Assumption of Responsibility in Corporate Groups: Chandler v Cape plc

In Chandler v Cape plc, the Court of Appeal imposed for the first time liability on a company for a breach of its duty of care to an employee of its subsidiary. In doing so, the court laid out a new four‐part test for ascertaining a parent company's responsibility for the health and safety of individuals employed by group companies. Although liability of parent companies may be justified under the right circumstances, the court's approach in Chandler is problematic in a number of ways and raises more questions than it answers.     

Slaves as criminal informers in ancient Rome

The Romans expected slaves to inform on their fellow slaves, particularly in regard to the master's safety. If a slave killed his master, a terrible retribution on the entire household of slaves would have to be paid to atone for the offense. In the final analysis, the slave‐informer system, with all of its drawbacks, supported the Roman criminal justice system nearly 1,000 years and the Byzantines employed it in a modified form. This paper is a case study of how a culture, with its values, musters its resources, in the case of slavery, to cope with the problems of internal security.

With most of the crime problems that confront us today, the ancient Romans were hard put to protect the public peace. They had neither the modern technology nor the forensic science that we do, so they utilized the limited resources they had to prevent crimes and catch criminals. They devised a policy of enticing slaves to act as criminal informants with the offer of freedom. Considering the sizeable adult slave population, this policy greatly deterred crime and the saying “Every slave, an enemy” became current among the citizenry.

The Romans, however, did not intend to open a door by which slaves could accuse citizens of false charges out of vindictiveness. The legal‐minded Romans adopted the safeguard of having the slave informant interrogated under torture.

Slaves also served the criminal justice system in other ways besides volunteering information. When the police were stymied in an investigation, they “rounded up the usual suspects” in the form of slaves who might have knowledge of the crime, but for some reason had not stepped forward. The police would use their powers to interrogate slaves in this case, too. This ancient practice reflects the procedure of modern police investigators checking surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the crime scene in the hopes of discovering a clue.     

Measurement of Postmortem Pupil Size: A New Method with Excellent Reliability and Its Application to Pupil Changes in the Early Postmortem Period

Measurement of postmortem pupil width is a potential component of death time estimation. However, no standardized measurement method has been described. We analyzed a total of 71 digital images for pupil–iris ratio using the software ImageJ. Images were analyzed three times by four different examiners. In addition, serial images from 10 cases were taken between 2 and 50 h postmortem to detect spontaneous pupil changes. Intra‐ and inter‐rater reliability of the method was excellent (ICC > 0.95). The method is observer independent and yields consistent results, and images can be digitally stored and re‐evaluated. The method seems highly eligible for forensic and scientific purposes. While statistical analysis of spontaneous pupil changes revealed a significant polynomial of quartic degree for postmortem time (p = 0.001), an obvious pattern was not detected. These results do not indicate suitability of spontaneous pupil changes for forensic death time estimation, as formerly suggested.     

An academic perspective on the copyright reform

The recently proposed new Copyright Directive was released on 14 September 2016. It has been described by EU law-makers as the pillar of the copyright package promised by the European Commission (EC), to be delivered before the end of Mr. Juncker's mandate. In its Communication of 6 May 2015, the EC had stressed “the importance to enhance cross-border access to copyright-protected content services, facilitate new uses in the fields of research and education, and clarify the role of online services in the distribution of works and other subject-matter.” The proposed Copyright Directive is thus a key measure aiming to address two of these three issues. However it is not without shortfalls.We have therefore decided to publicly express our concerns and send an open letter to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to urge them to re-assess the new provisions dealing with mandatory filtering of user-generated content in the light of the CJEU case law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.In a more extended statement, we examine in details the text of both the explanatory memorandum and the Directive itself.Our conclusions are:1. A comprehensive re-assessment of Article 13 and Recital 39 in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the E-commerce Directive (in particular Article 15) including CJEU case law is needed, as the proposed Copyright Directive does not expressly address the issue of its compatibility with both of these texts.2. Recital 38 does not clarify the domain and effect of Article 13. Rather, it creates confusion as it goes against settled CJEU case law (relating to Articles 14 and 15 of the E-commerce Directive and Article 3 of the Infosoc Directive). Recital 38 should therefore be deleted or substantially re-drafted/re-phrased. If the EU wants to introduce a change in this regard it should clearly justify its choice. In any case, a recital in the preamble to a directive is not an appropriate tool to achieve this effect.We hope that this exercise will prove useful for the debate that has now begun both in the European Parliament and in the Council.     

Rechtsfolgen fehlerhafter Willensbildungsakte der Eigentümergemeinschaft nach dem WEG 2002

Der Wortlaut des § 24 Abs 6 Satz 1 WEG 2002 l?sst die unterschiedlichen Rechtsfolgen fehlerhafter Willensbildungsvorg?nge der Eigentümergemeinschaft nicht erkennen. Der folgende Beitrag versucht, fehlerhafte Willensbildungsvorg?nge im Einklang mit dem allgemeinen Verbandsrecht zu kategorisieren.     

The use of a tunable light source (Mini-Crimescope MCS-400, SPEX Forensics) in dissecting microscopic detection of cryptic epithelial particles

As skin particles are often deposited by even a single skin contact, the detection of skin debris is important for evidence collection and DNA testing. Unfortunately, even when a dissecting microscope is used by an experienced examiner, epidermal particles are often hard to find and these traces of evidence might escape DNA analysis. Fluorescence is defined as the property of absorbing short-wavelength light and emitting longer-wavelength light. By virtue of the fluorescence characteristics of many target materials, tunable light sources assist in the macroscopic search of crime scenes and items. We combined the dissecting microscope and an alternate light source to examine the fluorescence characteristics of skin and skin particles. In a comparative study, small skin scales were hidden between sand, fibers, and soil probes, and it proved possible to search more successfully with less time and effort. On staged casework exhibits, the efficiency of the screening aid was again tested and the usability of the new procedure shown.     

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)--standardised investigations and classification: recommendations

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) still accounts for considerable numbers of unexpected infant deaths in many countries. While numerous theories have been advanced to explain these events, it is increasingly clear that this group of infant deaths results from the complex interaction of a variety of heritable and idiosyncratic endogenous factors interacting with exogenous factors. This has been elegantly summarised in the "three hit" or "triple risk" model. Contradictions and lack of consistencies in the literature have arisen from diverse autopsy approaches, variable applications of diagnostic criteria and inconsistent use of definitions. An approach to sudden infant death is outlined with discussion of appropriate tissue sampling, ancillary investigations and the use of controls in research projects. Standardisation of infant death investigations with the application of uniform definitions and protocols will ensure optimal investigation of individual cases and enable international comparisons of trends.