Governing Health and Social Security in the Twenty-First Century: Active Citizenship Through the Right to Participate

This article discusses the role of individual rights in the production of active citizenship. In recent years, the notion of ‘active citizenship’ has become an object of research in both political and social science. Studies that draw on the Foucaultian governmentality tradition have been particularly interested in various societal discourses and practices through which active citizenship is being produced. However, the role of law and rights has been neglected or even rejected in these studies. The aim of this article is thus to show that certain procedural rights, the right to participate in particular, constitute an important legal technology in the production of active citizenship. The analysis is based on the recent developments in Finnish social and health care law. It will also be argued that despite the apparently convergent subject-matter, Jürgen Habermas’s normative theory of the ‘procedural paradigm of law’ does not offer a meaningful framework in which to address the relationship between active citizenship and procedural rights since it is based on an overly narrow conception of subjectivity.     

Strength in Numbers or Quality over Quantity? Examining the Importance of Criterion Measure Selection to Define Validity Groups in Performance Validity Test (PVT) Research

Mirroring clinical guidelines, recent Performance Validity Test (PVT) research emphasizes using ≥ 2 criterion PVTs to optimally identify validity groups when validating/cross-validating PVTs; however, even with multiple measures, the effect of which specific PVTs are used as criterion measures remains incompletely explored. This study investigated the accuracy of varying two-PVT combinations for establishing validity status and how adding a third PVT or applying more liberal failure cut-scores affects overall false-positive (FP)/-negative (FN) rates. Clinically referred veterans (N = 114; 30% clinically identified as invalid) completing a six-PVT protocol as during their evaluation were included. Concordance rates were calculated across all possible two-and three-PVT combinations at conservative and liberal cutoffs. Two-PVT combinations classified 72–91% of valid (0–4% FPs) and 17–74% of invalid (0–40% FNs) cases, and three-PVT combinations classified 67–86% of valid (0–6% FPs) and 57–97% of invalid (0–24% FNs) at conservative cutoffs. Liberal cutoffs classified 53–86% of valid (0–15% FPs) and 39–82% of invalid (0–30% FNs) cases for two-PVT combinations and 46–75% of valid (3–27% FPs) and 60–97% of invalid (0–17% FNs) cases for three-PVT combinations. Irrespective of whether a two-or three-PVT combination or conservative/liberal cutoffs were used, many valid and invalid cases failed only one PVT (3–68%).Two-PVT combinations produced high FNs and were less accurate than three-PVTs for detecting invalid cases, though variable accuracy was found within both types of combinations based on the specific PVTs in the combination. Thus, both PVT quantity and quality are important for accurate validity classification in research studies to ensure reliability and replicability of findings. Applying more liberal cutoffs yielded increased sensitivity, but with generally higher FPs yielding problematic specificity, particularly for three-PVT combinations.     

Acute fatal acetaminophen overdose without liver necrosis

Two unusual cases of suicidal overdose of acetaminophen (paracetamol) without the usual extensive centrilobular necrosis of the liver are reported. Both cases were subjected to comprehensive drug screening by immunoassay, and a combination of gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, nitrogen detection, and electron capture detection. Acetaminophen was detected in both cases. No other drugs were detected in case #1, and only a small amount of olanzapine (<0.1 mg/L) was detected in case #2. No anatomical cause of death was identified in either case. If untreated, the normal outcome of a large acetaminophen overdose would be massive hepatic necrosis with delayed death and low blood and tissue acetaminophen concentrations. In contrast, particularly high postmortem acetaminophen concentrations were measured in both our cases with little hepatic tissue damage. For case #1, femoral blood acetaminophen 1280 mg/L, vitreous 878 mg/L, and liver 729 mg/kg; in case #2, cardiac blood 1220 mg/L, vitreous 779 mg/L, liver 3260 mg/kg, and gastric 11,500 mg/500 g. Acetaminophen was measured using high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (254 nm) using 3-hydroxyacetanilide as the internal standard. The very high concentrations of acetaminophen is these cases but relatively little hepatic damage suggests an alternative, possibly cardiac, mechanism of death.     

Using after-the-event insurance and conditional fee agreements in defending weak IP claims

Legal context: As the cost of IP litigation increases, the cost of defendinga claim can be prohibitive, even if the defendant is ultimatelysuccessful. In this article, the authors consider how after-the-event(‘ATE’) insurance and conditional fee agreements(‘CFA’) can be used in IP disputes. Key points: The authors describe a recent innovative ATE insurance product,explain how ATE insurance and CFAs can be applied to IP disputes,and explain how a combination of ATE insurance and a CFA canput the defendant in a very strong position, with a high degreeof certainty of costs. Practical significance: The fact that a party has obtained offers of ATE insurance and/ora CFA indicates to the other side that (i) its solicitors areconfident of succeeding, (ii) it has obtained a favourable counsel'sopinion; and (iii) there is likely to be a substantial disparityin each side's potential costs. This gives rise to a usefuladditional benefit of a tactical advantage given to the defendant,which may lead to an early settlement on terms favourable tothe defendant.     

The perspective of “justice” of international law in the global context

After the Cold War and the quick development of globalization, non-state acts by international organizations, transnational corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), etc., are becoming more active. Global issues with regard to, inter alia, environment, human rights, terrorism are constantly emerging, which bring great challenge to the Westphalia System that is based on state sovereignty and centered on the national state. At the same time, the values, which include “individualism” and “global justice,” are constantly casting impact on international legal system. Doubtlessly, in the current context of international relations, “justice among states” is still the reasonable positioning of the value of modern international law. However, making “individualism” and “global justice” compatible and modifying “justice among states” is an inevitable trend. At the same time, the rule brought about by the modification on the value of justice must be handled properly.     

Thermal Imaging as a Lie Detection Tool at Airports

We tested the accuracy of thermal imaging as a lie detection tool in airport screening. Fifty-one passengers in an international airport departure hall told the truth or lied about their forthcoming trip in an interview. Their skin temperature was recorded via a thermal imaging camera. Liars’ skin temperature rose significantly during the interview, whereas truth tellers’ skin temperature remained constant. On the basis of these different patterns, 64% of truth tellers and 69% of liars were classified correctly. The interviewers made veracity judgements independently from the thermal recordings. The interviewers outperformed the thermal recordings and classified 72% of truth tellers and 77% of liars correctly. Accuracy rates based on the combination of thermal imaging scores and interviewers’ judgements were the same as accuracy rates based on interviewers’ judgements alone. Implications of the findings for the suitability of thermal imaging as a lie detection tool in airports are discussed.     

Polluting Environment, Polluting Constitution: Is a 'Polluted' Constitution Worse than a Polluted Environment?

The Indian Supreme Court has been praised as one of the mostsocially active courts in the world, especially so in the environmentalfield. Yet it is arguable that many of the benefits claimedfor judicial involvement are far from real. Three phases ofacti­vism are identified. In the 1970s, the Court developedthe concept of environmental rights based on ensuring that thedirective principles of state policy and the funda­mentalright to life contained the Constitution worked in mutual support.This was followed by a period when the Court extended liabilityprinciples. The most recent and most controversial phase hasinvolved the Court increasingly acting in an exec­utivefunction and effectively both making and implementing policies.The Court’s enthusiasm in environmental matters has nowdented India’s institutional balance. By being preparedto judicialise all problems of life into problems of law, theCourt has undermined the strength of citizens to engage collectivelywith institutions of the State—the Court should now withdrawfrom its self-imposed alchemist role.     

Teaching criminal investigation: A critical thinking approach

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “critical thinking” approach to teaching and develop those concepts into meaningful instructional activities in the classroom. The authors offer practical suggestions based on the critical thinking philosophy for implementing an active learning approach. The case study method serves as the foundation for an investigative process course and lead-up activity to the simulated preliminary and follow-up investigation. The instructor presents the critical thinking process and content information that enables students to perform five basic progressions: (1) case studies; (2) the preliminary investigation; (3) follow-up; (4) suppression hearing; and (5) moot court criminal justice simulations.     

Pensions, Politics, and Judicial Tenure: An Empirical Study of Federal Judges, 1869-2002

When Article III judges conclude active service, they effectivelyabdicate their seat and enable the president and Senate to selecta successor. Some judicial scholars have concluded that politicalfactors—both within and across institutions—largelyinfluence this decision. Analyzing judicial turnover, year byyear, this article finds that judges have increasingly synchronizedtheir departure from active service with qualifying for theirjudicial pension. By comparison, political and institutionalfactors appear to have little influence on turnover rates. Thesefindings contradict much of the existing scholarship on judicialturnover and also offer more viable alternatives for judicialreform.     

Examining Factors Co-Existing with Interpersonal Violence in Lesbian Relationships

Interpersonal violence within lesbian relationships is a significant yet understudied problem. Women attending a gay pride festival in Atlanta, GA, were asked to complete a survey concerning same-sex interpersonal violence. Women who reported being in a current or previous same-sex partner relationship were included in the analyses (N = 226). Factors that occurred in the context of interpersonal violence were investigated: substance use, HIV/STI risk behaviors, barriers to reporting abuse, and attitudes inhibiting seeking of social support. In addition, the survey assessed relationship-related power dynamics. Results of multivariate analyses support the hypotheses that power imbalance and inequality when making sex-related decisions within women’s same-sex relationships are associated with interpersonal violence. Further findings suggested that a combination of factors must be considered when dealing with and reducing the risk for violence in same-sex relationships.     

Democracy, rule of law and human rights protection under gradually developed constitutionalism

With the shifting of the economic pattern and the developing of administrative law, the modern constitutionalism of China has adopted a progressive development process. Over 20 years, the development of democracy, the rule of law and the human rights protection clearly illustrate this point. For the gradually developing constitutionalism, the theory of limited rational is a theoretical basis, the stability of society is a social basis, the changing economic system is a economic basis, and Confucianism is a cultural basis. Constitutionalism of China should continue to go in such an active, steady and gradual way. Wang Zhuojun, Professor and Director of Administrative Affairs of Soochow University (till now) and as a visiting scholar in the Department of Government & Politics, University of Maryland, USA (1996.1–1997.1), whose research focuses on culture, politics and science of law. So far, his publications are “The Political System in the Perspective of Culture”, “A History of Epistemology”, “A Study of the External Economy of China’s Universities”, and his translations include “Introduction to Culture and Anthropology”, “Challenge to Culture from Science and Technology”, etc. Moreover, He has presided several research projects sponsored by The Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Education Department of Jiangsu Province, China.     

A methodological model

Clues derived from the locations connected to violent repeat criminal offenders, such as serial murderers, rapists, and arsonists, can be of significant assistance to law enforcement. Such information allows police departments to focus their activities, geographically prioritize suspects, and to concentrate saturation or directed patrolling efforts in those zones where the criminal predator is most likely to be active. By examining spatial data connected to a series of crime sites, this methodological model generates a choropleth probability map that indicates the areas most likely to be associated to the offender—home, work site, or travel routes. Based on the Brantingham theoretical structure and the routine activities approach, the model goes beyond simple cluster or centroid analysis by employing specific serial murder research, overlapping modified Pareto functions, and Manhattan distances. The methodology is also sensitive to the target/victim opportunity backcloth, landscape issues, and problems of spatial “outliers.”     

Work/Family Policy in France: From State Familialism to State Feminism?

When one looks at the policies that target the relationshipbetween work and family (here labelled ‘work/family policies’),contradictory views come from France. On the one hand, the staterecognition of family interests is very strong, and was initiallyrooted in familialism, an ideology that promotes the familyas an institution, and has often played against women’srights. On the other hand, women’s – and especiallymothers’ – labour force participation has alwaysbeen relatively high compared to other western countries. Toaccount for this ‘French paradox’, this paper putswork/family policies into historical perspective, in order toanalyse them as a mix of policies coming from various publicpolicy institutions (work, education, family). While state familialismhas always been strong in France, it has been challenged andshattered by several social and political trends since the 1960s.Among these is the development of ‘state feminism’,with the creation of governmental bodies endowed with the formalmission of furthering women’s rights. Based on an empiricalstudy of these institutions, this paper shows how they reframedwork/family policy in terms of a policy of equality in employment.     

An investigation into the usefulness of the MMPI and MMPI-2 in municipal and state police candidate selection

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the later revision (MMPI-2) have been two of the most frequently employed instruments in the selection of law enforcement officers (Bartol, 1996). In this study, the following three sets of data were collected and analyzed: municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI, municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI-2, and state police trooper candidates tested with the MMPI-2. These three data sets were evaluated for their effectiveness at predicting “pass/fail” status on police candidate interview using multiple linear regression. A combination of subscales were found to be associated with classification as either pass or fail on interview.     

Resistance and compliance in women’s prisons: Towards a critique of legitimacy

This article explores how power is negotiated in women’s prisons. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in three penal establishments in England, the author analyses the ways by which women negotiate restrictions of imprisonment and the manner in which they attempt to resist institutional control. It is proposed that power is negotiated on a private, internalised level, as women often resist the institution simply by trying to maintain an image of control over their own lives. However, this image of themselves as active, reasoning agents is undermined by institutional constraints that encourage them to exhibit traditional, passive, feminine behaviour at the same time as they deny them their identities and responsibilities as mothers, wives, girlfriends, and sisters. The author concludes that women’s modes of resistance indicate that imprisonment is contested and embattled in ways reflecting broader, social norms of behaviour and identity, and thus, that the ‘legitimacy’ of imprisonment rests, at least in part, upon gender. I would like to thank Anthony Gerbino and Alison Liebling for their helpful comments on drafts of this paper which was presented in an earlier form at the Law and Society Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, July 10–13, 1996.     

A South Indian ?ākta Anthropogon?: An Annotated Translation of Selections from Mahe?varānanda’s Mahārthama?jarīparimala, gāthās 19 and 20

This article represents the first of a projected series of annotated translations of the Mahārthama?jarīparimala of Maheśvarānanda, a Śaiva Śākta author active in Cidambaram around the turn of the fourteenth century of the Common Era. The present translation includes excerpts from the text’s presentation of two of the levels of reality (tattvas), puruṣa and prakṛti. These two tattvas, the apex of the older Sāṃkhya scheme incorporated centuries earlier by the Śaivas, provide for Maheśvarānanda the centerpiece and climax of his understanding of the structure of the Śaiva cosmos. Fundamental to the rhetoric of Maheśvarānanda’s idiosyncratic presentation is his reliance upon a simultaneous strategy of integration and distinction of his argument within the wider world of Śaiva doctrinal common sense. He seeks to integrate the characteristic meditative structure of his Krama or Mahārtha system within a theological framework shared by all Śaiva theists. It can be seen that Maheśvarānanda’s interpretation of the junction between these two reality levels delineates a picture of what it is to be a human being, equipped with an inner life and a personality. The article also reviews the quality of the published editions of the Mahārthama?jarī, discusses its textual history, and offers a number of suggested emendations to the passages translated.     

Saint Gobain patron of pharmaceutical patentees?

In recent years there has been much complaint from originatingpharmaceutical companies that the test of obviousness appliedin the UK, as evidenced by decisions of the Patent Court onpharmaceutical related patents, is set unfairly low. This isof particular impact where ‘formulation’ type patentsare concerned. That is, typically, those patents that claiman existing active ingredient mixed, formulated, or combinedwith other known components or in a different way. Pharmaceuticalcompanies complain that the vulnerability of such patents againstinvalidity proceedings in the UK fails to protect the considerableinvestment made in the development of these formulations againstgeneric competition. This article looks at whether the reasons for this concern canbe traced to particular sub-tests that have been used by thecourts to try to answer the statutory test for obviousness.In particular, the sub-tests of ‘lying in the road’and ‘obvious to try’ are examined and the questionof whether there has been an imbalance between these two sub-testsis explored. Further, it is argued that the decisions in therecent cases of Saint-Gobain and Angiotech suggest that therehas been a shift in how the Court of Appeal assesses obviousness.This is away from the ‘obvious to try with a reasonableexpectation of success’ standard to one of ‘obviousto try if success is self-evident’. If the Court of Appeal follows the line taken in these two casesthen pharmaceutical patents of the formulations kind shoulda face better prospect of surviving invalidity challenges basedon obviousness in future.     

论法律监督与控、辩、审的关系

The purpose to set up public prosecution power is to restrict the investigation and judicial power. Public prosecution power is an organic combination of prosecution and trial supervision. The procurator’s supervision in the court does not infringe on the defendants’ procedural right. The procuratorial organ’s supervision on the matters of the court at the same level is only a power to start the correction procedure, however, the substantive power to make the final decision of whether to admit the mistake and how to make remedies belongs to the court. Therefore, the public prosecution’s status is much higher than that of the defense and the interferences with independent judicial power of courts by legal supervision do not exist in China. Gao Jingfeng is a senior procurator of the Supreme Procuratorate of China, National Research Specialist in procuratorial theory. His over ten major works include The Report on Judicial Reform—the procuratorate and courts in China, Chinese Procuratorial Practice, Outline of Chinese procuratorial system, Research on Office Crimes. His over thirty academic articles were released by the journals, such as Jurists, Legal Procedure and Judicial Systems, Procuratorial Daily, People’s Procuratorial, Legal Daily.     

WHEN CAN REGULATION DEFER TO COMPETITION FOR CONSTRAINING MARKET POWER?: COMPLEMENTS AND CRITICAL ELASTICITIES

When can regulation defer to competition for imposing pricediscipline? We show that high price–cost margins, reflectingscale/scope economies, in combination with demand complementaritiesserve to constrain the market power of the (de)regulated firm.Because price increases that produce even small reductions indemand can generate significant losses in contribution to joint/commoncosts, relatively modest amounts of competition may be sufficientfor deregulation. To assist policymakers in their deliberations,a comparison of firm-specific price elasticities and criticalprice elasticities can be used to determine whether the (de)regulatedfirm would have incentives to raise prices post-deregulation.     

Strategies in international regime negotiations: reflecting background conditions or shaping outcomes?

Negotiation behaviour is usually seen as an intervening variable—adapted to structural and institutional conditions, but with sufficient degrees of freedom to leave its own imprint on outcomes. Little is known, however, about the extent to which negotiation behaviour in fact shapes outcomes. This paper addresses that question, building on data from the Miles et al. (Environmental regime effectiveness: confronting theory with evidence. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002) environmental regimes project. Four main conclusions can be inferred from the analysis. First, the Miles et al. core model seems to account for a fair amount of the variance observed in the strategies adopted by “pushers” and “laggards,” but it also leaves ample scope for other explanations. Second, both of these groups respond to the choice of strategy made by the other. Third, adding negotiation strategies to the Miles et al. core model does not significantly change the conclusions obtained from that model itself. Finally, sometimes negotiation strategies—in particular combinations of strategies—nevertheless make a real difference, often through interplay with other factors. To better understand when and how this occurs, we need models that are more sophisticated and a combination of methodological tools designed for aggregating as well as separating effects.