Title
Functional Apologies in Law
Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Faculty
Computing, Health and Science
School
Psychology and Social Science
RAS ID
5470
Abstract
Apology has recently emerged from being a relatively obscure construct in law to one that is prominent in various areas of law through actual or proposed law reforms. Whilst law reform is welcome, it is important that changes should be grounded in scientifically accepted theories and supported by research data and, furthermore, that the effectiveness of such endeavours should be evaluated before they are further expanded. This cannot be said of the growth of the use of apology in law. In this article I use a model of apology developed by Slocum, Allan and Allan (2006) to examine why apologies may be functional in law. I also examine what form an apology may have to take to be functional in criminal, civil, and constitutional law respectively
Comments
This article was originally published as: Allan, A. (2008). Functional apologies in law. Psychiatry psychology and law, 15(3), 369-381. Original article available here