Indigenous Rights,Resistance, and the Law: Lessons from a Guatemalan Mine

Using a case study of a controversial mine in an indigenous area of Guatemala, this article explores the transnational dynamics of development and regulation of large‐scale extractive industry projects in the developing world. It examines the roles played in the Marlin mine dispute by national law, international law, international financial institutions, and corporate social responsibility. It concludes that these legal regimes have a role in protecting human rights but have not addressed the fundamental questions of democratic governance raised by this case.     

Post-injection hybridization of complementary DNA strands on capillary electrophoresis platforms: A novel solution for dsDNA artifacts

Several laboratories have reported the occurrence of a split or n − 1 peak at the vWA locus in PowerPlex^® 16 and PowerPlex^® ES amplification products separated on 4- and 16-capillary electrophoresis instruments. The root cause of this artifact is post-PCR reannealing of the unlabeled, unincorporated vWA primer to the 3′-end of the tetramethylrhodamine (TMR)-labeled strand of the vWA amplicon. This reannealing occurs in the capillary post-electrokinetic injection. The split peak is eliminated by incorporation into the loading cocktail of a sacrificial hybridization sequence (SHS) oligonucleotide that is complementary to the vWA primer. The SHS preferentially anneals to the primer instead of the TMR-labeled strand of the vWA amplicon. In addition, the n − 10/n − 18 artifact that may be seen at the vWA locus was determined to be due to double-stranded amplicon formed post-electrokinetic injection into the capillary. This was also eliminated by adding in two Complementary Oligo Targets (COT1 and COT2) in addition to the SHS oligonucleotide into the loading cocktail. These three oligonucleotides are complementary to the 33 bases at the 5′-end of the unlabeled vWA amplicon strand and the 60 bases at its 3′-end and therefore compete for hybridization to the TMR-labeled amplicon strand. Incorporation of these three oligonucleotides in the Internal Lane Standard 600 (ILS600) eliminate both the split peak and n − 10/n − 18 artifact in PowerPlex^® 16 and PowerPlex^® ES amplification products without affecting sizing of alleles at the vWA locus or any locus in the PowerPlex^® 16, PowerPlex^® Y, PowerPlex^® ES, AmpFlSTR^® Profiler Plus^® ID, AmpFlSTR^® Cofiler^®, and AmpFlSTR^® SGM Plus^® kits.     

Do populist values or civic values drive support for referendums in Europe?

Representative democracy gives voters the right to influence who governs but its influence on policy making is only indirect. Free and fair referendums give voters the right to decide a policy directly. Elected representatives usually oppose referendums as redundant at best and as undermining their authority at worst. Democratic theorists tend to take electing representatives as normal and as normatively superior. The nominal association of popular decision making and populism has strengthened this negative view. Public opinion surveys show substantial support for holding referendums on important issues. Two major theories offer contrasting explanations for popular support for referendums; they reflect populist values or a commitment to the civic value of participation. This innovative paper tests an integrated model of both theories by the empirical analysis of a 17-country European survey. There is substantial support for all three civic hypotheses: referendum endorsement is positively influenced by attitudes towards participation, democratic ideals and whether elected representatives are perceived as responsive. By contrast, there is no support for populist hypotheses that the socioeconomically weak and excluded favour referendums and minimal support for the effect of extreme ideologies. The conclusion shows that most criticisms of referendums also apply to policy making by elected representatives. While referendums have limits on their use, there is a democratic argument for holding such ballots on major issues to see whether or not a majority of voters endorse the choice of their nominal representatives.     

反垄断法的域外效力与适用刍议

依传统的管辖权理论,反垄断法依其公法性质而具有严格的地域性.而随着经济全球化和一体化的发展,在经济组织滥用市场优势地位限制竞争的情况下,各国为了维护本国利益,纷纷突破传统的管辖范围,主张本国反垄断法的域外效力.我国正在制定反垄断法,在该法中安排域外适用制度是适应市场经济体制和世贸组织规则的要求.