Randomization and social affairs: the 1970 draft lottery

Randomization has played an important role in social affairs, going back at least to biblical days. The drawing of lots, one of the simplest forms of randomization, has been used publicly in many different contexts. Although the legal use of randomization techniques and lotteries in the United States dates back at least to the mid-19th century, only recently have the federal courts recognized the need for proper randomization to assure fairness, lack of bias, and lack of discrimination. A recent presidential commission has supported the call for all-volunteer armed forces (29), but it appears that the recommendations of this commission are at least several years away from becoming law. In fact, it has been suggested that the present lottery system is retarding any moves toward allvolunteer armed forces by reducing the number of draft-induced volunteers, and thereby necessitating an increase in the number of draftees. So, in the short run, it appears that the draft lottery will be the means by which the United States will man much of itsarmed forces. Since this is the case, it is important that future lotteries achieve equity in selection and that the lack of randomization present in previous lotteries be eliminated. [Indeed, it is interesting to note that several young men have filed suit in federal court, seeking to void the 1970 drawing and to force a new lottery. The basis of these suits is the lack of proper randomization (30).] The 1917 and 1940 Selective Service draft lotteries have served in the past as indications that the commonly held notion of "randomness" is often at variance with the strict statistical meaning. The 1970 draft lottery has not helped to mitigate the doubts of many regarding the equity and fairness of random drawings, although the recent 1971 draft lottery sets a very positive example, which, it is hoped, will counteract the effects of the earlier lotteries. Since randomization does have a role in the everyday workings of society, it is important that the public be educated to accept the proper use of randomization, while rejecting attempts to use chance as a disguise for inequity, bias, and unlawful discrimination. As one step toward this end, future draft lotteries should adhere to a reasonable definition of randomness, and the public should be well informed of the precautions taken to preclude arbitrary features that have marred previous draft lotteries. In addition, it is clearly desirable that the Selective Service provide the public with an official statement giving all relevant details on the design and execution of the lotteries. The most recent draft lottery serves as an admirable model in this regard. Note added in proof: Professor Hans Zeisel has brought to my attention the details of the draft procedure used in Austria-Hungary between 1889 and the start of World War I. This draft procedure was also based on a lottery, with every person liable for the draft (or a representative) drawing a slip of paper on which was recorded a number indicating a place in the draft list. It is conceivable that Selective Service officials, in charge of the World War I lottery in the United States, were familiar with the details of this draft lottery procedure.     

浅论我国民事再审程序之完善

本文对我国民事再审制度的理论缺陷和给司法实务带来的严重问题进行剖析, 指出现行再审制度未有起到保护当事人诉权的作用, 形同虚设, 法律规定由法院、检察院启动再审程序, 为他们滥用实权、任意剥夺当事人诉权、搞权钱交易、司法腐败提供了条件。笔者根据民事诉讼理论和中国的实际, 提出了废除法院依职权启动再审程序、限制检察院启动再审程序。当事人申请再审只要符合形式要件法院即应受理再审等一系列改革建议。     

关于公诉案件撤诉的几个问题

公诉案件的撤诉符合控审分离原则和起诉便宜主义的要求，体现了保障人权的价值追求和诉讼经济原则;撤诉应遵循一定的程序，应在法律辩论终结前提出并说明理由;法院应当对检察机关的撤诉申请进行司法审查，听取被告人质疑意见;公诉机关撤诉后诉讼程序终止，不得再行起诉。     

论废弃判决之拘束力

赋予废弃判决拘束力,目的在于保护当事人及维护诉讼经济,此种拘束力系民事诉讼法为发回判决所特别规定。废弃判决之拘束力的客观范围限于否定原审判决且与撤销原判决有直接因果关系的法律见解及该法律见解的必要前提条件。重审法院及作出发回判决的法院均应受此拘束。在我国,发回裁定并不具有拘束上下级法院的效力,显有必要予以改进。     

Genetic testing. Families sue hospital, scientist for control of Canavan gene

A successful partnership between parents and a scientist to combat a deadly genetic disease has dissolved into a bitter legal battle over the commercial tests used to identify people with dangerous mutations in their genes. The lawsuit, filed on 30 October in Chicago federal court, is the latest dispute in the growing controversy over who controls and who benefits from human genetics research.     

Technology utilization: incentives and solar energy

If the federal government is not going to be the major market for the application of federally funded R & D results, then the responsibility for bringing about technology utilization cannot be borne alone by the federal agency funding the R & D. That this problem is now being recognized is shown by the number of bills that were introduced in Congress in 1974, culminating in the Solar Heating and Cooling Act of 1974 (7). An examination of the incentives for technology utilization in the conceptual framework of TDS (as shown in Fig. 4) reveals the following: 1) Incentives must be applied to each component of the TDS. 2) Different components in the TDS require different incentives. 3) Although information exists concerning a wide variety of incentives that are currently being used by various federal agencies to stimulate technology utilization, most of this information is in the form of raw data compiled by the respective agencies and a substantial effort will be required to collect, compile, and evaluate them. 4) All the components of a TDS must be activated if technology utilization is to occur on a self-sustaining basis. This makes experimental verification of a particular incentive on a particular component difficult. 5) A federal agency concerned with technology utilization can and should assume the responsibility for identifying all the components of the required TDS, devising incentives for each component and testing them to ensure their effectiveness. Where a TDS does not exist, the federal agency may have to assume the responsibility of creating one. The scope of this effort in many cases may transcend the present authority of the agency, and congressional action may be required to remedy this shortcoming.     

民初法律冲突中大理院的解释逻辑——以婚姻个案为基础的考察

民初大理院因法律解释之责首当其冲地面对社会生活中发生的法律冲突。大理院进行法律解释的个案表明：虽然大理院希望接引西方法理改进中国旧法,但实际上它并没有简单地将西法引入,而是努力将西法与中国的旧法以及社会事实进行沟通。大理院的处理立场与解释逻辑颇值得玩味。     

HHS preparing to issue new Baby Doe rules

Since a U.S. district court struck down its initial "Baby Doe" regulations, the Department of Health and Human Services is preparing a second version of federal rules designed to ensure appropriate treatment of handicapped newborns with life-threatening but correctible conditions. While child advocacy groups support the regulations with some reservations about the intrusive style of enforcement, most medical organizations, led by the American Academy of Pediatrics, are strongly opposed. Both houses of Congress have become involved with the issue by proposing to include handicapped infants under the Child Abuse and Treatment Act.     

法院调解适用范围探析

作为法院调解制度适用的前提,法院调解的范围应予明确界定。一般来讲,法院调解的应有范围可界定为,只有当事人可以相互让步的案件才契合调解的特质,方有调解发挥功效的空间;而身份关系案件和形成之诉案件的当事人无任何自由处分的权限,诉讼的性质亦使调解无法产生相应效力,故此两类案件自无调解适用之余地。     

Patent disputes. Biotech giants butt heads over cancer drug

On 8 June, Chiron challenged Genentech's patent on an important new breast cancer drug called Herceptin and sued for a share of the profits. Chiron's 4-page complaint, filed in the federal district court in Sacramento, California, accuses Genentech of "willful, wanton, and deliberate" infringement of one of its patents. The case is being closely watched in the biotech industry not just because of the money at stake but also because it involves one of the first therapies to emerge from the burgeoning field of cancer genetics     

信息时代农业重视因特网营销的必要性

分析了信息时代因特网给行业带来了无限商机，并阐述了作为传统产业－农业也应充分利用因特网所提供的机遇，为农业发展服务的重要性。论述了利用因特网进行农产品营销的三大优势。分析了因特网目前存在的某些缺陷以及利用因特网进行农产品营销应注意的问题。     

Patients' voices: the powerful sound in the stem cell debate

Millions of patients may benefit from the applications of stem cell research, although there is disagreement about whether public funds should be used to develop the science. Patients have been key to winning political support. Acting as advocates, they have contended that public investment will speed the research and bring accountability to biomedical technology. A political dispute about the new research, which holds the potential for cures to devastating diseases and to foster healthy aging, shows the need to respect public sensibilities and to court public approval, as well as the importance of involving patients in debates where the methods of biomedical discoveries and ethical beliefs collide.     

细胞生物学实验教学中“节能减排”方法的探讨

细胞生物学实验对有毒、有害试剂及材料的使用量大,产生实验垃圾量大,是教学实验室中的污染大户。为在实验教学中做到＂节能减排＂,采取了以下措施：将环保素质教育引入实验教学中;制定有效管理考查措施,强化学生在实验中的环保意识;在实验设计、组配、准备和学生实施操作等的每个细节中做到精心设计,少用少排。多年的实践表明这种方法行之有效,不仅可减少细胞生物学实验中对药品、水电等的消耗,同时还可大大减少实验垃圾的产生量。     

"Baby Doe" regs thrown out by court

On April 14, 1983, federal district court judge Gerhard Gesell overturned, as "arbitrary and capricious," a Department of Health and Human Services regulation that required hospitals to post notices concerning the illegality of denying life-saving care to handicapped infants and encouraged anyone with knowledge of such a case to report it to HHS via a telephone hotline. This article reviews the evolution and implementation of the HHS regulation, the legal challenge to it, and the judge's ruling.     

Scientists implicated in atom test deception

Described here are the circumstances leading to a recent court ruling that Atomic Energy Commission officials suppressed data indicating a link between two 1953 atomic bomb tests in Nevada and sheep deaths in neighboring Utah, and then pressured scientific investigators to concur with the AEC position. In a 1956 trial, a federal judge denied compensation to the sheep owners. Evidence of the deception came to light in 1979 and 1980 and, on 24 August 1982, the same judge ordered a new trial, ruling that several AEC attorneys and scientists had indeed misrepresented the facts. His ruling has been appealed by the Department of Justice.     

行政权变迁对行政诉讼受案范围的影响

行政权是我国确立行政诉讼受案范围时考量的重要因素。现代行政民主化、法治化的要求, 导致行政权多元化与非专属性的加强, 行政权的发展变化导致行政主体多元化, 行政主体是行政行为的实施者, 其多元化的趋势意味着行政行为的范围的扩大, 部分公共行政行为也将纳入行政诉讼受案范围     

Microbiology. Fighting bacterial fire with bacterial fire

Work presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco suggests that applying a harmless bacterium or its products to surgical wounds may thwart infections by the dangerous pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of hospital-acquired infections. Although physicians have previously pitted one bacterium against another to prevent infections of the intestinal and genitourinary tracts, this is the first attempt to use a friendly microbe to prevent infection of surgical wounds, say experts. The findings also point to a possible mechanism for this "bacterial interference." They suggest that a protein secreted by the harmless bacterium prevents the pathogen from getting a foothold in injured tissue.     

基于有限单元法的芦蒿茎秆力学特性分析

【目的】建立芦蒿Artemisia selengensis茎秆柔性体模型。【方法】根据芦蒿茎秆的物性参数,通过ANSYS有限元分析软件建立茎秆力学模型,对芦蒿茎秆在不同生长部位的轴向、径向压缩力学特性进行研究,分析比较模型计算值和试验测试值。【结果】模型计算值和试验测试值最大偏差为14.46%。芦蒿茎秆具有各向异性特征,其轴向压缩力学特性远大于径向;在3种不同位置段,径向压缩时,茎秆破碎出现在加载面的两端边缘位置,轴向压缩时,茎秆破碎出现在加载面,且应力由接近加载区域向周围逐渐减弱。【结论】可以运用模型仿真分析芦蒿茎秆力学特性,结果可为减少芦蒿在收获、运输、加工、储藏过程中的机械损伤和芦蒿收获机具的研制提供理论依据和参考。     

实质性派生品种制度的缘起、困境与因应

实质性派生品种(EDV)制度旨在防止修饰性育种,鼓励原始创新,但中国品种权法律制度尚未引入该制度。为此,特分析其缘起、实施困境与应对之策,以期为我国引入该制度有所助益。EDV制度很大程度上缘起于对育种豁免的限制。就事实效果而言,EDV制度并不影响他人利用原始品种进行育种研究;就法律效果而言,EDV制度对育种豁免有一定的限制,利用受保护品种培育的EDV,其商业化须经原品种权人授权。实施EDV制度可能会面临“实质性”判定难、派生品种商业化利用障碍,以及农民负担增加等困境。基于专业技术的考虑,应由品种授权部门确定EDV的阈值判定标准,法院在品种侵权纠纷中适用判定标准裁判,并借助技术调查官制度以解决“实质性”判定的难题;引入责任规则以化解派生品种商业化的障碍;通过国家补贴以减轻EDV制度可能给农民增加的成本负担。据此建议,如引入EDV制度,应做好相关配套制度设计。     

医疗事故诉讼若干问题探讨

《医疗事故处理条例》与民事法律及相关的司法解释存在一些不协调的地方。在医疗事故侵权诉讼中，认定医疗过失应采用抽象轻过失与具体轻过失的标准;举证责任分配上，实行因果关系、医疗过错推定规则;医疗事故技术鉴定应由医疗机构申请，人民法院对该鉴定具有审查权;《条例》规定的赔偿标准过低，人民法院不应拘泥于该标准。