Wrongful termination lawsuits: the employers finally win a few

Much attention has been given of late to the erosion of the "employment-at-will" doctrine. Exceptions to this doctrine began to emerge when courts held that at-will employees could sue if their termination violated public policy. The at-will doctrine was further eroded by court rulings that a contract requiring good cause in order to terminate could be inferred from employee handbooks, company personnel policies, and circumstances of employment. As the initial flood of wrongful termination lawsuits now reaches the appellate level, some guidance on the standards employers must observe can be drawn from court decisions. The authors examine these decisions as well as the legislative reform being proposed in response to them.     

A model of dynamic climate governance: dream big, win small

In this article, I develop and evaluate a model of dynamic climate governance. The model is based on the premise that global warming is such a complex problem that present political realities do not allow an immediate solution to it. I propose that current mitigation activities should focus on building technological and political transformation potential to enable more ambitious climate cooperation in the future. Successful international climate cooperation could comprise a series of politically feasible “small wins” guided by a “big dream” of a comprehensive future climate regime. The analysis contributes to the emerging literature on the dynamics of climate governance by showing how coherence between multiple independent climate policies can be achieved, both across policymakers and over time. To illustrate how the model can be used, I apply it to technology agreements and North–South climate finance.     

预期利益损失与信赖利益损失

分析预期利益损失与信赖利益损失的内涵、区别,归纳针对预期利益损失与信赖利益损失关系的各种观点,探讨与信赖利益损失有关的举证责任、归还与预期利益损失的分别、替代商品等问题,并结合案例提出建议。     

Analysis of ancient human DNA and primer contamination: one step backward one step forward

The analysis of DNA from archaeological human remains is plagued by a unique set of methodological problems concerning contamination with modern exogenous DNA. Through an original approach, we propose complementary methods to identify all potential sources of contamination and complete guidelines for the validation of ancient human sequences. The study presented was conducted on non-European human samples (Polynesian and Amerindian) which were collected with all precautions during excavation. This permitted us to distinguish without ambiguity authentic and contaminant sequences. The samples' origins and histories were perfectly known, allowing us to trace all potential contamination sources and to determine the efficiency of precautions followed during all steps of the study. The data obtained confirm that precautions taken during sampling effectively prevent contamination. However, we demonstrate that human contamination can also be introduced during genetic analyses even if all precautions are strictly followed. Indeed, numerous human contaminations were detected in template-PCR products and negative controls, resulting in a striking diversity of contaminant mitochondrial DNA sequences. We argue that this contamination partly derives from the primers. To our knowledge, no previous experiment has been performed to investigate primers as a possible source of human contamination despite the fact that this specific type of contamination poses a real problem in terms of validating ancient human DNA studies. Finally, we confirm that the detection of contaminants in negative controls is clearly related to the number of PCR cycles used. This study enhances our understanding of contamination processes and confirms that, in reality, an absolutely contamination-free situation cannot be obtained. As a consequence, we propose improvements to the guidelines usually followed in the field in order to take the highly probable contamination of PCR reagents, including primers, into account.     

The will to win: Determinants of public support for the drug war in Belize

The premise of this paper is that the drug war cannot be won without the public's full commitment. Based on a random sample of households (n=532) in Belize City, public attitudes are analyzed to assess the degree of support for drug enforcement. The findings show strong support for drug education as well as for increasing criminal sanctions and the size of the police force. Support fades, however, as drug enforcement is militarized. The significant determinants of public support are education, gender, attitudes toward the police, fear of property crime, and neighborhood crime prevalence. The paper closes by offering two concrete ways to build public support for drug enforcement.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, March 1991.     

Performance appraisal: one company's experience

In many corporations the installation of a performance appraisal program is a necessary step to opening the door to other key human resource development activities. Implementing a performance appraisal program that works and convincing managers to use the program are essential if other human resource development programs are to succeed. This article describes the characteristics of the performance appraisal process used at Glendale Federal Savings and Loan Association, Glendale, California, and how data generated by the program was used to facilitate other employee development programs.     

Rowling and Warner win lexicon battle, fair use proponents gain strategic advantage

Judge Robert B. Patterson found that the unofficial Harry PotterLexicon written by Steve Vander Ark and published by RDR Booksinfringed the copyright in the seven Harry Potter novels andtwo companion works (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themand Quidditch Through the Ages) and that the defence of fairuse did not apply.     

Procedural goods in a democracy: How one is treated versus what one gets

There are four classes of procedural goods, each of which is an appropriate ground for answering the question: “Is this a fair procedure?” (i) It is unfair not to treat a person with dignity; the dignity goods are self-respect, personal control, and an understanding of the procedures that determine relevant outcomes. (ii) It is unfair to impose upon a person heavy (net) costs, such as overburdened cognitive capacities and high information costs, excessively painful interpersonal conflict, threats beyond those inherent in the situation, and humiliation. (iii) It is unfair to disregard (but not necessarily to violate) the person's own sense of justice, the codes of honor and practice of his own group and culture. And, of course, (iv) it is unfair to use a procedure that does not have the highest probability of achieving distributive or retributive justice. Few of the standard articles of democratic theory (e.g., liberty, equal treatment before the law, rights, and sharing of power) offer sufficient protections for the first three of these procedural goods.