The Elusive Zone of Twilight

In his canonical concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, Justice Robert Jackson set forth a tripartite framework for evaluating exercises of presidential power. Regarding the middle category of that framework, Justice Jackson famously suggested that presidential actions undertaken in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority implicate a zone of twilight, within which any actual test of power is likely to depend on the imperatives of events and contemporary imponderables rather than on abstract theories of law. Since the articulation of this idea some seventy years ago, the Supreme Court has furnished little additional guidance as to how courts should evaluate presidential actions that implicate the zone of twilight, thus leaving it largely to the lower courts to translate Justice Jackson\u27s contemporary imponderables into workable doctrinal commands. Taking that observation as its starting point, this Article canvasses the small but important body of lower court opinions that have grappled with Justice Jackson\u27s zone of twilight. Its investigation yields two important takeaways. First, these opinions reveal a varied, ad hoc, and sometimes-inconsistent set of approaches to reviewing twilight-zone actions, as lower courts have failed to converge on a single methodological approach to evaluating presidential action against a backdrop of formal legislative silence. And second, the opinions reflect a longstanding and steadfast reluctance to engage with the twilight zone\u27s substance, as lower courts have frequently found ways to avoid concluding that plausible instances of twilight-zone action give rise to the contemporary imponderables that Justice Jackson himself invoked. We hypothesize that these two features of contemporary twilight-zone opinions their doctrinal haphazardness and their sporadic incidence may exist in something of a positive feedback loop, with the uncertain and amorphous state of twilight-zone doctrine deterring lower courts from assigning presidential action to Justice Jackson\u27s middle category, and with the relative paucity of twilight-zone opinions impeding the development of a coherent and streamlined decisional methodology. We thus conclude this Article by proposing a simple but flexible method of two-dimensional twilight-zone analysis an approach that might help to break this cycle of avoidance and amorphousness and thus render Justice Jackson\u27s zone of twilight a more useful and active venue for the resolution of separation-of-powers cases

Subjective mood estimation co-varies with spectral power EEG characteristics

Co-variation between subjectively estimated mood/activation and EEG characteristics, based on spectral power parameters, was investigated. Subjective estimation of mood was made by using Thayer’s Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist, which yielded two dimensions: Energy-Tiredness (with Energy pole having positive valence connotation) and Tension-Calmness (negative connotation for Tension). A within-subject design with two sessions of EEG recording immediately followed by mood assessment was applied. These were separated by a cognitive task, introduced in order to modify the subjects’ mood. The correlations between changes in mood estimation and changes in EEG spectral power parameters were calculated. Both ADACL dimensions co-varied with EEG in a specific way according to frequency and localization. Subjective estimation of Energy correlated negatively with alpha1 and, surprisingly, positively with delta, theta1 as well as theta2 relative power. Estimation of Tension correlated positively with theta1 and beta1, and negatively with alpha2 relative power. Presented results suggest that the adjective description of mood has objectively-measurable brain correlates in the EEG

Reflections on the uptake of climate change policies by local governments: facing the challenges of mitigation and adaptation

Background There is a growing body of literature that examines the role of local governments in addressing climate change vis-a-vis mitigation and adaptation. Although it appears that climate change mitigation strategies - in particular those addressing energy issues - are being adopted by a large majority of local governments, this cannot be said of climate change adaptation. This paper explores the uptake of these two types of climate change policy by local governments in the Netherlands. The central research question is: What lessons can be drawn from comparing the adoption and implementation of local climate change mitigation policies with local climate change adaptation policies in the Netherlands? Our paper contributes to the body of literature on climate change policy implementation, drawing particular attention to the ongoing debate on the institutional dimension of the adaptation-mitigation dichotomy. Methods A comparative case study research design was chosen to study the adoption and implementation of climate change (i) mitigation and (ii) adaptation policies by local governments in the Netherlands during the period 1998 to 2013. The data involved 89 expert interviews and secondary data sources from four research projects conducted by the present authors on local climate change policy implementation. Results Most Dutch municipalities have local climate change policies that address mitigation. Local governments pay relatively little attention to adaptation. The difference is mostly due to the take-up of central government-led policy support schemes aimed at the vertical integration of climate change mitigation policies. Moreover, mitigation is typically framed as an 'energy' issue whereas adaptation is framed as a 'water' issue. This has far-reaching consequences. Climate change adaptation has never been prioritized, nor has it been supported with properly funded policy support schemes. Conclusions In the realm of local climate change policies, adaptation is still considered an 'add-on' to climate change mitigation policy. Moreover, adoption and implementation of both adaptation and mitigation suffers from institutional inertia in Dutch local policy practic

Content validation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for stroke from gender perspective using a qualitative approach

BACKGROUND: The extended ICF Core Set for stroke is an application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) with the purpose to represent the typical spectrum of functioning of persons with stroke.AIM: The objective of the study is to add evidence to the content validity of the extended ICF Core Set for stroke from persons after stroke taking into account gender perspective.DESIGN AND SETTING: A qualitative study design was conducted by using individual interviews with women and men after stroke in an in- and outpatient rehabilitation setting.METHODS: The sampling followed the maximum variation strategy. Sample size was determined by saturation. Concepts from qualitative data analysis were linked to ICF categories and compared to the extended ICF Core Set for stroke.RESULTS: Twelve women and 12 men participated in 24 individual interviews. In total, 143 out of 166 ICF categories included in the extended ICF Core Set for stroke were confirmed (women: N.=13; men: N.=17; both genders: N.=113). Thirty-eight additional categories that are not yet included in the extended ICF Core Set for stroke were raised by women and men.CONCLUSION: This study confirms that the experience of functioning and disability after stroke shows communalities and differences for women and men. The validity of the extended ICF Core Set for stroke could be mostly confirmed, since it does not only include those areas of functioning and disability relevant to both genders but also those exclusively relevant to either women or men.<br/