Law in Northern Ireland

This is the latest edition of a book which is the standard introductory text for newcomers to the legal system of Northern Ireland. After explaining how law-making has evolved in Northern Ireland, particularly since the partition of Ireland in 1921, the book devotes separate chapters to the current constitutional position of Northern Ireland, to the making of legislation and case law for that jurisdiction, and to the influence of EU and European Convention law. It examines the principles of public law applying in Northern Ireland and outlines the role of some of the public authorities there. It then moves to chapters on criminal law and criminal procedure, followed by chapters on private law and civil procedure. It ends by examining the legal professions, legal education, the legal aid regimes and legal costs. There are also appendices with sample sources of law. Throughout the book, the focus is on conveying in comprehensible terms the essential features of this small, but historically very controversial, legal jurisdiction.

An automated hybrid procedure for capturing mode-jumping in postbuckling composite stiffened structures

This paper presents a robust finite element procedure for modelling the behaviour of postbuckling structures undergoing mode-jumping. Current non-linear implicit finite element solution schemes, found in most finite element codes, are discussed and their shortcomings highlighted. A more effective strategy is presented which combines a quasi-static and a pseudo-transient routine for modelling this behaviour. The switching between these two schemes is fully automated and therefore eliminates the need for user intervention during the solution process. The quasi-static response is modelled using the are-length constraint while the pseudo-transient routine uses a modified explicit dynamic routine, which is more computationally efficient than standard implicit and explicit dynamic schemes. The strategies for switching between the quasi-static and pseudo-transient routines are presented

Capturing mode-switching in postbuckling composite panels using a modified explicit procedure

A postbuckling blade-stiffened composite panel was loaded in uniaxial compression, until failure. During loading beyond initial buckling, this panel was observed to undergo a secondary instability characterised by a dynamic mode shape change. These abrupt changes cause considerable numerical difficulties using standard path-following quasi-static solution procedures in finite element analysis. Improved methods such as the arc-length-related procedures do better at traversing certain critical points along an equilibrium path but these procedures may also encounter difficulties in highly non-linear problems. This paper presents a robust, modified explicit dynamic analysis for the modelling of postbuckling structures. This method was shown to predict the mode-switch with good accuracy and is more efficient than standard explicit dynamic analysis. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vibration based seismic damage identification procedure for a steel concentrically braced frame structure

An approach for seismic damage identification of a single-storey steel concentrically braced frame (CBF) structure is presented through filtering and double integration of a recorded acceleration signal. A band-pass filter removes noise from the acceleration signal followed by baseline correction being used to reduce the drift in velocity and displacement during numerical integration. The pre-processing achieves reliable numerical integration that predicts the displacement response accurately when compared to the measured lateral in-plane displacement of the CBF structure. The lateral displacement of the CBF structure is used to infer buckling and yielding of bracing members through seismic tests. The level of interstorey drift of the CBF during a seismic excitation allows the yield and buckling of the bracing members to be identified and indirectly detects damage based on exceedance of calculated displacement limits. The calculated buckling and yielding displacement threshold limits used to identify damage are demonstrated to accurately identify initial buckling and yielding in the bracing members.

The Effect of Human RIghts on Criminal Evidentiary Processes: Convergence, Divergence or Realignment?

This article examines the contribution which the European Court of Human Rights has made to the development of common evidentiary processes across the common law and civil law systems of criminal procedure in Europe. It is argued that the continuing use of terms such as 'adversarial' and 'inquisitorial' to describe models of criminal proof and procedure has obscured the genuinely transformative nature of the Court's jurisprudence. It is shown that over a number of years the Court has been steadily developing a new model of proof that is better characterised as 'participatory' than as 'adversarial' or 'inquisitorial'. Instead of leading towards a convergence of existing 'adversarial' and 'inquisitorial' models of proof, this is more likely to lead towards a realignment of existing processes of proof which nonetheless allows plenty of scope for diverse application in different institutional and cultural settings.

Public religions and civil society: the case of London Methodism

Amendments to secularization theory have brought the issue of public religions to the fore in recent years. In particular, the work of Casanova and Beyer has maintained the importance of functional differentiation whilst pointing to the flow of religious discourses across social boundaries. These issues, however, have received little ethnographic attention, such that many of the problems associated with theories of differentiation and globalization have not been engaged in a sustained manner. Research within black majority London Methodist congregations is drawn upon to suggest ways in which these theories can be reconsidered. Three related issues are focused upon: the continued importance of the nation-state (including national stratifications); the importance of a practical approach to religion, such that discourses are understood as ‘practical discourses’; and the importance of not privileging religion by reifying it in functional terms. These considerations have ramifications not only for secularization theory, but the general field of the sociological study of religion.