Susan Smith and Her Children: A Reasoning Dialectic

Human judgment and decision making has been demonstrated by several contemporary researchers to be comprised of both rational and emotive/intuitive cognitive systems; a single decision can involve both rational thinking and intuition. In the present article, a narrative approach is utilized to analyze the Susan Smith case, and this is interlaced with contemporary decision theory in an attempt to more fully understand the seemingly nonrational act (murder/attempted suicide) committed by Susan Smith in October, 1994. The ethical, legal and social implications of using an approach of this nature are discussed.     

The coalition of the willing: Effect of country diversity in an environmental treaty game

It is analyzed how size differences among countries affect the benefits from climate coalitions. It is shown that size differences lead to smaller coalitions and greater benefits than coalitions among identical countries. The importance of trigger strategies for supporting cooperative solutions is considered. A real world example, based on the world’s six largest emitters, is used to illustrate the implications of size differences in terms of emissions versus valuations of benefits. Climate coalitions become smaller when ranking in terms of benefits is different from ranking in terms of emissions. Three cases of benefit valuations are considered: benefits equal (i) share in world emissions, (ii) share in world GDP, and (iii) share of world population.     

Analysis on the impact of the “Dilution Theory” on ruling of trademark cases

Chinese trademark law has established the cross-category protection system of well-known trademarks based on the confusion theory. The system, however, has many problems in practice and does not fulfill completely the needs for protecting well-known trademarks. Consequently, when hearing trademark cases, some judges have abandoned the confusion theory instead of using the dilution theory in judging well-known trademarks. Through analysis on 100 judgments concerning well-known trademark cases, it can be seen that the influence of the dilution theory on the ruling of trademark cases is increasing. Certain conditions should first be satisfied when introducing the dilution theory to rule trademark cases: Firstly, the contents of the dilution theory shall be grasped as correctly as possible to avoid plausible understanding; secondly, the application of the dilution theory shall adopt the existing institutional criteria as much as possible by full use of the leeway of interpretation provided by the existing system.     

Will empowering developers to challenge exclusionary zoning increase suburban housing choice?

The municipal zoning process in the United States has come under increasing attack as a tool to create and maintain suburban socioeconomic homogeneity by mandating sprawl‐producing single‐family detached houses at the expense of less costly townhouses, apartments, and mobile homes. Beginning in the 1970s, the Supreme Courts of the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey addressed municipal exclusionary zoning in different ways: Pennsylvania empowered residential developers to compel municipalities practicing exclusionary zoning to authorize market‐rate development of all types of housing, while developer empowerment in New Jersey was conditioned upon inclusion of low‐ and moderate‐income units. Using aerial survey and housing census data over a 20‐year period, this article finds that outcomes by housing type over a 20‐year period in Pennsylvania municipalities around Philadelphia were more diverse than those in adjacent New Jersey municipalities. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.