International Relations, Hegemony and the ICC

The relationship between power, law and consent is a key feature of the Western debate on criminal law. On the one side, defining the legitimate ways of exercising the punitive power has been a critical question since the Enlightenment thought onwards and especially as to the rule of law doctrine. On the other side, the role played by public punishment in shaping consent and its communicative potential have been crucial questions for critical, as well as non-critical approaches to criminal law in contemporary thought. These questions gain in strength and radicalism when it comes to international criminal law (ICL). In this case the filter of the state is not present anymore to mediate between power, law and consent, and the power to punish individuals is directly exercised by international institutions. This means, on the one hand, that traditional justifications of the power to punish and which are elaborated on in the domestic sphere are not useful anymore in legitimating international punishment. International criminal norms are not framed by an international democratically elected parliament, and their exercise is not controlled by the complex system of checks and balances typical of the rule of law. On the other hand, having not being created by a sovereign, international criminal law cannot be conceived as an instrument to build or consolidate consent around the sovereign. A double-sided dilemma therefore arises: traditional explanations are no longer apt to answer the question whether ICL is legitimate, while ICL itself can no longer be considered an instrument to build consent around the traditional power exercising it, namely the state. Although I consider both sides of the dilemma equally interesting and stimulating, I will focus here only on one side of the coin: the ability to build consent of the ICL institutions, and in particular the International Criminal Court (ICC). In other words, instead of asking whether the consent around the ICC is broad enough for the Court to be considered legitimate, I shall ask whether the ICC is able to build consent around the world order it embodies

Development of a molecular method for the rapid screening and identification of the three functionally relevant polymorphisms in the human TAS2R38 receptor gene in studies of sensitivity to the bitter taste of PROP

The objective of this work was to develop a rapid screening method to identify the three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TAS2R38 gene, with the aim of providing a significant contribution to studies designed to assess sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Specifically, the objective of this study was to characterize the TAS2R38 gene haplotypes in a group of 60 subjects with variable sensitivity to PROP and preliminarily genotyped for the rs2274333 allele (A/G) of carbonic anhydrase isoform VI gene (CA6). The molecular characterization of the TAS2R38 gene was conducted using the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique after creating artificial restriction sites upstream or downstream of the SNPs, as none of the three polymorphisms contributes to the formation of a restriction site for a specific endonuclease. The results indicate that the method described in this paper could be a valid and simple experimental strategy to identify genetic differences related to taste sensitivity to bitter taste, and could be applied as a nutrigenetics test in studies aimed at understanding people’s eating behaviors

Synthesis of chiral 2-methyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroquinolines from naturally occurring monoterpenes

The synthesis is reported of chiral substituted 2-methylpyridines, in which the pyridine rings are annulated at the 5,6-positions to the chiral frameworks originating from (-)-β-pinene, (-)-isopinocampheol and (+)-camphor. Two procedures have been evaluated for their preparation

Effects and Effectiveness of Surveillance Technologies: Mapping Perceptions, Reducing Harm

This paper addresses issues regarding perceptions of surveillance technologies in Europe. It analyses existing studies in order to explore how perceptions of surveillance affect and are affected by the negative effects of surveillance and how perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance technologies relate to each other. The paper identifies 12 negative effects of surveillance including, among others, privacy intrusion, the chilling effect and social exclusion, and classifies them into three groups. It further illustrates the different ways in which perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance interact with each other, distinguishing between perceived security and perceived effectiveness. Finally, the paper advances a methodology to take into account perception issues when designing new surveillance technologies. By doing so, it rejects manipulative measures aiming at improving perceptions only and suggests measures that address the background conditions affecting perceptions

Freedom, security and justice in the European Union: a short genealogy of the "Security Union"

This article focuses on the so-called "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice" (ASFJ), namely the policy field of the European Union (EU) that covers judicial and police cooperation, migration and asylum policies and the control of external borders. The article explores how the AFSJ has emerged and how, within it, the relationship between freedom and security has evolved over time and brought about a shift towards a "Security Union". Considering the whole process of European integration and compared with other areas such as economic integration, the policy area today covered by the AFSJ started to develop relatively late. However, during the last two decades, it has advanced to one of the most dynamic policy fields within the EU. During this process, a critical shift has occurred. At the very beginning of the construction of this area, freedom (of movement) as one of the four freedoms of the common market was the core value and objective to be realised. Although a close link between freedom and security was established since the beginning, "security" (and "justice"), were seen as supporting means functional to the realisation of the freedom of movement. During the affirmation and expansion of the AFSJ, however, security has more and more infiltrated the space of freedom and justice and has become an aim in itself. Out of the AFSJ, thus, a "Security Union" has emerged as the vision to guide the development of EU integration in the upcoming years

The Transcivilisational Perspective and the Universalism of the International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) seems to have finally realized the ending legal globalists have long yearned for: a potentially universal, centralized and permanent court, able to enforce international humanitarian law without the mediation of the state. A legal system of mankind seems now more possible than ever before. The universalistic claim of the ICC, I contend in this article, is nevertheless potentially biased by a West-centric prejudice. Critically drawing on the transcivilizational perspective suggested by Onuma Yasuaki, I propose to overcome the West-centric approach of the ICC by assuming the multiplicity of universalisms, thus relativising each of them

Effects and Effectiveness of Surveillance Technologies: Mapping Perceptions, Reducing Harm

This paper addresses issues regarding perceptions of surveillance technologies in Europe. It analyses existing studies in order to explore how perceptions of surveillance affect and are affected by the negative effects of surveillance and how perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance technologies relate to each other. The paper identifies 12 negative effects of surveillance including, among others, privacy intrusion, the chilling effect and social exclusion, and classifies them into three groups. It further illustrates the different ways in which perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance interact with each other, distinguishing between perceived security and perceived effectiveness. Finally, the paper advances a methodology to take into account perception issues when designing new surveillance technologies. By doing so, it rejects manipulative measures aiming at improving perceptions only and suggests measures that address the background conditions affecting perceptions