Clarification of rules involving residual functional capacity assessments; clarification of use of vocational experts and other sources at step 4 of the sequential evaluation process; incorporation of "special profile" into regulations. Final rules

For purposes of this document, "we," "our," and "SSA" refer to the Social Security Administration and State agencies that make disability determinations for the Social Security Administration. "You" and "your" refer to individuals who claim benefits from the Social Security Administration based on "disability." In this final rule we clarify our rules about the responsibility that you have to provide evidence and the responsibility that we have to develop evidence in connection with your claim of disability. This includes our rules about when we assess your residual functional capacity (RFC) and how we use this RFC assessment when we decide whether you can do your past relevant work or other work. These clarifications address issues of responsibility raised by some courts in recent cases; clarify that we may use vocational experts (VEs), vocational specialists (VSs), or other resources to obtain evidence we need to help us determine whether your impairment(s) prevents you from doing your past relevant work; add a special provision to our rules stating that, if you are at least 55 years old, and specific other circumstances are present, we will find that you are disabled; and make a number of minor editorial changes to clarify and update the language of our rules, and to use simpler language in keeping with our goal of using plain language in our regulations.     

Writings on the Armor-Plating

And again the dry Afghan air, the Afghan light that carries in it tiny particles of copper and brass. This swarthy yellowness can be seen on people's faces, on the baked earthen structures, in the azure of the tiles, and in the sandy floods of deserts where caravans of camels head in all directions like thin arrows. The green helicopter flies over a steep slope. Its fuselage sways, deceiving the infrared eye of the anti-aircraft rocket. Below the rotors are the checkerboard wheat fields, the barrels of the "AKSs" slung over the soldiers' shoulders, the pages in your notebook—all covered with the tiniest particles of brass dust. A yellow shell-casing that has been run over by a tank glistens on the road.     

Constitutional authority and prospects for social justice for high-tension religious communities

By regulating religious practice, the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment challenges the authority of religious communities who may not have adopted American pluralism in favor of their own religious particularism. While the power of the Constitution is manifested in physical modes, its historic symbolic and socially constructed meaning elevates it as a competing transcending authority that challenges religious communities. Often labeled American civil religion, this authority either coerces non-mainstream religious communities to adopt modes of religious expression that mirror those of the dominant culture, or requires them to adopt a strategy for coping with its overwhelming social and political power. The Constitution's mechanism for guaranteeing religious free exercise thus serves as a method to limit religious particularism by coercing limited cultural orthodoxy through legal orthopraxy.Teach the [Constitution's] principles, teach them to your children, speak of them when sitting in your home, speak of them when walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up, write them upon the doorplate of your home and upon your gates. John Quincy AdamsRepeated by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger (Franklin, 1987). The passage is a slight alteration of Deuteronomy 6:7–9.     

Research integrity — it's about more than misconduct

The definition of integrity is "the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change" (meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary). Yet research integrity is frequently discussed through the lens of misconduct or concerns around reproducibility. However, as we can see from this quote, integrity is about more than that. It is about who you are as a person and your behaviour. Your behaviour in terms of how you do your work, towards your immediate colleagues and towards those with whom you communicate; whether across the research and innovation (R&I) system or the general public.     

The ABCs of the Law

After you reach the age of sixteen, you have the right to lake the name not only of your great-grandmother but any other last name, even one having nothing to do with your forebears. Moreover, you can change not only your family name, but also your first name and patronymic. In this connection, a law entitled "On Procedures for Changing the Family Names, Given Names, and Patronymics of Citizens of the USSR" was adopted last year and went into effect on 1 September 1991.     

利益不是权利——从我国《宪法》第51条说起

利益不是权利而只是权利的要素之一,他人可能维护你的利益,但不能代替你享有权利。我国《宪法》第51条关于“利益”与“权利”的区分对宪法理论和宪政实践都有着极为重要的意义。公民权利不可能与国家的、社会的、集体的“权利”而只可能与其“利益”发生冲突,权利只存在于平行主体之间（如国家与国家之间、集体与集体之间、集体与集体外的个人之间、个人与个人之间）或非平行关系中的“弱势”一方（如国家与集体关系中的集体、集体与个人关系中的个人、国家与个人关系中的个人）。公民权利也并非都会对国家的、社会的、集体的“利益”构成威胁,有些权利不可能损害其利益,如信仰、思想、良心自由;与其利益冲突的主要是个人权利中具有明显利益成分的权利,如财产权、社会保障权等;国家的、社会的、集体的利益一般不能成为剥夺人身权（如生命权、健康权）的理由。国家的、社会的、集体的利益亦有别于“公共利益”。     

Moral Panic at the English Bar: Paternal vs. Commercial Ideologies of Legal Practice in the 1860s

This article examines a period of profound crisis about the English bar. The metaphor of "moral panic" is invoked in assessing the impact of five notorious cases of barristers' misconduct which riveted public attention between 1859 and 1863. Four of the barristers involved were subjected to "professional discipline" in what was the first spate of disciplinary proceedings for breaches of bar "etiquette." Professional "ethics" were applied in remarkably selective ways and amounted to a "shutting down" of laissez-faire professional practices. This was a crucial turning point in the English legd profession, and the effect was to transform the bar from a relatively open, unregulated status group into something akin to a rule-bound disciplinary regime.     

中国企业的“对赌”歧路

国外投行不是雪中送炭的天使,而对赌协议也并非企业的魔咒。在你雄心勃勃地签下“对赌协议”之前,一定要看清楚自己手上拿的是一把什么样的牌。     

Pedestrian accident analysis with a silicone dummy block

When a car is parked in an inclined plane in a parking lot, the car can roll down the slope and cause a pedestrian accident, even when the angle of inclination is small. A rolling car on a gentle slope seems to be easily halted by human power to prevent damage to the car or a possible accident. However, even if the car rolls down very slowly, it can cause severe injuries to a pedestrian, especially when the pedestrian cannot avoid the rolling car. In an accident case that happened in our province, a pedestrian was injured by a rolling car, which had been parked on a slope the night before. The accident occurred in the parking lot of an apartment complex. The parking lot seemed almost flat with the naked eye. We conducted a rolling test with the accident vehicle at the site. The car was made to roll down the slope by purely gravitational pull and was made to collide with the silicone block leaning against the retaining wall. Silicone has characteristics similar to those of a human body, especially with respect to stiffness. In the experiment, we measured the shock power quantitatively. The results showed that a rolling car could severely damage the chest of a pedestrian, even if it moved very slowly.     

对“数据治理”的治理——从“文明码”治理现象谈起

“健康码”和“文明码”所代表的“码治理”是运用数字技术治理社会问题的一种尝试.从“健康码”到“文明码”,数据治理发生了“滑坡效应”,这源于技术治理的数字化异化和基层治理的简约化动机.数字化的公权力在其天然扩张性的驱使下向其最大边界滑动,延伸到社会和个人生活的精细之处,直至将个体异化为被数字控制的对象.因而应对“文明码”...     

Physician-assisted suicide: legal and ethical considerations

As medicine's technical limits have become increasingly clear, Americans seem more willing to address end-of-life decisionmaking. A major development during the 1990s was physician assistance in dying: physician-assisted suicide in Michigan, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, and developments in Europe, most notably The Netherlands. This evolution toward recognizing the appropriateness of assistance in dying raises legal and ethical issues for physicians and healthcare institutions such as nursing facilities and acute care hospitals. These issues include the effects on providers' values systems, the trust between patient and provider, and the "slippery slope" that voluntary, active assistance in dying will become involuntary, active assistance. This Article addresses the policy issues that institutions must confront in a changing environment.     

How Law Thinks of Disobedience: Perceiving and Addressing Desertion and Conscientious Objection in Israeli Military Courts

The study transcends the dichotomy "law in the books"/"law in action" by taking law's knowledge-production mechanisms seriously. It examines how the Israeli military justice system perceives and addresses disobedience toward the mandatory military service duty by deserters and conscientious objectors. Both groups resist the military service ethos but differ in the offenders' demographics and motivations. The findings show how law co-opts the socio-political problems, assimilates them, and transforms them to narrow its framework. The legal system can be cognitively open to external frameworks introduced by powerful and resourceful defendants; it remains, however, normatively closed to alternative rules and perspectives.     

Sourcing from China: stopping the IP leaks from your clients' supply chain

Legal context: It is no secret that IP in China is a challenge. However, commercialactivity in or with China is now predictable enough that companiescan, and should, plan for it by taking control of their supplychain. This requires a combination of legal and practical measures.This article sets out some of these steps. Key points: In order to minimize the risks of IP leakage their supply chainsin China, there are three key stages of protection: (i) Pre-sourcing;(ii) Negotiating strong contracts with suppliers; and (iii)Managing the relationship with your supply chain. Practical significance: If your clients do business in China or source products fromhere and cannot answer the following questions, their IP isat risk of infringement. They need to take steps to proactivelymanage their supply chain.

• Do your clients know which factoryis producing their products?How many links are in your clientssupply chain, each one increasingthe chances for IP infringement?
• Do your clients' agreements with their suppliers adequatelyprotect their IP?
• Have your clients taken steps to prevent‘midnight productionruns’ and ‘backdoor sales’by their suppliers?
• How is the IP being provided to them?Do your clients need togive them everything for production?
• What steps have been taken post-production to ensure thatyourclients' suppliers don't continue to manufacture theirproducts?

     

作为一种"国家法与非国家法多元互动"的全球化进程——对"法律全球化"争辩的中立性批判

中国法学界的"全球化论辩"可以从"肯定"与"否定"这两种态度加以分析。以"国际化"与"全球化"的区分为参照性判准,可以发现,"反法律全球化"论者与对"法律全球化"持肯定态度中的"唯法律全球化"论者其实都处在着同"去国家化"相关的"法律一元论"这一层面上,只不过前者主张的是"国家法律一元论",而后者主张的是"非国家法律一元论"。"法律全球化"是一种在全球层面上展开的包含"法律国际化"的进程,是一种从"国家法律一元论"走向"国家与非国家法律多元论"的开放性进程。中国法学论者之所以尊奉"法律一元论",实是因为教条性地尊奉"法律的唯国家意志论"与"经济基础决定上层建筑"这两个经典论说的结果。     

Suggestion systems, an answer to perennial problems

Suggestion systems, as one of our five panelists puts it, are no longer just the "complaint box" on the wall, but a formal communication vehicle which taps employee creativity, improves morale, and saves your company time and money. This comprehensive report is for those organizations who are interested in setting up a suggestion system program and for those whose present programs could be bettered.     

The Forms and Limits of Choice Architecture as a Tool of Government

Although the use of design‐based control techniques, broadly understood as the purposeful shaping of the environment and the things and beings within it toward particular ends, have been used throughout human history, until the publication of Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge, they have remained relatively neglected as a focus of regulatory scholarship. Nudge can be understood as a design‐based regulatory technique because it provides the means by which a choice architect intentionally seeks to influence another's behavior through the conscious design of the choice environment. But there are other forms of choice architecture besides nudge. The gunman who offers his victim “your money or your life?” is as much a choice architect as the cafeteria manager who places the fruit at eye level while placing the chocolate cake further back to encourage patrons to make healthier dietary choices and the supermarket owner who slashes grocery prices on their use by date to stimulate sales. This article focuses on three forms of choice architecture—coercion, inducements, and nudge—employed by the state in order to influence the behavior of others. It seeks to evaluate whether each form of choice architecture coheres with the fundamental values and premises upon which liberal democratic states rest and can therefore be properly characterized as libertarian. Chief among these values is the importance of individual liberty and freedom and the concomitant special status accorded to individual choice in liberal democratic communities. In so doing, it highlights different ways in which these techniques may be regarded as an interference with individual freedom, and the conditions under which such interferences might be rendered acceptable or otherwise justified.     

Anderson v Dredd [2137] Mega-City LR 1

Administrative—judgment on the nature of judgment—conflict between Judges in judicial practice—claimant (Judge Anderson) challenges the judicial capacity of respondent (Judge Dredd)—claimant open and fluid in judicial style—respondent certain and authoritative in judicial style—insights from Psi Division on the role of judgment in the universe—whether respondent is a good judge—whether judgment closes down meaning—whether respondent is inhuman—whether judges are inhuman—whether judging is horrific—insight from twentieth century fiction on the place of humans in the universe—horror of HP Lovecraft—suppression of horrific cosmic context within judicial institution—suppression for the good of society.     

COMPETITION IN FREIGHT RAILWAYS: "ABOVE-THE-RAIL" OPERATORS IN CENTRAL EUROPE AND RUSSIA

The railways of Russia and the Central and Eastern Europeancountries are in the process of restructuring. In most cases,the "vertical separation" reform model is being pursued, andreformers are seeking to introduce competition among freighttrain operators through the provision of "open access" to themonopoly infrastructure. This paper shows that, in two countries,Poland and Romania, a good deal of competition has been createdby the entry of new freight operators, many of them either largeshippers integrating upstream or former freight forwarders.However, in other countries, the incumbent freight operatorsretain virtually 100 percent of the market. In particular, Russiahas taken only the very first steps toward creating competitionin this sector, and new freight train operators face significantbarriers to competing with the incumbent.     

Taxation,money, and credit,in a liberalizing socialist economy

Understanding the system of financial control in the pre-existing régime of ‘classical’ socialism is a key to understanding what might go wrong in the transition. Accordingly, this paper proceeds in four steps by examining:

1. how domestic fiscal and monetary processes complement central planning in the classical socialist economy;
2. why this mechanism for securing domestic financial control under classical socialism tends to break down naturally into inflation when decentralization begins and central planning though direct materials balancing is weakened;
3. how, in a more deliberate transition, domestic tax and monetary arrangements might be better managed to keep the price level stable as prices of individual goods and services are freed; and
4. how, in moving toward free foreign trade, explicit policies governing tariffs and foreign exchange convertibility could best parallel and complement the evolving restraints on money and credit in domestic commerce.

In effect, moves to dismantle the apparatus of central planning, decontrol prices, privatize property, and so on need to be supported by a proper sequence of fiscal, monetary and foreign exchange measures-as analyzed more fully in the author's new bookThe Order of Economic Liberalization. In this short essay, a summary outline of such a financial order is provided.