Seeking Justice for the Holocaust: Herbert C. Pell Versus the US State Department

Herbert C. Pell served his nation as an Ambassador and member of the US House of Representatives, as well as US Representative on the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC). This article presents his struggle with the US State department and the bureaucratic and legalistic dispute that developed over the UNWCC particularly with respect to policy considerations surrounding whether or not to prosecute crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis in Germany and satellite territories. The article traces Pell’s initial difficulty engaging with the work of the UNWCC due to the State Department’s delaying techniques and the absence of clear instructions from either the State Department or the President. Moreover, it is shown how Pell struggled to convince the State Department and his fellow UNWCC members to include the above-mentioned crimes. This debate and Pell’s role has remained largely unknown to a public that considers the post-war Nuremberg war crimes trials an achievement in the advancement of international law and justice. To whatever extent those trials were such, particularly in advancing international human rights law by adjudicating Axis war criminals for crimes against humanity, it is singularly noteworthy that Axis war criminals might not have been prosecuted at all for these crimes were it not for the efforts of Herbert Pell.     

Review of the Evidence Supporting the Medical and Legal Use of NeuroQuant® in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Decades of research have shown that the brain atrophies after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, multiple practical issues made it difficult to detect brain atrophy in individual patients with mild to moderate TBI. This situation improved by 2007 with the FDA approval of NeuroQuant®, a commercially available, computer-automated software program for measuring MRI brain volume in human subjects. Several peer-reviewed scientific studies have supported the reliability and validity of NeuroQuant®. This review addresses whether NeuroQuant® meets the Daubert standard for admissibility in court cases involving persons with TBI. The review finds that NeuroQuant® is an objective, reliable, and practical means of measuring brain volume and therefore can be an important tool for measuring the effects of TBI on brain volume in clinical or medicolegal settings.     

Differentiating Between Genuine Damage and Falsified Damage to a Garment Following an Alleged Sexual Assault*

Abstract: An allegation of sexual assault was made in which a bra was torn off by the assailant causing extensive damage; however, it was observed that the hook and eye fastening was still intact. It was felt that it was not possible for a garment to receive such damage without damage to the hook and eye fastening, thus indicating that the complainant caused the damage to the bra herself to support a false allegation. Reconstruction experiments were conducted in which the conditions of the allegation were simulated utilizing a range of similar bras. Following the infliction of damage, the hook and eye fastenings were examined. In eight of nine experiments, the hook and eye fastening were intact, despite the application of enough force to cause separation of the bra cups in five of the experiments. This shows that bras may suffer extensive damage without damage to the hook and eye fastening.     

A window of opportunity: the Louisiana Birth Outcomes Initiative

Louisiana ranks forty-ninth nationally in birth outcomes indicators such as infant mortality and in the percentage of low birth weight and very low birth weight babies. This article describes the formation of the Birth Outcomes Initiative, a statewide targeted investment to reduce poor birth outcomes. It describes how the initiative is a result of the convergence of the triad of well-defined problems, a credible array of potential solutions, and favorable political process. It then describes the Birth Outcomes Initiative in Louisiana, a targeted program to improve health indicators for reproductive-aged women and reduce the incidence of prematurity, low birth weight, and infant mortality.     

Examining What Makes Violent Crime Victims Unique: Extending Statistical Methods for Studying Specialization to the Analysis of Crime Victims

Objectives

Much victimization research focuses on specific types of crime victims, which implies that the factors responsible for some victimization outcomes are distinct from others. Recent developments in victimization theory, however, take a more general approach, postulating that victimization regardless of type will share a similar basic etiology. This research examines how and whether the risk factors that are associated with violent victimization significantly differ from those that predict nonviolent victimization.

Methods

Using data from 3,682 Kentucky youth, we employ Osgood and Schreck??s (2007) Item Response Theory-based statistical approach for detecting specialization to determine the properties and predictors of tendencies for individuals to fall victim to specific types of crime.

Results

Findings show that victims typically experience varied outcomes, but some victims have a clear tendency toward violent victimization and that it is possible to predict this tendency.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that a more nuanced general approach, one that accounts for tendencies toward specific victimization outcomes, might add insight about the causes of victimization. This research also shows how statistical methods designed to examine offense specialization can add value for research on victimization.     

Independence of data privacy authorities (Part II): Asia-Pacific experience

Part I of this article in [2012] 28 CLSR 3-13 analysed the views of learned commentators on what constitutes the ‘independence’ of data protection authorities (DPAs). It concluded that a more satisfactory answer needed to be found in the international instruments on data privacy and on human rights bodies, their implementation and judicial interpretation, and in the standards that have been proposed and implemented by DPAs themselves. It found that only the OECD and APEC privacy agreements did not require a DPA (and therefore had no standards for its independence). Thirteen factors were identified as elements of ‘independence’ across these instruments and standards, five of which were more commonly found than others.     

Independence of data privacy authorities (Part I): International standards

Part I of this article analyses the views of learned commentators on what constitutes the ‘independence’ of data protection authorities (DPAs). It concludes that a more satisfactory answer needs to be found in the international instruments on data privacy and on human rights bodies, their implementation and judicial interpretation, and in the standards that have been proposed and implemented by DPAs themselves. It finds that only the OECD and APEC privacy agreements did not require a DPA (and therefore have no standards for its independence). Thirteen factors were identified as elements of ‘independence’ across these instruments and standards, five of which were more commonly found than others. Part II of the article will consider how these criteria have been implemented in laws in the Asia-Pacific.