May Mediators Draft Settlement Agreements?

This article surveys the current law in various states as well as the Model Rules of Professional Conduct regarding whether a mediator‐lawyer may draft a settlement agreement at the conclusion of a mediation. It includes a look at the traditional boundaries between a lawyer and a mediator and concludes with a recommendation on how California should approach whether a mediator‐lawyer should be allowed to draft a settlement agreement for parties at the conclusion of a mediation.     

Radiographic demonstration of esophageal and tracheal fistulas at autopsy using a contrasting medium that vulcanizes at room temperature

Esophageal and tracheal fistulas, which occur in 0.05% of medicolegal autopsies, were demonstrated in three cases by a postmortem radiographic technique using silicone rubber/lead oxide as a contrasting medium that vulcanizes at room temperature. In one 83-year-old male, a tracheoesophageal fistula was detected, which had developed after surgical repair of an esophageal rupture caused by a flexible fiberoptic endoscope. In a second case, carcinoma of the esophagus in a 78-year-old male had eroded the trachea and arcus of the aorta creating a fatal tracheoesophagoaortic fistula. In a third case, 55-year-old female developed a tracheobrachicephalic artery fistula as a result of an infiltrating cystic adenocarcinoma of the trachea, resulting in a fatal hemorrhage into the trachea. The results of this study indicate that diagnostic radiologic methods using a vulcanized contrasting medium are useful in supplementing normal dissection in autopsy cases with suspected fistulas of the esophagus or trachea.     

A statistical approach to drug sampling: a case study.

In many countries it is left to the discretion of the court to accept or reject conclusions based on sampling procedures as applied to the total drug exhibit. As an alternative to this subjective approach, a statistical basis is presented using binomial and hypergeometric distributions to determine a lower limit for the proportion of units in a population which contains a drug, at a given confidence level. A method for calculating the total weight of a drug present in a population within a given confidence interval is also presented. In the event of no failures (all units sampled contain a drug), a sample size of six or seven units is generally sufficient to state that a proportion of at least 0.70 of the population contains a drug at a confidence level of at least 90%. When failures do occur in the sample, point estimation is used as the basis for selecting the appropriate sample size.     

犯罪客体是刑事违法的最高价值标准

犯罪客体并不具有哲学意义上客体（对象）的含义。它是生活行为是否违反刑法的价值标准。它的内容是刑法法益。它派生出客观构成要件,并对客观构成要件具有解释功能。因为生活行为符合客观构成要件就刑事违法,构成要件符合性必须先形式判断,后实质判断,而犯罪客体就是实质判断的价值标准,所以犯罪客体是刑事违法的最高价值标准。根据罪刑法定原则,犯罪客体必须法定。     

A Fragment on Cnutism with Brief Divagations on the Philosophy of the Near Miss

This fragment is taken, mid-sentence as it were, from a longer discourse. It is plucked in process from a discussion of friendship for ideas. It is part of a longer journey through the annals of amity. The fragment also examines a fragment, a gloss on a text, a marginal comment, a handwritten note, which is taken to constitute the modern origin of Cnutism.     

论共同犯罪与犯罪构成

犯罪构成作为划分罪与非罪的根本标准,适用于一切犯罪行为。共同犯罪作为犯罪的一种特殊形态,在犯罪构成上具有自己的特性,表现为修正的犯罪构成。共同犯罪理论只有以犯罪构成理论为基础,以共同犯罪的修正的犯罪构成,来认识和理解共同犯罪,才能为共犯的定罪量刑提供科学根据。     

宪法权威的生成机制辨析

宪法权威的大小受制于社会发育的情况,只有在市民社会发育良好,并且能同政治国家形成有力制衡的条件下,宪法权威才有可能逐步形成。宪法实施的积极的、主要的、基本的方式是立法机关的立法,在违宪审查机制的作用下,确保立法机关的立法符合宪法精神和原则,保障宪法实施的内在统一;在相关立法不足的情况下,通过宪法司法化,直接援引宪法规范维护宪法主体的宪法权利,乃是宪法实施的一种辅助方式。在宪政秩序不健全的社会,关注各种宪政事件,对于实施宪法,维护宪法权威具有重要意义。     

论构建社会主义和谐社会的十大机制

社会主义和谐社会是一个内涵丰富的社会,建构社会主义和谐社会,需要构筑相应地社会机制予以保障。需要构筑构筑党的执政能力的持续提高机制;需要构筑社会诚信保障机制,特别是政府诚信保障机制;需要构筑民主的决策机制;需要构筑建构和谐社会的动员和执行机制;需要构筑民众社会心理的调适机制;需要构筑个体利益诉求和平衡机制;需要构筑公共利益的稳定增长机制;需要构筑公平公正创业和社会保障机制;需要构筑并完善公民权利的法律保障机制;需要构筑多元化的有效舆论监督机制。     

Associated Adults: Prospective Person Memory for Family Abducted Children

In family abductions, authorities sometimes release pictures of both missing children and associated adults. The effectiveness of this approach was tested in a prospective person memory experiment. Participants studied mock missing child posters including a picture of a child, a picture of a child alongside a picture of the correct adult, or a picture of a child alongside a picture of the incorrect adult. Participants then saw pictures of child/adult pairs with instructions to make a response to ‘alert authorities’ if the target individuals were seen. Including the picture of the correct adult on the poster, significantly improved recognition relative to the other two conditions. There was no significant effect of including the picture of the incorrect associated adult.     

Is it to the advantage of a defendant to infer a greater number of contributors to a questioned sample than is necessary to explain the observed DNA profile?

When a forensic scientist presents the results of a comparison between a DNA profile from a questioned sample with that of a defendant the interpretation will be based on the premise of a given number of contributors. It is quite common practice for defence counsel to ask how consideration of a greater number of putative contributors to the profile would affect the interpretation. This note discusses the response to such a request.     

罪刑法定司法化研究

在罪刑法定的语境中,司法权具有限制性,从而与具有绝对性司法权的罪刑擅断明确地划清了界限。在罪刑法定原则下,司法主体只有具有了这种自主性,才能严格根据法律规定对行为是否构成犯罪作出正确的判断。法官独立,法官只服从法律而不屈从于权力,是罪刑法定司法化的重要保证。在罪刑法定司法化当中,刑事司法体制的建构当然是至关重要的;但与此同时,司法理念的引领同样是必不可少的。在某种意义上可以说,司法理念是罪刑法定司法化的思想保障,只有在法治的司法理念指导下,罪刑法定司法化才有可能实现。同样,只有发展出一套娴熟的司法解释技术,才能为罪刑法定司法化提供手段保障。     

Fatalities after injuries by wild animals

The article summarises three fatalities after attacks by wild animals. The first case describes a 90-year-old woman who died as a result of pneumonia after a bear fell on her and caused multiple chest fractures. The second case deals with a 76-year-old woman who was hit in the middle face by the hoof of a camel and, thereafter, died of myocardial infarction. The third case describes a 27-year-old biologist who died from severe blunt trauma after an attack of a wild living elephant. The article gives a summary of typical injury patterns of selected wild animals and outlines potential reasons of death as a result of the injuries.     

Using sketchnoting as a revision aid with forensic students

The concept of Sketchnoting was first introduced by Mike Rhode as a means of capturing information in a visual form using a combination of the visual and words. Within Higher Education a Sketchnote can be used to record or summarise key points from a body of information using a combination of words, simple pictures, layout and graphics. Creating a Sketchnote allows a student to be able summarise key facts from a presentation, journal article, book or practical session in a visual manner that is easier to recall at a later time.This research looks at the use of Sketchnoting as a form of interactive revision during class time. Students undertaking a 1st Year Forensic Science module at (Teesside University) University were asked to Sketchnote their learning after each hour of lecture time to form a visual representation of the lecture content in order to create a visual revision aid for their upcoming examination. The process of Sketchnoting combines both verbal and visual information for improved recall – the students are listening to the lecture then visually representing what they learn.The resulting Sketchnotes were shared each week via a class Padlet, this also allowed the academic to add formative feedback in the form of further information about the evidence type represented. The students were also able to keep their individual Sketchnotes and form a revision “book” from them. Students described the task as “Helpful”, “Refreshing” and “Creative” with approximately half the class stating they would be using this as a future revision process for exams. A preliminary analysis of the exam results demonstrated a marked increase in the lower grade boundaries for the group of students who undertook the Sketchnoting exercise.     

Quantitative assessment of evidential weight for a fingerprint comparison I. Generalisation to the comparison of a mark with set of ten prints from a suspect

The authors have published elsewhere a quantitative method for assessing weight of evidence in the case where a finger mark from a crime scene is compared with a control print taken from a single finger of a suspect. The approach is based on the notion of calculating a likelihood ratio (LR) that addresses a pair of propositions relating to the single finger that was the origin of the crime mark. In practice, things are rather different because the crime mark will not just be compared with a single finger from a suspect but with a set of prints from all of his/her fingers; likewise, when the mark is compared with a database, this will consist of ten print records from random individuals. It is clear that "finger propositions" are not realistic in this situation and we show how our approach may be generalised to address a pair of propositions that relate to the person that made the crime mark. It often is the case that information is present at the crime scene that enables some inference to be drawn relating to which of the offender's ten fingers left a particular mark of interest. This kind of inference may profitably be drawn into the formal analysis. We illustrate our approach with an example.     

我国引航法律制度研究

引航,旧称引水、领港、领江,是指在一定的引航区域内（港口或内河）,专门性的从业人员（即引航员）登上船舶,为船舶指引航向,把船舶安全地引进、带出港口或在港内移泊。引航是一种资源,具有公益性和主权性。引航的目的不是为了盈利,而是提供公共服务。由于港口的航道条件构成了一个国家的天然屏障,事关一国的国防,因而按照国际惯例,引航员必须由本国人担任,并且对出入港口的外国籍船舶实行强制引航。这是一个国家引航权的体现,是国家主权的一部分。本文针对我国引航体制改革,结合国际相关立法,对我国引航法律制度所涉及引航管理体制模式、引航机构资质管理、引航员资质管理以及引航作业中法律责任加以研究。     

Tabet v Gett: the end of loss of chance actions in Australia?

This article critically analyses the recent High Court decision in Tabet v Gett (2010) 84 ALJR 292; [2010] HCA 12 which considered whether a person should be able to obtain compensation on the basis of a loss of a chance of a better medical outcome. The appellant argued that the High Court should regard a plaintiff as entitled to compensation when a breach by a defendant of their duty of care causes the plaintiff to lose a possibility, but not a probability, of a better medical outcome. The High Court held that it was not possible for a person in the position of the appellant to obtain compensation for the loss of a chance of a better medical outcome.     

Perforating gunshot to the head with a power-actuated tool

The article describes a shortly survived suicide with a powder-actuated tool. A 51-year-old man shot all through his head from the right to the left temple. The pin produced an extensive area of destruction in the brain tissue, but neither in the hospital nor during the autopsy was any projectile found. Finally the pin was detected in a metal fitting of the bed in which the man had killed himself. The suicide instrument was a powder-actuated tool firing a metal pin after igniting a cartridge. Unlike a nail gun using compressed air, pins fired by means of a propellant reach a velocity of up to 150 m/s thus developing a higher destructive potential.     

物权主体论纲

国家享有以及行使国家所有权,均表现其作为公权载体的性质而非作为私权载体(法人)的性质。不论是农村“集体”还是城镇“集体”,在物权法上都没有其主体地位。法人应为其财产的所有权主体,非法人团体不具有独立财产,不得享有财产所有权和他物权。物权法上的物权主体应为自然人与法人,国家作为具有公权性质的国家所有权的主体,在物权法上具有不同于自然人与法人的特殊主体地位,而集体与非法人组织,均非物权主体。     

提存论——《合同法》第101-104条的解释论

《合同法》中的提存属清偿提存,以提存代替清偿,达到使合同权利义务终止效果。提存是债务人与提存部门之间缔结的一种向第三人履行的保管合同。提存的原因分为三类,债权人拒绝受领、债权人不能受领以及债权人不确知。《合同法》并非不认有提存人取回提存物的权利,在解释上应当承认提存人有取回权。对提存消灭债务之效力,宜采“停止条件说”。由提存便当然发生债权人的提存物领取请求权和提存人的清偿拒绝权;仅当取回权消灭后,债务始真正(溯及自提存时)归于消灭。