Monetary Unification in Europe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Monetary Unification in Europe - Essay Example Critics were so skeptical on the Europe’s idea of monetary unification claiming that Europe was not close to optimal monetary union. This idea was just a mere political project, which did not give into account economic fundamentals and was doomed to fail the single currency, and Europe’s failure to see monetary unification as an evolutionary process. Over the past few years, the Euro has tremendously challenged the US dollar, which is globally reserved currency, and within a very short period, it has transformed economic and political landscape in Europe. Monetary experiments has never been such an exciting history as there have been no any sovereign state surrendered its currency to a common central bank currency restraining from monetary sovereignty (Charles, 2010:176). Although the need to unify European currency started a long time ago, we begin to review its recent attempts to attain that goal. Prelaunch, which took place in late 1989, witnessed France extract German commitment to monetary union in favor of German reunification. The same year, Jacques Delor, filed a report introducing European Monetary unification in three stages. It comprised of creation of institutions like European System of Central Banks charged with the responsibility to formulate and implement monetary policies. The phases between 1989 and 2002 gave a name to the common currency that was to unify the European states â€Å"euro†, which replaced the old currency unit, the ecu. The institution laid down steps to accomplish monetary unification first of which was abolishing exchange controls that saw capital completely liberalized in European Economic Community on July 1, 1990. On 7 February 1992, leaders from different European countries signed the Maastricht Treaty with the aim of creating a single common currency but without United Kingdom participating by January 1999. Having the treaty approved proved a challenge since countries such as Germany, France, and Denmark were reluctant (Evgeny, 159). Another attempt derived from Stage II of Delor’s report that led to the creation of European Monetary Institute in 1994 that replaced European Monetary Cooperation Fund with Alexander Lamfalussy as the first president. After sometime, there rose a pool of disagreements that led to adoption of euro as new currency on December 1995 doing away with the name ecu previously used as the accounting currency. Theo Wagel suggested the name. He was by then the German’s finance minister. Date 1 January 1999 was set for the launch of the currency name. With the launch of euro in the European Union, credit institutions were able to process real-time payments. This supposedly helped in serving monetary policy needs of Euro system as well as harmonizing business practices in the EU and promoting money market integration(Gertrude and Peter, 2003:13). Owing to the total number of states, the Euro bloc designed and produced new 7.4 billion notes and 38.2 billion coins for issuance to consumers and business operators on 1 January 2002. This attempt displayed some obsolete results with tasks set to educate European people on the new currency and finally on 15 December 2001 banks commenced exchanging euro starter kits. As a matter of encouraging continuous effectiveness and integration of European currency, banks all over Euro zone, offered same high quality services, interfaces, and single price structure irrespective of their location. Such policies facilitated unification of currency across Europe as banks and other financial institutions operate under similar conditions. In the wake of

Errors in crime scene investigating Research Paper

Errors in crime scene investigating - Research Paper Example The court also must make sure that no innocent person is ever wrongly punished or convicted for offences that he or she has not committed. In the modern day, with the advent of technology and the availability of modern forensic test facilities, crime scene investigation (CSI) has acquired much significance in the process of police investigations and the conducting of trials. During 1998, the US Department of Justice, in what could be termed as a landmark study, has unearthed 28 cases of â€Å"wrongful convictions† by means of DNA tests and thus brought to the fore the â€Å"fallibility† of the law enforcement system (Doyle, 2010, 110). In most cases, the jury has relied on eyewitness accounts, which is the â€Å"oldest form of evidence† to pass their verdicts and 24 out of the 28 cases have entailed wrongful conviction due to â€Å"misidentification† (110). This adequately underlines the significance of scientific methods of investigation in determining th e complicity of offenders in the crimes they are accused of and to minimize errors in crime scene investigations. Thus, it transpires that in the interests of imparting criminal justice and to rule out errors in crime scene investigations the law enforcement system needs to deploy advanced technology. ... ost transparent and judicious manner is to facilitate the availability of forensic evidences that can irrefutably link the perpetrator to the crime under investigation. Criminals, invariably in all cases, no matter how meticulous and calculating they are, leave imprints of indelible evidence on the crime scene. While an efficient investigator, with the aid of modern technology will be able to unearth such evidences that can positively identify the perpetrator of crimes and help in proving his or her involvement in the commission or abetting of the crime. An investigation of the crime scene commences with the arrival of the first respondents at the location. Such persons may not necessarily be trained in forensics and hence they need to appreciate the significance of physical evidences that play a â€Å"pivotal and especially valuable role† and are the most â€Å"reliable† evidence (Crime Scene and Physical Evidence, 2009, p.4). Besides, they also must understand the imp ortance of proper custody and handing over of such evidences to the investigation team once they arrive on the scene. This way, the sanctity of the evidence they collect from the scene can be sustained and any possible errors can be ruled out. Crime scene investigation can be understood as a â€Å"process† that seeks to record the scene as it is and to recognize and collect any physical evidences that are â€Å"potentially relevant† to the crime (p.4). The process also envisages adherence to any â€Å"local laws, rules and regulations† that relate to CSI and forensic investigations and ethical as well as human dignity considerations (p.4). Similarly, removing unnecessary items, taking photographs and developing a â€Å"descriptive documentation† of crime scene are significant in the process of CSI (Death