A step back in time: nineteenth century US patent law revisited

‘A book may be good for nothing; or there may be onlyone thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?’(Samuel Johnson) This section is dedicated to the review ofideas, articles, books, films and other media. It will includereplies (and rejoinders) to articles, the evaluation of newideas or proposals, and reviews of books and articles both directlyand indirectly related to intellectual property law.

A Treatise on the Law of Patents for Useful Inventions, FourthEdition By George T. Curtis 1873; Boston: Little Brown Books.Reprinted 2006; Clerk, New Jersey: Lawbook Exchange. Price:US$150, ISBN: 1584775807, pages xxxvii + 749   In the United Kingdom, the great patent treatise of the twentiethcentury     

Court of Justice plucks the spider from the web

In recent years the Dutch courts have been willing to grantinterim cross-border injunctions in patent infringement caseswhere the ‘headquarters’ of a group of companiesis located in The Netherlands. A recent decision of the Courtof Justice has put an end to this practice.     

Growing Without Pains? Explaining Liberal Democrat MPs' Behaviour

Recent academic studies and wider commentary on the behaviour of Liberal Democrat MPs have recognised their relatively high level of cohesiveness on whipped votes when compared to that of Labour and the Conservatives, and to the Liberal Democrats' own reputation; but while this trend continues, few studies have focused upon its causes. This article uses the MPs' voting records, personal papers, interviews and wider contextual data to chart the extent of that unity over time, and to explore its origins, including group composition, structure, patronage, relations with the extra-parliamentary party and other parties as well as national party image. It finds the key to this unity in a combination of medium and long-term features of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat group of MPs, rather than a short-term singular determinant.     

Ricketson and Ginsburg: Berne baby, Berne...

‘A book may be good for nothing; or there may be onlyone thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?’(Samuel Johnson) This section is dedicated to the review ofideas, articles, books, films and other media. It will includereplies (and rejoinders) to articles, the evaluation of newideas or proposals, and reviews of books and articles both directlyand indirectly related to intellectual property law.

International Copyright and Neighbouring Rights: The Berne Conventionand Beyond 2nd Edition By Sam Ricketson and Jane Ginsburg, 2006,Oxford University Press Price: £225, Hardback, ISBN: 0-19-825946-8pp lxxxvii + 1540, 2 Volumes   The praise     

Feeling guilty to remain innocent: the moderating effect of sex on guilt responses to rule-violating behavior in adolescent legal socialization

Legal socialization researchers have ignored the role of emotions such as guilt to explain rule-violating behavior (RVB). The purpose of Study 1 was to determine if anticipated guilt or guilt proneness was a better predictor of RVB. Participants were 325 university students who completed an online questionnaire. Correlations indicated that both measures were related significantly to RVB; however, when both were entered into a multiple regression as predictors, only anticipated guilt was significant. This suggested that anticipated guilt was a stronger predictor of RVB than guilt proneness. The purpose of Study 2 was to investigate the effects of anticipated guilt on future RVB while controlling for the integrated legal socialization variables. Participants were 283 middle school and 187 high school students. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict students' future engagement in RVB. Anticipated guilt predicted RVB for middle school and high school students. However, sex moderated these effects. Male students low in anticipated guilt committed more RVBs than male students high in guilt. Female high school students showed a similar effect but not at the same magnitude as the male students. Guilt had no significant effect on RVB for female middle school students. Implications for the findings are discussed.     

Corruption,Governance and FDI Location in China: A Province-Level Analysis

China's recent rapid growth has been matched by large increases in exports and foreign direct investment (FDI), but considerable regional disparities in FDI flows exist. We use detailed province level data for China to examine the determinants of intra-country FDI flows. Specifically, we investigate whether FDI is attracted to those regions that exhibit good governance and are most strongly engaged in the fight against corruption, constructing proxies for provincial government efficiency and anti-corruption effort. Our regression results confirm that FDI is attracted to provinces with relatively high levels of government efficiency and are actively involved in the fight against corruption.     

Looking on: France and the new Germany

Franco‐German reconciliation lies at the root of post‐war European co‐operation. The Franco‐German alliance, formalised in 1963, has become a powerful axis with which all other European powers have had to deal. It is contended in this article that the main French fears over German unification were those of a nation discovering itself to be a junior partner in a relationship within which it had long pretended to seniority. This article retraces French reactions to German unification during 1989–90, and reviews the state of contemporary Franco‐German relations with regard to personal relationships, changing perceptions of the equilibrium of the Franco‐German alliance, foreign policy, relations with central and eastern Europe, and European integration.     

Evaluating and Theorising Committee Scrutiny: A UK Comparative Perspective

This article addresses committee scrutiny undertaken through the three main UK devolved institutions (the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly). This is undertaken using a framework derived from scholarship about House of Commons select committees and a substantive comparative literature. Devolved committee scrutiny is thus compared and contrasted in relation to a three-phase analysis in terms of selection, evaluative and output elements.

The findings are also discussed in relation to core elements of institutional theory – institutional path dependency, ideational path dependency, the logic of appropriateness and the logic of consequence. This connection is used to develop several testable theoretical propositions concerning committee scrutiny. Findings about UK devolved committee scrutiny (and also scrutiny undertaken through House of Commons select committees) are also related to scholarship about local government scrutiny in Britain and contrasts and similarities specified. Furthermore, some testable theoretical propositions are applied to British local scrutiny.     

Governing the academies: Sub‐central secondary education policy making in France

In the context of the growing debate on the reshaping of the state in western Europe, this article maps out the changing relationships between the principal policy actors involved in French sub‐central secondary education policy. Based on extensive primary interviews in two French academies, the article maintains that, while the paradigms of networks and governance are useful in understanding certain features of education policy‐making, they have to contend with the persistence of a particular state tradition which is endemically strong in French secondary education.