Prospects for Managed Democracy in Russia

The 2003 Duma election resulted in the victory of the party of power, thereby strengthening managed democracy in Russia. Since then, political trends in Russia's regions and rural politics provide considerable evidence of the increasing ability of pro-Kremlin forces to maximise their electoral fortunes in national contests. These political trends make it likely that United Russia will not only emerge as the dominant party in the 2007 Duma election, but will provide the Kremlin and Putin's successor with a compliant lower house. The outcome is that Putin's successor will find the political infrastructure to continue managed democracy.     

Hague Case Law — Latest Development

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Toxicologic findings in the USS Iowa disaster.

The toxicologic results from the 47 victims of the explosion on the USS Iowa are presented. Good correlation between carboxyhemoglobin saturations and cause of death was found. There were no correlations between blood cyanide concentrations and causes of death. Volatile analysis suggested postmortem ethanol production rather than antemortem ethanol ingestion. No drugs except nicotine were detected in any of the victims.     

Sudden and unexpected death of a 6-month-old baby with silent heart failure due to anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.

A 6-month-old girl died suddenly without any previous symptoms of heart failure. Autopsy examination showed cardiomegaly (97 g) with a severely fibrotized myocardium. The left coronary artery was originating from the pulmonary artery. Histologically, the myocardium showed myocardial infarcts of different ages, as well as grossly thickened arterial branches due to increased flow in left-right shunt. We suggest that rare anomalies of the coronary arteries should be considered in the autopsies of suspected sudden infant death syndrome cases.     

Law enforcement information sharing: A Florida case study

Many attempts have been made over the last several decades to improve communication among law enforcement agencies. This article is a case study of a “low-level” data sharing project in Florida that could serve as a national model. The Florida Law Enforcement Data Sharing Consortium is a partnership between the University of Central Florida and more than one hundred law enforcement agencies. It offers an inexpensive, yet technically advanced alternative to the proprietary data sharing model. Its distributed architecture was endorsed by the Markle Foundation, the 9/11 Commission, and the 2004 National Security Act. Civil liberties concerns raised by this and other types of data sharing projects are discussed.     

Organic impurity profiling of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) tablets seized in The Netherlands.

In this study, a new method was developed for the impurity profiling of illicit MDMA tablets. The extraction efficiency, linearity, repeatability and reproducibility of the method were evaluated. Eighty two MDMA tablets coming from presumed unrelated large seizures in 2004 (n >500 tablets) were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to assess the discrimination power of the method. The latter was found to be practical, robust, relatively easy to perform, highly discriminative and yielding good chromatography. In addition, some new impurities were detected and identified. Their chemical structures and mass spectra are reported.     

The status of the extracorporeal embryo in German law (Part I).

The legislator, in the German Federal Republic, has opted for a specific legal solution in relation to the protection of the embryo. Carola Müller, in this article, describes this regulation as well as the reasons that have led to its adoption. The article finishes with an exposition of the existing social discussion in German society and the effect that the law has had.     

Can information change public opinion? Another test of the Marshall hypotheses

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall offered his opinion regarding the utility of public opinion polls as a tool for assessing the “evolving standards of decency” regarding capital punishment. His arguments became known as the Marshall hypotheses and spawned a considerable body of empirical testing. The three Marshall hypotheses are: (1) support for capital punishment is inversely associated with knowledge about it, (2) exposure to information about capital punishment produces sentiments in opposition to capital punishment, but (3) exposure to information about capital punishment will have no impact on those who support it for retributive reasons. The results of previous tests of these hypotheses were somewhat mixed but supportive. None of these studies, however, examined the effects of change in knowledge levels with changes, if any, in death penalty attitudes and beliefs as needed for a more complete test of the Marshall hypotheses. The present study addressed this shortcoming. The results provided mixed support for these three hypotheses. That is, death penalty supporters were somewhat less informed than death penalty opponents; exposure to death penalty information and knowledge gains tended to be associated with attitudinal change in a directions suggested by these hypotheses; but, retributivists' attitudes toward and beliefs about capital punishment were not any more resistant to change than were the attitudes and beliefs of non-retributivists.