The Interpretation of Matching Trace Evidence: A Legal Perspective

本文描述了用于规范法庭科学证言的英美证据法,这些法庭科学证言主要是解释微量物证之匹配的重要性。本文根据即将出版的维基百科全书法庭科学卷部分改编。     

Marital Satisfaction and Marital Discord as Risk Markers for Intimate Partner Violence: A Meta-analytic Review

A meta-analysis investigating the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and intimate partner violence (IPV) in heterosexual relationships was conducted with 32 articles. Overall, a small-to-moderate effect size (r = −0.27) indicated a significant and negative relationship existed between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV. Moderator analyses found no differences between effect size based on construct examined (discord or satisfaction). However, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by other moderator variables, including the use of standardized versus non-standardized measures, gender of the offender and victim, role in the violence (perpetrator versus victim), and sample type (clinical versus community). The data suggests that gender is an especially important moderator variable in understanding the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV.     

Lessons learnt from two decades of international environmental agreements: law

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - As Patricia Birnie cautiously and prophetically put it in the inaugural issue of this journal (INEA 1, January 2001, p. 74),...     

The Effects of Mandated Health Insurance Benefits for Autism on Out‐of‐Pocket Costs and Access to Treatment

As of 2014, 37 states have passed mandates requiring many private health insurance policies to cover diagnostic and treatment services for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We explore whether ASD mandates are associated with out‐of‐pocket costs, financial burden, and cost or insurance‐related problems with access to treatment among privately insured children with special health care needs (CSHCNs). We use difference‐in‐difference and difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference approaches, comparing pre–post mandate changes in outcomes among CSHCN who have ASD versus CSHCN other than ASD. Data come from the 2005 to 2006 and the 2009 to 2010 waves of the National Survey of CSHCN. Based on the model used, our findings show no statistically significant association between state ASD mandates and caregivers’ reports about financial burden, access to care, and unmet need for services. However, we do find some evidence that ASD mandates may have beneficial effects in states in which greater percentages of privately insured individuals are subject to the mandates. We caution that we do not study the characteristics of ASD mandates in detail, and most ASD mandates have gone into effect very recently during our study period.     

Social Psychology's Contributions to the Study of Conflict Resolution

This essay presents an indication of the major research questions addressed in the literature of social psychology related to conflict resolution, as well as a historical perspective to see what progress has been made in this area. Highlighted at the conclusion of a section on contemporary themes in conflict studies is the author's consideration of what we know (and need to know) about conflict resolution and overcoming oppression. The author also offers an assessment of the progress thus far in the methodological, conceptual, empirical, and technological domains in the social psychological study of conflict.     

The Institutional Interplay Regarding the New Architecture for the EC's External Assistance

Abstract:  The article concerns the inter-institutional relations and describes the dynamics between the main EC institutions in the decision-making process regarding the adoption of the new external action instruments. In 2004, the Commission had proposed a set of new external action instruments as base for the delivery of the Community's external assistance. By that time, the existing instruments amounted to more than 30 different legal instruments, which implicated a loss of efficiency in the management of the EC's external assistance. After 2 years of inter-institutional negotiations between the European Parliament, Council and the Commission, the new set of instruments was finally adopted. Compared to the initial Commission proposals, the design of the new instruments got significantly reshaped in the course of the inter-institutional decision-making procedure. In particular, the European Parliament had gained an unprecedented degree of power over the legislative framework for external spending.
Compared to the former range of geographic and thematic regulations, the new external action instruments fundamentally reform the delivery of external financial assistance with their streamlined and simplified structure. They consist of three horizontal instruments to respond to particular needs or crisis situation: an Instrument for Stability, an Instrument for Nuclear Safety Co-operation) and a European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. With regard to geographic coverage, four instruments will implement particular policies: the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument and the Instrument for Development Co-operation and an Instrument for Co-operation with Industrialised Countries.     

A Third Liberal Theory of Secession

Conclusion While I agree with Birch that the four cases he cites are cases that justify secession, I disagree that these are the only cases. In fact, I disagree with his approach that there can ever be a case where secession is not justified. If a group of individuals would rather be a part of a different political entity than the one to which they are currently a part, they have an inalienable right to form a political entity that is more to their liking, or to join with an already existing political entity. It is not a matter of permission. It is a matter of right. And there is no theoretical reason why the size of the seceding group cannot be as small as a single individual, although there may be some technical difficulties involved when the entity seceding is this small.He has authored or co-authored more than 30 books and has written more than 200 articles for a variety of professional journals.