Resurrecting Romantics At War : International Self-Defense In The Shadow Of The Law Of War-Where Are The Borders?

Rules relating to the use of force are among the traditional concerns of international law

The Meaning of Wrongdoing - A Crime of Disrespecting the Flag: Grounds for Preserving National Unity

To conclude on this issue, the rights of others, as individuals and as a whole, are formulated as the social protected interest that criminal law seeks to protect through criminal means, and it is with these rights that criminal law theory should be concerned in the first level of scrutiny. However, in the second level of scrutiny, an additional set of rights are brought into play; these are the rights of the individual, namely the actor, to exercise their constitutional rights e.g., free speech, liberty, free exercise of religion. The second level of scrutiny requires balancing those rights with the rights of others

Like a Prayer? Applying Conflicts with Religious Dimensions Theory to the Muezzin Law Conflict

What is the nature of the dispute around an Israeli law that proposes restricting how Muslim followers are called for prayer? And, why does the nature of this dispute hold any importance? LeBaron and Senbel have developed a theory differentiating conflicts with religious dimensions (CRDs) from other types of conflicts. The importance of this distinction stems from and highlights the unique role that religion plays in conflicts, which liberal, rational, and individualistic orientations to conflict management fail to address. This article offers a trial run of LeBaron and Senbel’s innovative theoretical framework. We apply CRD theory to conduct an analysis of a legislative attempt to amend an environmental law in Israel. The proposed amendment would limit the use of public address (PA) systems to amplify the Mouzins’ calls for prayer. Proposed limitations on this Islamic practice triggered a public outcry and a sharp societal dispute in Israel. The analysis in this article exposes the real conflict over the proposed amendment to be a CRD, rather than what it seemed on its face: an environmental regulation conflict. This article also contributes to further developing CRD theory. We elaborate on the combined effects of the conflict’s intensity, its duration, and the proximity of its subject to the core values of a religion. We suggest that identifying the unique amalgam of these aspects in a CRD is important to its effective management

Rationale and design of the German-speaking myeloma multicenter group (GMMG) trial HD6: a randomized phase III trial on the effect of elotuzumab in VRD induction/consolidation and lenalidomide maintenance in patients with newly diagnosed myeloma

Background: Despite major advances in therapy, multiple myeloma is still an incurable malignancy in the majority of patients. To increase survival, deeper remissions (i.e. CR) translating into longer PFS need to be achieved. Incorporation of new drugs (i.e. bortezomib and lenalidomide) as induction and maintenance treatment in an intensified treatment concept, including high dose melphalan (200 mg/m2), has resulted in increased CR rates, and is considered the standard of care for younger patients. Elotuzumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone has given better results as lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone in a phase III trial. The GMMG-HD6 trial will be the first phase III trial investigating the role of elotuzumab in combination with bortezomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone (VRD) induction/consolidation and lenalidomide maintenance within a high dose concept. Methods: GMMG-HD6 is a randomized, open, multicenter phase III trial. The planned recruitment number is 564 NDMM patients. All patients will receive 4 VRD cycles as induction and undergo peripheral blood stem cell mobilization and harvesting. Thereafter they will be treated with high dose melphalan therapy plus autologous stem cell transplantation followed by 2 cycles of VRD consolidation and lenalidomide maintenance. Patients in arm B1 + B2 will additionally receive elotuzumab in the induction phase, whereas patients in A2 + B2 will be treated with elotuzumab added to consolidation and maintenance. The primary endpoint of the trial is PFS. Secondary objectives and endpoints are OS, CR rates after induction therapy comparing the two arms VRD (A1 + A2) vs VRD + elotuzumab (B1 + B2), CR rates after consolidation treatment, best response to treatment during the study, time to progression (TTP), duration of response (DOR), toxicity and quality of life. Results: Since this is the publication of a study protocol of an ongoing study, no results can be presented. Discussion: This phase III trial is designed to evaluate whether the addition of elotuzumab to an intensified treatment concept with high dose melphalan chemotherapy plus autologous stem cell transplantation and induction, consolidation and maintenance treatment with bortezomib and lenalidomide is able to improve PFS compared to the same concept without elotuzumab. Trial registration: NCT02495922 on June 24th, 2015

Pitfalls of vaccinations with WT1-, Proteinase3- and MUC1-derived peptides in combination with MontanideISA51 and CpG7909

T cells with specificity for antigens derived from Wilms Tumor gene (WT1), Proteinase3 (Pr3), and mucin1 (MUC1) have been demonstrated to lyse acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts and multiple-myeloma (MM) cells, and strategies to enhance or induce such tumor-specific T cells by vaccination are currently being explored in multiple clinical trials. To test safety and immunogenicity of a vaccine composed of WT1-, Pr3-, and MUC1-derived Class I-restricted peptides and the pan HLA-DR T helper cell epitope (PADRE) or MUC1-helper epitopes in combination with CpG7909 and MontanideISA51, four patients with AML and five with MM were repetitively vaccinated. No clinical responses were observed. Neither pre-existing nor naive WT1-/Pr3-/MUC1-specific CD8+ T cells expanded in vivo by vaccination. In contrast, a significant decline in vaccine-specific CD8+ T cells was observed. An increase in PADRE-specific CD4+ T helper cells was observed after vaccination but these appeared unable to produce IL2, and CD4+ T cells with a regulatory phenotype increased. Taken into considerations that multiple clinical trials with identical antigens but different adjuvants induced vaccine-specific T cell responses, our data caution that a vaccination with leukemia-associated antigens can be detrimental when combined with MontanideISA51 and CpG7909. Reflecting the time-consuming efforts of clinical trials and the fact that 1/3 of ongoing peptide vaccination trails use CpG and/or Montanide, our data need to be taken into consideration

Romantics in Israel's Legal Politics: Arabic Through The Lens of the Partition Plan

This Paper argues that despite the Israel High Court of Justice's prima facie holding in favor of Arabic being an official language, still the Court has failed to decisively resolve the question concerning the meaning, scope, and consequences of such recognition. Thus, the Court has missed an opportunity, which could have been faithfully addressed had the Court viewed the question at stake romantically, through the genesis of its legal-political premises, upon which it was established; namely, the 1947 Resolution 181 (II) of the United Nations General Assembly (the Partition Plan), wherein the collective rights, including linguistic rights, of the Arab minority citizen, were promised to be constitutionally protected