Justice at the crossroads in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste needs a radical overhaul of its judicial system, and there may be an opening now to push forward with reform. Introduction Judicial reform in Timor-Leste is at a crossroads, and the path taken will determine whether one of the world’s youngest countries can develop an independent, accountable and competent judiciary. The choices it now faces were highlighted by the government’s sudden expulsion of international judges in October 2014 that some saw as political intervention and others as a necessary measure to deepen reforms that have been quietly taking place since at least 2013. Judicial reform is part of a larger process of transition from an older generation of leaders steeped in the experience of exile and resistance to a younger generation shaped more by the Indonesian occupation and the first decade of independence. The question now is whether both have the will to undertake the sweeping overhaul of the legal system needed. The detailed recommendations at the end of this report suggest a possible way forward. The judiciary’s problems are rooted in the violent upheaval that took place in 1999 in what was then the Indonesian province of East Timor, after a United Nations-supervised referendum produced an overwhelming vote to separate from Indonesia. The UN assumed temporary responsibility for the country’s administration, placing many of the most essential judicial functions in the hands of international judicial officers and advisors. Fifteen years later, the judiciary of independent Timor-Leste was still heavily dependent on Portuguese-speaking international personnel. Then, in October 2014, almost all of the internationals still employed as judges, prosecutors, public defenders and investigators were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours. Trials in which international judges were participating were stopped. The country’s national judicial training facility for judges, prosecutors, and public defenders ceased to function. The fate of pending cases of serious crimes against humanity from 1999 was thrown into question. The mechanism for promoting judges, required for key positions in the judiciary including the eventual Supreme Court, ceased to exist. There were two major interpretations of the expulsions. The first view, widely heard at the time, was that they were politically motivated to increase the government’s control over judicial functions and the legal profession. The second view, gradually gaining ground, is that the systemic problems were so severe and the dependence on internationals of dubious competence so great that political intervention was a prerequisite of real reform. However one interprets the expulsions, there is a broad consensus across the government and political elite that major change is required and that the era of international dominance is over, leaving the Timorese to finally take full responsibility for their judicial institutions. The crucial question now is whether the current government’s planned reforms—in legal education, professional training and access to justice—will succeed in providing a judiciary that meets its citizens’ needs. The alternative will be “Timorisation” without meaningful reform. This report is based on three months of primary and secondary source research, including a field visit and court monitoring in Dili, Timor-Leste during February 2015 by the authors, David Cohen and Leigh-Ashley Lipscomb. The authors conducted 39 interviews with representatives of the justice sector, civil society organisations, service providers, government officials, the United Nations and the international donor community. The Court of Appeal and the Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), an NGO, provided the majority of statistical data analysed in this report

When Does Improving Health Raise GDP?

We assess quantitatively the effect of exogenous health improvements on output per capita. Our simulation model allows for a direct effect of health on worker productivity, as well as indirect effects that run through schooling, the size and age-structure of the population, capital accumulation, and crowding of fixed natural resources. The model is parameterized using a combination of microeconomic estimates, data on demographics, disease burdens, and natural resource income in developing countries, and standard components of quantitative macroeconomic theory. We consider both changes in general health, proxied by improvements in life expectancy, and changes in the prevalence of two particular diseases: malaria and tuberculosis. We find that the effects of health improvements on income per capita are substantially lower than those that are often quoted by policy-makers, and may not emerge at all for three decades or more after the initial improvement in health. The results suggest that proponents of efforts to improve health in developing countries should rely on humanitarian rather than economic arguments.Health; Human Capital; Life Expectancy; Disease Eradication; Fertility; Population Size; Age Structure; Captital Accumulation; Natural Resources; Income Per Capita

A Search For Star Formation in the Smith Cloud

Motivated by the idea that a subset of HVCs trace dark matter substructure in the Local Group, we search for signs of star formation in the Smith Cloud, a nearby ~2x10^6 Msun HVC currently falling into the Milky Way. Using GALEX NUV and WISE/2MASS NIR photometry, we apply a series of color and apparent magnitude cuts to isolate candidate O and B stars that are plausibly associated with the Smith Cloud. We find an excess of stars along the line of sight to the cloud, but not at a statistically significant level relative to a control region. The number of stars found in projection on the cloud after removing an estimate of the contamination by the Milky Way implies an average star formation rate surface density of 10^(-4.8 +/- 0.3) Msun yr^(-1) kpc^(-2), assuming the cloud has been forming stars at a constant rate since its first passage through the Milky Way ~70 Myr ago. This value is consistent with the star formation rate expected based on the average gas density of the cloud. We also discuss how the newly discovered star forming galaxy Leo P has very similar properties to the Smith Cloud, but its young stellar population would not have been detected at a statistically significant level using our method. Thus, we cannot yet rule out the idea that the Smith Cloud is really a dwarf galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Validation of CTmax Protocols Using Cased and Uncased \u3ci\u3ePycnopsyche Guttifer\u3c/i\u3e (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) Larvae

The critical thermal maximum (CTmax) of a northern Lower Michigan population of Pycnopsyche guttifer was determined using four rates of temperature increase (0.10, 0.33, 0.50, and 0.70oC per minute), and two case states (intact and removed). Across all temperature increase rates, larvae removed from their cases had a significantly lower mean CTmax than those remaining in their cases, suggesting that the case can increase the larva’s ability to tolerate thermal stress, possibly due to respiratory advantages. Regardless of case state, mean CTmax was significantly lower at the 0.10oC per minute increase rate than the other three rates, likely due to increased exposure time. Our results indicate that CTmax studies done using 0.33–0.70oC per minute increase protocols would be comparable with each other, but not with studies using an increase rate of 0.10oC per minute

The taxonomy and palaeoecology of Bryozoa from the upper Permian zechstein reef of N.E. Eng1and

Eighteen species of Bryozoa are described from the Upper Permian zechstein reef - they are assigned to ten genera in the Orders Fenestrata, Trepostomat and cyclostomata. Emended diagnoses are given at various levels and superspecific taxonomic categories within the Fenestrata are discussed. The examination of type specimens and of a large suite of new material has allowed the limits of intraspecific morphological variability to be defined and has resulted in the synonymising of several species. Three new taxa are described, for which holotypes have been designated :- Ryhopora delicata gen. nov., sp. nov. Acanthocladia magna sp. nov. and Penniretepora waltherinodata subsp. nov. The genera Penniretepora and Kalvariella Are recorded for the first time from the Zechstein reef in N.E. England. Aspects of bryozoan palaeobiology And functional morphology have been inferred at zooid and colony level. A type of ovicell, new in the Fenestrata, is described and is compared with those of the Cheilostomata; the taxonomic significance of this chAracter is assessecl. Patterns of zooid-generated feeding currents are inferred and some correlation of intraspecifically varying zoarial morphology with environment is suggested. The characteristic distribution of Bryozoa in relation to Zechstein reef sub-environments is described. An analysis of species abundance and diversity demonstrates a marked faunal impoverishment in reef-flat communities; new evidence for contemporaneous reef lithification is assessed