Human Rights Violations After 9/11 and the Role of Constitutional Constraints

human rights, terrorism, 9/11, checks and balances, constitutions, constitutional courts

Quantum phase space distributions in thermofield dynamics

It is shown that the the quantum phase space distributions corresponding to a density operator $\rho$ can be expressed, in thermofield dynamics, as overlaps between the state $\mid \rho >$ and "thermal" coherent states. The usefulness of this approach is brought out in the context of a master equation describing a nonlinear oscillator for which exact expressions for the quantum phase distributions for an arbitrary initial condition are derived.Comment: 17 pages, revtex, no figures. number of pages were incorrectly stated as 3 instead of 17. No other correction

Have euro area and EU economic governance worked? Just the facts

We test whether two key elements of the EU and euro area economic governance framework, the Stability and Growth Pact and the Lisbon Strategy, have had any impact on macroeconomic outcomes. We test this proposition using a difference-in-difference approach on a panel of over 30 countries, some of which are non-EU (control group). Hence, the impact of the EU economic governance pillars is evaluated based on both the performance before and after their application as well as against the control group. We find strong and robust evidence that neither the Stability and Growth Pact nor the Lisbon Strategy have had a significant beneficial impact on fiscal and economic performance outcomes. We conclude that a profound reform of these pillars is needed to make them work in the next decade. JEL Classification: E62, E63, H63, O43euro area, European Union, governance, institutions, Lisbon Strategy, Stability and Growth Pact