Complete Defence Research Articles

Blood defense system - Proposal for a new concept of an immune system against blood borne pathogens comprising the liver, spleen and bone marrow.

Blood-borne pathogen (BBP) infections can rapidly progress to life-threatening sepsis and must therefore be promptly eliminated by the host's immune system. Intravascular macrophages of the liver sinusoid, splenic marginal zone and red pulp and perisinusoidal macrophage protrusions in the bone marrow (BM) directly phagocytose BBPs in the blood as an innate immune response. The liver, spleen and BM thereby work together as the blood defence system (BDS) in response to BBPs by exerting their different immunological roles. The liver removes the vast majority of these invading organisms via innate immunity, but their complete elimination is not possible without the actions of antibodies. Splenic marginal zone B cells promptly produce IgM and IgG antibodies against BBPs. The splenic marginal zone transports antigenic information from the innate to the adaptive immune systems. The white pulp of the spleen functions as adaptive immune tissue and produces specific and high-affinity antibodies with an immune memory against BBPs. The BM works to maintain immune memory by supporting the survival of memory B cells, memory T cells and long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs), all of which have dedicated niches. Furthermore, BM perisinusoidal naïve follicular B cells promptly produce IgM antibodies against BBPs in the BM sinusoid and the IgG memory B cells residing in the BM rapidly transform to plasma cells which produce high-affinity IgG antibodies upon reinfection. This review describes the complete immune defence characteristics of the BDS against BBPs through the collaboration of the liver, spleen and BM with combined different immunological roles.

PUTATIVE PRIVATE DEFENCE IN CRIMINAL LAW Tuta v The State 2023 (2) BCLR 179 (CC)

In a country like South Africa, plagued as it is by violent contact crime, it is not surprising that the defences of private defence and putative private defence are often raised by accused in criminal trials. It is trite that, for a conviction in a criminal court, the prosecution is tasked with proving the accused’s liability beyond reasonable doubt. As an element of a crime, unlawfulness does not simply lie in fulfilment of the definitional elements of a crime. There are instances where, notwithstanding fulfilment of the definitional elements of a crime, the conduct is justified or legally regarded as objectively reasonable. These instances are known as grounds of justification and technically serve to exclude unlawfulness. A ground of justification, if successfully raised, is therefore a complete defence to any criminal charge. There is not a numerus clausus of valid grounds of justification in South African criminal law; the test remains whether the accused’s conduct was objectively reasonable in the particular situation. One such ground of justification is private defence. A person acts in private defence, and therefore lawfully, if they use the minimum force necessary to ward off an unlawful human attack that has commenced, or is imminently threatening, upon their or somebody else’s protected legal interests such as life, physical integrity, property, reputation or dignity. The defensive act in private defence must be: necessary to protect the threatened interest; directed at the attacker; reasonably proportionate to the attack; and perpetrated with the knowledge that it is performed in private defence. Unlike private defence, putative private defence is not a ground of justification that excludes unlawfulness. Putative private defence exists where an accused is under the mistaken belief that they are conducting themselves in private defence whereas there is no such ground of justification in the circumstances. If an accused labours under the genuine but erroneous belief in the existence of a ground of justification, their conduct remains unlawful. The accused lacks the knowledge that they are, in reality, acting unlawfully. While the accused’s conduct remains unlawful, the absence of knowledge of unlawfulness results in a lack of intention, since knowledge of unlawfulness is an integral part of intention. The accused’s mistaken belief that they are acting lawfully in private defence must be honest and genuine but need not be rational or reasonable. If, on the facts, there could be no honest and genuine belief on the accused’s part in the lawfulness of their defensive act, putative private defence cannot exist. 
 It is trite that, for private defence to succeed as a ground of justification, the test is objective in the sense that the attack and the defensive action must meet certain objective requirements. The accused’s subjective belief, whatever it may be, has no impact on the validity of private defence as a ground of justification. The Constitutional Court in Tuta v The State (2023 (2) BCLR 179 (CC)) was recently tasked with making a finding on the correct legal test to be applied to the existence of the defence of putative private defence. In this contribution, the Constitutional Court’s decision is analysed.

Dynamics of the Inflation-Hedging Capabilities of Real Estate Investment Portfolios in the Nigerian Property Market

There has been a wide belief that real estate is a source of good investment portfolios because it has a hedge against inflation. Considering this notion, the present research examined the dynamics of the inflation-hedging capabilities of real estate investment in Nigeria’s three foremost property markets, Abuja (Maitama and Central Business District), Lagos (Lekki and Victoria Island), and Port Harcourt (Rumu Ibekwe and Aba Road). To achieve this aim, this study was carried out by exploring the returns on different types of commercial properties in the chosen location and investigating the effect of inflation on such returns in order to come up with the hedging capabilities of the assets. Out of the four property prime locations in Nigeria’s market, these selected study sites were purposely selected for investigation because they comprise the most desirable and preferred properties regarding location, standards, aesthetics, and value. From the data collected, a mean return, coefficient of variation, and ordinary least square regression analysis were completed. In terms of the coefficient of variation (CV), the findings reveal that the duplex in Port Harcourt exhibits the most performed investment, with a value of 0.33, compared to other locations. However, in terms of the expected return (ER), the duplex outperformed other property types in the different locations, with a return of 39.56%. Results also show that inflation has an adverse effect on the returns of the office space for the three locations considered, with the expected returns below 1%. The block of flats in Abuja has a complete defence against the three components of inflation, with a coefficient beta of 0.5633, 0.6586, and 0.8440, respectively. Thus, investors should consider inflation and other investment attributes when making decisions among arrays of investments. This will help guard against the widespread perception that real estate has a hedge against inflation. This paper adds to the existing literature on inflation hedging by investigating the effect of inflation on the real estate investment returns of commercial properties.

Reactive Oxygen Species and Antioxidant System in Selected Skin Disorders.

The skin has a solid protective system that includes the stratum corneum as the primary barrier and a complete antioxidant defence system to maintain the skin's normal redox homeostasis. The epidermal and dermal cells are continuously exposed to physiological levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) originating from cellular metabolic activities. Environmental insults, such as ultraviolet (UV) rays and air pollutants, also generate ROS that can contribute to structural damage of the skin. The antioxidant defence system ensures that the ROS level remains within the safe limit. In certain skin disorders, oxidative stress plays an important role, and there is an established interplay between oxidative stress and inflammation in the development of the condition. Lower levels of skin antioxidants indicate that oxidative stress may mediate the pathogenesis of the disorder. Accordingly, the total antioxidant level was also found to be lower in individuals with skin disorders in individuals with normal skin conditions. This review attempts to summarise the skin oxidant sources and antioxidant system. In addition, both skin and total antioxidant status of individuals with psoriasis, acne vulgaris, vitiligo and atopic dermatitis (AD), as well as their associations with the progression of these disorders will be reviewed.

Realising a ‘Right’ to Research in Nigeria and South Africa: The Role of the Executive Arm of Government

Development agendas and plans such as South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 and Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2021–2025, indicate the need for, and benefits of, development research to sharpen countries’ innovative edge and to contribute to global scientific and technological advancement. Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on national development of copyright exceptions allowing for the right to research. This can be in the form of either a complete defence to copyright infringement, or, as user rights. However, the realisation of a right to research has been limited by a copyright legislative framework that may be challenging to interpret. Other hindrances to realising the right to research are limited access to courts for interpretation due to limited resources and also as a result of the inherent institutional limitations of courts to consider only the case pleaded by parties before them. In this environment, the role of the executive arm of government in driving the realisation of a right to research is crucial. Yet, there’s been no executive action to provide for the much-needed clarification to concretise and promote the right to research to actualise development goals. Focused on Nigeria and South Africa, this paper explores the duties imposed on the institutions of executive government and applies administrative law principles to indicate a policy toolkit within copyright statutes that may be deployed to realise a right to research and engender guidance for researchers, copyright owners, users and audience of research.

The Reformulated Contextual Truth Defence: More Radical That First Appears

Defamatory publications may carry any number of related or distinct imputations. Complexities arise where a plaintiff selects one or more imputations for complaint, but ignores other imputations carried by the same publication. In England and Wales, the so-called Polly Peck principle permits defendants to plead and justify an imputation other than one complained of by the plaintiff but bearing a common sting with such an imputation. The Polly Peck principle has not been good law in Australia for more than 20 years. The statutory defence of contextual truth in Australia’s uniform defamation laws, however, permits a defendant to plead and justify imputations that are ‘in addition to’ those complained of by the plaintiff and affords a complete defence where, having regard to the substantial truth of those contextual imputations, the imputations complained of by the plaintiff do not further harm the reputation of the plaintiff. As enacted, the defence was infected with a serious drafting error. This article looks at the implications of the reformulation of the contextual truth defence effected by the recent amendments to Australia’s uniform defamation laws. It posits that those implications are considerably broader than have been recognised to date. It argues that the reformulated defence not only corrects the drafting error in the original defence of contextual truth but also resurrects the Polly Peck principle in Australia and substantially neuters 20 years of confused jurisprudence concerning the extent to which a defendant is or should be constrained by the imputations pleaded by the plaintiff.

A mutation in the cytokinin receptor CRE1 enhances susceptibility to tobacco mosaic virus in Nicotiana tabacum

Cytokinin (CTK)-mediated pathways play essential roles in plant stress responses. How CTK receptors affect plant resistance to viral pathogens remains unclear. Tobacco mosaic virus [recombinant TMV encoding green fluorescent protein (TMV-GFP)] was used to investigate the role of Nicotiana tabacum CRE1 (CTK receptor 1) in modulating virus susceptibility in N. tabacum. CRE1 deficiency enhanced the susceptibility of N. tabacum to TMV-GFP. The cre1 RNAi mutants showed extensive green florescence and higher transcript levels of the TMV coat protein gene than the wild type (WT) plants. CRE1 deficiency affected the antioxidant response to TMV-GFP, and the RNAi mutants had depressed antioxidant enzyme activities compared to the WT plants under virus infection. In addition, endogenous salicylic acid (SA) accumulation and the expression levels of SA pathway-related defence genes induced by TMV-GFP were significantly repressed in the RNAi mutants compared with the WT plants. Furthermore, the presence of exogenous CTK could only partially reduce the susceptibility of tobacco to TMV caused by CRE1 deficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that CRE1 plays a positive role in the tobacco defence response to the virus and is required for the induction and development of complete defence responses.

Associations between early maladaptive schema domains of parents and their adult children: The role of defence styles.

Although existing research recognized the associations between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) of parents and their adult children, the mechanisms that underpin these associations were not fully understood. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the role of defence styles (DSs) on the associations between two EMS domains (Disconnection/Rejection and Impaired Autonomy) of parents and their adult children. Two hundred and fifteen families (i.e., mother, father, and their adult children) participated in the study. Both parents and their adult children were asked to complete Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) and Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) to assess their EMS domains and DSs. According to the results of the current study, there were significant associations between Disconnection/Rejection and Impaired Autonomy EMS domains of parents and their adult children, and these associations were mediated by only immature DS of parents and their adult children in a serial mediation model. These results contributed to our understanding of the associations between EMS domains of parents and their adult children through immature DSs. Moreover, our findings highlighted the importance of synthesizing the concepts of different theories to enhance our understanding of mental representations in families.

Estimation of herbicides affect on weediness, growth and development of corn plants under the permanent growing in Left-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine

On research results the value of bringing of the ground and insurance herbicides is certain on theearly and late terms of the permanent growing of corn in Left-bank to Forest-steppe of Ukraine. Their efficiency is found out in relation to elimination of weed vegetation and providing of height and development of plants of corn. It is set that application only of the ground herbicides did not guarantee complete defence of sowing against weeds and reduced the height of plants of corn and edge of their heads. Efficiency of complex application of the ground herbicides is certain with the additional sprinkling of sowing of corn by insurance herbicides. It has been found out the important value of increase of efficiency of chemical preparations by the repeated bringing of insurance herbicides, at what the amount of weeds diminished and them an air-dry mass. It is set that the best height and development of plants of corn at the permanent growing in Left-bank to Forest-steppe of Ukraine is got at application of the ground herbicide of Harnes and additional bringing of insurance herbicide of Milagro.

Gay Lotharios and Innocent Eves: Child Maintenance, Masculinities and the Action for Breach of Promise of Marriage in Colonial Australia

This article will focus upon the action for breach of promise of marriage in colonial Australia to reflect more broadly on the legal regulation of intimacy. Drawing upon a database of 211 breach of promise cases, I seek to explain a contradiction: almost half of the female plaintiffs in my study had illegitimate children, although a lack of virtue operated as a complete defence for (predominantly) male defendants. In spite of this, a vast majority of the women were successful. This paradox is clarified through an examination of the action in contract treatises and through an analysis of the way that the action operated as a supplement to maintenance for women with children. I conclude with a close study of a breach of promise case involving illegitimacy, as a means of examining the informal and formal norms governing love (and its discontents) in colonial Australia

When Self-Defence Fails

Feminist efforts to reform criminal defences to homicide have largely focused on expanding self-defence for women who kill their abusers on the one hand, and constricting defences for men who kill their female partners and former partners on the other. Self-defence is the preferred defence for battered women who kill: it is a complete defence; it conveys that the woman’s act was justified; and its elements permit the jury to hear evidence about the experience of battering and the social realities that provide context to the woman’s acts. Yet self-defence may fail. So much depends upon judicial rulings on the evidence offered by the defence. Jurors may not hear all the testimony about the deceased’s violence or threats (R v Craig). The woman’s claim to self-defence may be hobbled by the fact that she failed to disclose the abuse, seek help or leave the relationship. Women who kill outside of a live confrontation may be denied self-defence even without a formal “imminence” requirement. And, women’s credibility will be challenged by prosecutors who point to evidence of independence or prior violence by the woman to contest whether she was a “real” battered woman who faced lethal danger or rather a batterer herself or even, as some prosecutors propose, someone who chose homicide as the preferred way out of an unhappy marriage. In addition, even on an expansive reading of self-defence, not all battered women who kill do so in circumstances that are a good fit with self-defence. For these reasons we turn our attention to other complete defences to homicide that may be available to women who kill an abusive partner. These have attracted less scholarly attention than self-defence or provocation, and an assessment of their potential application to battered women’s homicide cases seems overdue. Recent reforms in several Australian states that have extended the defences of duress and necessity to murder, and the novel use of duress in a recent Canadian case, provide added reasons for this inquiry.

Social engineering defence mechanisms and counteracting training strategies

PurposeThis paper aims to outline strategies for defence against social engineering that are missing in the current best practices of information technology (IT) security. Reason for the incomplete training techniques in IT security is the interdisciplinary of the field. Social engineering is focusing on exploiting human behaviour, and this is not sufficiently addressed in IT security. Instead, most defence strategies are devised by IT security experts with a background in information systems rather than human behaviour. The authors aim to outline this gap and point out strategies to fill the gaps.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a literature review from viewpoint IT security and viewpoint of social psychology. In addition, they mapped the results to outline gaps and analysed how these gaps could be filled using established methods from social psychology and discussed the findings.FindingsThe authors analysed gaps in social engineering defences and mapped them to underlying psychological principles of social engineering attacks, for example, social proof. Furthermore, the authors discuss which type of countermeasure proposed in social psychology should be applied to counteract which principle. The authors derived two training strategies from these results that go beyond the state-of-the-art trainings in IT security and allow security professionals to raise companies’ bars against social engineering attacks.Originality/valueThe training strategies outline how interdisciplinary research between computer science and social psychology can lead to a more complete defence against social engineering by providing reference points for researchers and IT security professionals with advice on how to improve training.

A calmodulin-like protein regulates plasmodesmal closure during bacterial immune responses.

Summary Plants sense microbial signatures via activation of pattern recognition receptors (PPRs), which trigger a range of cellular defences. One response is the closure of plasmodesmata, which reduces symplastic connectivity and the capacity for direct molecular exchange between host cells.Plasmodesmal flux is regulated by a variety of environmental cues but the downstream signalling pathways are poorly defined, especially the way in which calcium regulates plasmodesmal closure.Here, we identify that closure of plasmodesmata in response to bacterial flagellin, but not fungal chitin, is mediated by a plasmodesmal‐localized Ca2+‐binding protein Calmodulin‐like 41 (CML41). CML41 is transcriptionally upregulated by flg22 and facilitates rapid callose deposition at plasmodesmata following flg22 treatment. CML41 acts independently of other defence responses triggered by flg22 perception and reduces bacterial infection.We propose that CML41 enables Ca2+‐signalling specificity during bacterial pathogen attack and is required for a complete defence response against Pseudomonas syringae.

Human Trafficking Drug Trafficking, And The Death Penalty

Both Australia and Indonesia have made commitments to combatting human trafficking. Through the experience of Mary Jane Veloso it can be seen that it is most often the vulnerable ‘mule’ that is apprehended by law enforcement and not the powerful leaders of crime syndicates. It is unacceptable that those vulnerable individuals may face execution for acts committed under threat of force, coercion, fraud, deception or abuse of power. For this reason it is vital that a system of victim identification is developed, including better training for law enforcement, legal representatives and members of the judiciary. This paper builds on submissions by authors for Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Human Trafficking, and focusses on issues arising in the complex cross section of human trafficking, drug trafficking, and the death penalty with particular attention on identifying victims and effective reporting mechanisms in both Australia and Indonesia. It concludes that, in the context of human trafficking both countries could make three main improvements to law and policy, among others, 1) enactment of laws that create clear mandatory protection for human trafficking victims; 2) enactment of criminal laws that provides complete defence for victim of human trafficking; 3) enactment of corporate reporting mechanisms. Systemic protection and support is not sufficiently available without clear legislative protection as this paper suggests together with standardised referral mechanisms and effective financial reporting mechanisms. The implementation can be achieved through collaborative responses and inter-agency coordination with data collection and properly trained specialists.

GABA/BABA priming: a means for enhancing abiotic stress tolerance potential of plants with less energy investments on defence cache

Abiotic stress is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and yield globally. Though substantial progress has been made in breeding and genetic manipulation of plants to enhance abiotic stress tolerance, the task remains as a challenge even today. Investigations on the priming activity of various chemicals in plants for enhancing abiotic stress tolerance have been undertaken over the past few years. Priming with γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) and β-amino butyric acid (BABA) gains greater attention, because priming with these non-protein amino acids equips the plants to resist abiotic stresses effectively without suffering costly energy investments in operating defence mechanisms. It is well documented that the protective effect of non-protein amino acids like BABA and GABA on plants is due to a potentiation of natural defence mechanisms against abiotic stresses but at the same time not activating the complete defence arsenal before the stress exposure. The exact mode of action of priming with GABA/BABA in plants is still a puzzle, though their importance as signaling molecules during stress is undoubtful. The better understanding of molecular, physiological, and ecological aspects of GABA/BABA priming might lead to the emergence of this technique as a successful strategy for enhancing the abiotic stress(es) tolerance potential of plants in the field, without compromising much on productivity.

MERCIFUL ACTS AND CRUEL OMISSIONS

Criminal law draws a clear distinction between positive acts that cause death, and omissions to do acts that would prevent death. Judges have relied on the differentiation between acts and omissions to determine whether a medical killing is unlawful. However, this act-omission distinction is not an appropriate criterion for determining the lawfulness of the actions of doctors who assist patients who want to die, particularly in cases where competent patients suffer from a medical condition that prevents them from actively killing themselves. This inconsistent application of the act-omission distinction is evident in cases of adult conjoined twins and patients who suffer from locked-in syndrome. Instead, the law should give effect to the rhetoric of respect for patient autonomy and dignity, and regard the consent of a patient of full capacity, in conjunction with the defence of necessity as a complete defence for doctors who help these patients to die a dignified and painless death.

ICTUR in Action: A human rights defender who should never have been prosecuted

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 19 Volume 21 Issue 4 2014 ICTUR IN ACTION ❐ TRIAL OBSERVATION A human rights defender who should never have been prosecuted Human rights researcher Andy Hall has been hit with a plethora of civil and criminal legal cases arising from his alleged ‘defamation’ of a major pineapple exporter in a report on labour rights for migrant workers in Thailand prohibition is in breach of the requirement of open justice; ■ the prosecution was not fair because of: - the failure to make full disclosure to Mr Hall of all evidence available to the prosecution before the trial including the complete Department of Labour files for the factory; - the failure of the Thai authorities to respond to the defence subpoenas and provide critically relevant files to Mr Hall concerning the labour conditions at the factory. ■ Mr Hall had a complete defence to the charges and deserved to be acquitted on the merits. Plunkett continued: “Hall is not the first human rights investigator to be placed on trial under Thailand’s criminal defamation laws”, and added that “there is an astonishing 95 percent conviction rate for those tried under these laws”. Adding to the concern for the international labour rights community, Plunkett noted: “today’s verdict does not mark the end of the matter for Hall. He now faces further, more serious, criminal charges and civil suits seeking damages running into millions of dollars”. The International Centre for Trade Union Rights (‘ICTUR’) is a London-based international NGO, established in 1987 and accredited to the UN ECOSOC and the ILO Special List of international NGOs. ICTUR is the publisher of International Union Rights journal. ICTUR’s programme of activities includes the observation of key labour related trials around the world. Mark Plunkett is a Brisbane-based barrister and an expert on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. For over 32 years Mr Plunkett has practised law as a Barrister at the Private Bar throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. He is a Court Accredited Mediator and Specialist Negotiator. ■ For further information about the case against Andy Hall please see the full trial observer’s report, available online at: www.ictur.org/ Eng/Plunkett.htm. ■ For more about ICTUR’s trial observer programme, please see the online guide to: www.ictur.org/Eng/Lawyers.html ■ For more about the Finnish NGO research programme with which Hall was involved, looking into working conditions in production facilities for Thailand’s canned fruit and fish export industries, please see: www.finnwatch.org O n 29 October 2014 British labour rights researcher Andy Hall was acquitted by the Phrakanong Provincial Court, Bangkok, when it dismissed charges of criminal defamation in relation to his work to expose labour rights violations . Regional human rights specialist and barrister Mark Plunkett of Brisbane, Australia, monitored the trial on behalf of the London-based International Centre for Trade Union Rights. Plunkett said ‘this is a good result. Hall is clearly a human rights defender engaged in legitimate work to investigate the conditions of migrant workers. The work that Hall was engaged in should not have been the subject of a criminal prosecution. And it was no coincidence that five UN Special Rapporteurs had spoken out in support of Hall and his work’. Plunkett welcomed the fact that ‘the judges conducted the trial of Mr Hall fairly with dignity and discernment’, but he criticised the law under which the prosecution was brought, the conduct of the prosecution, and the restriction on note taking by members of the public and press. The trial observer’s full report is now available on the ICTUR website at: www.ictur.org/Eng/ Plunkett.htm. Plunkett’s main conclusions are that: ■ the judges conducted the trial of Mr Hall fairly with good grace, dignity and discernment and reached a just result by dismissing the charges against Mr Hall; ■ the laws which permitted the criminal prosecution of Mr Hall for criminal defamation are not fair and are in violation of international norms because Thai law makes the exercise of a fundamental right of free speech a crime punishable by imprisonment; ■ it is not a fair system of law that permitted Mr Hall to be charged...

Temporalism and Composite Tense Operators

Berit Brogaard’s book, Transient Truths. An Essay in the Metaphysics of Propositions is the most complete and thorough defence of temporalism to date. Temporalism, as she understands it, is the view that the objects of our attitudes such as belief, fear, desire and so on, as well as the entities expressed by some of our utterances, are temporal propositions — that is, contents that change their truth value over time. The opposite view, considered the orthodox view nowadays, is the view that such contents are eternal propositions — that is, contents that have their truth value eternally — hence, eternalism. In her book, Brogaard investigates all the major arguments against and in favour of temporalism, offering a couple of new ones in its favour along the way. One of the nice features of the book is that the interconnections between the various areas of philosophical inquiry in which temporalism is a competitor clearly come to the fore, while the contribution made by the view in each area is thoroughly investigated are carefully argued for. Thus, temporalism is put forward in connection to the theory of belief possession and retention (Chapter 2), to that of communication and of disagreement (Chapter 3), to the syntactic and semantic theory of tenses and temporal expressions (Chapters 4 to 6) and to the metaphysics of time (Chapters 7 and 8). Given the book’s wide range, there are many interesting and important issues to pick up. In this short note, I will focus only on the issue of the linguistic representation of tenses and temporal expressions, a field in which temporalism has been one of the traditional answers. This traditional answer, however, has been called into question in recent years, and a lively debate has issued. It is this debate that I want to focus on, and discuss Borgaard’s contribution

Looking at the Invisible: When Battered Women are Acquitted by Successfully Raising Self-Defence

Homicide is a distinctly male offence. The majority of homicides in Australia are committed by men, against men. This has shaped the laws around homicide, including the laws around the defences to homicide, to the extent that these defences are not easily accessible to women who kill. Of the comparatively low number of women who commit homicide, the great majority kill their intimate partners, and this is in response to immediate or extended violence. It is legal to use reasonable force in self-defence, even where that force results in a fatality. However, self-defence, which is a complete defence to homicide, has a gendered history, and women who kill face significant difficulty convincing juries that their actions constitute self-defence. Academics and legal commentators have expressed that it is no longer the law but rather, prevailing community understandings and institutional attitudes toward domestic violence that continue to make self-defence relatively inaccessible to women. In its Final Report recommendations to the Victorian Parliament, the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) expressed concern that women were failing to successfully raise self-defence at trial, and referred to Bradfield’s study of 76 cases between 1998 - 2000 which found that 41.4% of women charged with homicide pleaded guilty to murder or manslaughter. Sheehy, Stubbs and Tolmie’s research of 67 homicide cases between 2000 - 2010 specifically involving battered women defendants, found that 64% of battered women pleaded guilty and only 16% secured an acquittal. Stubbs and Tolmie made the observation that for battered women defendants in Australia, even where self-defence would have been available, “pleading guilty to manslaughter…in exchange for the Prosecution agreeing to drop murder charges, has emerged as perhaps the most common defence strategy…” It is problematic that battered women would elect to plead guilty to manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment, rather than attempt to acquire an acquittal by raising self-defence. This bespeaks the substantial challenges women face trying to prove self-defence. In fact, little is known about the small number of cases that involve women who are able to secure acquittals by successfully raising self-defence. This is because acquittals are not reported, and researchers in this area must rely on the media’s selective reporting. Acquittals are “truly invisible as, for several reasons, we know very little about the reasoning of judges and juries in those cases”, and especially because acquittals are rare. In this research paper, I analyse two cases involving female defendants who are acquitted of homicide charges, against the background of the current debate on battered women and self-defence. The cases are R v Kasparian and R v Chipreo. They were chosen because they fit the topic criteria and because of practical reasons of access. I was able to obtain the transcripts for these two cases through my employment at the Supreme Court of New South Wales. I note that the defendant in Kasparian is not a ‘battered woman’ in that there was no history of physical violence in her relationship. The case nevertheless provides insight into the current issues surrounding self-defence and battered women.

The Use and Misuse of the Corruption Defence in International Investment Arbitration

This article argues that while a mutually beneficial relationship can be cultivated between international investment arbitration and anti-corruption policies, the recent emergence of a state-invoked 'corruption defence' as a complete defence to liability for alleged breach of investment protection obligations may hamper the sustainability and effectiveness of such a relationship. In the context of a corrupt host state, for instance, and particularly a corrupt developing host state, the growing use of this defence may arguably frustrate the objectives of both foreign investment protection and anti-corruption policies. This was the case, for instance, in the 2006 investment arbitration World Duty Free Co. Ltd. v. Republic of Kenya, in which the arbitral tribunal accepted the corruption defence invoked by Kenya as a complete defence to the investor's claims of alleged breach of investment protection obligations. In so doing, the tribunal arguably disregarded the potentially detrimental effects such a decision may have on Kenya's ability to fight corruption and attract further foreign investment, both of which are of crucial importance to its future development. This article argues, therefore, that investment arbitration tribunals ought to proceed with caution when permitting a corrupt host state, and particularly a developing one, to rely on the corruption defence, and ought to devise alternative remedies to the complete rejection of the claims where investor corruption is established.