Judicial Trial Research Articles

The Continuous Observation by Chromosome Aberration Elimination at Irradiated Persons

One from a problem of biological dosimetry is the dose evaluation in remote time after irradiation. This takes place in certain percent of cases of acute irradiation, for ex-ample, when patient entrance in hospital is delayed. The retrospective dose evaluation is necessary for confirmation of irradiation fact and determination of quantity of possible absorbed dose in aims of medical social examination and potential judicial trials which are associated with requirements of a compensation of damage caused by health. There-fore the investigation of chromosome aberration rate dynamics of patients injured in a result of Chernobyl accident is very important. In this situation the fact of presence of primary cytogenetic analysis results of peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures established in nearest days and weeks after irradiation for many number of injured patients is espe-cially essential. It allows to make the comparison between primary and repeated investi-gations. Chernobyl patients (73 humans investigated in during 12 years after irradiation) were divided by three groups depending on primarily evaluated dose by medium dicen-tric frequency: patients irradiated by 0,2-2,4 Gy (30 individuals, 90 cultures); patients ir-radiated by 2,6-4,4 Gy (28 individuals, 117 cultures) and patients irradiated by 4,6-9,8 Gy (15 individuals, 64 cultures). The cytogenetic analysis was produced by FPG-method. Also the cytogenetic data of nearest time after irradiation testified to relatively uniform irradiation of basic body mass for almost all injured patients. We used double exponential model how in the article IAEA (1998) for Goiania pa-tients for the mathematical description of elimination of dicentrics and unstable chromo-some aberrations. A speed of decrease of frequency of dicentrics in cells with dicentrics in middle was more than for frequencies of dicentrics and unstable aberrations by 100 analyzed cells. In all cases the elimination speeds of cytogenetic indexes of unstable aberrations was the more the more primary absorbed dose. High individual variability of this process was observed. Qdr index which is often proposed for retrospective dose indication sub-mitted these principles also. The middle speed of its decrease was less than for frequen-cies of dicentrics and unstable aberrations by 100 analyzed cells but more than for fre-quency of dicentrics in cells with dicentrics. As against dicentrics and other unstable ab-errations atypical chromosomes frequency in whole was approximately constant in dur-ing 12 years of observation in spite of high individual variability. However in late period atypical chromosomes were contained mainly in stable cells but not unstable cells.

Humour as a Guerrilla Tactic: The West German Student Movement's Mockery of the Establishment

A small group within the German student movement of the 1960s expressed its critique of society in humorous protests that condensed the urge for a non-materialist, individualistic, and libertarian change. In the early phase of an emerging cycle of protest, Spassguerilla [fun guerrilla] contributed to shaping the face of the student movement, despite differences with the more traditional groups within that movement. In happenings, pamphlets, and judicial trials, humorous activists derided conventional ways of thinking and living. A responsive environment played a decisive role in shaping the image of the insurgents, thus reinforcing the impact of their actions and drawing in sympathizers.

Commonsense Causal Explanation in a Legal Domain

In this paper, we present an approach to commonsense causal explanation of stories that can be used for automatically determining the liable party in legal case descriptions. The approach is based on \({\mathsf {LRICore}}\), a core ontology for law that takes a commonsense perspective. Aside from our thesis that in the legal domain many terms still have a strong commonsense flavour, the descriptions of events in legal cases, as e.g. presented at judicial trials, are cast in commonsense terms as well. We present design principles for representing commonsense causation, and describe a process-based approach to automatic identification of causal relations in stories, which are described in terms of the core ontology. The resulting causal explanation forms a necessary condition for determining the liability and responsibility of agents that play a role in the case. We describe the basic architecture and working of \({\mathsf {DIRECT}}\), the demonstrator we are constructing to test the validity of our process oriented view on commonsense causation. This view holds that causal relations are in fact abstractions constructed on the basis of our commonsense understanding of physical and mental processes.

Doctrinal Issues in Evidence and Proof

The word evidence ordinarily means the statements, events, items, or sensory perceptions that suggest the existence or nonexistence of, or truth or falsity of, another fact. Thus, one may say, “hoofbeats are evidence a horse may be passing.” Proof is similar in meaning but may connote more certainty. Evidence can also mean the study of either (1) how people make such inferences (especially when conjoined with the word proof) or (2) how law regulates information admissibility in the judicial context. Evidence in the latter sense is the name of a standard law school course in common law countries and a subject that is on all American state examinations for admission to the bar. As a subject in law, then, evidence traditionally encompasses only the legal rules and regulations governing the admissibility of evidence, inference, and argument, on questions of fact, in civil and criminal judicial trials. Surprising for American lawyers, most civil law countries do not have a separate basic course on evidence but, rather, fold it into the introductory course on procedure.

Tekmovanje, vrednote in ritem življenja: razmišljanja o Antifontu, Tukididu in Aristotelu

Razprava je bila napisana kot prispevek za filozofski kongres v Grčiji, ki je skušal osvetliti tudi filozofsko razsežnost dogodka olimpijskih iger: v etiki zavzema mesto vrhunskih športnih dosežkov ideja dobrega življenja. - V prvem paragrafu je prikazana Nietzschejeva teorija o agonalnem značaju grške kulture. Grški gimnastični in muzični &y&lvE<; so svete tekme in zibelka vrhunskih dosežkov grške kulture. Nato skušam prikazati nekatere filozofske vidike fenomena tekmovanja, &ywv-a, pri čemer se opiram na besedila treh avtorjev: Antifonta, Tukidida in Aristotela. Pri Antifontu ima &ywv tako etično-antropološko kakor pravno-politično razsežnost, pri Tukididu je razvidno, kako se v &ywvu konkretizirajo politične odločitve, tako v Šparti, še bolj pa v Atenah, medtem ko je pri Aristotelu &ywv ime za kulminacijo življenjske dejavnosti, olimpiade pa oporišče za ciklično potekanje časa kot življenjskosvetnega dogajanja.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION OF NON-NATIONALS PURSUANT TO IMMIGRATION CONTROL: INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVES

Fortunately it is still startling, in this country, to find a person held indefinitely in executive custody without accusation of crime or judicial trial. Executive imprisonment has been considered oppressive and lawless since John, at Runnymede, pledged that no free man should be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, or exiled save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, (per Jackson J, Shaughnessy v United States ex rel Mezei 345 US 206 (1953))

Returning to Square One: From Plessy to Brown and Back to Plessy

This essay describes significant legal and policy system changes in America's 50-year crusade to curtail or eliminate racially segregated public school. In hindsight, a more forceful initial policy system stance regarding judicial enforcement might well have resulted in greater desegregation success. However, after 5 decades of judicial and operational compliance trial and error, United States public schools presently appear almost as racially segregated as before the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954, 1955). In effect, over the 50 years since 1954, the nation has ricocheted from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) to Brown and, practically if not constitutionally, back to Plessy. The contemporary cause of school segregation rests more with income and housing patterns than with explicit apartheid policies. Regardless of cause, however, even if there now exists something much closer to equal educational opportunity than was true 50 years ago, there clearly is not anything close, nationally, to racial parity of educational achievement. Mindful of the remaining achievement gap, this article posits that it is time to reconsider past policies built almost exclusively around busing and achieving physical mixes of Black and White students. Instead, it is now time to rely on new strategies involving elevated expectations, explicit learning standards, notions of financial "adequacy," and effective accountability. In effect, it is time to measure racial policy progress by student successes, not by transportation and school resource processes.

The Provocations of Amnesty: Memory, Justice and Impunity

Prosecutions, amnesty and nation-building: Debating the questions of amnesty - a symposium convened in Cape Town, 4 October 2001 introductory remarks why prosecutions are necessary the Case for a general amnesty prosecutorial discretion four sayings and a denouement responding to the symposium - the legacy of the TRC Dumisa ntsebeza - revisiting the TRC's assumptions about racial healing. Can amnesty be reconciled with justice? restorative justice - ambiguities and limitations of a theory alternatives to revenge - building a vocabulary of reconciliation through political pardon truth commissions and judicial trials - complementary or antagonistic servants of public justice? amnesty and international law. the concept, context and controversy of Public Amnesty the choice for amnesty - did political Necessity Trump Moral Duty? easy to forget or never (Again) hard to remember? History, Memory and the 'Publicity' of Amnesty amnesty from an african point of view South Africa's amnesty revisited. amnesty at the TRC - organisational dilemmas, critical assessments an overview of the TRC amnesty process truth, evidence, and history - a critical review of aspects of the amnesty process degrees of truth - amnesty and limitations in the truth recovery project. After amnesty: Imperatives, applications, and uncertainty to prosecute or not to prosecute? constitutional and legal issues concerning criminal trials a second bite at the amnesty cherry? constitutional and policy issues around legislation for a Second amnesty the presidential pardons and the media - healing a wound with salt apartheid's victims in the Midst of Amnesty's promise truth without reconciliation, reconciliation without truth.

Truth Commissions and Judicial Trials: Complementary or Antagonistic Servants of Public Justice?

“The call to punish human rights criminals can present complex and agonising problems that have no single or simple solution. While the debate over the Nuremberg trials still goes on, that episode—trials of war criminals of a defeated nation—was simplicity itself as compared to the subtle and dangerous issues that can divide a country when it undertakes to punish its own violators.” -Judge Marvin Frankel “That's what lawyers do, Mark. They twist words. They twist truth. That's why people hate them.” -A recent television drama “Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present.” -David Mitchell “We expected justice, and we got the rule of law.” -Barbel Bohley “We do not want to see people suffer in the same way that we did suffer …. We do not want to return the evil that perpetrators committed to the nation. We want to demonstrate humanness towards them, so that they in turn may restore their own humanity.” -Cynthia Ngewu

Reconstructing atrocity: How torturers, murderers, and researchers deconstruct labels and manage secrecy

In countries undergoing democratization after military dictatorships--as throughout Latin America in the last fifteen years, where torture and murder had been systematic government practices--the processes of forgetting and remembering have both political and personal dimensions. Those who have variously experienced an authoritarian past can reconstruct it in very different ways. How a country's transitional politics undertake to deal with these painful memories can influence whether torturers and murderers receive blanket amnesty, make some general public acknowledgment of their acts, submit individually to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry, or undergo judicial trial. Each of these courses of action shapes personal and political healing differently depending on the experiences of participants. For example, amnesty for those in violent security forces may demoralize victims of human rights abuses even while providing a political bargain that promotes transfer to civilian rule and even overall political stabilization, at least for a while. This trade-off may suppress efforts to resurrect victims' memories of their abuse, while those who have perpetrated violence may also repress their memories all the more deeply to avoid the possibility that they and their families will become victims of their victims. On the other hand, political trials or any public discussion of wrongdoing by perpetrators of state-sanctioned violence may foster victims' healing, but block the accused's political participation in the new regime. Even confessions before investigation and amnesty commissions may not lead, as hoped, to the transformation of perpetrators into respectable and respectful participants in a more democratic system.

Building on the indigenous: theory and method of marriage therapy in contemporary Eastern and Western Africa

This paper highlights the distinctive approach to marriage therapy in use by therapists in two regions of Africa. It illustrates that marital therapy in these two regions is based on role theory framework and follows, in its execution, the pattern of the judicial trial model. It traces adaptations made by contemporary marriage therapists to ensure that while building their present practices on this essentially indigenous/court‐room trial model, they are able to remain open to outside influences from other models of marriage.

AFLP fingerprinting in Pelargonium peltatum:Its development and potential in cultivar identification

SummaryPelargoniums are of considerable commercial importance, mainly because they are highly decorative and relatively easy to cultivate. As the numbers of pelargonium cultivars are continuously increasing, the adoption of reliable and discriminant molecular tools capable of identifying new cultivars and determining their diversity with respect to already registered ones promises to be the prime requirement for a valuable decorative plant market, as well as a genetic guarantee of the value of plant materials. A judicial trial offered a unique opportunity to develop an innovative line of research for molecularly characterizing Pelargonium peltatum genotypes on the basis of RAPD and AFLP fingerprinting. The DNA polymorphism of a pelargonium flower recovered at the site of a crime was compared with those of nine plants seized in the house of the suspected murderer. Once an efficient protocol for isolating genomic DNA in pelargonium had been optimized, a total of 162 RAPD and 568 AFLP markers were detected using respectively twenty 10-mer primers and twelve Eco-RI/Mse-I primer combinations. RAPD fingerprints were not reproducible using the recovered flower template. AFLP fingerprints detected an average of 47 markers and furnished evidence that the recovered flower was genetically different from each of the seized plants. This new type of molecular marker proved to be a powerful tool for discriminating genetic differences even between phenotypically similar pelargonium individuals. AFLP markers could, therefore, be adopted for the granting of Plant Breeders' Rights with the aim of making the protection of new pelargonium cultivars more specific and effective. Because they can detect reliable genetic polymorphisms and supply effective cultivar descriptors, AFLP fingerprinting could be crucial for the future of pelargonium breeding and new cultivar testing.

The invention and future of the computer

The combination of elements that is the basis of the modern computer was first conceived and reduced to practice by John Atanasoff, a professor of mathematics and physics, at Iowa State University in 1939. In the confusion of American entry into the Second World War, the patent application was abandoned and the invention lapsed into the public domain. Others asserted patent rights to the invention, but a lengthy judicial trial ascertained the facts and determined priority. Development of computer technology beyond the basic concept is having an ubiquitous effect on society.

The invention and future of the computer

Abstract The combination of elements that is the basis of the modern computer was first conceived and reduced to practice by John Atanasoff, a professor of mathematics and physics, at Iowa State University in 1939. In the confusion of American entry into the Second World War, the patent application was abandoned and the invention lapsed into the public domain. Others asserted patent rights to the invention, but a lengthy judicial trial ascertained the facts and determined priority. Development of computer technology beyond the basic concept is having an ubiquitous effect on society.

Judicial Ethics Simulation Based Training

The Judicial Ethics Education Project trains trial judges to be aware of ethical issues that arise in the trial process. The project employs case simulations that raise ethical and management issues requiring immediate attention during the course of a trial. The goal of the project is to provide sitting judges with a basis on which to make similar decisions during trials. The project grew out of and is incorporated into the Minnesota Judicial Trial Skills Training Program (MJTSTP) at the University of Minnesota, which was created in 1986 by Professor Steve Simon and Judge Bertrand Portisky and is mandatory for all newly appointed or elected Minnesota trial judges.1 It consists of a mock criminal trial scenario involving issues of scientific testing, control and management of firearms evidence, handling of exhibits, and use of documents. The volunteer attorneys are instructed to push the bounds of acceptable behavior and rules of evidence and decorum in the courtroom, giving the student judge an opportunity to exercise her administrative and adjudicative skills in a realistic setting. During the first eight years of its existence, the program did not focus on ethical issues. Issues of fundamental fairness and justice, however, were raised in the course of the trial. For example, one issue raised was when, if at all, a judge should intervene to save a criminal defendant from incompetent counsel. However, control issues and ethics issues are often intertwined, especially those concerning demeanor.2 Because the simulation deals with issues of judicial comportment, attorneyjudge relationships, and courtroom control, it does not depend upon any specific substantive area of law for its effectiveness and may be adapted to most areas of the law or for specialized courts.3 Similar simulations are already employed in legal education in other contexts, including law school clinics and classes4 and

MORE SCEPTICISM ABOUT SCEPTICISM

Considering the difficulties for a modern reader of the writings on evidence of Bentham and Wigmore, it is pleasing to have a book,1 written with clarity and economy, which conveys the main ideas of each. Given his knowledge of those writings and of the intellectual history of evidence scholarship, few could be as well-qualified to write it as William Twining. Evidence is not the subject for which Bentham is best known, but it occupied him over many years and his output was enormous; some might argue that his writings in evidence are his most enduring achievement. Bentham advanced on two fronts: one was to expose the absurdity and chicanery of much of the law of evidence of his day; the other was to lay the basis for a more rational system, guided of course by utilitarian principles. Wigmore's ambitions appear more modest; he was an academic lawyer who is best known for his Treatise on the Law of Evidence, a treatise which has gone into later editions and which is still regarded on many practical issues of evidence as high authority, while the more theoretical work, the Principles of udicial Proof, has been rescued only recently from obscurity. The primary thrust of Theories of Evidence is expository, and at that level it works well. An effort has been made to convey a sense of the historical and intellectual milieu in which Bentham and Wigmore wrote, and to show the connections and differences between the two. The reader, after careful perusal of Theories of Evidence, cannot but be left with a sound grasp of the main ideas and concerns of the two writers, and for that Twining is to be commended. But the reader might also wonder how much has been learnt and whether the views of Bentham and Wigmore do have the contemporary significance claimed. Bentham's main argument, that rectitude is the object of the judicial trial and is achieved best through a flexible system of guidelines rather than rules, has long been accepted, and, except in rare cases, raises no dissent. His other principal argument, that rectitude should not be diminished in order to preserve values external to proof, such as protecting the accused from self-incrimination, is the part of Bentham that all lawyers know, and opinions about it are as divided as ever. Wigmore's main claim on posterity lies in his realization that the study of

On Validity and Invalidity of Sacraments

THIS ARTICLE had its genesis, more or less, in an after-dinner conversation with a theologian who remarked, as we were talking about sacraments and priesthood, that the notion of belonged in my discipline of law rather than his discipline of theology. His doctrine is very much concerned with sacraments as celebrations, and so he is less apt to ask whether they are valid than how well they come off. On his understanding, talk about validity or invalidity of a sacrament is no more useful than talk about validity or invalidity of a birthday party. His impatience with traditional notions of validity is shared by many ecumenical-minded people who see invalidity as a pejorative term and are unwilling to apply it to the ministrations of those Protestant bodies that lack priests ordained in the traditional fashion but seem to be living in Christ's presence at least as fully as a typical group of Catholics or Orthodox. These problems with the notion of validity of sacraments are, in fact, very similar to some of the problems we have with the notion of validity of legal transactions. If it seems unacceptable to consign a child to hell (or even limbo) because the priest used the wrong formula in baptizing him, it seems analogously unacceptable to put a family out of their home because their title deed is not sealed in the proper way. My friend's dismissal of validity as a mere legal concept is, of course, not to be taken seriously. Many legal concepts, including this one, have gained a secure place in theology. But if a legal concept is to be used in theology, perhaps our experience of it as a legal concept can shed some light on its theological function. It is with this possibility in mind that I shall try here to see what contribution legal analysis can make to a theological understanding of the validity of sacraments. I am encouraged in the attempt by the fact that the sacraments seem to resemble legal transactions in a number of ways. Just as the sacraments pick up and sanctify events out of everyday life (e.g., the Eucharist as a common meal), or events out of salvation history (e.g., baptism as a passing through the Red Sea), so they pick up and sanctify common juridical forms. Baptism and confirmation correspond to forms such as naturalization by which people are received into a community. Ordination is like inauguration or swearing in, the entry into an office or a position. Marriage is like the secular or pagan transaction of the same form. The correspondence between the sacrament of penance and a judicial trial

Some Difficulties in Devising Rules for Determining Truth in Judicial Trials

Some Difficulties in Devising Rules for Determining Truth in Judicial Trials

Why I Will Not Register

When the Supreme Court by a narrow vote of 5 to 4 upheld the registration provision of the McCarran Internal Security Act, traditional concepts of American justice were dismembered. Every high school civics student is taught that in our country guilt is personal; that no laws can be passed which "inflict pains, penalties and punishments without judicial trial." Yet if I were to comply with the registration provision I would, under oath, be registering as a "saboteur, spy, and foreign agent," for these are the legislative findings about Communist Party membership embodied in the McCarran Act.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Administrative Law. Statute Providing for Review of Decisions of Industrial Appeals Board by Judicial Trial De Novo Held Not Invalid As Unconstitutional Delegation of Legislative Function

Administrative Law. Statute Providing for Review of Decisions of Industrial Appeals Board by Judicial Trial De Novo Held Not Invalid As Unconstitutional Delegation of Legislative Function