Cyber terrorism: a clear and present danger, the sum of all fears, breaking point or patriot games?

Over the past two decades there has developed a voluminous literature on the problem of cyber terrorism. The themes developed by those writing on cyber terrorism appear to spring from the titles of Tom Clancy’s fiction, such as Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears and Breaking Point, or somewhat more cynically, Patriot Games. This essay examines both the gap between the presumed threat and the known cyber terror behaviors and the continuing literature which suggests an attack is imminent. It suggests that at least part of the explanation lies both in the continuing failure to distinguish between what Denning (Activism, hacktivism, and cyber terrorism: The internet as a tool for influencing foreign policy, 1999) referred to as hactivism and cyberterrorism and also the failure to distinguish between the use of digital means for organizational purposes (information, communication, command and control) and the use of digital communications to actually commit acts of terror.     

以公正高效可预期回应时代要求

从开启新纪元到进入新时代,我们又来到一个新的时间节点。2020年是全面建成小康社会和“十三五”规划收官之年。站在“两个一百年”奋斗目标的历史交汇点上,面临更加复杂的国内外环境,如何从全局高度把握人民司法工作的方向和重点,备受瞩目。最高人民法院党组书记、院长周强近期先后到北京、浙江、江苏、海南等地调研,与地方党政领导、法院干警、人大代表座谈,并围绕中央重大部署,统筹谋划更好地发挥审判职能作用,势力为经济高质量发展、社会安定有序、人民安居乐业提供更高水平的司法服务等主题发表了讲话。这些讲话既明确了2020年审判工作的总基调,也指明了2020年审判工作的新重点。     

The good, the bad, and the ugly: how the due process clause may limit comprehensive health care reform

This article examines atopic which has receivedlittle attention from the media or other scholarly publications: The due process concerns that arise when engaging in comprehensive federal health care reform and regulation. First, the article provides a background discussion detailing the factors necessitating health care reform in the United States. Second, it analyzes whether a constitutionally protected right to make personal health care decisions exists under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' Due Process Clauses. Finally, the article analyzes the susceptibility of government-sponsored health care-specifically proposals which include a public option-to due process challenges and makes suggestions to avoid any potential fundamental rights violations.     

The past, present and future of mental health law: a therapeutic jurisprudence analysis

This article uses a therapeutic jurisprudence perspective to review the evolution of mental health law in the Western world by examining developments at various stages in history, in particular the 20th century. It suggests that one of the major challenges for the future, from a therapeutic jurisprudence perspective, will be to help minimise the stigma, prejudice and discrimination associated with mental health law. The article concludes with the suggestion that the question of whether mental health law itself, because it contributes to discrimination against mentally disordered people, may be anti-therapeutic requires more investigation and consideration.     

The effects of chemical and heat maceration techniques on the recovery of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from bone

Forensic anthropologists use a number of maceration techniques to facilitate skeletal analysis of personal identity and trauma, but they may unwittingly eliminate valuable DNA evidence in the process. This study evaluated the effect of 10 maceration methods on gross bone structure and the preservation of DNA in ribs of 12 pigs (Sus scrofa). A scoring system was applied to evaluate the ease of maceration and resulting bone quality while DNA purity was quantified by optical densitometry analysis, followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of three mitochondrial and three nuclear loci. The results demonstrated that while mitochondrial DNA could be amplified for all experiments, cleaning treatments using bleach, hydrogen peroxide, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid/papain, room temperature water and detergent/sodium carbonate followed by degreasing had low DNA concentrations and failed to generate nuclear PCR products. In general, treatments performed at high temperatures (90 degrees C or above) for short durations performed best. This study shows that traditionally "conservative" maceration techniques are not necessarily the best methods to yield DNA from skeletal tissue.     

Responding to the environmental effects of remittances and trade liberalization in net-importing economies: the role of renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Economic Change and Restructuring - Little is currently known about how policy choices that seek to bridge the gap between low production capacity and growing consumption demands in developing...     

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; HHS Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise implementation plan for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. Notice

The United States faces serious public health threats from the deliberate use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)--chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN)--by hostile States or terrorists, and from naturally emerging infectious diseases that have a potential to cause illness on a scale that could adversely impact national security. Effective strategies to prevent, mitigate, and treat the consequences of CBRN threats is an integral component of our national security strategy. To that end, the United States must be able to rapidly develop, stockpile, and deploy effective medical countermeasures to protect the American people. The HHS Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE) has taken a holistic, end-to-end approach that considers multiple aspects of the medical countermeasures mission including research, development, acquisition, storage, maintenance, deployment, and guidance for utilization. Phase one of this approach established the HHS PHEMCE Strategy for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Threats (HHS PHEMCE Strategy). The HHS PHEMCE Strategy, published in the Federal Register on March 20, 2007, described a framework of strategic policy goals and objectives for identifying medical countermeasure requirements and establishing priorities for medical countermeasure evaluation, development and acquisition. These strategic policy goals and objectives were used to establish the Four Pillars upon which this HHS Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Implementation Plan (HHS PHEMCE Implementation Plan) is based. The HHS PHEMCE Implementation Plan considers the full spectrum of medical countermeasures-related activities, including research, development, acquisition, storage/maintenance, deployment, and utilization. The HHS PHEMCE Implementation Plan is consistent with the President's Biodefense for the 21st Century and is aligned with the National Strategy for Medical Countermeasures against Weapons of Mass Destruction.     

The non-discrimination principle and American higher education: judicial failure to recognize the present effects of past discrimination

This article suggests that any approach to the issue of access to higher education in the United Kingdom not view the approach of the United States in the recent University of Michigan cases as providing appropriate guidance. It is the author's assertion that the United States Supreme Court has failed to recognize the present effects of a long history of deliberate racial segregation of higher education in America and the affirmative duty of public higher education to remedy the effects of America's unique system of racial segregation. Specifically, the Supreme Court's jurisprudence has abandoned the interests of the victims of a judicially sanctioned exclusion of African-Americans from public higher education during most of the 20th Century, and has instead supported equal access only to the extent that it furthers the university's own interests in so-called ‘diversity’. This disregard for the history of American racial segregation is inconsistent with the Constitutional principles announced in Brown v. Board of Education and the federal judicial decisions which secured and advanced the mandate for racial equality announced in Brown v. Board.     

Methods of terrorism financing: criminal procedural obstacles to the prevention of crime in Germany,Liechtenstein, Austria,and Switzerland,by Fabian Teichmann

Crime, Law and Social Change -     

Forward to the past: Organized crime and Cuba’s history, present and future

Before the 1959 revolution, Cuba was virtually a Mafia fiefdom. However, as the future of Cuban leader Fidel Castro—and thus the entire revolutionary regime — becomes increasingly uncertain, there is growing reason to fear that history is about to repeat itself and Cuba will become a focus for organized criminality in the Caribbean, with an impact not just on the regional but global underworld. Cuba and its airspace and territorial waters have become important nodes on smuggling routes into the United States. While Havana may no longer be willing to turn a blind eye to the traffickers’ activities, it lacks the resources to interdict effectively or deter them. However, Cuba is also beginning to suffer from both domestic drug abuse and the first indications of organized criminality at home. This is very limited compared with the strength of Cuban-American organized crime in the United States, but does open up the prospect of these groups exploiting any weaknesses in Cuba to reestablish operations on the island. Although it is possible that the revolutionary regime might survive Castro, at the very least it will experience a turbulent transition, one in which power politics will divert attention from the problem of growing crime. Were the Cuban Communist Party to fall, either to a democratic revolution or a military coup, then either way this would probably generate increased domestic organized crime and open up the country even more rapidly to international criminal influences. Perhaps the final tragedy of the revolutionary regime, born out of a rejection of authoritarian rule and rampant organized crime, is that it will have proven to lay the foundations for an even more dynamic and voracious criminalization of Cuba. This article draws on an earlier, shorter piece: Mark Galeotti, “Organized crime gangs pose threat to Cuban development,” Jane's Intelligence Review, 18, 2 (2006).     

From france to new france: Quebec family names,past and present

The history of family names is directly linked to the history of populations. In the French-Canadian case, this history has two main features: a small number of founding members of a population, and a rapid increase due to a high reproduction rate, without any significant new influx of immigrants. Other factors intervened in the success of certain names: differential reproduction rates between regions, how early the name was established; and the use of surnames, which in some cases replaced the original name. With respect to names, France and New France were very different. Research in France on the names of a sample of pioneers going to the New World shows little expansion of several names, particularly in the immigrants' region of origin.