The Insanity Defence: Is It Still Fit for Purpose?

The M'Naghten Rules formulated in 1843 have provided the basis for the insanity defence in many Western countries, including New Zealand. Although many candidates for the insanity defence experience psychosis, the principal determining factor is whether they knew their criminal act was morally wrong, a difficult metaethical judgement. In New Zealand the advent of methamphetamine abuse has created a significant challenge for forensic assessors in differentiating between mental disease and chronic intoxication, raising the question of whether the insanity defence as currently formulated is fit for purpose in assessing criminal culpability in such cases. The article explores this problem through an examination of a number of leading cases, noting the variable character of expert testimony on insanity where methamphetamine is involved. The article then examines the question of whether evidence of mental states falling short of insanity may be utilised to support a palliative claim reducing murder to manslaughter. A tentative new approach invites consideration of allowing investigation of insanity in cases involving meth-induced paranoia, whether or not the threshold of disease of the mind is met. In the concluding sections the article examines the impact of developments in cognitive neuroscience and asks whether neuroscience can help in determining criminal responsibility and whether it supports a "control limb" in a reformulated insanity defence. The article concludes with a brief discussion of mental disorder and impulsive aggression

International regulation of foreign intelligence liaison

Includes bibliographical referencesEdward Snowden is a hero. In 2013, he leaked what can arguably be considered as the greatest quantity of classified and top - secret foreign intelligence in history. The leak revealed the extent of pervasive global government surveillance that has been and continues to be conducted by foreign intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom. His actions have led to international security sector reform of the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison. Citizen Four, the 2015 Oscar award-winning documentary, is the story of Snowden. When asked by Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the journalist and documentarian who covered his journey , why he did what he did, Snowden's response was that : '[I]t all comes down to state power against the people's ability to meaningfully oppose that power .. . if the policy switches that are the only thing that restrain these states were changed, you couldn't meaningfully oppose these ... that hardened me into action.' When closing a TED talk on how we take back the internet, Snowden's idea worth sharing was that: '... [D]emocracy may die behind closed doors but we as individuals are born behind those same closed doors ... We don't have to give up our privacy to have good government ... We don't have to give up our liberty to have security ... By working together, we can have both open government and private lives ... . ' The relationship between state power and people's opposition, the individual and democracy, privacy and good government, liberty and security are themes that run throughout this dissertation. They are thematic relationships that underlie the importance of the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison. The international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison will continue to be shaped by these relationships. Chapter I picks up on these themes by reviewing the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison as a phenomenon. Part II defines foreign intelligence, part III sets up the objectives of a regime for international law in liberal democracies, part IV recognises the challenges to effective oversight of foreign intelligence agencies and part V maps out different reasons for and uses and forms of foreign intelligence liaison. A core argument is that the inevitable abuse and misuse of foreign intelligence liaison should be regulated through a horizontal accountability mechanism as an international best practice. Chapter II focuses on the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison through a legal analysis. It draws on the themes by summarising (part II) and critiquing (part III) two landmark judgments having the potential to set an international best - practice precedent that contributes to the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison. The core argument is that communications interception warrants should be regulated by judicial pre-authorisation. This is a practical application of Chapter I's core theoretical argument mentioned above. Chapter III develops these themes by analysing the international regulation of foreign intelligence liaison through recommendations. Part II explores the regulation of signals intelligence (SIGINT) in South Africa. Part III sets out the national and regional applications of art 17 of the ICCPR with regard to private communications. Finally, by summarising and applying the core arguments of Chapters I and II to Chapter III, part IV recommends legal reform through a General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill 2015 (the Bill)

Sexual Predators, Extended Supervision, and Preventive Social Control: Risk Management Under the Spotlight

The purpose of this article is to assess the legitimacy of the preventive detention model represented by New Zealand's Parole (Extended Supervision) Amendment Act 2004 in light of the legislative response to sex offenders in other jurisdictions, notably the United States and England. It is argued that the growing legislative practice of imposing administrative detention post-sentence represents a dangerous trend in criminal justice and disguises a largely undeclared agenda to isolate and demonise sex offenders as a class. It also has implications for other offender groups who may be targeted because the particular class is perceived as presenting a particular type of risk. Since the empowering legislation is often passed in haste and without due consideration of its long term impacts, it bears the hallmarks of a pre-reflective, “at least we’re doing something,” response to the problem of sex offending. It also provides a context for pretextual and sanist judicial values to operate, permitting distorted and illinformed judicial decision-making, particularly where judges’ thinking is infected by populist punitive approaches. Invariably, such legislation and the policy surrounding it, fails completely to address fundamental causal patterns underlying sex offending phenomena.It is suggested that in order to address these phenomena squarely, it will be necessary to abandon the current tendency towards isolating sex offenders and refocus our energy on traditional responses of retribution, reform and rehabilitation within conventional principles of criminal process

Doctors are aggrieved – should they be? Gross negligence manslaughter and the culpable doctor.

Doctors may also be criminals. Mercifully, this is a rare event but no health professional is infallible, mistakes happen and the challenge is to distinguish inadvertence from wilful disregard for the consequences. Healthcare professionals are uneasy about the readiness of the current law to attribute criminal responsibility accompanied by a failure to recognise the highly pressurised context in which sub-standard practice occurs. This article argues that the offence of gross negligence manslaughter is improperly defined and fails to target those doctors whom society should criminalise. Alternatives to gross negligence manslaughter to include culpable homicide adopted in Scotland and the major departure test favoured by New Zealand are considered before advocating a more radical approach—the sliding scale of negligence. Using existing tests in civil and administrative law, a more objective test of gross negligence is proposed, with culpability as a mandatory requirement for a doctor to be convicted of a crime. It is contended the law must move away from the stance a patient’s death is required for medical negligence to become a crime, an outcome bias, to a conduct biased offence. There is no underlying reason why culpable gross negligence causing serious harm should not also be subject to criminal sanction. The recent sentencing guidelines demonstrate the law is sophisticated enough to distinguish reprehensible conduct from careless behaviour. It is now time for the legal test to also acknowledge all the circumstances of the alleged crime

Self consistent modelling of PHEMT devices for millimeter wave small signal, noise and power applications

Accurate simulation of PHEMT based GaAs MMIC ’s requires a bias dependent model that can be used in both small signal and large signal analysis and is accurate over a wide range of applied bias.The majority of models that are supplied with the commercial high frequency simulators have limitations that prevent this goal being achieved.The model areas that require attention are the symmetry of the model at drain-source voltages close to zero,use of the correct time delays within the device and a more precise inclusion of the bias dependent intrinsic noise processes.In this paper an approach to the generation of a large signal model is described that attempts to reconcile these requirements

A subject "promotional agenda" versus decline in enrolment figures: The need to identify those schools swimming against the tide.

The "value" of a discipline, occasionally arouses debate. With History it’s no different, and sometimes perhaps more challenging. As the general trend still indicates declining numbers in most provinces, Westerford High School in Cape Town displays an outstanding example of an institution with high success rates in History. From the Westerford High experience other schools are challenged to reconsider their status in the teaching of History and adapt where it is required. A personal view on why perhaps Westerford’s success in History is exchanged

Inspiring learners beyond the classroom walls: The what, why, who, where and wow for organising curriculum-based "History tours".

Any educator, passionate about his / her discipline, works on techniques and methods to inspire learners. If such an educator ‘gets the recipe’ right, it will translate into learners applying themselves to the subject and both their understanding of content and acquisition of required skills will increase exponentially. This will impact positively on assessment results. Buy-in for the subject will increase as the inspired learners become the most influential marketing agent for the subject. This holds true especially with the teaching of History. One technique and method which can serve to inspire learners beyond the walls of the classroom and confines of the covers of a text book, is their experience of grade- and curriculum-relevant excursions. Due to perceived organisational hurdles, departmental obstacles, and the consequences of an educator’s in loco parentis responsibility, many educators would not consider excursions as an option, let alone overseas excursions. In this article, an educator shares his experience in the organising of Grade 12 curriculumbased “History Tours” for his learners, and provides the what, why, who, where, when and how for organising such tours

Holistic approaches to psychotherapy and the traditional healer

M.A. (Psychology)Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Inspiring History learners: Getting the recipe right in the History classroom.

History teachers work on techniques and methods to inspire learners. If the teacher gets the recipe right in the classroom, history learners will enjoy and apply themselves to the subject, their understanding of content will increase, and they will acquire the necessary skills to achieve results. A technique used to inspire learners beyond the confines of the covers of a textbook, will be shared. The technique includes inviting outside speakers to share their curriculum-relevant personal stories and experiences with learners in the classroom. It will be argued that the value of introducing other ‘voices’ into the history classroom to enrich teaching and learning is only effective if underpinned by an ethos which advocates active citizenship, reinforced by a passionate teacher with subject specific knowledge, in a classroom structured to facilitate critical conversation