New Legal Moralism: Some Strengths and Challenges

The aim of this paper is to critically discuss the plausibility of legal moralism with an emphasis on some central and recent versions. First, this paper puts forward and defends the thesis that recently developed varieties of legal moralism promoted by Robert P. George, John Kekes and Michael Moore are more plausible than Lord Devlin’s traditional account. The main argument for this thesis is that in its more modern versions legal moralism is immune to some of the forceful challenges made to Devlin by Hart, Dworkin and Feinberg among others. Second, however, the paper challenges the new generation of legal moralists and suggests some areas for further development. Although Devlin’s position has been scrutinized thoroughly in the literature on the philosophy of law, there has, to my knowledge, been no comparable, systematic critique of these different proponents of legal moralism.     

Strategic location and sovereignty: Modern micronesia in the historical context of American expansionism

Abstract

The historical and political geographies of strategic areas are commonly formulated in terms of those who define them as strategic. When the Micronesian islands are considered, the routes upon which they lie are emphasised and analyses are formulated in terms of seaborne empires or with reference to the colonial histories of the powers that have contested possession of the islands. This essay frames the matter of Micronesia's location in Micronesian terms—that is, from the perspective of the Micronesians who have long sought to reclaim sovereignty over their homeland—in addition to considering strategic theories and imperial expansion of specific regimes. Micronesians cannot move the islands out of their strategic location, but they have worked to recast their political status, reducing threats to their security. The paper emphasises the interaction between strategic location and political status: for small and/or weak territories, sovereignty is a resource to be cultivated and exploited, its value largely determined by location. Sovereignty in and of itself may be of little consequence, but its pursuit can be of immeasurable significance.     

Learning by doing in contests

We introduce learning by doing in a dynamic contest. Contestants compete in an early round and can use the experience gained to reduce effort cost in a subsequent contest. A contest designer can decide how much of the prize mass to distribute in the early contest and how much to leave for the later one in order to maximize total efforts. We show how this division affects effort at each stage, and present conditions that characterize the optimal split. There is a trade off here, since a large early prize increases first period efforts leading to a substantial reduction in second round effort cost; on the other hand, there is less of the prize mass to fight over in the second round, reducing effort at that stage. The results are indicative of the fact that the designer often prefers to leave most of the prize mass for the second contest to reap the gains from the learning by doing effect.     

Bureaucratic justice: the incarceration of mainland Chinese women working in Hong Kong's sex industry

Since Hong Kong's return to the People's Republic of China (PRC) there has been a significant rise in the number of Chinese visitors to Hong Kong, including women crossing the border to engage in sex work. Sex work itself is not a crime in Hong Kong, but related activities, like soliciting, are prohibited. Sex work is treated as work for immigration purposes, and visitors who engage in work without an employment visa are breaching their conditions of stay. More than 10,000 mainland Chinese women have been arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced in recent years, causing the correctional population to expand beyond capacity. The authors examine the experiences of 58 incarcerated women in their encounters with the Hong Kong criminal justice system and find that women are processed in a highly routinized bureaucratic manner. They consider the purpose served by the largely bureaucratic form of justice that has emerged in response to migrant sex workers in Hong Kong.     

The Legality of the EU's Stand-Alone Approach to the Climate Impact of Aviation: The Express Role Given to the ICAO by the Kyoto Protocol

The aviation sector is not yet covered by the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Taking into account the fact that aviation increasingly contributes to climate change, the European Commission adopted a proposal for legislation to include aviation in the EU ETS. The proposal foresees the inclusion of internal EU flights as well as external flights to and from the Union within the EU ETS. On 20 December 2007, EU Environment Ministers reached political agreement in the Environment Council on the basis of a new compromise text tabled by the Presidency. However, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as well as various stakeholders, does not consider that the EU has the competence to include aviation within the EU ETS. A crucial point concerning the legality of including aviation in the EU ETS is the fact that Article 2(2) of the Kyoto Protocol states that the parties 'shall pursue limitation or reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol from aviation . . . working through the International Civil Aviation Organization . . .'. This article reviews the legality of the EU's stand-alone approach, focusing on the European and international legal framework and taking into account the express role given to the ICAO by the Kyoto Protocol.     

Cruelty to Animals and Violence to People

The topic of animal cruelty has been largely neglected by criminological researchers. However, studies suggest that children who are cruel to animals disproportionally tend to be violent to people later in life. Case histories of serial killers and mass murderers suggest that many were cruel to animals in their childhood. Furthermore, it is argued that cruelty to animals in a family tends to be associated with domestic violence, child abuse, and elder abuse. Unfortunately, much of the previous research was based on small, unrepresentative samples, with poor or no control samples and retrospective information. Prospective longitudinal surveys of large representative samples are needed. Family based prevention programs might be effective in reducing cruelty to animals, but experimental evaluations of such programs are required. The time is ripe for a major research program to advance knowledge about the causes and prevention of animal cruelty and its implications for criminology.     

Phenolphthalein False‐Positive Reactions from Legume Root Nodules

Presumptive tests for blood play a critical role in the examination of physical evidence and in the determination of subsequent analysis. The catalytic power of hemoglobin allows colorimetric reactions employing phenolphthalein (Kastle‐Meyer test) to indicate “whether” blood is present. Consequently, DNA profiles extracted from phenolphthalein‐positive stains are presumed to be from blood on the evidentiary item and can lead to the identification of “whose” blood is present. Crushed nodules from a variety of legumes yielded phenolphthalein false‐positive reactions that were indistinguishable from true bloodstains both in color quality and in developmental time frame. Clothing and other materials stained by nodules also yielded phenolphthalein false‐positive reactivity for several years after nodule exposure. Nodules from leguminous plants contain a protein (leghemoglobin) which is structurally and functionally similar to hemoglobin. Testing of purified leghemoglobin confirmed this protein as a source of phenolphthalein reactivity. A scenario is presented showing how the presence of leghemoglobin from nodule staining can mislead investigators.     

Non-destructive dental-age calculation methods in adults: intra- and inter-observer effects

The aim of the present study was to obtain data on the reliability and reproducibility of two non-destructive dental-age estimation methods in adults by calculating inter- and intra-observer effects. Both a morphological and a radiological technique available in the scientific literature were evaluated on a number of recently extracted teeth: the morphological technique was evaluated on a total of 160 teeth by two examiners, while three examiners applied the radiological technique on apical radiographs of 72 extracted teeth. Paired t-tests were used to calculate intra- and inter-observer differences. For the morphological method, both examiners were able to produce dental-age estimations that did not differ significantly from the real age of the teeth, obtaining a mean error between 0.5 and 1.8 years and a standard deviation of this error between 9.0 and 11.3 years. When using the radiological technique according to the original protocol, all three examiners produced age estimations that were statistically comparable to the real age of the teeth with a mean error of 0.5-2.5 years and a standard deviation of 4.6-9.8 years. For both techniques, intra-observer differences were observed. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that both non-destructive dental-age estimation techniques were able to produce reasonably accurate dental-age estimations, at least when these techniques were applied appropriately. However, the forensic odontologist is recommended to use different age estimation techniques and perform repetitive measurements in order to verify the reproducibility of the calculations performed.