31 research outputs found
Outcomes of Six- and Twelve-Member Jury Trials: An Analysis of 128 Civil Cases in the State of Washington
Support is growing for increased use of six-member juries in civil cases. Presently, a jury with less than twelve members is available by stipulation in Washington superior courts, and the possibility that a six-member panel will become compulsory in the future is enhanced by positive reports from those experimenting with a mandatory six-member jury
Recommended from our members
The violent frontline: space, ethnicity and confronting the state in Edwardian Spitalfields and 1980s Brixton
This article discusses in comparative terms the relationship between space, ethnic identity, subaltern status and anti-state violence in twentieth century London. It does so by comparing two examples in which the control of the state, as represented by the Metropolitan Police, was challenged by minority groups through physical force. It will examine the Spitalfields riots of 1906, which began as strike action by predominantly Jewish bakers and escalated into a general confrontation between the local population and the police, and the Brixton riots of 1981, a response to endemic police harassment of mainly Caribbean youth and long-term economic discrimination in that area of South London. It will begin by dissecting the association of physical metropolitan space with the diasporic âotherâ in the Edwardian East End and post-consensus South London, and how this âotheringâ was influenced both by the state and the anti-migrant far right. It will then interrogate the difficult relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Jewish and Caribbean working class communities, and how this deteriorating relationship exploded into in extreme violence in 1906 and 1981. The article will conclude by assessing how the relationships between space, identity and violence influenced long-term national and communal narratives of Jewish and Caribbean interactions with the British state
Debtor Discharge and Creditor Repayment in Chapter 13
The consumer bankruptcy system plays an enormous albeit largely under appreciated role in the United States economy. There were nearly 1.6 million consumer bankruptcy filings in the United States in 2004 - more than twice the number just ten years earlier, and more than one filing for every 70 households in the country. Nearly a third of these filings were under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. (Chapter 13 provides for individual debt readjustment pursuant to a repayment plan, whereas Chapter 7 provides for liquidation of assets to pay creditor claims.) Yet, little is known about what debtors and creditors accomplish in Chapter 13 cases or how well the Chapter 13 system serves its intended purposes.
This article reports on the findings of the Chapter 13 Project, a national empirical study of 795 Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings in seven federal judicial districts. Funded by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and the American Bankruptcy Institute, it is the first and only national study of its kind. It provides a detailed portrait of the Chapter 13 system and the extent to which Chapter 13 has fulfilled its principal purposes -- debtor fresh start, on the one hand, and creditor repayment, on the other.
The article first reports on who is using Chapter 13 - the gender, income, indebtedness and other bankruptcy filings of the debtors in the sample. It then reports on the extent to which the debtors in the seven districts completed their plans and obtained a discharge. Next, we consider various debtor characteristics - gender, income, amount and type of debt, debt-income ratio, other filings - and certain plan features - length, proposed distribution to unsecured creditors, income reserved for payment of living expenses - for their relation to case outcome. Regarding creditor repayment, the study reports in detail on the amounts and types of debt that are collected by creditors in Chapter 13 cases.
The Project has produced a wealth of new information and insights into the Chapter 13 system. Some of the highlights include: Most of the debtors in the sample were far less affluent than the population as a whole. At least 50% of the debtors had filed one or more other petitions. Discharge rates varied significantly by district, but overall only one-third of the debtors completed a plan. We found statistically significant correlations between case outcome and debtor income, amount and type of debt, and other filings. Equally revealing, the study found no significant relationship between case outcome and plan feasibility, proposed plan length or proposed distribution to unsecured creditors. Regarding creditor repayment, the study reports that the primary creditor beneficiaries by far of the Chapter 13 system are secured creditors; and that less than a third of trustee disbursements were to general unsecured creditors. The median amount paid to unsecured creditors in all cases was $0
Finger, Text, and Moon: Dennis Hirota and Iwasaki Tsuneo
Dennis Hirota is a modern master of Shin Buddhism who for several decades has explicated the role of natural language in fostering Buddhist awakening. At the core of his oeuvre is the claim that Shin Buddhismâs founder, Shinran Shonin (1173-1263), accepted the earlier Mahayana teaching of nondual awareness as a necessary condition for awakening. Shinranâs unique contribution was to insist that ordinary persons were, as a matter of historical circumstance, incapable of the disciplines required to arrive at non-dual awareness. It was just this circumstance that the historical Buddha foresaw when he taught the Larger Pure Land Sutra, in which the mind of the Buddha Amida, perfect wisdom and compassion, became available to ordinary people who call his Name in joyful sincerity. This is a difficult teaching of ânon-practiceâ that embraces many subtleties. As a heuristic to ease the way into Shinran as Hirota presents him, this paper introduces a painting by the modern Japanese scientist and artist, Iwasaki Tsuneo. This is not a âShin painting,â but certainly a âMahayana paintingâ that connects the aspiration of an ordinary person to ultimate truth through the text of the Heart Sutra, arguably the quintessential Buddhist teaching of non-dual awareness
Conduct of the voir dire examination : practices and opinions of federal district judges /
"FJC-R-77-7."Mode of access: Internet