L’Etat face au défi numérique

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Virtual autopsy and forensic identification-practical application: a report of one case

The body of an unidentified elderly woman was found trapped in a floodgate. Prior to autopsy, full-body multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was performed for study of bone lesions and cause of death. Age was estimated by analysis of the sternal end of the fourth rib and of the pubic symphyseal medial articular surfaces. The results were then compared with the autopsy findings. MSCT was superior to autopsy in diagnosis of traumatic bone lesions and also revealed dental anomalies and signs of drowning. Age estimation gave a similar result for both methods. This case report illustrates the potential value of MSCT for medico-legal investigations of death: diagnosis of injuries, possibility of determining the cause of death, and anthropological study in order to estimate age or to visualize features likely to enable identification of a corpse.     

The Psychological Impact on Police Officers of Being First Responders to Completed Suicides

When a suicide is completed, police officers are often among the first responders. Little attention has been paid to the emotional and psychological impact on the police officer in this specific situation. This study examines the effects encounters with completed suicides have on the emotional and psychological well-being of the police officer. This is a qualitative study, which intends to bring alive the feelings, thoughts, actions, choices, and challenges of police officers who have encountered completed suicides as imparted through participants' stories. Interviews were done with eight police officers. In addition, interviews were done with a coroner, a police chaplain, and a police psychologist to add some unique perspectives to the police officers’ experiences of encountering completed suicides. Interviews were done in a semi-structured, focused format involving an ongoing fine-tuning of questions. The overarching finding reveals the central role played by police culture in shaping how police officers come to perceive this experience, and how they subsequently choose to mediate it. This study identifies ten strategies police officers use to mediate this experience, and discusses the possible psychological consequences of employing each strategy.     

Identity and Foreign Policy: Canada as a Nation of the Americas

Using Canada's relations with the Americas as a case study, this article seeks to better understand the link between identity and foreign policy. It argues that there is a gap between the Canadian government's recent efforts to construct a state identity increasingly turned toward the Americas and Canadians' national identity as it is expressed through public opinion. It concludes that the most plausible explanation for this gap probably has to do with Canada's European cultural heritage. The analysis shows that the projection of national identity into foreign policy is a much more complex process than the projection of state identity.     

Let's Talk about Climate Change: Disclosure Is Coming

In this article, I review the newly released draft ASTM International standard on climate change disclosure. Many parties, from investors to state agencies, are calling for a consistent, comprehensive approach to disclosure of material financial impacts attributed to climate change. Disclosures range from costs associated with compliance to new laws to more general risk management strategies adopted by corporations. This article summarizes some of the key features of the draft standard and encourages participation in the development process.     

Fatal intoxication due to tramadol alone: case report and review of the literature

Poisoning may also lead to both coma and multiple organ failure, also in youngsters without a known major medical history. As not all toxic agents are routinely screened when a poisoning is suspected, it is useful to consider less frequently encountered poisons in certain cases. We describe the occurrence of asystole and multiple organ failure which occurred in a young man after a suspected tramadol overdose. The tramadol concentration on admission in the ICU was indeed 8 microg/ml (mg/l), far above the therapeutic range. Subsequently, the patient developed severe acute liver failure, finally leading to death. Post-mortem toxicology did not reveal any other poison responsible for this unfavourable course as only very high serum and tissue tramadol and desmethyltramadol concentrations were found. Only a few fatal poisonings attributable to tramadol alone, as observed in our case, have been reported. An overview of these cases is presented.     

Nondemocratic nonplanning: The French experience

During the de Gaulle and Pompidou regimes, the French executive claimed that its Economic and Social Development Plan fitted an ideal model of democratic planning. It was democratic in both process and substance, devised after wide consultations, and designed to pursue the welfare of the nation as a whole. It also met the standards of planning, outlining a coherent set of actions which could realistically be taken during each planning period, and which were rationally calculated to further carefully-defined long-term aims. An analysis of the preparation process and of the quality of the Plan as written and executed, however, indicates that it did not meet the standards of either democracy or planning. The conclusion of the paper expresses serious doubt about the possibility of ever achieving the ideal of democratic planning in France.This article was written while the author was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. The research was supported by the University's Research Foundation. The author is now employed by the Office of Political Research, Central Intelligence Agency. The views expressed here are her own and do not reflect those of the Agency.     

Religion und Wirtschaft. Mauss, Simiand und das Durkheim’sche Programm

The text points out that, with regard to the sociology of economy, Emile Durkheim’s work encompasses two research programs. The focus of the first program lies in the critique of economic categories as well as the institutions that function according to the market system. The second program, initially developed in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, argues that there is a relation between religion and economy. While the former perspective is being developed by the Durkheim-follower François Simiand (and Maurice Halbwachs) the latter is enhanced by his student Marcel Mauss. In the course of the 1930s both perspectives converge in the works on the gift and on money. Finally the text formulates the hypothesis that Durkheim’s perspective can be used in order to update Max Weber’s question concerning the relation between the religious ethic and the modern economic world.