How did international economic regulation survive the last period of deglobalization?

As trade wars and protectionism again present severe challenges and obstructions to international economic regulatory organizations (IEROs), it is timely to ask how their predecessors survived the last deep deglobalization of the interwar years. This article presents a fresh neo-Durkheimian institutional explanation. It highlights contrasting pathways to survival and bequest of IEROs in three fields of regulation – international infrastructure, capital and labor, and commodities. Our explanation shows that functional imperatives and short-term market pressures in these different areas of regulation facilitated specific forms of social organization within IEROs (such as hierarchy or individualistic brokering). These contrasting forms of social organization cultivated distinct regulatory styles during deglobalization and cultivated capacities for contrasting survival and bequest strategies. Our approach is thus able to account for variation in pathways to survival in a way that other possible explanations, such as theories of regulatory capture or bureaucratic autonomy, cannot.     

Problems of assessing sibship probabilities by means of genetic analysis

Nowadays, kinship studies based only on STR analysis are a very common practice. Apart from regular paternity cases, there is a rising number of cases in which the type of sibship between two persons has to be determined. Very often the parents or further relatives are unavailable for testing, so that the probability e. g. for a half-sibship has to be calculated as a deficiency situation. 50 unrelated persons (Group 1), 50 full siblings (Group 2), and 50 half-siblings (Group 3) were genotyped using the 15 STRs comprised by the AmpFlSTR Identifiler multiplex PCR-kit to investigate the reliability of common statistics programs and the indicative value of the calculated probabilities. Using a commercially available statistics program, we calculated probabilities for the following hypotheses: 1. The persons investigated are full siblings; 2. the persons investigated are half-siblings; 3. the persons investigated are unrelated. After STR analysis, half-sibling probabilities between 0.03 %-97.56% for group 1, between 0.01%-78.46% for group 2, and between 24.28%-90.18% for group 3 were calculated. In addition, the authors present two complicated deficiency cases which could be resolved only by extensive DNA typing using X- and Y-chromosomal loci, respectively, as well as the investigation of further relatives. The results of this study suggest that typing of autosomal STRs alone is no sufficient tool for resolving cases of possible half-sibship, even if probabilities of more than 90.0% are obtained. Due to the results of our study we suggest the implementation of mandatory standards for the investigation and interpretation of complicated kinship cases.     

Possible pitfalls in motherless paternity analysis with related putative fathers

Nowadays, more and more paternity cases are carried out investigating only child and putative father, mostly for economical or private reasons. Usually, reliable results can be obtained and the putative father can be included or ruled out with a high certainty. Considerable problems might arise when a relative of the biological father is investigated as being the putative father. In this study, we investigated 164 persons from 27 families creating artificial deficiency cases using the AmpFlSTRIdentifiler kit, which amplifies 15 STRs simultaneously. We analyzed 93 child/biological father pairs and the corresponding uncles, respectively the brothers of the biological fathers. The average paternity probability for the biological father was 99.9699% (paternity index (PI): 3321.26); only in three cases the results were under 99.9%. In five out of 125 child/uncle pairs no STR mismatches were found and paternity probabilities between 99.9726% (PI 3652) and 99.9970% (PI 33,545) were calculated. The average number of excluding loci was 3.4, but in 31.2% of the cases only zero, one or two mismatches were found. When both putative fathers were genetically typed, the biological father usually had a statistically higher paternity probability. Nevertheless, the differences between probabilities for father and uncle were only small. These results show that a reliable investigation of deficiency cases (i.e. child and putative father) seems to be more difficult than generally assumed. Especially in cases with an unknown familiar background and/or when investigating foreigners for immigration purposes, the laboratory expert should include the mother, increase the number of investigated loci or include a second method such as RFLP-analysis, some serological systems or typing of X-chromosome specific STRs to further ascertain the results.     

Effect of the broadcast of a television documentary about a teenager's suicide in Israel on suicidal behavior and methods

Portrayals of suicide in the media are controversial because they may impact on suicide rates and methods. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the broadcast of a television documentary wherein an adolescent girl is interviewed about her suicide plan and subsequently dies by suicide. National suicide rates during the 8 weeks prior to the program and the 4 weeks following it were compared to the same periods in the previous year. There was no significant difference in the rates of completed and attempted suicides before and after the program. There was a shift toward the method used in the film after the broadcast, but it was found to be nonspecific to that year. A significant decrease was noted in the mean age of suicide attempters in the last promotional week prior to the broadcast compared to the previous year (p = .032). These preliminary findings suggest that the repeated televised promotion of a documentary on suicide may raise the risk of suicide in vulnerable populations. Further investigations in bigger populations are needed.     

Folter und Menschenwürde. Zur aktuellen Debatte um die "Rettungsfolter"

Im Ausgang von den jüngsten Gerichtsentscheidungen (des EGMR und des Landgerichts Frankfurt) im Fall "Daschner" bzw "G?fgen" setzt sich die Untersuchung zun?chst kritisch mit Ans?tzen einer Relativierung des Folterverbots in der deutschen staatsrechtlichen Debatte auseinander. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt dem exemplarischen Vorsto? Bruggers zur Legalisierung der "Rettungsbefragung" im Ausnahmefall als Ausdruck staatlicher Schutzpflichten, die aus dem staatlichen Gewaltmonopol resultierten. Dabei werden insbesondere die utilitaristischen Grundlagen und Aporien des darin reklamierten rechtsethischen "Konsequenzialismus" sowie dessen Spannungsverh?ltnis zu freiheitssichernder Rechtsstaatlichkeit offengelegt. Im Mittelpunkt der Kontroversen um die "Rettungsfolter" steht die Frage nach dem Stellenwert der Menschenwürde - als grunds?tzlich abw?gbares "Rechtsgut" unter anderen, wie etwa auch in einer bekannten Neukommentierung von Art 1 GG im Ansatz reklamiert, oder aber als nicht relativierbares verfassungsrechtliches Fundamentalprinzip, das die Positivit?t konkreter rechtlicher Regeln notwendig überschreitet. Im Anschluss an das herrschende Verst?ndnis der Menschenwürde als unbedingtes Rechtsprinzip werden Begriff und "Ph?nomenologie" der Folter hinsichtlich ihrer charakteristischen Eingriffsintensit?t als "Totalinstrumentalisierung" des Menschen und v?llige Negation des wechselseitigen Anerkennungsverh?ltnisses n?her bestimmt. Diese Anerkennung allgemeiner menschlicher Verantwortungssubjektivit?t bildet seit den Ursprüngen modernen Staatsverst?ndnisses aber auch die eigentliche legitimierende Basis seiner zentralen Friedenssicherungspflichten und Schutzaufgaben. Eine rechtlich-politische Ma?nahme, die dieses fundamentale Rechtsverh?ltnis verletzt, kann daher auch kein Ausdruck von Souver?nit?t sein, sondern verletzt deren kontraktualistische Grundlagen. Sie bedeutet darüber hinaus einen exemplarischen Einbruch in freiheitliche Verfassungskultur, der einem weiteren Abbau demokratischer Rechtsstaatlichkeit Vorschub leisten k?nnte.     

A method of estimating the distribution of farm incomes in Turkey∗

The ‘naive’ idea current among many of the older nationalists of the Third World regarding the de‐industrializing effect of western capitalism on their countries is confirmed by the analysis of occupational data relating to the State of Bihar in India. Similar evidence is also available for Egypt and China. If we shift from models of what can ideally happen under capitalism in its international aspects and look at what actually happened until, say, 1914, we find that it often had opposite effects on the advanced capitalist countries and their overseas offshoots, and on the colonial or semi‐colonial economies of the Third World in respect of industrial employment, investment in productive assets and distribution of income. Technological change even today often carries highly disruptive and inegalitarian consequences for Third World countries. In the light of such experience with market‐orientated growth, an alternative model is suggested in which development proceeds by localized economic activities, distributing incomes and opportunities equally and keeping out ‘backwash’ effects on other regions. One major task of the economist in the future will be to explore the inner logic of such a ‘paradigm’, suggest the means of implementing the model, and ferret out possible contradictions. The Chinese (and perhaps Vietnamese) experience may serve as an example or laboratory for such explorations.