Can I stay a BIT longer? The effect of bilateral investment treaties on political survival

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) have proliferated throughout the international system. While ostensibly commercial in purpose, do BITs have domestic political ramifications? I argue that BITs affect a leader’s tenure through their effect on the property rights environment in developing countries. BITs, by segmenting a country’s property rights environment for foreign and domestic firms, reduce the incentive for foreign firms to lobby for property rights protections in the host country thus leading to a stagnating domestic property rights environment. In autocracies, a stagnating domestic property rights regime benefits domestic business elites who can continue to stymie small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The political benefits of BITs, however, decrease as a country becomes more democratic. Using a dataset of developing country leaders over the period 1965-2011, I find support for my hypothesis that BITs are associated with a decreased hazard of losing office and that the effect diminishes with higher levels of democracy. My results highlight the consequences of the legalization of global investment on the domestic political economy.     

The Weak Natural Law Thesis and the Common Good

The weak natural law thesis asserts that any instance of law is either a rational standard for conduct or defective. At first glance, the thesis seems compatible with the proposition that the validity of a law within a legal system depends upon its sources rather than its merits. Mark C. Murphy has nonetheless argued that the weak natural law thesis can challenge this core commitment of legal positivism via an appeal to law’s function and defectiveness conditions. My contention in the current paper is that in order to make good on the challenge, the defender of the weak natural law thesis should appeal explicitly to the common good, understood as the principal normative reason in the political domain. In section I I outline the main implications of the weak natural law thesis and clarify a common misunderstanding regarding its explanatory role. Section II then argues for the indispensability of the common good to the natural law jurisprudential thesis on the grounds that it has an essential role to play in a natural law account of law’s defectiveness conditions and the presumptive moral obligatoriness of legal norms. Finally, in section III I examine the compatibility of a strengthened version of the weak natural law thesis with legal positivism in light of the centrality of the common good to the natural law jurisprudential position.     

Political Embeddedness and its Impact on Chinese Lawyers’ Practices in Criminal Defense Cases

Based on survey data of 348 lawyers in Fujian, this study empirically tests how lawyers' political embeddedness (i.e., lawyers' bureaucratic, instrumental, and/or affective ties to the courts and prosecutors) has impacted upon their defense practices in criminal trials and their pursuit of liberal values. Our data reveal that politically embedded lawyers report more (not fewer) difficulties in practice (e.g., in requesting witness testimony in court, requesting new evidence, and requesting new evaluations and investigations of the case). Clients are more satisfied with representation by politically non-embedded lawyers than lawyers who are embedded. Using statistical evidence, this paper analyzes potential reasons and draws out the implications.     

Factors of Success: Drug Court Graduate Exit Interviews

Drug court judges enforce mandated treatment through a series of rewards and graduated sanctions as compliance with mandated treatment and retention are crucial to successful graduation for participants. A study of 600 graduates from drug court details self-report data of motivations and perceptions offenders shared about their experience in drug court. Clients rated different factors related to their entry into, retention in, and graduation from drug court. Upon graduation, clients rated the opportunity to avoid jail as a key factor in their decision to enter drug court and positive improvements in their life as significant in their decision to remain. This research provides important information on the drug court experience from those clients who successfully graduated.     

Free trade agreements for the environment? Regional economic integration and environmental cooperation in East Asia

Traditionally, it has been argued that increased economic competition through free trade agreements would bring about environmental degradation. This study, however, argues that recent international free trade agreements have tended to enhance environmental cooperation among participating countries. This study has examined the process by which East Asian countries have developed mechanisms for the extant level of regional environmental cooperation, particularly highlighting the reasons for commonalities and differences in regional environmental cooperation between ASEAN and the dominant economies in the region. It finds that three factors particularly matter for developing regional environmental cooperative mechanisms: networks of intergovernmental organizations, the strong willingness of political leaders which is often embodied in national strategies for regionalism and the establishment, and the institutionalized linkage—particularly through FTAs—between trade and the environment. Tracing the process of policy evolution within three groups of countries sheds light on the political conditions under which the four entities involved (the ASEAN, Japan, China, and the Republic of Korea) have produced and strengthened cooperative environmental mechanisms among them along with free trade agreements. Focusing especially on the environmental policy changes in Japan, China, and the ROK associated with the creation of its FTAs with ASEAN, the study concludes that each of free trade agreements has incrementally developed environmental cooperation, especially when integrated into a vision for regional integration.     

“Soft” policing at hot spots—do police community support officers work? A randomized controlled trial

Objectives

To determine whether crime-reduction effects of increased police patrols in hot spots are dependent on the “hard” threat of immediate physical arrest, or whether “soft” patrols by civilian (but uniformed) police staff with few arrest powers and no weapons can also reduce crime. We also sought to assess whether the number of discrete patrol visits to a hot spot was more or less important than the total minutes of police presence across all visits, and whether effects based on counts of crime would be consistent with effects on a Crime Harm Index outcome.

Methods

We randomly assigned 72 hot spots into 34 treatment units and 38 controls. Treatment consisted of increases in foot patrol by uniformed, unarmed, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who carry no weapons and hold few arrest powers beyond those of ordinary citizens. GPS-trackers on every PCSO and Constable in the city yielded precise measurements of all patrol time in all hot spots. Standardized mean differences (Cohen’s d), OLS regression model, and Weighted Displacement Quotient are used to assess main effects, to model the interaction effect of GPS data with treatment, and to measure the diffusion-of-benefits of the intervention, respectively. Outcomes included counts of incidents as well as the Cambridge Crime Harm Index.

Results

As intended, patrol visits and minutes by Police Constables were equal across the treatment and control groups. The sole difference in policing between the treatments groups was in visits to the hot spots by PCSOs, in both the mean daily frequency of discrete visits (T?=?4.65, C?=?2.66; p?≤?.001) and total minutes across all visits (T?=?37.41, C?=?15.92; p?≤?.001), approximately two more ten-minute visits per day in treatment than in control. Main effect estimates suggest 39 % less crime by difference-in-difference analysis of reported crimes compared to control conditions, and 20 % reductions in emergency calls-for-service compared to controls. Crime in surrounding areas showed a diffusion of benefits rather than displacement for treatment hot spots compared to controls. A “Reiss’s Reward” effect was observed, with more proactive patrols predicting less crime across treatment hot spots, while more reactive PCSO time predicted more crime across control hot spots. Crime Harm Index estimates of the seriousness value of crime prevented ranged from 85 to 360 potential days of imprisonment in each treatment group hot spot (relative to controls) by a mean difference of 21 more minutes of PCSO patrol per day, for a potential return on investment of up to 26 to 1.

Conclusions

A crime reduction effect of extra patrols in hot spots is not conditional on “hard” police power. Even small differences in foot patrols showing the “soft power” of unarmed paraprofessionals, holding constant vehicular patrols by Police Constables, were causally linked to both lower counts of crimes and a substantially lower crime harm index score. Correlational evidence within the treatment group suggests that greater frequency of discrete PCSO visits may yield more crime reduction benefit than greater duration of those visits, but RCTs are needed for better evidence on this crucial issue.

     

Drunk drivers—Chances for and difficulties in giving medico-legal opinions on drivers’ alcohol intoxication levels, on the basis of the material analyzed in the Forensic Medicine Department, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice in the years 2003–2007

The authors have conducted a statistical analysis of 340 court files investigated in the Forensic Medicine Department Medical University of Silesia, Katowice in the years 2003–2007 with regard to chances for as well as difficulties in giving medico-legal opinions on drivers’ alcohol intoxication levels, which would be valid for court purposes.     

Diagnostic value of post-mortem examination of the cardiac conduction system

Introduction (Aim)

Sudden unexplained death (SUD) is a common problem in forensic pathology. In many of these cases, the autopsy findings, toxicological examinations and patient history are inconclusive. Many studies suggest that in such cases, the cardiac conduction system (CCS) should be histologically examined. We decided to determine the diagnostic value of histological examination of the CCS.

Methods

We reviewed autopsy files from the period 2005–2007 and selected those cases in which the CCS had been sampled. These were divided into two groups, the first comprising cases with an obvious cardiac pathology (e.g. severe coronary disease, myocardial infarction, significant myocardial hypertrophy/dilatation, valvular disease, etc.) and the second comprising cases without obvious cardiac pathology (i.e. fatal injuries, intoxications and deaths unexplainable by routine procedures). The CCS was sampled according to a detailed protocol and examined under a light microscope. On the basis of the findings of histological examination of CCS, we formed subgroups of the aforementioned main groups.

Results

We analyzed 118 cases, of which 83 were males and 35 females. In 57% of cases, autopsy revealed gross pathological abnormalities of the heart. In 10 (15%) of them, examination of the CCS showed significant pathological changes (narrowing of the nodal artery and its branches, moderate to severe interstitial fibrosis, calcifications in the central fibrous body impinging upon CCS). In some, especially those with no acute findings, CCS disease can be considered to have been the cause of fatal arrhythmias. In 43% of cases, autopsy revealed no gross abnormalities of the heart, while histological examination of the CCS disclosed significant pathological changes in 4 (8%). Among them, CCS disease was regarded as the cause of death in one case and as a possible cause in another case.

Conclusion

As with other similar studies, our study showed that examination of the CCS can provide valuable information on the cause of death. We therefore consider that examination of the CCS should be performed in all SUD cases, especially those in which the cause of death cannot be established by routine procedures. Although we had only 1 confirmed cause of death linked to CCS disease and one possible, we had 14 cases with significant pathological CCS changes. This leads us to the conclusion that post-mortem examination of the CCS is of diagnostic value.     

Continuity of aggressive antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood: The question of phenotype definition

Aiming to clarify the adult phenotype of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), the empirical literature on its childhood background among the disruptive behaviour disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), or hyperkinetic conduct disorder (HKCD), was reviewed according to the Robins and Guze criteria for nosological validity. At least half of hyperactive children develop ODD and about a third CD (i.e. AD/HD + CD or HKCD) before puberty. About half of children with this combined problem constellation develop antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood. Family and adoption/twin studies indicate that AD/HD and CD share a high heritability and that, in addition, there may be specific environmental effects for criminal behaviours. “Zones of rarity” delineating the disorders from each other, or from the normal variation, have not been identified. Neurophysiology, brain imaging, neurochemistry, neurocognition, or molecular genetics have not provided “external validity” for any of the diagnostic categories used today. Deficient mental functions, such as inattention, poor executive functions, poor verbal learning, and impaired social interaction (empathy), seem to form unspecific susceptibility factors. As none of today's proposed syndromes (e.g. AD/HD or psychopathy) seems to describe a natural category, a dimensional behavioural phenotype reflecting aggressive antisocial behaviours assessed by numbers of behaviours, the severity of their consequences and how early is their age at onset, which will be closely related to childhood hyperactivity, would bring conceptual clarity, and may form the basis for further probing into mental, cognitive, biological and treatment-related co-varying features.     

Correction to: Promoting academic engagement: university context and individual characteristics

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The corresponding author’s name was incorrect. The given name and family name were...