Lord Cottenham and the Court of Chancery

Lord Cottenham was a significant legal figure in nineteenth-century Britain. He was a Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal in both Lord Melbourne's and Lord Russell's administrations. Yet compared with his peers he has faded into obscurity, because his contribution to the reform of the Court of Chancery and the development of the law, particularly equity, has not been fully appreciated. It will be argued that Lord Cottenham was not as successful as his successors in reforming Chancery because his attempts to do so were flawed by the view that incremental reform would redress the problems which beset the Court. However, he made some highly significant contributions to equitable doctrine, sometimes taking a practical approach to judicial decision-making and laying the foundation for some modern doctrines.     

Fast quantification of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCA) using microwave-accelerated derivatisation and gas chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive determination of cannabinoids in urine is important in many fields, from workplace drug testing over toxicology to the fight against doping. The detection of cannabis abuse is normally based on the quantification of the most important metabolite 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCA) in urine. In most fields THCA needs to be present at a concentration of exceeding 15 ng/mL before a positive result can be reported.The method described in this paper, combines a 4 min GC–MS/MS method with a fast sample preparation procedure using microwave assisted derivatisation in order to complete the quantification of THCA in urine in 30 min, using only 1 mL of urine.The method is selective, linear over the range 5–100 ng/mL and shows excellent precision and trueness and hence, the estimated measurement uncertainty at the threshold level is small. The method also complies with applicable criteria for mass spectrometry and chromatography. Therefore the method can be used for rapid screening and confirmatory purposes.     

Effects of Human Electro‐Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI) Devices on Cardiovascular Changes in Anesthetized Swine as Measured by Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE)

The abundance of, and reliance upon, human electro‐muscular incapacitation (HEMI) devices, especially in law enforcement, has generated scrutiny and examination of these technologies. The purpose of this study was to examine cardiovascular effects resulting from typical (5 sec) and longer activation (20 sec) HEMI applications studying myocardial function and peripheral vascular system using a combination of invasive cardiovascular catheters and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). Six healthy swine (Sus scrofa) 3–5 months in age and weighing between 60 and 86 kg were anesthetized and exposed to the TASER Model X26 waveform while transesophageal echocardiography was performed. Stroke volume was shown to statistically decrease during HEMI application indicating an increase in systemic vascular resistance, but HEMI application did not result in myocardial dysfunction (“cardiac stunning”).     

‘That's not philosophy’: feminism,academia and the double bind

In this paper I explore the situation of feminist academics, positing a tension between the demands of feminist research and the norms of academia. Feminist research, I suggest, may be subject to de-legitimisation on the grounds of supposed lack of objectivity, to marginalisation from the main body of a discipline and to conceptual hostility when operating within the main body of a discipline. I then show that the situation of feminist academics can be conceptualised as a double bind: a set of circumstances in which an agent is given a set of competing demands, with no possibility of receiving clarification as to which demands to pursue. I argue that this interpretation of the situation of feminist academics is helpful because it prompts constructive ways of thinking. It encourages feminist academics to adopt a non-judgemental attitude towards ourselves and towards others, and it reminds us to fix our sights on long-term strategies. These suggestions in turn lead me to urge a renewed solidarity between feminists in academia. The form of solidarity I advocate is action based and inclusive, spanning disciplines, genders and research specialisms. Such solidarity can enable positive responses to the double bind facing feminist academics.     

Unpacking pivotal politics: exploring the differential effects of the filibuster and veto pivots

Formal models of politics regularly combine assumptions about a variety of actors and institutions to produce equilibrium expectations, which serve as the primary target for empirical testing. Yet the underlying assumptions can vary in their accuracy among actors and across time and context. We focus on the pivotal politics model of lawmaking and argue that a full evaluation of the theory requires a granular analysis of its two primary components: the filibuster and veto “pivots” in Congress. We show that both types of pivots contribute to the success of pivotal politics in explaining postwar lawmaking, but that the relevance of each varies based on institution-specific contexts. Specifically, the filibuster pivot has little explanatory power before the 1970s, when norms of filibuster use were quite restrictive, while the veto pivot’s explanatory power is limited to situations in which the president has sufficient public backing to be a force in the legislative process.