Ingestion of pointed objects in a complex suicide

A 51-year-old woman with a psychiatric history of depression and drug abuse was found hanged in her bedroom. The ligature was a scarf attached to the door handle. The autopsy findings suggested that two methods of suicide had been used one after the other. In the first stage, numerous nails, pins and needles were swallowed; in the second stage, the suicide was completed by hanging.     

European Corporate Laws, Regulatory Competition and Path Dependence

Beyond the well-known discussion in regard to the Cassis de Dijon of the European Court of Justice, implying the mutual recognition of national product regulations, the topic of mutual recognition and regulatory competition has emerged again in the realm of European corporate laws (“Centros” of the ECJ in 1999). Can effective competition among European corporate laws be expected? In the US a broad discussion has developed whether the existing competition process among US corporate laws leads to permanent legal improvements by legal innovations or to a race to the bottom. Beyond this discussion a new point has been raised recently: the possibility and importance of path dependence as a potential problem for the efficacy of competition among corporate laws (lock-ins). For the analysis of this problem we apply the concept of technological paradigms and trajectories to legal rules in corporate law and introduce “legal paradigms,” which direct the search for better legal solutions in certain directions and might be stabilized by certain factors (esp. complementarities to other legal rules) leading to considerable path dependence effects. Our results show that path dependence might play a crucial role for competition among European corporate laws, even if the principle of mutual recognition would be introduced to corporate laws in the EU, implying that competition among European corporate laws might be difficult and sluggish. Consequently the question arises whether additional meta-rules should be established that might mitigate the problem of path dependence and lock-ins in regulatory competition in corporate law.     

Paternity Testing Commission of the International Society of Forensic Genetics: recommendations on genetic investigations in paternity cases

The International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has established a Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) with the purpose of formulating international recommendations concerning genetic investigations in paternity testing. The PTC recommends that paternity testing be performed in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards. The ISO 17025 standards are general standards for testing laboratories and the PTC offers explanations and recommendations concerning selected areas of special importance to paternity testing.     

Ethyl sulphate and ethyl glucuronide in vitreous humor as postmortem evidence marker for ethanol consumption prior to death

To clarify the circumstances of death, the degree of inebriation is of importance in many cases, but for several reasons the determination of the ethanol concentration in post-mortem samples can be challenging and the synopsis of ethanol and the direct consumption markers ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) has proved to be useful. The use of a rather stable matrix like vitreous humor offers further advantages. The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of ethanol and the biomarkers in the robust matrix of vitreous humor and to compare them with the respective levels in peripheral venous blood and urine. Samples of urine, blood from the femoral vein and vitreous humor were taken from 26 deceased with suspected ethanol consumption prior to death and analyzed for ethanol, EtS and EtG. In the urine samples creatinine was also determined. The personal data, the circumstances of death, the post-mortem interval and the information about ethanol consumption prior to death were recorded. EtG and EtS analysis in urine was performed by LC-ESI-MS/MS, creatinine concentration was determined using the Jaffé reaction and ethanol was detected by HS-GC-FID and by an ADH-based method. In general, the highest concentrations of the analytes were found in urine and showed statistical significance. The mean concentrations of EtG were 62.8mg/L (EtG100 206.5mg/L) in urine, 4.3mg/L in blood and 2.1mg/L in vitreous humor. EtS was found in the following mean concentrations: 54.6mg/L in urine (EtS100 123.1mg/L), 1.8mg/L in blood and 0.9mg/L in vitreous humor. Ethanol was detected in more vitreous humor samples (mean concentration 2.0g/kg) than in blood and urine (mean concentration 1.6g/kg and 2.1g/kg respectively). There was no correlation between the ethanol and the marker concentrations and no statistical conclusions could be drawn between the markers and matrices.