DNA typing in a cattle stealing case.

DNA profiling was used as probative evidence in a cattle stealing case. The carcasses of the dead animals were found from a report and a farmer recognized the remains as those corresponding to the stolen animals by the farm mark on the coat. Those remains were collected as reference samples. Meat pieces were sequestered from a butchery and then sent to our Laboratory by the Justice Department of Buenos Aires (Argentine) to perform a DNA comparative analysis with the reference. Matches were found between the evidences and the references, supporting the hypothesis that the meat pieces had been obtained from the stolen animals. The butcher was suspected of stealing animals but no direct incrimination had been made yet.     

Lone parent families within New Labour welfare reform

The reform of the British system of welfare undertaken by the Labour government places a great emphasis on paid work, which is seen as the main route to escape poverty and the natural way to fulfil citizen obligations. Lone parents are a target group for welfare to work policies and, if they are on benefits, they are strongly encouraged to get a job. This article explores the main policies designed to promote employment among them—the New Deal for Lone Parents being the most significant—and the issues they raise. It is argued that the success of the welfare to work strategy for lone parents could be severely compromised without the consideration of at least two sensitive issues: the potential dangers of a compulsory scheme and the recognition of the relevance of caring activities and their integration into a more comprehensive concept of citizenship.     

The United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning of 03-08-05]

Although the United Nation's Declaration on the Cloning of Human Beings has prohibited the cloning of human beings, the narration of the norm has not meant a strict and clear prohibition of the ban. Additionally, the text was not adopted by a wide majority of the member States and that means that it is a mere declaratory text that leaves open the debate on therapeutic cloning.     

Economic justice and economic power: An inquiry into distributive justice and political stability

We characterize and study the relationship between income redistributions that are just and stable. We assume that for a given economy there exists a set of possible income redistributions, the constitution of the economy. The choice of redistribution is in the hands of the agents, who decide by majority vote. A stable redistribution is one that majority vote cannot alter when each agent tries to maximize his income. A just redistribution is defined thus: in the set of all possible redistributions it is the one that leads to an income distribution which, when viewed as a lottery, optimizes the expected von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function of the agents of the economy. We assume that all agents have the same utility function, that is, the same attitude toward risk. We postulate a trade-off between efficiency and egalitarianism and derive and analyze conditions for just and stable redistributions. We look for the characteristics of initial income distributions that make just and stable redistributions identical. In an example we show how a certain tax schedule on productive work implies certain income redistributions. This work was completed when I, as a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, was a guest of the Fakultät für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Statistik, Universität Mannheim. I would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Fakultät, and the Sonderforschungsbereich 5, Universität Mannheim, for their support.