RELOCATION,RESEARCH, AND FORENSIC EVALUATION,PART I: EFFECTS OF RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY ON CHILDREN OF DIVORCE1

The issue of relocation presents courts and child custody evaluators with dilemmas on the issue of allowing a child to move with a parent to a new community and how to craft long‐distance parenting plans if relocation is allowed. The issue of the potential effects of residential moves on children of divorce has focused on the importance of the child–nonresidential parent relationship. The research literature on the effects of residential moves, or relocation, on children of divorce has not been fully integrated into the examination of this issue and its relevance for the child custody evaluation. The literature shows residential mobility is a general risk factor for children of divorce and this is a starting point for the custody evaluation, but it is not a basis for bias or a presumption against relocation. Predicting a child's adjustment to relocating or not relocating requires a careful and contextual investigation of the child and family circumstances. The research literature is a helpful frame of reference.     

MOVIN' ON

In Canada, relocation cases are governed by the 1996 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Gordon v. Goertz , thanks to Canada's constitutional and judicial structure. Gordon rejects presumptions or burdens, mandating an individualized best interests inquiry in every case. Since 1996, appeal courts have done little to develop or refine this approach. Trial level decisions do reveal certain trends, allowing moves in about 60% of cases, but more often for "primary caregivers" and much less often in shared custody cases. Federal custody reform proposals to date have not addressed relocation issues.     

How do parents experience relocation disputes in the family courts?

Relocation cases are known to be amongst the most difficult decisions for family court judges. This article reports the findings of an empirical study of parents who were involved in relocation disputes, reporting their views on the experience of being involved in one of these difficult cases. We consider the origins of the disputes and parents’ perceptions of how their cases were resolved, as well as some initial discussion of the aftermath of the cases as seen in the first few months.     

Targeting relevant sampling areas for human biological traces: Where to sample displaced bodies for offender DNA?

Sampling strategy is one of the deciding factors in DNA typing success rates. Small amounts of bodily fluid traces and (skin) contact traces are currently not visualized in standard forensic practice. Trace recovery is usually based on the information available in a particular case and on the experience and ‘forensic common sense’ applied by the trace recovery expert. Interactions between an offender and a victim may have characteristic features, resulting in specific trace patterns. Understanding these interactions, and their resulting trace patterns, might improve crime related trace recovery as well as DNA typing success rates.In this study, we examined the interactions between offender and victim when a body has been relocated from one position/location to another. The contact between the hands of the offender and the body of the victim was visualized using a fluorescent dye in a lotion that was applied to the hands of the individual undertaking the relocation. The contact locations were scored and patterns were analyzed based on both victim and offender characteristics (height, weight, age, gender). The resulting patterns were compared to current trace recovery practices in the Netherlands. The results of this large-scale study facilitate evidence-based sampling supporting both investigative and evaluative forensic examinations.     

BEFORE DEATH, WE MUST PART:

Domestic violence trends and case law reporters across the country suggest the time is right for a new alternative in the struggle to provide refuge for victims of domestic violence. As the American justice system stands right now, there is no significant mechanism in the United States with the financial, legislative, and legal backing to help victims of domestic violence escape. A model for relocation based upon the Federal Witness Protection Program can provide such a mechanism. The first part of this note presents a New Jersey case where a divorce proceeding resulted in the relocation and change of identity of a battered woman and her children, and suggests this remedy as a model for an interstate or federal relocation program for domestic violence victims. The next part provides a discussion of the merits and rationale behind such a program. The third part discusses the types of batterers this program would seem to protect against, a legal standard to ascertain whether someone is eligible, and certain logistical issues of a theoretical program. The next two parts discuss items troublesome to the implementation of both state and federal programs. The sixth part discusses potential issues such programs might face once implemented on both levels. Finally, the last part provides an overall assessment of the feasibility of such programs, followed by the conclusion. While the costs that would be incurred by such a program on the interstate or federal level may be quite high, it is quite clear that relocation and protection could save countless lives each year and provide a new beginning for the innocent victims that toil in a world of domestic violence.     

Dead weight: Validation of mass regression equations on experimentally burned skeletal remains to assess skeleton completeness

In very fragmentary remains, the thorough inventory of skeletal elements is often impossible to accomplish. Mass has been used instead to assess the completeness of the skeleton. Two different mass-based methods of assessing skeleton completeness were tested on a sample of experimentally burned skeletons with the objective of determining which of them is more reliable. The first method was based on a simple comparison of the mass of each individual skeleton with previously published mass references. The second method was based on mass linear regressions from individual bones to estimate complete skeleton mass. The clavicle, humerus, femur, patella, metacarpal, metatarsal and tarsal bones were used. The sample was composed of 20 experimentally burned skeletons from 10 males and 10 females with ages-at-death between 68 and 90 years old. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is more objective and more reliable than the reference comparison approach even though not all bones provided satisfactory estimations of the complete skeleton mass. The femur, humerus and patella provided the best performances among the individual bones. The estimations based on the latter had root mean squared errors (RMSE) smaller than 300 g. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is quite promising although the patella was the only reasonable predictor expected to survive sufficiently intact to a burning event at high temperatures. The mass comparison approach has the advantage of not depending on the preservation of individual bones. Whenever bones are intact though, the application of mass regressions should be preferentially used because it is less subjective.     

城市房屋拆迁许可行为的法律思考

随着市场经济的进一步发展,城市化的进程越来越快,城市房屋拆迁许可行为在实践中暴露出了许多问题,有的已相当严重。在城市房屋拆迁许可行为实体内容方面,应明确区分两种目的的拆迁即公益性的拆迁和商业性的拆迁,在拆迁许可条件中,解决＂一女二嫁＂的土地权属问题,同时,将签订补偿安置协议作为许可的一项条件。程序方面应加入通知程序和听证程序,并且对拆迁期限作出更加明确科学的规定。     

ROCK‐PAPER‐SCISSORS: PLAYING THE ODDS WITH THE LAW OF CHILD RELOCATION

This article offers for inspection the proposition that the adversarial evidence‐based litigation process is unsuitable for resolving custody cases in general and relocation cases in particular. It analyzes the leading cases from New York, Massachusetts, California, England, Canada, and Australia. It reaches a conclusion that no jurisdiction has devised a legal standard or formula that enables a judge to predict the future best interest of a child if that child is allowed to relocate with one parent away from the other. For this reason, the court has a duty to offer as sophisticated and friendly a settlement process and atmosphere as possible. However, knowing that judges will still be required to resolve these difficult cases because they often seem impervious to settlement, the article offers thirty‐six factors that a court should consider in all move‐away cases. By relying on each of these factors that is relevant to the case, the parents will have an understanding of why the decision was made the way it was and it will also allow for effective appellate review.     

城市拆迁的利益博弈与规制思路

在我国的城市化进程中,城市拆迁实质上是一场艰苦的＂利益博弈＂;从博弈的结果看,有相当一部分被拆迁人的私人利益受到了严重侵害,而假借公共利益之名的政府利益、开发商利益却得以不同程度的增加。城市拆迁已经造成了严重的利益冲突及社会冲突,亟待从根本上予以解决。鉴于政府利益异化、政府角色冲突是引发该问题的主要原因,本文提出了以约束政府不当行为为中心的规制思路,即应充分运用政治及法律手段,对城市拆迁中各级政府滥用公共利益的违法违规行为进行严格约束。     

CHILD RELOCATION: AN INTRACTABLE INTERNATIONAL FAMILY LAW PROBLEM

This article examines the current state of the law on child relocation across the major common law‐based jurisdictions, with particular emphasis on the contrasting approaches to the problem in Australia and the United Kingdom. It then goes on to suggest changes aimed at achieving more principled and predictable outcomes.     

论城市房屋拆迁的行政法规制

目前的城市房屋拆迁 ,本质上是一种对城市房屋所有人的房屋及其国有土地使用权的行政征收行为。现行国务院《城市房屋拆迁管理条例》回避了宪法所规定的出于公共利益需要的法定事由 ,缺省了城市房屋拆迁应当遵循的基本原则 ,混淆了城市房屋拆迁的基本程序。应从下列三方面依法规范 :一是通过概括和列举方式依法科学界定公共利益的含义及具体事项 ;二是将公益原则、比例原则、信赖保护原则明确确立为城市房屋拆迁的基本原则 ;三是依法确立并规范有关城市拆迁规划、拆迁决定、补偿安置、房屋拆除等相应的城市房屋拆迁程序     

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM: USING MEDIATION TO RESOLVE PARENTING DISPUTES IN THE WAKE OF NATURAL DISASTERS

Hurricane Katrina not only tore apart communities along the Gulf Coast, it displaced hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. Included in the massive numbers of displaced families were children from divorced, separated, or unmarried parents. As a result, many children have since relocated far away from one of their parents without court permission, causing an influx of parenting disputes among the unmarried parents. Litigation concerning parenting disputes that follow natural disasters is not only expensive, but is emotionally taxing on both parents and children and floods the already drained court system. This Note discusses alternative ways in which parenting disputes can be resolved following natural disasters. It explains how children are affected by relocating away from one of their parents and how those effects are comounded by natural disasters. Further, it explains how alternative dispute resolution methods help alleviate the effects of parenting disputes, specifically relocation disputes, on children. Finally, this Note proposes that all parents should be mandated to mediate any parenting disputes following natural disasters.     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Turning a Madhyamaka Trick: Reply to Huntington

Huntington (2007); argues that recent commentators (Robinson, 1957; Hayes, 1994; Tillemans, 1999; Garfield and Priest, 2002) err in attributing to Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti a commitment to rationality and to the use of argument, and that these commentators do violence to the Madhyamaka project by using rational reconstruction in their interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s and Candrakīrti’s texts. Huntington argues instead that mādhyamikas reject reasoning, distrust logic and do not offer arguments. He also argues that interpreters ought to recuse themselves from argument in order to be faithful to these texts. I demonstrate that he is wrong in all respects: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)