Remarks on the Visuddhimagga,and on its treatment of the Memory of Former Dwelling(s) (pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa)

Journal of Indian Philosophy -     

Changing Typology of Organised Crime in a Post-Socialist Lithuania (the Late 1980s–Early 2000s)

This paper analyzes the dynamics of organised crime in post-socialist Lithuania. Three overlapping periods in evolution of organised crime are discerned. During the mid 1980s organised crime emerged with the attempts to liberalise the state socialism by legalizing cooperative and individual property as a basis for economic activities. By the early 1990s organised crime in Lithuania began to metamorphose from illegal manufacturing to opportunistic criminality associated with the privatisation of state property. Since the mid 1990s organised crime has again undergone change. It has entered what could be termed a maturation phase. This maturation was influenced by a number of factors including; the end of the privatization process, resumed growth of the economy, development of the legal and fiscal infrastructure to regulate a market economy, and increasing effectiveness and successes of policing in Lithuania [1] [1] Johnstone, Peter 2005. ‘Commissar-General Vytautas Grigaravièius, Lithuania national police’. Police Practice and Research, 5(4–5), September–December, pp. 357–370. . In this article the political, socio-economic, organisational and cultural factors that influenced the dynamics of change in organised crime are analyzed.     

Agamben’s Grammar of the Secret Under the Sign of the Law

This paper suggests that a grammar of the secret forms a concept in Agamben’s work, a gap that grounds the enigma of sovereignty. Between the Indo-European *krei, *se, and *per themes, the secret is etymologically linked to the logics of separation and potentiality that together enable the pliant and emergent structure of sovereignty. Sovereignty’s logic of separation meets the logic of relation in the form of abandonment: the point at which division has exhausted itself and reaches an indivisible element, bare life, the exception separated from the form of life and captured in a separate sphere. The arcanum imperii of sovereignty and the cipher of bare life are held together in the relation of the ban as the twin secrets of biopower, maintained by the potentiality of law that works itself as a concealed, inscrutable force. But the ‘real’ secret of sovereignty, I suggest, is its dialectical reversibility, the point at which the concept of the secret is met by its own immanent unworking by the critic and scribe under the *krei theme, and subject to abandonment through the work of profanation; here, different species of the secret are thrown against one another, one order undoing the other. The secret founded upon the sacred is displaced by Agamben’s critical orientation toward the immanent: what is immanent is both potential and hiddenness.     

Nozick’s Reply to the Anarchist

Central to Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia is a defense of the legitimacy of the minimal state’s use of coercion against anarchist objections. Individuals acting within their natural rights can establish the state without committing wrongdoing against those who disagree. Nozick attempts to show that even with a natural executive right, individuals need not actually consent to incur political obligations. Nozick’s argument relies on an account of compensation to remedy the infringement of the non-consenters’ procedural rights. Compensation, however, cannot remedy the infringement, for either it is superfluous to Nozick’s account of procedural rights, or it is made to play a role inconsistent with Nozick’s liberal voluntarist commitments. Nevertheless, Nozick’s account of procedural rights contains clues for how to solve the problem. Since procedural rights are incompatible with a natural executive right, Nozickeans can argue that only the state can enforce individuals’ rights without wronging anyone, thus refuting the anarchist.     

Regulating government (’s share): the fifty-percent rule of the federal constitutional court in Germany

Some numbers in the political sphere seem to be chosen rather arbitrarily. One example might be the rule set out by the Second Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court in 1995 that the overall tax load on assets must be limited to 50% of the yield on those assets. This rule was understood by many as a general principle for taxation. The article first sketches the socio-political climate under which the rule originated: a rise of neo-liberal thought met with the inability of the political institutions to reform the German welfare state with its ever-growing expenses. The Constitutional Court’s intervention is interpreted as a reaction to this stagnation in politics. An analysis from the perspective of Constitutional Law, however, reveals that the 50% rule cannot be convincingly based on the German Basic Law, and instead must be seen as a political move of the Court. But this move did not follow an economic rationality, either; for an optimal government’s share can only be determined in relation to the economic performance of a country and not by fixing it generally at a maximum of 50% of GDP. The demise of the 50% rule already began four years later. In 2006, finally, the Senate moved away from the individual rights-based approach of 1995 to a more general assessment, taking also into account an increasingly globalized tax competition. The reason for this clear-cut change in the Court’s jurisprudence can be found in a change of the socio-political and institutional parameters, thus witnessing to the effect of the political climate on court decisions. The analysis also shows that the rule was created and abandoned only on the basis of an “introverted” legal discussion, economic arguments hardly playing any role in the process. The new line of the Senate, however, might guarantee for a better integration of economic science into tax policy by exchanging fixed limits for a “discursive” model, demanding from the tax legislator better reasons for higher taxes.     

It’s More Than the Code: Exploring the Factors that Moderate the Street Code’s Relationship with Violence

The paper explores the conditions under which the code of the street is more likely to lead to violence. Utilizing a sample of 400 homeless youths the paper examines how anger, self-centeredness, nerve, parental warmth, physical abuse, homelessness, negative attitudes toward the police, violent peers, and violent victimization moderate the relationship between the street code and violence. Findings suggest that the street code has a stronger relationship with violence under conditions where individuals have higher levels of anger, self-centeredness and nerve, less experience of parental warmth, more experience with physical abuse, longer periods of homelessness and more negative orientations toward the police. The street code, anger, self-centeredness, nerve, physical abuse, homelessness, negative attitudes toward the police, violent peers, and violent victimization also have significant lower order relationships with violence. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

Probing the Depths of the Responsible Corporate Officer’s Duty

Many criminal law scholars have criticized the responsible corporate officer doctrine as a form of strict and vicarious liability. It is neither. It is merely a doctrine that supplies a duty in instances of omissions. Siding with Todd Aagaard in this debate, I argue that a proper reading of the cases yields that the responsible corporate officer doctrine is just duty supplying, and does not allow for strict liability when the underlying statute requires mens rea. After analyzing Dotterweich, Park, and their progeny, I probe the depths of this duty-supplying doctrine, including to whom the duty is owed, whether the duty is grounded in statute, cause of peril, or contract, and what the content of the duty is. Although the responsible corporate officer doctrine unveils questions we may have about duty generally, it is no more problematic than other duty-supplying doctrines in the criminal law.     

Moore��s Moral Facts and the Gap in the Retributive Theory

The purely retributive moral justification of punishment has a gap at its centre. It fails to explain why the offender should not be protected from punishment by the intuitively powerful moral idea that afflicting another person (other than to avoid a greater harm) is always wrong. Attempts to close the gap have taken several different forms, and only one is discussed in this paper. This is the attempt to push aside the ‘protecting’ intuition, using some more powerful intuition specially invoked by the situations to which criminal justice is addressed. In one aspect of his complex defence of pure retributivism, Michael S. Moore attempts to show that the emotions of well-adjusted persons provide evidence of moral facts which justify the affliction of culpable wrongdoers in retribution for their wrongdoing. In particular, he appeals to the evidential significance of emotions aroused by especially heinous crimes, including the punishment-seeking guilt of the offender who truly confronts the reality of his immoral act. The paper argues that Moore fails to vindicate this appeal to moral realism, and thus to show that intrinsic personal moral desert (as distinct from ‘desert’ in a more restricted sense, relative to morally justified institutions) is a necessary and sufficient basis for punishment. Other theories of the role of emotions in morality are as defensible as Moore’s, while the compelling emotions to which he appeals to clinch his argument can be convincingly situated within a non-retributivist framework, especially when the distinction between the intuitions of the lawless world, and those of the world of law, is recognised.     

Liberation(s): The Notion of Release (vimokkha) in the Paṭisambhidāmagga

The Vimokkhakathā, a section of the Pa?isambhidāmagga, expounds the longest list of vimokkhas (releases, deliverances) found in Pali; it also finely elaborates on the notion of vimokkha through a crucial shift in Theravāda exegesis. In order to explore the meaning and nuances of vimokkha in the Pa?isambhidāmagga, this article focuses on its classifications and definitions, discussing their relation to the standard lists found in the Nikāyas. This examination highlights a multifaceted soteriology that supplies meditative practice with a consistent wholesome attitude; I will also demonstrate how various microstructure-levels affect the macrostructure of the Pa?isambhidāmagga, which in turn draws upon the wider structure of the Tipi?aka. In addition, the commentary to the enunciation of the releases (Vimokkhuddesava??anā), translated in Appendix, clarifies the structure of the vimokkhas, and their relationship with the whole Pa?isambhidāmagga.     

Analysis of the Federal District’s Legislative Chamber in the Information Age

The study investigates the satisfaction with the work of the parliament of Brazilian Federal District. The survey was based on the competencies extracted from the institutional mission and targeted citizens who frequently use social networks. Inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results showed a great unsatisfaction about the institution. The most satisfied respondents are the less educated, while the most educated, older, and highest income respondents are the most unsatisfied. The results also highlighted the low interaction between respondents and the Chamber, the absence of an effective official communication channel, and actions associated with sustainable economic development will be more effective in increasing satisfaction.     

What’s Inside and Outside the Law?

In this article I take up a conceptual question: What is the distinction between ‘the law’ and the behavior the law regulates, or, as I formulate it, the distinction between what is ‘inside’ the law and what is ‘outside’ it? That conceptual question is in play in (at least) three different doctrinal domains: the constitutional law doctrines regarding the limits on the delegation of legislative powers; the criminal law doctrines regarding mistakes of law; and the constitutional rights doctrines that turn on the distinction between state action and the acts of non-state actors. I argue that legal doctrines should turn solely on normative considerations and should not turn on answers to conceptual questions. However, the doctrines I discuss appear to turn on the conceptual question regarding what is ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the law. I show how each of these doctrinal areas appears to raise this conceptual issue, and I explain how the doctrines might or might not escape being held hostage to conceptual controversy.     

Japan’s Ivory Trade in the Face of the Endangered Species Convention

Abstract

Commercial trade in ivory remains one of the major threats to the survival of an iconic wildlife resource: the elephant, in particular the African species (Loxodonta africana). At its 2016 Johannesburg meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) adopted by consensus an urgent call for the closure of domestic markets for ivory. The only Party which has openly defied that call is Japan – claiming that its own domestic ivory market is strictly controlled, and does not contribute to elephant poaching elsewhere. The present study analyzes that claim in light of the evidence, including the country's legislation (as recently amended) and its application in practice (as documented by multiple recent surveys). The author's findings do not support Japan's claim to a sweeping exemption from the global ban agreed by the CITES Conference. On the contrary, in view of serious shortcomings in the Government's current legislative and administrative controls over the ivory trade (especially with regard to internet transactions), the author recommends effective termination of Japan's domestic ivory market; and pending such closure, a reclassification of Japan in category 2 of the CITES legislation list (‘legislation believed not to meet all the requirements for CITES implementation’).     

Levinas’s Contribution to the Law of Hospitality

Liverpool Law Review - This article examines the ethical thinking of Levinas, from which Derrida’s Law of Hospitality is derived, to see if it is sustainable in the face of Badiou’s...     

Measuring the Tibia: Trotter’s Error Revisited

In Trotter and Gleser’s (Am J Phys Anthropol 1952;10:463) classic study of stature estimation, a definition of the tibia length measurement is given that agrees with the standard condylar-malleolar length. That Trotter did not in fact measure according to her definition, but rather omitted the malleolus, has been well documented by Jantz et al. (J Forensic Sci 1995;40:758). Both the Terry collection and the World War 2 (WW2) samples were affected, although questions remain about the latter that cannot be resolved directly because it is no longer available for examination. Trotter's data from hundreds of servicemen are especially important because the statures were measured by technicians, rather than based on cadaver lengths or forensic statures. The questions examined in this note are as follows: Was WW2 measured uniformly in the same way as Terry; are there differences between Terry and WW2 that could influence estimation of the adjustment; and is the 10 millimeter (mm) adjustment proposed by Jantz et al. (J Forensic Sci 1995;40:758) still appropriate. Our analysis relies on a measurement taken by Trotter that is clearly and uniquely defined, what she called “ordinary length”. This measurement was used to create expectations about how Trotter measured what she called maximum length of the tibia. Results provide no evidence that WW2 was measured any differently than Terry, with the exception of one small series. They also show slight morphological differences on the distal and/or proximal end of the tibia between Terry and WW2. Despite the slight difference, the adjustment to account for the malleolus is still valid.     

Criminal Justice Reform and the System’s Efficiency

This article discusses key issues that affect the efficiency and credibility of criminal justice systems. It discusses the consequences of an ineffective criminal justice system, which include unnecessary delays within the court process, ‘cracked’ or ‘collapsed’ trials, and lack of public confidence. It notes that a successful system must contain strategic, integrated, and sustainable mechanisms that enhance the entire criminal justice process. The article examines a number of initiatives taken by various countries, noting the measurable and sustainable results, while also suggesting ways that these programs could be improved. Finally, the author notes the importance of measuring the outcomes and impact of the suggested initiatives in an effort to promote transparency and accountability, as well as effectively record successful strategies.     

Situating gangs within Scotland’s illegal drugs market(s)

The Scottish government’s (2008) publication ‘The road to recovery: A new approach to tackling Scotland’s drug problem’ elaborates and outlines the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) desire to make Scotland ‘drug free’ by 2019. To achieve this objective, the Scottish Government’s (2015) ‘Serious Organised Crime Strategy’ (SSOCS) entails dismantling networks of drug supply. Yet missing from this strategic planning is a) recognition of how, if at all, different types of gangs are involved in drug supply, and b) how drug supply processes actually work. Therefore, this article seeks to extend McLean’s (J Deviant Behav, 2017) Scottish gang model, which specifies a typology of gangs in Scotland, in an effort to locate precise levels of gang involvement in the drugs market. This is achieved by drawing upon Pearson and Hobbs’ (2001) hierarchical model of the UK’s illegal drug(s) market. In-depth interviews with 35 offenders involved in criminal networks and five practitioners, indicate that recreational Youth Street Gangs are really only involved in ‘social supply’. Youth Criminal Gangs are primarily involved in commercially motivated dealing at the low- to mid-levels, including bulk-buying between the retail-to-wholesale markets. And enterprising Serious Organised Crime Gangs operate from the middle-to-apex market level. Conclusions which situate this gang typology within the illegal drug market(s) are used to put forward recommendations aimed at dismantling of drug supply networks.