Legal Admissibility Research Articles

타인의 진술을 기재한 업무수첩의 법적 성격과 증거능력

최근 박○○(‘P’) 전 대통령이 불러준 P와 이○○(‘L’) ○○전자 부회장 사이의 대화내용과 P의 지시사항을 기재한 안○○(‘A’) 전 청와대 정책조정수석의 업무수첩의 증거능력 유무가 L을 뇌물공여죄 등의 피고인으로 하는 형사재판에서 문제되었다. A의 업무수첩은 L과 P 사이에 그 기재내용과 같은 대화가 있었다는 점을 요증사실로 한다는 점에서 전문증거로 보아야 하고, 구체적으로는 형사소송법 제313조 제1항의 ‘피고인이 아닌 자의 진술을 기재한 서류’에 해당한다. 그러나 A의 업무수첩에는 원진술자인 P의 서명 또는 날인이 없으므로, 형사소송법 제313조 제1항이나 제314조에 의하여 증거능력이 인정될 수 없다. 형사소송법 제315조 제2호와 제3호에 의하여 증거능력이 인정되기도 어렵다.BR 대법원은 어떤 진술이 기재된 서류가 그 내용의 진실성이 범죄사실에 대한 직접증거로 사용될 때는 전문증거가 된다고 하더라도 그와 같은 진술을 하였다는 것 자체 또는 그 진술의 진실성과 관계없는 간접사실에 대한 정황증거로 사용될 때는 반드시 전문증거가 되는 것은 아니라고 한다(2012도16001). 이를 기초로 하여, 제1심법원은 A의 업무수첩은 그 기재내용의 진실성과 관계없는 간접사실에 대한 정황증거로서는 증거능력이 인정된다고 한 반면, 항소심법원은 직접증거로는 사용될 수 없는 전문증거가 그 기재의 존재를 인정하는 증거로 사용되는 것은 우회적으로 그 기재내용의 진실성을 인정하는 증거로 사용되는 결과가 되고, 이는 전문법칙의 취지를 잠탈하는 결과를 초래한다고 보았다. 항소심법원의 판단이 보다 설득력이 있다고 생각한다. 항소심은 P의 지시사항을 수첩에 기재한 부분과 L과 P사이의 대화내용을 수첩에 기재한 부분을 구별하지 않고 판단했지만, P의 지시사항을 수첩에 기재한 부분은 A가 P의 지시사항을 들었다는 자신의 경험사실을 기재한 것으로 볼 수 있으므로, 형사소송법 제313조 제1항의 ‘피고인이 아닌 자가 작성한 진술서’에 해당한다고 보아야 한다.

Dopuszczalność opodatkowania odszkodowania uzyskanego od Skarbu Państwa w świetle standardów ochronnych Europejskiej konwencji praw człowieka

ADMISSIBILITY OF TAXATION OF THE COMPENSATION RECEIVED FROM THE STATE TREASURY IN THE LIGHT OF PROTECTIVE STANDARDS OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTSThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the legal admissibility of taxing the compensation received by a commercial company from the State Treasury which is responsible for the damage suffered by the company. Such damage may be caused by State officials in the performance of their duties, including the tax authorities. It seems completely obvious that the victim should expect full compensation. Unfortunately, such sums are classified by the Polish tax law as any other income received by the tax payer and no exception is provided, which results in an actual reduction of its value.However, it may raise serious doubts if one takes into account legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the well developed case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Even though the Convention is usually not considered to be a legal act that could protect commercial interests of business entities, one should not forget about its very important Article 1 of Protocol 1, providing protection of property also for legal persons. In this particular case, it is not the amount of tax collected that should be seen as the property that has been taken away, as under this provision domestic authorities are entitled to enforce such laws as they deem necessary to control the use of property to secure the payment of taxes. What makes it so special is this context of compensation and that is why an evaluation of the interpretation of the term “possessions” and the appropriate understanding of the essence of the taxpayer’s right is one the major topics of this paper. The biggest challenge, however, is related to the margin of appreciation left to the Contracting Parties as to the measures that might be undertaken for the sake of the abovementioned purpose, especially seeing as in the area of taxation the Court seems to be particularly tolerant. Therefore, special emphasis is put on the principle of proportionality and its meaning for the analyzed case.

Establishing causation in climate litigation: admissibility and reliability

Climate litigation has attracted renewed interest as a governance tool. A key challenge in climate litigation is to assess the factual basis of causation. Extreme weather attribution, specifically the Fraction of Attributable Risk (FAR), has been proposed as a way to tackle this challenge. What remains unclear is how attribution science interacts with the legal admissibility of evidence based on climate models. While evidence has to be legally admissible in order to be considered in a trial, it has to be reliable in order for the court to arrive at a legally correct conclusion. Since parties to the trial have incentives to produce evidence favorable to their case, admissibility requirements and the reliability of the evidence brought forward are linked. We provide a specific proposal for how to accommodate FAR estimates in admissibility standards by modifying an existing set of admissibility criteria, the Daubert criteria. We argue that two of the five Daubert criteria are unsuitable for dealing with such evidence and that replacing those criteria with ones directly addressing the reliability of FAR estimates is adequate. Lastly, we highlight the dependence of courts on both the existence and accessibility of a framework to determine the reliability of FAR estimates in executing such criteria.

Analiza prawnej dopuszczalności zamieszczania hiperlinków w internecie. Uwagi na tle wyroku Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka z 4.12.2018 r. w sprawie MAGYAR JETI ZRT przeciwko Węgrom

The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of the judgment issued by the European Court of Human Rights on 4 December 2018 in case Magyar Jeti Zrt v. Hungary in the light of the analysis of legal admissibility of placing hyperlinks on the Internet. First, introductory remarks focus on outlining ECtHR case law on the subject-matter of the analysis, with selected and most important theses being presented. Next, the facts of the case are presented, while relevant international and national standards regarding the responsibility for posting links on the Internet are highlighted. The above allows for a full and essence-focused presentation of the ECtHR’s position in the commented case. The article concludes with a concise and original summary focusing on the consequences and identified academic problems caused by the ECtHR judgment issued in case Magyar Jeti Zrt v. Hungary.

Recent challenges of LBOs in Italy and institutional insights: The devil lies in the details

This study highlights recent institutional challenges faced by Private equity (PE) investors in Italy. These challenges increased the debate on the admissibility of LBOs, especially with reference to the actual nature of the debt underlying LBOs and the deductibility of the related interest payments. Despite the enactment of the 2004 corporate governance reform, which legalized LBOs under specific conditions, and the introduction of the European AIFM Directive (2011/61/EU), the doubts on the admissibility of LBOs have not been fully resolved. Up until recently, the Italian Tax Authority continued to challenge LBOs by interpreting them as tools fraudulently adopted by PE investors to elude the law and evade taxes. As a result, PE investors had to face a number of fiscal challenges and sanctions, which added more uncertainty to the legal admissibility of LBOs in Italy. Recently, new fiscal guidelines and jurisprudence finally changed this perspective, confirming the legitimacy of LBOs.

Revisiting the Registration of European Citizens’ Initiatives: The Evolution of the Legal Admissibility Test

AbstractAccording to the main element of the legal admissibility test of the European Citizens’ Initiative (‘ECI’) set out in Regulation 211/2011, a proposed ECI cannot collect signatures of support if it ‘manifestly falls outside the framework of the Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties’. This contribution argues that the interpretation and application of the ECI legal admissibility test has developed since the early years of the ECI’s operation, largely due to the CJEU’s intervention in ECI-cases. It analyses the procedural and substantive changes to the test in light of the relevant litigation and the ongoing reform of the ECI’s legal framework. It illustrates that certain contested procedural aspects of the ECI legal admissibility test have been resolved, while the scope of the ECI has been extended to allow Initiatives in the field of international agreements. The article explores the effects of these developments on current and future ECI practice, including the possibility to bring an ECI in the context of the EU-UK Brexit negotiations.

Emergency Department Discharge Outcome and Psychiatric Consultation in North African Patients.

Studies in Europe have found that immigrants, compared to the local population, are more likely to seek out medical care in Emergency Departments (EDs). In addition, studies show that immigrants utilize medical services provided by EDs for less acute issues. Despite these observed differences, little is known about the characteristics of ED use by North African (NA) immigrants. The main objective of this study was to examine whether there were differences in ED discharge outcomes and psychiatric referrals between NA immigrants and Swiss nationals. A retrospective analysis was conducted using patient records from NA and Swiss adults who were admitted to the ED of the University Hospital in Bern (Switzerland) from 2013–2016. Measures included demographic information as well as data on types of admission. Outcome variables included discharge type and psychiatric referral. A total of 77,619 patients generated 116,859 consultations to the ED, of which 1.1 per cent (n = 1338) were consultations by NA patients. Compared to Swiss national patients, NA patients were younger, with a median age of 38.0 (IQR 28–51 years vs. 52.0 (IQR 32–52) for Swiss and predominantly male (74.4% vs. 55.6% in the Swiss). NA patient admission type was more likely to be “walk-in” or legal admission (7.5% vs 0.8 in Swiss,). Logistic regressions indicated that NA patients had 1.2 times higher odds (95% CI 1.07–1.40, p < 0.003) of receiving ambulatory care. An effect modification by age group and sex was observed for the primary outcome “seen by a psychiatrist”, especially for men in the 16–25 years age group, whereby male NA patients had 3.45 times higher odds (95% CI: 2.22–5.38) of having being seen by a psychiatrist. In conclusion differences were observed between NA and Swiss national patients in ED consultations referrals and outcomes, in which NA had more ambulatory discharges and NA males, especially young, were more likely to have been seen by psychiatrist. Future studies would benefit from identifying those factors underlying these differences in ED utilization.

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.” (1Cor 12:4): images of the self and concepts of office of LGBTQ* pastors in Germany

ABSTRACTAfter providing background information on the legal status and admission of LGBTIAQ* pastors in Germany, the paper focusses on experiences of LGBTQ* Protestant pastors in the major German Protestant church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) to explore how they include their sexual orientation and/or gender in their pastoral work. LGBTIAQ* pastors face the challenge of managing visibility and discretion, in relation to a heteronormative setting, as well as the specific expectations of LGBTIAQ* Christians. The presumption of shared experiences and knowledge by similarly marginalized people plays a part in their ministry. The paper argues that embracing those experiences and community knowledge as part of pastoral theology can strengthen their reflection on pastoral work.

A potential phosphorous fertilizer for organic farming: recovery of phosphorous resources in the course of bioenergy production through anaerobic digestion of aquatic macrophytes

BackgroundA major problem with farming systems is the deficiencies in phosphorus (P) due to fixation in soils, erosion and run-off, and exports of herbal and animal products. P resources for the compensation of these losses will sooner or later be depleted. For this reason, innovative ideas for phosphorus recycling are highly relevant.The P excess from farming systems mostly ends up in surface waters, leads to eutrophication, and promotes the growth of aquatic plants. Particularly invasive neophytes such as western waterweed (Elodea nuttallii) can rapidly generate high levels of biomass in waters with good nutrient supply and bind relevant amounts of phosphorus.MethodsIn the renatured open-pit mine Goitzsche (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), biomass from E. nuttallii was harvested (2005–2008) and the biomass dry matter and the P concentration were determined. The phosphorus recovery potential from this plant biomass was calculated by extrapolation based on the phosphorus analyses and the area potentially populated by E. nuttallii. One analysis of E. nuttallii was conducted to evaluate the content of potentially toxic elements (PTEs).ResultsThe results showed that with 0.5 to 6.3 kg P/Mg of total solid (dry matter), E. nuttallii could have a high potential to recycle phosphorus, e.g., by anaerobic digestion and digestate fertilization. Lake Goitzsche offered an annual recovery potential from 0.5 to 1.7 Mg phosphorus in the investigation period. This could meet the needs of 114-ha organic farming land based on a 7 kg/(ha*year) regional phosphorus deficit.The digestate of E. nuttallii is very well suited as a fertilizer due to its high phosphorus concentration. The concentrations of PTEs in the current digestate (related to an individual case) are sufficient for legal admission in Germany. In this study, nickel was above the threshold values for Germany. The elevated nickel levels in the Elodea biomass correspond to the geogenic high nickel concentrations in the sediment of this lake.ConclusionsAquatic macrophytes have a significant potential for recovering phosphorus from waters and sediments of relevant phosphorus concentrations. Further studies of surface water zones, particularly with regard to the aquatic plant biomass and phosphorus concentration of sediments, are needed to assess future exploration.

Silent Sponsors: A New Approach to Measuring Recognition of Self-Determination Movements

How do self-determination groups move toward diplomatic recognition? Although diplomatic recognition is the dominant conceptualization of international sovereignty, it is often the last and most difficult step in a long process. Even when third parties do not confer legal recognition, they may still have decades of interactions with aspiring state actors, tacitly recognizing them by other important means: transfers of aid, military cooperation, advocacy in the UN, and even the establishment of permanent channels of diplomatic exchange. In this paper, I argue that our understanding of the evolution of international sovereignty can be improved by conceptualizing recognition as a continuous process that also includes foreign policy decisions short of the legal admission into the exclusive club of nation-states. To develop this framework, I create a Bayesian hierarchical latent variable model of third-party recognition, using bilateral data on diplomatic exchange, IGO voting, sanctions, military aid, and intervention in separatist conflicts. Complementing prior work on international sovereignty, my measure provides support for important theoretical expectations previously explored using only diplomatic recognition. I find: (1) that extant violence in separatist conflicts is associated with higher levels of third-party recognition; (2) that international conflict impacts third-party recognition; and (3) that diplomatic recognition has downstream effects on other latent forms of recognition.

Extranjeros in Amerika - Gesetzgebung und bourbonische Reformpolitik

El artículo analiza el impacto de las reformas borbónicas en la política frente a los extranjeros en Hispano-América. Se examina los principales mecanismos del gobierno de Felipe V, Fernando VI y Carlos III para controlar los procesos migratorios en América: la naturalización y la legislación frente a los extranjeros. Referente a la naturalización se describe los cambios que dicha práctica experimentaba a lo largo del siglo XVII, por ejemplo la desaparición de la Composición y el aparecer de un nuevo instrumento, las Cartas de tolerancia. Con la legislación se pretendía cerrar los huecos por los cuales los extranjeros intentaban evadir una expulsión de América. Tanto los cambios en los procesos de naturalización como los cambios en la legislación tenían el objetivo de fortalecer la soberanía del Rey sobre la admisión legal de los extranjeros en América. No obstante, en la práctica las autoridades americanas aún disponían de muchos recursos para tolerar por si mismo a extranjeros.

Compulsory admissions in southwest Greece 2010-2011: A descriptive report.

Compulsory admissions represent a significant proportion of psychiatric hospitalizations. A wide variation seems to exist internationally regarding legal frameworks, administrative procedures, detention rates and clinical practice. The aim of the present study is to describe qualitative and quantitative features of compulsory admissions in a large administrative area in southwest Greece, in order to identify targets for future research and possible remediation. Involuntary assessments and admissions in the Department of Psychiatry of the University Hospital of Patras were retrospectively assessed, during a 12-month period, for demographic features and data regarding legal procedures. Diagnoses following compulsory first assessment and at discharge were recorded for the patients who were admitted in our department. During the period of observation, 218 compulsory assessments were made, corresponding to 190 patients and resulting in 183 compulsory admissions. Thirty five cases (16.1%) were assessed as not justifying hospitalization and corresponded mainly to the diagnoses of alcohol and/or substance abuse or dependence. Involuntary hospitalizations represented 44.9% of all psychiatric admissions in our department. Diagnosis at first assessment was most frequently psychosis (68.4%). Diagnoses at discharge were most often schizophrenia (52.8%) and bipolar disorder (21.3%). A history of multiple hospitalizations (>5) was observed in 17 (15.8%) patients, whereas 46 patients (42.6%) were hospitalized for the first time, and 13 (11.7%) exhibited their first psychotic episode. Of the 108 patients who were admitted in our department, 88 (81.5%) declared that they did not wish to attend the court hearing, 7 (6.5%) were not able to attend due to severe health condition, and only 13 (12.0%) actually presented in court. Concluding, current situation regarding legal procedures, involuntary admissions and mental health care in Greece is rather far from satisfying. Future directions should include the systematic recording of mental health care parameters, such as compulsory hospitalizations, as well as efforts to improve these parameters and the existing legal framework and procedures.

College Assignment as a Large Contest

We develop a model of college assignment as a large contest wherein students with heterogeneous abilities compete for seats at vertically differentiated colleges through the acquisition of productive human capital. We use a continuum model to approximate the outcomes of a game with large, but finite, sets of colleges and students. By incorporating two common families of affirmative action mechanisms into our model -- admissions preferences and quotas -- we can show that (legal) admissions preference schemes and (illegal) quotas have the same sets of equilibria including identical outcomes and investment strategies. Finally, we explore the welfare costs of using human capital accumulation to compete for college admissions. We define the cost of competition as the welfare difference between a color-blind admissions contest and the first-best outcome chosen by an omniscient social planner. Using a calibrated version of our model, we find that the cost of competition is equivalent to a loss of $91,795 in NPV of lifetime earnings.

LTDNA Evidence on Trial.

Adopting the interpretative/hermeneutical method typical of much legal scholarship, this article considers two sets of issues pertaining to LTDNA profiles as evidence in criminal proceedings. The section titled Expert Evidence as Forensic Epistemic Warrant addresses some rather large questions about the epistemic status and probative value of expert testimony in general. It sketches a theoretical model of expert evidence, highlighting five essential criteria: (1) expert competence; (2) disciplinary domain; (3) methodological validity; (4) materiality; and (5) legal admissibility. This generic model of expert authority, highlighting law's fundamentally normative character, applies to all modern forms of criminal adjudication, across Europe and farther afield. The section titled LTDNA Evidence in UK Criminal Trials then examines English and Northern Irish courts' attempts to get to grips with LTDNA evidence in recent cases. Better appreciating the ways in which UK courts have addressed the challenges of LTDNA evidence may offer some insights into parallel developments in other legal systems. Appellate court rulings follow a predictable judicial logic, which might usefully be studied and reflected upon by any forensic scientist or statistician seeking to operate effectively in criminal proceedings. Whilst each legal jurisdiction has its own unique blend of jurisprudence, institutions, cultures and historical traditions, there is considerable scope for comparative analysis and cross-jurisdictional borrowing and instruction. In the spirit of promoting more nuanced and sophisticated international interdisciplinary dialogue, this article examines UK judicial approaches to LTDNA evidence and begins to elucidate their underlying institutional logic. Legal argument and broader policy debates are not confined to considerations of scientific validity, contamination risks and evidential integrity, or associated judgments of legal admissibility or exclusion. They also crucially concern the manner in which LTDNA profiling results are presented and explained to factfinders in criminal trials.

Mass Opinion and Immigration Policy in the United States: Re-Assessing Clientelist and Elitist Perspectives

We argue that widely accepted elitist and “clientelist” models of immigration policy in the United States unduly minimize popular pressure on policy-making. These models portray majority opinion in ways that fail to recognize divergence between the public’s abstract goals for immigration policy and its support for the concrete policy changes needed to achieve them. As a result, they obscure many important instances in which immigration policy accords with public preferences despite counter-pressure from elites and organized lobbies. We demonstrate this point by identifying and explaining gaps between generalized attitudes and beliefs about specific policies in the domains of both legal and illegal immigration, showing that status quo legal admissions policies are not starkly at odds with majority preferences and that, contrary to interpretations of most commercial polling on the topic, majorities reject specific aspects of legalization programs that organized lobbies insist on as components of a “grand bargain” to overhaul an immigration system widely viewed as “broken.” Appreciating the nuance in mass opinion toward immigration policy helps explain policy stagnation that confounds elitist models and suggests that forging ahead with immigration reform will require persuading the public and not only successful bargaining among elites and interest groups.

Development and validation of clinical profiles of patients hospitalized due to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia

BackgroundPatients hospitalized on acute psychogeriatric wards are a heterogeneous population. Cluster analysis is a useful statistical method for partitioning a sample of patients into well separated groups of patients who present common characteristics. Several patient profile studies exist, but they are not adapted to acutely hospitalized psychogeriatric patients with cognitive impairment. The present study aims to partition patients hospitalized due to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia into profiles based on a global evaluation of mental health using cluster analysis.MethodsUsing nine of the 13 items from the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for elderly people (HoNOS65+), data were collected from a sample of 542 inpatients with dementia who were hospitalized between 2011 and 2014 in acute psychogeriatric wards of a Swiss university hospital. An optimal clustering solution was generated to represent various profiles, by using a mixed approach combining hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means) cluster analyses associated with a split-sample cross-validation. The quality of the clustering solution was evaluated based on a cross-validation, on a k-means method with 100 random initial seeds, on validation indexes, and on clinical interpretation.ResultsThe final solution consisted of four clinically distinct and homogeneous profiles labeled (1) BPSD-affective, (2) BPSD-functional, (3) BPSD-somatic and (4) BPSD-psychotic according to their predominant clinical features. The four profiles differed in cognitive status, length of hospital stay, and legal admission status.ConclusionIn the present study, clustering methods allowed us to identify four profiles with distinctive characteristics. This clustering solution may be developed into a classification system that may allow clinicians to differentiate patient needs in order to promptly identify tailored interventions and promote better allocation of available resources.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0966-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Deception detection with behavioral, autonomic, and neural measures: Conceptual and methodological considerations that warrant modesty.

The detection of deception has attracted increased attention among psychological researchers, legal scholars, and ethicists during the last decade. Much of this has been driven by the possibility of using neuroimaging techniques for lie detection. Yet, neuroimaging studies addressing deception detection are clouded by lack of conceptual clarity and a host of methodological problems that are not unique to neuroimaging. We review the various research paradigms and the dependent measures that have been adopted to study deception and its detection. In doing so, we differentiate between basic research designed to shed light on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying deceptive behavior and applied research aimed at detecting lies. We also stress the distinction between paradigms attempting to detect deception directly and those attempting to establish involvement by detecting crime-related knowledge, and discuss the methodological difficulties and threats to validity associated with each paradigm. Our conclusion is that the main challenge of future research is to find paradigms that can isolate cognitive factors associated with deception, rather than the discovery of a unique (brain) correlate of lying. We argue that the Comparison Question Test currently applied in many countries has weak scientific validity, which cannot be remedied by using neuroimaging measures. Other paradigms are promising, but the absence of data from ecologically valid studies poses a challenge for legal admissibility of their outcomes.

A European Evidence (Air)Space? Taking Cross-Border Legal Admissibility of Forensic Evidence to a Higher Level

A European Evidence (Air)Space? Taking Cross-Border Legal Admissibility of Forensic Evidence to a Higher Level

Daubert Debunked: A History of Legal Retrogression and the Need to Redefine 'Science' in Law

With ‘novel’ scientific discoveries accelerating at an unrelenting pace, the need for accessible and implementable standards for evaluating the legal admissibility of scientific evidence becomes more and more crucial. As science changes, legal standards for evaluating ‘novel’ science must be plastic enough to respond to fast-moving changes. This, ostensibly, was the Daubert objective. Since it was decided in 1993, however, Daubert’s impact has been hotly contested – with plaintiffs and defendants each claiming the decision unfairly favors the other side. New approaches are constantly suggested to deal with the perceived impact, although there is no uniform consensus of exactly what that impact is. Without accurate and demonstrable evidence of Daubert’s effect, however, the current ad hoc approach of suggesting new gatekeeping methods – is at best blind, and at worst, a partisan attempt to manipulate judicial decision-making.This article reports on a retrospective review of data regarding the impact of Daubert on admissibility of scientific evidence, for the first time – via a simple statistical perspective. This method confirms other assessments (using different methodologies) that (allowing for short-term corrections post-Daubert), there is no difference in outcome whether Frye or Daubert tests are used. Given that entirely different standards were used in both cases – yet yield similar results – one must acknowledge the possibility that both tests are ‘scientifically’ flawed. Further, empirical evidence and academic research agree that judges now substitute their own mechanisms for evaluating scientific evidence, in some cases applying neither Daubert nor the pre-existing Frye test. The reasons are unclear – perhaps due to an instinctual aversion to the muddied or flawed standards enunciated in both. Nevertheless, it does appear that judges are uncomfortable understanding several Daubert tests, including the ‘falsification’ criterion, which is the foundation stone of the Daubert analysis. Via re-analysis of the Rand study of 2001 which examined effects of Daubert, this research further highlights the scientific/mathematical illiteracy of the current legal community (especially, as I demonstrate, compared to judges pre-Frye). This situation presents a major obstacle for devising a workable method for judicial gatekeeping of scientific evidence. Ultimately, however, lawyers and scientists must first agree what ‘science’ is before better methods of evaluating proffered evidence can be devised. It is suggested that lawyers turn to scientists who developed the scientific method as it applies to the science of the courtroom: biology, chemistry and simple physics to enlighten themselves – substituting these approaches for the flawed and faulty premises advocated by Daubert and Frye.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Comparison of Responses by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States

The conflict in Syria between the government of Bashar al-Assad and various other forces, which started in the spring of 2011, continues to cause displacement within the country and across the region. By the end of 2014, an estimated 7.6 million people were internally displaced and 3.7 million Syrians had fled the country since the conflict began (OCHA 2014; UNHCR 2015a). The refugee situation caused by the Syrian conflict is dire, and it has placed enormous strain on neighboring countries. Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey host massive numbers of Syrian refugees, and Syrians have been seeking protection beyond these countries in increasing numbers since 2011. This paper looks at the burdens and costs of the Syrian refugee crisis and considers how they have, or have not, been shared by the international community at large, and in particular by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It also considers to what degree Syrians have been able to find protection in states outside the region. Germany and Sweden, by the end of 2014, had provided protection to the largest number of Syrian refugees outside the region. Although Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States differ in the level of protection provided to Syrians, all four states have increased protection to Syrians via resettlement and asylum (and in the case of the US temporary protected status) since 2012. Despite this, the degree of protection provided by the four states is modest in relation to that provided by neighboring countries to Syria, and far more could be done. This paper also argues that the international community as a whole has not sufficiently contributed toward alleviating the burden caused by the Syrian refugee influx, in terms of both financial assistance and refugee resettlement. The paper puts forward two general recommendations to reduce the strain on neighboring countries: increase the level of burden sharing by the international community as a whole and more evenly distribute the burden among industrialized states in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific. In terms of enhancing the level of protection for Syrians in countries beyond the region, it proposes three recommendations for states: namely, increase refugee resettlement, facilitate family reunification and other forms of legal admission, and allow refugees to seek protection through embassies in the region.