Bankruptcy law: a mechanism of governance for financially distressed firms

This paper explores the various governance models for financially distressed firms. We offer a new typology of major bankruptcy models and provide a connection between this bankruptcy law puzzle and the variables depicting the governance of healthy firms in order to shed light on two topics: (1) the factors that the lawyer should consider before changing its national bankruptcy law, and (2) the risks associated with each bankruptcy model according to the economic literature on bankruptcy law. Our final aim is to test whether the various bankruptcy models detailed in the paper perform in separate economic and legal environments.

Sexual abuse and anti-wrinkle cream: evidence from octocrylene

In a case of a driving ability assessment, hair analysis for ethyl glucuronide (EtG) was requested by the authorities. The person concerned denied alcohol consumption and did not present any clinical sign of alcoholism. However, EtG was found in concentrations of up to 910pg/mg in hair from different sampling dates suggesting an excessive drinking behavior. The person declared to use a hair lotion on a regularly base. To evaluate a possible effect of the hair lotion, prospective blood and urine controls as well as hair sampling of scalp and pubic hair were performed. The traditional clinical biomarkers of ethanol consumption, CDT and GGT, were inconspicuous in three blood samples taken. EtG was not detected in all collected urine samples. The hair lotion was transmitted to our laboratory. The ethanol concentration in this lotion was determined with 35g/L. The EtG immunoassay gave a positive result indicating EtG, which could be confirmed by GC-MS/MS-NCI. In a follow-up experiment the lotion was applied to the hair of a volunteer over a period of six weeks. After this treatment, EtG could be measured in the hair at a concentration of 72pg/mg suggesting chronic and excessive alcohol consumption. Overnight incubation of EtG free hair in the lotion yielded an EtG concentration of 140pg/mg. In the present case, the positive EtG hair findings could be interpreted as the result of an EtG containing hair care product. To our knowledge, the existence of such a product has not yet been reported, and it is exceptionally unusual to find EtG in cosmetics. Therefore, external sources for hair contamination should always be taken into account when unusual cosmetic treatment is mentioned. In those cases, it is recommended to analyze the hair product for a possible contamination with EtG. The analysis of body hair can help to reveal problems occurring from cosmetic treatment of head hair. As a consequence, the assessment of drinking behavior should be based on more than one diagnostic parameter.     

Ex post efficiency of bankruptcy procedures: A general normative framework

In this paper, we consider the case of a distressed firm whose financial commitments have to be renegotiated with stakeholders (banks, trade creditors …). At default time, rival projects (continuation, piecemeal liquidation, liquidation as a going concern …) may be undertaken. In such a case, the most frequent way of making collective choices is to vote. Our attention focuses on the risk of not choosing the best project because of free riders: personal interests may block the issue in favor of the project associated to the highest value of the firm.At first, we consider a law-enforced procedure under which financial deviations from the absolute priority order (APO) are possible: each individual gain is slightly modified in order to obtain a non-strict majority in favor of the best project. This legal intervention can be implemented and considered as “optimal” if it respects four criteria: economic efficiency, financial neutrality, legal tolerability and democratic desirability. Under these conditions, any law-driven renegotiation process must defines financial transfers that underweight (respectively overweight) the sub-optimal gains (respectively losses) of the most influent voter. Moreover, the proportion of financial transfers granted to each stakeholder exactly reflects their relative influence power: in other words, financial deviations from APO can be interpreted as the price that any stakeholder has to pay (respectively receive) because of his marginal negative (respectively positive) impact on the collective decision. Then, these results serve as a guide to comment ex post efficiency of various bankruptcy procedures (US, French, English and German). Our approach may be interpreted as a first step in the design of an economically efficient procedure that should deal with both ex ante and ex post efficiencies.     

Homicide by manual occipitoatlantal dislocation

Occipitoatlantal dislocation is usually seen as a fatal injury in traffic accidents and has rarely been reported as a consequence of a homicide. The authors report the case of a women presenting a fatal occipitoatlantal dislocation, the circumstances of which pointed to a homicidal origin. Blood extravasation surrounding the muscles of the posterior part of the neck as well as abnormal mobility of the cranio-cervical joint was noted during autopsy; thus a complete dissection of this region was performed. This led to the finding of a fracture of the left occipital condyle and of the left superior articular facet of the atlas. This case clearly demonstrates the need to perform a large, systematic, posterior approach to the upper cervical spine, completed by the opening of the skull around the posterior fossa, when injury to the cranio-cervical junction is suspected. In these cases, the classic anterior approach give poor information and poor dissection possibilities.     

A collaborative study of the EDNAP group regarding Y-chromosome binary polymorphism analysis

A collaborative study was carried out by the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP) in order to evaluate the performance of Y-chromosome binary polymorphism analysis in different European laboratories. Four blood samples were sent to the laboratories, to be analysed for 11 Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): SRY-1532, M40, M35, M213, M9, 92R7, M17, P25, M18, M153 and M167. All the labs were also asked to submit a population study including these markers. All participating laboratories reported the same results, indicating the reproducibility and robustness of Y-chromosome SNP typing. A total of 535 samples from six different European populations were also analysed. In Galicia (NW Spain) and Belgium, the most frequent haplogroup was R1b*(xR1b1,R1b3df). Haplogroup F*(xK) is one of the most frequent in Austria and Denmark, while the lowest frequency appear in Belgium. Haplogroup frequencies found in this collaborative study were compared with previously published European Y-chromosome haplogroup data.     

Comparative Analysis in Political Science: Requiem or Resurrection?

Comparative method in political science is currently going through a critical time, particularly after the failure of developmentalism, and of the classical paradigm of comparative government. This crisis stems from questioning universalism, mono-determinism and the compartmentalism between political science and history. New paradigms are now conceived in order to overcome this crisis: culturalism, social action, historical sociology. Can they be used to construct a new kind of comparison? Can they deal effectively with the new objects of comparison which derive from the increasing differentiation of political situations and political practices that we currently observe?     

Penetration of a piece of World War II rifle grenade initially suspected as a stab wound

The authors report the case of a 58-year-old man found dead by his son in the forest where he had gone to cut wood for winter. Initial examination showed an upper left laterocervical wound compatible with a stab wound. Radiography and autopsy performed the next day showed a piece of metal located in the left part of the occipital bone, associated with a half-ring fracture of the occipital bone and consequent diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage. Death was attributed to a spinal shock after impact at the cervicocephalic junction. Investigators returned to the scene and found a few more metal elements and also a 20-cm deep and 40-cm wide crater underneath a fire the deceased had set. Army experts concluded that the metal pieces belonged to an ATM 9 antitank rifle grenade used by the U.S. Army during World War II. Death was considered accidental, the deceased having unfortunately set a fire over the grenade.     

The housing system of the former Soviet Union: Why do the soviets need housing markets?

Abstract

The administrative‐command system that had been in full force in the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1990 had its own logic and internal consistency. It is now common knowledge that this economic system has flaws that led to a deepening secular decline over the past three decades. Because of ideological reasons, and an inadequate economic understanding of the capacity of their system to be liberalized, many reformers sought a third way between central planning and markets. The consensus today is that there is no third way. Among the former Soviet republics, Russia has just embarked on market‐oriented reforms and is facing a difficult and unstable transition because central planning mechanisms have ceased to function, but markets are not yet in place. This transition is particularly problematic for housing, which is a very severely distorted economic sector.

The international evidence on market economies that has accumulated over the past 20 years shows that, when housing sector distortions exist, they are predominantly found on the supply side. In socialist economies, however, housing is part of the compensation provided by enterprises and other employers. As a result housing suffers from demand‐side distortions in addition to the supply‐side problems caused by the absence of land markets, vague property rights, and burdensome urban regulations. The housing sector is already so large and distorted in these highly urban economies that overall economic reforms cannot succeed without housing reforms. In addition to presenting an overview of Soviet housing, this paper provides comparative evidence indicating that, among all the distorted socialist housing systems, Russia's probably is the most impaired. The basic elements of a market‐oriented strategy to improve housing are briefly presented.