Fundamental Rights: An Unsettling EU Competence

For many years, fundamental rights were primarily protected in the European Union (EU) legal order in a negative way; EU institutions and Member States should not infringe fundamental rights when acting within the scope of EU law. However, since the Treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon, the EU has gained greater competences to develop fundamental rights standards, and new mechanisms for the protection of these standards have emerged. Although these new instruments enhance the mandate of the EU regarding fundamental rights protection, they also trigger a number of important questions. They are capable of calling into question, to an unprecedented extent, sensitive domestic policy areas through a rights-based process of Europeanization. Furthermore, the EU regime for the protection of fundamental rights is increasingly difficult to contain within the limits of the traditional principle of attributed competences that was initially designed to circumscribe the process of European integration. Both types of questioning trigger significant resistances at the EU as well as national level.     

Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome: Epidemiological and Morphological Characteristics in Thai Autopsy Cases

With limited knowledge on epidemiological and morphological characteristics of sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome (SUNDS), this study was aimed to identify such data in Thai SUNDS autopsy cases. All the cases were men and nondrug abusers aged 20–49 years old. Most cases were originated in the Northeastern region of Thailand. Half of them were found dead from midnight to 6 a.m., with a peak time at 2 a.m. The death rate was relatively higher in May and June. Most SUNDS cases were blue‐collar workers (93.2%) and nonsmokers (60%), with a normal BMI (72.1%). Approximately one‐fifth of the cases had detectable blood alcohol concentrations. Symptoms before death were respiratory difficulty, seizures, and urinary incontinence. Their mean heart weight was 329.8 ± 35.1 g. Their lungs (88.6%) had some degree of congestion. Acute pancreatitis was not found in these SUNDS cases, and approximately half (40.9%) of the cases had their gastric content <100 mL.