A Structure-Based Concept of Genocidal Intent

The concept of genocidal intent developed in this article startswith an analysis of the structural particularities of the crimeof genocide whose specific intent refers not only to the consequence(s)of personal conduct, but also to those of collective undertaking.The proposal submitted suggests understanding ‘intentto destroy a protected group as such’ as a particularkind of specific intent: formally as intention to achieve aconsequence which goes beyond the result that constitutes theactus reus. Materially, the proposed degree of intent refersto a two-fold approach which is based on a volitional (‘intent’)and/or a cognitive (‘certain knowledge’) element.Every element may be decisive depending on the mental stateof the accused: either by virtue of the underlying purpose orby virtue of a certainty standard. While the consequences ofthe perpetrator's own conduct must be virtually certain, theadequate threshold for the occurrence of the (intended) overallaction's result is practical certainty. In practice, such level(s)may be proven by exactly the same kind of circumstantial evidencecurrent case law has relied on.     

Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines: IV. Optimisation of sample preparation

The suitability of liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) for the preparation of impurity extracts intended for gas chromatographic profiling analyses of amphetamine were evaluated. Both techniques were optimised with respect to the extraction of selected target compounds by use of full factorial designs in which the variables affecting the performance were evaluated. Test samples consisted of amphetamine synthesised by the Leuckart reaction, by reductive amination of benzyl methyl ketone and by the nitrostyrene route. The performance of LLE and SPE were comparable in terms of repeatability and recovery of the target compounds. LLE was considered the better choice for the present harmonised amphetamine profiling method due to the lack of information on the long-term stability of SPE columns.     

Competition in the Netherlands and Belgium: Service sector evidence

This paper examines competition in the Dutch and Belgian service sector for the period 1995–1999. The paper explores the link between firm profitability and market structure, and provides evidence of a non-optimal functioning of both markets. While analysis reveals the existence of a market sector effect in both countries, this effect is larger in the Dutch sample than in the Belgian sample, implying that the Dutch service sector is less competitive than the Belgian service sector. An analysis of the market friendliness of regulations in both countries does not provide a comprehensive explanation for this finding. JEL Classification: L12 · L16 · L51 · L80     

Seasonal Affective Disorder: Clerk Training and the Success of Supreme Court Certiorari Petitions

We investigate why the Supreme Court grants a smaller percentage of cases at the first conference of each term compared to other conferences. According to received wisdom, Supreme Court law clerks are overly cautious at the beginning of their tenure because they receive only a brief amount of training. Reputational concerns motivate clerks to provide fewer recommendations to grant review in cert. pool memos written over the summer months. Using a random sample of petitions from the Blackmun Archives, we code case characteristics, clerk recommendation, and the Court's decision on cert. Nearest neighbor matching suggests clerks are 36 percent less likely to recommend grants in their early cert. pool memos. Because of this temporal discrepancy, petitions arriving over the summer have a 16 percent worse chance of being granted by the Court. This seasonal variation in access to the Court's docket imposes a legally irrelevant burden on litigants who have little control over the timing of their appeal.     

Die erforderlichen Abstände zwischen Betrieben nach der Störfall-Verordnung und Wohngebieten oder anderen schutzwürdigen Bereichen nach § 50 S. 1 BImSchG

In der Bundesrepublik gibt es rund 8000 Anlagen, die der so genannten Seveso-II-Richtlinie – Richtlinie zur Beherrschung der Gefahren bei schweren Unf?llen mit gef?hrlichen Stoffen (Seveso-II-RL) – und damit der nationalen St?rfall-Verordnung (St?rfallV) unterliegen. Davon liegen, insbesondere in dicht besiedelten Regionen, zahlreiche Anlagen in unmittelbarer N?he zu anderen Projekten, wie beispielsweise Flugh?fen oder Wohn- und Siedlungsgebieten. Inzwischen gibt es Empfehlungen für Abst?nde zwischen Anlagen nach der St?rfallV und Wohngebieten. Der Beitrag stellt dar, wann diese Abst?nde einzuhalten sind und ob diese Regelungen auf naturschutzfachlich schutzwürdige Bereiche übertragen werden k?nnen.     

Assessing a moral panic relating to crime and drugs policy in the Netherlands: Towards a testable theory

Using criteria from recent work by Goode and Ben Yehuda, this article tests the hypothesis that a moral panic relating to (youth) crime has been going on in the Netherlands since 1990. Most of the criteria are met. There is concern about the problem of crime and a consensus on solutions. There are also indications that public disquiet grew out of proportion compared to trends in crime and victimization, and that the panic erupted fairly suddenly. It is not possible to identify a clearer scapegoat than a diffuse image of “the” criminal. It is unclear what caused this panic. It seems unlikely that the panic started as a reaction to public problems, but nor is it possible to state that elites started it or that it was caused by bureaucratic processes at an intermediate level. Several methodological problems connected with the testing of the criteria are discussed. It is recommended that one criterion be added: that of misdirection of reactions to a social problem. It is also recommended that future research should be comparative, either comparing several minor local panics, or comparing panics or non-panics related to equivalent social problems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.