Ownership structure, regulation and the market for corporate control in the EU banking sector

This paper analyzes the efficiency of shareholder control and hostile takeovers as corporate governance mechanisms in the EU banking sector against the background of the existing corporate governance regulations and different ownership structures of banks in the EU. The results indicate the there is trade-off in EU corporate governance regulation between better investor protection and a higher efficiency of the market for corporate control. The main problem is differences in the ownership structure of banks in the EU banking sector. This implies that EU corporate governance regulations should be customized to the specific ownership structure of banks and not toward harmonising national regulations.     

Dan ?t’astny: The Economics of Economics

The Economics of Economics (2010) by Dan ?t??astny extends the economic approach of public choice and law and economics to see how economists behave so as to improve their well being in the world of uncertainty, scarcity and institutions. According to ?t??astny, economists have been adjusting their behavior to the changing institutional environment and, consequently, ended up policy irrelevant. The book review provides an assessment of the model ?t??astny employs. On the one hand, ?t??astny offers a looking glass that helps seeing the decision making process of an economist from a price theory perspective. I suggest, on the other hand, that the model would be more accurate had it not considered preferences constant. In fact, the evolution of economists?? preferences and the changing sense of praiseworthiness is what the model should try to explain.     

Neue Perspektiven der Gemeindezusammenarbeit? Die B-VG-Novelle BGBl I 60/2011 und ihre Relevanz für die interkommunale Kooperation

Die B-VG-Novelle BGBl I 60/2011 enth?lt einige wichtige Neuerungen in den verfassungsrechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen der interkommunalen Kooperation. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei der Gemeindeverband als zentrale Institution der Gemeindezusammenarbeit in ?sterreich. Allerdings verdient auch das neu eingeführte Instrument der ?ffentlich-rechtlichen Vereinbarungen von Gemeinden Interesse. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die neue Verfassungsrechtslage und prüft ihre Relevanz für die künftige Gemeindezusammenarbeit.     

RNA/DNA co-analysis from blood stains—Results of a second collaborative EDNAP exercise

A second collaborative exercise on RNA/DNA co-analysis for body fluid identification and STR profiling was organized by the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP). Six human blood stains, two blood dilution series (5-0.001 μl blood) and, optionally, bona fide or mock casework samples of human or non-human origin were analyzed by the participating laboratories using a RNA/DNA co-extraction or solely RNA extraction method. Two novel mRNA multiplexes were used for the identification of blood: a highly sensitive duplex (HBA, HBB) and a moderately sensitive pentaplex (ALAS2, CD3G, ANK1, SPTB and PBGD). The laboratories used different chemistries and instrumentation. All of the 18 participating laboratories were able to successfully isolate and detect mRNA in dried blood stains. Thirteen laboratories simultaneously extracted RNA and DNA from individual stains and were able to utilize mRNA profiling to confirm the presence of blood and to obtain autosomal STR profiles from the blood stain donors. The positive identification of blood and good quality DNA profiles were also obtained from old and compromised casework samples. The method proved to be reproducible and sensitive using different analysis strategies. The results of this collaborative exercise involving a RNA/DNA co-extraction strategy support the potential use of an mRNA based system for the identification of blood in forensic casework that is compatible with current DNA analysis methodology.     

The influence of functional and geographical diversity in collaboration on product innovation performance in SMEs

Collaboration in innovation is considered an effective strategy to overcome barriers to innovate in SMEs. However, resource constraints and risk of knowledge leakage force management in SMEs to be selective with whom and where to collaborate. Still little is known about interactions between types of partners and their geographical location. This paper sheds new light on the relation between functional and geographical diversity in innovation partners and new-to-the-market and new-to-the-firm innovation performance in SMEs. Using data from two waves (2008 and 2010) of the Community Innovation Survey for Belgium, a positive relation is found between market partners and innovation new-to-the-firm, and between science and global partners and innovation new-to-the-market. A larger diversity in type and in geographical spread of partners is found to be positively associated with innovation new-to-the-market. Cooperation with a diverse set of market partners enhances new-to-the-firm innovation. More diversity in science partners enhances the balance between new-to-the-firm and new-to-the-market innovation. Diversity among international partners enhances new-to-the-firm and new-to-the-market innovation, but not the balance between both. A cooperation strategy balancing functional with geographical partner diversity enhances the balance between new-to-the-firm versus new-to-the-market innovation.     

Feminism and the Gender Recognition Act 2004

This paper argues, first, that the legal construction of transsexualism is a matter of interest, not only to members of the trans community, but to all students of gender, including feminists. The paper then proceeds to explain and analyse, using feminist perspectives, key aspects of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in the light of the recent caselaw concerning the rights of trans persons. The 2004 Act, it is argued, is a conservative move, which attempts to deny the threat transsexualism poses to the binary system of gender, by instigating a system to formally ‘recognise’ only men and or women. However, the way in which the Act constructs the public/private divide and the mind/body relation carries potential for legal recognition of subject positions which may in a variety of ways be ‘beyond’ the binary system that is currently orthodox. The paper can as such be read as a case study in the legal (re)construction of gender, the gender/sex relation, and the widespread tendency to construct gender conservatively.     

Reproductive technologies and the legal determination of fatherhood

In Re D is the most recent in a line of cases to raise problems with the determination of legal fatherhood under s.28(3) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The judgments in In Re D are interesting in particular because they demonstrate the growing currency of the idea that a child has a right to ‘genetic truth’. They also further evidence the ‘fragmentation of fatherhood’. This case is best understood as part of a complex and ongoing negotiation of men’s role in the family in the light of shifting family forms.     

To Pay Suspicious Attention: Following the Weave of ‘Mixed Logics’ in Women’s Ethical Decision Making

This article explores areas of law loosely within English equity and trusts law that have not conventionally been subject to feminist debate, and within the context of a discussion about feminist method. The particular areas examined are whistleblowing and trustees’ powers of investment, each of which calls for consideration of decision-making processes which have an ethical content. These sites are chosen because they take debate outside the all too familiar locations of woman or ‘the body of woman’, including the family home, where feminist analysis in relation to equity and trusts tends to stray. In exploring these chosen fields, Hobby’s (Feminist Perspectives on Equity and Trusts, Cavendish Publishing, 2001, pp. 219–255) critique of gender dimensions in relation to whistleblowing and Dunn’s (Feminist Perspectives on Equity and Trusts, Cavendish Publishing, 2001, pp. 179–196) account of women trustees’ investment decisions are evaluated and developed. The debate within feminist legal criticism of the possibility of integrating an ‘ethics of care’ and an ‘ethics of rights’ is acknowledged. Whilst acknowledging of the difficulty of adopting an approach that recognises ‘mixed logics’, it is concluded that women (and men) do integrate the ethics of care and the ethics of rights in their decision-making. It is argued that the effort should be made to trace the specific weave in particular circumstances, thereby paying suspicious attention to the values that underlie courts’ analyses of ethical choices.     

‘She Knew What was Expected of Her’: The White Legal System’s Encounter with Traditional Marriage

A recent case in the Northern Territory of Australia has raised the issues of intra-racial rape and the legal recognition of traditional marriages between Indigenous people. The defendant in the Jamilmira case was charged with statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. He argued that the girl’s status as his promised wife should lead to mitigation of his sentence. Members of the Northern Territory judiciary and others in the community were divided in their response to his claim. Ultimately the case led to reform of the law in relation to the recognition of traditional marriage, a response which outraged some members of the Indigenous community. In this article I examine the various representations of culture and individuals that were utilised by ‘the law’ and how these representations informed the legal response. In the process I question the limits of my own role as a ‘white middle-class feminist’ in the context of explorations of law and culture. Is there a space to become involved in these debates without being complicit in fostering racism and prejudice and without reverting to stereotypes and cultural arrogance?