Congressional Voting on Term Limits

Between 1990 and 1995,twenty-three states unilaterally imposedterm limits on their own delegations toCongress. In 1995 the House ofRepresentatives defeated a constitutionalamendment that would have limited the termsfor all of Congress. Only weeks later, theSupreme Court struck down the individualstate laws. In 1997 the House againbrought the issue to a vote, which alsofailed. This paper models congressionalvoting on term limits with a simple gamewithin an interest-group theory withlegislators as imperfect agents ofconstituents. The game foremost predictsthat members from term-limited states wouldbe more likely to support term limits inthe first vote but no more likely on thesecond vote. The empirical section employsprobit, multinomial logit, and orderedprobit maximum likelihood estimations toconfirm the stated hypotheses. Among otherresults, in particular both the joint andconditional probability of a `yea' on thefirst vote and a subsequent `nay' on thesecond vote is higher for members fromstates that had unilaterally self-imposedterm limits. The results are robust tomodel specification, estimator, andalternative sampling. Implications areproposed in the concluding comments.     

The 14/2007 Law on Biomedical Research: comments on ethical and scientific aspects]

The Spanish Law on biomedical investigation is analyzed from the scientific and ethical points of view. In the author's opinion, some terms used in the text in order to avoid ethical and legal conflicts are not right from the biological point of view.     

From corruption to extortion: Conceptualization of post-communist corruption

Moral outrage and lack of comparison distorts the understanding of the natureand politically determined functions of governmental corruption in post-communist transition. As post-communist societies move towards open market systems and corruption is no longer limited to the public sector, politics is transformed into a potent tool for illegal transactions. The political structureitself creates corrupt practices that become a structural feature of transition societies. This article offers first a critical discussion of both moral theories of corruption and the thesis that posits a link between corruption and democracy deficit in post-communist countries. Subsequently, it sketches a neo-functionalist approach that puts corruption in a specific social context.With respect to East/Central Europe, corruption is presented as a betrayal ofpublic trust that serves specific requirements of an emerging ``extortioniststate.' These requirements relate to the expansion of extortion opportunitiesand their institutionalization into a semblance of a Tule of law system.     

Outstanding ethical-legal issues on biobanks. An overview on the regulations of the Member States of the Eurobiobank project.

EuroBiobank (EBB) was created in 2001. This is a network of European biological banks made up by 7 member States. The purpose of the network is to ease the access to the biological resources of the human being in patients who suffer uncommon diseases. This study deals mainly with the ethical-legal debate that has arisen in those States, as well as the existing legal regulation and the proposed recommendations for its possible solution. Likewise, there is a special mention about the informed consent, the possible use in the future of the samples in relation to its commercial use as industrial property rights and to Directive 2004/03 that was adopted by the European Parliament 31 March, 2004.     

Experimentation with extra embryos in Spain: comment on the 45/2003 Law that modifies the 35/1988 Law on assisted reproduction techniques]

The 45/2003 Spanish Act tries to solve the problem of the cryoconserved human embryos produced in in vitro fertilization (IVF) programmes. The new law, which modifies the 35/1988 Act on Artificial Reproduction Techniques, is analyzed from the scientific, ethical and legal points of view.     

Constructing alternatives to globalisation: strengthening tradition through innovation

With the inability of international economic integration to create opportunities for important segments of society, many Mexicans are searching for ways to forge their own alternatives. These strategies are the concrete manifestations of the realisation that the ‘mainstream’ path of the search for proletarian employment is no longer viable and that a return to traditional forms of cooperation, organised around mechanisms for ecosystem management, might offer greater security and a better quality of life. People are finding ways to strengthen their communities, to ensure that their families can remain in the rural areas as part of dynamic communities searching for a new relationship to their regions, as well as to the nation of which they wish to continue to be a part. This article illustrates this process with an analysis of a project that focuses on creating a new product—low-fat pork—that can command a premium price in the market, and in the process contribute to strengthening a community, providing new opportunities for women, and improving environmental management.