Technology transfer,the environment,and the third world: Having one's cake and eating it

With the end of the Cold War, the major trend of the next century will be the development of competitive export economies in third world countries. In this paper, an on-going experiment in Mexico is reported. The experiment features the transfer of technology with a minimum adverse environmental impact. The goal is to develop sustainable integration into global markets by transferring technology that is both cost and quality competitive and environmentally safe. The target group is Mexican subsistence producers.His most recent book is Volunteerism and World Development: Pathway to a New World (Praeger).     

The Scope for Joint Implementation in the EU Candidate Countries

Central and Eastern European Candidate countries are involved in negotiations with the EU on the implementation of the Acquis Communautaire in their domestic law. These countries are also preparing themselves for international co-operation in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. Through this co-operation the Candidate countries will most likely transfer GHG emission reduction credits to other industrialised countries listed in Annex B of the Protocol. This can take place through JI project co-operation and/or International Emissions Trading. This paper argues that the Acquis environmental requirements will in general lead to GHG emission reduction in the Candidate countries, which will reduce the scope for JI in these countries. The extent to which the JI scope will be reduced depends, among others, on the timing of entering the EU and the transitional arrangements between the EU and the Candidates.     

Simple rules for the developing world

Much of the discussion in favor of simplicity of legal rules and against complex regulation is rooted in economically developed countries with strong state capacity. With economic development and state capacity comes the presumption that complex rules will be enforced. Therefore, analysis focuses on the administrative and error costs, and the unintended consequences of complex rules that are enforced. This paper argues that the Epsteinian insight is even more relevant to the developing world where countries often lack enough state capacity to even take on simple governance tasks. Developing countries often have less than 20 percent of the state capacity of developed countries. However, this does not mean they limit the regulatory structure to a fifth of the tasks. Under-enforcement or non-enforcement of complex rules imposes different costs and unintended consequences on society. Using examples from India, this paper highlights problems of enforcement swamping, deadweight loss, and corruption arising from the under-enforcement of complex rules. To avoid these problems, the paper concludes that a fortiori less developed countries should favor simple rules.

     

Eyewitness identification procedures for multiple perpetrator crimes: a survey of police in Sweden,Belgium, and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

A considerable proportion of crimes involve multiple perpetrators. Yet, little is known about how police officers construct, administer, and record eyewitness identification procedures for multiple suspects. An online survey of law enforcement agents in Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands (N?=?51) was conducted to obtain an initial understanding of police perceptions of prevalence and characteristics of multiple perpetrator crimes, and to examine identification procedure practices given the little to no guidance provided for police. Practice converged when it came to the use of sequential, photographic lineups, but diverged between and within countries on whether or not suspects of multiple perpetrator crimes should be placed in separate lineups. Results specifically highlight contextual cuing as one critical area for future research in identification for multiple perpetrator crimes (i.e. placing multiple suspects in the same lineup or asking eyewitnesses to look for a specific suspect).     

Neighbourhood outreach: a novel approach to Liaison and Diversion

Aims and method: We evaluate the initial outcomes from the Cornwall Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Service (CJLDS) which includes a pilot Neighbourhood Outreach scheme to support police with vulnerable individuals with suspected mental illness but not necessarily criminal involvement. Results: We review the first nine months’ operational data, including a six month follow-up of the initial three months’ to assess the impact of intervention. The service identified a large proportion of new cases of mental illness at an earlier stage. Intervention significantly reduced the number of contacts with police and may suggest a reduction in the severity of crime. Clinical implications: The Cornwall CJLDS with its pilot Neighbourhood Outreach has had a significant impact on both health and on crime, with additional cost savings. The degree to which this is replicable is discussed. Declaration of interest: None     

Competition in the Netherlands and Belgium: Service sector evidence

This paper examines competition in the Dutch and Belgian service sector for the period 1995–1999. The paper explores the link between firm profitability and market structure, and provides evidence of a non-optimal functioning of both markets. While analysis reveals the existence of a market sector effect in both countries, this effect is larger in the Dutch sample than in the Belgian sample, implying that the Dutch service sector is less competitive than the Belgian service sector. An analysis of the market friendliness of regulations in both countries does not provide a comprehensive explanation for this finding. JEL Classification: L12 · L16 · L51 · L80     

Cap-and-trade or carbon taxes? The feasibility of enforcement and the effects of non-compliance

One of the proposed alternatives to Kyoto’s cap-and-trade approach is a regime based on an internationally harmonized carbon tax. In this paper, we consider and compare the enforcement problems associated with a tax regime and a cap-and-trade regime, respectively. The paper tries to convey two main points. First, both types of regime require an_. effective enforcement mechanism. However, such a mechanism is unlikely to be adopted as part of a regime with full participation, because the political process leading up to its adoption tends to water down the enforcement mechanism to a point where it no longer has much bite. And even if this is somehow avoided, countries expecting compliance to be difficult or costly will almost certainly decline to sign—not to mention ratify—the resulting agreement. Second, the implications of non-compliance in a tax regime differ in important ways from the corresponding implications in a cap-and-trade regime. In a cap-and-trade regime emissions trading can make inaction legitimate for buyers of emission permits. In particular, overselling of permits by one (or a few) permit exporting countries might completely undermine the regime’s environmental effect. In a tax regime, by contrast, one country’s non-compliance can not make inaction by other countries legitimate. It follows that an agreement based on a harmonized carbon tax will always have some effect, provided that at least one country complies.     

The subordination of shareholder loans in bankruptcy

Bankruptcy and corporate laws in several countries allow or require courts to subordinate loans by shareholders to corporations. Examples include the German Eigenkapitalersatzrecht and the equitable subordination and recharacterization doctrines in the US. I use a model to show the incentive effects of subordination when a controlling shareholder attempts to rescue a closely held corporation by extending a loan. Even though subordination has some beneficial effects, it deters some desirable rescue attempts and is an insufficient deterrent for some undesirable ones. Legal reform should thus focus on narrowing down the scope of application to undesirable shareholder loans, where more severe penalties than subordination should apply.     

Sectoral Opposition to Carbon Taxes in the EU – a Myopic Economic Approach

Over 10 years ago the EU Commission proposed a directive on carbon taxes, but faced so much domestic resistance that agreement was not reached until last year – and after it had been considerably watered down. The aim of this paper is to look into economic reasons for the political infeasibility of extensive carbon taxes. Since opposition is believed to arise prior to the policy implementation, the cost estimates have a myopic character compared with market estimates, in the sense that sectors are presumed to take into account their own substitution opportunities, but disregard changes in other sectors as well as the macroeconomic welfare gains from a tax regime. With this myopic approach, we estimate and compare costs of emissions cuts across sectors and across countries in the EU, showing how different sectors might have anticipated the impacts from an expected carbon tax. This focus illustrates that what seems to be cost-effective and to the best for the region on paper turned out too controversial to be politically feasible.     

Modifying the cognitive interview: countenancing forensic application by enhancing practicability

The UK investigative interview model advocates police officers use the cognitive interview (CI). However, research has indicated that many officers perceive the CI as too cumbersome, complex, and time consuming for some types of crime. With this in mind we investigate the efficacy of two CI procedures, which have been substantially modified to enhance forensic practicability and retain the empirically demonstrated CI superiority effect. Employing the mock witness paradigm, both are compared to the procedure currently taught to UK police officers. Participant's memorial performance revealed no differences across interview conditions for the amount of correct and incorrect recall. However, those interviewed using the modified procedures confabulated less and were more accurate. Considering type of information recalled (person, action, object, and surrounding), no differences were found across conditions for correct or confabulated type recall. However, the two modified CIs elicited fewer incorrect person and object information items. Further, they were shorter in duration than the current procedure. Hence, for frontline less serious crime, or in time critical situations, the modified procedures may be viable alternatives. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

An analysis of youth crime and employment patterns

This paper investigates the relationships between the employment and the crime decisions of youths. We assume that youths maximize expected utility and we allow divergence betweenex ante andex post time allocations to legal and illegal activities. This gap motivates the exclusion restrictions which allow us to explore feedbacks between criminality and employability. Moreover, by using a panel of individual-level data, we are able to investigate the impact of historical crime and labor-market activities on the current delinquency and employability of juveniles. The measures of the endogeneous variables of our model are dichotomous. Furthermore, our sample is choice-based. Maximum-likelihood procedures which deal with these complications are used in our empirical investigations.     

A model of cross-cultural training in the transfer of technology

During the past few decades, many aspects of the transfer of technology from developed to less-developed countries have been examined in detail. Although much of the transfer has been done by transnational corporations (TNCs), one area that has received scant attention in the literature is the cross-cultural training of workers in the host country. A model is developed to show how critical training the worker is to the success of the TNC in the host country. This model emphasizes the need for workers to be trained to understand and use the new (foreign) technology and to understand the culture of the foreign corporation. Thomas S. Barker is a Ph.D. student in higher education with a concentration in management and economics at the University of North Texas.     

It's patently absurd — benefit sharing genetic resources from the sea under UNCLOS,the CBD and TRIPs

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes a scheme of sovereignty over parts of the seas. The resources of the seas within state jurisdiction covered by UNCLOS are then accessed and shared according to the scheme set out in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which relies, in part, on patenting according to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs). The key findings of this paper are that patents compliant with TRIPs are unlikely to achieve the objects of sharing the benefits from exploiting the genetic resources of the seas because of the significant gaps in UNCLOS and the failure to take into account broad patent claims by non‐residents in benefit sharing arrangements. Consequently, the reliance by the international community on UNCLOS and the CBD for the regulation of benefit sharing, undermines the internationally agreed mandate that the genetic resources of the seas are to be shared and used for the benefit of all.     

The United States‐China copyright dispute: A two‐level games analysis

United States media and computer software industries long have alleged they lose billions of dollars to copyright piracy in China. Negotiations between the countries have had little effect. This article uses two‐level games theory to explore why the United States is reluctant to impose sanctions, and why China is unwilling to take action against the pirates even at the risk of trade sanctions. Negotiations are examined at the usaional level and at the domestic level in both countries. At the usaional level, a two‐player sequential model of the game is presented. At the domestic level, the heterogeneity of interest groups in the United States, and the different agendas of central and provincial authorities in China are discussed. Based on this analysis, the article proposes, (1) a more flexible time‐frame for negotiations with foreign trading partners, (2) greater reliance on multilateral frameworks than on bilateral trade sanctions and (3) American efforts to distribute the gains from better copyright protection to local enterprises in foreign countries to create domestic pressure groups favoring stronger copyright regimes.     

Security of tenure in conventional and flexible employment regimes: A neoinstitutional perspective

Security of tenure is discussed in this paper by contrasting conventional and recent hybrid so-called flexible employment regimes. These regimes will be analyzed in a neoinstitutional perspective—that is, within transaction cost and agency theory frameworks, including public choice considerations.We start from the premise that in a standard employment scenarioex ante hostages may not be taken and that limitedex post compensation payments are efficient. We then trace features of safeguarding employee investment in hybrid flexible regimes such as new independent contracting, franchising (and other relevantvariants of symbiotic contracting, capacity-oriented variable work time schemes, job sharing, and so on. We compare these new institutional creations in the labor market with standard regimes under the hypothesis that in an ideal scenario Pareto superior moves are feasible but that there is a systematic aberration from optimality caused by information asymmetries, search constraints (boundedness), and a lack of adaptive capacities of the regime users, particularly employees. This regime deception factor (RDF) needs theoretical and empirical scrutiny from both legal and economic perspectives.     

Protecting the Continuing Duties of Loyalty and Confidentiality in Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims

The success or failure of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim turns largely on the testimony of trial counsel. It is therefore common for the government to communicate ex parte with trial counsel in order to formulate its response to such a claim. But even after the representation has ended, trial counsel continues to be bound by duties of loyalty and confidentiality to their former client, as well as the attorney-client privilege, subject to a limited waiver relative to information that is reasonably necessary to respond to the ineffectiveness claim. Because of their interests in the litigation, however, neither trial counsel nor the government is positioned to objectively decide what information is covered by that waiver. In order to ensure that trial counsel respects their ethical duties to their former client and to protect the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship, post-conviction courts should prohibit trial counsel from communicating ex parte with the government. These courts should instead require that all such communications take place on the record—ideally at a deposition, but alternatively through affidavits.     

Attribution in Company Law

In Bilta (UK) Ltd (in liquidation) v Nazir (No 2), the Court of Appeal held that the ex turpi causa defence was inapplicable by refusing to attribute the fraud of the directors and the sole shareholder to the company in connection with the company's claim against them and third party co‐conspirators. It is significant that the court has not only clarified the law in relation to attribution, but it did so by rejecting the majority's reasoning and endorsing the dissenting judgment in the House of Lords decision in Stone & Rolls (in liquidation) v Moore Stephens (a firm). This article evaluates the decision in Bilta by critically examining the fundamental principles and policies that apply to the three distinct circumstances under which corporate attribution should or should not take place.     

Ex post efficiency of bankruptcy procedures: A general normative framework

In this paper, we consider the case of a distressed firm whose financial commitments have to be renegotiated with stakeholders (banks, trade creditors …). At default time, rival projects (continuation, piecemeal liquidation, liquidation as a going concern …) may be undertaken. In such a case, the most frequent way of making collective choices is to vote. Our attention focuses on the risk of not choosing the best project because of free riders: personal interests may block the issue in favor of the project associated to the highest value of the firm.At first, we consider a law-enforced procedure under which financial deviations from the absolute priority order (APO) are possible: each individual gain is slightly modified in order to obtain a non-strict majority in favor of the best project. This legal intervention can be implemented and considered as “optimal” if it respects four criteria: economic efficiency, financial neutrality, legal tolerability and democratic desirability. Under these conditions, any law-driven renegotiation process must defines financial transfers that underweight (respectively overweight) the sub-optimal gains (respectively losses) of the most influent voter. Moreover, the proportion of financial transfers granted to each stakeholder exactly reflects their relative influence power: in other words, financial deviations from APO can be interpreted as the price that any stakeholder has to pay (respectively receive) because of his marginal negative (respectively positive) impact on the collective decision. Then, these results serve as a guide to comment ex post efficiency of various bankruptcy procedures (US, French, English and German). Our approach may be interpreted as a first step in the design of an economically efficient procedure that should deal with both ex ante and ex post efficiencies.     

Arts Organizations: The National Endowment for the Humanities—Its History and Purpose

Abstract

Theatre Management and Production in America: Commercial, Stock, Resident, College, Community and Presenting Organizations Stephen Langley New York: Drama Book, 1990, 707 pages, cloth $37.50: Reviewed by Gregg Stull.

Crossroads: Reflections on the Politics of Culture Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard Talmage, Calif.: DNA Press, 1990, paper $13.95: Reviewed by Edward Arian.     

Meaning, Time and the Law: Ex Post and Ex Ante Perspectives

This paper considers the tension between timelessness and timeboundedness in legal interpretation, examining parallels between sacred texts and secular law. It is argued that familiar dualities such as those between statute and judge-made law, law and equity, written and spoken discourse, dictionary meaning versus intended or contextual meaning, can be examined using this timeless/timebounded framework. Two landmark English cases, DPP v Shaw (1961) and R v R (1991) are analyzed as illustrating contrasting aspects of the socio-legal politics of “reasoning backwards”. The related temporal distinction between ex ante and ex post points of view is examined both within legal theory and as a key issue for linguistic and semiotic systems. The argument is made that this distinction is the key to a wide range of methodological and theoretical problems in relating linguistics and semiotics to law.

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