The Lost Mural of Bruno Schulz: A Critical Legal Perspective on Control, Access to and Ownership of Art

When a forgotten mural painted by the Jewish-Polish artist Bruno Schulz was rediscovered in 2001 a string of legal issues were unravelled. Who could rightfully claim ownership to this work of art? Was it the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, because Schulz was a Jew killed by the Nazis, and because it is a museum that has the means, experience and know-how to restore and preserve the work properly? Or Ukraine on whose sovereign soil it had been found? Or Poland whose citizen Schulz had been? When five fragments of the newly discovered mural, which had already been restored to a certain extent by Polish conservationists, were taken to Israel by Yad Vashem representatives it resulted in political outrage. The incident illustrates how certain artistic works fall through the cracks in the law especially when it comes to the multi-faceted needs of the artworks in a globalised world. This article illustrates the weaknesses in various legislations dealing with ownership and access to art, mainly intellectual property law. It is argued that current regulation is sometimes ineffectual and must be discussed in order to cater for all the various aspects and needs of art and the public interest in it.     

How the pace of change affects the scope of reform: pharmaceutical insurance in Canada, australia, and the United kingdom

When policy change is considered, what determines its success or failure? Why do plans for broad reforms often fall short, and why do certain types of change become more difficult over time? This article addresses these questions by examining health policy development in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom - specifically, why Canada alone failed to adopt nationwide, public pharmaceutical insurance. It demonstrates that the pace of change has significant implications for the scope of policy development. It provides new mechanisms to explain why incremental reforms stall based on the reciprocal relationship between elite ideas and public expectations and suggests that similar factors can explain how barriers to policy change develop and the conditions under which those barriers may be overcome.     

Above the Roof,Beneath the Law: Perceived Justice behind Disruptive Tactics of Migrant Wage Claimants in China

The way in which citizens in developing countries conceptualize legality is a critical but understudied question for legal consciousness and legal mobilization studies. Drawing on participatory observations and extensive interviews from western China, this article explores the subjective interpretations of migrant wage claimants on law and justice behind their disruptive actions. Their perception of justice differs starkly from what the law stipulates as target, evidence and proper procedures. Who shall be held responsible? What constitutes evidence? When shall they be paid? How much? Their perceptions also differ from the attitude “against the law” found among members from disadvantaged social groups in the United States. The Chinese case of legal perception is shaped by the moral precepts ingrained in the culture, and more importantly, by the lopsided relationship between migrant workers and the political and business elite. It thus points to the daunting barriers in channeling the ever‐growing number of social conflicts into court.     

Race and Determinations of Discrimination: Vigilance,Cynicism, Skepticism,and Attitudes about Legal Mobilization in Employment Civil Rights

What factors affect whether ordinary citizens believe that workplace decisions involving African‐American employees rise to the level of discrimination? When do observers believe targets of possible race discrimination should consider mobilizing the law? We use a factorial design vignette study administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,087 ordinary people to address these questions. The “vigilance hypothesis” predicts that minorities will be more likely to perceive discrimination than whites. Our analysis partially confirms this: African Americans perceive anti‐Black discrimination at higher rates than do whites and Latinos, while Latinos do not show a significant difference from whites. Where respondents believe discrimination occurred, we analyze what influences whether respondents might recommend legal mobilization. The “cynicism hypothesis” suggests that people of color may be less likely to favor using law. We find, however, that African‐American and Latino respondents express more confidence in civil litigation, compared to whites. Further, African Americans express the strongest support for legal mobilization (recommending that a “friend” contact an attorney), while whites and Latinos do not differ in mobilization recommendations.     

RECONCILING PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S INTERESTS IN RELOCATION In Whose Best Interest?

When a family comes before the court, whose interests are really served? Can the court's representatives act in the best interests of the children while respecting the rights of parents? When a case is sent to a court‐connected evaluator, how does the evaluator balance the tensions and varying perspectives inherent in this work? Within the bounds of advocacy and legal ethics, how does the attorney balance the demands and rights of the client while guiding the parent to consider the needs of the children? How do judges frame the dilemmas before them and consider the work of the evaluator? This article addresses these questions in a multidisciplinary fashion, using a hypothetical case as a guide.     

Safety,Satisfaction, and Settlement in Domestic Relations Mediations: New Findings

Researchers and mediators have long been concerned about coercion, intimidation, and safety threats that could occur in mediation for cases where previous violence between the parties has occurred. Most of the research focuses on screening tools to identify parties at risk. When parties screen positive for intimate partner violence (IPV), some proceed to mediation and some do not, depending on the policies of individual mediation programs. But this misses a step: Some cases may benefit from mediation while others won't, but how can we predict whether mediation will be useful and safe in specific instances? This study uses survey data obtained from parties in domestic relations mediations to examine issues of safety, satisfaction, and settlement in the presence of various IPV behaviors.     

Public goods, taxes, and takings

Blume, Rubinfeld, and Shapiro [Blume, L., Rubinfeld, D., & Shapiro, P. (1984). The taking of law: When should compensation be paid? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 99, 71–92] first showed that compensation for takings can lead to a moral hazard problem that results in overinvestment in land suitable for public use. To the contrary, this paper shows that when compensation is financed by a proportional property tax, the compensation rule is irrelevant regarding the level of investment landowners make in their property, as well as the amount of land they authorize the government to acquire, both of which will be efficient. Intuitively, landowners recognize the equivalence of taxes and takings in budgetary terms, causing the distortionary effects of compensation and property taxation to cancel each other out through the balanced budget condition.     

三网融合博弈真相

＂看上去很美＂的三网融合,由于涉及多方利益纠葛,几近夭折。何时能够＂飞入寻常百姓家＂,现在仍然是未知数     

Technology investment, bargaining, and international environmental agreements

If countries are to engage in international environmental cooperation, they must bargain over the distribution of gains. When future bargaining over pollution abatement is expected, how should a country decide on public technology investments to reduce the domestic cost of pollution abatement? I find that while countries tend to underinvest because they fail to internalize the global benefits of new technology, the magnitude of the problem depends on a country’s bargaining power. Powerful countries underinvest less frequently, because they expect to reap most of the global benefits from new technology in the international negotiations. I also investigate the effectiveness of a simple reciprocal technology agreement. I find that it can help solve the underinvestment problem, and this beneficial effect is particularly pronounced in the case of powerful countries. These findings imply that changing the bargaining protocol on climate change to the benefit of powerful countries may help secure the necessary technology investments.     

用复合扩增方法检测4个Y-STR基因座单倍型

目的建立复合扩增Y-STR基因座的体系,获得中国汉族人的单倍型频率。方法复合扩增DYS439、DYS390、GATA-A7.2和DYS3934个基因座,用聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳和银染法进行基因分型。结果调查中国汉族558名无关男性个体,4个基因座分别检出7、7、7和6个等位基因,共180种单倍型,其单倍型的个体识别率为0.9853。结论该复合扩增体系在建立Y染色体STR数据库、在群体遗传研究和法医学鉴定中有应用意义。     

Criminal superstition, pregnancy and infants at the turn of the 19th century

Around 1900, various crimes were still caused by criminal superstition. Criminologists like Hans Gross, Albert Hellwig and August L?wenstimm were engaged in the exploration of this topic aiming at the complete explanation of criminal behaviour linked to superstition. Crimes against pregnant women and infants are particularly good examples to illustrate the problems arising from crimes motivated by superstition. When assessing superstition under scientific and legal aspects, the criminologists applied different approaches, although positivistic rationalization was the most common tendency. In the forensic and legal evaluation of crimes related to superstition the problematical questions were whether the perpetrator was criminally responsible and how the offence was to be legally qualified. In many cases, criminals motivated by superstition were treated with more lenience.     

Community or Communities of Courts in European Integration? Sex Equality Dialogues Between UK Courts and the ECJ

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them . . . When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not all of these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?’ Amazed and perplexed, they asked each other, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 2: 4–12)     

Field Theory,Cultural Capital,and the First Amendment: Two Paradoxes in the Legitimation of News

Does law influence the legitimation of news? I examine legitimations offered during ethics debates about news stories in which private people are thrust into the media spotlight. When navigating the space between what can be published lawfully and what should be published, journalism organizations offer legitimations that vary in ways that reflect the hierarchy of legal frameworks for decision. According to field theory, the cultural capital of the juridical field is constitutive of status hierarchies in the journalism field, even though the First Amendment leaves journalism to structure itself. This structuring leads to two paradoxes. First, in the performance of negative legitimation, news organizations justify ethics violations by converting the minimum standard of lawful speech into claimsmaking about laudable speech. Second, in acts of displacing legitimation, reporters suggest that more publicity is the remedy for invading privacy, translating the valorization of speech rights over privacy rights into a puzzling norm.     

Kontaktstelle, Zustellung, Hinterlegung

§ 17 Abs 3 ZustG gelangt auch bei Zustellungen an der Kontaktstelle als Abgabestelle zur Anwendung. Eine Abwesenheit von der Kontaktstelle (Abgabestelle), die auf die Wirksamkeit der Zustellung oder den Zustellzeitpunkt – unter dem Gesichtspunkt, ob der Empf?nger rechtzeitig Kenntnis von der Sendung erlangen konnte – Einfluss haben k?nnte, muss l?ngerfristig sein. Ein Obdachloser, der seine Kontaktstelle als Abgabestelle angegeben hat, hat seine l?ngerfristige Abwesenheit von der Kontaktstelle iSd § 17 Abs 3 ZustG der Beh?rde initiativ darzulegen, sofern die Beh?rde diesbezüglich nicht bereits über konkrete Anhaltspunkte verfügt.     

Kommunikationsnetz,Betrieb, Aufsichtsmaßnahmen

Die Verpflichtung, ein Kommunikationsnetz so zu betreiben, dass Telekommunikationsanlagen nicht durch funktechnische St?rungen gest?rt werden k?nnen, steht nicht im Widerspruch zum Gemeinschaftsrecht. Eine auf § 88 Abs 1 TKG 2003 gestützte Anordnung muss konkrete Ma?nahmen vorschreiben, die dem Schutz einer bestimmten Anlage dienen. Für den Fall, dass eine Telekommunikationsanlage entgegen den Bestimmungen des TKG 2003 errichtet oder betrieben und dadurch der ungest?rte Kommunikationsverkehr beeintr?chtigt wird, kommt die Au?erbetriebsetzung der rechtswidrig betriebenen Anlage nach § 88 Abs 2 TKG 2003 in Betracht.     

A visualization approach to prioritizing insurance claims from complex,multi-PRP Superfund sites

Abstract

The severity of environmental insurance claims related to large multi-PRP Superfund sites has grown over the last 30?years. When an insured files a Superfund-related claim, allocated costs to the insured are typically unknown. Assessing the insured’s likely share of future cleanup costs is challenging. This article proposes a simple approach that allows claims professionals to visualize where their insured stands relative to other PRPs' potential allocation of cleanup costs. The resulting color-coded “heat map” allows claims professionals to easily assess and prioritize potential insured losses. It also provides a starting point for settlement negotiations, thus reducing frictional costs.     

Bio-Kraftstoff,Nachhaltigkeit, Boden- und Naturschutz

Zusammenfassung  Um ihr Klimapaket und die damit verbundenen Ziele im Bereich der erneuerbaren Energien umzusetzen, hat die Europ?ische Kommission eine Richtlinie zur F?rderung der Nutzung von Energie aus erneuerbaren Quellen vorgeschlagen. Um den Richtlinienentwurf rankt sich – auch noch zur Zeit – eine breite noch nicht abgeschlossene Diskussion, in deren Rahmen unter anderem Bedenken gegen die F?rderung von Energiepflanzen, die als nachhaltig deklariert wird, ge?u?ert werden, da blühende Kulturlandschaften dadurch verschandelt werden. Der Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit der politischen und rechtlichen Diskussion des Richtlinien-Entwurfs.     

Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde, Auskunftsverweigerung, Rechtsmittel

Gegen Entscheidungen der Bundeswettbewerbsbeh?rde in Angelegenheiten des AuskunftspflichtG steht die Berufung an den zust?ndigen Bundesminister offen. Dem steht nicht entgegen, dass der Leiter der Bundeswettbewerbsbeh?rde gem § 1 Abs 3 WettbewerbsG weisungsfrei und unabh?ngig ist.     

Improving evaluation of anti-crime programs: Summary of a National Research Council report★

This article summarizes a report of the National Research Council: Improving Evaluation of Anti-crime Programs. It is based on a workshop, held in September 2003, in which participants presented and discussed examples of evaluation-related studies that represent the methods and challenges associated with research at three levels: interventions directed toward individuals; interventions in neighborhoods, schools, prisons, or communities; and interventions at a broad policy level. The article, and the report on which it is based, is organized around five questions that require thoughtful analysis in the development of any evaluation plan: What questions should the evaluation address? When is it appropriate to conduct an impact evaluation? How should an impact evaluation be designed? How should the evaluation be implemented? What organizational infrastructure and procedures support high quality evaluation? The authors highlight major considerations in developing and implementing evaluation plans for criminal justice programs and make recommendations for improvement of government funded evaluation studies.     

Bio-Kraftstoff, Nachhaltigkeit, Boden- und Naturschutz

Um ihr Klimapaket und die damit verbundenen Ziele im Bereich der erneuerbaren Energien umzusetzen, hat die Europ?ische Kommission eine Richtlinie zur F?rderung der Nutzung von Energie aus erneuerbaren Quellen vorgeschlagen. Um den Richtlinienentwurf rankt sich – auch noch zur Zeit – eine breite noch nicht abgeschlossene Diskussion, in deren Rahmen unter anderem Bedenken gegen die F?rderung von Energiepflanzen, die als nachhaltig deklariert wird, ge?u?ert werden, da blühende Kulturlandschaften dadurch verschandelt werden. Der Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit der politischen und rechtlichen Diskussion des Richtlinien-Entwurfs.