Personality under EU Law: A Conceptual Answer towards the Pluralisation of the EU

Although the trend towards pluralisation within the institutional framework of the EU is somewhat reflected in theoretical efforts, legal scholarship's answer remains incomplete. Acknowledging that legal personality is always relative—ie related to a particular legal system—personality under EU Law should be recognised and developed as a distinct category. This allows for reconsideration and rearrangement of inter‐ and intrapersonal relations in EU Law: inter‐institutional agreements can gain firmer legal ground, the recognition of hierarchical structures within the EU executive branch can advance the maintenance of the rule of law, legal protection of the Union's citizens shall be advanced, and options as well as limits to privatising organisation at the EU level shall be formulated. On the whole, methodological self‐reflection along these lines is bound to lead to a valuable contribution of legal research in times of EU crisis.     

Die “history of safe use” im europäischen Gentechnikrecht

Natur und Recht - Die “grüne” Gentechnik ist seit jeher ein spannungsreiches Feld: Während die Befürworter im Interesse hehrer Ziele eine...     

Judgment of age and attractiveness in a paired comparison task: Testing a picture set developed for diagnosing paedophilia

Purpose. The Not‐Real‐People picture set serves as stimulus material for assessing paedophilic sexual interest. The pictures were generated according to five stages of sexual maturation from infancy to adulthood. While experts seem to be able to discern between the pictures based on maturity levels for a nude variant of the stimuli, it remained unclear whether lay persons would be able to reliably distinguish between picture of clothed individuals from various maturity levels. Methods. Heterosexual university students (52 females, 50 males) participated in a paired comparison task, deciding which of the persons shown on two pictures was younger and which one was more attractive. Additionally, reaction times were recorded. Results. Both male and female judges were able to differentiate between stimuli from the opposite sex with regard to age: the perception of the stages of pubertal development conformed to a measurement on a ratio scale. Similarly, the decisions on attractiveness of the categories were in accordance with a ratio scale. Male participants favoured adolescent and adult female stimuli. Contrary to expectation, female participants did not show a preference for any single age category. Conclusions. The stimuli appear suitable for diagnostic purposes. The participants' decisions reflect the inherent maturity levels of the persons depicted. Reaction times in the paired comparison paradigm increase with task difficulty (i.e., similitude of pictures). The implications for indirect measures of sexual interest, based on reaction times, are discussed.     

Data processing by police and criminal justice authorities in Europe – The influence of the Commission's draft on the national police laws and laws of criminal procedure

The proposal for a fundamental reform of the European data protection law, published by the EU Commission on 25 January 2012 is composed of two elements. Apart from a General Data Protection Regulation, the Commission proposes a second regulatory instrument, namely a Directive with regard to data processing by police and criminal justice authorities that shall supersede the Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. This paper seeks to analyse the draft Directive in the context of the entire reform approach and scrutinizes a number of specific issues in regard to the scope, the requirements of data processing, notification duties and data transfer to third countries.     

Noise Trauma Induced by a Mousetrap—Sound Pressure Level Measurement of Vole Captive Bolt Devices

Abstract: While ballistic parameters of vole captive bolt devices have been reported, there is no investigation on their hazardous potential to cause noise trauma. The aim of this experimental study was to measure the sound pressure levels of vole captive bolt devices. Two different shooting devices were examined with a modular precision sound level meter on an outdoor firing range. Measurements were taken in a semi‐circular configuration with measuring points 0° in front of the muzzle, 90° at right angle of the muzzle, and 180° behind the shooting device. Distances between muzzle and microphone were 0.5, 1, 2, 10, and 20 m. Sound pressure levels exceeded 130 dB(C) at any measuring point within the 20‐m area. Highest measurements (more than 172 dB[C]) were taken in the 0° direction at the 0.5‐m distance for both shooting devices proving the hazardous potential of these gadgets to cause noise trauma.     

Entrepreneurship and country-level innovation: investigating the role of entrepreneurial opportunities

Since the work of Schumpeter, entrepreneurship has been regarded as a concept that is in close relation to innovation. However, recent country level investigations show that technology innovation and new business creation can be regarded as two separate phenomena. In this paper we provide an explanation for the above contradiction through the distinguishing between two types of entrepreneurship, necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. Building on opportunity theory and rational choice theory, we investigate the influence of both types of entrepreneurship on country-level innovation, and furthermore, pay particular attention to the interaction between opportunity entrepreneurship and the amount of opportunities available. We find that necessity entrepreneurship is inversely related to country-level innovation, whereas opportunity entrepreneurship is positively linked to technological progress. The positive effect of opportunity entrepreneurship, however, diminishes with an increased amount of entrepreneurial opportunities. This interaction indicates that opportunity availability is an important element of a country’s entrepreneurship environment.     

Fatal pedestrian-bicycle collisions

Although, fatal collisions between pedestrians and bicycles are relatively rare, they are still of forensic relevance because of the need to explore the circumstances of the accident. Based on three reconstructed cases, situation and injury patterns are presented that might prove useful in future cases: usually the person causing the accident is the cyclist while the pedestrian generally suffers more severe injuries; the situation at the site of accident is important for its reconstruction: end location of the persons involved in the accident, injuries and traces on pedestrians and cyclists, traces at the site of accident and on the bicycle; because of the lack of pre-crash traces and any eyewitness accounts, the pedestrian's injuries are the best starting point for the reconstruction of the accident; a characteristic wound on the lower leg of the pedestrian that reveals the initial impact between the front wheel and the leg is crucial not because of its seriousness, but because of its external morphology; the injuries that can be expected by the following impact between body and handlebar are unspecific and only minor; the most severe injuries to the pedestrian as a result of the accident are caused secondarily by falling and hitting the head on the road; the fall of the cyclist, however, corresponds to a throw-off followed by a sliding phase with less impact load when the head hits the ground [maximum abbreviated injury scale 1 (MAIS 1)]; the cyclists involved are mainly younger persons on fashionable bicycles (here: mountain bikes); in the great majority of cases, the injured pedestrians are frail, elderly people with a lower tolerance of trauma.     

Suicidality of chronic schizophrenic patients in long-term community care

In the provision of mental health care for chronic schizophrenic patients, the specific problems and requirements of long-term community care of suicidal behavior is an area of research not yet fully explored. This study focuses on a 4 1/2-year prospective assessment of normative and subjective needs for care related to this specific area for a cohort living in the Dresden region (Germany). One significant result of this study shows the constant high level of needs for care in the area of suicidal behavior imposed on community services by 30-40% of this diagnostic group. Furthermore, the study identified a special high-risk subgroup for suicides as well as specific needs for care. This subgroup is characterized by clinical reasons for the index hospitalization (suicidal risk or attempt) as well as by psychopathological features (suicidal thoughts and higher levels of anxiety/depression) 1 month after release from index hospitalization. Four items of care were rated as potentially effective for addressing suicidality in the community setting: clinical assessment, increased supervision or systematic recording of (suicidal) behavior, medication, and a sheltered environment. Because these care measures are provided, the percentage of unmet normative needs for the area of suicidal behavior was rather low. Due to limitations of the instrument used for assessment of normative needs, the Needs for Care Assessment (NFCAS), the care measures most frequently provided do not define a quality standard of community care for this problem. A subjective needs assessment differing from the normative approach has to be integrated in establishing guidelines for effective community care.     

Cell line DNA typing in forensic genetics--the necessity of reliable standards

The incorporation of reference DNA is crucial to the validation of any DNA typing protocol. This paper aims to provide a panel of reference DNAs for actual forensic profiling strategies, i.e. autosomal and gonosomal STR typing as well as mtDNA sequencing. We have characterised three human lymphoid cell lines, GM9947, GM9948 and GM3657, and considered 58 autosomal and gonosomal microsatellites as well as the mitochondrial control region sequence. Well-established markers and STRs recently developed for forensic use were involved. K562 DNA samples which we purchased from two different suppliers were also analysed. They revealed conflicting results with regard to the ChrX STR marker genotype. Hence, we suggest that K562 is no longer used for the calibration of profiling techniques. Our investigation establishes a panel of one female and two male DNA samples as an STR allelic ladder calibration tool and offers information on six alleles of each autosome (AS) marker, three alleles of each X chromosome (ChrX) marker and two alleles of each ChrY marker. In addition, sequences of the mitochondrial control region of the three DNAs are communicated in order to provide sequencing quality control.