Fraudulent arson: A war of position

Fraudulent arson in Britain does not show a pattern of significant involvement by organised crime. This gives it a lower profile and, apart from a minority of cases prosecuted as crime, leaves most to be negotiated between insurers and insureds. Interviews with loss adjusters led to 71 cases being identified covering 1990–1995. The resources of the two sides in attempting to achieve and to resist payment of the claims and their success are evaluated. Because of the circumstantial nature of the evidence, lengthy negotiations are usual, along with an element of bluff, in what can be characterised as a process of private justice.The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Liverpool Research Development Fund in connection with the field work on which this article is based.     

Underpinning success in the real world of corporations law

This paper reports on an action research project which sought to evaluate and guide ongoing teaching and learning development in Principles of Corporations Law, a semester-long unit of study. Typically, enrolments in this subject area include students from a range of cultural contexts for whom the legislative and administrative concepts of the unit are unfamiliar and who also experience significant difficulties with cultural conventions of communication and business practice. At our university, unit enrolments include a high proportion of distance education as well as non-English speaking background (NESB) students, predominantly from China, who have not studied units formerly considered as prerequisite, and many of whom experience difficulties with basic academic skills. As the development team planned and created teaching features to ensure better learning outcomes for these students, it was clear that some truly contextual thinking as well as some practicable solutions would be required. While we had determined in the redesign planning that scenario- or problem-based learning (PBL) with its emphasis on finding, understanding and using information in context, was best suited to help students acquire the skills that underpin success in the unit, our experience in the project indicated students had a broader range of more basic needs. It emerged that students were struggling with fundamental issues that would need to be addressed before real change could occur.