The Burqa Ban: Legal Precursors for Denmark, American Experiences and Experiments, and Philosophical and Critical Examinations

As the title of the article suggests, “The Burqa Ban”: Legal Precursors for Denmark, American Experiences and Experiments, and Philosophical and Critical Examinations, the authors embark on a factually investigative as well as a reflective response. More precisely, they use The 2018 Danish “Burqa Ban”: Joining a European Trend and Sending a National Message (published as a concurrent but separate article in this issue of INTERNATIONAL STUDIES JOURNAL) as a platform for further analysis and discussion of different perspectives. These include case-law at the international level while focusing attention on recent rulings and judicial reasoning by the ECtHR and the ECJ; critical thought-experiments in religion, morality, human rights, and the democratic public space; a contextualized account of burqa-wearing interventions by federal and state governments and, moreover, various courts in the United States; and philosophical commentary and, in some instances, criticism of the Danish and/or European (French, etc.) approach. The different contributions have different aims. The section on case-law at the international level reports on those central judgments that, in effect, helped to pave the path for the Kingdom of Denmark’s burqa ban. Concerning the concurring judges at the ECtHR, the opinions served to uphold a preexisting ban and to grant a wide margin of appreciation to the national authorities, thereby limiting the Court’s own review. As regards to the ECJ, the legality of company rules that contain a policy of neutrality for the workplace was examined, with a similar outcome. The authors who discuss religion, morality, human rights and the democratic public space are endeavoring to, respectively, appeal to ethics as a testing stone for law and to both challenge and address several forms of “expressivist worry” in connection with face veils. In doing so, the authors ask a number of thought-provoking questions that hopefully will inspire public policymakers to careful analysis. While the section that is devoted to American perspectives highlights a comprehensive survey of political and legal responses to, in particular, full-face veils like the burqa, the relevant author also incorporates public perceptions and, in the course of examining these, draws a parallel to “the fate” of the hoodie. The constitutionality of burqa-wearing in America, so it also appears, is partially an open question, but differentiating between religious, political, or personal reasons is a de jure premise. Given that the Danish legislators who drafted law L 219 to ban burqa-wearing in public places rely on a reference to political Islam, they relegate religious and personal reasons to the private domain, thereby also adopting secularism as a premise. This is explored in the last author response of the article, more precisely, in an account of the underlying materialism that, in turn, is applied to Muslim women. If policymakers and legislators engaged in Thinking Things Through exercises, they could, as a minimum, avoid law-making strategies that are not in the spirit of the theory they themselves invoke, albeit tacitly. While the aim of, as it were, arresting culturally self-contradicting legislators is unique for the section in question, all the authors who contribute to the joint research project have one end-goal in common, namely to inform about important perspectives while at the same time opening up for parameters for (more) fruitful, constructive and (if need be) critical debate in the future. With this in mind, four recommendations are presented by the research director for the project. Legally, politically, socially and culturally, conflict-resolution should not translate the relationship between rulers and the ruled into a separation ideology, an instance of controllers versus the controlled. All things being equal, that is the objective limit for a democratic society

Right to the truth and International Jurisprudence as the "Conscience" Of Humanity. Comparative insights from the European and Inter-American Courts Of Human Rights

In recent decades, the right to the truth has increasingly come to the attention of international scholars and jurisprudence. Moving from the recognition of truth as a right in the international arena and exploring the reconstruction and evolution of the right to the truth in the international human rights courts’ case-law, the following analysis focuses on the ECtHR and IACtHR insights in a comparative perspective to conclude on the emerging trends of the Strasbourg Court and the Court of San José in interpreting and applying the right to the truth, thereby acting as the “conscience” of the whole of humanity

Incidence of depression in patients with hepatitis C treated with direct-acting antivirals

Depression has been associated with hepatitis C, as well as with its treatment with proinflammatory cytokines (i.e., interferon). The new direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have minimal adverse effects and high potency, with a direct inhibitory effect on non-structural viral proteins. We studied the incidence and associated factors of depression in a real-life prospective cohort of chronic hepatitis C patients treated with the new DAAs. The sample was recruited from a cohort of 91 patients with hepatitis C, of both sexes, with advanced level of fibrosis and no HIV coinfection, consecutively enrolled during a 6-month period for DAA treatment; those euthymic at baseline (n=54) were selected. All were evaluated through the depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9-DSM-IV), at three time points: baseline, 4 weeks, and end-of-treatment. The cumulative incidence (95%CI) of major depression and any depressive disorder during DAA treatment was 13% (6.4-24.4) and 46.3% (33.7-59.4), respectively. No differences were observed between those patients with and without cirrhosis or ribavirin treatment (p > 0.05). Risk factors for incident major depression during DAA treatment included family depression (relative risk 9.1 [1.62-51.1]), substance use disorder (11.0 [1.7-73.5]), and baseline PHQ-9 score (2.1 [1.1-3.1]). The findings of this study highlight the importance of screening for new depression among patients receiving new DAAs, and identify potential associated risk factors

NKp46-expressing human gut-resident intraepithelial V\u3b41 T cell subpopulation exhibits high anti-tumor activity against colorectal cancer

\u3b3\u3b4 T cells account for a large fraction of human intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) endowed with potent anti-tumor activities. However, little is known about their origin, phenotype and clinical relevance in colorectal cancer (CRC). To determine \u3b3\u3b4 IEL gut-specificity, homing and functions, \u3b3\u3b4 T cells were purified from human healthy blood, lymph nodes, liver, skin, intestine either disease-free or affected by CRC or generated from thymic precursors. The constitutive expression of NKp46 specifically identifies a new subset of cytotoxic V\u3b41 T cells representing the largest fraction of gut-resident IELs. The ontogeny and gut-tropism of NKp46pos/V\u3b41 IELs depends both on distinctive features of V\u3b41 thymic precursors and gut-environmental factors. Either the constitutive presence of NKp46 on tissue-resident V\u3b41 intestinal IELs or its induced-expression on IL-2/IL-15 activated V\u3b41 thymocytes are associated with anti-tumor functions. Higher frequencies of NKp46pos/V\u3b41 IELs in tumor-free specimens from CRC patients correlate with a lower risk of developing metastatic III/IV disease stages. Additionally, our in vitro settings reproducing CRC tumor-microenvironment inhibited the expansion of NKp46pos/V\u3b41 cells from activated thymic precursors. These results parallel the very low frequencies of NKp46pos/V\u3b41 IELs able to infiltrate CRC, thus providing new insights to either follow-up cancer progression or develop novel adoptive cellular therapies

An overview of the Italian forest biodiversity and its conservation level, based on the first outcomes of the 4th Habitat Report ex-Art. 17

In 2019 the 4th Report ex-Art. 17 on the conservation status (CS) of Annex I Habitats of the 92/43/EEC Directive was expected by every EU/28 country, with reference to the period 2013-18. In Italy, the process was in charge to the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), on behalf of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society (SBI). A large group of thematic and territorial experts elaborated the available data concerning the 124 types of terrestrial and inland water Habitats present in Italy, 39 of which are represented by Forest Habitats (Group 9),. The main aim of the work was the evaluation of the overall CS of each Habitat by Biogeographic Region (Mediterranean, Continental and Alpine), for a total amount of 294 assessments. A high proportion of these (92, corresponding to 31% of the total) referred to Forest Habitats, including 20 marginal types for which the CS was not requested. The analysis was carried out at different scales: a) administrative territory, through the data contained in the ISPRA database, whose compilation was in charge to the Regions and Autonomous Provinces; b) Natura 2000 site, with the latest updates available (Standard Data Forms updated to 2018); c) national scale, implementing the distribution maps for each Habitat based on the European grid ETRS89-LAEA5210 (10x10 km2 mesh); d) Biogeographic Region, scale of the final assessment. Cartographic outcomes, associated databases and additional data used for the assessments will be available online on the ISPRA Portal as soon as the validation process by the European Commission will be completed. A dedicated archive named "HAB_IT" has been created in the national database "VegItaly" (1), managed by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science, where the phytosociological relevés representative of the various Annex I Habitats in Italy will be archived and freely accessible. An overview of the results regarding the Forest habitats is here provided, including a comparison with the outcomes of the former reporting cycle, the 3rd Report ex-Art. 17 (2). In several cases (e.g. 9120, 91L0), the distribution maps have been remarkably improved due to better knowledge and more fitful interpretation. The conservation status resulted as Favourable (FV) for 6,7%, Inadequate (U1) for 58,7% and Bad (U1) for 32,0% of the 72 assessed forest Habitat types. In no case there was an improvement of the conservation status, while in 6 cases a worsening of the conditions resulted from the data analysis, pointing out the Habitats types with a higher need of action. Similarly to other projects carried out as a team by the network of Annex I Habitat experts of the Italian Botanical Society and the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (e.g. 3, 4), this is another step in the direction of supporting the implementation of the 92/43/EEC "Habitat" Directive in Italy and Europe. On this ground, the high biodiversity of the Italian forest Habitats could be emphasized, however results pointed out that some rare or endemic types (e.g. Alnus cordata or Betula aetnensis-dominated forests) are still scarcely acknowledged by the most prominent EU conservation tools such as the Annex I to the "Habitat" Directive. 1) F. Landucci et al. (2012) Plant Biosyst., 146(4), 756-763 2) P. Genovesi et al. (2014) ISPRA, Serie Rapporti, 194/2014 3) E. Biondi et al. (2009) Società Botanica Italiana, MATTM, D.P.N., http://vnr.unipg.it/habitat/ 4) D. Gigante et al. (2016) Plant Sociology, 53(2), 77-8

European Court of Human Rights. Legal Maxims: Summaries and Extracts from Selected Case Law (Case of Somogyi v. Italy, Application No. 67972/01, Judgment, 18 May 2004), in The Global Community. Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2005. (CLASSE A)

THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE 2005, OCEANA Publications Inc