Facing death in the early days of life: Inequality between the sexes in enlightenment demographic thought

The first measurements of differential mortality by sex took place at the end of the seventeenth century. Once its existence has been clearly shown during the eighteenth century by the works of Struyck, Kersseboom, Süssmilch, Deparcieux and others, what analysis emerged? If one of the two sexes benefited from a longer life, was this rule valid in all places and for all ages? All the demographers observed that such a difference began during infancy and childhood. How can it be explained that children were not equal in the face of death? Why did so many boys die before their teenage years? We can find several types of explanation: the will of God, the natural order, the biological constitution and the social habits of children of more than one year old.     

A Duty‐Free Europe? What's Wrong with Kochenov's Account of EU Citizenship Rights

This article disputes the recent argument of Dimitry Kochenov advocating an ‘EU Citizenship without Duties’. His thesis rests on an untenable form of philosophical anarchism that overlooks the role played by our political obligations to state structures in securing rights. At best, his argument suggests a ‘thin’ form of EU citizenship that allows European citizens to choose which of the Member States they wish to become morally obliged to. A ‘thicker’ form of EU level citizenship could only arise by creating civic obligations at the EU level, the position he rejects. To the extent certain Court of Justice judgments in this area reflect parallel reasoning to Kochenov's, they too suffer from a similar failure to appreciate the role of civic duties to particular Member States (or, eventually, the EU) in creating and securing the status of citizens as equal rights bearers.     

Assessment of Maceration Techniques Used to Remove Soft Tissue from Bone in Cut Mark Analysis

Maceration techniques employed in forensics must be effective without compromising the bone's integrity and morphology, and prevent destruction of evidence. Techniques must also be fast, safe, easily obtainable and inexpensive; not all techniques currently employed are appropriate for forensic use. To evaluate the most suitable approach, seven techniques including current and new methodologies were applied to fresh, fleshed porcine ribs exhibiting cut marks. A sample size of 30 specimens per technique was examined under scanning electron microscopy at the cut mark and the surrounding uncompromised regions; a scoring system of effectiveness was applied. The previously unpublished microwave method fared best for bone and cut mark preservation. Sodium hypochlorite destroyed cut marks, and was deemed unsuitable for forensic analysis. No single technique fulfilled all criteria; however, this study provides a benchmark for forensic anthropologists to select the most appropriate method for their situation, while maintaining the high standards required by forensic science.     

On Drugs: The Production Of Queer Filipino America Through Intimate Acts Of Belonging

With the highest recorded cases of HIV/AIDS among Asian/Pacific Islanders in the United States, queer Filipino Americans register as “toxic subjects” within epidemiological discourse. Yet, at what point do state-sanctioned norms of “abstinence only” and intimacy fail to deal with queer communities' lived practices? In this article, I address the tensions between public health discourse's framing of HIV/AIDS transmission within queer Filipino America and the actual experiences of this community on recreational drugs. Though the severity of HIV/AIDS experience within the queer Filipino American community is not to be underplayed, a reparative reading of these drug trips provide us with a productive notion of toxicity and alternative configurations of belonging, intimacy, and community-building. Through anecdotes and interviews, this article gestures towards how we can begin to think of queer Filipino American drug trips as community productions.     

Regulator-Required Corporate Compliance Program Audits

This paper critically examines the ability of compliance program audits to provide adequate assurance of compliance system performance. The empirical evidence comes from the use of compliance program audits in monitoring compliance with enforceable undertakings agreed upon between companies (that have allegedly breached the law) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The evidence suggests that the primary value of compliance program audits in this context is as a management review that induces better compliance. Nevertheless, it may be the formal regulatory expectation of verification (and the belief that it is possible) that gives the compliance review its power to encourage management to listen and respond to auditors' recommendations for improvement.
The danger is that the review aspect of the audit will be captured by management concerns. This is evident in a tendency for the audit methodology to focus on management systems at the expense of forensic investigation of harm done (or likely to be done) to consumers and investors, and in a failure to seek out public opinion and input. This style of audit undermines the basic regulatory objective of democratic accountability for corporate responsibility. I conclude by using the literature on critical social audits to show that there is, nonetheless, significant potential for compliance program audits to open corporate management to democracy, and to make some suggestions as to how this might be possible.     

Still in Deficit: Rights,Regulation, and Democracy in the EU1

Abstract: Critics of the EU's democratic deficit standardly attribute the problem to either sociocultural reasons, principally the lack of a demos and public sphere, or institutional factors, notably the lack of electoral accountability because of the limited ability of the European Parliament to legislate and control the executive powers of the Commission and the Council of Ministers. Recently two groups of theorists have argued neither deficit need prove problematic. The first group adopts a rights‐based view of democracy and claims that a European consensus on rights, as represented by the Charter of Fundamental European Rights, can offer the basis of citizen allegiance to EU wide democracy, thereby overcoming the demos deficit. The second group adopts a public‐interest view of democracy and argues that so long as delegated authorities enact policies that are ‘for’ the people, then the absence of institutional forms that facilitate democracy ‘by’ the people are likewise unnecessary—indeed, in certain areas they may be positively harmful. This article argues that both views are normatively and empirically flawed. This is because there is no consensus on rights or the public interest apart from the majority view of a demos secured through parliamentary institutions. To the extent that these remain absent at the EU level, a democratic deficit continues to exist.