The Netherlands – Reorganising the Dutch Judiciary

Leny E. de Groot-van Leeuwen (University of Utrecht / University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands) describes the plan of reorganisation for the Judiciary in the Netherlands formulated in the light of changing public views and circumstances. Published in the Letter from … section of Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

The Netherlands – Contingency fees entering the Dutch legal system

Leny E. de Groot-van Leeuwen (University of Utrecht and University of Nijmegen) comments on discussions amongst legal professionals in the Netherlands on the status of contingency fees (“no cure, no pay”). Published in the Letter from … section of Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Reply to Farine and Aplin: Chimpanzees choose their association and interaction partners

Farine and Aplin (1) question the validity of our study reporting group-specific social dynamics in chimpanzees (2). As alternative to our approach, Farine and Aplin advance a “prenetwork permutation” methodology that tests against random assortment (3). We appreciate Farine and Aplin’s interest and applied their suggested approaches to our data. The new analyses revealed highly similar results to those of our initial approach. We further dispel Farine and Aplin’s critique by outlining its incompatibility to our study system, methodology, and analysis.First, when we apply the suggested prenetwork permutation to our proximity dataset, we again find significant population-level differences in association rates, while controlling for population size [as derived from Farine and Aplin’s script (4); original result, P < 0.0001; results including prenetwork permutation, P < 0.0001]. Furthermore, when we … ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: ejcvanleeuwen{at}gmail.com

Особенности функционального состояния почек белых крыс в условиях хронической гипернатриевой диеты

Целью работы было исследование адаптации неповрежденных почек белых крыс к хроническому гипернатриевому рациону. Установлено, что особенности деятельности почек в условиях хронического гипернатриевого рациона не связаны полностью с естественными возрастными изменениями деятельности почек, а обусловлены так же исчерпанием резервных возможностей почечной паренхимыThe purpose of work was research of acclimatization of uninjured kidneys of white rats to a chronic hypersodium ration. It fixed, that features of activity of kidneys in conditions of a chronic hypersodium ration are not depended completely to natural age changes of activity of kidneys, and caused as by exhaustion of reserve opportunities of a renal parenchyma

Cooperating if one’s Goals are Collective-Based: Social Identification Effects in Social Dilemmas as a Function of Goal-Transformation

Prior studies of the effect of group identification on cooperation in social dilemmas have advanced two competing accounts of this effect, the goal-transformation hypothesis, which holds that identification implies a sense of collective self, which makes personal and collective goals interchangeable, and the goal-amplification hypothesis, which states that identification induces positive expectations about others’ cooperative behavior. These prior studies have, however, neglected to assess the process measures necessary to pit the one account against the other. Following prior research, the present study showed that the effect of identification was moderated by participants’ social value orientation (i.e., individual differences in evaluating the importance of outcomes for self and other) in such a way that identification influenced proselfs’ cooperation more than prosocials’ cooperation. This suggests that the consequence of group identification is that collective goals become personal goals. Extending earlier recent research, mediational analyses showed that the effect of our identification manipulation was mediated by participants’ sense of collective self and not by their expectations. Taken together, these results provide strong support in favor of the goal-transformation hypothesis.Goal-amplification hypothesis;Goal-transformation hypothesis

The Netherlands – Transatlantic litigation: the Bijlmer air crash case

Article reporting on the international litigation aspects of the crash of an El Al cargo plane into two apartment buildings in the south-eastern (“Bijlmer”) district of Amsterdam on Sunday 4 October 1992. Published in the Letter from … section of Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Temporal stability of chimpanzee social culture

Culture is a hallmark of the human species, both in terms of the transmission of material inventions (e.g. tool manufacturing) and the adherence to social conventions (e.g. greeting mannerisms). While material culture has been reported across the animal kingdom, indications of social culture in animals are limited. Moreover, there is a paucity of evidencing cultural stability in animals. Here, based on a large dataset spanning 12 years, I show that chimpanzees adhere to arbitrary group-specific handclasp preferences that cannot be explained by genetics or the ecological environment. Despite substantial changes in group compositions across the study period, and all chimpanzees having several behavioural variants in their repertoires, chimpanzees showed and maintained the within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity that are so characteristic of the cultural phenomenon in the human species. These findings indicate that human culture, including its arbitrary social conventions and long-term stability, is rooted in our evolutionary history