Accountability for Delegated and Implementing Acts after the Treaty of Lisbon

The comitology regime, the committee‐based system developed as a mechanism for controlling the Commission's exercise of its powers to implement EU measures, has been subject to severe criticism on grounds of lack of accountability and transparency. The system has recently been fundamentally reformed by means of the new Implementing Acts Regulation, which came into force on 1 March 2011. This paper investigates whether the new rules are sufficient to remedy accountability deficits as regards implementing acts and concludes that as far as accountability to the Member States is concerned, their control powers have remained static. In addition, the new‐delegated acts procedure introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon grants the European Parliament (EP) more control powers, although the EP's gains are more modest than they might appear. This change has come at the cost of reduced control powers for Member States as well as lowered standards of transparency for the public.     

The State,Identity, and the National Question in China and Japan,by Germaine A. Hoston

Abstract

This very dense book represents a significant effort to come to terms with the “national question” in radical discourse—the meaning of the nation in relation to, or in opposition to, the state—through the prism of the adoption of Marxist ideas in China and Japan in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is a critical problem inasmuch as issues of state-building in China and of state hegemony in Japan have dominated the recent histories of those two countries.     

COMMENTARY ON "FAMILY BRIDGES: USING INSIGHTS FROM SOCIAL SCIENCE TO RECONNECT PARENTS AND ALIENATED CHILDREN" (WARSHAK, 2010)

This commentary reviews the goals, structure, and content of the intensive educational intervention described by Warshak (2010); raises concerns; considers the meaning of "success" in child alienation cases; and makes suggestions for future research. Titled Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships, the program is a rigorous and disciplined approach designed to help participants repair severely derailed parent–child relationships. Family Bridges uses evidence-based instruction principles to maximize learning and create a safe atmosphere enabling the alienated child(ren) and rejected parent to be, and work, together. The multimedia materials selected for the 4-day program draw from social science research and focus on multiple and universal processes by which distortions of perception, memory, and thinking occur; negative stereotype formation; the impact of high conflict on children and parent–child relationships; effective communication and dispute resolution; and parenting skills training. Based on a small and diverse sample of families, Family Bridges demonstrates considerable promise as one type of intervention designed for these severely troubled relationships. Concerns include the cost of the intensive intervention, the absence of a parallel program for the favored parent, and whether the program can be replicated effectively. The family psychology and law fields would benefit significantly from research that evaluates Family Bridges and other educational and therapeutic interventions designed to help alienated children repair and strengthen balanced relationships with both parents.     

Evaluation of the Photodegradation of Crystal Violet upon Light Exposure by Mass Spectrometric and Spectroscopic Methods

Abstract: Crystal violet is a very common dye in ballpoint ink. Recent research suggests that the degradation of triarylmethane dyes gives an indication of the age of a ballpoint pen entry on a document. The main problem for the quantitative evaluation of the degradation is that it is highly dependent on the exposure to light. Moreover additional factors, such as additives and substrate play an important role in this process. The aim of this work is to compare the degradation pathways of the pure dye in water and ethanol upon exposure to xenon light by UV/VIS spectrophotometry and laser desorption ionization. Significant differences have been observed in the products and the kinetics of the degradation. N-demethylation, an expected decomposition process, was found to take place only in aqueous solution and kinetics calculations showed that the degradation occurred 2.5 times faster in ethanol compared to water. The degradation of crystal violet in inks from four ballpoint pens on paper was also studied for entries made over 2–3 years. It was observed that degradation reactions were quenched by the presence of another dye due to competitive absorption. It was also observed that the thickness of a stroke (concentration of ink) influenced the degradation process. In the absence of light only one ballpoint pen showed slight degradation. A better understanding of the influence of the paper, ink composition, and storage conditions is necessary to interpret correctly the age of an ink based on the degradation of dyes.     

Reviews

Carroll Estes and Meredith Minkler, eds.: Critical Perspectives on Aging: The Political and Moral Economy of Growing Old. Amityville, New York: Bay wood Publishing Company, 1991.

Christina Laurell and Mariano Noriega: La salud en la fabrica: estudio sobre la industria siderúrgka en Mexico. Mexico, D.F.: Ediciones Era, 1989.