Integral closedness of MIMI and the formula of Hoskin and Deligne for finitely supported complete ideals

In this paper we find a formula for the length of a finitely supported complete ideal in terms of the order of the strict transform of the ideal. This formula was known for complete ideals of height two in a two dimensional regular local ring and was proved independently by Hoskin and Deligne. Several consequences are deduced from this formula.Comment: 23 pages. to appear in Journal of Algebr

Consultation and involvement in the Library of Birmingham

This paper outlines the role of consultation in the development of a new city centre library. The initial section focuses on the planning behind Birmingham City Council’s project to replace its existing Central Library with a new Library of Birmingham on the other side of the city centre. The paper then goes on to discuss the role of public consultation in the early stages of this project, outlining the purposes, constraints, methods used, early findings and the longer-term ideas, questions and potential

Can consent be uninformed? Suggested reform of sexual offences against persons with intellectual disability

In R v Morgan (1970), the Supreme Court of Victoria stated that for incapacity to consent to be proved it must be shown that a person "has not sufficient knowledge or understanding to comprehend (a) that what is proposed to be done is the physical fact of penetration of her body by the male organ or, if that is not proved, (b) that the act of penetration proposed is one of sexual connexion as distinct from one of totally different character." It is my contention that this standard of knowledge is insufficient to allow a person to protect themselves against the commonly recognised consequences of sexual acts, namely pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Although the literature suggests that increasing the benchmark of knowledge to encompass these facts would mean that many persons with intellectual disability would be deemed incapable of consent, I argue that consent that is not based on a standard of knowledge sufficient to allow an individual to safeguard their own interests cannot be considered valid consent. Law reform is required so that consent to sexual acts more closely resembles the informed consent required for medical treatment. Moreover, the provision of adequate sex education, repeated as required, would assist many people with intellectual disability to achieve understanding of both the nature and consequences of sexual acts. The proposed reforms would also allow people who, even after education, are unable to meet the requisite standard more certain legal protection than is currently the case

Early Childhood Development and the Law

Early childhood development is a robust and vibrant focus of study in multiple disciplines, from economics and education to psychology and neuroscience. Abundant research from these disciplines has established that early childhood is critical for the development of cognitive abilities, language, and psychosocial skills, all of which turn, in large measure, on the parent-child relationship. And because early childhood relationships and experiences have a deep and lasting impact on a child’s life trajectory, disadvantages during early childhood replicate inequality. Working together, scholars in these disciplines are actively engaged in a national policy debate about reducing inequality through early childhood interventions. Despite the vital importance of this period, the law and legal scholars have been largely indifferent to the dynamics of early childhood development. Doctrine and legislation are rarely developmentally sensitive, lumping children into an undifferentiated category regardless of age. The legal system thus misses key opportunities to combat inequality and foster healthy development for all children. And most legal scholars do not engage with the wealth of interdisciplinary research on early childhood, nor are they part of the interdisciplinary dialogue and policy debates. As a result, that conversation does not include the voices of lawyers and legal scholars, who are uniquely positioned to add critical insights. Remedying this stark disconnect requires doing for law what scholars have done in other disciplines: creating a distinctive field. Accordingly, this Article proposes a subdiscipline of early childhood development and the law. The new field crystallizes a distinctive interest that the legal system must attend to and charts a path for legal scholars to follow for years to come. As with the dawning of fields such as juvenile justice, domestic violence, and elder law, early childhood development and the law will be a focal point for research within the legal academy, a vital bridge to scholars in other disciplines, and an important means for bringing lawyers and legal scholars to the heart of emerging policy debates

Discursive mobile phone practices and informal rules

This paper uses Discourse Analysis (DA) to investigate the socially\ud constructed discursive practices of mobile phone use; specifically it examines the\ud informal rules of mobile phone use. It qualitatively investigates mobile phone use\ud within an Australian cultural context. „Discourse theory begins with the\ud assumption that all objects and actions are meaningful, and that their meaning is a\ud product of historically specific systems of rules‟ (Howarth 2000, p. 8). Evidence\ud of socially constructed textual meanings related to mobile phone use is found in\ud the informal rules created (and practiced); those that in some way govern the use\ud of mobile phones. The research reveals that there are divergences and\ud inconsistencies within the discourse of mobile phone use, and illustrates that\ud individuals make differing personal choices in similar social contexts

Developing researchers in the arts and humanities: lessons from a pilot programme to develop discipline-specific research skills

Although increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of research training for doctoral students, much of the support currently available is generic in nature, rather than tailored to the student’s particular field(s) of study. In this paper, I briefly review UK graduate education for arts and humanities research students, and some of the ways in which the distinctive demands of their discipline(s) shape the research student experience and hence their development needs. I describe the design and delivery of a pilot programme of discipline-specific research skills development, co-ordinated by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, which aims to address such needs; and I evaluate its success. I conclude with some recommendations for future practice; in particular, I argue that doctoral training provision is more effective when it involves a subject-specific approach in which practising academics from the discipline(s) play a significant role – both in terms of fostering an improved level of student engagement with the programme, and of delivering training and development opportunities which are tailored to the student’s particular context and needs