Structuring a Judicial Discretion in Punishment

At the current stage of societal development, digital technologies are becoming indispensable "companions" for humans; however, their widespread use has a significant impact on human psyche, thinking, and cognitive skills. Judges are no exception. The perception and "elevation" of technologies as neutral tools are not only flawed but also harbor considerable risks. In this regard, the aim of this work is to illustrate the impact of algorithmic decision support systems on judicial discretion by revealing the cognitive distortions that judges experience during the decision-making process (focusing on the anchoring effect, automation bias, and selective trust), demonstrating the potential influence of these distortions on the principles of court operations, and providing some recommendations for minimizing the associated consequences. The study employs the following scientific methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, and others; it applies a systemic approach, legal specificity, and comparative law methods. As a result of the conducted research, the author arrives at the following conclusions. First, the use of algorithms in judicial activities may lead to cognitive distortions for judges, such as the anchoring effect, automation bias, and selective trust, which can influence the formation of judicial decisions and, consequently, their outcomes, potentially violating the rights and legal interests of individuals and legal entities. Second, the implementation of algorithmic decision support systems in the judiciary may negatively affect the principle of judicial independence, the principle of free evaluation of evidence, and the principle of fair trial. Third, to minimize negative scenarios for the use of AI in legal proceedings, two groups of recommendations are proposed: objective and subjective.

<i>MCCLESKEY</i> ACCUSED Justice Powell and The Moral Price of Institutional Pride

The relevance of judicial discretion in the context of implementing state functions is determined by several key factors. This phenomenon enables the exercise of justice in a flexible manner, taking into account the specific circumstances of each case and the changing socio economic conditions, thereby ensuring a balance between the branches of power. It enhances the effectiveness of judicial protection of human rights, prevents a purely formal approach to the application of the law, and fosters public trust in the judiciary. This study aimed to explore judicial discretion as a socio-legal phenomenon, concerning the nature of state authority and the demands of contemporary legal regulation of social relations. To achieve this, a number of methodological approaches have been adopted. The hermeneutic method has been used to demonstrate how discretion is conceptually embedded in the socio-cultural context in which it arises and functions at various stages of state development. Through the socio-dynamic approach, internal and external contradictions of discretion have been identified, showing its role as an organic component of a given socio-cultural environment and its close link to the evolutionary dynamics of that environment. The use of deductive-logical analysis has demonstrated the interdependence between the functional potential of the state and the discretionary powers of judges. Among the principal findings of the study is the recognition of judicial discretion as an effective means of shaping public opinion and legal consciousness within society. This highlights the socio-legal dimension of the phenomenon and its potential to foster a proactive civil society and influence the development of state legal policy. Emphasis is placed on the reciprocal relationship between the discretionary powers of judges and public opinion. Judicial discretion is both a consequence of and a contributor to public perception and collective legal consciousness. As such, it can shape and shift societal attitudes, influence the level of public trust in state institutions, promote legal culture, and ultimately contribute to shaping domestic policy in the spheres of law enforcement and the protection of rights. The study holds practical significance as it outlines a theoretical framework – a kind of roadmap – for those exercising the discretionary powers of the state, as well as for all individuals affected by the implementation of discretion in decision-making by representatives of public authorities

Natural Resources and Natural Law Part II: The Public Trust Doctrine

The presented material analyzes the theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of "judicial discretion" and considers the problems of the grounds and limits of judicial discretion in the implementation of legal proceedings in the Russian Federation at the present stage. It is shown that informatization and digitalization are two processes in the modern public space, which entailed a significant expansion of the spheres of life of the society that are included in the sphere of legal regulation. As a result, the quantitative component of legislative acts issued by the lawmaker is increasing dramatically. However, it has to be stated that these acts are often discretionary in nature. Consequently, legal conflicts provoke a number of negative factors, in particular, difficulties in law enforcement, including the work of the judiciary. In this regard, it is judicial discretion that becomes the significant factor that contributes to the effective and, not least, timely overcoming of legal gaps.

Disparities of sentencing in similar crimes cause a typical problem; Law scholars devoted their time to reconcile the debate “should the crime fit with the individual or should the individual behavior fit with the type of crime that she or he committed?” This has remained an issue in criminal sentencing. It is the most crucial stage in criminal justice system because crime is an inevitable phenomenon in human social life. In addition, sentencing is a means designed to give notice for the general public by described punishable crimes and to punish a criminal that he/she have to be convicted by a court of law. In ancient times, punishment was premised on the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and punishments were degrading and inhumane by today’s standard. These days punishments are relatively humane and focus on rehabilitation. Many universal human right instruments provide for the rights of convicted persons and many countries are members of these instruments. Sentencing disparity is a problem everywhere, and countries have adopted sentencing guidelines to solve this problem. Ethiopia is one of them that adopted and revised the first and the second sentencing guidelines in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The study has applied qualitative and doctrinal legal research method that revealed the following points. The general objective of this study is to explore whether the Ethiopian Federal Supreme court sentencing guidelines could tackle the unwarranted sentencing disparities in federal courts or not. In addition, the main purposes of the sentencing guidelines have to ensure proportionality, consistency, predictability and fairness of sentencing throughout in the country on federal matters. However, the principles of alike cases were not getting uniformity of decision that have been realized in many scenarios; the sentencing guidelines from design to practices shown that it was unable to stop unwarranted disparities of sentencing due to different factors. The lack of clarity of sentencing guidelines, the lack of mutual understanding of the legal practitioners to the sentencing guidelines, lack of supervision and controlling mechanisms of the sentencing guidelines were considered as the root causes of sentencing disparities.

This study compares Islamic jurisprudence and positive law to explore the obstacles of testimony, focusing on the complexity and controversy surrounding witnesses' interests. Employing a legal comparative method, the research examines self-interest in testimony, emphasizing authoritative sources like fiqh books and Jordanian law, shedding light on the concept of self-interest as its primary focus. It highlights the differences between Islamic jurisprudence and contemporary legal frameworks, providing a nuanced understanding of witness actions in legal processes. This research's findings reveal that testimony's self-interest predominantly relates to lineage, siblinghood, marital relationships, hostility, and partisanship. The results show both Islamic jurisprudence and positive law recognize the prohibition of testimony due to self-interests is not absolute; there are many interpretations and exceptions to this restriction, with differences stemming from the reliance on religious texts in Islamic jurisprudence and legal reasoning in positive law. This gap arises from the ability of contemporary law to examine the interests of witnesses from various perspectives and through the use of different evidentiary tools. This research contributes practically that the application of law that is different from what has been formulated by fiqh scholars in Islamic jurisprudence does not necessarily indicate that the legal decision is at odds with Islamic law.

Digital forensics is a vital part of almost every criminal investigation given the amount of information available and the opportunities offered by electronic data to investigate and evidence a crime. However, in criminal justice proceedings, these electronic pieces of evidence are often considered with the utmost suspicion and uncertainty, although, on occasions are justifiable. Presently, the use of scientifically unproven forensic techniques are highly criticized in legal proceedings. Nevertheless, the exceedingly distinct and dynamic characteristics of electronic data, in addition to the current legislation and privacy laws remain as challenging aspects for systematically attesting evidence in a court of law. This article presents a comprehensive study to examine the issues that are considered essential to discuss and resolve, for the proper acceptance of evidence based on scientific grounds. Moreover, the article explains the state of forensics in emerging sub-fields of digital technology such as, cloud computing, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT), and reviewing the challenges which may complicate the process of systematic validation of electronic evidence. The study further explores various solutions previously proposed, by researchers and academics, regarding their appropriateness based on their experimental evaluation. Additionally, this article suggests open research areas, highlighting many of the issues and problems associated with the empirical evaluation of these solutions for immediate attention by researchers and practitioners. Notably, academics must react to these challenges with appropriate emphasis on methodical verification. Therefore, for this purpose, the issues in the experiential validation of practices currently available are reviewed in this study. The review also discusses the struggle involved in demonstrating the reliability and validity of these approaches with contemporary evaluation methods. Furthermore, the development of best practices, reliable tools and the formulation of formal testing methods for digital forensic techniques are highlighted which could be extremely useful and of immense value to improve the trustworthiness of electronic evidence in legal proceedings.

The Indian judiciary, revered as the guardian of constitutional values, often exercises wide discretionary powers, particularly within the higher judiciary. While judicial discretion is essential for interpreting statutes and delivering equitable justice, its unchecked use poses significant risks. This paper explores the nuanced boundaries of judicial discretion in India's higher judiciary and investigates the potential for its abuse. Drawing from landmark judgments, constitutional provisions, and recent instances of perceived overreach, the study critically analyzes the balance between judicial independence and accountability. It highlights how subjective interpretations, selective activism, and lack of institutional oversight can sometimes lead to inconsistent or biased rulings. Moreover, the research delves into the implications of such discretion on democratic processes, public trust, and separation of powers. By comparing judicial frameworks in other democracies and examining recommendations from legal scholars and commissions, this paper proposes the need for structured guidelines to ensure responsible exercise of discretion. Ultimately, the paper argues for a reimagined judicial accountability mechanism that maintains the integrity of the bench while curbing excesses. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the ongoing discourse on legal reform, transparency, and the evolving role of the judiciary in India’s democratic fabric.

Chapter 4 - Legal and ethical aspects of health care

Many individual elements comprise a typical forensics process. Collecting evidence, analyzing it, and using results to draw conclusions are all mutually distinct endeavors. Different physical locations and personnel are involved, juxtaposed against an acute need for security and data integrity. Using digital technologies and the Internet's ubiquity, these diverse elements can be conjoined using digital data as the common element. This result is a new data management process that can be applied to serve all elements of the community. The first step is recognition of a forensics lifecycle. Evidence gathering, analysis, storage, and use in legal proceedings are actually just distinct parts of a single end-to-end process, and thus, it is hypothesized that a single data system that can also accommodate each constituent phase using common network and security protocols. This paper introduces the idea of web-based Central Data Repository. Its cornerstone is anywhere, anytime Internet upload, viewing, and report distribution. Archives exist indefinitely after being created, and high-strength security and encryption protect data and ensure subsequent case file additions do not violate chain-of-custody or other handling provisions. Several legal precedents have been established for using digital information in courts of law, and in fact, effective prosecution of cyber crimes absolutely relies on its use. An example is a US Department of Agriculture division's use of digital images to back up its inspection process, with pictures and information retained on secure servers to enforce the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Forensics is a cumulative process. Secure, web-based data management solutions, such as the Central Data Repository postulated here, can support each process step. Logically marrying digital technologies with Internet accessibility should help nurture a thought process to explore alternatives that make forensics data accessible to authorized individuals, whenever and wherever they need it.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Digital Forensic Investigations is explained as are sponse to an event that has already occurred in relation to information which is highly classified or is of prime importance to a criminal incident. Forensics Challenges in IoT Environments IoT would soon pervade all aspects of our life from managing our home temperature to thinking cars and smart management of the cities. The application of professional engineering principles and methodologies to investigating failures and incidents, usually to determine causation. Normally, it involves preparing a report of findings, which may form the basis for testimony in legal proceedings as an expert witness. A forensic engineer may serve as an engineering consultant to members of the legal profession and as an expert witness in courts of law, arbitration proceedings and administrative adjudication proceedings. Forensic engineering is a part of professional engineering practice that may cover all disciplines of engineering. It is a specialized set of skills that can include multidisciplinary training in failure analysis, simulation, safety, accelerated life testing and statistical analysis, as well as knowledge of the specific engineering field.

&lt;p&gt;In line with the increasingly waning of the State borders in trade and business, then currently many trade and business agreements in Indonesia are made or entered into inforeign languages. The law has in principle governed the language of the agreement, in which the Law requires the use of the Indonesian language as the primary language of the agreement, while the secondary language may use language understood by those who do not understand the Indonesian language. The problems a rise when the parties to the agreement do not understand the language arrangements provided for by this law and use Foreign languages as the primary language even further as the only language used in an agreement. This is certainly contrary to the provisions of the law and vulnerable to create new legal problems. The method used is jurical normative, amethod that examines the application of principles or norms in positive law, which examines the legal force of agreement made in private form in a foreign language. The data used are secondary data consisting of primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials. With regard to data analysis was done by using juridical qualitative analysis method. The legal theory used is the legal certainty theory according to Jan Michiel Otto and Substantiation Theory. The results of this study is an agreement made or entered into ina foreign language has no legal substantiation before a Courtof law as they are contrary to the provisions of Article 31 of Law Number 24 of 2009. There fore the legal consequences of an agreement made in private form in a foreign language is considered to be null and void, and as a consequence, such agreement is considered never to exist.&lt;/p&gt;

This study was conducted to develop and to test the effects of an educational program for coping with problem situations as a nursing intervention in the diabetic patient. A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. Data were collected from January to March, 2002. The subjects of the study consisted of 31 diabetic patients(experimental group: 17 patients, control group: 14 patients). The intervention of an educational program for coping with problem situations was applied to the experimental group for 4 weeks (total 8 hours). Data were collected before the educational program, immediately after and 1 months later and were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA, t-test, and paired t-test. 1. There was a significant difference in self efficacy between the experimental and control groups (F=13.793, p=0.001). 2. There was a significant difference in self care behavior between the experimental and control groups (F=4.583, p=0.041). 3. There was a significant difference in coping behavior of the problem situation between the experimental and control groups (F=62.018, p=0.000). There was a significant difference according to experimental stages (F=4.546, p=0.015) and interaction between education and experimental stages (F=12.039, p=0.000). 4. There was a significant difference in glycemic control between the experimental and control groups (t=-3.112, p=0.004). These results support that a diabetic educational program for coping with problem situations is effective in promoting and maintaining self efficacy, self care behavior, problem coping behaviors and in improving glycemic control. Thus this program can be recommended as an effective nursing intervention of in-depth education for diabetic patient.

In viewing the documents relative to the Ptolemaic jurisdiction we come across an official with a title transcribed into Demotic, but which apparently corresponds to the Greek designation εισαγωευς. This official is mentioned in conjunction with judicial proceedings. His functions were to introduce cases before the judges and to take actions in concert with them; and his bailiff was empowered to enforce judicial decisions. Since the eisagogeus represented the central administration, we may postulate that he was regarded as a royal functionary acting as a liaison man with the law courts. My concern is to point out an official in the pre-Ptolemaic administration who had to play the same role. In the judicial machine of Pharaonic times many a scribe played an active part, not only in writing down the records. In reality he used to act in legal proceedings from start to finish. In grave situations he had to communicate directly with the highest office in the State (that of the vizier); and even at the great council (qnbt) held by the vizier, the scribe officiated sometimes as prosecutor. We come to the conclusion that it is likely that the position of the Hellenistic eisagogeus was no more than the continuation of a much older Pharaonic institution.