Text and terrain: mapping sexuality and law

This article is concerned with the intersections of law, texts and sexuality. Drawing on recent work in theoretical cartography, this article seeks to argue that a cartographical reading of law can be usefully brought to bear on the legal analysis of sexuality. This article considers how looking to contemporary theoretical and critical cartography can help to reveal law as a process of mapping; how sexuality is mapped both within and without the law through cultural texts, and how law’s encounters with the terrains mapped out by those texts might be enriched and diversified. This article seeks to consider how legal mappings of the terrains of sexuality might be sufficiently contextualised and located within a wider socio-political context, and how a specifically cartographical interpretation might reveal the potential for the law to accommodate the complexity of gendered and sexualised identities that do not easily conform to singular positionings. In order to navigate the texts and terrains of law and sexuality, we must first learn to become cartographers, and through this process, perhaps open up radical and alternative mappings.

Cyberpornography,Cyberidentities and Law

In this research, I take the established trilogy of pornography, identity and law and explore the question of what happens when 'cyber' is added to the equation. Informed by cyberpunk writings, cybertheorists and academic sources, and using such theoretical frameworks as queer theory, post-feminism and cyberfeminism, I look at how the (inter)relationship between pornography, identity and law can be understood and analysed in a cyber age: what new cyberpornographies and cyberidentities will evolve before the law, and what forms might law take in relation to them?     

Winners and Losers: Politics, Casino Gambling, and Development in Atlantic City

Legalized gambling has been embraced by a number of local economic development organizations as a panacea. This paper offers the example of Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a cautionary tale. We trace the politics of gambling in New Jersey and the city, the massive flow of capital into casinos, and the resulting flows of funds in the local economy. City residents have, at best, gained minimally from gambling; the area, including suburbs, has gained from in-migration. However, even including such spillovers, gambling did not produce the expected gains. This apparent failure may be due to inadequate planning for the extremely rapid development associated with the massive flow of new private capital which followed legalization; the same risks exist with different major and rapid capital flows into local economies.     

Draft for Understanding the Historical Background of Changes in the Ideological Language and Communication of Secret Services in 20th Century’s Hungary

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Words can mean different things to different people. This can be problematic, mainly for those...     

Financial liberalization in developing countries

This article shows that higher interest rates increase the extent of financial intermediation while increased financial intermediation raises the rate of economic growth. Further, increases in interest rates have favorable effects on investment efficiency and on economic growth. It is noted, however, that excessively high interest rates will have unfavorable economic effects. Such a situation can be avoided if the liberalization of the banking system takes place under conditions of monetary stability accompanied by the government supervision of banks. Bela Balassa has been professor of political economy at the Johns Hopkins University and consultant at the World Bank since 1966. His recent books includeNew Directions in the World Economy (Macmillan, 1989) andComparative Advantage, Trade Policy and Economic Development (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989).     

Persistent Retinal Iron in Abusive Head Trauma

Retinal hemosiderin deposition is a histologic indicator of sustained hemorrhage but cannot be used to precisely estimate the elapsed time since an episode of trauma. A 5‐month‐old male infant was admitted to hospital after acute deterioration. Examination revealed encephalopathy, subdural hematomas, and retinal hemorrhages consistent with abusive head trauma (AHT). At the age of 3, he was readmitted to hospital with spontaneous osteopenic fracture of the right femur. The patient deteriorated and died after unsuccessful resuscitation. Ophthalmopathological investigation showed atrophy of the retina and optic nerve and hemosiderin deposition in both eyes. Retinal hemosiderin deposition is currently generally assumed to disappear within 6–8 weeks after the occurrence of hemorrhage in AHT. This case report describes an infant with bilateral retinal hemosiderin depositions due to hemorrhages sustained from AHT occurring 32 months prior to death. Implications of this finding for the interpretation of retinal hemosiderin depositions in AHT are discussed.