A new political system

Nomination: Trichotomy or dichotomy? by Arend Lijphart, p.125
Nomination: Semi–presidentialism: A political model at work by Gianfranco Pasquino, p.128
Reflections: The political system of the European Unionby Maurice Duverger, p.137     

Death from Barotrauma Due to Compressed Air: A Medico‐legal Analysis

Lesions of the digestive tract due to barotrauma resulting from compressed air application are not common, are rarely lethal, and largely affect the sigmoid and descending colon. Moreover, their pathogenic mechanism is a topic of discussion because these lesions have multiple characteristics. Here, the authors describe an autoptic case of death from lesions of the ascending and transverse segments, with perforations and bleeding suffusions as well as ischemic areas covered the colonic wall that was extremely thinned, congested, and hemorrhagic, with considerable flattening leading to disappearance of the mucosal folds and with numerous petechial hemorrhages. The pathological framework of lung congestion made it possible to identify the mechanism responsible for this death as depletion of the heart's pumping function, which contributed significantly to the acute respiratory failure due to respiratory distress as well as to reduced mobility of the diaphragm due to intestinal distension. Acute heart failure played an important role in this death.     

Reliability of Craniofacial Superimposition Using Three‐Dimension Skull Model

Craniofacial superimposition is a technique potentially useful for the identification of unidentified human remains if a photo of the missing person is available. We have tested the reliability of the 2D‐3D computer‐aided nonautomatic superimposition techniques. Three‐dimension laser scans of five skulls and ten photographs were overlaid with an imaging software. The resulting superimpositions were evaluated using three methods: craniofacial landmarks, morphological features, and a combination of the two. A 3D model of each skull without its mandible was tested for superimposition; we also evaluated whether separating skulls by sex would increase correct identifications. Results show that the landmark method employing the entire skull is the more reliable one (5/5 correct identifications, 40% false positives [FP]), regardless of sex. However, the persistence of a high percentage of FP in all the methods evaluated indicates that these methods are unreliable for positive identification although the landmark‐only method could be useful for exclusion.     

Book reviews

Parties and Party Systems: A Bibliographic Guide to the Literature on Parties and Party Systems in Europe Since 1945 on CD‐ROM. Edited by Stefano Bartolini, Daniele Caramani and Simon Hug. London: Sage Publications, 1998. £99 (stand alone version), £150 (network version). ISBN 0–7619–5924–6 and ‐6002–3.

Changing Party Systems in Western Europe. Edited by David Broughton and Mark Donovan. London: Pinter, 1998. Pp.xix+315, 2 figures, 13 tables, biblio., index. £55 (cloth); £16.99 (paper). ISBN 1–85567–327–4 and ‐328–48.

The Choice for Europe. Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. By Andrew Moravcsik. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Pp.xii+514, index. £16.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8014–8509–6.

People and Parliament in the European Union: Participation, Democracy, and Legitimacy. By Jean Blondel, Richard Sinnott and Palle Svensson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 287. £40 (cloth). ISBN 0–19–829308–9.

Legitimacy and the European Union. By David Beetham and Christopher Lord. London: Longman, 1998. Pp.viii +144. £9.99 (paper). ISBN 0–582–30489‐X.

Democracy in Europe: Legitimising Politics in a Non‐State Polity. By Heidrun Abromeit. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998. Pp.ix + 182, bibliog., index. £25 (cloth). ISBN 1–57181–985–1.

Political Theory and the European Union: Legitimacy, constitutional choice and citizenship. Edited by Albert Weale and Michael Nentwich. London: Routledge, 1998. Pp.xiii + 205. £55 (cloth). ISBN 0–415–17313–2.

Germany, France and the Integration of Europe: A Realist Interpretation. Thomas Pedersen. London: Pinter, 1998. Pp. viii + 221, bibliog., index. £40. ISBN 1–85567–537–4.

Recreating Europe: The European Union's Policy towards Central and Eastern Europe. By Alan Mayhew. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xxi + 403, 2 maps, 7 figures, 37 tables, bibliog., index. £45 (cloth); £15.95 (paper). ISBN 0–521–63086‐X and ‐63897–6.

Enlarging the EU Eastwards. By Heather Grabbe and Kirsty Hughes. London: Pinter for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1998. Pp.x + 130, 1 map, 16 tables, 4 figures, bibliog., index. £27.50 (cloth); £11.99 (paper). ISBN 1–85567–525–0 and ‐526–9.

Divided Europe: The New Domination of the East. By Adam Burgess. London: Pluto Press, 1997. Pp.222, bibliog., index. £40 (cloth); £13.99 (paper). ISBN 0–7453–1262–4 and ‐1257–8.

The European People's Party: Origins and Development. By Thomas Jansen. New York: St Martin's Press; London: Macmillan. 1998. pp.xiv + 206. 2 annexes, bibliog., index. £45. ISBN 0–312–21062–0 and 333–72057–1

The Italian Guillotine. Operation Clean Hands and the Overthrow of the First Republic. By S. H. Burnett and L. Mantovani, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Pp.xii + 332, chronology, The Cast of Characters, index. £45 (cloth); £15.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8476–8877–1 and ‐8878‐X.

The French Civil Service. By M. Luc Rouban. Paris: La Documentation Francaise, 1998. Pp.118, bibliog. NP. ISBN 9–782110–038777.     

The difficult issue of age assessment on pedo-pornographic material

The issue of juvenile pornography has seen an increase in the past few years of the number of expert opinions requested to forensic pathologists, paediatricians and other various experts within the forensic and medical fields concerning the age of represented individuals. Regardless of the entity of the problem, no actual method exists which can allow us to give an objective and scientific answer, particularly in the postpubertal stage. Using parameters related to sexual maturation can be very dangerous. Nonetheless some experts still insist with similar types of “expertises”. This study aims at verifying the ability of different experts in assessing age of postpubertal individuals represented in pornographic material. Results underline the difficulties and major uncertainties of age evaluation by visual observation of photographic material particularly when the subjects have reached the sexual maturation stage – and therefore in verifying whether the individual is above or below 18 years of age (an important age limit for most European countries as far as this type of crime is concerned). Furthermore the study stresses the need both to search for an alternate approach and to apply extreme caution in judicial evaluation.