Towards parliamentarisation of foreign and security policy?

Abstract

It is customary to argue that foreign policy is very much dominated by the executive, with parliaments wielding limited influence. However, with the exception of the US Congress, legislative?executive relations in the realm of foreign and security policy have attracted remarkably little scholarly attention. Drawing on a principal?agent framework, this collection scrutinises the conventional wisdom of ‘executive autonomy’ in foreign affairs, indicating that even though parliaments have arguably become more involved in foreign and security policy over time, any notions of parliamentarisation need to be treated with caution. While expectations of consensus in the name of the national interest continue to play an important role in foreign policy decision-making, the papers highlight the role of party-political contestation structuring parliamentary debates and votes in this increasingly politicised issue area. This introductory paper introduces the analytical framework and hypotheses guiding the contributions in this collection, summarises their main findings and suggests avenues for future research.     

Windenergieanlagen und Freiraumschutz

Zusammenfassung  In Deutschland sind gegenw?rtig über 19.000 Windenergieanlagen installiert. Dies ist klimaschutz- und energiepolitisch zu Recht als Erfolg gewertet worden, hat aber auch erhebliche Konflikte mit dem Immissions-, Natur- und Landschaftsschutz hervorgebracht. Auf die Problemlage hat der Gesetzgeber insbesondere durch Schaffung verbesserter rechtlicher M?glichkeiten für eine r?umliche Konzentration von Windenergieanlagen reagiert. Durch verschiedene h?chstrichterliche Entscheidungen sind die rechtlichen Anforderungen an den Planungsvorbehalt des § 35 Abs. 3 S. 3 BauGB als Korrektiv der gesetzlichen Privilegierung der Errichtung von Windenergieanlagen (§ 35 Abs. 1 Nr. 5 BauGB) mittlerweile in hohem Ma?e pr?zisiert worden. Die M?glichkeiten, das Anliegen des Fl?chensparens auch in die Windenergieplanung zu integrieren, sind aber durch die gegenw?rtige Rechtsetzung noch nicht ausgesch?pft.     

On the concept of the “economic constitution” and the importance of Franz Böhm from the viewpoint of legal history

During its development, the concept of an economic constitution embraced varying elements. At the birth of the Federal Republic, these elements stood in sharp contrast to each other. After World War I Hugo Sinzheimer associated the concept with theGemeinwirtschaft (publicly controlled economy) as an expression of the organized economy of the Weimar Reichsverfassung. Franz Böhm deserves recognition for having cast the idea of competition into legal forms; thus he laid the foundation of our economic order and opened new horizons for the concept of economic constitution.     

ISFG: Recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing

The Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics has taken up the task of establishing the biostatistical recommendations in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards and a previous set of ISFG recommendations specific to the genetic investigations in paternity cases. In the initial set, the PTC recommended that biostatistical evaluations of paternity are based on a likelihood ratio principle – yielding the paternity index, PI. Here, we have made five supplementary biostatistical recommendations. The first recommendation clarifies and defines basic concepts of genetic hypotheses and calculation concerns needed to produce valid PIs. The second and third recommendations address issues associated with population genetics (allele probabilities, Y-chromosome markers, mtDNA, and population substructuring) and special circumstances (deficiency/reconstruction and immigration cases), respectively. The fourth recommendation considers strategies regarding genetic evidence against paternity. The fifth recommendation covers necessary documentation, reporting details and assumptions underlying calculations. The PTC strongly suggests that these recommendations should be adopted by all laboratories involved in paternity testing as the basis for their biostatistical analysis.     

Ernst-W. Diesel/Hans-Peter Lühr (Hrsg.): Lagerung und Transport wassergef?hrdender Stoffe

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Corporatism in Crisis: Stability and Change of Social Partnership in Austria

While recent developments in Western Europe provide numerous examples of the instability and decay of corporatist arrangements in the face of economic crisis, Austrian social partnership still exhibits remarkable stability. The article tries to explain this stability of corporatist politics in Austria. The Austrian case is also used to demonstrate some limitations of the academic literature on the breakdown of corporatism. However, stability in the Austrian case does not mean that nothing has changed. Changes have occurred within the existing institutional framework. Two main factors in the transformation of Austrian social partnership are pointed out, namely socio-cultural and political changes. Finally, some future perspectives of Austrian corporatism are outlined.     

Carboxyhaemoglobin and methaemoglobin findings in burnt bodies

The often observed absence of carboxyhaemoglobin in burnt (charred) bodies is rediscussed in the light of two new cases in which the inhalation of very hot gases obviously led to reflex breathing and circulation arrest. (Macro and microscopic evaluations of the upper respiratory tract can give significant information as to whether a person was still alive at the time of the fire outbreak.) In the cadaver blood of people who survived a given period after a fire, high methaemoglobin values (up to 37%) were found. This was caused by the inhalation of nitrogen oxides that were produced by burning plastic.