United Kingdom judges and European integration

The British, specifically the English, are widely regarded as awkward partners in the European project. Much of the criticism has come from anti-European integration politicians. Now that the outcome of the 2015 general election for the United Kingdom Parliament is known the United Kingdom will face a referendum by 2017 on exit (Brexit) from the European Union. The Conservative Party is also anxious to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Criticism of European influence on our law has also surfaced among senior judges but in a far more principled way than among politicians. In this article the author analyses the attitude of senior judges towards European law and integration. The judicial desire to establish UK constitutional space in the relationship with EU law has accompanied the emergence of a constitutional jurisprudence shaping the UK’s modern unwritten constitution. Our constitution has become far more judicialised. Despite the criticism witnessed in recent case law, the UK judges are constructive and cooperative in our legal relationship with Europe

Government and information - the limits of law's empire

Article by Patrick Birkinshaw (Professor of Law, Hull University, Barrister) looking at the difficult areas where law - meaning judicial and constitutional control via the courts - has little role to play in government's use of information. Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Οι δικαστές του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου και η Ευρωπαϊκή Ενοποίηση

The British, specifically the English, are widely regarded as awkward partners in the European project. Much of the criticism against Europe has come from anti-European integration politicians. Now that the outcome of the 2015 general election for the United Kingdom Parliament is known the UK will face a referendum by 2017 on exit (Brexit) from the European Union. The date of the referendum is now fixed for 23 June 2016. The Conservative Party is also anxious to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Criticism of European influence on our law has also surfaced among senior judges but in a far more principled way than among politicians. In this article the author analyses the attitude of senior judges towards European law and integration. The judicial desire to establish UK constitutional space in the relationship with EU law has accompanied the emergence of a constitutional jurisprudence shaping the UK’s modern unwritten constitution. Our constitution has become far more judicialised. Despite the criticism witnessed in recent case law, the UK judges are constructive and cooperative in our legal relationship with Europe

Das Verhältnis der Richter des Vereinigten Königreichs zu Europa und der europäischen Integration. Kompetenzen, Grundrechte und Identität

Kritische Töne sind zu hören, wenn man sich die politischen Debatten im Vereinigten Königreich über Europa anschaut. Die juristische Debatte hingegen wird anders als die politische geführt. Die Richterschaft beschäftigt sich weit intensiver mit der europäischen Rechtsordnung, die dem Common Law so fremd erscheint. Der Verf. zeigt auf, wie die Inkorporation des europäischen Rechts in die britische Rechtsprechung trotz dessen gelungen ist. Erfahrungen mit der europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention halfen dabei. Doch ist die, längst nicht abgeschlossene, Geschichte der Integration keine ausnahmslos erfolgreiche. Schwierigkeiten traten auf, als die Anwender (und Gestalter) des Common Law Prinzipien „entdeckten“, die sie als verfassungsrechtlich bezeichneten. Auch ohne geschriebene Verfassung, so scheint es, treten Konflikte zwischen Unionsrecht und Verfassungsprinzipien auf. Bei diesem Konflikt sollte jedoch nicht vergessen werden, dass erst das Unionsrecht für eine Entwicklung des Verfassungsrechts des Common Law gesorgt hat.Critical tones are heard when you look at the political debates in the UK about Europe. The legal debate, on the other hand, is more moderate than the political one. The British judiciary deals much more intensively with the constitutional character of the European legal system, which seems so alien to common law. The author points out how the incorporation of European law into British jurisprudence has nevertheless largely succeeded. Experiences with the integration of the European Convention on Human Rights helped. But the long-incomplete history of the integration of EU law is not without exception successful. Difficulties occurred when common law users (and designers) "discovered" principles that they called constitutional. Even without a written constitution, it seems that there are conflicts between EU law and national constitutional principles. However, it should not be forgotten in this conflict that it was the influence of EU law that first provided for the development of common law constitutional law

AMiBA: scaling relations between the integrated Compton-y and X-ray derived temperature, mass, and luminosity

We investigate the scaling relations between the X-ray and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) properties of clusters of galaxies, using data taken during 2007 by the Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) at 94 GHz for the six clusters A1689, A1995, A2142, A2163, A2261, and A2390. The scaling relations relate the integrated Compton-y parameter Y_{2500} to the X-ray derived gas temperature T_{e}, total mass M_{2500}, and bolometric luminosity L_X within r_{2500}. Our results for the power-law index and normalization are both consistent with the self-similar model and other studies in the literature except for the Y_{2500}-L_X relation, for which a physical explanation is given though further investigation may be still needed. Our results not only provide confidence for the AMiBA project but also support our understanding of galaxy clusters.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 8 pages, 3 figures, 5 table

Constraining Intra-cluster Gas Models with AMiBA13

Clusters of galaxies have been used extensively to determine cosmological parameters. A major difficulty in making best use of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) and X-ray observations of clusters for cosmology is that using X-ray observations it is difficult to measure the temperature distribution and therefore determine the density distribution in individual clusters of galaxies out to the virial radius. Observations with the new generation of SZ instruments are a promising alternative approach. We use clusters of galaxies drawn from high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) cosmological simulations to study how well we should be able to constrain the large-scale distribution of the intra-cluster gas (ICG) in individual massive relaxed clusters using AMiBA in its configuration with 13 1.2-m diameter dishes (AMiBA13) along with X-ray observations. We show that non-isothermal beta models provide a good description of the ICG in our simulated relaxed clusters. We use simulated X-ray observations to estimate the quality of constraints on the distribution of gas density, and simulated SZ visibilities (AMiBA13 observations) for constraints on the large-scale temperature distribution of the ICG. We find that AMiBA13 visibilities should constrain the scale radius of the temperature distribution to about 50% accuracy. We conclude that the upgraded AMiBA, AMiBA13, should be a powerful instrument to constrain the large-scale distribution of the ICG.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 12 pages, 9 figure

Beyond Simple AGN Unification with Chandra-observed 3CRR Sources at 0.5 < z < 1

Low-frequency radio selection finds radio-bright galaxies regardless of the amount of obscuration by gas and dust. We report \chandra\ observations of a complete 178~MHz-selected, and so orientation unbiased, sample of 44 $0.5<z<1$ 3CRR sources. The sample is comprised of quasars and narrow-line radio galaxies (NLRGs) with similar radio luminosities, and the radio structure serves as both an age and an orientation indicator. Consistent with Unification, intrinsic obscuration (measured by \nh, X-ray hardness ratio, and X-ray luminosity) generally increases with inclination. However, the sample includes a population not seen in high-$z$ 3CRR sources: NLRGs viewed at intermediate inclination angles with \nh~$<10^{22}$~cm$^{-2}$. Multiwavelength analysis suggests these objects have lower $L/L_{\rm Edd}$ than typical NLRGs at similar orientation. Thus both orientation and $L/L_{\rm Edd}$ are important, and a "radiation-regulated Unification" provides a better explanation of the sample's observed properties. In comparison with the 3CRR sample at $1<z<2$, our lower-redshift sample shows a higher fraction of Compton-thin NLRGs (45\% vs.\ 29\%) but similar Compton-thick fraction (20\%), implying a larger covering factor of Compton-thin material at intermediate viewing angles and so a more "puffed-up" torus atmosphere. We posit that this is due to a range of $L/L_{\rm Edd}$ extending to lower values in this sample. In contrast, at high redshifts the narrower range and high $L/L_{\rm Edd}$ values allowed orientation (and so simple Unification) to dominate the sample's observed properties

Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations

We present a multiwavelength analysis of a sample of four hot (T_X>8keV) X-ray galaxy clusters (A1689, A2261, A2142, and A2390) using joint AMiBA Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) and Subaru weak lensing observations, combined with published X-ray temperatures, to examine the distribution of mass and the intracluster medium (ICM) in massive cluster environments. Our observations show that A2261 is very similar to A1689 in terms of lensing properties. Many tangential arcs are visible around A2261, with an effective Einstein radius \sim 40 arcsec (at z \sim 1.5), which when combined with our weak lensing measurements implies a mass profile well fitted by an NFW model with a high concentration c_{vir} \sim 10, similar to A1689 and to other massive clusters. The cluster A2142 shows complex mass substructure, and displays a shallower profile (c_{vir} \sim 5), consistent with detailed X-ray observations which imply recent interaction. The AMiBA map of A2142 exhibits an SZE feature associated with mass substructure lying ahead of the sharp north-west edge of the X-ray core suggesting a pressure increase in the ICM. For A2390 we obtain highly elliptical mass and ICM distributions at all radii, consistent with other X-ray and strong lensing work. Our cluster gas fraction measurements, free from the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption, are overall in good agreement with published X-ray and SZE observations, with the sample-averaged gas fraction of = 0.133 \pm 0.027, for our sample = (1.2 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{15} M_{sun} h^{-1}. When compared to the cosmic baryon fraction f_b = \Omega_b/\Omega_m constrained by the WMAP 5-year data, this indicates /f_b = 0.78 \pm 0.16, i.e., (22 \pm 16)% of the baryons are missing from the hot phase of clusters.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ; high resolution figures available at http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/ms_highreso.pd

First lensing measurements of SZ-discovered clusters

We present the first lensing mass measurements of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) selected clusters. Using optical imaging from the Southern Cosmology Survey (SCS), we present weak lensing masses for three clusters selected by their SZ emission in the South Pole Telescope survey (SPT). We confirm that the SZ selection procedure is successful in detecting mass concentrations. We also study the weak lensing signals from 38 optically-selected clusters in ~8 square degrees of the SCS survey. We fit Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) profiles and find that the SZ clusters have amongst the largest masses, as high as 5x10^14 Msun. Using the best fit masses for all the clusters, we analytically calculate the expected SZ integrated Y parameter, which we find to be consistent with the SPT observations.Comment: Minor changes to match accepted version, 5 pages, 3 figure

The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy

The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is the first interferometer dedicated to studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation at 3mm wavelength. The choice of 3mm was made to minimize the contributions from foreground synchrotron radiation and Galactic dust emission. The initial configuration of seven 0.6m telescopes mounted on a 6-m hexapod platform was dedicated in October 2006 on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Scientific operations began with the detection of a number of clusters of galaxies via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compare our data with Subaru weak lensing data in order to study the structure of dark matter. We also compare our data with X-ray data in order to derive the Hubble constant.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ (13 pages, 7 figures); a version with high resolution figures available at http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/pho_highreso.pd