Alterable electorates in the context of residential mobility

In some circumstances, politicians set about altering the composition of their electorate with a view to increasing their chances of being re-elected. A hypothesis along these lines is formulated in the context of local elections and residential mobility. Although the hypothesis is general, an assessment of its validity implies auxiliary assumptions related to a specific spatio-temporal context. That is done with reference to conditions prevailing in post-war French metropolitan areas. In the empirical part of the paper, some of the implications are submitted to tests on demographical and political data. On the basis of the tests, and although alternative explanations of the findings are possible, the hypothesis can be said to be corroborated.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 1986 Meeting of the European Public Choice Society and at the 1986 Journées de Microéconomie Appliquée. We are grateful for the comments and suggestions made on these occasions or independently by Jean Bénard, Albert Breton, Giorgio Brosio, Gérard Charreaux, Louis Duquesne de la Vinelle, Gianluigi Galeotti, François Gardes, Roger Guesnerie, Jean-Dominique Lafay, Claude Meidinger, Bernard Nonat, Werner Pommerehne, Alain Wolfelsperger, and an anonymous referee. Any remaining errors and shortcomings are our sole responsibility. We also thank the Institut de Mathématiques Appliquées for research support.     

Myanmar: analyzing problems of transition and intervention

Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council touts the 2010 elections as an important milestone on the roadmap to democracy. While the consensus among scholars is that the result is a foregone conclusion, these elections may also mark the beginning of a transition. As a transition from authoritarian rule may lead to internal chaos and result in calls for external intervention, the relevant dimensions of intervention are explored. The capabilities, interests and approaches of key external players in the context of Myanmar are identified. Both India and China have capabilities and multiple interests in Myanmar. However, the India–China rivalry and the lack of consensus around the responsibility to protect the doctrines are identified as risk factors. In spite of its shortcomings, the ASEAN Regional Forum remains the most appropriate venue to explore possible responses in case of chaos in Myanmar, which would be a tough test of its aptitude and relevance. The forum should upgrade organizational and practical capacities to respond to major crises such as a hypothetical collapse of central authority in Myanmar.     

An unusual case of post-mortem redistribution of ethanol

We report an unusual case of post-mortem redistribution of ethanol in a woman diver who died by drowning in seawater. The ethanol concentrations were right heart blood 0.60 g/l, left heart blood 2.08 g/l, femoral venous blood 0.63 g/l, gastric contents 5.87 g/l, bile 0.83 g/l. The mechanisms of post-mortem redistribution of ethanol described in the literature, that is, early redistribution from the stomach or the lung parenchyma in the case of inhalation of gastric contents, are inadequate to account for the degree of variation observed between the measurements. We believe that this difference in concentration is explained by the presence of seawater in the pulmonary alveoli at the time of death.     

Right,Crime, and Court: Toward a Unifying Political Conception of International Law

It is widely acknowledged that human rights law (hereafter, HRL) and international criminal law (hereafter, ICL) share core normative features. Yet, the literature has not yet reconstructed this underlying basis in a systematic way. In this contribution, I lay down the basis of such an account. I first identify a similar tension between a “moral” and a “political” approach to the normative foundations of those norms and to the legitimate role of international courts (hereafter, ICs) and tribunals adjudicating those norms. With a view to bring the debate forward, I then turn to the practices of HRL and international criminal law (hereafter, ICL) to examine which of those approaches best illuminates some salient aspects of the adjudication of ICs. Finally, I argue that the political approach best explains the practice. While each preserves a distinct role, HRL and ICL both establish the basic conditions for the primary subject of international law (HRL and ICL, for the purpose of this article), namely the state, to legitimately govern its own subjects constructed as free and equal moral agents.     

French ‘officiers ministériels’: autonomy of the legal professions,protection of their market and an ambivalent relationship with the state

The occupational status of officier ministériel which applies to auctioneers (commissaires-priseurs), bailiffs (huissiers de justice) and notaries (notaires) goes back to the Ancien Régime and continues to embody a remarkable example of a typically French model for structuring professions: officiers ministériels are both the repositories of a slice of public authority and the self-employed members of a profession. This unique status is still upheld by the French state which determines the conditions for entering as well as exercising these professions (granting of monopolies, setting certain fees and competitive practices, etc.). But after having survived intact for so long, the construction of a legal and judicial European space in the second half of the twentieth century has accelerated the transformation of certain professional groups reflected in an entrepreneurial approach and changing business models. Professional representative bodies have also largely contributed to these changes by managing to thwart programmes and political decisions through a wide range of development or resistance strategies.     

COVID 19: how coercive were the coercive measures taken to fight the pandemic

European Journal of Law and Economics - Preventive detention legislation allows for the ongoing detention of an offender’s sentence. We explore the effects of pretrial detention on case...