European “Freedoms”: A Critical Analysis

Faced with the present migrant crisis and the dismal record of Europe in protecting vulnerable refugees’ and migrants’ rights, what could be the view of the moral philosopher? The contrast between the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the reality of present policies is shocking, but more scrutiny will show that it is the result of a larger trend towards an understanding of freedom mostly in economic terms, at a time when economists such as Amartya Sen have revised their approach to economic growth and prosperity, noting the central role played by a much richer conception of freedom. The paper will scrutinize these inconsistencies and the conception of the person from which they derive and will provide an alternative and more coherent moral vision that could strengthen the legitimacy of the European Charter, at a time of growing dissatisfaction and so-called democratic deficit. Such a vision could help reconnect the Charter with a conception of the human person as in need not solely of passive legal protection, but also of active promotion of her self-respect and capabilities, and of her aspiration to a valuable life.     

“Bubbles”—A Spot Diagnosis

Abstract: Aspiration of blood is a phenomenon observed in violent and natural death scenarios. Bloodstain patterns evolving from expectoration of aspired blood may look suspicious of a violent genesis and thus mislead crime scene investigators. In the present case, a woman was found lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Furthermore, bloodstains covered her face, clothing, and surrounding furniture and walls. Bloodstain pattern analysis and medicolegal inspection of the suspected scene of crime were carried out and revealed dispersed stains with enclosed gas bubbles in the absence of signs of physical violence leading to the assessment of a natural manner of death. The bloodstains were attributed to expiration of blood because of an internal bleeding. Medicolegal autopsy confirmed the on‐site diagnosis as a fatal esophageal varix rupture was found.     

“Critical Legal Histories Revisited”: A Response

The author responds to comments reappraising “Critical Legal Histories” (CLH) (1984). CLH critiqued “evolutionary functionalism,” the idea that law is a functional response to a typical modernizing process. CLH argued that “society” was partly constituted of legal elements and that law was too indeterminate to have reliably regular functional effects. CLH has been misinterpreted as calling for a return to internal histories of “mandarin” doctrine: all it said was that some doctrinal histories were valuable, without privileging them. This response clarifies that the relations of law to society and social change, and of high‐level official law to everyday local law are distinct issues. CLH is mostly moot today, since social‐legal historians have incorporated its insight that legal concepts are embedded in everyday social practice. But other fields have revived deterministic Whiggish accounts of progressive development and of law functional to it—to which CLH's critique still seems relevant.     

“Dangerousness” within a juvenile institution

Experiments were conducted to test three hypotheses within a maximum security juvenile institution: (1) that the Overcontrolled Hostility (OH) scale, the Socialization (So) scale, and the Hand Test may be used to differentiate dangerous from nondangerous inmates; (2) that an instrument can be constructed that will differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths; and (3) that there is a negative correlation between staff's perception of a youth's degree of dangerousness and their desire to not work with dangerous youths.The So, OH, and Hand Test were administered as was a twenty-five-word adjective checklist (the “TB”) with four response levels so that low scores signified dangerousness. A questionnaire produced a list of subjects with whom staff wanted to work and those with whom they did not want to work.The hypothesis that the So scale, the OH scale, and the Hand Test could discriminate between dangerous and nondangerous “subjects” was not confirmed. The hypothesis that an instrument could be constructed that would differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths was confirmed. The hypothesis that staff's perception of dangerousness affects their working relationship with youths was solidly confirmed.