The Antisaccade Task Performance Deficit and Specific CNV Abnormalities in Patients with Stereotyped Paraphilia and Schizophrenia,

Antisaccade task performance and mean amplitudes of slow cortical potentials (contingent negative variation—CNV) were investigated in 19 healthy volunteers, 16 schizophrenic patients (SP), and 12 patients with stereotyped form of paraphilia (PP). Compared with healthy subjects, schizophrenic and paraphilic patients committed significantly more erroneous saccades. The clear between‐group CNV differences were observed during the early CNV stage that is associated with cognitive aspects of preparatory set. In SP, as compared to controls, the significant decline of CNV amplitude was found at frontal‐central area. PP have demonstrated the lack of CNV over central and parietal regions, but their CNV amplitudes in frontal area did not differ from values of control group. Thus, two distinct types of CNV abnormalities have been found. The SP results have been interpreted as support for frontal dysfunction in schizophrenia. The disconnection between prefrontal cortex, sensorimotor cortex, and related subcortical structures is hypothesized in paraphilia group.     

R. (Martin) v Mahony: the History of a Classical Certiorari Authority

R. (Martin) v Mahony, a decision of the Irish High Court of 1910, continues to be acknowledged by modern textbook writers as a leading authority for the classical rule that certiorari could not correct error of law. This rule, which considerably reduced judicial superintendence of magistrates' courts, had been established by the English court of Queen's Bench in the 1840s. However, the rule was repudiated by the Exchequer Division in Ireland in the late 1880s, which developed a novel, liberal theory of certiorari. This doctrinal innovation, which was used in overturning convictions under the anti-boycotting statute, the Criminal Law and Procedure Act 1887, appalled sections of Lord Salisbury's government, was disapproved of by the English courts, and split the Irish judiciary. The division caused by the doctrine persisted until 1910 when the Irish High Court, having assembled in banc in Martin's Case in order to resolve the impasse, re-established orthodox English doctrine.     

Controlling Jury Composition in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Difficulties in securing convictions in nineteenth-century Ireland led the authorities to resort to various methods of ensuring that petty juries delivered guilty verdicts in cases where this was clearly warranted by the evidence. This article examines some of the ‘stratagems’ put forward by David Johnson and suggests a number of other practices which were used, arguing that many of these mechanisms centred around controlling the composition of trial juries. Examples included altering the property qualifications for jurors, the system of asking jurors to ‘stand by’, and the use of fines to compel attendance. While some of these were the legitimate exercise of established procedures, it will be seen that the Crown on occasion abused or over-used its powers.     

The EU as a Global Actor? EU Policy Towards Iran

Abstract

This paper explores EU policy towards Iran to challenge the common implicit or explicit notion that the EU's ‘actorness’ in the international system rests primarily, or solely, on its Pillar I external relations. Utilising criteria developed to examine the ‘actorness’ of the EU, the article explores this policy area to demonstrate that the EU's ‘actorness’ resulted not only from the ‘Community’ aspects of foreign policy, but also from its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).     

European Union Armaments Policy: Options for Small States?

Abstract

This article addresses the question of small states and their future role in any EU armaments policy. It argues that their traditional tactics of demanding equality of membership in armaments organisations, using protectionist tactics to preserve the indigenous defence industry and using their home markets as a method of gaining advantages for their firms, are increasingly failing at the EU level. A combination of their own choices on defence spending, the agreement to allow permanent structured cooperation within the European Defence Agency and the Commission's efforts to liberalise the defence procurement market seem likely to force most small states into the backseat of EU armaments policy-making.     

A tale of culture-bound regime evolution: the centennial democratic trend and its recent reversal

Using a new measure of “comprehensive democracy,” our analysis traces the global democratic trend over the last 116 years, from 1900 until 2016, looking in particular at the centennial trend’s cultural zoning. As it turns out, democracy has been proceeding and continues to differentiate the world’s nations in a strongly culture-bound manner: high levels of democracy remain a distinctive feature of nations in which emancipative values have grown strong over the generations. By the same token, backsliding and autocratization are limited to cultures with under-developed emancipative values. In line with this finding, public support for democracy neither favours democratization, nor does it prevent autocratization in disjunction from emancipative values. On the contrary, public support for democracy shows such pro-democratic effects if – and only if – it co-exists in close association with emancipative values. The reason is that – in disconnect from emancipative values – support for democracy frequently reverts its meaning, indicating the exact opposite of what intuition suggests: namely, support for autocracy. In conclusion, the prospects for democracy are bleak where emancipative values remain weak.     

Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity,Phantasm, Japan by Marilyn Ivy

Abstract

Discourses of the Vanishing has been anticipated for several years now; it won't disappoint. Despite the rising number of authors who seek to “explain” Japan or attack its essentialism, Ivy is one of the few who have the understanding of modernity and the methodological tools to excavate the celebration (Japanese and American) of Japan's “uniqueness.” Discourses is by far one of the most sophisticated inquiries into what Ivy calls—properly I believe—the “Japanese thing.” The juxtaposition between the singular, thing, and plural, discourses, suggests her overall theme: to discuss the always incomplete reconfigurations of the many pasts that have existed within the archipelago into a singular ideology of Japan.     

Growth and Chronic Poverty: Evidence from Rural Communities in Ethiopia

This article employs a computable general equilibrium model for Sandinista Nicaragua to argue that a foreign exchange constrained economy does not necessarily fall prey to the inflation‐devaluation‐inflation vicious cycle characteristic of more mature Keynesian economies. It is seen that when the economy is shocked by a devaluation, prices do not rise proportionately. Output increases and the distribution of income can actually improve. These results support Sandinista policy of raising wages along with devaluation, a policy widely criticised as counterproductive. When the model is structured to account for the combined effects of Sandinista policies, however, including rising government expenditure and multiple effective exchange rates, a host of macroeconomic problems experienced by the regime arise. Stagflation sets in, income distribution deteriorates and the incentives for export production seriously diminish.