Dauer der wasserrechtlichen Bewilligung nach § 8 Absatz 5 WHG bei Wasserkraftanlagen

Angeregt vor allem durch das Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) kommen verst?rkt Pl?ne auf, Wasserkraft auf innovative Weise sowie selbst an kleinen Flie?gew?ssern zu nutzen. Angesichts der im Verh?ltnis zum Stromertrag relativ hohen Kosten solcher Vorhaben, aber auch bei klassischen Wasserkraftanlagen streben die Vorhabentr?ger nach m?glichst lang fristig gesicherten Rechtspositionen. Dabei spielt die vom Wasserhaushaltsgesetz (WHG) für Bewilligungen grunds?tzlich vorgesehene Grenze von drei?ig Jahren eine bedeutende Rolle. Zugleich ist beim Bewilligen einer Wasserkraftnutzung der angestrebten Umsetzung der Europ?ischen Wasserrahmenrichtlinie Rechnung zu tragen.     

Codifying Temporary Stability? The Role of Interinstitutional Agreements in Budgetary Politics

Abstract:  The article analyses the potential of Interinstitutional Agreements (IIAs) for resolving conflicts in the field of EU budgetary policy. In the 1970s and 1980s, annual budgetary procedures were characterised by intense interinstitutional battles, mainly between the Council and the European Parliament. IIAs concluded during this period tried to clarify pertinent Treaty provisions, but proved to be insufficient to resolve budgetary conflicts stemming from the more general problem of the uneven allocation of budgetary and legislative power between the two institutions involved. It was not before the fundamental budgetary reform in 1988—agreed upon by the European Council and implemented through an IIA along with the gradually increased role in legislative politics granted to European Parliament through several Treaty amendments—that budgetary stability—arrived. Hence, IIAs can be regarded as an improper means to solve profound constitutional problems. Yet, they can be considered as suitable tools to arrange technical details.     

Detection and Classification of Ignitable Liquid Residues in the Presence of Matrix Interferences by Using Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry,

Conventional Gas Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry (GC‐MS) methods for the analysis of ignitable liquids (ILs) are usually time‐consuming, and the data produced are difficult to interpret. A fast IL screening method using direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART‐MS) is proposed in this study. GC‐MS, QuickStrip DART‐MS, and thermal desorption DART‐MS methods were used to analyze neat ILs and thermal desorption DART‐MS without extraction was used to analyze ILs on five substrates (e.g., carpet, wood, cloth, sand, and paper). Compared to GC‐MS, DART‐MS methods generated different spectral profiles for neat ILs with more peaks in the higher mass range and also provided better detection of less volatile compounds. ILs on substrates were successfully classified (98 ± 1%) using partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA) models based on thermal desorption DART‐MS data. This study shows that DART‐MS has great potential for the high‐throughput screening of ILs on substrates.     

Differentiating Factitious from Malingered Symptomatology: the Development of a Psychometric Approach

Psychometric symptom validity assessment is becoming increasingly part and parcel of psychological and neuropsychological assessments. An unresolved and rarely addressed issue concerns the differentiation between factitious and malingered symptom presentations: present-day symptom validity tests can assess whether an examinee presents with noncredible symptomatology, but not why an examinee does so. We explored this issue by developing the Symptom and Disposition Interview (SDI); a symptom validity test that incorporates strategies intended to gauge internal incentives associated with factitious disorder. The merits of the SDI were explored and compared to a traditional symptom validity test (the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology) in two analogue studies, each with factitious and malingering conditions (n = 24–30 per condition) and a clinical control group (n = 34, n = 40). Overall, the results were positive: The SDI was as effective in detecting feigned symptom presentations as a traditional symptom validity test and superior in differentiating factitious from malingered symptom presentations. We conclude that the SDI is not ready for clinical use, but that psychometric approaches to the assessment of factitious symptomatology, such as the SDI, appear sufficiently promising to warrant future research.     

The Role of Forensic Botany in Solving a Case: Scientific Evidence on the Falsification of a Crime Scene

Forensic botany can provide useful information for pathologists, particularly on crime scene investigation. We report the case of a man who arrived at the hospital and died shortly afterward. The body showed widespread electrical lesions. The statements of his brother and wife about the incident aroused a large amount of suspicion in the investigators. A crime scene investigation was carried out, along with a botanical morphological survey on small vegetations found on the corpse. An autopsy was also performed. Botanical analysis showed some samples of Xanthium spinosum, thus leading to the discovery of the falsification of the crime scene although the location of the true crime scene remained a mystery. The botanical analysis, along with circumstantial data and autopsy findings, led to the discovery of the real crime scene and became crucial as part of the legal evidence regarding the falsity of the statements made to investigators.     

Defeating Welfare Retrenchment: Privatization and Conflict in the Argentine Nuclear Energy Sector*

This article explores the conflicts triggered by President Carlos Menem's proposed reforms for the nuclear energy program between 1989 and 1999. Throughout this period, numerous state-owned energy enterprises (oil, hydroelectric and natural gas) were privatized. While the three Argentine atomic power plants were set to be sold to foreign investors, the Menem administration failed to carry out nuclear privatization. Nuclear professionals and unionized workers successfully carried out a wide-ranging campaign against the de-nationalization of nuclear development, linking the role of the state as guarantor of job security to its responsibility in ensuring nuclear safety. This article argues that neo-liberal reforms, while reducing state autonomy and bureaucratic capacity, also created new opportunities for policy networks to claim new areas of qualified autonomy. Uncertainty, originating from the dismantlement of welfare-developmental state structures, turned technical knowledge and expertise into powerful political capital, used in turn by nuclear professionals to resist changes in the sector.     

The Italian torpedo is dead: long live the Italian torpedo

A recently published decision of the Milan Court of First Instancenot only confirms that a cross-border claim for a declarationof non-infringement of a European patent is unlikely to succeedbefore an Italian court unless it is brought against an Italiandomiciled party, but also shows that the longstanding traditionof Italian torpedoes is not yet defunct, contrary to predictionsafter a landmark decision of the Italian Supreme Court in 2003.