Regionalist governance in the new political economy of development: 'Relaunching' the Mercosur

The splintering of the Mercosur following the Brazilian devaluation in early 1999 has given way to an important re-crafting of the regional vision and a significant expansion of the scope of the regional project. This article contends that these trends can best be understood as coalescing into a new (and nascent) form of regionalist governance in the Southern Cone, in which the Mercosur is reconfigured as a vehicle for a new set of developmentalist and strategic objectives. This emerging form of regionalist governance is both causative and indicative of a new political economy both of the subregion and of the wider region of the Americas, and reflective of the crystallisation of a new political economy of development.     

"Revolting to humanity": oversights, limitations, and complications of the English Legitimacy Act of 1926

This article analyses three areas that limited the effectiveness of the English Legitimacy Act of 1926. First, re-registration was public, expensive, and time-consuming. Second, the Treasury Office used the change in the law of intestacy to refuse more distant relatives' claims on estates. Third, the law separated legitimacy from nationality, thus denying citizenship to legitimated children born abroad of British fathers and foreign mothers. In short, both because of parliamentary oversights and civil servants' narrow interpretations of the law, relatively few children took advantage of the Act, and the minority who did, rather than being 'illegitimate' or 'legitimate', were a third category, the 'legitimated'.     

Investigation of morphine and morphine glucuronide levels and cytochrome P450 isoenzyme 2D6 genotype in codeine-related deaths

Compared to morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G), codeine and its other major metabolites codeine-6-glucuronide and norcodeine have weak affinity to opioid μ-receptors. Analgesic effects of codeine are thus largely dependent on metabolic conversion to morphine by the polymorphic cytochrome P450 isoenzyme 2D6 (CYP2D6). How this relates to toxicity and post-mortem whole blood levels is not known. This paper presents a case series of codeine-related deaths where concentrations of morphine, M6G and morphine-3-glucuronide (M3G), as well as CYP2D6 genotype, are taken into account. Post-mortem toxicological specimens from a total of 1444 consecutive forensic autopsy cases in Central Norway were analyzed. Among these, 111 cases with detectable amounts of codeine in femoral blood were identified, of which 34 had femoral blood concentrations exceeding the TIAFT toxicity threshold of 0.3mg/L. Autopsy records of these 34 cases were retrieved and reviewed. In the 34 reviewed cases, there was a large variability in individual morphine to codeine concentration ratios (M/C ratios), and morphine levels could not be predicted from codeine concentrations, even when CYP2D6 genotype was known. 13 cases had codeine concentrations exceeding the TIAFT threshold for possibly lethal serum concentrations (1.6 mg/L). Among these, 8 individuals had morphine concentrations below the toxic threshold according to TIAFT (0.15 mg/L). In one case, morphine as well as M6G and M3G concentrations were below the limit of detection. A comprehensive investigation of codeine-related fatalities should, in addition to a detailed case history, include quantification of morphine and morphine metabolites. CYP2D6 genotyping may be of interest in cases with unexpectedly high or low M/C ratios.     

Perpetrator programmes for partner violence: A rejoinder to Respect

Purpose. To reply to the comments made by Debbonaire and Todd (2012) in relation to our critique of Respect's Position Statement. Method. We examined their reply in relation to our original article and to the wider research literature. Results. We show that Debbonaire and Todd's reply is largely a series of assertions, for which little or no supporting evidence is offered. Their argument is first that we are misplaced in criticizing their Position Statement, and second that the main points of the statement are defendable. We indicate why our criticisms of the statement still stand. Conclusions. We argue that Respect have not countered our overall criticism of their position that intimate partner violence (IPV) can only be addressed as a gendered issue, that is as a consequence of patriarchal values enacted at the individual level. Instead we advocate a gender‐inclusive approach applying a knowledge base derived from robust empirical research on IPV and more widely from research on human aggression.     

Attributes of specialist search dogs--a questionnaire survey of UK dog handlers and trainers

The ideal and actual characteristics of specialist search dogs have been examined in questionnaire surveys of 244 dog handlers and trainers from the six main UK dog-using Government agencies. The ten most important characteristics were (ideal level in brackets): acuity of sense of smell (very high), incentive to find an object which is out of sight (very high), health (very high), tendency to hunt by smell alone (very high), stamina (very high), ability to learn from being rewarded (very high), tendency to be distracted when searching (very low); agility (high), consistency of behaviour from day to day (high), motivation to chase an object (high). Significant differences between actual and ideal levels were found for 22 of the 30 characteristics, predominantly in undesirable attributes, suggesting that there is scope for significant improvement in operational effectiveness.     

Can Dispersed Practices Be Held Ethically Accountable?

This article offers a positive answer to: can dispersed practices, such as global civil society and the society of democratic states, be held ethically accountable? To clarify this kind of ethical judgement, a contrast is made between the ways we hold individuals ethically accountable within social practices, awarding praise/blame to individuals (individual persons or collective actors such as states), and the way in which we deploy critical theories to hold a dispersed practice ethically responsible for certain consequences flowing from its operation. Such judgements are ironic given that within such practices individual actors are not, from an ethical point of view, doing wrong. The kind of ethical criticism made possible by critical theory in general, and constitutive theory in particular, is a necessary precursor to many political campaigns aimed at transforming the global dispersed social practices within which we are constituted as who we are.     

Communitarianism

This article presents 'Communitarianism' in political theory as a 'Blind Alley'. This is on the grounds that it is difficult to find a political theorist who is willing to be called a communitarian, because the literature lacks any well delineated concept of community, and because a number of awkward theoretical questions, notably about power, arise which are not clearly addressed within the literature. Furthermore, communitarianism has been a blind alley for feminists. Although feminism and so-called communitarianism share an opposition to some other varieties of social and political theory, the apparent affinities between feminism and communitarianism mask significant differences.     

When All Roads Lead to Beijing. Assessing China’s New Silk Road and its Implications for Europe

The Belt and Road, unveiled by President Xi Jinping in late 2013, is China’s most ambitious geo-economic and foreign policy initiative in decades, combining a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and a sea-based 21st Century Maritime Silk Road which connect China to Europe. With this grandiose initiative, Beijing seeks to tackle industrial overcapacity at home and acquire political influence abroad through investment. Sitting at the end-point of the maritime Silk Road, Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean have been the main focus of investment in infrastructure projects so far. If managed successfully by both sides, China’s Belt and Road could be a great opportunity for a European continent that is still struggling to recover from the crisis. What is urgently needed in Europe is a comprehensive response to China’s new initiative, with the focus not only on the economy and trade, but also on the monetary and financial aspects of the Belt and Road, including discussion of the political and security implications of Beijing’s inroads into Europe and its neighbourhood.     

U.S. Power and the Politics of Economic Governance in the Americas

This article examines the nature of the emerging regional economic regime in the Americas and argues that the dominant approach to economic governance is one defined by the assertion of U.S. power in the region and oriented toward distinctively U.S. interests and preferences. This has been clearly evident in the evolution of the Free Trade Area of the Americas but also, with the deceleration and fragmentation of that process during 2002 and 2003, in the growing prioritization of bilateralism. The leverage afforded by the bilateral negotiation of trade agreements acts to situate primary influence in shaping the rules that constitute the regional economic regime, and the primary functions associated with governing in this context, firmly within the agencies of the U.S. state. This essay therefore explores how the hegemonic power of the United States manifests itself in the substance of the hemispheric project and the shape of the economic regime associated with it.     

Setting euthanasia on the level

Summary The House of Lords recently set up a Select Committee on Medical Ethics to consider euthanasia and related medical decisions at the end of life. This followed widespread publicity surrounding recent cases, particular the trial and conviction of a doctor for the attempted murder of a consenting terminally ill patient, and the House of Lords' ruling that it is not unlawful to withdraw life-sustaining treatment from a patient in a persistent vegetative state. This paper suggests a perspective on some of the moral issues and conflicts which the House of Lords will no doubt consider. A legal structure in which medical euthanasia could be both permitted and controlled is then proposed involving two complementary mechanisms, a formal Euthanasia Notification procedure and a system of Euthanasia Tribunals.Senior Registrar in the Psychiatry of Old Age to the United Medical and Dental Schools and the South East Thames Regional Health Authority.