An Empty Shell? Rethinking the Usury Laws in Medieval Europe

Abstract

Many historians have argued that the usury laws were a dead letter and that usurious practices were widespread during the Middle Ages. This review of canonical rule formation in Europe shows that many contracts were outside the prohibition and that the laws were highly effective. The popularity of financial instruments depended on obtaining the Church's approval, and ecclesiastical tribunals pursued usurers relentlessly. Although it is not possible to measure with any precision the incidence of usury or the effectiveness of the prohibition, arguments of a high incidence of usury do not stand up in the light of evidence from the contemporary legal context.     

Forfeiture and money laundering laws in the United States

Today Europe is faced increasingly with the phenomenon of organized crime, creating problems similar to those the United States faced as early as a decade ago. American forfeiture and money laundering laws provide the state with sweeping powers for use in its efforts to combat organized crime. Although study of these instruments might inspire European lawmakers to adopt similar ones, the instruments themselves carry a societal price tag that cannot be ignored. Classical principles limiting the reach of the criminal law (and the powers of its enforcement apparatus) and in a broader sense the liberal concept of the fragmentary nature of the criminal law have largely been abandoned by lawmakers in the area of organized crime. Thus, modern American forfeiture and money laundering laws have lowered the standards of protection against state intrusion into citizens' basic rights despite the lack of sufficient empirical proof that their investigative and punitive powers are efficient in skimming profits and deterring further crime.     

A “meeting of the minds” — The greater illusion

Conclusion Despite a superficial similarity in circumstance, the dynamics of the judicial process of contract interpretation are not equivalent to the circumstances giving rise to the Primacy Dilemma. The Primacy Dilemma involves two parties; the judicial process involves a third: the court. This distinction is critical for while Wittgenstein's exposé of the Primacy Dilemma as illusion does not require that centuries of refinements to theories of contract interpretation be scrapped, it does require an abandonment of the ideal that courts do not and cannot make contracts; courts merely enforce agreements that the parties themselves have reached.Copyright ©1995 by Samuel C. Damren. All rights reserved.     

How Large Should the Strike Zone Be in “Three Strikes and You're Out” Sentencing Laws?

So-called three strikes and you're out sentencing laws for criminal offenders have proliferated in the United States. The laws vary considerably in their definitions of what constitutes a strike. This paper adapts the classic Poisson process model of criminal offending to investigate how varying sentence lengths and definitions of what constitutes a strike affect the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these sentencing laws. In particular, it asks whether, by using different definitions for the first, second, and third strikes or different sentence lengths, one can make the resulting incarceration more efficient in the sense of incapacitating more crimes per cell-year served.     

Marxism and the criminal question

The question considered is whether it is possible to trace a theoretical strategy for a criminal policy on the basis of Marx's work. The answer offered is that Marxian political and economic analysis does not supply any general theory of criminality and that any attempt to formulate such a theory (as in Lenin, Paukanis or Gramsci) necessarily leads to authoritarian and regressive conceptions of crime and punishment. Nevertheless the authors maintain that it is possible to trace three theoretical suggestions within Marxian thought which allow of a fruitful approach to the criminal question. The first suggestion relates to the economic roots of many aspects of modern criminality; the second regards the Christian and bourgeois superstition of moral liberty and individual culpability; the third suggestion deals with the lack of a guaranteed social space as the prime root of crime. These theoretical suggestions permit clarification of the social character of penal responsibility and this character points to the need for the socialization (but not deregulation) of criminal treatment.This essay grew out of a reply to a questionnaire drawn up by La questione criminale, an Italian review which tries to approach the criminal question from a Marxist standpoint.     

Trade Secrets, Firm-Specific Human Capital, and Optimal Contracting

Trade secrets are innovations jointly produced by firms and employees that are generally not protected by patents. They are commonly protected within the framework of labor contracts, where an obligation of confidentiality is imposed upon the employee. Specifically this obligation applies to the employee even after he has left the employer for a period of time determined in the contract, known as a cooling off period. Often employees are prohibited not only from revealing trade secrets, but also from utilizing their specific human capital developed at the original place of employment in competitor firms during this period. Their specific human capital is in effect inseparable from the trade secret. Failure to protect the trade secret will result in its revelation and its becoming public and hence worthless for the innovator. The inability of an employee to reveal trade secrets and utilize his specific human capital after leaving his place of employment imposes costs and losses upon him. Some form of compensation will be paid for these contingent losses within the employment contract. Employers know that the longer the cooling off period imposed upon employees, the greater employees must be compensated for this in the contract. Longer cooling off periods thus cost the employer more, but also enable him to earn greater rents from the innovation itself. In this paper profit-maximizing periods of trade secret protection are derived, based on these two countervailing factors, and comparative statics exercises are performed. How the selection of profit-maximizing periods of trade secret protection when the incidence of resignation is itself affected by contract parameters and incentives is explored.     

Defending coase against false charges: A comment on block

This note suggests that Coase's The Problem of Social Cost has been read and interpreted too broadly to apply to all aspects of law. Drawing from Coase's own work, I show that Coase was narrowly focused on the economic analysis of negative externalities. This understanding of the paper precludes it from being used as a justification for the broad redistribution of property rights for the purpose of wealth maximization. This understanding of Coase's paper also defends his work against charges from those who object to making the determination of property rights secondary to the maximization of wealth.     

处理银行卡盗刷纠纷的法理基础及实务要点

对于银行卡盗刷纠纷的法律处理,在迄今为止的司法实践中基本是沿着合同法思路展开。这种惯常思路固然能够给当事人以法律安抚而致银行卡应用实践以法律秩序,但实际上是以耗损效率和弱化公正为代价的。银行卡是代表持卡人财产权利的资格证券,因其使用中权利人识别机制的特点,相关义务人的识别义务、归责模式及免责事由均有本属规则,并非通常合同法规则所能涵盖,如银行卡上的证券关系与据以形成的合同关系相分离,对卡权利人的识别义务与卡的占有状态及持卡人的过错无关等。因此在处理银行卡盗刷纠纷的司法实践中,应当把握银行卡作为权利凭证的法律性质及应用规则,以此作为伪卡盗刷与网络盗刷的本质区别,并由此展开银行卡盗刷案件的情形类别设定及相应处理规则。     

Satanism: Myth and reality in a contemporary moral panic

In the last decade, there have been many allegations about the prevalence of occult or Satanic criminality, which is believed to be involved in many offenses ranging from vandalism to child abuse and serial murder. Some have advocated the creation of specialized police units to combat the supposed threat. On the other hand, most of the alleged evils are very poorly substantiated, and highly questionable statements have been widely circulated. In fact, the current concern about the occult appears to have all the hallmarks of a classic moral panic, where a peripheral issue is suddenly perceived as a major social menace. This paper discusses the limited foundation of truth underlying the present crime-wave; and suggests that the panic reflects the moral and political agenda of extremists from the fundamentalist religious Right. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502017 00005     

Does strict judicial scrutiny involve thetu quoque fallacy?

To protect what it deems fundamental rights, the Supreme Court strictly scrutinizes legislation that impinges on these rights. The Court views such legislation as a means to some end the legislation seeks to accomplish. The Court requires that the statute be neither overinclusive nor underinclusive; the legislation may not affect more people than necessary to achieve its end, nor is the statute permitted to leave some people out in achieving its end.I argue that when legislation imposes burdens, its underinclusiveness is irrelevant, and that when it dispenses rewards its overinclusiveness is irrelevant, because those affected by the statute areex hypothesi deserving. One commits thetu quoque fallacy when one tries to infer that those affected by the law are undeserving from the fact that some deserving individuals were not affected by the statute.I show concretely how the Court has erred in specific cases. I also point out how the doctrine of judicial review prevents the Court from availing itself of the remedy that logic would demand.Lastly, I consider the possibility that the Court uses the doctrine of strict scrutiny to strike down legislation that the Court suspects has an impermissible motive. I conclude that if the Court has evidence of an impermissible motive, it could present an inductive argument for such a motive and strike the legislation down for that reason. Using thetu quoque fallacy does not advance the search for the impermissible motive.This paper was read at the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting in New Orleans on April 27, 1990.     

Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London: The Usury Trails of 1421

This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most importantly the law and practice of the church. It concludes that church courts dealt with different types of usurious conduct to that shown in the 1421 London cases. The broad conclusion of the article is that the 1421 London cases show that the law against usury was by no means a dead letter outside the jurisdiction of the church in late medieval England: in London at least, it was part of a burgeoning and increasingly sophisticated commercial jurisdiction.     

民间高利贷的泛刑法分析

近年来,民间高利贷被作为非法经营罪追究刑事责任的判例频频出现。究其原由,源于中国人民银行办公厅与最高人民法院刑事审判第二庭就武汉的涂汉江案所为的两个复函。然而,这两个复函关于民间高利贷属于国务院《非法金融机构和非法金融业务活动取缔办法》所列非法金融行为的解释均属无权解释,因此,有关民间高利贷构成非法经营罪的所有判例,均无法律依据。事实上,在现有法律框架下,民间高利贷因不违反任何法律与行政法规而不具有构成非法经营罪的非法性要件。同时,民间高利贷虽有伴生犯罪之弊,但其更有产生的必然性,也有存在的合理性,因此,对其也不应通过修改刑法而将其入罪。     

信用证的独立性与买卖双方的非独立性

信用证独立于买卖合同,但是买卖双方既受信用证的支配,又受买卖合同的支配,所以双方的权利义务并不能完全取决于信用证。当存在信用证与买卖合同不一致的情况时,如果履行信用证的义务不会与履行主合同义务相冲突,那么卖方应该既履行主合同义务,还要履行信用证之规定;如果相冲突,可以认为信用证对卖方之义务是买方通过银行向卖方提出的一种新要约,卖方按照信用证行事属于一种对新要约的承诺。     

Explaining Regulatory Non-compliance: A Survey Study of Rule Transgression for Two Dutch Instrumental Laws, Applying the Randomized Response Method

Within a rational choice framework, secondary data analysis of a survey study on compliance with two Dutch regulatory laws is carried out. Selection of explanatory variables to be considered is guided by a heuristic device, called the Table-of-Eleven. Using adapted logistic regression analysis, we show that self-reported compliance, measured by means of a randomized response procedure, can be explained in terms of benefits of non-compliance, social norms and deterrence, while knowledge and general norm-conformity have no role to play. The impact of various contributing factors turns out to be rather different in size for the two laws.     

论房屋征收补偿协议要式化的困境与出路

房屋征收补偿协议的法律属性是行政契约,征收人的签约行为是一种要式行政行为。我国相关法律规范对房屋征收补偿协议签约行为的主体、程序、内容与方式等进行了要式化构造。通过考察房屋征收补偿的地方法律规范、裁判文书以及征收补偿实践参与者的感受,可以发现补偿协议签约行为要式化在实践中存在征收人权力行使恣意、被征收人的契约性权利遭受严重侵害的困境。落实与完善房屋征收补偿协议签约行为的要式化法律制度,应以"权力与契约的整合"为法理指引,建立签约阶段主体地位平等关系,利用签约程序规制行政权力,提升签约内容的合意性以及强调签约方式的合作性,并在上述理念指引下,以限定签约主体范围与进行信用管理,完善前置程序、签约期限与救济程序,优化奖励制度、协商机制与生效要件,实施违法监督与行政问责等为具体出路。     

Putting fault back into products liability: A modest reconstruction of tort theory

This paper postulates that the proper function of tort law is to provide protection from, and redress of, non-consensual invasions of individual rights of person and property. It then proceeds to analyze and criticize, in that context, several theories of the law of unintentional torts including traditional English negligence law and the models of Posner, Fletcher and Epstein. That analysis proceeds in terms of the answers of each theory to a uniform set of questions which must be answered by any theory of the law of unintentional harms. The paper concludes that none of the theories examined is rights-based or, indeed, consistent with the existence of individual rights of person and property.The paper goes on to elucidate a theory of liability which is rights-based. That theory turns out to be variant of traditional English negligence law in which reasonable foreseeability of harm to legally recognized rights or interests is the sole criterion of liability, the burden of precautions on the agent of the harm being explicitly excluded from consideration.Finally, the rights-based theory is applied to the area of products liability. It is demonstrated that this area of the law of unintentional harm does have the same moral foundations as the general law of negligence so that resort to the anomalous, and amoral, constructs of fictitious warranties, strict liability, enterprise liability and the deep pocket is neither appropriate nor necessary.     

European Regional Policy and Backward Regions: Implications Towards EU Enlargement

In this paper we show that the success of the EU Regional Policy, in terms of boosting growth in objective 1 regions, will mean a big opportunity for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and hence the increases in competition arising from an enlarged European market combined with a suitable regional development policy should in the future boost the growth of those countries. In the last part of the paper we made a simulation for the funding envelope from 2007, based on the 2000–2006 budget. We show that the figures of the Agenda 2000 provide enough financial support for 90% of the total CEEC population and for 75% of current objective 1 population.     

The structure of basic human rights

This paper offers a theory of the structure of basic human rights which is both compatible with and clarificatory of the traditional conception of such rights. A central contention of the theory is that basic rights are structurally different from other kinds of moral rights, such as special rights, because of differences both in the way in which basic rights have content and the model on which basic rights are correlative with duties. This contention is exploited to develop and defend the central thesis of the theory, namely that basic human rights are bundles of mutually held active rights enjoyed by persons in virtue of the specifiable moral relationships they bear to each other.     

Social justice as a Holy Grail: The endless quest

This paper gives the author's impressions on the following aspects of justice: desert, equity, equality, need, and intergenerational equity. The author concludes that these different aspects cannot be reconciled but instead must be compromised. An example of such a compromise is provided by a discussion of welfare reform. The author claims that rights are correlative with duties, and that asserting the former has little meaning without specifying the latter. He then discusses justice toward groups rather than individuals. He proposes that maintaining cultural variety in the presence of a homogeneous superculture is a major problem of the contemporary world. The paper concludes with a discussion of various forms of power, particularly the integrative power that people acquire over each other by virtue of ties of loyalty and identity.     

An improved methodology for analyzing age-arrest profiles: Application to a Western Australian offender population

A new methodology for displaying and analyzing arrest profiles of a population of offenders is illustrated on a data set containing information on all arrests made in the jurisdiction of the state of Western Australia in the 12-year period 1 April 1984 to 31 December 1995. The arrest profile shows the number of arrests accumulated by an individual offender as a function of the age at which each arrest took place. This provides a summary of the arrest careers of the individuals in the population and facilitates comparisons between groups of interest in the population, such as sex and race groups. In particular, it enables comparisons to be made between cohorts of offenders defined by the age-at-onset of their offending. For the Western Australian population analyzed here we find large differences between sex and race (Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal) groups, and also between age-at-onset cohorts, and we place these differences in the context of current criminological discussions which posit that higher mean numbers of offenses will be committed by early career starters.