Durkheim's ‘Two laws of penal evolution’

Two types of recent contributions to the discussion of a ‘crisis’ in law recall issues in Weimar labour law. Wolfgang Teubner and others propound a ‘reflexive law’ patterned on the multiple constitutions of collective labour law; and American ‘critical legal studies’ dismiss legal reasoning and press for frankly ‘altruistic’ policy-making in the courts. The Weimar controversy over the extent to which ‘works-community’ supercedes the legal attributes of the employment relationship as specified by the older law of contract shows, first, that the characteristic collectivism and institutionalism of the socialist labour movement's legal strategy was premissed on a complementary political conception of the organization of labour, and, second, that Socialist lawyers defended a legal discourse which was critical of prevailing doctrine but grounded in its systematizations, as essential to their struggle against the amorphous, nominally altruistic reading of the employment relationships which the German courts and then the Nationla Socialist regime imposed upon labour. Their recognition of the problems posed by deficient or excessive politicization of law makes them again important, notwithstanding their political defeats, and their survivors' disillusionment.     

Ideas and experts: Indonesian approaches to economic and security cooperation in the Asia‐Pacific region

Indonesia has been a key player in various initiatives to promote both economic and security cooperation in the Asia‐Pacific region in recent years. This essay explores the role of policy experts in facilitating these moves. The central argument is that in both policy spheres it is indeed possible to identify networks of policy experts who have been directly and indirectly associated with efforts to strengthen regional cooperation. Although the dearth of primary research into policy‐making processes in Indonesia makes it difficult to weigh the inputs of experts against other likely causal factors, there are reasonable grounds for believing that their contribution has been an important one.     

From disguised protectionism to rewarding regulation: The impact of trade‐related labor standards in the Dominican Republic

Policymakers in the Dominican Republic have responded to foreign pressure by rewriting their labor laws and revitalizing their labor ministry. What are the likely consequences? Is aggressive labor law enforcement more likely to protect vulnerable workers from abuse and exploitation or to undermine their ability to compete for labor‐intensive employment in an unforgiving world economy? And what are the broader implications of the answer? I address these questions by analyzing qualitative as well as quantitative data on workplace regulators empowered by the Dominican Republic in response to trade‐related labor standards imposed by the United States and find that they reconcile social protection with economic adjustment by simultaneously discouraging “low road” employment practices like informality, union‐busting, and the exploitation of child labor, and encouraging “high road” alternatives that link firms, farms, and families, on the one hand, to public educational, training, and financial institutions, on the other. The result is a potentially inclusive alternative to the repressive industrial relations regime that fueled export‐led development – and the East Asian “miracle” in particular – in the late twentieth century.     

The role of prevention in technological catastrophe

Abstract

This paper discusses the potential for and problems inherent in the prevention of stress resulting from technological catastrophe. Baum, Fleming, and Davidson's (1983) characterization of technological disaster is reviewed. These accidents, which involve the breakdown or failure of human‐made systems, differ from other types of disaster in their psychological impact. These differences are particularly important in accidents involving hazardous substances including radiation and chemical toxins. The continuing threat of future illness resulting from exposure to radiation and toxins contributes to feelings of uncertainty; and the fact that the accident resulted from a failure of human‐made systems means it is likely to be perceived as a loss rather than a lack of control. Because of their unique features, technological catastrophies are likely to result in long term effects including chronic stress in exposed populations. Because failures of human‐made systems would be prevented if the problem was foreseen and preventable, prevention concerns center around reducing stress where possible. Three domains of prevention activity are described. First, assessments aimed at predicting the stress inducing and reducing impact of intervention strategies can contribute to decisions about how to handle the accident once it has occurred. Second, some of the policy implications of these events are described. Finally, the ethics of stress reducing interventions in settings where a real danger is present are discussed.     

Transgender Individuals and Psychological Intimate Partner Violence: a National Study

Journal of Family Violence - Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health problem in which transgender individuals are at elevated risk. The present study examined associations...     

Classifying the torture experiences of refugees living in the United States

Few research studies have systematically categorized the types of torture experienced around the world. The purpose of this study is to categorize the diverse traumatic events that are defined as torture, and determine how these torture types relate to demographics and symptom presentation. Data for 325 individuals were obtained through a retrospective review of records from the Bellevue/NYU for Survivors of Torture. A factor analysis generated a model with five factors corresponding to witnessing torture of others, torture of family members, physical beating, rape/sexual assault, and deprivation/passive torture. These factors were significantly correlated with a number of demographic variables (sex, education, and region of origin). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression symptoms were significantly correlated with the rape factor but no other factors were uniquely associated with psychological distress. The results offer insight into the nature of torture and differences in responses.     

Enforcing WTO Obligations: What Can We Learn from Export Subsidies?

Export subsidies provide a good example for discussing someinteresting questions underlying the debate over reforming thecurrent system of remedies for violations of World Trade Organization(WTO) obligations. If the purpose of trade agreements is tomaximize economic welfare, discussion of violations of WTO obligationswill need to take account of the form of both the requirementand the remedy. The requirement could take the form of a standardor a rule and may be more or less complex. The remedy couldtake the form of a property rule or a liability rule. Further,both the level and the form of the remedy will be important.Each type of violation needs to be examined separately to determinewhether flexibility to adapt to new circumstances should comethrough the requirement or the remedy. In the case of exportsubsidies, the current simple rule prohibiting export subsidiesis likely optimal but the remedies which support this rule needto be reformed. They are currently both over-inclusive and under-inclusiveand do not provide sufficient flexibility or incentive for efficientadjustment. This article considers some alternative remediesfor export subsidies and discusses the general lessons for thedebate on remedies for violations of WTO obligations.     

Mission Accomplished: The Wartime Election of 2004

The war in Iraq, so the widely accepted view, hurt the reelection of George W. Bush. We contend, to the contrary, that the war helped him get reelected. First, we show that his victory fits the dominant pattern of wartime elections in American history. Second, we find that Bush’s approval ratings benefited from a complex rally where the Iraq war prolonged rather than diminished the 9/11 effect; most Americans affirmed rather than disputed a link between the war in Iraq and the war on terror. Third, while Bush’s approval proves sensitive to U.S. casualties in the Iraq war, any damage to his standing prior to the election was mitigated by sufficient popular support for that war. And finally, on Election Day, Bush was able to garner the vote of two critical blocks with favorable feelings about the Iraq war, be it the decision to invade or the prospect of success.

Designing property rights for water: mediating market,government, and corporation failures

Recent decades have seen an acceleration in public concern about the allocation of increasingly scarce water supplies. There are many reasons for this concern, such as growth in urban populations. In this article, we focus on how surface water’s special qualities (the combination of spillovers, rent-seeking behavior, and common pool resources) complicate the assignment of property rights in any legal framework. These characteristics make specific market structures necessary in order to efficiently allocate rights. The state usually designs those structures. Yet, just like markets can fail, so can governments fail to effectively allocate those rights. So designers often turn to quasi-judicial conservancy boards as a second-best solution. We argue that those boards may themselves fail through a form of “corporation failure.” We address these three types of failures, and offer an analysis of two cases that suggests that the likelihood conservancy boards will suffer from corporate failure depends on the actions of the boards and outside stakeholders (like governments).

Predicting the position of the source of blood stains for angled impacts

Droplets of pig's blood were dropped onto paper at different angles to the horizontal to produce blood stains. Impact velocities varied from 1.82 to 5.76 m/sec, drop size from 3.7 to 5.0 mm in diameter, and the surface sloped at angles between 22.7 degrees and 90 degrees to the horizontal. From the data a single equation relating stain size to drop size and velocity for all impact angles was produced; ab = 111.74 (Re(1/2)We(1/4))(0.75)D(o)D(o) + 0.00084 with R(2) = 0.88, where a is the stain width, b the stain length, Re the Reynolds number, and We the Weber number. A second equation related the number of spines, N, to drop size, velocity, and surface slope for all impact angles as N = 0.76 We(0.5) sin(3)theta with R(2) = 0.9, where theta is the impact angle. Combining these equations the impact velocity can be determined and hence the position of the stain's source.