Trusts in American law and some of their substitutes in Spanish law: Introduction and Part I

This article describes how trusts are used in American law andhow Spanish law provides similar facilities for investors. Thearticle is in two parts. The first part examines, from a USpoint of view, the principal uses of trusts and the second partwill describe aspects of Spanish law that provide similar facilitiesfor investors before concluding that none of the tools availablein Spanish law fulfil all the functions of trusts and that theintroduction of a trust law into Spanish law would not be simple.     

The writings of Sir Bernard Spilsbury: Part I

This is a two-part historical feature, highlighting the rare writings of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the recognized leader of British forensic medicine in the first half of the 20th century. Parts I and II were compiled from the publications of the Medicolegal Society of Great Britain, where Sir Bernard Spilsbury served as President in 1933. Although his profile was presented previously in this Journal (vol. 2, no. 2, 179-182, 1981), it is felt that much of Sir Bernard Spilsbury's personality comes out in his writings and recordings of his speeches in the Medicolegal Society publications. Part I includes his lecture on "The Medico-Legal Significance of Bruises," presented before the Medicolegal Society in 1938; and a short case report read before the Medicolegal Society in 1924. The subject of the case report was sudden death from inhibition. Part II will contain two papers from the Medicolegal Society publications.     

Worldwide policy trends in agricultural extension: Part I

Agricultural extension is one of the oldest and most important prototypes for technology-transfer organizations. The purpose of this paper is to help policymakers to keep track of how extension is developing in countries throughout the world. Such attention is especially warranted as extension has come under attack both in its identification with the public sector and in how that tie is expressed. Five fundamental models for organizing extension are outlined: farmingsystems research and extension, farming-information dissemination, training and visit, communications for technology transfer, and the cooperative-extension system of the U.S. Part I of this two-part paper outlines the major policy issues raised by these models and Part II (to be published in a later issue) will provide an in-depth discussion of a central issue underlying these models: the appropriate role of public- versus private-sector extension.     

Moral theories of torts: Their scope and limits: Part I

One approach to legal theory is to provide some sort of rational reconstruction of all or of a large body of the common law. For philosophers of law this has usually meant trying to rationalize a body of law under one or another principle of justice. This paper explores the efforts of the leading tort theorists to provide a moral basis — for the law of torts. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part I consider and reject the view that tort law is best understood as falling either within the ambit of the principle of retributive justice, a comprehensive theory of moral responsibility, or an ideal of fairness inherent in the idea that one should impose on others only those risks others impose on one. The second part of the paper distinguishes among various conceptions of corrective or compensatory justice and considers arguments — including previous arguments by the author himself — to the effect that tort law is best understood as rooted in principles of corrective justice. This paper argues that although the use of principles of justice may render defensible many (but by no means all) of the claims to repair and to liability recognized in torts, it cannot explain why we have adopted a tort system as the approach to vindicating those claims. Some other principle — probably not one of justice — is needed to explain why it is that the victims claims to repair is satisfied by having his losses shifted to his injurer — rather than through some other means of doing so. The paper concludes that the law of torts cannot be understood — in the sense of being given a rational reconstruction — under any one principle of morality.     

Analysis and discrimination of electrical tapes: Part I. Adhesives

This study involved the comparative analysis and discrimination of 90 electrical tape adhesives. The objectives included the evaluation of the ability of individual techniques to discriminate samples and the assessment of the ability of the techniques combined to distinguish samples. The techniques utilized were stereomicroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Stereomicroscopy, to assess adhesive colors of black, clear/colorless, and clear adhesives with brown tint, resulted in a discrimination of 53%. FTIR analysis yielded eight distinct groups with a discrimination of 67%. Py-GC/MS analysis resulted in 16 groups with a discrimination of 83%. These analyses confirmed and further subdivided the FTIR groups. SEM/EDS resulted in five separate groups at 17% discrimination, increasing the overall discrimination to above 85%.     

Event Studies and the Law: Part I: Technique and Corporate Litigation

Event studies are among the most successful uses of econometricsin policy analysis. By providing an anchor for measuring theimpact of events on investor wealth, the methodology offersa fruitful means for evaluating the welfare implications ofprivate and government actions. This article is the first ina set of two that review the use and impact of the event studymethodology in the legal domain. This article begins by brieflyreviewing the event study methodology and its strengths andlimitations for policy analysis. It then reviews in detail howevent studies have been used to evaluate the wealth effectsof corporate litigation: defendants experience economicallymeaningful and statistically significant wealth losses uponthe filing of the suit, whereas plaintiff firms experience nosignificant wealth effects upon filing a lawsuit. Also, thereis a significant wealth increase for defendant firms when theysettle a suit with another firm, in contrast to other typesof plaintiffs, and in contrast to the settling plaintiff firms.These findings suggest that, at a minimum, lawsuits are nota value-enhancing way for corporations to settle their disagreementswith other corporations. In addition, the market appears toimpose a higher sanction on firms than actual criminal sanctions,and reputational losses are of equal magnitude for civil finesas for criminal ones. The article concludes with some recommendationsfor researchers: the standards for conducting an event studyare well established; researchers can increase the power ofan event study by increasing the sample size, and by narrowingthe public announcement period to as short a time frame as possible.The companion article reviews the use of event studies in corporatelaw and regulation.     

The trust in Spanish and Italian private international law: Part I

Civil Law jurisdictions' recognition of trusts depends on theindividual conflict of law rules of each jurisdiction. The HagueConvention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Trusts intendsto bring a degree of certainty into how a foreign trust is received.However, the matter is complicated, in particular, as to thestatus granted in each jurisdiction to the convention. Thisarticle, based on a paper presented at the convention on CatalanCivil Law, ‘Los patrimonios fiduciarios y el trust’,held in Tarragona on 20 and 21 October 2005, examines the positionof trusts under the conflict of law rules in Italy and in Spainand the impact made on the recognition of trusts by the HagueConvention. This article appears in two parts; in this firstpart the position in Italy is examined and the second part concludeswith the position in Spain.     

Independence of data privacy authorities (Part I): International standards

Part I of this article analyses the views of learned commentators on what constitutes the ‘independence’ of data protection authorities (DPAs). It concludes that a more satisfactory answer needs to be found in the international instruments on data privacy and on human rights bodies, their implementation and judicial interpretation, and in the standards that have been proposed and implemented by DPAs themselves. It finds that only the OECD and APEC privacy agreements did not require a DPA (and therefore have no standards for its independence). Thirteen factors were identified as elements of ‘independence’ across these instruments and standards, five of which were more commonly found than others. Part II of the article will consider how these criteria have been implemented in laws in the Asia-Pacific.     

Chromatographic and spectroscopic profiles of Cannabis of different origins: Part I

High-resolution capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detection and mass spectrometry (GC and GC/MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to establish complex chemical profiles (chemical signatures) of Cannabis samples of known origin. Over 100 compounds could be differentiated, including noncannabinoids (terpenes, alkanes) as well as minor and major cannabinoids and their acids. A characteristic peak pattern was found within a limited number of specimens of identical origin. Correlation studies on the basis of peak area ratios [A(x)/A(i.s.)] showed the feasibility of tracing Cannabis chemically to its country of origin. Several forensic science applications for the chromatographic and spectroscopic profiles of confiscated Cannabis samples are discussed, such as detection of additives (phencyclidine), differentiation of chemotypes, and monitoring of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) potency.