‘Legal Critique’: Elements for a Genealogy

While teachers and students of law tend to take for granted that critical legal campaigning originates in the late 20th century, many historians suggest that the summons of law and its state of accusation before the tribunal of critique dates back to the days of the Enlightenment. I am arguing, in contrast, that, in the West, the history of legal critique is by no means shorter than the history of law; that Western legal evolution embraces and supposes anti-legalism or ‘antinomianism’ since the days of early Christianity and throughout; that, conversely, an adequate assessment of Christianity must stress its character as an anti-institutional, anti-legal, and anti-religious campaign; that the standard view of Humanism, Enlightenment, and Modernity, which tends to foreground their antagonism to Christian institutions and to deny their nature as instantiations of the Christian campaign, misses the crucial point both about them and about Christianity (and, implicitly at least, about geopolitics); that key concepts of political modernity thrust their roots, not only and not most importantly into Political Theology, but rather into Saint Paul’s legal ‘new deal’; that, far from giving rise, as intended, to a deactivation of law, Paul’s action has resulted, instead, in the interlinking build-up of a militant denial of law on the one hand, and an emerging intensification of law on the other hand. Let the reader be warned that the article strings together a bouquet of snap-shots from a work in progress.     

Pathogenesis of conjunctival petechiae

Conjunctival petechiae from 15 cases (cause of death: different natural and unnatural) were analysed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) in order to visualize the kind of the damage within the vessel wall (diapedesis versus rhexis). The pathomorphological findings with multiple ruptures of vessels appearing to be filled to bursting point define the conjunctival petechiae as a rhexis-haemorrhage.     

Death due to neurogenic shock following gastric rupture in an anorexia nervosa patient

We report a case of fatal gastric rupture discovered after death, which developed due to a bulimic attack of a 19-year-old woman suffering from anorexia nervosa. An autopsy revealed an acute gastric dilatation and rupture without commonly observed ischemic damage of gastric wall structures. However, it may be difficult to determine the cause of death despite the marked findings. The death as a consequence of neurogenic shock accounts for all the results of gross examination and histologic analysis. This case is the first reported case of fatal gastric rupture of an anorectic patient discovered after death.     

Electrospray-ionization MS/MS library of drugs as database for method development and drug identification

An ESI MS/MS library of 800 compounds has been developed and a collection of data is now available for Analyst 1.4 and higher. Compounds include forensically important drugs, such as illegal drugs, some deuterated analogues, hypnotics, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, neuroleptics, antidepressants and many others. For setting up the library of product ion spectra, 20-200 ng of the compounds have been injected either by flow injection or via a short LC-column, the precursor ions were chosen from the Q1 scan spectra, and product ion spectra were generated by CID in the collision cell using three different collision energies (20, 35 and 50 eV). Three spectra of each compound have been collected and compound names, CAS numbers, formulas and molecular weights have been added in the database, which has been generated by the Analyst software. The library can be used for compound identification during general unknown screening analysis by combination of Q1 scan techniques and subsequent MS/MS analysis in a second analytical run. Quantitative procedures for multi drug analysis using Multiple Reaction Monitoring can be established by selection of product ions and suitable collision energies from the library. For publication of the spectra, PDF-files have been generated and can be viewed on-line as supplementary data or from the website in alphabetical order: (supplementary data, should be made available via ELSEVIER-WEBSITE or via ).     

Subgaleal hematoma in child abuse

The mother brought her 31/2-year-old son to a paediatric clinic as his forehead was swollen and bluish in appearance. She was unable to give any explanation for this lesion. Clinically it was noted that a very visible and also palpable, doughy swelling was present both in the forehead as well as the hard skull areas. Some hours later, a massive bilateral periocular haematoma appeared. Whilst X-rays were unable to provide any diagnostic help, the sonographic examination of the skull carried out on the same day revealed an extensive subgaleal haematoma. This phenomenon is described in radiological literature as "scalping" and is caused by the use of considerable, blunt violence against the head (shear stresses, e.g. by pulling at the hair). The mother's boyfriend later confessed forceful pulling of the hair.     

Application of ultrasonography to postmortem examination. Diagnosis of pericardial tamponade

In postmortem examination, it is difficult to diagnose pericardial tamponade in a dead body from the findings of conventional external examination alone. However, ultrasonography is a common diagnostic tool for pericardial tamponade in clinical practice. We studied the postmortem diagnosis of pericardial tamponade at external examination level by applying an ultrasonographic device. The ultrasonographic findings were compared with the conventional autopsy findings. Among 455 cases of forensic autopsy in Hamburg and Tokyo conducted within 5 days after death, we successfully diagnosed 11 cases of pericardial tamponade by ultrasound imaging prior to autopsy, and failed to diagnose pericardial tamponade in only two cases. In addition, 79 cases of external examination conducted at the Tokyo Medicinal Examiner's Office were also examined with ultrasonography, and we diagnosed three cases of pericardial tamponade and five cases of pericardial effusion. The differences in ultrasonographic findings between tamponade and effusion were relatively clear. Although autopsy provides definitive evidence for the cause of death, sometimes autopsy cannot be performed due to some social factors. In such cases, conventional external examination alone cannot establish a cause of death by pericardial tamponade, and application of diagnostic imaging technique will be helpful. While CT and/or MRI may provide more detailed information than ultrasound imaging, these techniques require special equipment, room and specialist, and most of all involves high cost, which is perhaps the most important consideration in the present atmosphere of medical cost containment. On the other hand, the ultrasonographic devices we use are compact, and can be used directly at the scene of death. Postmortem application of ultrasonography may be a valuable adjunct in the work of medical examiners and forensic pathologists.     

Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey?

In Turkey, traffic accidents are the major causes of mortality and morbidity. According to the statistics made by Turkish Security Headquarters in the year 2000, 7500 people are killed in the traffic accidents every year. Drivers are mostly blamed for the traffic accidents. Tired, weary, sleepy and absentminded driving are common reasons for traffic accidents due to many reasons. Among these reasons mental and reflex conditions of drivers are significant. Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common zoonoses throughout the world. In immunocomponent adults, toxoplasmosis has no clinical signs or symptoms and infection in such people can only be detected by serological examinations. This kind of latent or dormant toxoplasmosis can be located in neural or muscular tissues and cause prolonged reaction times of the muscles. Extended reaction times also lead to deceleration of the reflexes which could be a major cause of the traffic accidents. By the light of this situation, the incidence of Toxoplasma gondii is investigated among the population who were involved in a traffic accident while driving. A total of 185 people (100 men and 85 women), aged between 21 and 40 years, living in Izmir and Manisa cities, were enrolled in the study group (SG) during a period of 6 months time. Their informed consents were taken initially and the laboratory tests of all these individuals related to blood alcohol levels after the accidents were found negative. The control group (CG) were also consisted 185 people (95 men and 90 women), residents of the same region, in same age group. The people in CG had no clinical signs or symptoms concerning toxoplasmosis. All collected sera were examined using a commercial IgG and IgM ELISA kit. According to the results of serological tests of the SG, 45 (24.32%) sera were IgG positive, six (3.24%) were IgM positive and 10 (5.40%) were both IgG and IgM positive. On the other hand in CG, 12 (6.48%) people found IgG positive, one (0.54%) found IgM positive and three (1.62%) found both IgG and IgM positive. This data was considered as statistically significant by Yates corrected chi2-test. (p < 0.05). In conclusion, there is an increased risk for traffic accidents for drivers owing to these high seroprevalence of latent toxoplasmosis. Prospective studies are still necessary on this subject but latent toxoplasmosis of drivers should be taken into account while developing strategies to prevent traffic accidents in Turkey.     

Homicides with postmortal emasculation of the victim

Among criminal offences with mutilation of the genitals the number of cases with isolated removal of the testicles is small. This paper describes two homicides with postmortal emasculation of the victim from the autopsy material of the Berlin Institute of Legal Medicine (Humboldt University). In both of them no further mutilation had been committed. Yet the perpetrator's motivation was different in the two cases. In one case the cut-off testicles had been concealed in the victim's mouth, an act never described anywhere before. Obviously the offender wanted to mislead the police in their investigations. In the second case the motivation was of a homosexual nature and was thus comparable to previously described cases.     

Fatal blunt trauma of the larynx in a child

We report an autopsy case of an 11-year-old girl who suffered mechanical asphyxia from falling off the metal bars in the playground. This autopsy case is interesting because of the atypical trauma and lesions. To our knowledge there has been no similiar published case reports in the forensic literature. The young age of the victim, the setting and the pattern of the injuries are rare in a fall at playground by a child.