Stopping the illegal trafficking of human beings

The transnational sex industry experienced a surge during the 1990swith the breakup of the former Soviet Union. The virtual enslavementof a growing number of women into the global prostitution market fromthis region of the world has begun to be documented in an on-goingmanner by independent non-governmental organizations that trackmigration patterns and international criminal activity. The emergenceof this phenomenon in Europe expands the study of the transnationalsex industry well beyond Southeast Asia and Asia, where it has beenexamined primarily to date. Governments and internationalgovernmental organizations such as the United Nations are also nowfocusing on this issue from local and global perspectives. In thispaper, the roles that transnational police organizations can play, andhave been playing, regarding preventing and investigating the activitiesof the transnational sex industry, are explored. After sketching thescope of the problem, identifying the players of interest, and examiningthe roles that they have been performing to date, recommendations areoffered for strengthening police response in this area.     

Trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation. The case of the Netherlands

Exploitation of women in the sex industry is the best known but probably not the most common outcome of trafficking in human beings. Still, trafficking for labour exploitation gets less attention from policy makers, the police and researchers. The legal framework allows dealing with trafficking for labour exploitation, but the prosecution of such cases is still in its infancy. In this contribution we focus on labour exploitation. We first present the legal framework. Then we go into the lack of knowledge in this area, followed by what we do know about risk sectors, victims, and what makes them vulnerable for exploitation. Focussing on the Netherlands, we describe the perpetrators and the difficulties in investigating and prosecuting trafficing cases in general and labour exploitation in particular, rounding off with some general conclusions.     

Spanish legislation against trafficking in human beings: punitive excess and poor victims assistance

The article seeks to provide a perspective of human trafficking as one of the fastest growing criminal activities of the last few years in the area of organised crime and one that affects human beings’ most basic rights. In the main, the response to the problem has been its criminal prosecution, but without tackling the issues of need that underlie this conduct and which the traffickers take advantage of to abuse, assail and exploit the people they traffic. In this context, the evolution of Spanish legislation in terms of the criminalisation of this problem has made it one of the most repressive, although there is no clear evidence of its effectiveness. This punishment, which covers a wide range of criminal conducts, has not however been accompanied by any policies to support and integrate the victims of trafficking, which has led to a large number of victims being subjected to slavery who, in the majority of cases, fall under the control of the trafficking networks again.     

慢性阿片依赖者在戒断阶段细胞免疫功能的研究

为科学地鉴定、预防毒品相关死亡提供一定的实验证据，采用免疫组化、细胞培养、核素掺入、ELISA等方法，研究26例用药模式相近的慢性阿片依赖者在戒断阶段的细胞免疫功能，并与健康对照组进行统计比较。结果表明：慢性阿片依赖者戒断期CD＋4细胞数目减少（30．40±9．45％，P＜0．05），CD＋4／CD＋8比例降低（1．27±0．19，P＜0．01）；PBMC合成DNA的能力下降（SI＝8．62±3．20，P＜0．01），产生IL－2的水平降低（23．78±8．77，P＜0．06）和产生IL－6的能力呈降低趋势（468．81±196．40，P＞0．05）；血清中免疫抑制性因子sIL－2R水平显著升高（566．33±265．50，P＜0．01）。慢性阿片依赖者在戒断阶段有多种免疫参数紊乱，细胞免疫功能低下。     

The patentability of human beings: the effect of a proposed exclusion in the Patents Act 1953

The author critically examines the debate over whether "human beings" ought to be patentable. The article outlines the choices between excluding just the patenting of whole organisms or parts of organisms. After considering New Zealand, Canadian, and European Union Patent law, the author concludes that at very least New Zealand must statutorily prevent the patenting of whole organisms.     

Embryonic discourse: abortion, stem cells and cloning

This Article interprets the debate about abortion and the debate about embryonic research and therapeutic cloning as aspects of a larger history of ideas. The Article suggests that embryos increasingly stand for different truths in discourse about abortion on the one-hand and about embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning on the other. More specifically, the Article suggests that the contemporary debate about the meaning of the embryo in the context both of abortion and of embryonic research bespeaks a widespread transformation in Western, and especially American, society during the last three or four decades. At base, that transformation involves displacement of an understanding of personhood, particularly in domestic settings that depended on the submersion of individualism with an understanding of personhood that values autonomous individuality and that envisions community as the consequence of individuals' distinct choices rather than as a pre-existing, hierarchically structured whole.     

西方文明起源时期的法律人——以韦伯的法律社会学为分析框架

在西方文明起源的最初阶段,各个民族法律的制定和实施由祭司把持。希腊在进入城邦时代以后,在当时的法律人——作为“立法家”的政治家——的推动下,法律迅速摆脱了宗教的控制,转移到了民众手中,变成了富有弹性的制度。希腊未能发展出形式理性的法律制度,而罗马则在不同时期不同“法律人”的直接推动下,法律最终达到了形式理性化。罗马最初的法学家是祭司,他们将祭司法中的形式主义色彩带到了世俗法中;后来,裁判官在共和国政制下发挥着造法功能,丰富了法律内容;最后,罗马法的抽象性和系统性完全得益于职业法学家们的学术研究工作。由此可见,西方法律在文明起源阶段就已经经历了韦伯所概括的法律发展的四个阶段,其发展过程是曲折的,融合了多个民族的智慧,综合了多种不同法律人的连续努力,而职业法学家团体在其中具有决定性意义。