Computers in criminal justice — Realising the potential: Part II: The future

A number of trends are apparent from the current development of existing Criminal Justice computer systems (CJS). Apart from in probation, the first systems in each criminal justice agency in this country have been designed to assist with routine clerical and administrative tasks — book-keeping in the magistrates' courts, wordprocessing and finance in prisons, etc, which although effective at easing the clerical and administrative tasks have made little overall impact on the operation of criminal justice. They have not, for example, reduced the delays in the criminal justice process, or reduced the overcrowding in prisons. This is in contrast to the US, where computerisation in some courts, for example, has significantly reduced delay and has helped with the operation of sentencing guidelines to bring about a great consistency of sentencing. In Part II of his article A D Maclean looks at what the future holds as far as computers in criminal justice and concerned.     

Motor Vehicle Collisions and Their Consequences—Part II: Predictors of Impairment and Disability

A significant number of persons involved in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) evidence persistent changes in physical, psychosocial, and cognitive functioning consequent to physical injury. While post-injury impairment and disability can sometimes be predicted with knowledge of injury type and injury severity, post-injury experiences of pain, psychological distress, cognitive dysfunction, and role disruption have been determined to contribute to injury-related impairment and disability. This article represents the second part of a two-part review of MVCs and their consequences. In part I of the review, research findings related to physical, psychosocial, and cognitive changes that occur consequent to injury-causing MVCs are described. In this article, measures used to document the severity of physical injuries are reviewed, along with the most widely accepted definitions of impairment and disability. Models that have been proposed to explain the progression from injury to impairment and disability are reviewed, including a more recently proposed model created specifically to guide the assessment and management of MVC-related outcomes. The greater part of this article is devoted to the review of findings related to physical, psychological, and cognitive predictors of post-MVC impairment and disability. The relation of these predictors to post-MVC impairment and disability is described across three specific injury contexts: (1) whiplash-associated disorders, (2) traumatic brain injury, and (3) polytrauma. In each context, findings related to recovery of function in the form of return to work are summarized, along with findings related to the contribution of compensation to injury-related symptoms and impairments. Although not characterized as a physical injury, chronic pain serves frequently as the post-injury symptom that persists beyond all injury management and rehabilitation efforts and that contributes significantly to MVC-related functional impairment, disability, and emotional distress. It is appropriate, therefore, to include in this review a discussion of those MVC studies that specifically address impairment and disability occurring in relation to chronic pain. The article ends with the identification of ongoing research challenges and future directions for both the study of MVCs and their associated sequelae and clinical practice with persons who are experiencing the consequences of MVC-related injuries.     

Heat and let dye: Part II – Rapid heat-fixing of blood traces

Blood-contaminated shoeprints and footmarks contain valuable operational information as they may bind an individual who stepped in the crime scene with the incident and not merely with the location. As determining the age of a bloodstain remains a challenge, while processing the scene, it is difficult to determine whether the blood is completely, or partially, dry. Thus, executing a dye staining protocol may wash these marks away as they might still be soluble. However, to meet this challenge, it is possible to fix blood marks using heat. This study aims to find a solution for floor surfaces covered by heavier blood traces (shoeprints and footmarks). For this purpose, a new pseudo-operating device was constructed for examining the blood-fixing process of both mentioned trace types. Two trials were performed with depletion marks. The results revealed that fully developed fresh and heavily blood deposits were obtained by heating to 200°C for 7.5 min using the fixing device, followed by a staining protocol using amido black solution. The achieved sharp resolution of the examined bloody prints demonstrates that in certain cases the dehydration mechanism of heating is preferred over precipitating the proteins attributed to 5-sulfosalycilic acid; thus, reducing the risk of washing blood evidence while processing the crime scene.     

The meaning of “the public interest” in communications policy—part II: Its implementation in early broadcast law and regulation

For more than a half‐century, as the cornerstone of federal broadcasting and telecommunications policy, the public interest standard has always been subject to some debate. Questions have regularly been raised about its meaning and the extent of the authority it implies for regulation, particularly in the deregulatory environment of the 1980s and 1990s. Part I of this study demonstrated how a deep reading of the pre‐broadcasting state and federal regulatory history reveals that interpretations of the public interest standard that have emphasized broad, diverse, public service programming have entailed a misunderstanding of its real, underlying meaning. This part of the study shows how another definition—i.e., that the public would be best served by protecting economic viability and technological advancement for private industry broadcasters—developed as the predominant doctrine before adoption of the Radio Act of 1927 and Communications Act of 1934, and how that theme came to be the applied interpretation of the public interest during the first two decades of broadcast regulation.     

An Empire of Light?: II: Learning and Lawmaking in Germany Today

German law is commonly assumed to be strongly influenced bylegal scholarship. This was certainly true in the past, andthis article explores whether it is still the case today. Butwhat is actually meant by ‘influence’ in the contextof law? Who exerts it on whom, and how? These questions areanalysed in the first part of the article. It is then shown,by drawing on biographical material, legislative history andcase law, how legal scholarship contributes to both the legislativeand the judicial lawmaking process in Germany—and whereit does not. Finally it is asked how the specific relationshipbetween legal academics and lawmakers in the German legal systemcan be explained and whether this model can be transferred toother systems.     

Detection of acute fentanyl exposure in fresh and decomposed skeletal tissues part II: The effect of dose–death interval

The effects of dose–death interval on the detection of acute fentanyl exposure in fresh and decomposed skeletal tissues (marrow and bone), by automated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are described. Rats (n = 14) were administered fentanyl acutely at a dose of 0 (n = 2) or 60 μg/kg (n = 12) by intraperitoneal injection, and euthanized within 20, 45, 135, or 225 min. Femora and tibiae were extracted from the fresh corpses and marrow was isolated from the femoral and tibial medullary cavities. The remains were then allowed to decompose outdoors to the point of complete skeletonization, and vertebrae, pelvi and miscellaneous (humeri and scapulae) were recovered for analysis. In all cases, bones were cleaned in alkaline solution and then ground into a fine powder. Marrow was homogenized in alkaline solution. Fentanyl was extracted from ground bone by methanolic extraction. Extracts were adjusted to pH 6 and analyzed by ELISA. Perimortem heart blood was also collected and diluted in phosphate buffer prior to screening by ELISA. The effect of tissue type on ELISA response was examined through determination of binary classification test sensitivity and the relative decrease in absorbance (%DA, drug-positive tissues vs. drug-free controls) in each tissue type. Overall, the %DA varied significantly between extracts from different skeletal tissues at a given dose–death interval, according to the general order of marrow > decomposed bone > fresh bone. Binary classification test sensitivity values for fentanyl in marrow, fresh epiphyseal (femoral and tibial) bone, fresh diaphyseal (femoral and tibial) bone, decomposed vertebrae, decomposed pelvic bone, and decomposed miscellaneous bone were 67–100%, 0–33%, 0–33%, 0–67%, 0–67% and 0–33%, respectively, over all dose–death intervals. Although group mean %DA values showed a strong negative correlation with dose–death interval in marrow, fresh epiphyseal bone, decomposed vertebrae, pelvic and miscellaneous bone (r = ?0.989, ?0.930, ?0.955, ?0.903, and ?0.974, respectively), the high variability in both fresh and decomposed bone precluded differentiation of the dose–death intervals based on %DA value alone. Overall, the results suggested that the type of skeletal tissue sampled may not be as important as the amount of residual marrow remaining in skeletonized remains.     

Evaluation of the solvent black 3 fingermark enhancement reagent: Part 1 — Investigation of fundamental interactions and comparisons with other lipid-specific reagents

The fundamental interactions between sebaceous constituents of fingermarks and three lipid specific fingermark enhancement reagents (solvent black 3, basic violet 3 and basic violet 2) are reported. The staining of fingermarks is investigated using optical microscopy, and the interaction of the reagents with individual constituents is explored using spot tests. It is demonstrated that solvent black 3, basic violet 3 and basic violet 2 all interact with different constituents of sebaceous sweat, and this may offer potential for using the reagents in sequence for fingermark enhancement. Further tests to explore the effect of dye concentration on reagent effectiveness indicate that dye concentration can be reduced by up to 25% without significant detriment to effectiveness. It is shown that there is little practical difference between solvent black 3 formulations with the solvents (ethanol and 1-methoxy-2-propanol) used in this study. The study also indicates that basic violet 2 may have some operational advantages over basic violet 3 and may be worthy of further investigation.     

The legal concept of personhood in Colombia: are there biological reasons to change it?]

Nowadays, as a consequence of scientific advances in embryology, genetics and assisted reproduction techniques, the scientific community ask for new laws to establish new parameters to use with these recent discoveries. Discoveries that have changed the legal concept of "person". In many countries this concept is absolutely useless when facing new techniques such as cloning, stem cell research and embryo storage. That is why it is necessary to change its definition to guarantee the right to life and give a better protection to human embryos.     

Insularity and Law: Diversity and Changeability of Islands’ Statuses—The Example of French Outermost Regions in French and EU Law Systems

This article deals with the interactions between national and European legal corpuses about insular territories. French outermost regions (ORs) were first called “départements d’outre-mer” (overseas departments) at the dawn of the French Fourth Republic; they are distinct from other overseas entities. This denomination is used again in the initial EEC treaty in which French overseas departments and overseas countries and territories (OCTs) are distinct. Together with Spanish and Portuguese outermost regions, French overseas departments manage to change EU law in favour of ORs even if the legal differentiation has limits. Moreover, some recent amendments to the French Constitution allow for status variations and even mutations, which can also be found nowadays in EU law.

     

The role of justice in the North–South conflict in climate change: the case of negotiations on the Adaptation Fund

Justice, by and large, implies greater legitimacy and can persuade parties with conflicting interests to cooperate more closely on collective actions. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the role that ethical arguments have played in restoring mutual trust between the developed and the developing countries in negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund and in transforming the patent failure of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation Bonn May 2006 meetings on its management into the encouraging success of the Nairobi December 2006 round. These meetings are analysed from the perspectives of procedural and distributive justice in order to interpret the negotiating dynamics and their outcomes. More specifically, procedural and distributive justice are, respectively, sought in the Bonn and Nairobi formal meetings through reference to, and the emergence of, principles and criteria of participation, recognition and distribution of power among Parties, and of Parties’ responsibility for, and vulnerability to, climate impacts.     

Structural Reform Policy: Privatisation and Beyond—The Case of Greece

Privatisation, coupled with liberalisation and competition, constitutes one of the most popular policy options to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises. However, in Greece, it was only after 1991 that privatisation started to gain ground in the political and economic agendas of governments. Drawing upon the theoretical underpinnings of privatisation, the paper overviews and critically analyses the new legal framework on denationalisation in Greece. The paper argues that, though the modernisation of the legal regime is welcomed, the Greek government has failed to treat privatisation as part of wider structural reforms aiming at enhancing competition and foreign investment. The paper concludes that wider structural reforms, including regulatory reform and liberalisation, as well as combating corruption and bureaucracy and promoting transparent capital markets, are absolutely necessary in order to create a competitive environment, which would both complement and support privatisation efforts.     

The Establishment and Renovation of Independent Director Institution:Experience and Learn——Around the centre of mutual fund

美国历来有重视独立董事作用的传统,其共同基金的运作也多采用“公司模式”以充分发挥独立董事的监督职能.美国1940年《投资公司法》确立了独立董事制度的基本框架,随后历经五次修改,形成了今天较为完善的制度架构,凸显了对独立董事监督功能的深度强化.较之美国而言,我国采用“契约模式”运作的共同基金存在着诸多自身难以克服的缺陷,基于我国国情,借鉴美国的相关经验,在共同基金中引入“公司模式”,充分发挥独立董事的监督功能,不失为一个革除上述弊病的明智选择.     

The Google conundrum: Perpetrator or facilitator on the net? - Forging a fair copyright framework of rights, liability and responsibility in response to search engine 2.0 - Part II: The Google Books Search Project

Is Google in its quest for search engine optimization through the creation of new technologies, which not only improves its search algorithms but also refines its search functions for users, doing it in a manner that makes it a perpetrator of primary copyright infringement or an invaluable facilitator for Internet functionality? How should the balance of interests in the treatment of creative works be recalibrated in the face of changes in search engine technology and operations, and the disputes that have arisen within the last decade in the context of the digital age and its needs? Using Google as a case study, this paper will look at the two main areas of dispute over the operations of information locator tools and services that either threatens search engine functionality and efficiency or weakens copyright holders’ exclusive rights. It proposes a concerted set of solutions through a reassessment and amendment of copyright law to optimize the social benefits and objectives of both the copyright regime and technological innovations in the electronic model of information archiving, indexing and delivery. A fair distribution of responsibilities and allocation of rights and liabilities will be suggested. In the process, due consideration will be given to both public and private interests, with the former taking precedence; while the recommended solutions will be made within the currently outdated framework for Internet intermediary protection (i.e. safe harbor laws) and exceptions (i.e. specific statutory exemptions and the general fair use defense) under the existing copyright regime. Thus, the proposed changes will be far reaching without being too radical a departure from current law, an evolution that will likely be more acceptable and realistic a solution to the problem.This paper is published in two parts. Part One of this paper published in the previous edition of the CLSR at [2011] 27 CLSR 110-131 dealt with the challenges to the copyright regime posed by the operations and technology behind the Google Images Search Engine, while Part Two will assess the benefits of the Google Books Search Project vis-à-vis the effects it will have on the scope of copyright protection. Recommendations are made to copyright law to accommodate both functions while generally preserving the main objectives of copyright protection.