New Paths in International Criminal Justice?: The Internal Rules of the Cambodian Extraordinary Chambers

The Internal Rules of the Cambodian Extraordinary Chambers adoptedin June 2007 provide some insight into how a non-adversarialsystem might work in the context of a hybrid tribunal with jurisdictionover both domestic and international crimes. This approach presentsvarious novelties, especially with respect to the pre-trialand trial stages of the proceedings, and provides an exampleof integration into a domestic non-adversarial system of principlesderived from international criminal procedure.     

The Red Swamp Crayfish Procambarus Clarkii (the Louisiana Crayfish) as a Particular Scavenger on a Human Corpse

An 85-year-old man was found deceased floating in an irrigation ditch 18 days after his disappearance. During crime scene investigation, specimens of the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii were found in proximity of the body. The feeding activity of these nonendemic crayfishes contributed to the formation of specific injuries on the body and in the production of a large substance defects inside the corpse. The aim of this paper was to illustrate the scavenging activity of P. clarkii on a human body and highlight the potential postmortem artefacts caused by this species. This is the first report on a real case of postmortem injuries produced by P. clarkii crayfishes on a submerged human body. So far, crustaceans are not considered useful for the estimation of the minimum postmortem interval. However, the important modifications on the corpses deriving from the activity of these animals should be kept in consideration.     

The Effect of More Demanding Public Services Quality Standards on the Organization of Service Providers

ABSTRACT

This research aims to investigate the effects that more demanding quality standards have on the organization of public service providers. A hypothetical research model showing the relationship between the quality of public service and the organization of public service providers was tested through a survey carried out with managers of water companies located in Italy. Results show that the new regulations impact on the organization in terms of resources and the performance management system, while the degree of centralization (i.e., the hierarchy of authority and degree of participation in decision-making) is not significantly related to the more demanding quality standards.     

Kinder an die Macht?

In order to illuminate the consequences of extra votes for parents, this article looks at the questions of whether parents differ in their party choice from younger people and of what the overall results would have been like for German Bundestag elections in 1994–2005. The results can be summarised as follows: (1) In simple comparisons, parents and childless people have not differed a lot in their party preferences since the first half of the 1990s. However, a more complex analysis of the 2005 elections brought to light systematic differences that are contingent on voters’ age and on their region. (2) The aggregate results of the 1994 to 2005 elections would have looked very much the same. Thus, no party would profit per se in electoral terms from the introduction of the proxy vote for children.     

Genetic analysis of the skeletal remains attributed to Francesco Petrarca

We report on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of the supposed remains of Francesco Petrarca exhumed in November 2003, from the S. Maria Assunta church, in Arquà Padua (Italy) where he died in 1374. The optimal preservation of the remains allowed the retrieval of sufficient mtDNA for genetic analysis. DNA was extracted from a rib and a tooth and mtDNA sequences were determined in multiple clones using the strictest criteria currently available for validation of ancient DNA sequences, including independent replication. MtDNA sequences from the tooth and rib were not identical, suggesting that they belonged to different individuals. Indeed, molecular gender determination showed that the postcranial remains belonged to a male while the skull belonged to a female. Historical records indicated that the remains were violated in 1630, possibly by thieves. These results are consistent with morphological investigations and confirm the importance of integrating molecular and morphological approaches in investigating historical remains.     

Extraterritorial laws for cross-border reproductive care: the issue of legal diversity

Certain states impose restrictions on assisted reproduction because they believe such acts to be morally wrong. However, people who live in a state with restrictive legislation always have the option of going abroad to evade that law. Turkey and several states in Australia have enacted extraterritorial laws to stop forms of reproductive travelling for law evasion. Within the EU, the European Convention of Human Rights would normally remove the need for extraterritorial laws. However, because of the wide margin of appreciation allowed by the European Court of Human Rights, legal diversity on these matters persists. In the case of S.H. and Others v. Austria, moral justification, consistency and proportionality were introduced by the First Section to rule on Member States' legislation on medically assisted reproduction. The First Section mostly ruled on the effectiveness of the law, while the focus should be on the validity of the normative aim. The Grand Chamber reversed this judgement based on the margin of appreciation doctrine, using it as a pragmatic substitute for a substantial decision. In general, the E.U.'s interests of harmonization and unification are at odds with the right to national identity of individual states in areas of contested morality.     

A comparative evaluation of competition law, policy, and innovation

‘A book may be good for nothing; or there may be onlyone thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?’(Samuel Johnson) This section is dedicated to the review of ideas, articles,books, films and other media. It will include replies (and rejoinders)to articles, the evaluation of new ideas or proposals, and reviewsof books and articles both directly and indirectly related tointellectual property law. Keeping apace with technological development, while simultaneouslyproviding a sound legal framework that ensures both legal     

The European regulation of corporate social responsibility: The role of beneficiaries' intermediaries

Intended beneficiaries have an undeniable relevance to regulation. However, current research has focused mainly on the two‐party relationship between rulemaking and rule‐taking. We attempt to fill this gap by exploring the formal and informal roles that beneficiaries’ intermediaries played in co‐creating European Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rules and associated practices between 2000 and 2017. By linking recent conceptualizations of regulatory intermediaries with the literature on critical political CSR, we offer a more dynamic and contextualized understanding of the roles of beneficiaries’ intermediaries. Specifically, we identify six micro‐dynamics through which they influenced the regulatory process. Notably, our findings highlight how the convergence of interests between three groups of beneficiaries’ intermediaries – the Non‐governmental organization–Investor–Union nexus – had a key role in reshaping CSR rules. We conclude that, in the European context, stronger and better‐coordinated beneficiaries’ intermediaries are crucial in order to achieve more effective corporate conduct regulation.     

Industrious rebels and captains of deterrence: defiance interpreted through a Veblenian reformulation of strain theory

Strain and Defiance are criminological theories that lay ambivalent emphasis on the notion of “rebellion,” which is to say that they both regard mutinous behavior as being motivated by positive or negative ends alike. Individuals rebel, say, by stealing in order to achieve higher status (economic strain); or they may violently antagonize authority as a way to “salvage dignity” in an environment in which they have no social stake whatsoever (defiance). Conversely, they may responsibly protest to oppose blind consumerism (strain); or they may civilly disobey racist laws (political defiance). It is here argued that both theories may be construed as special cases of a general problem, which Thorstein Veblen had already diagnosed in 1899. Veblen depicted social dynamics as a battle between the deterring forces of conservatism, which are animated by an overpowering predatory-pecuniary instinct, and those of progressivism, which rely, on the other hand, on an (ever more enfeebled) instinct of cooperation and workmanship. In this Veblenian model, civil defiance represents a challenge of the peaceable middle-class to the rule of the elite, whereas economically-strained defiance is the expression of the attempt of (middle to low) classes possessed by a pecuniary drive to emulate the status of the elite itself.     

Ultra-trace analysis of illicit drugs from transfer of an electrostatic lift

This article introduces a method of collecting and analysing drug residues that integrates both electrostatic lifting and nanomanipulation-coupled to nanospray ionization mass spectrometry. The application of this hyphenated technique exhibits a useful means of collection and extraction of drug residues with ease and efficiency along with decreased limits of detection. From this method, it will be shown how increased sensitivity of analysis and lower limits of detection for drug analysis can be achieved. The same principles that allow lifting of dust prints by electrostatic lifting can be applied to lifting drug residues. Probing of the drug residues by nanomanipulation occurs directly from the lift, which provides a great platform for extraction. Nanomanipulation-coupled to nanospray ionization-mass spectrometry has been used for the extraction of trace analytes in previous experiments and is known as a very sensitive technique for the detection of ultra-trace residue. This method will demonstrate the electrostatic lifting of drug residue particles from a surface followed by extraction and ionization with nanomanipulation-nanospray ionization. The utility of this novel methodology allows for a more productive analysis when presented with ultra-trace amounts of sample.