构建我国刑事证据保全制度的若干思考

刑事诉讼的核心问题是运用刑事证据证明犯罪嫌疑人的犯罪事实。作为一种程序性保障措施，刑事证据保全制度的确立与完善为维护当事人的诉讼权益提供了锐利武器和强大制度性支持。我国刑诉法没有规定证据保全制度，尽管立法允许辩护律师可以申请人民检察院、人民法院收集、调取证据，但是立法的制度性缺陷使辩护律师所享有的申请取证权无法落实。刑事证据保全的直接目的在于保障证据完整和追求诉讼效益，实现司法公正。     

The History and Future Trends of ART Medicine and Law

The Assisted Reproductive Technologies (“ART”) have resulted in over eight million births to date, heralding remarkable advances in reproductive medicine with a transformational impact on both medicine and law. The effects have been acutely felt on the modern family, as well as on a myriad of areas of legal practice—including Family Law, Estate Planning, Contract, Health, Constitutional, Criminal, Discrimination, Tort Law and, for international arrangements, Immigration and Citizenship laws. This article examines the historical context, present impact, and future trends of ART and the Law. Its purpose is to help better understand these unique developments in order to help law and policy makers harness and craft the policies and frameworks that will be needed to monitor, shape and guide these remarkable possibilities for participants, professionals, law and society.     

Influence of storage on larval length and age determination of the forensically important blow fly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

One of the main tasks in forensic entomology is the determination of the minimum post-mortem interval (PMI_min) based on the age of the juvenile insects feeding and developing on the dead body. An important task is to store the evidence appropriately so that the evaluation and expert report can be used in court. However, existing recommendations can be contradictory or lacking scientific validation, e.g. by proposing various preservation liquids without knowing whether and to what extent the period of storage in such a liquid has an effect on the length of the preserved larvae. Storage time can be an issue since, due to technical and procedural circumstances, killed larvae may be stored for hours, days, weeks or even longer prior length measurement. A changed body length would have consequences for the entomological report, as the age of the larvae is usually derived from their length.This study investigates the effect of four differently concentrated ethanol solutions (70%, 80%, 90% and 96%) during a storage period of up to 196 days on the body length of stored larvae of the forensically important blow fly species L. sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Larvae of different ages (24 h, 48 h and 72 h after hatching) were killed by immersion in hot, non-boiling water (≥80 °C) for at least 30 s. Their lengths were measured immediately. Subsequently samples were stored in ethanol of appropriate concentration at room temperature (approx. 22 °C). Further length measurements were made at 16 different storage intervals between 1 and 196 days.Many specimens showed a length decrease for most storage conditions and all larval ages. However, there was a tendency for 48 h- and 72 h-old larvae to increase in length after the first days of storage of up to 1.1 mm which may lead to an erroneous overestimation of the PMI_min using this kind of specimens. All changes in length within each cohort over total time were in the range of +7% to −9.1%. Significant differences in length changes within the first days of storage were found mainly in larvae stored in 70%- and 80%-ethanol, but larvae stored in 90%- and 96%-ethanol showed first significant differences on day 56 at the earliest.Our results lead to the recommendation that the measurements of fly larvae samples should be taken immediately after killing and before storage to avoid any effects. Ethanol ≥90% should be used for storage.     

The contributions of historic preservation to housing and economic development

Abstract

Historic preservation contributes greatly to housing and economic development. Historic preservation has produced almost 250,000 housing units through use of the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit. Additionally, heritage tourism is a multibillion‐dollar industry, and preservation projects help further community revitalization.

Historic preservation also has a downside. Preservation's growing popularity may dilute its imperative and market prowess, and some argue it is used to thwart new development. Preservation requirements may impede affordable housing production and displace area residents. These undesirable consequences are not givens, however. Preservationists are working to become more flexible, and we suggest ways to practice historic preservation while mitigating some of its negative consequences—for example, tax credit changes, more flexible building codes, and a “tiered” system of designating historic properties at varying levels of significance.     

医疗纠纷病历资料保全存在问题与对策

《侵权责任法》第六十一条第二款规定，患者要求查阅、复制病历资料的，医疗机构应当提供。第五十八条规定，医疗机构隐匿或者拒绝提供与纠纷有关的病历资料的，人民法院推定医疗机构有过错。病历资料作为医疗损害案件诉讼的核心证据，对病历资料保全自然就成为医患双方诉前关注的焦点问题。由于现行法律法规对病历资料规定的不一致，导致医患双方对病历资料的范围、保全的方式方法、封存病历资料期限、保全病历资料主体等诸多问题认识极不一致，争议颇多。造成医患双方在发生医疗纠纷的基础上进而引发次生纠纷，导致医患矛盾进一步加深，不利于纠纷的及时解决。笔者不揣简陋，试对病历资料保全环节中存在的问题及对相关问题提出规制建议，希望同仁不吝赐教。     

知识产权诉讼证据问题研究

知识产权法律中对证据的规定比较少，供法官直接运用的证据法律规范则更少。作为诉讼核心问题的诉讼证据问题理应引起足够的关注。而知识产权的证据问题又有其特殊性。积极开展这方面的理论与实务研究。对于提高知识产权审判工作水平具有重要意义。     

Comment on David Listokin,Barbara Listokin,and Michael Lahr's “The contributions of historic preservation to housing and economic development”: Historic preservation in a neoliberal age

Abstract

Listokin, Listokin, and Lahr argue that historic preservation can function as a community development tool, but there are numerous deficiencies inherent in this method that make it a less‐than‐desirable way to revitalize. Historic preservation generally leads to gentrification that in turn displaces many low‐income households. The historic rehabilitation tax credit also represents a circuitous means of providing affordable housing that would be more effectively delivered through direct subsidy.     

Comment on David Listokin,Barbara Listokin,and Michael Lahr's “The contributions of historic preservation to housing and economic development”

Abstract

Listokin, Listokin, and Lahr laud the economic benefits of historic preservation but fail to delve deeply enough into the negative impacts and how they might be mitigated. Preservation projects tend to displace lower‐income households and small businesses, and the jobs they generate tend to be low paying. In areas with high potential for displacement, local government and civic leaders should act cautiously and not intervene in ways that overheat these markets. We are unlikely to see new federal policies that substantially mitigate displacement. Nonetheless, the historic rehabilitation tax credit could be revised to encourage more modest and affordable preservation projects.

The extra costs associated with historic rehabilitation standards can be more burdensome than the authors describe. To reduce these costs, the administration of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation could be made more consistent and cost‐sensitive.     

Evaluation of five preservation methods for recovery of DNA from bone

The effectiveness of five methods for the preservation of bone were assessed: cell lysis solution (with 1% sodium azide), dehydration/freeze-drying, ethanol (96%), freezing, and room temperature storage. Preserved bone samples were extracted using five optimised extraction methods. These preservation methods were tested for their efficiency for storage of fresh and degraded bone samples for 6 weeks, 6 months and 1 year. Freezing was found to be the best preservation method for longer-term storage of bone samples; this was followed by ethanol (96%), dehydration/freeze-drying, and room temperature storage. Full profiles were obtained from bone samples using all these preservation methods.     

Social capital and neighborhood stability: An empirical investigation

Abstract

There is a growing consensus among urban analysts that inner‐city neighborhoods suffer from a lack of social capital. Because these areas do not have a strong social infrastructure in place to support successful revitalization efforts, urban policy recommendations now call for developing social capital in the worst‐off parts of our cities. However, this consensus has been reached without any empirical analysis of the effect of social capital on urban neighborhoods. Moreover, there have been few, if any, efforts to show how to measure social capital at a neighborhood level.

This article proposes a social capital model of neighborhood change that measures social capital as a function of two constitutive elements: sociocultural milieu and institutional infrastructure. In addition, we present a theoretical model to show how social capital affects neighborhood stability and an empirical analysis that provides evidence of the positive effect social capital has on neighborhood stability.