Die Körordnung im deutschen und Europäischen Recht

Natur und Recht - Pferdezucht ist nicht nur ein Wirtschaftsfaktor, sie sollte auch die Natur des Pferdes bewahren und seine natürlichen Eigenschaften artgerecht fördern. Insofern...     

The Democratic Costs of Constitutionalisation: The European Case

There is little doubt that the European Union suffers from a legitimacy deficit. However, the causes of this deficit and, as a consequence, the remedies are contested. This article wants to show that an important, but often overlooked, cause for the legitimacy deficit lies in the overconstitutionalization of the EU. The European Treaties have been constitutionalized by the ECJ, but are full of provisions that would be ordinary law in states. Constitutionalization means de‐politicization. What has been regulated on the constitutional level is no longer open for political decision‐making. Thus, in the EU political decisions of high salience are not only withdrawn from the democratically legitimized institutions, but also immunized against political correction. Therefore, the consequences from the constitutionalization have to be drawn: The Treaties should be reduced to those norms that reflect the functions of a constitution, whereas all the other parts have to be downgraded to the level of secondary law.     

Deposition of cannabinoids in hair after long-term use of cannabis

Hair analysis has shown great potential in the detection and control of drug use. Whether an assay is of quantitative value roughly corresponding to the amount of drug consumed, is still a matter of debate. The present investigation was aimed at a possible relationship between the cannabinoid concentration in hair and the cumulative dose in regular users of cannabis. Hair samples from the vertex region of the scalp were obtained from 12 male regular users of cannabis, and 10 male subjects with no experience of cannabis served as controls. None of the subjects had his hair permed, bleached or colored. Cannabis users provided information on drug use such as the current cannabis dose per day, the cumulative cannabis dose of the last 3 months, as well as the frequency of cannabis use during the last year. The concentration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN) and cannabidiol (CBD) in hair was determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Cannabinoids were present in any hair sample of cannabis users, but were not detectable in control specimens. An increase in the amount of cannabinoids in hair with increasing dose was evident. The concentration of major cannabinoids (sum of THC, CBD and CBN) was significantly correlated to either the reported cumulative cannabis dose during the last 3 months or to the cannabis use during the last 3 months estimated from the daily dose and the frequency per year (r=0.68 or 0.71, p=0.023 or 0.014). A significant relationship between THC and the amount of cannabis used could not be established. As a conclusion, the sum of major cannabinoids in hair of regular users may provide a better measure of drug use than THC.     

Is There a Relationship Between Street Heroin Purity and Drug‐Related Emergencies and/or Drug‐Related Deaths? An Analysis from Vienna,Austria*

This study examines the quality of street heroin seized in Vienna in 1999 and whether there was a relationship between the purity of street heroin and the number of heroin-related emergencies as well as the number of heroin-related deaths. Street heroin confiscated by the Viennese police, run-sheets of drug-related emergencies, and postmortem reports of drug-related deaths in Vienna in 1999 were analyzed. A total of 415 retail samples with a total weight of 128.02 g contained a median percentage of 6.5% diacetylmorphine (range: 0.0-47.0%). All the samples contained a diluent, mainly lactose, as well as adulterants, such as caffeine and/or paracetamol. During the study period, 75 heroin-related deaths and 387 heroin-related emergencies were registered in Vienna. Time-series analysis revealed no statistically significant relationship between the rate of heroin-related incidents and the diacetylmorphine concentration of street heroin samples confiscated in Vienna in 1999. The widely held belief that the number of heroin-related deaths could be explained simply through fluctuations in the purity of street heroin could not be substantiated, even though the results of this study do not rule out an association between the purity of heroin and heroin-related deaths/emergencies.     

Die Entwicklung des Föderalismus und der Föderalismus ‐ diskussion in der Schweiz von 1874 bis 1964

Before 1874 and after 1964, the evolution of federalism and related political discourses is well known. Between these years, however, stretches a terra incognita, which this political‐historical essay tries to explore. This period was characterised by a steady shift of power from the Canton's to the Confederation, resulting in the frequent re‐grouping of federalists and centralists. Before the First World War, traditionalists from central and occidental Switzerland fiercely defended a confederalist vision. During the interwar years, things quietened down. The modern federal State organisation was no longer fundamentally questioned, and the debate focused on technical questions. The “geistige Landesverteidigung” (moral defence of the country against fascism) secured an enduring yet problematic place for federalism in Swiss culture by transforming it into the “unity in diversity” principle. After the Second World War, modernising forces resulted in the “executive and co‐operative federalism” that we know today.     

Judicial detection skill and contractual compliance

Mutually beneficial agreements might fail if the parties fear contractual opportunism. Litigation is supposed to be a remedy, but it gives scope for another kind of opportunistic behavior, which we call litigational opportunism: Even known that the opponent has fulfilled his obligations, a party might bring suit. We introduce a new concept, called judicial detection skill, and show that positive judicial detection skill is a prerequisite if the court system is to deter opportunistic suits and simultaneously induce bilateral contractual compliance. The traditional literature on litigation either assumes judges with zero detection skill, or simply neglects that opportunistic suits might be successful. We prove that those models are unable to provide an answer to the question of how to prevent both types of opportunism simultaneously.     

Compulsory Voting Rules,Reluctant Voters and Ideological Proximity Voting

Political Behavior - Political theorists have argued that democracies should strive for high turnout, leading to an argument for the introduction of compulsory voting, one of the surest ways to...