Eurocommunism and the Spanish communists

The DCs development from the mid‐1970s is examined in the light of its overall characteristics as a political party. A sceptical viewpoint is expressed about its prospects for change, in spite of talk of party reform since 1975 under Zaccagnini's secretaryship, if only because the ‘historic compromise’ confirms the DCs governing role even though in a modified policy setting. The main consequence of Moro's death is likely to be an accelerated change in leadership generation rather than a weakening of his ‘strategy’. At the same time, the DC has not yet found an alternative role to replace the political dominance it has lost. The new relationship with the PCI causes some confusion about the party's identity, so that DC leaders tend to view this in a short‐term perspective and to treat it as an empirical rather than ‘historic’ compromise.     

Mozambique’s post-war success story: Is it time to revisit the narrative?

Over the past years since the signing of the Rome peace Accords, Mozambique has generally been regarded as an exemplary African post war success story. However, events in the last four years illuminate something different. This article will show that the low intensity but violent clashes between FRELIMO government forces and former rebel group RENAMO are not just a mere manifestation of Mozambican’s government inability to consolidate post war gains. These clashes could be framed and located within the broader context of complexities associated with transforming a peace Accord into a genuine and sustainable postwar peace dividend. It seems the success was largely registered in terms of reducing direct violence by creating negative peace. Even though negative peace was good, it was unfortunately not adequate. This article also argues that the success narrative lulled many including Mozambicans into ignoring fissures in the area of structural violence which effectively limited the country’s ability to progress towards positive peace. Despite all this, however, this article will concur with the belief that an outright full scale war is still highly improbable, but not impossible because RENAMO is still capable of spoiling and eroding the registered post war gains.     

Drawing the Necessary Line: A Review of Dating Domestic Violence Statutes around the United States

Orders of protection help combat dating violence by ensuring a period of separation between the victim and the abuser. The prevalence of dating violence is similar to that of spousal abuse and the effects on the nonmarried victims are just as severe. Some jurisdictions in the United States do not offer victims in dating relationships protective orders and two states restrict orders for same‐sex couples only. Other state statutes are inadequate. A uniform statute that permits participants in dating relationships access to protective orders should be implemented across the country.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• See and understand the changes in dating domestic violence statutes
• Up to date as of 2011 with 2012 amendments to state statutes

     

Case Survey

This section of the Journal deals with recent case law. The cases are listed in alphabetical order by case name.     

Change and Continuity in the European Union's Political Conditionality: Aims,Approach, and Priorities

The EU's political conditionality has acquired increasing importance with successive enlargements; this also goes for the period since 2004 compared with that before. The focus here is on change and continuity in conditionality policy with respect to its aims, approach, and priorities. The article presents and applies a three-dimensional analysis concerning the challenge to, the process of, and the management of that policy. Given the need for assessing it in a broad and dynamic context, the discussion revolves around three relationships: between conditionality and post-communist democratization; between conditionality and the enlargement process; and between conditionality and the EU itself in terms of institutional responsibility for enlargement and conditionality matters. This explains how the policy since 2004 has been driven by four factors: more difficult democratization cases from the West Balkans; lessons from the earlier 2004 enlargement involving East–Central Europe; the policy outlook of Commissioner Olli Rehn; and ‘enlargement fatigue’ and stronger pressures from EU actors other than the Commission. As a result, political conditionality has become broader in its scope, much tighter in its procedures, and less easy to control within a less enlargement-friendly environment in the EU and against less certainty about enlargement prospects.     

Nonhuman remains and relics encountered by the medical examiner: Fulton County, Georgia, 2003-2004

BACKGROUND: Medical examiner and coroner offices occasionally respond to "death scenes" which, after investigation, are found to involve nonhuman remains or other relics not requiring further investigation or certification of death. This report describes such cases encountered by the Fulton County medical examiner during 2003 and 2004. METHODS: The electronic database used by the office contains check boxes to indicate whether a reported case involved nonhuman remains or other relics, in which case the name of the "deceased" is listed as "nonhuman remains" by selecting those words from a pull-down menu. Subject cases were identified during the 2-year period by searching the database for any case in which one of the boxes was checked or in which the name of the deceased was listed as nonhuman. RESULTS: Four thousand five hundred fifty-four deaths were investigated during the 2-year period, and 23 cases (0.5%) involved nonhuman remains or relics. Thus, the observed rate was about 5 cases per 1000 death investigations. Nineteen cases involved nonhuman bones. One case involved 2 human fetuses that had been teaching specimens. The other 3 cases involved a nonhuman fetus, a large decomposing dog that had been wrapped and dumped in residential area, and a sheep heart found in a bag which was a medical teaching specimen. CONCLUSIONS: Nonhuman remains and other relics are uncommonly seen in death investigation work and usually involve nonhuman bones, although a small variety of other atypical cases present themselves occasionally. Knowledge of these types of encounters is helpful so that the "unexpected" may become more "expected" and office policy and procedures tailored accordingly to facilitate case management.