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Life Sciences - Law - 22.05.2023

Importance of neuroscientific evidence for rape trials
The law should take into consideration neuroscientific evidence that suggests fear and threat can cause victims to become 'frozen' in cases of rape or sexual assault, argue UCL experts. In a comment article, published in Nature Human Behaviour, Professor Patrick Haggard and former UCL undergraduate, Ebani Dhawan, state that victims of sexual assault are often blamed for not fighting or fleeing their attackers.

Law - 23.03.2023

A single day is not enough
To mark Sexual Harassment Awareness Day at Swiss universities, Vice President Julia Dannath analyses the situation at ETH Zurich, explains what anonymous reports can and cannot achieve, and presents what she believes is most needed to effectively combat sexual harassment. Today, for the first time, Swiss universities are joining forces to raise awareness about sexual harassment in the context of university education.

Law - 03.02.2023

Domestic abuse information ’not adequately captured’ in child contact cases
Domestic abuse allegations and convictions of parents who have perpetrated abuse are not being adequately captured by Scottish civil courts during child contact hearings, a new study by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh Napier has found. Researchers discovered family lawyers were heavily reliant on their clients telling them about ongoing or past domestic abuse as there is no formal mechanism for them to be informed about criminal proceedings.

Law - Social Sciences - 18.10.2022

New report uncovers ’institutional racism’ in the justice system
A new report by experts from The University of Manchester and barrister Keir Monteith KC has raised urgent questions about racial attitudes and practices in the justice system in England and Wales. Although the judiciary wields enormous power over individuals, its operations are alarmingly underscrutinised, and one area that has remained largely beyond examination is judicial racial bias.

Earth Sciences - Law - 04.10.2022

When art inspires engineering
Could the interface between art and science be more than just a source of inspiration and instead be used to unlock new scientific approaches? Art and science may seem light years apart, but according to a team of civil engineers they're simply different ways of making sense of the world. A new paper led by University of Sydney Professor of Civil Engineering , Itai Einav posits that the interface between art and science is not only a source of inspiration - it can be used to unlock new scientific approaches and transform research, potentially leading to new insights.

Economics - Law - 21.06.2022

Is your insurance company watching you online and is it legal?
New research by Dr Zofia Bednarz has found insurers, using new AI and other models, may be able to collect your online data, and apart from anti-discrimination laws, there are no effective constraints on them using that data to price contracts. The insurance industry will soon benefit from technological advancements, such as developments in  Artificial Intelligence  ('AI') and  Big Data.

Career - Law - 31.05.2022

Experience desired: Nonwhite women face different standard for judgeships
Women of color appointed to the federal judiciary typically have a greater depth of professional experiences and are more likely to have previously served as a judge than their white male counterparts, according to a new study coauthored by Yale political scientist Allison Harris.

Law - 11.05.2022

Measures to redress massive human rights violations
A study by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) analyses and contextualizes the concept of "transitional justice" in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System. All States have the obligation to guarantee human rights. To do this, they must have different mechanisms which allow them to carry out efficient investigations to find those responsible for massive human rights violations, conduct a fair trial with the corresponding guarantees and condemn criminal acts.

Social Sciences - Law - 02.03.2022

Counties that rely on the courts for revenue sentence more women to incarceration
In Washington state, many counties in recent years have supplemented their revenues through court-imposed fines such as traffic citations and court processing fees. At the same time, those counties have increased the rate at which they sentence women to jail. This association, according to new research from the University of Washington, indicates that monetary sanctions, also known as legal financial obligations or LFOs, have far-reaching social, economic and punitive effects.

Law - Social Sciences - 17.02.2022

Child marriages violating statutory rape laws in many U.S. states
Marital exemptions to statutory rape laws provide legal loopholes for sexual acts with children, otherwise considered crimes In many U.S. states, children can legally marry at an earlier age than they can consent to sex, leading to situations where sex between spouses may be a criminal act.

Law - 22.10.2021

The Internet of Stings: research will probe privacy and legal concerns of smart devices | University of Cambridge
What happens to all the sensitive personal information our smart devices collect from us? Where does the data picked up by our smart watches, speakers and TVs go, who has access to it and how is it used? It's often unclear what happens with the data these devices collect: where that data goes and how it is used.

Law - 10.08.2021

Introduction of stricter drink drive limit has had ’no effect’ in reducing accidents
A new study argues that lower drink drive limits need to be backed up with stricter enforcement to tackle persistent drink driving-related accidents. Last updated on Tuesday 10 August 2021 The introduction of a tougher drink drive limit in Scotland over six years ago has had 'no effect' at reducing drink driving or alcohol related collisions say the authors of a new academic study.

Law - 20.05.2021

Parrot poachers striking while the market’s hot
"Pretty" parrots are more likely to be snatched up for Indonesia's illegal wildlife trade, a new study reveals. The findings not only expose the key drivers behind the country's illegal trade in these birds, but offer lessons for the potential emergence and spread of infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans - like COVID and avian flu.

Law - Computer Science - 19.03.2021

The importance of iconography and text: Research that impacted new privacy law
A groundbreaking law that gives consumers more agency over the sale of their private information was updated in California this week, and it reflects the work of two university teams. Additional regulations added to the California Consumer Privacy Act to include adoption of a Privacy Options icon come just as the team of researchers that helped lawmakers design the blue button get ready to share results of their research process that informed the icon design.

Social Sciences - Law - 24.02.2021

Increased green space in prisons can reduce self-harm and violence
Prisons with more green space have lower levels of violence and self-harm, according to new research at the University of Birmingham and Utrecht University. The study is the first to attempt large-scale mapping of green space within prison environments and link it to well-being in a robust, statistically significant way.

Law - History / Archeology - 01.02.2021

VUB rediscovers Belgian contribution to peace
In his doctoral research, VUB legal historian Wouter De Rycke investigated the unique but forgotten contribution of the Mons lawyer Louis Bara (1821-1857) to the 19th-century international peace campaign. According to De Rycke, his research offers a glimpse into a rather unknown episode of our history: " In the 19th century, the first internationally organised movement to declare war emerged, a kind of 'NGO' avant la lettre.

Campus - Law - 08.01.2021

Child marriage is legal and persists across Canada
Canada is at the forefront of global efforts to end child marriage abroad. Yet this practice remains legal and persists across the country. In Canada, more than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to children, usually girls, under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018, according to a new study from researchers at McGill University.

Law - 17.11.2020

’Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies
The largest collection of public internet censorship data ever compiled shows that even citizens of what are considered the world's freest countries aren't safe from internet censorship. The University of Michigan team used its own Censored Planet tool, an automated censorship tracking system launched in 2018, to collect more than 21 billion measurements over 20 months in 221 countries.

Law - Social Sciences - 03.11.2020

No evidence that asylum seekers bring terror risk
University of Queensland researchers have debunked the theory that asylum seekers pose a terrorism threat in Australia. Professor Peter Billings and Dr Rebecca Ananian-Welsh from UQ Law School wrote a chapter of the book Terrorism and Asylum , featuring an international collaboration of experts from Europe, the UK, North America and Australia.

Economics - Law - 30.10.2020

Legal discrimination stymies economic outcomes for women
Despite decades of progress in addressing gender discrimination, women across the globe face persistent legal barriers to participating in the economy on an equal basis with men,  according to a study  co-authored by Yale economist Pinelopi Goldberg. The study, based on the World Bank Group's newly compiled "Women, Business and the Law"(WBL) database, provides the first global picture of how discriminatory laws continue to restrict women's economic opportunities.