Chasing the Dragon: trust assets caught by the divorce courts

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Charman v Charman [2007]EWCA Civ 503 provides the latest analysis of the courts' approachin apportioning assets in ‘big money’ divorce casesand pays particular attention to the treatment of assets settledinto offshore trusts.     

The trick does not work if you have already seen the gorilla: how anticipatory effects contaminate pre-treatment measures in field experiments

Journal of Experimental Criminology - If participants can anticipate the intervention, they may alter their responses prior to exposure to treatment. One often-ignored consequence of these...     

Quadratic voting in the wild: real people,real votes

Since their introduction in 1932, Likert and other continuous, independent rating scales have become the de facto toolset for survey research. Scholars have raised significant reliability and validity problems with these types of scales, and alternative methods for capturing perceptions and preferences have gained traction within specific domains. In this paper, we evaluate a new, broadly applicable approach to opinion measurement based on quadratic voting (QV), a method in which respondents express preferences by ‘buying’ votes for options using a fixed budget from which they pay quadratic prices for votes. Comparable QV-based and Likert-based survey instruments designed by Collective Decision Engines LLC were evaluated experimentally by assigning potential respondents randomly to one or the other method. Using a host of metrics, including respondent engagement and process-based metrics, we provide some initial evidence that the QV-based instrument provides a clearer measure of the preferences of the most intensely motivated respondents than the Likert-based instrument does. We consider the implications for survey satisficing, a key threat to the continued value of survey research, and discuss the mechanisms by which QV differentiates itself from Likert-based scales, thus establishing QV as a promising alternative survey tool for political and commercial research. We also explore key design issues within QV-based surveys to extend these promising results.     

On the audit trail of the Auditor General: Parliament's servant, 1973–1980

Abstract. Since 1973, important changes have been brought about in the powers of the Office of the Auditor General. The balance of our system of parliamentary government is undermined by these changes. This paper argues that the Auditor General's value-for-money campaign has taken the oag over the line between audit and trespass on government policy. The Office's new powers have their legal basis in the new Auditor General Act of 1977, which says that the oag can review value-for-money studies of programs. Another term for these studies is ‘effectiveness evaluations. The powers acquired in the act made the creation of the new central agency, the Office of the Comptroller General, inevitable. Among this agency's responsibilities is the duty to ensure that each of government's programs is reviewed for value-for-money, to satisfy the requirements of the Auditor General. The two agencies thus exist in a situation of mutual obligation and legitimation. The paper further argues that value-for-money audit is not an objective review technique, but involves a great deal of judgment in each of its stages of application. It is not fitting, therefore, that reports generated under its procedures should be reviewed externally, by an officer without any electoral base. This implies that government requires some form of legitimation to govern quite outside normal conceptions of parliamentary government. Next, it is argued that the techniques of classic program evaluation are themselves biased toward demonstrations of program failure. As the post of Auditor General of Canada fell vacant in September, 1980, and a new Auditor General will be appointed, the government should take the opportunity to review the responsibilities and privileges of the Office. Sommaire. Depuis 1973, les pouvoirs du poste de vérificateur général ont subi ?importants changements. ?équilibre de notre système de gouvemement parlementaire est affaibli par ces changements. ?auteur de cette étude pense que la eampagne ← en avoir pour son argent → du vérificateur général lui a fait franchir la limite entre vérification et ingéience dans la politique gouverne-mentale. Les nouveaux pouvoirs du poste ont leur fondement légal dans la nouvelle loi du vérificateur général de 1977 qui ?autorise à examiner les programmes du point de vue coûts/résultats. Ces études portent aussi un autre nom, celui ?évaluation de ?efficacité. Ces pouvoirs, entérinés par la loi, rendirent inévitable la création ?un nouvel organisme central, le bureau du contrôleur général. Parmi les responsabilités de cet organisme se trouve celle de s'assurer que tous les programmes gouvernementaux sont étudés du point de vue coûts/résultats pour satisfaire aux exigences du vérificateur général. Ces deux offices existent done dans une situation ?obligation et de légitimation mutuelles. ?auteur soutient de plus que la vérification coûts/résultats n'est pas une technique ?examen objective mais qu'elle fait beaucoup appel au juge-ment dans ses differénts stades ?application. II n'est done pas acceptable que des rapports etablis à partir de cette technique soient examinés extérieurement par un haut fonctionnaire sans mandat électoral. Ceci sous-entend que le gouvemement a besoin ?une certaine légitimation pour gouverneur et ce, en dehors des conceptions normales du gouvemement parlementaire. II soutient ensuite que les techniques de revaluation classique des programmes ont elles-même tendance à prouver ?échec des programmes. Comme le poste de vérificateur général du Canada est devenu vacant en septembre 1980 et qu'un nouveau vérificateur général doit être nommé, le gouvemement devrait saisir cette occasion pour reconsidérer les responsabilites et les privilèges de ce poste.     

Less fighting than expected

While all-pay auctions are well researched experimentally, we do not have much laboratory evidence on wars of attrition. This paper tries to fill this gap. Technically, there are only a few differences between wars of attrition and all-pay auctions. Behaviorally, however, we find striking differences: As many studies, our experiment finds overbidding in all-pay auctions. In contrast, in wars of attrition we observe systematic underbidding. We study bids and expenditures in different experimental frames and matching procedures and tie in with the literature on stepwise linear bidding functions.     

Must the Surgeon Take the Pill? Negligence Duty in the Context of Cognitive Enhancement

Recently, attention has turned to the possibility of enhancing human cognitive abilities via pharmacological interventions. Known as ‘cognitive enhancers’, these drugs can alter human mental capacities, and in some cases can effect significant improvements. One prime example is modafinil, a drug used to treat narcolepsy, which can help combat decreases in wakefulness and cognitive capacity that arise due to fatigue in otherwise healthy individuals. In this paper, we respond to calls in the philosophical and ethical literature that surgeons and other medical professionals should be morally obliged to take cognitively enhancing drugs. We examine whether surgeons who make fatigue‐related errors during patient care might be considered legally obliged to enhance themselves. We focus on liability for a failure to medicate, and conclude that it is highly unlikely that surgeons will be legally obliged to address their fatigue through the use of cognitive enhancing drugs.     

Lower extremity deep venous thrombosis with fatal pulmonary thromboembolism caused by benign pelvic space-occupying lesions--an overview

Venous stasis predisposes to thrombosis. One hundred and sixty cases of fatal pulmonary thromboembolism were reviewed to determine how many cases had deep venous thromboses associated with venous blood flow reduction caused by external pressure from benign pelvic masses. Three cases were identified, representing 2% of cases overall (3/160): a 44-year-old woman with a large uterine leiomyoma (1048 g); a 74-year-old man with prostatomegaly and bladder distension (containing 1 L of urine); and a 70-year-old man with prostatomegaly and bladder distension (containing 3 L of urine). Although a rare cause of fatal deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary thromboembolism, space-occupying pelvic lesions can lead to extrinsic pressure on adjacent veins reducing blood flow and causing stasis and thrombosis. Individuals with large pelvic masses may, therefore, be at increased risk of pulmonary thromboembolism from deep venous thrombosis, particularly in the presence of concurrent risk factors such as immobility, thrombophilias, malignancy, and significant cardiopulmonary disease.