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Pretrial publicity is a problem that can affect the fair outcome of a trial, a right that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Research has indicated that potential jurors who are exposed to negative pretrial publicity are more likely to render 'guilty' verdicts (Ruva and McEvoy, 2008). The current study will entail an analysis of pretrial publicity and a case study of attitudes and beliefs surrounding the Casey Anthony trial. Participants included 309 undergraduates at the University of Central Florida. Results indicated that the majority of participants already hold negative biases and non-deliberate exposure influenced negative attitudes and beliefs.

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The definition of the situation is important to observers in everyday social interaction. From the identity of the social actor, the observer attempts to fill in details about the situation. From this "going beyond the information given", the observer defines the situation. The definition then allows the observer to make predictions about the social actor and the situation. Going beyond the information given is referred to as a situational construal (Dunning 1989). The individual forms a concrete image of the situation, resolving ambiguities through construals. However, a still unanswered question has remained: What determines the construals? In this study, affect and construals are linked together. Through the identity of the actor, affect can be linked to expectations, which are used to fill in information. Affect control theory is one theory linking affect to other elements of the situation, such as the relationships between identity, behavior and emotion. The observer has stored knowledge linking identities with affective meanings that generate role behaviors in specific situations, associating identity with specific behavioral expectations. Emotion displays assist the observer in inferring the identities of social actors. One specific situation in which affect and construals are evident is the criminal situation. The criminal situation has ambiguities for which decisions must be made by various observers throughout the criminal justice process. In this study, affect control theory's application to the criminal justice system focuses on inferences made during a probation officer's presentence report, specifically the recommended sentence. Probation officers and undergraduate students respond to vignettes of a criminal situation. In Study 1, undergraduates, after reading a presentence report with criminal and victim statements, assign punishment and answer questions regarding the criminal case. Study 2 replicates Study 1 with probation officers. Study 3 further tests the influence of knowledge structures on construals. Results demonstrate a link between identity and construals. Results answer questions about how the probation officer resolves ambiguities in reaching a recommended sentence. The influence of various knowledge structures is also demonstrated. The cognitive process model applied to the probation officers and the students can be generalized to observers of other situations. One explanation of situational construal is demonstrated.

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Until relatively recently extremely premature babies and critically-ill neonates would not have survived because medical science was insufficiently advanced to save them. Infanticide was a common practice among the Greeks and Romans as a form of birth control and a means of disposing of malformed offspring. Certain indigenous South African tribes also committed infanticide to rid society of deformed infants. Gradually the law came to take a stricter view of infanticide, and with the rise of Christianity it was regarded as murder. The advancement in medical technology, skills and expertise increased the need to take account of biomedical ethics, since this is the framework within which critical care decisions should be made. The principal ethical theories, namely deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics, are discussed, as well as the principles of biomedical ethics, namely beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice. Since actions for wrongful life and wrongful birth also touch on the sanctity of life and quality of life principle, these aspects are briefly discussed. Various international human rights instruments not only guarantee the right to life, but also prescribe a high standard of health care to member states. The right of access to health care, the right to emergency medical treatment and the best interests of the child are entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The best interests of the child are of paramount importance in all matters concerning the child and this concept runs like a golden thread through all cases in which childrenâs rights are considered. In terms of the National Health Act 61 of 2003, free health services are offered to children below the age of six years. Section 129 of the Childrenâs Act 38 of 2005 specifically deals with medical treatment of children, while section 11 deals with children with disabilities and chronic illnesses. A legal comparative study was undertaken in which the legal position in England and Wales, as well as that of the Netherlands, was considered in order to formulate a framework of legislation for the protection of premature babies and critically-ill neonates. The position in England and Wales can best be determined by studying the judgments delivered in court cases. A comprehensive report, âCritical care decisions in fetal and neonatal medicine: ethical issuesâ, was compiled by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. This report was drafted by a multi-disciplinary working party and provides guidelines regarding the medical treatment of neonates. In the Netherlands euthanasia is legal, but then the person requesting it must be above the age of sixteen years. Since neonates cannot request euthanasia, the preferred term is âend-of-life decisionsâ. The Groningen Protocol was drafted by paediatricians assisted by the public prosecutor coroner to prevent a physician from being criminally prosecuted if the guidelines in the Protocol are adhered to in the case of end-of-life decisions. In the thesis three recommendations are made: Guidelines that would be suitable for South African conditions should be drafted by a multidisciplinary team along the lines of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. When cases concerning whether treatment should be withheld or withdrawn reach a South African court, it is recommended that the cases adjudicated in England and Wales be used as a precedent. It is recommended that mediation be considered as an option when there is disagreement regarding the treatment of critically-ill neonates between health care professionals and parents, or between parents. Since the High Court is the upper guardian of all minors, the outcome of the mediation should be made an order of court.

Interactions between science and law can be dated back as far as 9000 B.C. to 3000 B.C., to a time known as the Neolithic age. By the seventeenth century, great scientific contributions by, amongst others, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Boyle affected the way the world was viewed and what methods were most appropriate for finding the truth and, specifically, altered the thought processes of the entire literate English society, including English jurists. During the seventeenth century in England, the fields of law and science enjoyed increased awareness of the probability of truth, not the certainty of it. The search for absolute truth was thus replaced by probabilistic hypotheses and assessment of evidence to achieve truth beyond a reasonable doubt. The interconnectedness of science and law has diminished over time as contemporary thinking demanded not only greater specialisation in the profession and its subdivisions, but also a greater autonomy of legal thought and reasoning. Practitioners, scholars and authors held the view that legal reasoning is, and should remain, separate from scientific reasoning. Modes of reasoning employed in criminal investigation and judicial decision-making are communal in both science and law. Additionally, investigating officers frequently employ forensic science and scientific evidence to assist and direct them in criminal investigations. In the same manner, prosecutors apply forensic evidence in order to assist the court in finding the truth, and to ultimately prove its version of criminal events. In South Africa, police investigators and state prosecutors typically rely on eyewitness testimony in both the detection of crime and to achieve successful conviction of guilty offenders. In addition, DNA evidence has emerged as the golden standard of forensic evidence and much reliance is placed on the results of DNA profiling. However, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable and DNA evidence is not the infallible assurance of certainty it was once thought to be. It is trite that presiding officers must be provided with all relevant and admissible evidence in criminal trials. This includes traditional forensic sciences like bloodstain pattern analysis, trace evidence, fingerprint evidence and many more. Recent research has revealed the questionable scientific foundations of these traditional forensic sciences. While the scientific community is working towards stabilising these knowledge bases, provisions of the law of evidence must provide adequate instruments to prevent the admission of âjunkâ science into evidence. Yet an examination of a variety of rules of admissibility reveals a deficiency in the law to competently exclude fallible and unreliable forensic evidence. In the South African criminal justice system presiding officers invest great reliance on the opinion and explanation of expert witnesses without critically assessing the scientific validity of the testimony. This has resulted in the admission of faulty evidence. To mend this problem presiding officers, as well as investigating police and legal practitioners must obtain a solid scientific knowledge base to enable these role-players to accurately assess forensic evidence.

The different statutory offences applicable to surrogacy and the termination of pregnancies are identified in order to contribute to the efficient lecturing of medical law as independant field of study to law and medical students. In the light of the challenges facing the criminal justice system and the health care system in South Africa, inter alia due to a lack of means, the question is posed whether the criminilization of acts applicable to reproductive medical procedures should or could be meaningfully dealt with within the present criminal justice system. The composition of the health care system in South Africa and the medical ethical obligations as contained in the National Health Act 61 of 2003 are explained with the Constitution of South Africa in mind. Together herewith the role of the Health Professions Council of South Africa in its dealing of contraventions by its members is enunciated. The medical ethical principles are discussed with reference to the well-known four pillars of medical ethics in order to ascertain their applicability in evaluating the lawfulness of the conduct of the health care worker. The practical application of the ethical rules in the execution of surrogate agreements and termination of pregnancies are discussed with reference to the legal position in countries inter alia such as the United States of America and England. The applicable legislation is evaluated against the backdrop of the principle of legality. In view of the failure of the legislature to apply the principle of legality in several sections of the Childrenâs Act 38 of 2005, the National Health Act 61 of 2003 and the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996, the purpose of the legislature is discussed and recommendations are made for the amendment thereof.

This thesis explores the boundaries of low-level public order law, drawing on optimal pathways and standardizations across the four legal systems of England and Wales, Australia, The United States of America and Germany. The aim is to identify the origins of the public order frameworks, explore limits of proscribed behaviour and to determine whether low-level public order laws satisfy the requirement of certainty within the respective jurisdictions. The requisite mental elements are investigated alongside the range of defences available to those accused of such an offence. In order to fully investigate the unique synergies between protest and low-level public order, the study uses a comparative approach to examine the interaction between the low level provisions and constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression; including an examination of the conceptual analysis of the wider frameworks within which protest and low-level public order operate. As the source of much contemporary protest, the impact of the War on Terror upon the nexus between public order and protest will also be examined in respect all of the jurisdictions. It is argued that the law relating to low-level public order in all jurisdictions is, to some extent, based around “catch all” provisions that criminalize a broad range of behaviour and also allow the police and the courts a wide range of discretion when dealing with such offences. The various solutions in respect of structure, operation and judicial interpretation of the offences will be examined. This will highlight standardizations and also fundamental disparities between the four jurisdictions. Such a comparative investigation is unique. The study draws upon multiple standardizations to model the lower end of criminality across the four diverse legal systems, providing dynamic areas of contrast through an examination of both civil law and common law solutions to the treatment of low-level disorder. The efficacy of both codified and ad hoc arrangements to regulate disorder while guaranteeing the right to protest are also assessed. The thesis contributes to the understanding of the scope and contours of low-level public order law as well as extrapolating optimal solutions from the findings of this study.

This research examined the influence of eyewitness identification decisions on participants in the role of police investigators. Undergraduate "investigators" interviewed confederate "witnesses" and then searched a computer database of potential suspects. The database included information on each suspect's physical description, prior criminal record, alibi, and fingerprints. Participants selected a suspect and estimated the probability that the suspect was guilty. Investigators subsequently administered a photo lineup to the witness and re-estimated the suspect's guilt. Investigators were greatly swayed by eyewitness decisions. If the witness identified the suspect probability estimates increased dramatically. If the witness identified an innocent lineup member or rejected the lineup,+ investigators' probability estimates dropped significantly, even when pre-lineup objective evidence (e.g., fingerprints) was strong. Eyewitness decisions similarly influenced investigators' confidence in the witness and willingness to arrest the suspect. Participant-investigators greatly overestimated the amount of information gain provided by eyewitness identifications.