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The country of origin expert is gradually becoming a central figure in legal procedures, particularly for what concerns the assessment of cases of international protection. Judges, lawyers, and legal practitioners in general increasingly recognise the relevance of this figure, and in their pronouncements, judges frequently rely on specialized information provided by these experts, so as to shed light on particular aspects of the country of origin of those who apply for asylum. The logic that underlies this recent development is as intuitive as it is revealing, for it entails the notion that first-hand experience and acquired knowledge of the legal, social, religious and political facets of specific geographical contexts can prove invaluable in evaluating the circumstances that might force individuals who come from these contexts to ask for protection. This reflection is particularly pertinent when it comes to countries whose social fabric and consuetudes radically differ from those of the Euro-American context. As dynamics of persecution and discrimination that are found in these countries might not be immediately visible or understandable to the untrained Western observer, and require, therefore, the mediating capacity of an informed third party. Naturally, such a view of the role of the expert immediately evokes a series of thorny questions concerning the issues that one encounters in attempting to translate specific cultural idiosyncrasies in a different cultural – and in this case, legal – idiom. Issues that have occupied, and still occupy, the minds of scholars from different disciplines. These questions, to be sure, are beyond the scope of this text. However, in the conclusion I will briefly survey some of these issues. Even still the empirical basis provided by this book offers a platform that allows these enquiries to be formulated, and as such this work is to be understood as a practical contribution to a theoretical debate, in the full knowledge that, in order to survey and unpack the potential contribution of the expert in the context of international protection, further reflection is required. The text lends itself to be used as an aid for legal practitioners. In particular, each case-study deals with topics that, though extremely specific, relate to broader issues that country of origin experts often deal with, namely religious beliefs (particularly when these are antagonised by local State institutions or they bear a negative connotation in the local perception), sexual orientation (particularly when the subject faces violent persecution due to his sexual habits and preferences) and the complex question of human trafficking and modern slavery (a topic that helps to shed light on various other forms of persecution and infringement of human rights as well as on the issue of relocation). Special attention will be given to the question of religious freedom, with two chapters devoted to this matter, one that focuses on established religious groups and another on emerging ones.

Old ideologies, defined as «grand narratives», seem to have faded away, but this is not a conclusive argument to state that ideology has, itself, disappeared. In fact, there are strong reasons to believe that it has not. In the first part, this article offers a synthetic survey of some of the most significant conceptions of ideology in order to avoid the confusion generated by uncritical uses of the term. The vantage point of the analysis is the fundamental conceptual opposition between «ideology» and «praxis» («truth», or «reality»). The second part of the article opens up some questions about how the new forms of ideology may thrive in the new spaces created by the communication technologies, and how this may constitute a risk for our democratic systems.

This book is intended as a guide and support for legal practitioners in the field of asylum law. Each case-study deals with topics that, though extremely specific, relate to broader issues that country of origin experts often deal with: religious freedom, human slavery, integrity of the person, sexual orientation and gender identity. These topics are presented in a practical, clear and schematic manner, each chapter organised in a distinct, almost diagrammatic way, to make the reader familiar with the structure that typically characterises country of origin reports - the medium that is most used by experts - a structure that necessarily is concise and crisp.

Does the Chinese academic discourse on human rights differ from the official one as put forward by the Chinese government? How do Chinese legal theories justify the attribution of human rights and their protection through the law in the context of an authoritarian state? Do Chinese academic theorizations on rights and the law have any capacity to influence the wider public debate in China despite the ideological constraints and censorship imposed on academics by the party in power? In order to answer these questions, this book explores the theories of law and rights by contemporary Chinese legal scholars, paying particular attention to their views on the rule of law and the explanation of rights. It investigates the ways in which legal scholars have made use of arguments from the rediscovered Chinese traditional jurisprudence, the liberal tradition, and the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist canon.

Nel discorso comune, il principio di non discriminazione è un baluardo a difesa dell’eguaglianza, e l’ingiustizia della discriminazione consiste nel privare individui e gruppi della titolarità e del godimento di beni e diritti a causa di un certo tratto, come il colore della pelle, l’origine o il genere. Eppure, non tutte le tesi sulla giustificazione del diritto antidiscriminatorio si fondano su questo valore. Si è sostenuto, infatti, che sia piuttosto la protezione della libertà la ragione ultima delle proibizioni in materia di discriminazione, che si giustificano in base al diritto di realizzare autonomamente la propria individualità. Altre tesi affermano che l’obbligo di non discriminare sussiste perché la discriminazione è un comportamento irrazionale basato su stereotipi e pregiudizi, oppure perché chi discrimina non tratta le persone secondo il merito. Infine, alcuni ritengono che l’ingiustizia della discriminazione consista nello sminuire l’eguale valore morale dell’altro. Esplorando questi diversi approcci, l’autrice illumina un tema poco discusso dalla filosofia giuridica italiana, al fine di stimolare il dibattito su una materia che necessita ancora elaborazione teorica, nella convinzione che la critica morale al diritto possa portare al suo miglioramento, e con l’intento di fornire strumenti utili ai giuristi nei casi concreti.

The idea of the legal subject as an autonomous agent, with the capacity to choose and freely determine herself without external constraints or interference, complete in herself and independent, has had remarkable normative implications in structuring contemporary legal systems. The philosopher Martha Fineman recently argued against this notion, proposing the alternative one of “vulnerable subject.” This paper suggests that the notion of the person elaborated by the classical Confucian thinkers encompasses the “vulnerable subject.” The Confucian theorizations resonate with the ethic of care; however, their moral and normative relevance carries the potential for a broader scope of application, beyond the relation of care. Following a short introduction aimed at sketching the main arguments of the feminist and Marxist critique of the liberal subject, in the first part of my paper, I will illustrate the Confucian framework, and in the second part I will show how the Confucian understanding of personhood can be profitably used, testing it with the case study of persons trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Human variability in paraoxonase-1 (PON1) activities is driven by genetic polymorphisms that affect the internal dose of active oxons of organophosphorus (OP) insecticides. Here, an extensive literature search has been performed to collect human genotypic frequencies (i.e. L55M, Q192R, and C-108T) in subgroups from a range of geographical ancestry and PON1 activities in three probe substrates (paraoxon, diazoxon and phenyl acetate). Bayesian meta-analyses were performed to estimate variability distributions for PON1 activities and PON1-related uncertainty factors (UFs), while integrating quantifiable sources of inter-study, inter-phenotypic and inter-individual differences. Inter-phenotypic differences were quantified using the population with high PON1 activity as the reference group. Results from the meta-analyses provided PON1 variability distributions and these can be implemented in generic physiologically based kinetic models to develop quantitative in vitro in vivo extrapolation models. PON1-related UFs in the Caucasian population were above the default toxicokinetic UF of 3.16 for two specific genotypes namely −108CC using diazoxon as probe substrate and, −108CT, −108TT, 55MM and 192QQ using paraoxon as probe substrate. However, integration of PON1 genotypic frequencies and activity distributions showed that all UFs were within the default toxicokinetic UF. Quantitative inter-individual differences in PON1 activity are important for chemical risk assessment particularly with regards to the potential sensitivity to organophosphates’ toxicity. Keywords: Human variability, PON1 activity, Polymorphism, Uncertainty factor

Il contributo descrive il ruolo, la struttura, i metodi didattici, i principali progetti e successi della Clinica Legale dell'Università degli Studi di Palermo di cui le autrici sono co-fondatrici.

Chinese theories of rights are illustrated and critically assessed against traditional legal thinking and Marxist contemporary orthodox legal ideology.

It could be successfully argued that there is a general obligation to save lives in danger at sea and that this obligation is moral in nature. Such reasoning, however, is not the specific aim of this paper. Instead, this paper focuses on the legal obligations of the European Union (EU), its Member States, other neighbouring countries, and the EU Border and Coast Guard, towards migrants attempting the risky journey to Europe, in order to find out whether there are any legal steps that can be taken in order to help eliminate deaths in the Mediterranean. The article focuses on the main International Conventions on maritime law, international human rights law, international asylum law, the relevant legislation and regulations of the European Union and Italian law, offering an assessment on the legality of the EU border control operations at sea. The main argument of this paper is that the European policy on the enforcement of border control at sea fails to respect the basic principle of legality, and therefore it is against the Rule of Law.

Confucianism has often been compared to natural law, mainly to its non-volunta- ristic currents. However, the possibility to include Confucianism in the group of natural law theories is problematic. Recently, a few scholars, and notably Peerenboom, have challenged the widely shared thesis that Confucius and early Confucian thinkers should be mentioned in the ranks of natural law philosophers. He contends that early Confucian jurisprudence is more profitably compared to Dworkin’s coherence theory of law than to natural law. The present article discusses three core points: the laws of nature and natural law, the connection between law and morality, and the basic epistemological assumptions presupposed by natural law and Confucian theories. Offering additional reasons for dismissing a parallel between early Confucian jurisprudence and natural law, this paper rejects the comparison with the coherence theory as well.

Il contributo analizza un caso paradigmatico di ragionamento analogico applicato a una fattispecie concreta in materia di concorrenza sleale/illecito aquiliano. Le principali catene inferenziali del ragionamento giudiziale vengono esplicitate e schematizzate, distinguendo le premesse normative, le premesse fattuali e le rispettive giustificazioni. Sono altresì evidenziati i canoni dell'argomentazione utilizzati in motivazione dai giudici. Sono evidenziati i punti di forza e i punti deboli del ragionamento e della giustificazione delle premesse. Si tratta di un ausilio alla comprensione e applicazione della logica giuridica, con particolare riferimento al ragionamento analogico.

CARMA proteins are scaffold molecules that contain a caspase recruitment domain and a membrane-associated guanylate kinase-like domain. CARMA1 plays a critical role in mediating activation of the NFkappaB transcription factor following antigen receptor stimulation of both B and T lymphocytes. However, the biochemical mechanism by which CARMA1 regulates activation of NFkappaB remains to be determined. Here we have shown that CARMA1 and CARMA3 physically associate with Ikappa kinase gamma/NFkappaB essential modulator (IkappaKgamma-NEMO) in lymphoid and non-lymphoid cells. CARMA1 participates to an inducible large molecular complex that contains IkappaKgamma/NEMO, Bcl10, and IkappaKalpha/beta kinases. Expression of the NEMO-binding region of CARMA3 exerts a dominant negative effect on Bcl10-mediated activation of NFkappaB. Thus, our results provide direct evidence for physical and functional interaction between CARMA and the IkappaK complex and offer a biochemical framework to understand the molecular activities controlled by CARMA-1, -2, and -3 and Bcl10.

Perturbing the endoplasmic reticulum. homeostasis of thyroid cell lines with thapsigargin, a specific inhibitor of the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum. Ca2+ adenosine triphosphatases, and tunicamycin, an inhibitor of the N-linked glycosylation, blocked Tg in the endoplasmic reticulum. This event was signaled outside the endoplasmic reticulum and resulted in activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNR)/stress-activated protein kinase and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) stress response pathways. Activation of the JNK/stress-activated protein kinase signaling pathway was assessed by measuring the amount of phospho-JNK and the activity of JNK by kinase assays. Activation of the NF-kappaB signaling pathway was assessed by measuring the level of inhibitory subunit IkappaBalpha, DNA binding, and transcriptional activity of NF-kappaB. Cycloheximide treatment, at a dose able to profoundly inhibit protein synthesis in FRTL-5 cells, obliterated the decrease in the level of the inhibitory subunit IkappaBalpha produced by thapsigargin and tunicamycin. Therefore, protein synthesis was required to generate a signal from stressed endoplasmic reticulum. This substantiates the hypothesis that endoplasmic reticulum retention of newly synthesized Tg and other cargo (secretory and membrane) proteins functions upstream of signal activation. Dominant negative TNT receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) inhibited activation of NF-kappaB, which was also inhibited in embryonic fibroblasts derived from TRAF2(-/-) mice, respect to their normal counterpart. These data extend the recent demonstration that TRAF2 mediated JNK activation in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress and strongly strengthened the idea that endogenous stress signals initiated in the endoplasmic reticulum proceed by a pathway similar to that initiated by plasma membrane receptors in response to extracellular signals.

The Chapter illustrates the history, philosophical background, and current law and practice regarding the death penalty in China, following the legal reform on this matter.

We have recently identified a novel gene, named CIKS (Connection to IKK-complex and SAPK), able to activate the transcription factor NF-kappaB, after interaction with the regulatory subunit NEMO/IKKgamma of IKK complex, and the stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK)/JNK. CIKS mRNA is ubiquitously expressed, although its levels differ greatly among different tissues. The aim of this study is to identify and characterize the promoter region of CIKS gene and to analyse the regulation of its expression by different cytokines. The transcription start site of CIKS mRNA was mapped both by primer extension and by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based strategy. The proximal 5'-flanking region of CIKS gene was 'TATA-less', but contained other consensus promoter elements including an initiator (Inr), 'GC' and 'CAAT' boxes. Transfection of luciferase reporter plasmids containing 1.8 kb of the 5'-flanking region increased luciferase activity in epithelial MDCK cells, but not in endothelial HUVEC cells. Deletion analysis identified a sequence from -464 to -220 bp of the 5'-flanking region of CIKS gene essential for basal promoter activity in MDCK cells. Competitive reverse transcriptase-PCR, Northern and Western blot assays showed that different cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, Interleukin (IL)-1beta and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, dramatically increased CIKS mRNA expression in HeLa cells. We conclude that the proximal 5'-flanking region of CIKS gene contains a functional promoter and binding sites for nuclear proteins leading to its basal transcription. Moreover, we demonstrate that the expression of CIKS is up-regulated by different cytokines.