Wildlife management,the multilateral trade regime,morals and the welfare of animals 1

Abstract

Various states (and groups of states such as the European Community) have adopted legislation designed to raise standards of animal welfare in many areas including agriculture, companion animals, experimentation and testing, transport, and hunting and trapping methods. Much of this legislation has resulted from extensive lobbying and intense political wrangling. Where the legislation affects animals as products (or animal derivative products such as their pelts or their meat), legislators frequently resort to external facing trade measures to support the moral stance taken in the legislative instrument. At this point potential conflicts with the precepts of the multilateral trade regime operated by the World Trade Organisation arise. The extent to which the relevant provisions in the WTO portfolio of agreements (and the predecessor text of the GATT 1947) assist the cause of animal welfare is limited by both the texts themselves and the narrow interpretation of those texts by WTO/ GATT dispute panels. Non‐governmental organisations involved with animal welfare issues are concerned that the WTO regime will inhibit the development of animal welfare protection legislation and are also concerned that the net result may be a retardation of the development of animal welfare measures in the face of open market competition. This article explores the background to, and substance of, this contention particularly in the context of the European and International legislation designed to deal with the welfare of trapped wild animals and also with other animal welfare legislation having international trade implications. Moreover, the findings of such an examination have much broader implications in that they have relevance to any legislation based on public morality which seeks to enforce that morality through external facing trade measures.     

Use of nitrogen cryogun for separating duct tape and recovery of latent fingerprints with a powder suspension method

Duct tape is sometimes recovered as physical evidence in crimes. The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of latent prints on the adhesive and non-adhesive surfaces of duct tape samples that were separated using three methods. Three hundred donor fingerprint impressions were deposited on duct tape. Sections of duct tape were affixed to sections of cardboard and a fingerprint placed on the non-adhesive surface of the tape. A second layer of duct tape was prepared and a fingerprint placed on the adhesive side of the tape and then the tape was affixed to the piece of tape on the cardboard. After a 24-h period, the samples were separated using gradual force, liquid nitrogen applied with a cryogun and an adhesive neutralizer to separate the layers of tape. The recovered fingerprints were processed with a fingerprint powder suspension method. The recovered fingerprint images were evaluated and rated as +1, +2, or +3. The liquid nitrogen spray separation method yielded the highest number of +3 prints.     

Super-optimizing china: reunification as an example

Whereas political issues and problems in China are complicated, efforts to “super-optimize” are essential and can be fruitful. The reunification issue is discussed to illustrate even highly politicized problems in China are amenable to super-optimum solutions. At the moment, some reunification options have been proposed: KMT-CCP negotiation on equal footing; KMT's military takeover; CCP's military takeover; the “one country, two systems” formula, convergence by democratization, and incremental convergence through trading and communication. Yet, neither parties find the alternatives desirable in terms of optimal satisfaction. By applying SOS rule # 2 (finding items that will provide large benefits to one side but only small costs to the other side), # 5 (combining the conservative and liberal alternatives where they are not mutually exclusive), and # 6 (removing the source of the conflict), reunification and democratization are made feasible and all parties concerned are better off. The specific proposals are that Taiwan should introduce a wholesale buy-out scheme that costs US$30 billion, that a new republic be established, and that legislative powers should be shared among the majoritarian and non-majoritarian institutions. Together, these arrangements could ensure stability and result in democratization.