Psychological Aspects of Property and Ownership

Although property lawyers and theorists were always interested in the legal doctrinal construction of property rights and in political, moral, or economic justifications of property rights through the course of history, they very rarely looked into possible psychological roots of property rights and the powers they entail. Similarly, psychologists (whether with a focus on individual or social psychology) provide models for the explanation of a person’s behaviour and the social interactions of humans, but they rarely touch upon property rights at all, and if so, only in brief passing comments. The one extensive study on the social psychology of property appeared 75 years ago. This paper looks into modern research of individual and social psychology and assesses whether some of the findings can be used to explain a psychological basis for the existence and importance of property rights. That may also be a starting point for a modern interdisciplinary study in this area.

Judgments of culpability in a filicide scenario

Previous research has indicated that potential jurors are likely to use personal biases, such as those based on gender and ethnicity, in their judgments of culpability of criminal defendants in addition to, or instead of, the facts of the crime. The present paper seeks to extend this literature to the crime of filicide; to examine whether male defendants are judged more harshly than female defendants, as is the case for domestic violence and sexual abuse. 214 participants were provided with a scenario of filicide in which the gender of the perpetrator, the gender of the child, and the family's social class were randomly assigned. Participants were asked to rate the culpability of the defendant in the case. Results indicated that, unlike for other violent crimes, participants did not use gender or social class biases in their judgments of criminal culpability.     

Die gesetzliche Ausgestaltung der mietvertraglichen Erhaltungspflicht und die Grenzen ihrer Disponibilität (1. Teil)

Die Ausgestaltung der mietvertraglichen Erhaltungspflicht im ?sterreichischen Recht, va das Verh?ltnis von § 1096 Abs 1 Satz 1 ABGB zu einschl?gigen bestandschutzrechtlichen Sondernormen, sowie die Grenzen der Disponibilit?t der mietvertraglichen Erhaltungspflicht stellen mittlerweile die am intensivsten diskutierten Fragen des ?sterreichischen Wohnrechts dar. Der folgende Beitrag unternimmt den Versuch, ein Resümee aus dieser Diskussion zu ziehen und unter Würdigung m?glichst aller bereits vorgetragenen Argumente zu ermittlen, welche Antwort auf diese Fragen den Vorgaben des geltenden Rechts am besten gerecht wird.     

Suicide by means of a charcoal grill. Casuistic report with review of the literature

Due to the conversion of the gas supply from city gas to CO-free natural gas and the introduction of the catalytic converter technology for motor vehicles the number of suicides by CO poisoning has decreased considerably. Nevertheless suicides by CO poisoning are still committed once in a while. In the described case from the autopsy material of the Institute of Legal Medicine at Münster, the suicide used a charcoal grill as the source of carbon monoxide.     

Criminal recidivism in sexual homicide perpetrators

Forensic psychiatric reports on 166 sexual homicide perpetrators in Germany were retrospectively analyzed for criminal risk factors. Follow-up information about release and reconvictions from federal criminal records was available for 139 offenders; 90 (64.7%) had been released. The estimated recidivism rate (Kaplan-Meier analyses) for 20 years at risk was 23.1% for sexual and 18.3% for nonsexual violent reoffences. Three men (3.3%) were reconvicted for attempted or completed homicide. Only young age at the time of sexual homicide resulted in higher sexual recidivism, whereas increased nonsexual violent recidivism was related to previous sexual and nonsexual delinquency, psychopathic symptoms, and higher scores in risk assessment instruments. Increased recidivism with any violent reoffence was associated with age-related factors: young age at first sexual offence, at homicide, and at release and duration of detention. The impacts of the results for risk assessment, relapse prevention, and supervision are discussed.     

Die Zurechnung Dritter nach § 875 ABGB

Willensm?ngel, die nicht auf den Vertragspartner des Irrenden bzw Bedrohten, sondern einen Dritten zurückzuführen sind, k?nnen gem § 875 ABGB nur ausnahmsweise releviert werden. Dieser Beitrag untersucht in seinem ersten Teil die in Rsp und Lehre nur wenig behandelten Zurechnungskriterien des § 875 ABGB. Der zweite Teil rollt die Frage neu auf, ob die vors?tzliche Entstellung einer Erkl?rung durch den Erkl?rungsboten die Zurechnung zum Gesch?ftsherrn verhindert. Auch dafür spielt § 875 ABGB eine entscheidende Rolle.     

Does collusive advertising facilitate collusive pricing? Evidence from experimental duopolies

This article analyzes experimentally whether the degree of collusion for one dimension of duopolists?? interactions influences the degree of collusion for another dimension. More precisely, I will explore whether a high degree of collusion for advertisement expenditures facilitates tacit price collusion. Two environments are tested, in which the size of the spillover between advertising expenditures is varied. The results indicate that both degrees of collusion are correlated: a high degree of collusion on advertising functions as a signalling device triggering a significantly higher degree of price collusion by the opponent. Thus advertising expenditures seem to be a useful indicator for market regulators to detect non-competitive pricing.