U.S. policy and Taiwan’s reintegration into the global community

Taiwan is making headway in its campaign to improve its international position. After years of publicly ignoring Taiwan, many foreign governments are willing to upgrade relations with Taipei. This article outlines the background of Taiwan’s new “pragmatic” approach to foreign policy and explores various considerations that are helping the island break out of its diplomatic isolation. In conclusion, the author suggests that the United States should support Taiwan in its bid to rejoin the international community.     

Postmortem pink teeth. Histochemical identification of the causative pigment

The phenomenon of postmortem pink teeth has been reported in subjects who have died suddenly and unnaturally, and whose bodies have been subsequently exposed to a wet or moist environment. Ground and EDTA-decalcified sections of teeth of 21 corpses exhibiting postmortem pink-stained teeth were investigated for the identification of the responsible pigment. With histochemical methods and ultraviolet microscopy, the causative pigment was identified as undegraded hemoglobin. Staining from hemosiderin, bile and bile-related pigments, and porphyrins was ruled out. However, histochemical techniques are unable to reveal the form in which the hemoglobin occurred. The cause of death or time of death had no observable effect on the staining reactions for hemoglobin in the teeth.     

Tissue concentrations at autopsy in infants and children receiving therapeutic digoxin

Therapeutic tissue concentrations of digoxin have been reported for relatively small numbers of infants and children. In forensic medicine, knowledge of these concentration ranges is important for confirming or excluding digoxin overdosage in different age groups. In addition to age and weight, other factors such as dosage, duration of treatment, route of administration, sampling site, time of last dose, and death-autopsy interval may influence tissue concentrations. In this paper we report on tissue concentrations in 36 infants and children who received therapeutic digoxin before death.     

`The Capabilities Approach', `The Imaginary Domain', and `Asymmetrical Reciprocity': Feminist Perspectives on Equality and Justice

In this article the author revisits the question of how feminist theory/theories could address questions regarding universalism, sameness, difference, and the quest for justice. She reconsiders the quest for justice and equality for women and the (im) possibilities of a feminist perspective on justice and a feminist `community'. The three feminist theorists that she discusses are Martha Nussbaum, Drucilla Cornell, and Iris Marion Young. Nussbaum is closer to a liberal defense of universal values – Cornell and Young stand critical of liberalism and focus on sublimity, dignity, and asymmetrical reciprocity. The author supports the perspective of the latter two theorists and applies these perspectives to aspects of South African equality jurisprudence. She also considers critically the extent to which the Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa breaks with liberal universalism and sameness. To the end she supports a notion of` slowing down' in order to protect women's freedom and dignity, to approach each other with wonder and respect. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Finding cover: Legal trauma and how to take care of it

As law originates in violence, it is always haunted by its constitutive trauma. Recourse to law's origin, which is implicitly or explicitly sought in (constitutional) adjudication, thus requires a way to deal with law's trauma. What is needed is a cover, to be provided through (legal) interpretation. Four such interpretive ‘cover up’ operations, all necessarily somewhat duplicitous, are discussed. The first three represent main currents in legal theory. First, the standard legal view, which denies the trauma but relies on traditional authority to cover it. Second, a ‘neurotic’ solution, in which trauma is also denied but nevertheless cover is produced through collective interpretation. In the third, ‘perverse’ solution, trauma is admitted, and even enjoyed; on the other hand, it is denied that cover can be produced by any interpretive authority. The fourth option provides an alternative: recognition of law's trauma, covering it through the collectively shared practice of interpretation. It is shown that an example of such a collective effort can be found in the Dutch practice of gedogen, the deliberate under-enforcement of law, which is capable of creating an ‘informal rule of law’ that deals with intractable social problems more successfully than attempts formally to enforce applicable law. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The planning of content relevant and context relevant education

This paper dwells on the question of planning education for ten or twenty years hence. First, it deals with the question of career patterns and the importance of allowing more flexibility in the course sequences which individuals undertake at different periods of their life. Then, it discusses the divergence in facts and the dissonance in beliefs which may exist between the planners and students soon to become graduates. It makes a plea for resolving these differences by asking educators to become more content relevant and context relevant. Through this process, education will be enhanced and learning facilitated.