The sins of the founding fathers

Stephen F. Knott, Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Pp.258, biblio., index. £19.50. ISBN 0–19–510098–0.

Notes

1. Richard B. Morris, Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution (NY: Plume 1986) p.160.

2. Ralph Ketcham (ed.) The Anti‐Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Debates (NY: Mentor 1986) p.27.

3. Charles Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (NY: Macmillan 1961 [1913]) pp.vi, 160.

4. Max Beloff (ed.) The Federalist, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1987 [1948]) p.482, n27.

5. Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (NY: Knopf 1996) p.5. Rakove's ‘originalism’ might be regarded as a particular example of a general malpractice that historians sometimes call ‘presentism’, a tendency to look at the past with a contemporary political agenda in mind.     

Networked Legal Learning: An Evaluation of the Student Learning Experience

This paper reports the findings from a case study that was conducted as part of the JISC/CALT funded Networked Learning in Higher Education project. The paper casts light on the wider debate about how and whether tutors can 'align' their teaching style with students' approaches to learning. It evaluates a law course that has been taught on campus using Lotus Notes to support group work and to provide a general course environment. The paper builds upon earlier evaluations of the course reported by the course tutor and used to develop the course design. The findings combine a firm understanding of the tutor's intentions and design with an evaluation of the student experience. This allows a consideration of alignment in a networked learning environment and uses several sources of rich data to triangulate designers' intentions with outcomes. Our findings incline us to the view that networked learning environments may be more open to unplanned influences than traditional courses. As a consequence of the increased number of influences students' may encounter greater degrees of variation in their experience.     

Democratization and foreign policy in Southeast Asia: the case of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus

Recent democratic transitions in Southeast Asia raise the question as to how we should theorize the relationship between democratization and foreign policy. Many scholars assume that more ‘democratic’ Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members pursue more ‘liberal’ policies than their less-democratic counterparts, but surprisingly little theoretical work investigates the connection. This article argues that such investigations tend to crumble under close scrutiny. Instead, it offers an alternative framework based on an analysis of how different socio-economic interests contend to shape foreign policy in ASEAN states and how these interests are able to organize politically to impose their preferences. The case study of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a regional network of legislators campaigning for liberal-interventionist policies on Myanmar, shows how it is these forces, and not the mere presence or absence of formally democratic institutions, that govern the political space available to those seeking to transform ASEAN states' policies.     

Tropane ethyl esters in illicit cocaine: isolation, detection, and determination of new manufacturing by-products from the clandestine purification of crude cocaine base with ethanol

Seven ethyl homologues of known tropane esters have recently been detected as impurities in the gas chromatographic signature profiles of authentic Peruvian illicit cocaine base and hydrochloride exhibits. Peruvian cocaine base processors are now known to use ethanol for the purification of crude cocaine base. This process is referred to as the "base lavada" or "washed base" process and is a recent substitute method for the potassium permanganate oxidation purification methodology. Seven ethyl ester homologues were formed in illicit cocaine from the transesterification of known tropane methyl esters or possibly ethyl esterification of their respective tropane C-2 carboxylic acids in the presence of ethanol. Exhibits containing these compounds were subjected to gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses to determine their identity and were subsequently synthesized to verify their structures. Quantitative determinations were obtained from ion-pair chromatography isolation followed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. Specifically, hexanoylecgonine ethyl ester, cocaethylene, cis-cinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, trans-cinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, 3',4',5'-trimethoxybenzoylecgonine ethyl ester, cis-3',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, and trans-3',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester were detected and characterized. When present, these compounds were detected at levels ranging from 8.6 x 10(-4) to 9.3 x 10(-1)% relative to cocaine.