Strategy-proof voting for single issues and cabinets

In a model with a continuum of voters with symmetric single-peaked preferences on the one-dimensional unit interval (representing the political spectrum) a voting rule assigns to each profile of votes a point in the interval. We characterize all voting rules that are strategy-proof, anonymous, Pareto optimal, and which satisfy a weak form of continuity. This result paves the way for studying cabinet formation rules. A cabinet is an interval which has obtained sufficiently many votes. The main result on cabinet formation is a characterization of all cabinet formation rules that are strategy-proof with respect to the endpoints of the cabinet, anonymous, Pareto optimal, and continuous.     

Forensic medicine significance of the fluid content of the sphenoid sinuses

In the forensic literature the opinion is often held that the presence of aqueous liquid in the paranasal sinuses in conjunction with other findings (plume of froth around the mouth and nostrils, emphysema aquosum, Paltauf's spots, increased haemolysis etc.) can be regarded as a sign of drowning. Especially the sphenoid sinus is easily accessible at autopsy; its content can be aspirated from the base of the skull with a cannula. The valency of the liquid content in the sphenoid sinuses was consecutively investigated in 60 deaths by drowning and 157 other deaths. The results showed that in 92% of the deaths by drowning between 1 ml and 4 ml of aqueous fluid could be found in the sphenoid sinuses. However, a positive result was also obtained in 52% of the other cases autopsied, but in the control group the average volume of the aspirate was smaller than in the group of deaths by drowning.     

Spaces of exception: governing fuel poverty in England’s multiple occupancy housing sector

Homes in multiple occupancy (HMOs) – residential properties containing common areas shared by several households – are a growing feature of the housing landscape across the UK. They have often been subject to political stigmatization as a result, in part, of comprising poor quality dwellings. This paper uses a “spaces of exception” framework to explore the juridical and material mechanisms involved in the rise of fuel poverty among people living in HMOs. Having analysed evidence from interviews, census data and the secondary literature pertaining to the English context, we highlight the processes that have led to the biopolitical othering of this housing stock in institutional and infrastructural terms. We argue that the expansion and persistence of fuel poverty in HMOs are promoted not only by the disproportionate concentration of low-income residents in relation to the rest of the private rented sector, but also by the socio-technical configurations that underpin this type of housing. Fuel poverty can thus be seen as the joint outcome of broader practices of legal, political and material delegitimization.     

This time is different?—on the use of emergency measures during the corona pandemic

European Journal of Law and Economics - In many areas such as consumer law or competition law, legislators can opt between two alternative forms of sanctions to remedy wrongdoing: they can impose...     

Upholding justice in an unjust world: a practitioner's view of public administration ethics

This article presents the author's approach to profes sional ethics as a practitioner of public adrninistra tion. Public administrators are held to be personally responsible for their actions. Therefore, professional ethical standards are both possible and necessary, not only to prevent: wrongdoing but also to guide and promote right behavior. An ideally just regime is first hypothesized, based on the principles of justice developed in John Rawls's A Theory of Justice. A normative ethical standard of neutral competence is then postulated for agents of such a hypothetical regime- The author then addresses the implications of real-world injustice, and discusses the exceptions to neutral competence which are justifiable when confronted by injustice. The suggested approach establishes a high ethical st-andard, providing justification for not only avoiding wrongdoing, but also for doing right. This approach also provides practical and realistic guidance for et.hica1 decision-making. Both justifiability and applicability are held to be necessary if such an ethical. system is to be followed by public administrators.