Search

This study examined the effects of bystander or victim intoxication during a crime on juror perceptions and decision-making. Mock jurors (N = 261) read testimony from a bystander or victim to an assault, who mentioned that they had consumed alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, or no substances prior to the crime. Participants delivered a verdict, rated the defendant's guilt, and rated the bystander/victim on their honesty, credibility, and cognitive competence. Witness intoxication and witness role did not influence defendant guilt. However, participants judged any witness intoxicated by amphetamines as less credible and cognitively competent than a sober witness. Furthermore, victims were judged to have lower credibility, cognitive competence, and honesty than bystanders. These findings suggest that jurors' decision-making about defendant guilt might not be influenced by witness intoxication or witness type. A witness' testimony, however, might be evaluated as less credible when delivered by a victim or an amphetamine-intoxicated witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trials of international crimes frequently rely on a complex type of witnesses: insiders or accomplices. While harnessing essential knowledge, insiders pose serious challenges to the decision-makers assessing their credibility. Prior research suggests that judges dismiss a sizeable proportion of insider testimony during trials of international crimes. While some reasons might lie with the witnesses, a closer look at the professional practices is warranted. This study aimed to examine the process of insider witness statement assessments by international criminal justice professionals and to analyze how they resolve the tension between the concerns about witness truthfulness and the quality of the testimony. One hundred sixty practitioners took part in an experimental vignette survey. Results of qualitative analyses demonstrate that the assessments of the witness and the statement contents are interrelated: across all experimental conditions, respondents drew inferences about the quality of the testimony based on their assessment of the witness and vice versa. Furthermore, the same indicators were given various, at times contradictory, meanings, highlighting individual differences in professional practice and the noise in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte: Germanistische Abteilung is the property of De Gruyter 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.)

Copyright of Revista Crítica de Relaciones de Trabajo, Laborum is the property of Ediciones Laborum S.L. 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.)

According to Art. 9 sec. 2 of Regulation (EC) No.861/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 establishing a European Small Claims Procedure, the court or tribunal may allow written evidence from witnesses, experts or parties to be taken. The Regulation applies to cross-border cases (Regulation of 11 July 2007), i.e., cases in which at least one of the parties is domiciled or habitually resident in a Member State other than the Member State of the court or tribunal examining the case (Article 3). On the other hand, the Act amending the Act - Code of Civil Procedure and some other acts of 5 December 2008 added Art. 505 25. Pursuant to § 1 of this provision: The witness shall testify in writing if the court so decides. In this case, the witness shall make an oath by signing the text of the oath. The witness is obliged to submit the text of the testimony to the court within the time limit set by the court. The provisions of art. 165 § 2, art. 274 § 1 and art. 276 shall apply accordingly. As indicated in the justification for the draft of this legal act: Due to the fact that Polish law does not know the written form of testifying bywitnesses and hearing the parties (the exception applies to mute and deaf people, cf. Art. 271 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure; this provision applies accordingly to hear the parties pursuant to the third sentence of Article 304), it was necessary to introduce appropriate regulations in this respect applicable to the European Small Claims Procedure.

Jurors often have to make decisions about whether they believe a complainant's or defendant's account of an event. However, the relative ambiguity of cues in testimony creates a situation where juror evaluations can vary significantly. As a result, in cases heavily reliant on testimony there is a particular likelihood that juror characteristics will be associated with verdicts, and it is important to understand these associations. This research investigates the relationships between two juror characteristics—gender and cultural worldviews—and verdicts in two such cases, and the potential for those relationships to be explained by differences in perceived prevalence of alleged events acting as prior probability judgements. As predicted, results show significant relationships between gender and cultural worldview and verdicts and show that these relationships are mediated by differences in underlying prevalence estimates. These findings have important implications for understanding associations between juror characteristics and verdicts, and related policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom holds that it is helpful, or even necessary, for arbitrators to observe witnesses' demeanour in order to assess their credibility. The alleged importance of this "demeanour evidence" has been cited as a reason to favour in-person hearings over remote hearings. However, research in the field of psychology and the experience of national courts should cause practitioners to question whether witnesses' non-verbal behaviour is a reliable guide to their credibility. On the contrary, there is evidence that judgements based on witness demeanour are often unreliable and even biased, particularly where there are cultural or linguistic differences between the witness and arbitrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England and Wales, Employment Tribunals (ETs) hear claims from persons who believe that an employer, or potential employer, has treated them unlawfully. Witness statements form part of the evidence considered by ETs, but research is lacking with regard to the methods used to produce ET witness statements. This study presents the findings from 40 semi-structured interviews with ET judges, panel members, employment lawyers (solicitors, barristers, advisers) and litigants. Our data revealed six themes: professional processes, enabling through case management, presentation preferences, challenges for litigants in person, availability and quality of resources, and lack of training. Participants felt that the quality of witness statements varied amongst those prepared by professional advisors and by litigants in person. Our interviews revealed almost no evidence of practitioner training on how best to prepare a witness statement. We make recommendations about guidance and training for those tasked with drafting witness statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to clarify the use of charters in the high middle ages, not according to their production but with reference to the formulae and the practical statements listed in them. Most of the named examples derive from Austria and Slovenia. Charters are often confirmed, but there is only little evidence of their use as a proof in court. The issuers were often afraid, their legal successors wouldn't recognise their legal acts. Confirmations assured their permanence and the persistence of witnesses. The general knowledge of the legal act protected it somehow, but malicious infringers couldn't be turned away otherwise than through witnesses. The charters were mere reminders of the legal act itself and not a kind of protection. Witnesses obtained their knowledge about legal acts more often from legal charters than indicated by the historical tradition.

This study investigated lawyers’ use of social narratives surrounding child sexual abuse when questioning 66 5- to 17-year-old alleged victims in Scottish criminal courts using a mixed-methods approach. Thematic analysis found that the use of beliefs and stereotypes varied depending upon the lawyers’ role (defense/prosecution), children’s age, and the alleged victim-defendant relationship. These findings were investigated further using narrative analysis, which showed that, with increasing age and decreasing familiarity with defendants, narratives increasingly focused on the characteristics and actions of the victims rather than the defendants. Older children contributed more to narratives than younger children, but their contributions were only incorporated into the prosecutors’ narratives. Defense lawyers adopted more victim-blaming tactics as the narratives developed. Findings suggest that the criminal justice system, practitioners, and researchers must do more to recognize and guard against the reinforcement of stereotypes that may influence public rhetoric and jury decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to clarify the use of charters in the high middle ages, not according to their production but with reference to the formulae and the practical statements listed in them. Most of the named examples derive from Austria and Slovenia. Charters are often confirmed, but there is only little evidence of their use as a proof in court. The issuers were often afraid, their legal successors wouldn't recognise their legal acts. Confirmations assured their permanence and the persistence of witnesses. The general knowledge of the legal act protected it somehow, but malicious infringers couldn't be turned away otherwise than through witnesses. The charters were mere reminders of the legal act itself and not a kind of protection. Witnesses obtained their knowledge about legal acts more often from legal charters than indicated by the historical tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the influence of visual media technologies used in remote witness testimony, examining whether it is suitable to use students as mock jurors when measuring the impact of new technologies. A 2 × 2 mixed factorial design explored how student status impacted ratings of the quality of the technology and remote witness facilities. A sample of 79 students and non-empanelled jurors from the Victorian Metropolitan County Court viewed direct questioning of four lay witnesses who testified from a remote location via standard or enhanced video technology. Students differed significantly from jurors in their attitudes towards media and technology. In responding to technology enhancements, students were similar in rating changes in the quality of the technology, but differed significantly in how they rated changes to the design of remote witness facilities. Students were thus a suitable sample to measure the effect of technological change in court on perceptions of technology, but not on perceptions of design. We conclude by stressing such technology enhancements can improve the quality of experience for all jurors.

A single European area of freedom, security and justice requires new models of judicial cooperation in criminal matters to be put in place in order to efficiently combat transnational organized crime. However, this should not be done while disregarding the protection of the individual rights of the suspect and the accused: a transnational criminal procedure should not entail a lowering of the procedural safeguards identified by the European Court of Human Rights. The tension between the efficiency in the cooperation and the need to protect the fundamental rights of the defendant is particularly visible in matters of the transnational gathering of evidence, its transfer and its admissibility as evidence against the accused. This paper intends to identify general principles and rules that should be applied in European transnational criminal proceedings with regard to witness evidence. Departing from the ECHR’s case law, this paper will try to identify the principles regarding the hearing of witnesses who reside in another Member State, the admissibility of pre-trial statements as evidence and the need to foster the use of the live video link for witness questioning.

To date, the majority of published research on alibis has focused on jurors' perceptions of alibi believability. However in criminal cases, it is often law enforcement officers and prosecutors who make decisions about alibi believability that are critical to whether an individual will be charged with a crime. In the current survey, senior law enforcement personnel were questioned about their opinions and experiences regarding alibi investigations and stories. Respondents consistently reported that ‘time’ is a critical element related to the believability of an alibi story. Specifically, the sooner an alibi story can be investigated, the greater the likelihood that the alibi story will be useful in determining whether the suspect was involved in the crime. In addition, consistent with prior research (Olson & Wells, 2004), participants indicated that the most believable alibi stories are those that include physical evidence or a statement from an unmotivated other. However, respondents reported that suspects provide leads to physical evidence in only 20% of cases, and that unmotivated strangers lie to police in 12% of cases. Overall, the results of the survey show that law enforcement officers are skeptical of alibi statements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the social aspects of military structure in Seville, Spain, during the 16th and 17th centuries. The author analyzes historic documents and files in order to discuss the role of diverse Sevillian lineages in forming various military orders, focusing primarily on Santiago, Calatrava and Alcántara. Social, political and military aspects of the familial orders are discussed with respect to the specific structures within Seville. Connotations of purity, wealth and nobility with each order are also explored.

Psychology research has generally neglected intoxicated eyewitnesses. The current study addressed this need by exploring mock jurors' perceptions of intoxicated witnesses. Undergraduate participants read summarized sexual or aggravated battery cases in which either the victim or a bystander identified the defendant under varying intoxication levels. They answered questions about the case and provided verdicts. Participants were sensitive to the effect that intoxication may have on witnesses' cognitive ability, but not to varying degrees of intoxication. Neither the role of the eyewitness nor the type of crime committed had an effect on perceptions of witness impairment. Participants' perceptions of witness impairment informed identification credibility ratings, and credibility assessments affected verdicts. Impairment and credibility ratings fully mediated intoxication's effect on verdicts. Unlike much prior research, our results suggest that mock jurors can consider potentially important witness information when rendering verdicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Prolegómenos Derechos y Valores is the property of Prolegomenos Derechos y Valores 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.)