In many legal jurisdictions of the world, including Australia, an offender’s remorse is a mitigating factor at sentencing. And yet how judges evaluate such expressions is unclear.
Remorse and contrition have a role that seems natural, but the justice system makes it difficult to apply.
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Daniela Piana, Institut d'études avancées de Paris (IEA) – RFIEA
Big data and algorithmic applications could transform how our legal institutions work, but the digital revolution must keep the needs of judges, attorneys and especially citizens at its heart.
How do survivors find healing? Chum Mey, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, walks past a portrait of Nuon Chea, a former Khmer Rouge leader.
AP Photo/Heng Sinith
The accounts of survivors of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge show how they were able to find justice and healing by breaking their silence and speaking on behalf of those who were killed.
Six memorial candles are lit during a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Sharkey Theater on board Naval Station Pearl Harbor.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl
Remembrance days and memorials provide people the opportunity to share stories with a community. An expert explains how that can make a difference.
Australian governments have too often succumbed to perceived community pressure to limit parole authorities’ independence and powers.
AAP/Samantha Manchee
Government and judicial interventions into the decisions of parole boards display a progressive loss of faith in these independent bodies.
Lucy Francineth Granados, a Montréal community organizer advocating for the rights of undocumented workers was forcibly and violently arrested at her home by the Canadian Border Security Agency on March 20, 2018. Community protests like this one on March 23 sprang up all over the city.
(Ion Extebarria)
What kind of a country is Canada? One which truly welcomes and respects immigrants and their lives and safety? Or one which just says it does but brutally detains and deports them?
George Pell emerges from court during his committal hearing on historical sexual offences.
AAP/Stefan Postles
George Pell’s current committal hearing engages the principle of ‘open justice’ and some of its most important exceptions.
The detail of the government’s reforms remains elusive four months after commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda handed down their final report.
AAP
Implementing the Don Dale royal commission’s recommendations will test the capacity to redress the ‘systemic and shocking failures’ it identified.
In a 2016 ABS survey, one in two women reported having experienced sexual harassment, but 90% of them did not contact the police.
Cindy Zhi/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Critics say that #MeToo has turned the legal principle of innocent until proven guilty on its head, but such comments privilege the rights of perpetrators over justice for victims.
Colten Boushie’s uncle Alvin Baptiste raises an eagle’s wing as demonstrators gather outside of the courthouse in North Battleford, Sask., on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Matt Smith
In the acquittal of Gerald Stanley we must remember how one-sided systematic remembering in Canada has been. We must remember how Canadian-state law created the myth of the homesteader as Wheat King.
Speaking with: Professor David Field about unusual crimes that have changed the law
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Sleepwalking murders and 'battered wife' syndrome are unique precedents set by extraordinary cases. David Field talks about unusual cases that have shaped Australian law.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
The reconviction rates of children put in institutions was lower than it is today, new research shows.
This sculpture in London commemorates Nelson Mandela, who set up the African National Congress’ armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), in 1961 when he lost hope that passive and non-violent resistance to the apartheid government would bear fruit.
(Creative Commons)
Seeking justice, not peace, in our world changes the conversation about conflict. Conflict has proven integral to achieving a more equitable and secure society.
Under UK law, children’s anonimity is not entirely guaranteed.
271 EAK MOTO/Shutterstock