Covenant of Mayors: Reasons for Being an Environmentally and Energy Friendly Municipality

The Covenant of Mayors (CM) is the mainstream European movement involving local authorities who voluntarily commit to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources within their territories with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions and meet the European Union objectives by 2020. One country that has a greater number of signatories of this agreement is Spain. This article analyzes which factors influence the decision of Spanish local authorities to join the ever‐growing movement. An empirical model is formulated to describe the behavior of Spanish local governments, this being a binary choice model which is a function of various political, economic, and technical factors. Among the prominent factors that influence this decision are population, availability of renewable energy, fiscal and environmental stress, citizens’ political preference, the contagion effect of neighboring municipalities, the existence of covenant coordinators, and finally, economic motivations.     

Online voting: a legal perspective

Casting a vote for the European Parliament from a cybercafe in India, a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocan, a weekend cottage in the Alps or plainly at home from your laptop computer? This article tackles this question from a legal point of view. It examines the basic principles surrounding online voting. Are the conditions for democratic elections – such as the freedom to vote without undue influence or coercion of any kind, the secrecy of the vote, the integrity, reliability and security of the ballot box, the verifiability and audit ability of the voting process and the principle of one person, one vote – sufficiently met or do we run into legal obstacles? Does the introduction of an electronic or even online voting process jeopardize the principles of non‐discriminatory access to the election process? And what about the anonymity? How can one guarantee that a vote over the Internet is cast by the legitimate voter, all the while guaranteeing his privacy? The last chapter of the article analyses the current state of affairs within the European Union. Is the introduction of online voting merely a science fictional feature or really within reach?     

Judicial Decisions Involving Questions of Private International Law

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Dangerousness of civil commitment candidates

This study followed a large, statewide sample of civil commitment candidates both in and out of the hospital for 6 months following their postcourt hearings to determine their postcourt dangerousness. It objectively measures dangerousness by dividing it into five legal components of behavior: (1) type, (2) object, (3) frequency, (4) weapon/means, and (5) severity of outcome. Using data from ward charts, readmission evaluations, recommitment affidavits, and arrest and community mental health center records, it describes candidates' dangerousness in terms of those, five components and compares that dangerousness with the alleged dangerous behavior that brought them into the civil commitment process. It finds that candidates do not tend to be dangerous in the 6 months following their court hearings.     

Racemization of aspartic acid from human dentin in the estimation of chronological age

The estimation of chronological age in cadavers, human remains and in living human beings by various methods is discussed. These methods, which are based on the age dependent non-enzymatic changes of l-form amino acids to d-form amino acids, mainly aspartic acid, are among the most reliable and accurate methods to date. Most of these methods use gas chromatography (GC). In this review, results of aspartic acid racemization in dentin at different targets are discussed. In addition, pre-considerations and guidelines are given for the selection of dentin from teeth. A pilot project was run to evaluate the efficiency of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with fluorescence detection. New buffer conditions were found to obtain stable derivatives of aspartic acid enantiomers for the estimation of racemization.     

A forensic entomology case from the Amazon rain forest of Brazil

The first case of application of forensic entomology in the Brazilian Amazonia is described. The corpses of 26 men were found in the rainforest in Rondonia State, Brazil. Fly larvae collected on the bodies during autopsy were identified as Paralucilia fulvinota (Diptera, Calliphoridae). No data or specimens were collected at the crime scene. At the laboratory, the larvae developed into pupae in 58 h and into adults in 110.5 h. The total development time for P. fulvinota was measured in field experiments inside the forest. The age of the larvae when collected from the bodies was estimated as the difference between the time required for them to become adults and the total development time for this species. The estimated age of the maggots and the minimum postmortem interval was 5.7 days.