Author Index of Volume 16

Authors Index

Author Index of Volume 16     

Assessment of post-mortem submersion interval using total aquatic decomposition scores of drowned human cadavers

Investigating drowning-related deaths remains a significant problem for forensic personnel all over the world. The previously published decomposition scoring method like the total aquatic decomposition (TAD) score promises to estimate the correct post-mortem submersion interval (PMSI) in aquatic habitats through the assessment and calculation of the decomposition rate and accumulated degree days (ADD). The current study comprised of 53 drowned death cases belonging to various districts of Haryana from May 2016 to August 2017. The regression and Pearson's correlation indicated a significant correlation between the TAD scores and the actual ADD (calculated through water temperatures) (r² = 0.917) and between the actual and the estimated ADDs (calculated through TAD scores used by Heaton et al. [21]) (r = 0.9585). The results indicated that the estimated ADD tends to over predict the PMSI compared to the actual ADD. It is further confirmed by paired t-test, which showed the mean of actual ADD (mean = 349) to be significantly lower than the mean of estimated ADD (mean = 663). Moreover, these methods will help forensic investigators and researchers formulate region-specific regression equations for PMSI estimation.     

Negotiating the Draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism: Major Bones of Contention

Negotiating a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorismhas been a long and intense process. The legal regime to becreated by this instrument has significant legal and politicalconsequences. The main issues, which would frame such consequences,are how to define the crime and decide the scope of applicationof such a Convention. These have proven to be problematic, asnegotiators have revisited issues that have been a source ofdebate for years, even centuries. Who has the right to participatein an armed conflict without being described as a terroristby the Convention? To what extent do we allow the overlap betweeninternational humanitarian law and the Convention's law, ifany? Do military forces have the right to be outside the scopeof the Convention even in peace time? These are the main questionsthat the negotiators have been trying to answer in order toreach a compromise that will satisfy all parties. If genuinepolitical will exists to conclude the Comprehensive Convention,there is no absence of legal answers that can guarantee an effectivelaw enforcement instrument against international terrorism,without infringing on legal rights and positions under internationallaw.