The Government’s case against the European Court of Human Rights is a smokescreen

The government has proposed the abolition of the Human Rights Act, and as part of this has – according to Merris Amos – launched a campaign against the European Court of Human Rights. She argues that this is a smokescreen designed to divert attention from the real agenda: escaping the supervision of a supranational court which cannot be as easily controlled as the national court

Elastic properties of proteins: insight on the folding process and evolutionary selection of native structures

We carry out a theoretical study of the vibrational and relaxation properties of naturally-occurring proteins with the purpose of characterizing both the folding and equilibrium thermodynamics. By means of a suitable model we provide a full characterization of the spectrum and eigenmodes of vibration at various temperatures by merely exploiting the knowledge of the protein native structure. It is shown that the rate at which perturbations decay at the folding transition correlates well with experimental folding rates. This validation is carried out on a list of about 30 two-state folders. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of residues mean square displacements (shown to accurately reproduce crystallographic data) provides a reliable and statistically accurate method to identify crucial folding sites/contacts. This novel strategy is validated against clinical data for HIV-1 Protease. Finally, we compare the spectra and eigenmodes of vibration of natural proteins against randomly-generated compact structures and regular random graphs. The comparison reveals a distinctive enhanced flexibility of natural structures accompanied by slow relaxation times at the folding temperature. The fact that these properties are intimately connected to the presence and assembly of secondary motifs hints at the special criteria adopted by evolution in the selection of viable folds.Comment: Revtex 17 pages, 13 eps figure

Comparative law and constitutional transplants into national constitutions

The author examines whether it is possible to transplant the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) victim test to the UK legal system

Freedom of expression and the media /

"Published under the auspices of the Clemens Nathan Research Centre."Includes bibliographical references and index.Foreword / Clemens Nathan -- Introduction : freedom of expression and the media / Merris Amos, Jackie Harrison, and Lorna Woods -- Free speech, communication, and the state / Thomas Gibbons -- Imposition or empowerment, freedom of speech, broadcasting, and impartiality / Steven Barnett -- Impartiality in news coverage : the present and the future / Mike Feintuck -- Packaged voices : a case study on the mediation of minority voices (asylum seekers) on television news / Bernard Gross --The Council of Europe's standards on access to the media for minorities : a tale of near misses and staggered successes / Tarlach McGonagle -- User generated content : freedom of expression and the role of the media in a digital age / Lorna Woods -- Freedom of expression : the BBC and user generated content / Jackie Harrison -- What has human rights law done for the media? / Merris Amos -- Fighting words : the war on terror and media freedom / Peter Noorlander -- Conclusion : utilising a human rights framework / Merris Amos, Jackie Harrison, and Lorna Wood