Military targeting in the context of self-defence actions

In order to bring conceptual clarity to a particular dimension of the relationship between the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello regimes, this article explores the independent sources of a military targeting rule in both branches of international law. The aim is not to displace the jus in bello as the ‘lead’ regime on how targeting decisions must be made, or to undermine the traditional separation between these regimes. Rather, conceptual light is shed on a sometimes assumed but generally neglected dimension of the jus ad bellum’s necessity and proportionality criteria that may, in limited circumstances, have significance for our understanding of human protection during war, by covering possible gaps in the jus in bello targeting rules.

The 'ratione temporis' elements of self-defence

This article focuses on one particular factor that is of crucial importance to all self-defence actions. It is a factor that is almost always present in the application and appraisal of the right, but one that is not always explicitly engaged with: time. There are various ratione temporis elements underpinning the lawful exercise of the right of self-defence, and questions related to the timing of both an attack being responded to in self-defence and the response itself are notably controversial. The self-defence timeline is therefore charted, and the key legal debates encountered along its trajectory are identified. In particular, there is a focus on three temporal ‘stages’ of the right of self-defence: (i) the much-debated question of preventative forms of self-defence (the ‘before’); (ii) the timeliness of a state's defensive action, or what is sometimes called the need for the response to be ‘immediate’ (the ‘during’); and (iii) the duration of self-defence actions, including the crucial issue of when they must end (the ‘after’). The aim of this article is not to break new substantive ground with regard to these ‘stages’ as such, but is, rather, to draw together the temporal strands of self-defence in a more focused manner than is often the case in the literature.

Equation for the microwave backscatter cross section of aggregate snowflakes using the self-similar Rayleigh–Gans approximation

In this paper an equation is derived for the mean backscatter cross section of an ensemble of snowflakes at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths. It uses the Rayleigh–Gans approximation, which has previously been found to be applicable at these wavelengths due to the low density of snow aggregates. Although the internal structure of an individual snowflake is random and unpredictable, the authors find from simulations of the aggregation process that their structure is “self-similar” and can be described by a power law. This enables an analytic expression to be derived for the backscatter cross section of an ensemble of particles as a function of their maximum dimension in the direction of propagation of the radiation, the volume of ice they contain, a variable describing their mean shape, and two variables describing the shape of the power spectrum. The exponent of the power law is found to be −. In the case of 1-cm snowflakes observed by a 3.2-mm-wavelength radar, the backscatter is 40–100 times larger than that of a homogeneous ice–air spheroid with the same mass, size, and aspect ratio.

Pippi Longstocking, juvenile delinquent? Hachette, self-censorship and the moral reconstruction of postwar France

This paper looks at the blockages to the publication of children’s literature caused by the intellectual climate of the postwar era, through a case study of the editorial policy of Hachette, the largest publisher for children at this time. This period witnessed heightened tensions surrounding the social and humanitarian responsibilities of literature. Writers were blamed for having created a culture of defeatism, and collaborationist authors were punished harshly in the purges. In the case of children’s literature, the discourse on responsibility was made more urgent by the assumption that children were easily influenced by their reading material, and by the centrality of the young to the discourse on the moral reconstruction of France. As the politician and education reformer Gustave Monod put it: “penser l’avenir, c’est penser le sort des enfants et de la jeunesse.” These concerns led to the expansion of associations and publications dedicated to protecting children and promoting “good” reading matter for them, and, famously, to the 1949 law regulating publications for children, which banned the depiction of crime, debauchery and violence that might demoralise young readers. Using the testimonials of former employees, along with readers’ reports and editorial correspondence preserved in the Hachette archives, this paper will examine how individual editorial decisions and self-censorship strategies were shaped by the 1949 law with its attendant discourse of moral panic on children’s reading, and how national concerns for future citizens were balanced with commercial imperatives.

Anton Nyström's Defense of Homosexuality

In 1919 Anton Nyström became the first person in Sweden to publish a comprehensive defense of homosexuality. He believed that its classification as a mental illness was erroneous and that Sweden's law against homosexual sex was both irrational and cruel. Nyström was a physician whose work in the medical area dealt primarily with dermatology, psychiatry and human sexuality; however he was also a prolific historian, who took a staunchly anti-Christian view in his analysis of how Christianity affected European culture, especially in the area of sexual morality. In fact, much of Nyström's medical texts dealing with human sexuality consisted of anti-Christian cultural and historical commentary. The object of this "C-uppsats" is to analyze Nyström's pamphlet, Om Homosexualitet och Hermafroditi: Belysning af Missförstådda Existenser and illustrate how its defensive structure was consistent with the pattern used by the author in his other books and articles on human sexuality. Specifically, that irrational and neurotic Christian beliefs caused both mental and physical suffering and were the source of deleterious forms of morality. Additionally, this paper will also show that the solution Nyström had for the problem of negative and erroneous attitudes towards homosexuality was to replace the sodomitic view of homosexuality with one based upon a more rational and naturalistic belief system, the basis of which could be found in the pre-Christian cultures of Europe, most especially in Greece. This new conception was to be constructed primarily out of historical example and cultural analyses. For Nyström, history writing was used both as a weapon to fight the source of negative attitudes towards homosexuality, as well as a tool that could be used to build a positive cultural model which would be beneficial for homosexuals.

Should voters be afraid of hard budget constraint legislation? fiscal responsibility law in brazilian municipalities

This manuscript demonstrates that voters have nothing to be afraid of when new hard budget constraint legislation is implemented. Our claim is that this kind of legislation reduces the asymmetry of information between voters and incumbents over the budget and, as a consequence, the latter have incentives to increase the supply of public goods. As a nationwide institutional innovation, the Fiscal Responsibility Law (FRL) is exogenous to all municipalities; therefore, there is no self-selection bias in its implementation. We show that public goods expenditure increases after the FRL. Second, this increase occurs in municipalities located in the country’s poorest region. Third, our findings can be extended to the supply of public goods because the higher the expenditure with health and education, the greater the probability of incumbents being re-elected. Finally, there exists a “de facto” higher supply of public goods in education (number of per capita classrooms) after the FRL.

O direito fundamental contra a autoincriminação: a análise a partir de uma teoria do Processo Penal Constitucional

The right against self-incrimination is a fundamental right that works in the criminal prosecution, and therefore deserves a study supported by the general theory of criminal procedure. The right has a vague origin, and despite the various historical accounts only arises when there is a criminal procedure structured that aims to limit the State´s duty-power to punish. The only system of criminal procedure experienced that reconciles with seal self-incrimination is the accusatory model. The inquisitorial model is based on the construction of a truth and obtaining the confession at any cost, and is therefore incompatible with the right in study. The consecration of the right arises with the importance that fundamental rights have come to occupy in the Democratic Constitutional States. In the Brazilian experience before 1988 was only possible to recognize that self-incrimination represented a procedural burden for accused persons. Despite thorough debate in the Constituent Assembly, the right remains consecrated in a textual formula that´s closer to the implementation made by the Supreme Court of the United States, known as "Miranda warnings", than the text of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that established originally the right against self-incrimination with a constitutional status. However, the imprecise text does not prevent the consecration of the principle as a fundamental right in Brazilian law. The right against self-incrimination is a right that should be observed in the Criminal Procedure and relates to several of his canons, such as the the presumption of not guilty, the accusatory model, the distribution of the burden of proof, and especially the right of defense. Because it a fundamental right, the prohibition of self-incrimination deserves a proper study to her constitutional nature. For the definition of protected persons is important to build a material concept of accused, which is different of the formal concept over who is denounced on the prosecution. In the objective area of protection, there are two objects of protection of the norm: the instinct of self-preservation of the subject and the ability to self-determination. Configuring essentially a evidence rule in criminal procedure, the analysis of the case should be based on standards set previously to indicate respect for the right. These standard include the right to information of the accused, the right to counsel and respect the voluntary participation. The study of violations cases, concentrated on the element of voluntariness, starting from the definition of what is or is not a coercion violative of self-determination. The right faces new challenges that deserve attention, especially the fight against terrorism and organized crime that force the development of tools, resources and technologies about proves, methods increasingly invasive and hidden, and allow the use of information not only for criminal prosecution, but also for the establishment of an intelligence strategy in the development of national and public security

Proteção constitucional do consumidor no âmbito da regulação publicitária

The concern with issues related to consumer protection has emerged in North America and then spread throughout the world. In Brazil, consumer‟s rights and interests only gained greater importance after their consolidation in the Constitution of 1988 and the enactment of the 8078/90 Law (Consumer‟s Protection and Defense Code), which established the consumerist microsystem. The understanding of the legal relationship of consumption concept is necessarily connected to knowledge of the elements that compose it. Among these, we can find the consumer and the provider (subjective elements), the product or service (objective elements), and the consumer‟s condition as final receiver of the consumption object (finalistic element). In order to elucidate the configuration of consumer protection before advertising communication, this work will analyze the advertising through the prism of consumerist laws, conceptualizing it and presenting a differentiation of it in relation to practices such as marketing, offer and commercial communication as well as examining its several kinds of manifestation, focusing mainly the ones categorized as misleading or unfair advertising. All kinds of advertising communication against the consumerist microsystem are subject to judicial control exercised by the State. Besides individual protection possibilities, this state-owned control can be collectively exercised as a result of the utilization of public civil action and popular action. Some specific categories of advertising (smoking products, alcoholic beverages, pesticides, medicines and therapies) are still subject to a set of particular restraints provided by the 9294/96 Law, which enables the performance of a special control in relation to them. In addition to state control, there is also a system of advertising communication self-regulation, which develops itself through the actions of the National Council of Advertising Self-Regulation that are based mainly on the laws established by the Brazilian Code of Advertising Self-Regulation and its annexes. However, this system of advertising self-regulation still has some deficiencies that hinder its effectiveness

(In)visíveis sequelas: a violência psicológica contra a mulher sob o enfoque gestáltico

A modalidade violência psicológica é mais conhecida pela sua “invisibilidade” no âmbito público em razão de, entre outros fatores, ocorrer mais frequentemente na esfera privada, bem como por não deixar marcas físicas. Atualmente, a Lei 11.340/2006, batizada de “Lei Maria da Penha”, depois de sancionada, traduz uma forma de amparo legal e institucionalizado para as mulheres. Empregamos a concepção de gênero segundo Scott (1991), como uma das ferramentas analíticas que permitem identificar nexos entre a construção socioeconômica da violência e as políticas do Estado. Neste panorama, apresentamos como objetivo geral desta pesquisa empírica desvelar algumas (in) visíveis sequelas psíquicas e sociais e de modo específico as repercussões na subjetividade da mulher que vivencia situações de violência psicológica ocorridas em âmbito doméstico e intrafamiliar. As análises foram realizadas na perspectiva Gestáltica, uma abordagem psicológica do contato consciente, cuja intervenção permite o fortalecimento do suporte interno e auto-regulação saudável, de modo a superar situações que obscurecem as funções e fronteiras de contato. Trata-se de uma pesquisa clínico-qualitativa de base fenomenológico-existencial-gestáltica e hermenêutica. Os procedimentos utilizados foram: submissão do projeto ao Comitê de Ética do CCS/UFPA; obtenção da autorização Institucional; identificação e convite a três mulheres para participarem da pesquisa, segundo o perfil de inclusão na amostra: disponibilidade para a pesquisa, faixa etária de 25 a 45 anos, que esteve ou está vivenciando situação de violência psicológica com seu marido/companheiro. Posteriormente, foi assinado o Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido e realizado as entrevistas semi-dirigidas através de perguntas abertas (gravadas em áudio). As mesmas foram transcritas e analisadas. O local da pesquisa foi o Centro de Referência Maria do Pará. Utilizamos para a análise dos discursos coletados a compreensão de Ricouer (1975) e os conceitos Gestálticos de contato, funções e fronteiras de contato, mecanismos de defesa, self, ajustamento criativo e awareness. O resultado aponta para o desvelamento de vividos permeados de agressões verbais em forma de humilhações, xingamentos, ofensas, ciúmes, desqualificação de sua aparência física, falta de diálogo, isolamento social e emocional, medo, sofrimento, dor, angústia, culpa, vergonha, sentimentos de ódio, raiva, tristeza e impotência diante de tal violência. Concluímos que a “invisibilidade” de tais experiências de violência psicológica gera visíveis interrupções no contato consigo mesma, em suas relações familiares e sociais, bem como, imprime profundas e danosas desestruturações na personalidade e na maneira da mulher expressar sua subjetividade.

Bivariate gamma-geometric law and its induced Levy process

In this article we introduce a three-parameter extension of the bivariate exponential-geometric (BEG) law (Kozubowski and Panorska, 2005) [4]. We refer to this new distribution as the bivariate gamma-geometric (BGG) law. A bivariate random vector (X, N) follows the BGG law if N has geometric distribution and X may be represented (in law) as a sum of N independent and identically distributed gamma variables, where these variables are independent of N. Statistical properties such as moment generation and characteristic functions, moments and a variance-covariance matrix are provided. The marginal and conditional laws are also studied. We show that BBG distribution is infinitely divisible, just as the BEG model is. Further, we provide alternative representations for the BGG distribution and show that it enjoys a geometric stability property. Maximum likelihood estimation and inference are discussed and a reparametrization is proposed in order to obtain orthogonality of the parameters. We present an application to a real data set where our model provides a better fit than the BEG model. Our bivariate distribution induces a bivariate Levy process with correlated gamma and negative binomial processes, which extends the bivariate Levy motion proposed by Kozubowski et al. (2008) [6]. The marginals of our Levy motion are a mixture of gamma and negative binomial processes and we named it BMixGNB motion. Basic properties such as stochastic self-similarity and the covariance matrix of the process are presented. The bivariate distribution at fixed time of our BMixGNB process is also studied and some results are derived, including a discussion about maximum likelihood estimation and inference. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Study of silicon-on-insulator multiple-gate MOS structures including band-gap engineering and self heating effects

The progresses of electron devices integration have proceeded for more than 40 years following the well–known Moore’s law, which states that the transistors density on chip doubles every 24 months. This trend has been possible due to the downsizing of the MOSFET dimensions (scaling); however, new issues and new challenges are arising, and the conventional ”bulk” architecture is becoming inadequate in order to face them. In order to overcome the limitations related to conventional structures, the researchers community is preparing different solutions, that need to be assessed. Possible solutions currently under scrutiny are represented by: • devices incorporating materials with properties different from those of silicon, for the channel and the source/drain regions; • new architectures as Silicon–On–Insulator (SOI) transistors: the body thickness of Ultra-Thin-Body SOI devices is a new design parameter, and it permits to keep under control Short–Channel–Effects without adopting high doping level in the channel. Among the solutions proposed in order to overcome the difficulties related to scaling, we can highlight heterojunctions at the channel edge, obtained by adopting for the source/drain regions materials with band–gap different from that of the channel material. This solution allows to increase the injection velocity of the particles travelling from the source into the channel, and therefore increase the performance of the transistor in terms of provided drain current. The first part of this thesis work addresses the use of heterojunctions in SOI transistors: chapter 3 outlines the basics of the heterojunctions theory and the adoption of such approach in older technologies as the heterojunction–bipolar–transistors; moreover the modifications introduced in the Monte Carlo code in order to simulate conduction band discontinuities are described, and the simulations performed on unidimensional simplified structures in order to validate them as well. Chapter 4 presents the results obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations performed on double–gate SOI transistors featuring conduction band offsets between the source and drain regions and the channel. In particular, attention has been focused on the drain current and to internal quantities as inversion charge, potential energy and carrier velocities. Both graded and abrupt discontinuities have been considered. The scaling of devices dimensions and the adoption of innovative architectures have consequences on the power dissipation as well. In SOI technologies the channel is thermally insulated from the underlying substrate by a SiO2 buried–oxide layer; this SiO2 layer features a thermal conductivity that is two orders of magnitude lower than the silicon one, and it impedes the dissipation of the heat generated in the active region. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of thin semiconductor films is much lower than that of silicon bulk, due to phonon confinement and boundary scattering. All these aspects cause severe self–heating effects, that detrimentally impact the carrier mobility and therefore the saturation drive current for high–performance transistors; as a consequence, thermal device design is becoming a fundamental part of integrated circuit engineering. The second part of this thesis discusses the problem of self–heating in SOI transistors. Chapter 5 describes the causes of heat generation and dissipation in SOI devices, and it provides a brief overview on the methods that have been proposed in order to model these phenomena. In order to understand how this problem impacts the performance of different SOI architectures, three–dimensional electro–thermal simulations have been applied to the analysis of SHE in planar single and double–gate SOI transistors as well as FinFET, featuring the same isothermal electrical characteristics. In chapter 6 the same simulation approach is extensively employed to study the impact of SHE on the performance of a FinFET representative of the high–performance transistor of the 45 nm technology node. Its effects on the ON–current, the maximum temperatures reached inside the device and the thermal resistance associated to the device itself, as well as the dependence of SHE on the main geometrical parameters have been analyzed. Furthermore, the consequences on self–heating of technological solutions such as raised S/D extensions regions or reduction of fin height are explored as well. Finally, conclusions are drawn in chapter 7.

Determining the effect of regulation on Microfinance Institutions Financial Self-Sustainability. A Cross-Country Comparison

Microfinance is an initiative which seeks to address financial inclusion, micro-entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction without over burdening governments. However, the current sector of microfinance is still heavily dependent on the good will of donors. The over-reliance on donations is a feature which threatens the long term sustainability of microfinance. Much has been written about this reliance, but research to date hasn’t empirically examined the effect of regulation as a mediator. This is a critical area of study because regulation directly affects Microfinance Institutions’ (MFI) innovation, and innovation is what shapes the future of microfinance. This thesis considers the role that regulation plays in affecting MFI’s and their ability to innovate in products, services and long-term sustainability via access to capital. Interviews were undertaken with stakeholders in MFI’s, NGO’s, Self-Regulating Bodies, and Regulators in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This thesis discusses findings from interviews in relation to regulatory measures regarding financial self-sustainability of MFI’s. The conclusions of this thesis have implications for policy and inform the microfinance literature.

Im/possible Lives: Gender, Class, Self-Fashioning, and Affinal Solidarity in Modern South Asia

Drawing on ethnographic research and employing a micro-historical approach that recognizes not only the transnational but also the culturally specific manifestations of modernity, this article centers on the efforts of a young woman to negotiate shifting and conflicting discourses about what a good life might consist of for a highly educated and high caste Hindu woman living at the margins of a nonetheless globalized world. Newly imaginable worlds in contemporary Mithila,South Asia, structure feeling and action in particularly gendered and classed ways, even as the capacity of individuals to actualize those worlds and the “modern” selves envisioned within them are constrained by both overt and subtle means. In the context of shifting cultural anchors, new practices of silence, literacy, and even behaviors interpreted as “mental illness” may become tactics in an individual’s negotiation of conflicting self-representations. The confluence of forces at play in contemporary Mithila, moreover, is creating new structures of feeling that may begin to reverse long-standing locally held assumptions about strong solidarities between natal families and daughters, on the one hand, and weak solidarities between affinal families and new daughters-in-law, on the other.

How Porous are the Walls that Separate Us?: Transformative Service-Learning, Women’s Incarceration, and the Unsettled Self

In this article, we refine a politics of thinking from the margins by exploring a pedagogical model that advances transformative notions of service learning as social justice teaching. Drawing on a recent course we taught involving both incarcerated women and traditional college students, we contend that when communication among differentiated and stratified parties occurs, one possible result is not just a view of the other but also a transformation of the self and other. More specifically, we suggest that an engaged feminist praxis of teaching incarcerated women together with college students helps illuminate the porous nature of fixed markers that purport to reveal our identities (e.g., race and gender), to emplace our bodies (e.g., within institutions, prison gates, and walls), and to specify our locations (e.g., cultural, geographic, socialeconomic). One crucial theoretical insight our work makes clear is that the model of social justice teaching to which we aspired necessitates re-conceptualizing ourselves as students and professors whose subjectivities are necessarily relational and emergent.

Municipal Self-Government in the Ukrainian Lands: 14th-16th Centuries

This project considered the development of municipal self-government (particularly the Magdeburg-law type) in Ukraine through the late Middle Ages in the context of central and eastern European history, using a comparative analysis of different forms of self-government. The Magdeburg Law was brought to the lands of old Rus by German colonists in the period of the Galician-Volhynian State (in the late 13th-early 14th centuries). Municipal self-government based on this law in Ukraine was now however an external artificial phenomenon, but rather an intrinsic need that emerged during the historical development of the society. The Magdeburg Law reached Ukraine through Poland and acquired certain features which were different from the form used in German towns, and Ukrainian towns further adapted the Magdeburg model to their own circumstances. It was "purest" in the western part of the region, while further to the east Magdeburg-Law-type municipal government appeared later, was further removed from its original form, and had a weaker influence on the historical development of the towns. The Magdeburg Law came to be a legalisation of a historically determined process of the emergence of an urban estate.