Reinventing the Market? Competition and Regulatory Change in Broadcasting

The reforms instituted by the Broadcasting Act 1990 led to a period of turbulence and upheaval within broadcasting with results that were at best unintended and, at worst, seriously undermined the ideal of public service broadcasting. A Hayekian economic perspective would suggest that the reforms failed because they did not go far enough in the direction of full ÔmarketizationÕ. The paper develops an alternative perspective, based on an adaptation of systems theory within the context of law and economics. This approach offers a broader methodological foundation for the understanding of Ôeconomic lawÕ and a different normative perspective on the broadcasting reforms. It is suggested that the difficulty with these reforms was not their failure to go further in the direction of the market, but rather their lack of clarity in articulating a clear alternative to the market as the basis for the organization of television production.     

EU–China Competition Dialogue: A New Step in the Internationalisation of EU Competition Law?

EU has been the protagonist in promoting the internationalization of competition laws based on EU competition law norms. The development of China's Antimonopoly Law shows that EU has succeeded so far in establishing itself as the main reference point for China's competition regulation. The success can be mainly attributed to the EU‐China Competition Dialogue (Dialogue), a new initiative set up by EU and China in 2004. The paper reviews the internationalization of EU competition law and its characteristics. It then examines the Dialogue and how EU exported its competition law norms to one of the latest AML secondary legislations on Antimonopoly Pricing. It argues that the Dialogue's informal nature, EU's routinized technical assistance to Chinese competition authorities and its China‐oriented strategy in communication have been highly important in ensuring that the EU Competition Law becomes the main reference point for the AML. However, the paper argues that it is for the same reasons that EU faces weakness in controlling the reception of EU competition law norms by China. Based on this, the paper further illustrates that EU's understanding of competition law internationalization as reflected under the Dialogue has not undergone fundamental changes.     

Special Market Economy: Undermining the Principles of the WTO?

Despite World Trade Organization (WTO) principles of non-discrimination,the European Community (EC) operates special anti-dumping proceduresagainst certain former State-trading nations, arguing that intransition economies, prices do not fulfil the same functionas in market economies, thus being an unreliable indicator forthe purpose of anti-dumping calculations. This paper discussesthe question of whether these procedures nullify the benefitsor impede the attainment of any objective of the WTO. Whilethis approach is based on out-dated legal concepts mirroringpolitical and economic conditions of the twentieth century,it remains questionable how effective and necessary it is tooffset unfair trading practices in a globalized economy. Ultimately,WTO rules are sufficiently flexible to deal with price discriminationsfrom transition economies without resorting to principles thatare frustrating in their application and produce questionableadministrative results.     

Cultural Policies and Local Planning Strategies: What Is the Role of Culture in Local Sustainable Development?

The authors draw a strategic framework for cultural planning at the local level. The concepts of industrial district and cluster have strengthened the role of space—in terms of external economies of localization and agglomeration—in economic development. The recent debate concerning contemporary development processes has underlined the increasing role of the cultural dimension for local development and has focused on different paths of clustering around cultural investment. The authors review the latest literature on cultural districts and illustrate some key cases around the postindustrialized world in which culture played a critical role by acting as a catalyst for major economic and social renewal. The authors present a strategic model of a progressive cultural district based on an asset-action matrix that intersects cultural policy drivers with capital resources. The authors define a new model of cultural district—the system-wide cultural district—as an emergent, self-organized model of cultural supply that displays significant strategic complementaries with other production chains with a typical, postindustrial characterization.     

Provenance and Price: Autoregulation of the Antiquities Market?

It is becoming common to read that antiquities without a provenance stretching back to before the 1970 adoption by UNESCO of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property are increasingly difficult to sell because of customer concerns over possible illicit trade in the past and reduced resale prices in the future. This paper proposes the term autoregulation to describe the phenomenon, and presents the results of several quantitative analyses designed to investigate its action.     

Envisaging the Post-Brexit Landscape: An Articulation of the Likely Changes to the EU–UK Competition Policy Relationship

In the light of the outcome of the 23rd June 2016 UK referendum to leave the European Union and the May government’s consequent approach to Brexit, this paper explores the likely changes that these will bring to a key EU–UK relationship, the competition policy relationship. It is suggested that changes are likely not only in public enforcement and private actions but also in the need for a new competition cooperation architecture between the EU and the UK. In order to appreciate how the competition relationship is likely to change after Brexit, an understanding of the current architecture in respect of the said areas is necessary and thus outlined early in the paper. Thereafter, it is argued that, post the implementation period, as the UK will no longer come under the direct jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice or indeed be a member of the Single European Market, a considerable loosening or separation of the strands that shape the current EU–UK competition relationship will occur. This unwinding of the currently intertwined EU and UK competition regimes will affect both public enforcement and private actions, thereby opening up the possibility of further regulatory divergence, unless consciously checked. Moreover, as the separation will see the Commission’s jurisdictional remit no longer include the UK, the domain will become the sole regulatory concern of UK institutions, particularly the Competition and Markets Authority. This will lead to dual regulatory capture, often of significant and complex antitrust and merger cases, given the overlapping nature of EU and UK markets. Clearly, this necessitates the UK regulator having the appropriate staffing to vet such cases, as it moves from essentially a regional player to one on a par with the Commission and regulators in the USA and China. In fact, the dual capture of such cases reinforces the importance of effective cooperation between the EU and UK regulators. However, given that the current competition cooperation relationship will end at the conclusion of the implementation period, the paper articulates a likely new EU–UK competition cooperation architecture, reflecting the fact that the UK would be outside the EU, but still enabling close, effective cooperation. Of course, and echoing the EU, it is also in the UK’s interest to agree similar competition cooperation bilaterals with key non-EU regulators. Yet, because this will take time, and because cooperation can indeed fail, the UK, like the EU, must ensure its competition instruments have the necessary extra-territorial reach.     

The Elective and Automatic Theories of Termination in the Common Law of the Contract of Employment: Conundrum Resolved?

If a party to an employment contract commits a repudiatory dismissal or resignation, it has long been unclear whether the other party has the option either to terminate or affirm the contract (the elective theory) or whether the former's breach operates to bring the contract of employment to an end (the automatic theory). The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Société Générale (London Branch) v Geys has finally resolved this question. By a majority, the Supreme Court held that the elective theory also applies in the context of a wrongful repudiation of the employment contract by express dismissal or resignation. This note examines the significance of Geys in the context of the common law of the contract of employment and evaluates whether a number of related issues surrounding the breach and termination of the employment contract have been resolved.     

Role-Switching in the Dutch Parliament: Reinvigorating Role Theory?

The lack of explanatory power of roles in the study of legislative behaviour has led to questioning of the utility of role theory. The problem may be that scholars tend to focus on classifying legislators according to one role orientation, thereby running the risk of oversimplification. Using questions from the 1990, 2001 and 2006 Dutch Parliamentary Studies, this study explores whether MPs specialise in a particular role or switch between roles depending on the situation at hand. A general trend towards specialisation in the partisan role is detected, accompanied by a decrease in the number of role-switching MPs. Furthermore, it is found that whereas government MPs tend to specialise in the role of the parliamentarian, opposition MPs are more prone to put on their partisan hats.     

Are the Policy Preferences of Relatively Poor Citizens Under-represented in the Swiss Parliament?

The principle of equal political representation can be undermined by differences in economic resources among citizens. Poor citizens are likely to hold policy preferences that differ from those of richer citizens. At the same time, their lack of resources can have as a consequence that these preferences are not taken into consideration by their representatives. Focusing on the case of the Swiss Parliament and using survey data on the opinions of citizens and MPs in the 2007–11 legislature, this study investigates whether the income of citizens systematically affects the proximity of their policy preferences with the stances of their representatives. It demonstrates that on economic issues MPs hold preferences that are generally less in favour of the state's intervention in the economy than the median citizen and that relatively poor citizens are less well represented as compared with citizens with high incomes. This remains true when taking into account only the opinions of the most knowledgeable citizens among these groups as well as when the focus is only on those who turned out to vote.     

Subsidiarity in the Area of EU Justice and Home Affairs Law—A Lost Cause?

This article intends to highlight the concept of subsidiarity in the area of the third pillar and EU criminal law more generally. In doing so, the article tries to show that criminal law could and should be seen as imbued with 'subsidiarity' and, more specifically, that it could be viewed as an expression of the principle of ultima ratio—a minimalism approach—in criminal law. Accordingly, the article asks why subsidiarity appears to be forgotten in third pillar matters despite its important function in this area. Moreover, the article confronts such a desired application of subsidiarity in the context of established EC law doctrine, by questioning whether it is possible simply to transplant the supranational discussion into the terrain of criminal law. Further, the article explores the function of Article 47 EU as the watchdog of the supranational sphere and discusses also briefly the phenomenon of enhanced cooperation in relation to the principle of subsidiarity in the domain of EU Justice and Home Affairs.     

Should Empathy Play any Role in the Interpretation of Constitutional Rights?

This paper explores the role that empathy can play in the interpretation of constitutional rights. It starts by analyzing the complex concept of empathy, comparing it with similar yet distinct concepts such as projection, sympathy and emotional contagion, then it discusses the widespread distrust of empathy among lawyers and legal thinkers. It will be argued that empathy can play a significant role in the interpretation of constitutional rights, mostly in identifying the interests and needs put forward in the claims and counterclaims of the parties. In the final section, the impact of empathetic judging on judicial minimalism will be briefly discussed.     

Part One of the Employment Act 2008: 'Better' Dispute Resolution?

This article will analyse Part One of the Employment Act 2008on employment dispute resolution and in particular the repealof the statutory workplace dispute resolution procedures onlyfour years after Regulations implemented them. It will beginby considering the background of increasing tribunal caseloadthat led to their introduction in the first place. Later sectionswill examine the replacement of these statutory procedures withwhat Ministers described as the triple package of a new AdvisoryConciliation and Arbitration Service (‘ACAS’) helpline,increased ACAS conciliation and a revised ACAS Code. The languageof repeal and the Act's reintroduction of the Polkey line ofcases might suggest that dismissal law is merely reverting backto its pre October 2004 position. This article will, however,conclude that Part One does not just ‘simplify’dismissal law, or ‘return’ the law to September2004 or indeed to any other time frame. Instead, it weakenskey procedural protections for employees potentially by conflatingthe 2002 Act's different tests of ‘automatically’unfair and ‘ordinarily’ unfair dismissals, for example.Lowering standards of procedural justice is significant in itselfbut this takes added importance for dismissed employees as tribunalsrarely investigate the substantive fairness of dismissals.     

Governmental Rejections of Ombudsman Findings: What Role for the Courts?

This article discusses the recent Bradley litigation before the High Court and Court of Appeal, in which applicants sought judicial review of a Government Minister's decision to reject findings made by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration in her report, 'Trusting in the Pensions Promise'. The article critically analyses the Court of Appeal's approach to reviewing the Minister's decision, focusing on the standard of review applied and placing the Court's approach in the wider context of the Ombudsman process, which is inherently political.     

Living Near Violence and Feeling Safe: What is the Role of Active Guardianship in the Home Territory?

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Living in close proximity to recent, violent crime may undermine sense of safety in the home territory by increasing perceived crime risk. Yet it is also...     

Is there recent progress in the estimation of the postmortem interval by means of thanatochemistry?

Numerous methods have been proposed in the last 60 years for the determination of the time since death by chemical means. Many of them were reviewed by Schleyer in his monograph on the determination of the time since death by means of thanatochemistry about 40 years ago and none of these early methods has gained any practical value since they do not meet the demands in practice (being precise, reliable, giving an immediate result). While the earlier studies were mainly carried out on blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) since the late 60s most investigations have been performed on vitreous humor (VH). This is mainly due to the fact that vitreous humor is topographically isolated and well protected, and thus, autolytic changes proceed slower compared to blood and CSF. The most studied parameter in VH is potassium and even nowadays reports on the postmortem rise of vitreous potassium are published, proposing new analytical methods or statistical evaluations. Chemical parameters studied for the determination of the time since death have to be differentiated according to the underlying process (catabolism, metabolic processes, pure autolysis and diffusion, putrefactive changes). In the present paper, recent studies on thanatochemistry are discussed regarding the underlying process, the analytical methods (for instance H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MR spectroscopy), immunohistochemistry), the studied fluid compartment, the statistical evaluation and the precision of death time estimation. The value of chemical methods for the determination of the time since death is up to now very limited. This is supported by the fact that field studies on the reliability and precision of death time estimation by chemical means are still scarce in the literature.     

Is Plea Bargaining in the “Shadow of the Trial” a Mirage?

It has been well established that a ??plea discount?? or ??trial penalty?? exists, such that defendants who plead guilty receive significant sentencing discounts relative to what they would receive if convicted at trial. Theorists argue that the exact value of this plea discount is determined by bargaining ??in the shadow of a trial,?? meaning that plea decision-making is premised on the perceived probable outcome of a trial. In trials, the strength of the evidence against defendants greatly impacts the probability of conviction. In the present study, we estimate the probability of conviction at the individual level for those who pled guilty. We find that, contrary to the shadow of the trial model, evidentiary factors either do not impact or negatively impact the probability of conviction, which stands in stark contrast to the impact evidence has at trials. These findings suggest that plea bargain decision-making may not occur in the shadow of the trial.     

Is the doctor in? The evolving role of organized medicine in health policy

Until recently, physicians were viewed as the dominant player in health policy. Now, however, they compete with many other effective interest groups. This article analyzes this changing role, and specifically how organized medicine has changed its approach to influencing health policy. The essay begins with a review of the reasons for the growth and subsequent decline of physicians' influence. This is followed by a case study of physician payment reform under Medicare, which illustrates the ways in which organized medicine chooses when and when not to cooperate with government. The article concludes with a discussion of where physicians are likely to continue to be influential in future health policy reform. Three such areas are noted: payment policy, quality and clinical innovation, and medical education and training.     

Is there progress in the autopsy diagnosis of sudden unexpected death in adults?

Sudden death is now currently described as natural unexpected death occurring within 1h of new symptoms. Most studies on the subject focused on cardiac causes of death because most of the cases are related to cardiovascular disease, especially coronary artery disease. The incidence of sudden death varies largely as a function of coronary heart disease prevalence and is underestimated. Although cardiac causes are the leading cause of sudden death, the exact incidence of the other causes is not well established because in some countries, many sudden deaths are not autopsied. Many risk factors of sudden cardiac death are identified: age, gender, heredity factors such as malignant mutations, left ventricular hypertrophy and left ventricle function impairment. The role of the police surgeon in the investigation of sudden death is very important. This investigation requires the interrogation of witnesses and of the family members of the deceased. The interrogation of physicians of the rescue team who attempted resuscitation is also useful. Recent symptoms before death and past medical history must be searched. Other sudden deaths in the family must be noted. The distinction between sudden death at rest and during effort is very important because some lethal arrhythmia are triggered by catecholamines during stressful activity. The type of drugs taken by the deceased may indicate a particular disease linked with sudden death. Sudden death in the young always requires systematic forensic autopsy performed by at least one forensic pathologist. According to recent autopsy studies, coronary artery disease is still the major cause of death in people aged more than 35 years. Cardiomyopathies are more frequently encountered in people aged less than 35 years. The most frequent cardiomyopathy revealed by sudden death is now arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy also known simply as right ventricular cardiomyopathy (RVC). The postmortem diagnosis of cardiomyopathies is very important because the family of the deceased will need counseling and the first-degree relatives may undergo a possible screening to prevent other sudden deaths. In each case of sudden death, one important duty of the forensic pathologist is to inform the family of all autopsy results within 1 month after the autopsy. Most of the recent progress in autopsy diagnosis of sudden unexpected death in the adults comes from molecular biology, especially in case of sudden death without significant morphological anomalies. Searching mutations linked with functional cardiac pathology such as long-QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome or idiopathic ventricular fibrillation is now the best way in order to explain such sudden death. Moreover, new syndromes have been described by cardiologists, such as short-QT syndrome and revealed in some cases by a sudden death. Molecular biology is now needed when limits of morphological diagnosis have been reached.