American Civil Law Origins: Implications for State Constitutions

We examine the effect of initial legal traditions on constitutionalstability in the American states. Ten states were initiallysettled by France, Spain, or Mexico and had developed civillaw legal systems at the time of American acquisition. AlthoughLouisiana retained civil law, the remaining nine adopted commonlaw. Controlling for contemporaneous and initial conditions,civil law states have substantially higher levels of constitutionalinstability at the end of the twentieth century. We speculatethat this effect is attributable to instability in propertyrights caused by the change in national governments and to thelegacy of the civil law system.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Failure to register exclusive patent licence

In professional negligence proceedings a patent agent's causationdefence was summarily dismissed under CPR 24 on the basis thatthe defendants had no real prospect of success and there wasno other compelling reason why the issue should have to be disposedof at trial.     

Rezension

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Selbständiger Antrag des Privatanklägers auf Erlassung vermögensrechtlicher Anordnungen

Der selbst?ndige Antrag des Privatankl?gers auf Absch?pfung der Bereicherung (§ 445 StPO) gegen unbekannte T?ter und Dritte erfüllt die für einen Verfolgungsantrag iSd § 71 Abs 1 S 2 StPO gesetzlich geforderten Kriterien nicht. Inhaltlich zielt ein solcher Antrag letztlich auf die Vornahme von Erhebungen zur Eruierung und Ausforschung der unbekannten T?ter, sohin im Ergebnis auf ein Ermittlungsverfahren. Nach dem klaren Wortlaut des § 71 Abs 1 letzter Halbsatz StPO findet ein solches in Privatanklageverfahren nicht (mehr) statt.     

The Political Economy of Tax Coordination as a Bargaining Game Between Bureaucrats and Politicians

In the public finance literature, the view prevails that taxcompetition among countries gives rise to an underprovision ofpublic goods and that coordinated tax increases are thereforedesirable. Public choice arguments, in contrast, suggest thattax coordination may not be in the interest of thetaxpayers/citizens because imperfections of the politicalprocess (political distortions) may lead to a waste of taxmoney. According to this view, tax competition is a desirablecheck on the power to tax whereas tax coordination would onlyrelax the budget constraint of an inefficient public sector.The present paper integrates the underprovision argument andthe public choice view into a common theoretical framework.The government is assumed to consist of politicians andbureaucrats with diverging interests. Fiscal policy ismodelled as the outcome of a bargaining game between thebureaucrats and the politicians. It turns out that coordinatedtax increases always raise the provision of public goods butalso increase the cost of political distortions. The effect onthe welfare of the representative citizen may be positive ofnegative, depending in particular on the distribution ofbargaining power between bureaucrats and politicians.     

Is it acceptable for a psychiatrist to break confidentiality to prevent spousal violence?

Study questionWhen is it acceptable for a psychiatrist to break confidentiality to protect the wife of a potentially violent patient?Methods153 lay persons, 13 nursing personnel, 10 physicians, and 10 psychologists in France indicated this acceptability in 48 scenarios. The scenarios were all combinations of 5 factors: gravity of threat (death or beating), certainty of mental illness (certain or not), time spent talking with patient (considerable or little), his attitude toward psychotherapy (rejection, indecision, or acceptance), and whether the physician consulted an expert.ResultsLay people favored breaking confidentiality more than did nursing personnel or psychologists. Consulting an expert had greatest impact. Lay participants were composed of groups that found breaking confidentiality “always acceptable” (22 participants), “depending on many circumstances” (106), requiring “consultation with an expert” (31), and “never acceptable” (27).ConclusionLay people in France are influenced by situational factors when deciding if a psychiatrist should break confidentiality to protect a patient's wife.