Mnemic disturbances following experimental alcohol-tranquilizer application (author's transl)

Mnemic disturbances occurred in 8 of 14 subjects during a pharmcopsychological investigation of possible interactions between alcohol and dipotassium chlorazepate (Tranxilium). The blood alcohol concentrations were between 0.87% and 1.32%; the serum concentrations of the active metabolite nordiazepam were in the therapeutic range between 145 ng/ml and 345 ng/ml. The constitutional, dispositional, and situative conditions are presented. The forensic medical interpretation of such mnemic disturbances must be made critically and with reservation when evaluating a psychopathological state.     

Evaluation of automobile safety regulations: The case of compulsory seat belt legislation in Australia

A basic tenet of the new conservatism in political economy is that government policies frequently lead to unintended consequences which may offset the benefits of the policy. Auto safety legislation may be a case in point. As the first country to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory, Australia is highly suitable as a case study. Traffic accident casualties were regressed on six independent variables for the pre-seat belt period 1949–71. The equations were then used to predict casualties for the period 1972–77, using the actual values of the independent variables. In the aggregate, predicted occupant casualties were higher than the actual rates, whereas non-occupant casualties were underpredicted by the equations. An additional test, using a dummy variable to predict the effect of seat belts, supported these conclusions. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that drivers respond to a reduction in risk by increasing driving intensity, shifting some of the welfare cost of auto safety legislation on to non-occupants, whose casualty rates are higher than they would have been in the absence of seat belt legislation.I am grateful to Chris Adam and to an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Local planners — global constraints

A number of reports have been published over the past few years documenting the evidence of decline in the northeastern U.S.A. and the simultaneous migration of industry to the U.S. Sunbelt. (Academy for Contemporary Problems, 1977; Sale, 1975; Sternlieb and Hughes, 1975). In developing appropriate recommendations to planners, such studies invariably urge that localities or regions facing industrial out-migration arrest this activity by making themselves more suitable and attractive (Council for Northeast Economic Action [CNEA], 1977a) within the framework of a number of characteristic strategies. We propose to examine critically some of the traditional strategies recommended by these reports.     

Reviews

Allan K. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army: The Old Army and the Soldiers’ Revolt (March‐April 1917). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. 402 pp. £13.70.

Adam Zwass, Money, Banking and Credit in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, translated by Michel C. Vale. New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. London: Macmillan, 1979. 233 pp. £12.00.

Jan Adam, Wage Control and Inflation in the Soviet Bloc Countries. London: Macmillan, 1979. i‐xx+243 pp. £15.00.

Robert A. Lewis and Richard H. Rowland, Population Redistribution in the USSR. Its Impact on Society, 1897–1977. New York: Praeger Publishers (Praeger Special Studies), 1979. xx + 485 pp. £22.50.

Michael Bourdeaux, The Land of Crosses, Chulmleigh, Devon: Augustine Publishing Company, 1979, xviii + 339 pp. £3.00.

V. Stanley Vardys, The Catholic Church, Dissent and Nationality in Soviet Lithuania. Boulder: East European Quarterly. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 1978. 336 pp. $18.00.

Richard Taylor, The Politics of the Soviet Cinema 1917–1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, xvi + 214 pp. £9.50.     

Abortion laws in African Commonwealth countries

This paper provides an overview of the range of current (1981) abortion laws in the African Commonwealth countries, traces the origins of the laws to their colonial predecessors, and discusses legal reform that would positively provide for legal termination of pregnancy. The authors claim that the range of these laws demonstrates an evolution that leads from customary/common law (Lesotho and Swaziland) to basic law (Botswana, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria's Northern States and Seychelles) to developed law (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria's Southern States, Sierra Leone, and Uganda), and, finally, to advanced law (Zambia and Zimbabwe). The authors call for treating abortion as an issue of health and welfare as opposed to one of crime and punishment. Since most of the basic law de jure is treated and administered as developed law de facto, the authors suggest decriminalizing abortion and propose ways in which to reform the law: clarifying existing law; liberalizing existing law to allow abortion based upon certain indications; limiting/removing women's criminal liability for seeking an abortion; allowing hindsight contraception; protecting providers treating women in good faith; publishing recommended fees for services to protect poor women; protecting providers who treat women with incomplete abortion; and punishing providers who fail to provide care to women in need, with the exception of those seeking protection under a conscience clause. The authors also suggest clarifying the means by which health services involving pregnancy termination may be delivered, including: clarification of the qualifications of practitioners who may treat women; specification of the facilities that may treat women, perhaps broken down by gestational duration of the pregnancy; specifying gestational limits during which the procedure can be performed; clarifying approval procedures and consents; and allowing for conscientious objections to performing the procedure.