The study of legislative committees*

ABSTRACT

Proving that legislative committees really matter is not simple. The assembled papers aim to demonstrate fruitful paths to analysing when committees influence policy, what they can and should do, and how to detect their importance to the political process.     

Who are Chinese Citizens? A Legislative Language Inquiry

By exploring the meaning construction of Chinese citizenship stipulated in Chinese legislation and its interaction with social identities and human nature in the Chinese society, the present study investigates the nature and evolution of the conception of Chinese citizens through three selected cases from Chinese legislations, which illuminate that Chinese citizens are essentially persons with independent personalities defined by the rights and obligations stipulated in legislation. This conception is further strengthened by the entitlement to private properties and equality before law. This conception of Chinese citizenship is concrete and meaningful in the sense that it is underpinned with reference to social identities as person, people and personality in Chinese legislations. The reference of the conception to human being constitutes the essence of Chinese legislation. The meaning construction of Chinese citizenship is indeed a dynamic process engineered in the social and cultural process. The findings on the evolution of the construction of Chinese citizenship in Chinese legislation suggest that the formation of legal identity through legislation varies greatly in different countries. Nevertheless, the realization of the conception of citizenship will necessarily be backed up by social identities as person, people and personality, which will be further strengthened and expanded by the legitimating of private properties and equality before law. Citizenship is achieved by social participants through mediation engineered within the social and cultural process.     

Return to Europe – A double-edged sword for notaries? The case of Poland and Hungary

Using Poland as a case study, the Polish sociologist Piotr Sztompka has demonstrated most persuasively the significance of trust (and distrust) as a key to the analysis and understanding of socio-political and socio-cultural developments in Central Europe in the transition to democracy. Sztompka's study ends upbeat with a brief glance at the situation in the late 1990s. Had the book been written a decade later, it would have revealed that the path ahead has remained rocky. Public trust in governments, politicians and public institutions generally has remained a scarce commodity.It is against this background that the restoration of an independent civil law notariat, as an integral part of the ‘return to Europe’ project, has occurred in Poland, and, mutatis mutandis, in other Central European countries. However, following a first decade of successful transformation from state employment to liberal profession, notaries in Central Europe now find that it is precisely because they have embraced the status of Western-style liberal professionals that they are coming under attack by both the European Commission and their own national governments. As a result, they have had to embark on a process of reconsideration of their position in order to ensure the profession's survival. This paper traces and compares developments in Poland and Hungary. As can be expected there is a strong common denominator between them. But equally and more interestingly, there are distinctive national features which now, as ‘bloc history’ recedes, are coming increasingly to the fore.     

Variability of cannabinoid findings in blood

Cannabis products have been administered for many centuries; today, cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug all over the world. Nevertheless, the interpretation of cannabis findings in blood with regard to consumption behaviour and/or estimating the elapsed time since the last cannabis use is still a very challenging task. A wide variation of pharmacokinetic parameters has been observed even in experimental studies. Different chemical structures of precursors, smoking dynamics, pyrolysis of phytocannabinoids and frequency of drug use affect the amount of THC absorbed. Polymorphic enzymes are involved in phase-I-metabolism of THC. Pharmacological effects of other cannabinoids or medication on the pharmacokinetics of THC have not yet been studied in detail. Hydrolysis of cannabis conjugates may occur during storage of blood samples and processing of specimens for analysis; knowledge on the stability of cannabinoids in forensic specimens is still poor. Whether determination of cannabinoid conjugates may be useful is a matter of further consideration. At present, the broad variation of pharmacokinetic parameters and the limiting factors discussed in the present paper should be taken into account when using data from experimental studies for interpretation of analytical results in forensic case work.     

Discretion and corruption: The Chilean judiciary

Corruption in the judiciary and its effects on the budget of that branch of government, the efficiency of justice (prompt or belated) and its quality (biased or impartial) are analyzed. The discretionary powers of the Supreme Court and those granted to judges to manage their courts, calendar and case load, and the hierarchical administrative structures of judiciaries, which function as a queueing system, may be used as a tool to maximize graft. These phenomena reveal links between institutional forms and incentives. Using the case of Chile and the exceptional emergence of corruption within the judiciary during the military dictatorship, the role of democracy as a punishing and preventive mechanism is highlighted.This article was written while the author was a Senior Fellow at the Orville Schell, Center for International Human Rights Law at Yale Law School, and under the auspices of the North-South Center of the University of Miami.     

Pregabalin--a drug with abuse potential?

A case of pregabalin misuse associated with delusional ideas in a drug addict is reported. Pregabalin has been approved as an adjunct therapy for epilepsy, but also for neuropathic pain and generalized anxiety disorders and is widely used today. It has also been used in clinical trials to study its potential utility as a treatment for tobacco, alcohol and benzodiazepine addiction. Web sites, case reports and an epidemiological study (Swedish National Register of Adverse Drug Reactions) suggest that the drug may be abused, especially by substance-dependent individuals. Pregabalin was analyzed by LC/MS/MS following precipitation of serum proteins. Vigabatrin was used as internal standard. The concentration of 25 pg pregabalin/mL serum determined in the present case is the second highest value published so far after misuse of the substance. Due to paradoxical agitation, anxiety attacks and abnormal thinking, the man was exculpated. Further studies are required to assess the actual abuse potential of pregabalin.     

Gender,Ethnicity, and Education as Privileges: Exploring the Generalizability of the Existential Guilt Reaction

Two cross-sectional questionnaire studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous research on the existential guilt reaction. In Study I, gender was considered as a privilege. Male student participants (N = 141) were confronted with the low proportion of women in high-ranking positions and asked to appraise this situation. Self-reported behavior, behavioral intentions, and appeal to authorities aimed at advancing equal opportunities for both genders served as criterion variables. Path analyses were performed to explore the correlation structure among the variables. Self-reported behavior depended most strongly on behavioral intentions and on belief in control. Behavioral intentions depended most strongly on existential guilt. This effect accords to previous existential guilt research. Ethnicity and education were considered as privileges in Study II. Privileged Paraguayan students (N = 80) were confronted with the disadvantageous living conditions of Indians and Campesinos. They were asked to appraise the situation. Behavioral intentions and appeal to authorities directed at improving the living conditions of Indians and Campesinos served as criteria. As in Study I, existential guilt was the strongest predictor of behavioral intentions. Study II revealed the role of values in the process of existential guilt and prosocial behavior. This is a new research finding. Indirect effects of the two values of universalism and benevolence on behavioral intentions were obtained. The effect of universalism was mediated by existential guilt and moral outrage, the effect of benevolence was mediated by injustice and existential guilt. Tradition had a negative indirect effect on behavioral intentions. This effect was mediated by justification of deprivation and probably means that adherence to tradition eases the justification of traditionally existing social inequalities in a society.