Durkheim's ‘Two laws of penal evolution’

Two types of recent contributions to the discussion of a ‘crisis’ in law recall issues in Weimar labour law. Wolfgang Teubner and others propound a ‘reflexive law’ patterned on the multiple constitutions of collective labour law; and American ‘critical legal studies’ dismiss legal reasoning and press for frankly ‘altruistic’ policy-making in the courts. The Weimar controversy over the extent to which ‘works-community’ supercedes the legal attributes of the employment relationship as specified by the older law of contract shows, first, that the characteristic collectivism and institutionalism of the socialist labour movement's legal strategy was premissed on a complementary political conception of the organization of labour, and, second, that Socialist lawyers defended a legal discourse which was critical of prevailing doctrine but grounded in its systematizations, as essential to their struggle against the amorphous, nominally altruistic reading of the employment relationships which the German courts and then the Nationla Socialist regime imposed upon labour. Their recognition of the problems posed by deficient or excessive politicization of law makes them again important, notwithstanding their political defeats, and their survivors' disillusionment.     

Persons with intellectual disabilities in the criminal justice system: review of issues

Although the vast majority of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are law-abiding citizens, there is a small percentage with offending behaviour that is considered antisocial, socially inappropriate, or defined as illegal. It has long been recognised that individuals with ID or mental-health needs who break the law should be dealt with differently from the general population. There have been an increasing number of empirical studies in this area; however, these have been plagued by various definitional and methodological issues. Prevalence estimates of offenders with ID are complicated by diagnostic variations and inconsistencies in the criminal justice process. International studies have shown a large range, from 2% to 40%, depending on methodological approaches. The following review will highlight the salient issues including prevalence of offending, characteristics of offenders, vulnerabilities within the legal system, assessment, and a brief overview of intervention and treatment approaches.     

Interpreting results of ethanol analysis in postmortem specimens: a review of the literature

We searched the scientific literature for articles dealing with postmortem aspects of ethanol and problems associated with making a correct interpretation of the results. A person's blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) and state of inebriation at the time of death is not always easy to establish owing to various postmortem artifacts. The possibility of alcohol being produced in the body after death, e.g. via microbial contamination and fermentation is a recurring issue in routine casework. If ethanol remains unabsorbed in the stomach at the time of death, this raises the possibility of continued local diffusion into surrounding tissues and central blood after death. Skull trauma often renders a person unconscious for several hours before death, during which time the BAC continues to decrease owing to metabolism in the liver. Under these circumstances blood from an intracerebral or subdural clot is a useful specimen for determination of ethanol. Bodies recovered from water are particular problematic to deal with owing to possible dilution of body fluids, decomposition, and enhanced risk of microbial synthesis of ethanol. The relationship between blood and urine-ethanol concentrations has been extensively investigated in autopsy specimens and the urine/blood concentration ratio might give a clue about the stage of alcohol absorption and distribution at the time of death. Owing to extensive abdominal trauma in aviation disasters (e.g. rupture of the viscera), interpretation of BAC in autopsy specimens from the pilot and crew is highly contentious and great care is needed to reach valid conclusions. Vitreous humor is strongly recommended as a body fluid for determination of ethanol in postmortem toxicology to help establish whether the deceased had consumed ethanol before death. Less common autopsy specimens submitted for analysis include bile, bone marrow, brain, testicle, muscle tissue, liver, synovial and cerebrospinal fluids. Some investigators recommend measuring the water content of autopsy blood and if necessary correcting the concentration of ethanol to a mean value of 80% w/w, which corresponds to fresh whole blood. Alcoholics often die at home with zero or low BAC and nothing more remarkable at autopsy than a fatty liver. Increasing evidence suggests that such deaths might be caused by a pronounced ketoacidosis. Recent research has focused on developing various biochemical tests or markers of postmortem synthesis of ethanol. These include the urinary metabolites of serotonin and non-oxidative metabolites of ethanol, such as ethyl glucuronide, phosphatidylethanol and fatty acid ethyl esters. This literature review will hopefully be a good starting point for those who are contemplating a fresh investigation into some aspect of postmortem alcohol analysis and toxicology.     

Breath alcohol concentration determined with a new analyzer using free exhalation predicts almost precisely the arterial blood alcohol concentration

A new breath alcohol (ethanol) analyzer has been developed, which allows free exhalation, standardizes measured exhaled alcohol concentration to fully saturated water vapor at a body temperature of 37 degrees C (43.95 mg/L) and includes a built-in self-calibration system. We evaluated the performance of this instrument by comparing standardized alcohol concentration in freely expired breath (BrAC) with arterial (ABAC) and venous (VBAC) blood alcohol concentrations in fifteen healthy volunteers who drank 0.6 g of alcohol per kg body weight. The precision (coefficient of variation, CV) of the analyzer based on in vivo duplicate measurements in all phases of the alcohol metabolism was 1.7%. The ABAC/BrAC ratio was 2251+/-46 (mean+/-S.D.) in the post-absorptive phase and the mean bias between ABAC and BrAC x 2251 was 0.0035 g/L with 95% limits of agreement of 0.033 and -0.026. The ABAC and BrAC x 2251 were highly correlated (r=0.998, p<0.001) and the regression relationship was ABAC = 0.00045 + 1.0069 x (BrAC x 2251) indicating excellent agreement and no fixed or proportional bias. In the absorption phase, ABAC exceeded BrAC x 2251 by at most 0.04+/-0.03 g/L when tests were made at 10 min post-dosing (p<0.05). The VBAC/BrAC ratio never stabilized and varied continuously between 1834 and 3259. There was a proportional bias between VBAC and BrAC x 2251 (ABAC) in the post-absorptive phase (p<0.001). The pharmacokinetic analysis of the elimination rates of alcohol and times to zero BAC confirmed that BrAC x 2251 and ABAC agreed very well with each other, but not with VBAC (p<0.001). We conclude that this new breath analyzer using free exhalation has a high precision for in vivo testing. The BrAC reflects very accurately ABAC in the post-absorption phase and substantially well in the absorption phase and thereby reflects the concentration of alcohol reaching the brain. Our findings highlight the magnitude of arterio-venous differences in alcohol concentration and support the use of breath alcohol analyzers as a stand-alone test for medical and legal purposes.     

尸检样本乙醇分析结果的解释策略

由于死后各种复杂的人为现象的存在,使得建立死后血液酒精含量(BAC)和死亡时醉酒状态之间的关系十分困难。在日常检案中必须考虑细菌污染、发酵是否引起死后乙醇再合成,死亡时胃中未被吸收的乙醇是否向周围组织以及血中扩散等问题。本文总结了关于死后乙醇分析及结果解释相关问题的研究文献,旨在为从事法医毒物学乙醇分析的同行在调查此类案件时提供良好的开端。     

Horizontal management: implementing programs across interdependent organizations

Abstract: Horizontal management is generally recognized as a ubiquitous feature of modern public administration. Current theory is reviewed and its limitations exposed. A theory of interdependencies, organizational structure and consensus is developed and illustrated. The practical import of the theory is illustrated with regard to questions of leadership and accountability. The pedagogic implications for teaching the required skills for horizontal management are outlined. Sommaire: La gestion horizontale est généralement reconnue comme un élément omniprésent de l'administration publique moderne. Dans cet article, nous réexaminons la théorie actuelle et nous en exposons ses limites. Nous élaborons et illustrons une théorie d'interdépendance, de structure organisationnelle et de consensus. Nous faisons état de la signification pratique de la théorie et ce qui concerne le leadership et l'imputabilité. Enfin, nous présentons les implications pédagogiques pour 1'enseignement des aptitudes nécessaires à la gestion horizontale.