When the World Hung by a Thread

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the East European countries threw themselves in friendship into the West's embrace, no one wanted to think about the problems and difficulties that lay ahead. A few years later, when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Russian Federation that rose from its ruins declared a resolute transition to capitalism, everyone already knew that the transformations would be painful. This was evident in the experience of the formerly fraternal countries in Eastern and Central Europe, even as the Soviet economy was undergoing a grave crisis, from which there could be no exit without losses. However, neither in 1989 nor in 1991 did many doubt the correctness of the path chosen or that ultimately the triumph of capitalism was guaranteed. With that triumph would come an effective economy, freedom, and prosperity. Some dissenters ventured to protest, but no one wanted to listen to them.     

Laceration of the stomach by blunt trauma in a child: a case of child abuse

A case of perforation of the stomach following blunt abdominal trauma is described in a two-year-old boy. The abdominal trauma was the result of a blow to the abdomen by the stepfather. The child had ingested a large meal in the hour preceding the injury. The child died from peritonitis and shock 12 h following the injury. The literature on gastric perforation by blunt trauma is reviewed. Injuries to the stomach from nonpenetrating trauma are quite rare and are most often related to vehicular accidents. Gastric injury in a child presenting with a history of a minor home or play injury should arouse suspicion of more significant and perhaps intentional trauma.     

《鹿特丹规则》的中国立场

《鹿特丹规则》试图在与海运相关的国际运输领域确立一套统一的规范,该规范在形式上采取国际条约的方式,在内容上则进行了制度创新,重新配置了承运人和货方的权利和义务。结合当今国际社会多层次主体、多元治理模式的发展趋势,对《鹿特丹规则》所采取的规范形式进行考量。着眼中国的航运大国和贸易大国的现实,指出中国对船货双方都有重大的关切,分析中国在《鹿特丹规则》语境下的利益取向,并不能得出船方或货方的利益即是中国的利益界定基础,采用这一规则对于中国可能并不意味着＂帕累托改进＂。根据《鹿特丹规则》相关规定,暂不加入《鹿特丹规则》并不意味着中国被拒于该体系之外。中国作为全面参与《鹿特丹规则》确立的国家,可以通过签署的方式表达中国对国际货运规范制定的肯定态度和决定意义,以进一步发挥中国在国际立法中的引领作用。     

Sexual assault complainants on the stand: a historical comparison of courtroom questioning

Because most cases of alleged sexual assault involve few sources of evidence, the complainant’s testimony is crucial. In line with empirical research findings, the way in which police question sexual assault complainants has evolved to ultimately maximise both the completeness and accuracy of evidence. But has courtroom questioning changed over time? To answer this question, we compared the courtroom questioning of sexual assault complainants in the 1950s to that used in cases from the turn of the twenty-first century. Overall, lawyers in contemporary cases asked complainants more questions and uttered more words than they did historically. Complainants, too, appear to have become more vocal over time. Across the two time periods, the questioning style used by prosecuting lawyers has shifted towards a more open style. In stark contrast, the format of cross-examination questions has remained remarkably consistent over time, with leading questions still making up the bulk of the questions asked. These findings have important implications for future legal reform and legal practice.     

比较法视野下侦查人员出庭作证制度之构想

近来,警察出庭作证制度渐成学术界热点问题之一,然而,笔者认为这一提法并不十分科学。因为,刑事诉讼中从事侦查工作者并非只有警察这一群体,检察官甚至有些国家的预审法官亦参与其中,所以,用“侦查人员出庭作证”这一提法更为合理、全面。笔者于文中着重分析了侦查人员不出庭作证的原因及其出庭作证的价值,并对如何设计我国侦查人员出庭作证制度提出一些设想,以期完善我国的证人作证制度。     

Feigning incompetency to stand trial

The vulnerability of competency to stand trial instruments to malingering was previously unexamined. In this study, the Georgia Court Competency Test (GCCT) was administered to offenders asked to feign incompetency; their results were compared to controls and pretrial defendants (both competent and incompetent). Offenders appeared to be able to simulate incompetency and tended to score lower on the GCCT than their truly incompetent counterparts. For the detection of simulators, a newly developed Atypical Presentation scale for the GCCT showed promise. In addition, several strategies were explored that included simulators' failure of very simple items (i.e., floor effect) and variable success on items of increasing difficulty (i.e., performance curve). Optimal cutting scores are presented for forensic clinicians to screen defendants for feigned incompetency.     

Treating incompetence to stand trial

InJackson v. Indiana (1972), the United States Supreme Court held that the primary justification for detaining defendants who are incompetent to stand trial is to provide them with relevant treatment. Unfortunately, the majority of forensic facilities place more emphasis on treating mental disability than on the specific symptoms that legally define incompetence to stand trial. Since this appears to be inconsistent withJackson, a study was conducted to test whether a treatment that deals with the specific symptoms of incompetence to stand trial would be more effective. As predicted, 21 patients who received such treatment showed significantly more improvement on an assessment instrument than 20 patients who received the more common form of treatment. In addition, more patients in the experimental treatment group than in the standard treatment group were able to be recommended to the court as competent. Implications are discussed.     

When health policy is the problem: a report from the field

We often think of health policy and health services research as offering solutions to cost, quality, and access problems. Many of us see health policy as simply ineffective. But any activity that has the power to cure can also do harm. Is it possible that the health policy enterprise has contributed to the very problems it has been attempting to eliminate? We argue that it has. Reasonable assumptions have led to a series of solutions that have provided political cover for those vested in the status quo. This process is nonpartisan, with those of us on the left and the right unintentionally and inadvertently contributing to the problems we are so committed to solving.     

Fatal blunt trauma of the larynx in a child

We report an autopsy case of an 11-year-old girl who suffered mechanical asphyxia from falling off the metal bars in the playground. This autopsy case is interesting because of the atypical trauma and lesions. To our knowledge there has been no similiar published case reports in the forensic literature. The young age of the victim, the setting and the pattern of the injuries are rare in a fall at playground by a child.