Validity and Defeasibility in the Legal Domain

In jurisprudential literature, the adjective ‘defeasible’ appears as a predicate of many terms: concepts, laws, rules, reasoning, justification, proof, and so on. In this paper, we analyze the effects of some versions of the thesis of the defeasibility of legal norms on the reconstruction of the notion of legal validity. We analyze some possible justifications of this thesis considered as a claim concerning validity, and enquire into two possible sets of problems related to the defeasibility of the criteria of identification of a legal system. We also provide a formalization of some options regarding defeasible criteria of identification, which can be used as a tool for meta-jurisprudential analysis. Finally, the thesis according to which defeasibility is better conceived of as a feature of legal application is examined and questioned.     

The making and political life of Miners Shot Down: an interview with Rehad Desai and Anita Khanna

The interview that follows was conducted in Kensington, Johannesburg, in may 2015. I had not originally planned to publish it: I interviewed rehad desai and anita Khanna in preparation for a presentation on their documentary, Miners Shot Down (2014), I was going to give at a conference, to be repeated at the annual colloquium we organise with the school of Communication at the university of Johannesburg to mark the anniversary of the marikana massacre. I had been monitoring the marikana support Campaign quite closely, so I was interested in hearing not only about the documentary – the way it frames and narrates the story of the massacre – but also about its role in this multimedia campaign. I wanted the director and producer to share their thoughts on the impact the film had made, on the response at the local and international screenings they had attended, on what the miners of marikana and their communities thought of it, and on the campaign to have the film screened on South African national television. in the interview, they also describe the involvement of the miners and their communities in the political life of the film and their own experience of filming, producing and promoting the documentary. When Miners Shot Down won the international emmy award for best documentary in november 2015, I reread the interview and thought others might be interested in it – especially scholars working in media, film and communication studies. So here it is. Thanks go to rehad desai and anita Khanna for their time and generosity and to amy maphagela for transcribing the interview.     

Histological diagnosis of myocardial sarcoidosis in a fatal fall from a height

The major issues of medico-legal relevance in fatal falls from a height are the manner of death and the reconstruction of the event. We present a peculiar case of a fatal fall from a height of about 9 m, involving a 27-year-old woman. At the death scene investigation, no suicide notes, housebreaking marks, or signs of fight were found, thus weakening both the suicide and homicide hypotheses. Combining circumstantial, autopsy and toxicology data, the kinematic analysis of the jump/fall, and the histological evidence of a myocardial sarcoidosis involving the left ventricle, we hypothesized that the young woman might have accidentally fallen from the window because of a sudden loss of consciousness related to cardiac disease undiagnosed during life. We believe that our brief report is a good example of the powerful additional information that histological investigations can offer for reconstructing the dynamics of the event in falls from a height and other traumatic fatalities.     

SPME-GC analysis of THC in saliva samples collected with "EPITOPE" device

In this study we examined the presence of cannabinoids in saliva samples obtained from 24 drug-abusers. The saliva specimens were collected by "EPITOPE" system and the subsequent elution of samples was achieved by centrifugation. The resulting ultrafiltrates have been directly sampled with solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and then analyzed by GC/MS. Saliva sampling is less invasive than collection of blood.     

Introduction to Schauer and The Force of Law

The paper introduces the debate, hosted by the present Journal, on Schauer's book The Force of Law. It points out some starting points of the discussion and puts into question the status of contemporary jurisprudence.     

The Free Movement of Goods as a Possible 'Community' Limitation on Industrial Conflict

The aim of this essay is to underline the fact that the process of achieving single market integration is very likely to influence the regulation of industrial conflict. In this perspective, the Commission v France judgment is analysed, in which the ECJ—through a combined interpretation of Article 30 (now 28) and Article 5 (now 10) of the Treaty—states that a Member State is obliged to adopt all 'appropriate measures' to remove any 'obstacles' impeding the free circulation of goods caused by private persons. A new Regulation (n. 2679/98) has followed the ECJ decision, instituting a system of notification of such obstacles arising, or the threat of them, and the right of the Commission to demand a formal reply from a State on whether it has taken, or will be taking the necessary and proportionate measures.
The analysis of the principles adopted by the ECJ and of the Regulation shows that, at Community level, pressure is exerted on States to prevent the exercise of collective action as effectively as possible, if this damages inter-State trade. A transnational limit on industrial conflict thus emerges in the Community order, which may well affect the equilibria of national industrial relations in various ways.