La stéréophonie législative, facteur de haute infidélité ?

The object of this paper is to underline the inherent difficulty of expressing a single legislative intent in two languages. A number of basic issues concerning the translation of legal documents generally, and of statutes in particular, are formulated. These issues have been brought into sharp focus by divergent judicial interpretations of instruments drafted in French and referring to a civilian legal and cultural background. The practice of bilingual legislation is then considered. Reference is made to recent efforts at improving the French version of federal statutes. The need for, or usefulness of bilingual legislation is critically examined. Anglophone reactions to French unilingual legislation in Québec are explained in terms of adherence to the traditional English style of legislative drafting. However, it is pointed out that common lawyers may be looking with increasing interest at the attributes of clarity, simplicity and logic associated with the civilian style of drafting

Loi et héritage culturel

Is legal drafting to be considered an autonomous discipline or should it be relegated to a set of grammatical rules ? Or yet still, might it be elevated to a full-fledged area of legal studies ? The scope of the matter goes far beyond simple considerations of numbering paragraphs, punctuation, and uses of language. Interest for legal drafting in Québec is the result of a relative imbalance between information on the subject in French and in English. At a time when legislative texts extend their authority to all strata of the population, it is essential that these texts be understandable and accessible. When discussing legal drafting, there is a popular distinction that is inevitably made between the form and the substance of the law. This idea, while sometimes valid, constitutes a gross oversimplification of reality, for where does form end and substance begin or vice versa ? Nor is it found that this traditional distinction settles the sticky question of structure in the law. The establishment of rules for drafting in French can not and must not proceed from a literal translation of English rules or practices, for the thought processes of these languages are far too different. For this reason, it has been necessary to undertake a meticulous empirical approach to describe just what characterizes the French use of legal language. Generally speaking, in French, the law should be an abstract declaration of principles ; specifics of application are left either to regulations or to judiciary construction. As the major vehicle for transmitting social standards, the law must be straightforward in maintaining an equitable continuity in social practices and institutions. This suggests that the law must be clear and unequivocal, yet how is one to define clarity; admittedly here is an embarrassing concept. It seems preferable to attack the problem by eliminating ambiguity, i.e. to reduce those legal, stylistic, structural or lexical elements which hamper comprehension. Laws can be written understandably, but do they still reflect the cultural needs of their intended audience ? The question remains largely unanswered. Is parliamentary procedure the best way to produce a body of legislation ? When one considers the diverse training of members of parliament and the urgency of their work, is it no wonder that laws often leave much to be desired... The composition of laws involves numerous details of which only the main ones are discussed here ; preamble, title, sub-titles, definitions, purpose, powers, obligations, responsible body, enabling provisions, coming into force, marginal notes. Discussing these matters brings to light various factors such as: 1. the frequent gap between the content of the preamble and the substance of the law; 2. the information contained in the title with respect to the substance of the law; 3. the abuse of definitions wherein one finds the substance of the law, unusual use of words, confusion, enumerations and a paralysing effect on the evolution of the law; 4. the necessity for underscoring powers, obligations as well as the purpose of legislation. Such considerations lead inevitably to a reassessment of what codifying the law is all about, a means for managing large volumes of textual material, for updating obsolescent and amputating dead provisions. Codification means that all possible structures of legislation must be understood; in civil law particularly, this implies deductive reasoning which proceeds from the general to the specific. Jmplicity takes priority over expliciteness and principles of « ejusdem generis » and « expressio unius, exclusio alterius » are of marginal value. The physical make-up of a code must take into account such factors as: 1. the dimension of its articles, i.e. one idea or concept per article; 2. the limited use of verb tenses, i.e. usually the present tense; 3. the use of the active voice; 4. the precise use of negations; 5. the elimination of redundancies; 6. the use of clear syntactic structures, i.e. subject + verb + complement ; 7. the correct use of French pronouns; 8. the abuse of demonstrative adjectives; 9. the correct use of references. Following these considerations, it becomes tempting to reason in terms of model or stereotyped legislation wherein only one form should prevail ; however, although organized to standards, legislation must remain dynamic to be effective. Finally, the cultural basis of drafting legal material must remain everpre-sent in the minds of draftsmen, for there are elementary, but pervasive elements of English and French thinking which will always come into play and orient the writer. For instance, the French will inevitably qualify something generally, where the English will prefer describing concretely the same phenomenon. Hopefully, by refining techniques of drafting, the often exagerated need for rules of interpretation will diminish and the law will stand as it should, on its own merits

Reproductive Toxicity and Life History Study of Silver Nanoparticle Effect, Uptake and Transport in Arabidopsis thaliana

Concerns about nanotechnology have prompted studies on how the release of these engineered nanoparticles impact our environment. Herein, the impact of 20 nm silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the life history traits of Arabidopsis thaliana was studied in both above- and below-ground parts, at macroscopic and microscopic scales. Both gross phenotypes (in contrast to microscopic phenotypes) and routes of transport and accumulation were investigated from roots to shoots. Wild type Arabidopsis growing in soil, regularly irrigated with 75 μg/L of AgNPs, did not show any obvious morphological change. However, their vegetative development was prolonged by two to three days and their reproductive growth shortened by three to four days. In addition, the germination rates of offspring decreased drastically over three generations. These findings confirmed that AgNPs induce abiotic stress and cause reproductive toxicity in Arabidopsis. To trace transport of AgNPs, this study also included an Arabidopsis reporter line genetically transformed with a green fluorescent protein and grown in an optical transparent medium with 75 μg/L AgNPs. AgNPs followed three routes: (1) At seven days after planting (DAP) at S1.0 (stages defined by Boyes et al. 2001 [41]), AgNPs attached to the surface of primary roots and then entered their root tips; (2) At 14 DAP at S1.04, as primary roots grew longer, AgNPs gradually moved into roots and entered new lateral root primordia and root hairs; (3) At 17 DAP at S1.06 when the Arabidopsis root system had developed multiple lateral roots, AgNPs were present in vascular tissue and throughout the whole plant from root to shoot. In some cases, if cotyledons of the Arabidopsis seedlings were immersed in melted transparent medium, then AgNPs were taken up by and accumulated in stomatal guard cells. These findings in Arabidopsis are the first to document specific routes and rates of AgNP uptake in vivo and in situ

Style and Accuracy in Writing

I\u27d like to start by focusing on some style bloopers which seem to show up on my desk, and probably yours, so often that I feel compelled to stand here and enlist your help in stamping them out

Improving Technical and Bureaucratic Writing; Science Magazines: The Second Wave Rolls In; Extraordinary Science Essays of the Past Half Century; Update: Technical Communication at Rensselaer

Reviews of Improving Technical and Bureaucratic Writing, by Mohan R. Limaye; Science Magazines: The Second Wave Rolls In, in Science; Extraordinary Science Essays of the Past Half Century, by Richard Conniff; Update: Technical Communication at Rensselaer, in Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Feeling manipulated: cytomegalovirus immune manipulation

No one likes to feel like they have been manipulated, but in the case of cytomegalovirus (CMV) immune manipulation, we do not really have much choice. Whether you call it CMV immune modulation, manipulation, or evasion, the bottom line is that CMV alters the immune response in such a way to allow the establishment of latency with lifelong shedding. With millions of years of coevolution within their hosts, CMVs, like other herpesviruses, encode numerous proteins that can broadly influence the magnitude and quality of both innate and adaptive immune responses. These viral proteins include both homologues of host proteins, such as MHC class I or chemokine homologues, and proteins with little similarity to any other known proteins, such as the chemokine binding protein. Although a strong immune response is launched against CMV, these virally encoded proteins can interfere with the host's ability to efficiently recognize and clear virus, while others induce or alter specific immune responses to benefit viral replication or spread within the host. Modulation of host immunity allows survival of both the virus and the host. One way of describing it would be a kind of "mutually assured survival" (as opposed to MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction). Evaluation of this relationship provides important insights into the life cycle of CMV as well as a greater understanding of the complexity of the immune response to pathogens in general

Die Parapsychologie aus Sicht der Wissenschaft(ler)

Paranormale Phänomene werden zwar rege beforscht, jedoch mangelt es der Parapsychologie an wissenschaftlicher Anerkennung. Diesbezüglich stellt sich die Frage, wie die Einstellung von Wissenschaftlern zur Parapsychologie und ihren erforschten Phänomenen ausgeprägt ist. Zur Untersuchung dieser Thematik wurde an Wissenschaftlern aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum ein Online Fragebogen verschickt. Diese Fragebogenbatterie enthielt neben demographischen Inhalten, hauptsächlich Fragen zur Einstellung zur Parapsychologie, den Glauben an paranormale Phänomene und paranormale Erfahrungen. Insgesamt füllten 439 Wissenschaftler, davon 297 männliche und 142 weibliche Versuchspersonen, den Fragebogen vollständig aus. Die Analyse der Ergebnisse zeigte, dass sich Professoren in ihrer Einstellung zur Parapsychologie und ihrem paranormalen Glauben unterschieden. Einflussfaktoren waren die Wissenschaftsdisziplin, das Geschlecht und die Religiosität und zwar dahingehend, dass Naturwissenschaftler, Männer und weniger religiöse Personen die kritischste Einstellung zeigten. Keinen Einfluss hatten das Alter und der akademische Rang. Insgesamt ist jedoch an den geringen Mittelwerten ersichtlich, dass die Wissenschaftler durchwegs eine kritische Haltung gegenüber der Parapsychologie aufwiesen.Scientists of different academic areas received an email with a link to an on-line questionnaire, which asked about their attitude toward the science of parapsycholo-gy, their belief in parapsychological phenomena and their paranormal experiences. In the sample of 439 scientists was found a difference between the attitudes toward parapsychology as a science and the scientific discipline of the scientists. Furthermore, there are differences among the university professors of different scientific disciplines and their belief in the paranormal. There is also a correlation between scientist's attitudes toward parapsychology as a science and their belief in the paranormal. Moreover, there is a correlation between the scientist's religiousness and their belief in the paranormal