A Defence of Jury Nullification

In both Great Britain and the United States there has been a growing debate about the modern acceptability of jury nullification. Properly understood, juries do not have any constitutional right to ignore the law, but they do have the power to do so nevertheless. Juries that nullify may be motivated by a variety of concerns: too harsh sentences, improper government action, racism, etc. In this article, I shall attempt to defend jury nullification on a number of grounds. First, I discuss the use of general verdicts and reject their replacement in criminal trials by special verdicts. Second, I examine verdicts based upon mistakes and racial prejudice, turning my attention to perverse verdicts and the question of whether or not juries are guilty of legislating when nullifying the law. Finally, I look at the problem of the awarding of excessive damages by juries. My goal will be to provide a sound theoretical defence of the practice of jury nullification.R. Pound, Law in Books and Law in Action, American Law Review 44 (1910),18.The term jury nullification is synonymous with jury equity. The use of jury nullification has been suspected of playing a role in the infamous trials of O. J. Simpson and Rodney King in the last decade. See People v Simpson, No. BA097211 (Cal. Super. Ct. 1995); People v Powell, No. BA035498 (Cal. Super. Ct. 1991).     

The Alchemical Osiris: From Ra to Radium

Historians have been revising the contribution made by alchemists to the Scientific Revolution, noting that alchemy was far more than a prelude to the development of modern chemistry. The present study reexamines alchemy's history, beginning with an unusual fifth-dynasty Egyptian painting located in the tomb of Queen Nefertari. The image shows two major male deities, Ra and Osiris, merged together forming a mysterium coniunctionis. This painting foretells a problem that still exists today: a disharmony in the balance between masculine and feminine principles. A review of relevant ancient Egyptian mythology and literature brings to light several new findings: First, mummification was an early preconscious form of alchemy that significantly pushes back the date of its origin. Secondly, Osiris and other prominent Egyptian gods eventually emerged as archetypes, and together with their respective myths, developed into alchemical recipes. And finally, the notion that alchemy “died” with the advent of Newtonian physics is not supported by major historical events in the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern science still stops short of including the feminine principle in its work. There are, however, signs of growing awareness of the problem, most notably in the Jung–Pauli conjecture, and subsequent interest in a more balanced approach in science, religion, and medicine. Nonetheless, as unprecedented challenges continue to threaten the modern world, retrieving ancient wisdom and integrating it into the corpus of contemporary science are needed now more than ever.     

Robert Kilwardby's Disputational Logic

The article is concerned with the account of Aristotle's theory of disputation given by Robert Kilwardby (d. 1279) in his commentary, composed in Paris during the 1240s, on Aristotle's Prior Analytics. Specifically, I show that Kilwardby covers demonstrative as well as dialectical disputations, and gives an elementary account of the rules governing such disputations, in their adversarial forms as well as in an idealized form where the interlocutors engage in a cooperative activity. I describe the resemblances and the differences between disputations as theorized by Kilwardby and the game of obligationes as understood by some of his contemporaries.     

Ist es utopisch, sich zukünftige Psychoanalytiker ohne besondere berufliche Identität vorzustellen?

The subject of the Identity of Psychoanalysis and of its representatives belongs to the orthodox psychoanalytic movement. Since about 15 years, under the presidency of J. Sandler, the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) has tried successfully to facilitate scientific research and to promote projects. If the resistance of influential analysts against empirical investigations further decreases, psychoanalytic movement and its unfavourable concommitants will be past. The development to a scientific community will no longer be hampered by controversies on professional identity. The question of identity was dominated by the idea of the so-called “strict, untendentious psychoanalysis” (Freud 1909b, S. 104, 1919a, S. 168). It never existed and could never materialise—it was a fiction. The psychosocial dimensions and its normative implications call the concept of identity into question. Instead it is advisable to speak of a pychoanalytic attitude which has to prove its therapeutic value. This “second (professional) self” (Schafer 1983) is closely connected to the “first (personal) self”, but it is necessary and possible to separate the method from the person and to objectify changes in the patient even if taking place in an intersubjective, relational space. For many years Freud defined what Psychoanalysis is about and who is entitled to call himself an analyst. Later on, the psychoanalytic movement and the institutionalised training system fulfilled this role. The training analysis had been at the centre of all curricula. The genealogy of the training analyst determined the membership in the evergrowing family. Dissidents belong to the history of Psychoanalysis. The official acceptance of the pluralisms within the International Psychoanalytical Association demands comparisons between the various schools according to scientific criteria. Modern process and outcome research provides criteria suited to serve as a model for clinical treatment reports.