The limits of contract law harmonization

Contract law harmonization in the European Union has met with some significant but limited success. This Essay explores some of the psychological and political forces that can complicate or even hinder law reform efforts. Even when there is a general institutional drive for law reform, as there is in the EU, scarce reform resources force attention to be focused on salient issues, while a status quo bias in individual member states by government officials can provide a braking inertia regarding nonsalient legal reforms. This braking influence can be seized upon and enhanced by interest groups that oppose reforms, especially where there is an alternative to proposed law reforms for private entities. In the case of contract law harmonization, contract doctrine that is not focused on providing consumer protections remain nonsalient, commercial entities can solve the confusion of diverse laws by choosing their own, and interest groups in nations whose laws and dispute resolution forums are commonly chosen will oppose harmonization. Thus, the current state of affairs may prove relatively difficult to alter.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life

This introduction summarizes the contributions to the Special Issue that focus on the spread of intolerant and racist discourses in Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Hungary. Through a comparative approach, the issue argues that what has been decisive in this process is the role played by mainstream political parties that perceive intolerance against the “other” as the natural outcome of the failure of previous tolerant policies on immigrants and minorities. Even if brought forward with different argumentation in each case, intolerance is introduced in all five countries as a principled position under the pretext of protecting European citizens’ rights.     

STR genotyping of DNA extracted from used Triage kits

This study examined whether short tandem repeat (STR) genotyping can be performed using DNA remaining in Triage kits used to screen for drugs of abuse in urine. STR genotyping was successful for 15 loci using 12 kits stored for 1–6 months at room temperature. These results suggest that STR genotyping for human identification can be performed using DNA extracted from used Triage kits.     

16 Y chromosomal STR haplotypes in Japanese

A total of 1079 Japanese males were typed for the following 16 Y chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) markers: DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635, DYS392, Y GATA H4, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS448 using an AmpFlSTR(R) Yfiler PCR Amplification kit (Applied Biosystems). A total of 950 haplotypes for the 16 Y-STR markers were detected and, of these, 886 haplotypes were unique. The most frequent haplotype was found in 22 Japanese males. The haplotype diversity was 0.9992, indicating a high potential for differentiating between male individuals. There were 10 haplotypes with no allele detected at the DYS448 marker. Thus, the presence of such atypical haplotypes should be noted, when DNA typing results obtained from degraded DNA samples and/or DNA mixture samples from more than one male individual are being interpreted.     

A newly designed apparatus for testing blood levels of fuel vapor

An apparatus for exposure of laboratory animals to fuel vapor was designed, manufactured and set up for routine experiments. Gasoline was vaporized by warming and was introduced into a series of chambers in which the concentration was regulated and stabilized, using air pumps. Concentration of the vapor in a chamber was controlled and experiments on rats showed a positive correlation between blood levels and vapor concentration at the time of exposure. A case of suicide by gasoline poisoning was briefly described.     

Identification of human hair stained with oxidation hair dyes by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis.

This paper describes the gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GCMS) analysis of oxidation hair dyes from human hair. Diamines from the dyes were directly extracted from the hair in basic solution and aminophenols were extracted after neutralization. Both extracts were derivatised with trifluoroacetic anhydride and analysed by GCMS. Five components of oxidation hair dyes namely, p-phenylenediamine, toluene-2,5-diamine, o-aminophenol, m-aminophenol and p-aminophenol were clearly identified, whilst no other compounds originating from the hair dyes were detected. The presence and relative amounts of these dye components from hair extracts may assist in the discrimination of human hair especially in cases involving forensic science.     

Simple and simultaneous analysis of fenfluramine, amphetamine and methamphetamine in whole blood by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after headspace-solid phase microextraction and derivatization

A simple and sensitive method for the simultaneous analysis of fenfluramine, amphetamine and methamphetamine in whole blood was developed using a headspace-solid phase microextraction (SPME) and derivatization. A 0.5 g whole blood sample, 5 microl d(5)-methamphetamine (50 micrig/ml) as an internal standard, and 0.5 ml sodium hydroxide (1 M) were placed into a 12 ml vial, and sealed rapidly with a silicone septum and an aluminum cap. Immediately after the vial was heated to 70 degrees C in an aluminium block heater, the needle of the SPME device was inserted through the septum of the vial, and the extraction fiber was exposed in the headspace for 15 min. First, heptafluorobutyric anhydride was injected into the injection port of the GC-MS, and the compounds extracted by the fiber were then desorbed and derivatized simultaneously by exposing the fiber in the injection port. The calibration curves, using an internal standard method, demonstrated good linearity throughout the concentration range from 0.01 to 1.0 microg/g. The detection limits of this method were 5.0 ng/g for fenfluramine and methamphetamine, and 10 ng/g for amphetamine. No interferences were found, and the time for analysis was about 30 min for one sample. This method was applied to a suicide case in which the victim ingested fenfluramine. Fenfluramine was detected in the blood sample collected from the victim at the concentration of 7.7 microg/g.     

A D19S433 primer binding site mutation and the frequency in Japanese of the silent allele it causes

Short tandem repeat studies are powerful tools for parentage analysis and for identification of missing persons, victims of murder, and victims of mass fatalities when reference samples are unavailable. The primer in the Identifiler kit failed to amplify an allele at the D19S433 locus, producing a silent ("null") allele. The causal mutation is a base change (G>A) 32 nucleotides downstream from the 3' end of the AAGG repeats. The silent alleles are problematical in parentage analysis because when transmitted, they can cause a parent-child inconsistency that is unrelated to Mendelian genetics. The inconsistency is sometimes termed an "apparent opposite homozygosity" and it produces false evidence of nonparentage. Alternative primers were designed to amplify the D19S433 locus alleles and they detect the silent allele. Frequencies of the (no longer) silent allele were determined to be 0.0114 in 176 people from Shizuoka (Honshu) and 0.0128 in 156 people from Okinawa.