Do Governments Sway European Court of Justice Decision-making?: Evidence from Government Court Briefs

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is commonly described as a powerful international force for legal integration. Indeed, past studies indicate that the ECJ has developed a supranational legal order that trumps national law in a broad range of economic policy areas. But this depiction of an autonomous Court driving European integration beyond the desires of the member-states is dubious. We would expect the Court, whose existence depends on an international treaty and whose authority depends on national enforcement, to have strong incentives to decide cases with an eye to concerns of national governments. We argue that past studies -- which were based on a small number of case studies -- cannot demonstrate whether the Court is or is not sensitive to member-state interests. Based on novel dataset of all ECJ decisions over three years, we develop an empirical test of member-state influence on ECJ decisions and demonstrate that the Court does temper its decisions to accommodate member-state concerns.

Ferroelectric Properties and Exciton Localization in Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

The ferroelectric and optical properties of two-dimensional indium selenide (In2Se3), as well as the mechanical and optical properties of stacked monolayer molybdenum di-selenide (MoSe2) and tungsten di-selenide (WSe2), were investigated through a variety of electrical and spectroscopic techniques. Of special interest was how domains are formed during the ferroelectric polarization flipping (generated with an applied voltage) within In2Se3 memristors. Notably, in the change between low and high resistance states, the polarization flipping was limited to the channel region between the biased and grounded electrodes, not at the electrode contact as previously assumed. The ferroelectric properties of In2Se3 were also examined in how they responded to low-level illumination by a laser. By exposing the layers to global and localized light illumination it was found that the light generated changes in the ferroelectric polarization. These changes were especially evident when polarization changes generated by electrical pulses were put under illumination. This resulted in movement of the ferroelectric domain regions as a direct effect of the low-level illumination without any voltage-generated electric field. Finally, MoSe2 and WSe2 heterobilayer structures were tested under extremely localized tip-enhanced photoluminescent (PL) measurements which revealed the presence of interlayer trions that responded to mechanical stress and small-scale surface inhomogeneities with significant shifts in their PL peaks. These observed features are much smaller than the diffraction limit of traditional PL mapping, providing new insight into exciton formation. These investigations into semiconductor properties reveal a variety of potential directions for semiconductor research going forward, especially ferroelectric domain wall motion and characterization of strain-tuned optical emission in heterostructures

Cross species infection of Yersinia ruckeri from chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) to yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) and kelp greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus)

Yersiniosis is a well documented disease that has largely affected salmonid farming and aquaculture. Caused by the bacteria Yersinia ruckeri, gram-negative and facultatively anaerobic, there has been little documentation of the condition in species beyond salmonids, and the direct inoculation of several non-salmonid species. Y. ruckeri is capable of living outside of a host for months at a time, is most severe at colder temperatures, and can be readily spread in captivity without relatively intense biosecurity. External symptoms often include loss of appetite, lethargy, loss of buoyancy control, darkening of the skin, hemorrhaging and ulceration in the fins and surrounding tissue, and exophthalmia. Internal hemorrhaging often occurs in the liver, kidney, and swim bladder, and the spleen becomes darkened and inflamed with translucent yellowish fluid accumulating in the lower intestine. It has now been shown that infected salmonids can be a vector for infection to other fishes in the same environment, as it has now been isolated from wild caught Yellowtail Rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) and Kelp Greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus). The specific vector for the disease was identified as hatchery cultured Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). The disease resulted in extremely high mortality rates in all three identified species, the highest being a 100% mortality rate among rockfish. In order to identify the bacteria, the primary methodology was the use of cultures on ribose ornithine deoxycholate agar and observations and necropsies comparing symptoms and anatomical changes of the three infected species to positively conclude the identity of the bacterial species. Isolations of the aetiological source were obtained successfully from one rockfish and one greenling, demonstrating the cross species infection without direct inoculation

How the Court of Justice of the European Union can be reformed to improve the timely administration of justice

The Court of Justice of the European Union currently has a huge backlog, with cases taking over 17 months on average to process. But how do the Court’s internal procedures affect the duration of cases? And how could the EU reform the Court to improve the timely administration of justice? Drawing on new research, Joshua Fjelstul, Matt Gabel and Cliff Carrubba evaluate potential institutional reforms to reduce the duration of cases and the size of the Court’s backlog

National Party Politics and Supranational Politics in the European Union: New Evidence from the European Parliament

Political parties play an important role in structuring political competition at different levels of governance in the European Union (EU). The political parties that contest national elections also participate in the EU legislative institutions, with the governing parties at the national level participating in the Council of Ministers and a broad range of national parties represented in the European Parliament (EP). Recent research indicates that national parties in the EP have formed ideological coalitions -- party groups -- that represent transnational political interests. These party groups appear to manage legislative behavior such that national interests -- which dominate the Council of Ministers -- are subjugated to ideological conflict. In this paper, we demonstrate that the roll-call vote evidence for the impact of party groups in the EP is misleading. Because party groups have incentives to select votes for roll call so as to hide or feature particular voting patterns, the true character of political conflict is never revealed in roll calls.

Consumer Cost-Sharing in Marketplace vs. Employer Health Insurance Plans, 2015

Using data from 49 states and Washington, D.C., we analyzed changes in costsharing under health plans offered to individuals and families through state and federal exchanges from 2014 to 2015. We examined eight vehicles for cost-sharing, including deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket limits, and compared findings with cost-sharing under employer-based insurance. We found cost-sharing under marketplace plans remained essentially unchanged from 2014 to 2015. Stable premiums during that period do not reflect greater costs borne by enrollees. Further, 56 percent of enrollees in marketplace plans attained cost-sharing reductions in 2015. However, for people without cost-sharing reductions, average copayments, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits under catastrophic, bronze, and silver plans are considerably higher than under employerbased plans on average, while cost-sharing under gold plans is similar employer-based plans on average. Marketplace plans are far more likely than employer-based plans to require enrollees to meet deductibles before they receive coverage for prescription drugs

The ideological divide in confidence in science and participation in medical research

Abstract In the United States, the wide ideological divergence in public confidence in science poses a potentially significant problem for the scientific enterprise. We examine the behavioral consequences of this ideological divide for Americans’ contributions to medical research. Based on a mass survey of American adults, we find that engagement in a wide range of medical research activities is a function of a latent propensity to participate. The propensity is systematically higher among liberals than among conservatives. A substantial part of this ideological divide is due to conservative Americans’ lower confidence in science. These findings raise important issues for the recruitment of subjects for medical studies and the generalizability of results from such studies

A second look at legislative behavior in the European Parliament: roll-call votes and the party system

'Jüngste Forschungen zum Wahlverhalten im Europäischen Parlament (EP) kommen zum Schluss, dass die Fraktionen der unterschiedlichen politischen Parteien das legislative Verhalten beeinflussen. Dadurch wird politischer Wettbewerb im EP entlang ideologischer und nicht nationaler Linien organisiert. Daraus folgt, dass das EP eine geeignete Arena für transnationale politische Auseinandersetzungen darstellt. Die Autoren überprüfen nochmals verschiedene empirische Resultate, die diese Schlussfolgerungen unterstützen. Basierend auf der Analyse eines neuen Datensatzes behaupten die, dass die empirische Basis für diese Schlussfolgerungen bedenklich ist. Denn die namentlichen Abstimmungen, welche bisher als Basis zu Studien zum legislativen Abstimmungsverhalten gedient haben, stellen ein verzerrtes Sample für eben solche dar. Es stellt sich somit die allgemeine Frage, inwiefern die bisherige Beschreibung von Parteikohäsion oder die Charakterisierung von Parteienwettbewerb in der Legislative noch Gültigkeit besitzen. Die Resultate weisen außerdem darauf hin, dass die Fraktionen den Großteil ihrer legislativen Abstimmungen vor den Wählern verbergen und somit ihr legislatives Verhalten verschleiern. Obwohl das EP häufig als Quelle für demokratische Legitimation in der EU-Politikgestaltung genannt wird, zeigen die Resultate, dass in der Praxis die verschiedenen Fraktionen die Kontrollmöglichkeiten der Bürger signifikant behindern.' (Autorenreferat)'A great deal of recent research on voting behavior in the European Parliament (EP) concludes that party groups dominate legislative behavior, effectively organizing political competition along ideological rather than national lines. As a result, some argue that the EP is a suitable arena for transnational political contestation. We re-examine several empirical findings used to support these conclusions. Based on an analysis of a novel set of data regarding EP votes that are unrecorded, we argue that the empirical basis for these conclusions is dubious. The fundamental finding is that roll call votes, which form the basis of studies of legislative voting behavior, are a biased sample of legislative votes. This calls into question the accuracy of any description of party unity or the character of party competition on legislation that is gleaned from roll call votes in the EP. In addition, our findings indicate that party groups hide the vast majority of legislative votes from the eyes of voters, therefore obfuscating legislative behavior. Thus, while the EP is often identified as a source of democratic accountability for EU policy-making because its members are directly elected, our findings suggest that in practice party groups significantly obstruct this channel of popular control over policy-making.' (author's abstract)

Divided but united:explaining nested public support for European integration

<p>Academic and general interest in public support for European Integration is on the rise. Theoretically, the utilitarian, identity, reference, cue-taking and signalling models have been developed to explain this perplexing phenomenon. While these models have been tested, there is no comprehensive up-to-date account of how well they perform separately, relative to each other and across levels. Empirically, this study utilises a data set with 110,873 respondents from the European Social Survey. Methodologically, a multilevel model is used to address causal heterogeneity between levels. The study shows that ‘attitudes towards multiculturalism’ at the individual level and ‘corruption’ at the country level are the strongest predictors. When interacting levels within models, it is demonstrated that individual trust in the national political establishment is being moderated by the level of corruption in a country in influencing support for European integration. On this basis, two models are proposed, named the ‘saviour model’ and the ‘anti-establishment model’.</p