative processes in France and summaries of decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada. Using n-grams, we extract and discuss the patterns that emerge from the corpora. In particular, our analyses rely on the concept of ‘lexico–grammatical patterns’, defined as the minimal unit of meaningful text made up of recurrent sequences of lexical and grammatical items. We then identify a sample of recurring lexico–grammatical patterns and their discursive functions. Full article

This study presents the results of the technical investigation carried out on several English portrait miniatures painted in the 16th and 17th century by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, two of the most famous limners working at the Tudor and Stuart courts. The 23 objects chosen for the analysis, spanning almost the entire career of the two artists, belong to the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge). A non-invasive scientific methodology, comprising of stereo and optical microscopies, Raman microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, was required for the investigation of these small-scale and fragile objects. The palettes and working techniques of the two artists were characterised, focusing in particular on the examination of flesh tones, mouths, and eyes. These findings were also compared to the information written in the treatises on miniature painting circulating during the artists’ lifetime. By identifying the materials and techniques most widely employed by the two artists, this study provides information about similarities and differences in their working methods, which can help to understand their artistic practice as well as contribute to matters of attribution. Full article

In this essay, I give an alternative reading of Chaucerian resonances that fill Lydgate’s The Temple of Glass by analyzing the poem’s allusions to the House of Fame. I argue that Lydgate, as a poet who was well read in Chaucer and considered as his most prolific imitator, comprehended the experimentations of his ‘maister’. Taking into account Meyer-Lee’s study on the House of Fame, which explores Chaucer’s efforts to transform the value of the literary field of late medieval English poetry to better suit his then transitional social position, I assert that by borrowing details of setting, time and place from House of Fame, Lydgate implies his use of the framework set up by Chaucer to adopt his alteration of literary value. In doing so, Lydgate emulates Chaucer’s idea of the literary as an autonomous discourse, which would fundamentally allow him to write courtly productions even from his rather peculiar position as a monk. An analysis of the relations between Lydgate’s poetry and his position as a monk sheds light on his imitation in The Temple of Glass of Chaucer’s attempt to create a poetry that projected him as an authentic poet in connection with both the literary field of the court and his socioeconomic position. Full article

It is common for litigation to draw upon expert evidence to assist a judge to arrive at a balanced decision. This paper examines the role of one type of expert evidence submitted to courts, namely cultural expertise (CE), which provides information on socio-cultural issues such as kinship, family, marriage, customs, language, religion, witchcraft and so on. This type of evidence is primarily the result of qualitative, ethnographic research. I begin by examining the views of experts who have provided CE to courts/mediators; I then look at how judges view and make use of CE, and finally I examine lawyers’ views on CE. To address gaps in published research, I interviewed British barristers to understand how they make use of experts in the cases they litigate. Finally, I have surveyed legal decisions made by all British appellate courts to arrive at an approximate idea of the extent to which CE has been submitted in English and Welsh courts. I conclude that the extent to which CE—and other types of socio-legal evidence—is submitted varies considerably depending upon the legal/evidentiary procedures followed in different jurisdictions and in different countries. Full article

This article uses 116 divorce or separation cases involving people of color between 1872 and 1940 to interrogate the role of the state in adjudicating racially mixed marriages in Britain. These examples demonstrate the rising population of imperial subjects within the U.K., but also that marital cases could reverse in-migration, due to embarrassment and expense for all parties. In addition, gender and class factors limited the impact of race in the court. Men’s advantages in bringing cases overcame some racial prejudices, and rich men, whatever their color, could hire effective representation. Race only impacted divorce cases when women could play on stereotypes of violent men, or when men of color were co-respondents and thus broke up homes. Still, the number of undefended cases limited the influence of race in most divorce suits. Full article

Physicians in the United States (U.S.) face unique obstacles in providing care for persons with limited English proficiency (LEP), especially speakers of rare languages. Lack of professional resources is not a problem exclusive to health care delivery, with speakers of Mayan dialects receiving increasingly narrow representation in detention centers and immigration courts at the U.S.–Mexico border. Parent-child dynamics and other crucial information related to pediatric care may be lost in translation in the event of inadequate interpreter services. Several strategies could address disparities in medical care faced by persons with LEP, speaking rare as well as more common languages. These include increasing the availability of professional interpreters via expanded and/or incentivized training programs, providing focused education in interpreter services for medical students, and unifying interpretation services provided by local consulates and nonprofit agencies for both medical and legal purposes. Full article

This paper examines the role of the victim through the prism of prosecutor in the first third of the nineteenth century when England did not have a public prosecutor or national police force and most crimes were prosecuted in the courts by the victim. The selection of cases is drawn from a larger investigation of female offenders punished by transportation to New South Wales, Australia. The cases demonstrate the diversity of victims, the power they held as prosecutors and highlight the process from apprehension to conviction. Historical records of regional English Assizes and Sessions were investigated to identify the victim and record the prosecution process. Full article

Access to justice has become an important issue in many justice systems around the world. Increasingly, technology is seen as a potential facilitator of access to justice, particularly in terms of improving justice sector efficiency. The international diffusion of information systems (IS) within the justice sector raises the important question of how to insure quality performance. The IS literature has stressed a set of general design principles for the implementation of complex information technology systems that have also been applied to these systems in the justice sector. However, an emerging e-justice literature emphasizes the significance of unique law and technology concerns that are especially relevant to implementing and evaluating information technology systems in the justice sector specifically. Moreover, there is growing recognition that both principles relating to the design of information technology systems themselves (“system design principles”), as well as to designing and managing the processes by which systems are created and implemented (“design management principles”) can be critical to positive outcomes. This paper uses six e-justice system examples to illustrate and elaborate upon the system design and design management principles in a manner intended to assist an interdisciplinary legal audience to better understand how these principles might impact upon a system’s ability to improve access to justice: three European examples (Italian Trial Online; English and Welsh Money Claim Online; the trans-border European Union e-CODEX) and three Canadian examples (Ontario’s Integrated Justice Project (IJP), Ontario’s Court Information Management System (CIMS), and British Columbia’s eCourt project). Full article

Since the introduction of new Web-based technology in the early 21st century, online shaming against those who have violated social norms has been proliferating fast in cyberspace. We have witnessed personal information of targeted individuals being disclosed and displayed for the purpose of humiliation and social condemnation by the anonymous Internet crowd, followed often by harassment and abusive behavior online and offline, resulting in serious disruption of personal life. While public shaming as a form of criminal sanction has been widely discussed in present literature, social policing by shaming transgressions via the Internet is largely a new terrain yet to be explored and studied. Drawing on socio-legal literature on shaming and punishment, and jurisprudence from the English Courts on defamation, harassment and misuse of personal information and the European Court of Human Rights on the relationship between the right to private life and dignity, the discussion will explain how the role of dignity has informed the development of the right to privacy where its value has played a distinctive role. This refers especially to the context in which the plaintiffs could be said to be partly at fault as transgressor-victims. It argues that the recognition and protection of the dignity and privacy of an individual is necessary in order to arrive at norms and values inherent in decent participation in the e-village. In this article, the term “dignity” refers to one’s innate personhood, integrity and self-respect. Full article