Criminal law and criminal justice: morals and policy

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: Morals and Policy goes beyond the traditional criminal law textbook and invites students to examine underpinning theory. It questions why we criminalise certain behaviour and whether the decisions made by the courts can be justified according to legal principle, morals and policy. Providing an overview not only of the legal doctrine of criminal law, but also of the underpinning theory behind the legal doctrine, the book encourages critical thinking around the context behind and implementation of legal decisions. It applies this to current issues, such as respect for personal autonomy, prevention of domestic abuse and discouraging gang activity, whilst providing a clear overview of the law relating to actus reus, mens rea, property offences, homicide, non-fatal offences, sexual offences, accessorial liability, and defences. Using hypothetical scenarios students will develop an understanding of why certain rules exist and then be able to critically analyse why certain behaviour is criminalised. An in-depth study of several key cases will show how the rules and theory play out in practice and students will examine how morals and policy have influenced these decisions. Featuring thinking points as well as further reading suggestions, this textbook is suitable for all students of criminal law, as well as for those studying jurisprudence

The story so far………- current opinion in the use and applications of interactive storytelling in physiology and clinical education.

Physiology and clinical practice are subjects of study which demand integration of multiple sources of systems working knowledge and information on the performance of those systems to come to meaningful conclusions. This is made more complex by the interpretation and actions as a result of this conclusion having direct impact on the sum of the component systems, the human, thereby integrating significant social and psychological considerations into an already complex situation. As higher education educators, it is a significant challenge to provide our learners with training and most importantly, practice, in these knowledge, skills and behaviours in the classroom. There has been a significant interest in recent years in providing active learning opportunities which allow learners to apply subject knowledge to multi-faceted, immersive, continuously evolving stories which reflect a graduate's professional aspirations. This review highlights practices from the literature of storytelling education which the higher education educator can utilise in promoting "meaning making" in the classroom. Here, the case for interactive storytelling in physiology and clinical education is argued, as well as presenting commonly utilised techniques and practices with which educators can embed storytelling into their pedagogy as well as highlighting future directions in this field

Indexing league of legends performance: A systematic review and focus group study

This study investigates competitive League of Legends performance indicators through systematic review and focus group analysis. A review of 15 studies identified 87 performance variables across eight domains: game metrics, skill, cognition, strategy, awareness, knowledge, vigilance, and physical/physiological factors. Focus groups with panellists consisting of competitive players ( n = 15) from university, national, and international levels led to the construction of crucial insights: performance measurement should be role-specific; traditional statistics provide incomplete assessment without context; team synergy often supersedes individual skill; both consistency and peak performance represent distinct aspects of effectiveness; and evaluation criteria vary across competitive contexts. The findings suggest League of Legends performance is best conceptualised as an integrated dynamic system rather than isolated variables, challenging researchers to develop more sophisticated methodological approaches. The disconnection between statistical measures and player-perceived performance indicators highlights the need for multidimensional assessment frameworks that integrate objective metrics with subjective expertise. Future research should explore role-specific performance parameters, longitudinal tracking across competitive seasons, and advanced statistical techniques to test hierarchical relationships between cognitive capacities, skill execution, and performance outcomes

Last word: on transformative justice

Reflection on truth and reconciliation processes in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada, with discussions of the differences between retributive, restorative, transitional and transformative justice; and the importance of cultural events to post-genocide healin

Good definitions: embodying autism through film poetry

Naomi Foyle explores how her late autism assessment in 2020 provoked the revelation that performance has paradoxically enabled her to ‘unmask’: to bodily express her hidden autistic self. Discussing traits including gender fluidity, frank sexuality, hyperempathy, hypersensitivity, Foyle reflects on spoken word and audio visual work including the filmpoems 'Good Definition' (2008) and 'Ways of Seeing Trees' (2025), and the music video 'Boas and Blindfolds', produced with various collaborators. A blog post published in the Online Gallery of Poetry Off the Page, Around the Globe (University of Vienna and Literaturhaus Wien)

Developing an assessment toolbox

In the fourth article in this series focusing on play in emergency settings, Debra Laxton, Sarah Ndlovu and Priyanka Handa Ram share more about the development of an assessment tool tailored to play-based provision

Rob's vignette - the Chichester practice-based MBA: emphasising relational learning

Several years ago, I designed an MBA programme to run as part of the UK Government’s apprenticeship scheme for senior leaders. As of 2025 it is now on its eighth cohort and has a loyal following with several local employers. The aim was to bring relational critical thinking alive in a programme of practice-based learning. In looking at other MBAs on the market I was concerned that many did not treat leadership and management as a practice that people do as part of their day to day lives. For example, there would be discreet subjects like HR, finance, strategy and the like. As a manager I knew that they did not sit in isolation, instead leadership/management was a holistic practice that included intellect, emotion, artistry, communication and so on in the practical real world of unfolding and unpredictable events. I became sceptical of the ‘case study’ that put students on the touchline of experience that encouraged them to think ‘why on earth would anyone …’, a privileged position that was divorced from their reality. I was also concerned by the focus of treating leadership and management as an academic subject, as opposed to a practice. For example, whilst I enjoy reading critical management studies papers, with their sharp critical theory and post-modern analysis, I do wonder how these insights help. In building a masters programme up from scratch I had the opportunity to weave relational critical thinking into the entire fabric. I must admit, I did not call it ‘relational critical thinking,’ or the methods ‘practice-based learning’ at the time. The words and practice followed in working with students, colleagues and particularly James Traeger on various organisation development programmes, research and books. I therefore do not take credit, but this is an explanation of my practice

Georges Bataille Critical Essays Volume 2: 1949–1951

In the aftermath of World War II, French thinker and writer Georges Bataille forged a singular path through the moral and political impasses of his age. In 1946, animated by ‘a need to live events in an increasingly conscious way’, and to reject any compartmentalization of intellectual life, Bataille founded the journal Critique. Continuing the publication of his postwar writings, this second book in a three-volume collection of Bataille’s work collects his essays and reviews from the years 1949 to 1951. In this period of intellectual isolation and intense reflection, Bataille developed and refined his genealogy of morality through a sustained reflection on the fate of the sacred in the modern world. He offered a critique of the limits of existing morality, especially in its denial of excess, while sketching the lineaments of a new hyper-morality. Bataille’s wide-ranging reflections are true to the intellectual mission of Critique, which he founded as a space open to the broadest considerations of the present. As well as discussing significant figures like Samuel Beckett, André Gide, and René Char, Bataille also offers fascinating reflections on American politics, Nazism, existentialism, materialism, and play. The connecting thread in these diverse essays remains Bataille’s concern with the extremes of human experience and the possibilities of transcending the limits of societies founded on utility and restraint. His writings remain a provocative incitement to rethink the boundaries we impose on expression and existence

Bottom of the barrel

A sonnet reflecting on dating in later life

Machine learning-based position detection using hall-effect sensor arrays on resource-constrained microcontroller

This paper presents an electromagnetic levitation system that stabilizes a magnetic body using an array of electromagnets controlled by a Hall-effect sensor array and TinyML-based position detection. Departing from conventional optical tracking methods, the proposed design combines finite-element-optimized electromagnets with a microcontroller-optimized neural network that processes sensor data to predict the levitated object’s position with 0.0263–0.0381 mm mean absolute error. The system employs both quantized and full-precision implementations of a supervised multi-output regression model trained on spatially sampled data (40 × 40 × 15 mm volume at 5 mm intervals). Comprehensive benchmarking demonstrates stable operation at 850–1000 Hz control frequencies, matching optical systems’ performance while eliminating their cost and complexity. The integrated solution performs real-time position detection and current calculation entirely on-board, requiring no external tracking devices or high-performance computing. By achieving sub 30 μm accuracy with standard microcontrollers and minimal hardware, this work validates machine learning as a viable alternative to optical position detection in magnetic levitation systems, reducing implementation barriers for research and industrial applications. The complete system design, including electromagnetic array characterization, neural network architecture selection, and real-time implementation challenges, is presented alongside performance comparisons with conventional approaches