Looking Beyond the Bancoult Cases: International Law and the Prospect of Resettling the Chagos Islands

During the 1960s, the US government entered into an agreementwith the UK government to construct a military facility in theChagos Archipelago. The UK government excised the Archipelagofrom the colony of Mauritius and created the British IndianOcean Territory (BIOT). Diego Garcia was transferred to theUnited States and the indigenous people of the entire Archipelagowere secretly banished. This process led to their chronic impoverishment.In the Bancoult cases, the English courts held the exile tobe unlawful and that the Chagossian people possess a publiclaw right of abode in the Chagos Islands. This article examineswhether international law can facilitate the resettlement tothe Chagos Islands via recognition of BIOT's non-self-governingstatus. It also explores the prospect of securing compensationfor the loss of ancestral lands by reference to existing andevolving international standards on indigenous rights.     

Legitimacies, Indian Identities, and the Law: The Politics of Sex and the Creation of History in Colonial New England

In an early-eighteenth-century legal contest on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, an Indian leader, Jacob Seeknout, appealed a ruling that under-mined his political authority. Seeknout's lawyer, Benjamin Hawes, crafted an argument that intertwined the sexual legitimacy of Seeknout's ancestors with his political legitimacy; at the same time, Hawes also linked Indians'collective chastity as a "nation" to their sovereign status. This paper examines the economic, religious, criminal, and historical contexts of this argument, exploring the history of Indians'conjugal practices and their reinvention as the criminal acts of fornication. The case illustrates some of the diverse sources of early American law, links between these legal structures and colonialism, and the importance for scholars of attending to the local level in exploring the power of colonial law to shape new racial identities.     

Destructive Competition or Competition Destroyed? Regulatory Theory and the History of Irish Road Transportation Legislation

The principal aim of our study is to contribute to the debate over whether regulation is enacted in the interest of consumers, producers, political agents, or some combination of these. We examine the legislative debates and subsequent regulatory bills surrounding road transportation regulation in Ireland in light of the three dominant theories which purport to explain the existence of regulation: the public interest theory and the so-called Chicago and Virginia theories. A unique feature of our study is an attempt to integrate specific rhetorical concepts used in the public policy debates into the theoretical analysis of regulation. One noteworthy conclusion of our study is that theories of economic processes affect the shaping and results of public policy.     

Occupational Class and Vote in the 1949 Norwegian Election. Research Note

In 1948–49 the Sociology Office of the University of Oslo, under the guidance of Prof. Paul Lazarsfeld of Columbia University, initiated a series of studies on the Norwegian economic planning system. Part of this Planning Project was a national election survey in the fall of 1949, on a modified probability sample of 2600 people. The results show the paramount influence of economic class on voting, interpreting class as a combination of employer/employee relationship, property ownership, prestige-status, and income. Indicators of the homogeneity of class environment also played a role. Given the occupational structure of Norway, the Labor party had to win over part of the non-working-class population to obtain control of the government. They did this by winning about 1/3 of the white-collar vote, and about 1/4 of the farmers and fishermen. The policies of economic stabilization - control of inflation through price controls, wage controls, food subsidies, and rationing, and maintenance of full employment under conditions of "suppressed inflation" - were crucial to winning over these white-collar and farm voters.     

Distribution profile of 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB) in rats after oral and subcutaneous doses

2,5-Dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB) is one of the potent hallucinogenic phenylalkylamines, whose ingestion has already caused several deaths reported all over the world. However, there is unsufficient information on DOB properties based on controlled pharmacokinetic studies available. The aim of this study was to clarify the distribution profile of DOB and its phenolic metabolite 2-methoxy-5-hydroxy-4-bromoamphetamine (2M5H4BA) in blood and biological tissues of experimental rats. The rats were administered a 20 mg/kg dose of DOB·HCl by oral ingestion or subcutaneous injection. Plasma and brain, liver and lung tissues were collected at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 h after dosing (three animals per time point). The samples were prepared by a liquid–liquid extraction procedure and the extracts were assayed by GC–MS. After per oral application, DOB peak plasma level of 320 ng/mL was reached after one-hour post dosing as well as 2M5H4BA peak concentration of 203 ng/mL. A rapid phase of DOB absorption, 2M5H4BA formation and their tissue distribution during the first two hours after application were followed by a slow decrease rate of the elimination process until 32 h. After subcutaneous application, high plasma levels of the unchanged parent drug and relatively reduced formation of its metabolite 2M5H4BA were observed. DOB maximum plasma concentration of 1143 ng/mL was reached after one-hour post application, whereas its metabolite peak level after 8 h was 213 ng/mL. The concentration profiles of both compounds in plasma after per oral and subcutaneous administration revealed the existence of significant first pass effect after per oral administration that significantly affected DOB bioavailability. DOB tissue concentrations exceeded plasma and the highest values were found in the lungs, where drug accumulation occurred with prolonged retention till 32 h after subcutaneous dose. Although the plasma/tissue transfer was more effective for the lipophilic parent drug than for its hydroxylated metabolite 2M5H4BA, the metabolite tissue levels were significant. The hallucinogenic potential of 2M5H4BA appearing in brain remains unclear as nothing is known about its pharmacological activity at present.