Effects of Necessary,Sufficient, and Indirect Causation on Judgments of Criminal Liability

Law and Human Behavior - When has one essentially committed a crime? When are one's actions necessary for its occurrence or sufficient to bring it about under normal circumstances? Participants...     

Die Bedeutung der Verfassung im politischen System – Das österreichische Verfassungsverständnis

Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich dem in ?sterreich vorherrschenden formellen Verfassungsverst?ndnis. Im Fokus sollen dabei insbesondere die Auswirkungen, die mit diesem Verfassungsverst?ndnis verbunden sind, stehen. Neben der Zersplitterung und inneren Zerrissenheit der Bundesverfassung geht es auch um die in ?sterreich in der Vergangenheit h?ufig praktizierte und als Formenmissbrauch kritisierte Verfassungsdurchbrechung durch den Verfassungsgesetzgeber. Bei der ebenfalls behandelten Frage, ob gesellschaftliche Ver?nderungen das Verfassungsrecht ?ndern k?nnen, wird auf die Grenzen der Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in der parlamentarischen Demokratie eingegangen. Weiters soll anhand von der in Art 44 Abs 3 B-VG normierten Schranke für den einfachen Verfassungsgesetzgeber gezeigt werden, dass auch dem materiellen Verfassungsbegriff eine normative Bedeutung zukommt.     

Umweltrechtliche Treuhandklage

Der Jubilar ist nicht nur für die Information und Diskussion in Bezug auf alles, was die Begriffe Natur und Recht umfassen, eingetreten. Vielmehr lag ihm vor allem auch die Durchsetzung der Belange des Naturschutzes und der Landschaftspflege, nicht zuletzt vor Gericht am Herzen. Der Autor hofft, dass die Erweiterung der einschl?gigen Thematik über den Bereich des Naturschutzes hinaus den Jubilar interessiert, geht diese Erweiterung doch auch mit einer entsprechenden ?ffnung von „Natur und Recht“ einher.     

Capitalism,Democracy and the War in Iraq

Although Saddam Hussein was a bloody tyrant, and although deposing him served a noble purpose, one still may doubt the wisdom of the American war against Iraq. It is quite dubious whether the democratisation of Iraq can serve as a justification of the American war effort. Properly understood, the democratic peace proposition does not promise that poor, emerging, and illiberal democracies surrounded by autocracies are more peaceful than autocracies. By itself, the transition towards democracy is quite likely to imply some semi-democratic phase when the country is at risk of civil war. Moreover, the democratic peace proposition says nothing at all about the likelihood of success of democratisation in a poor, oil-rich, Arab and Muslim country where there is little common ground to unite the democracy-imposing occupier and the defeated country. Finally, defeating the insurgency in the Sunni triangle of Iraq might require means which a democracy cannot even wish to apply. Whereas the promotion of democracy by war looks like a dead end and is doomed to failure, the prospects of promoting peace by exporting capitalism, growth, and prosperity look much better. Such a strategy even serves the purpose of later democratisation of those countries that now accept only creeping capitalism.     

Repeatability and reproducibility of comparison decisions by firearms examiners

In a comprehensive study to assess various aspects of the performance of qualified forensic firearms examiners, volunteer examiners compared both bullets and cartridge cases fired from three different types of firearms. They rendered opinions on each comparison according to the Association of Firearm & Tool Mark Examiners (AFTE) Range of Conclusions, as Identification, Inconclusive (A, B, or C), Elimination, or Unsuitable. In this part of the study, comparison sets used previously to characterize the overall accuracy of examiners were blindly resubmitted to examiners to assess the repeatability (105 examiners; 5700 comparisons of bullets and cartridge cases) and reproducibility (191 examiners of bullets, 193 of cartridge cases; 5790 comparisons) of firearms examinations. Data gathered using the prevailing AFTE Range were also recategorized into two hypothetical scoring systems. Consistently positive differences between observed agreement and expected agreement indicate that the repeatability and reproducibility of examiners exceed chance agreement. When averaged over bullets and cartridge cases, the repeatability of comparison decisions (involving all five levels of the AFTE Range) was 78.3% for known matches and 64.5% for known nonmatches. Similarly averaged reproducibility was 67.3%% for known matches and 36.5% for known nonmatches. For both repeatability and reproducibility, many of the observed disagreements were between a definitive and inconclusive category. Examiner decisions are reliable and trustworthy in the sense that identifications are unlikely when examiners are comparing non-matching items, and eliminations are unlikely when they are comparing matching items.     

The Federal State and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia: An Institutional Analysis

This article examines the breakup of Czechoslovakia from aninstitutionalist perspective. The federal state adopted afterWorld War I failed to accommodate tensions in society and heightenedethnic conflict. After World War II, an "asymmetrical" federationwas created that, while designed to provide a degree of homerule to Slovakia, further alienated Slovaksfrom national politics.Each effort to reform the federal order unintentionally promptednew concerns over the balance of political power. The inabilityto construct an enduring federal state helps explain why thetransition from communism proved fatal for the union that wasCzechoslovakia.