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• AI and other predictive models are becoming increasingly common in criminal law. • Some decisions made by judges show high levels of predictability. • All predictions on petitions for new criminal trials in Sweden in 2021 were accurate. • Other types of legal decisions e.g. legal precedent are probably less predictable. Predictability of legal decisions is usually considered a prerequisite for the rule of law, following the maxim 'like cases should be treated alike'. Yet, this presupposes that the case outcome can be predicted based on the merits of the case, rather than other factors. The purpose of this study was to test whether and to what extent legal decisions on petitions for new criminal trials can be predicted on the basis of other fairly superficial criteria that one could access without even reading the case file, e.g. which Court decided, whether the applicant had legal representation etc. To this end, all petitions for new criminal trials submitted to the Swedish Supreme Court and the six Courts of Appeal in the time period 2010–2020 (n = 3915) were reviewed. This data formed the basis of a regression model which was then used to predict decisions regarding petitions in 2021. On the basis of access to legal representation and crime type, the regression model predicted accurately 100 % of the decisions made in 2021. This raises questions about the evidentiary basis for the decisions and also the role of judges in situations where their decisions are fully predictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Indonesia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and enacted Laws that provide for the right to justice and legal protection for persons with mental disabilities, including the right to own and inherit a legacy. Paradoxically, the same laws legalize actions that undermine their rights. This study examines the legal protection accorded to persons with mental/intellectual disabilities over their inheritance rights as per the Indonesian three-pronged inheritance laws comprising Islamic law, adat law and the civil code. This research is descriptive, using a normative approach with a measure of doctrinal research. Indonesian laws still provide for substituted decision-making for persons with mental disabilities, which legalizes denying their right to legal agency. Ambiguities abound in the laws on important aspects, like how one is declared incapable of making legal decisions. Supported decision-making mechanisms for persons with mental disabilities in Indonesian laws would provide the basis for setting up support centers where persons with mental disabilities can access the necessary support to enable them to make legal decisions. This study can be useful in addressing issues that infringe on the legal rights and protections of people with mental disabilities.

Copyright of Revista MAD is the property of Revista MAD and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aimed to clarify the standard for layperson's legal decision and identify factors that contribute to establishing the criterion. Two samples were studied (undergraduate students and community members) to test the hypothesis that laypeople use a lower criterion for their legal decisions than the beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD) rule ordered by law. Relationships among individual's implicit threshold (IT) for a legal decision and other psychological representations (e.g., not blameworthy, not guilty, desire to punish) were also analyzed. Participants read one of two or three vignettes describing a murder case and provided their verdicts, perceived likelihood of guilt ratings, and quantified mental representations of 'innocent' and BRD. In both studies, mean IT was lower than mean BRD. The concordance rate comparison in both studies showed that IT, rather than BRD, is a more accurate measure of laypeople's legal decision thresholds. In Study 2, IT was positively correlated with representations of 'innocent,' suggesting that these representations of 'innocent' may be a significant factor that lowered the decision threshold. This study advances knowledge in the field by proposing a novel concept regarding layperson's legal decision and exploring its relationships with other legal decision-making factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Derecho is the property of Revista Chilena de Derecho and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cet article s’intéresse à la question générale des conditions de la prise de décision en matière d’asile : comment l’objectif « d’accélération des procédures », ainsi que les critères d’efficacité et de productivité bureaucratiques influencent-ils la mise en oeuvre du droit d’asile ? À partir d’une enquête ethnographique au sein de l’administration de l’asile en Suisse, cet article analyse comment une « politique du chiffre » imprègne le travail d’instruction des demandes d’asile et se traduit concrètement dans les injonctions des cadres intermédiaires, dans leurs stratégies et priorités de traitement, ainsi que dans des instruments d’aide à la décision. Deux arguments principaux sont développés dans l’article. Premièrement, l’examen individuel des requêtes entre en tension avec une gestion collective de celles-ci : en effet, non seulement ce traitement individuel s’inscrit dans des logiques organisationnelles de gestion des « flux » migratoires — la conjoncture du nombre et de l’origine des demandeurs d’asile influençant les priorités et les stratégies de traitement — et d’industrialisation de la prise de décision, mais il se fait aussi toujours à l’aune de lignes directrices définies par l’institution. Cette analyse nous conduit à nous interroger sur la forme syllogistique des décisions. Celles-ci sont le plus souvent prises en référence aux normes secondaires d’application qui orientent la perception qu’ont les spécialistes asile des décisions possibles. Deuxièmement, l’article met en évidence le rôle que jouent les cadres intermédiaires dans la mise en oeuvre de l’action publique. Ces derniers disposent d’un pouvoir (discrétionnaire et normatif) dans l’orientation et l’encadrement des pratiques de mise en oeuvre de la politique d’asile.

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Derecho is the property of Revista Chilena de Derecho and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this contribution I identify prototypical patterns in the justification of judicial decisions. From a pragma-dialectical perspective, I explain the nature and rationale for the argumentative patterns from the perspective of the institutional function of legal justification and I distinguish different argumentative patterns in clear cases and hard cases in the justification of judicial decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work directed to analyze as much as explain the theory of legal decision, this way showing its relevance for the concretization of the rights. t can be seen that the legal systematic has been expressed in several ways, since the forthcoming of legal dogmatism to the new conceptions of our modern society, these ways have surpassed the dogmatic thinking. The law scholars have put all their efforts, aiming to elaborate a theory that brings a structure to the legal system, thus defining the parameters to the tough task which is the law enforcement. Therefore, as the society becomes more and more complex, new situations arise and they demand a greater law flexibility. In this context, the law unfolding can be surpassed by other ways of rationality. By the way, this is one of the most complex challenges the jurist faces nowadays, and on this account to make a judgment issue on legal disputes has become a task that requires a big deal of creativity; this way law is a science that involves, most of all, contingencies.

The article studies the issue of formation of the Russian criminal law on crimes against justice. The author shows the continuity of some legal decisions on the responsibility for encroachment of justice according to the Tsarist Russia law and to the modern Russian criminal law.

Juvenile waiver laws allow youthful defendants who have not reached the age of adulthood to be transferred out of the juvenile court and into adult criminal court where they are subject to prosecution as if they were an adult. Using data collected from 37 urban counties, this study expands on a recent study by Kurlychek and Johnson (2004) by comparing the pretrial detention and imprisonment outcomes of juveniles transferred to criminal court to those received by adult defendants 29 years of age or younger. This study also examines the potential effects of county context on incarceration rates of the county court communities. Findings revealed that transferred juveniles are disadvantaged at sentencing stage, and that incarceration decisions regarding young defendants are shaped by the context of the county in which they are processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most legal decision support systems have generally operated in domains with well?understood norms. Hence reasoning has been represented by a combination of rule?based and case?based reasoning. However, we analyse legal domains in which decision makers are allowed a significant amount of discretion. We argue that if the domain is bounded, and a sufficient number of commonplace cases exist, then the domain can be modelled using Knowledge Discovery from Databases techniques. Whilst we focus upon legal principles for decision making in discretionary legal domains, our goal is to develop theory for constructing legal decision support systems. Our jurisprudential theory is hence applied to a practical legal domain—namely the distribution of marital property following divorce in Australia. We conclude by discussing how we can maintain, update and evaluate the quality of the advice offered by our legal decision support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003 the Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) of the State of California brought a complaint against Dr. Gloria Dodd for what they alleged was false advertising for the use of homeopathic remedies and the use of radionic devices for the diagnosis and non-local treatment of animals. Unsatisfied with Dodd's compliance the VMB brought the case to court in 2006. There, through in absentia testimony as to Dodd's abilities and my testimony as to the evidence for non-local man-machine interaction and remote viewing and the failure of the complainants to rebut our evidence Dodd was almost completely vindicated. Full vindication came with our appeal to a superior court, which permitted Dodd to continue to practice without the need to personally examine her animal patients. If sustained through appeal by the VMB the case might serve as a precedent for all practitioners of non-local healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]