Restrictive Covenants in Xanadu

Legal scholarship is naturally inclined towards explanations and justifications of contemporary law. In the case of restrictive covenants and building schemes this has led to a distorted perception of the historical record, as revealed in recorded case reports dating from the nineteenth century. It is argued that the restrictive covenant had its historical genesis not in a response to industrialisation and mass urbanisation, but in the developments of resort towns in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as a response to the needs of land developers. Furthermore, it is argued that a better historical understanding of these origins illuminates contemporary problems concerned with the adaptability of law and the potential roles of law in development.     

“Now that the Milk is Spilt”: Appeasement and the Archive on Intelligence

This article assesses British intelligence and its effect on policy during the interwar years. It discusses the publically available documentation, which now includes almost all the material on the matter, though the data base has been permanently destroyed in significant ways. The paper traces the development of British intelligence between 1869–1939, involving the transition from a tradition to a system of intelligence, with the greatest change occurring during the Fist World War. The article assesses how, between 1914–39, intelligence was interrelated to bureaucratic politics, modes of decision making, and the formulation of strategic politics, modes of decision making, and the formulation of strategic policy. It discusses the structure and power of British intelligence agencies between 1919–39, their quality compared to rivals in other countries, and the impact on policy of their successes and failures. It concludes that intelligence, as an influence and a source of evidence, is essential to the study of diplomatic and strategic history, upon which its impact is complex and variable.     

Interrelationships among public spending preferences: A micro analysis

This paper examines a system of qualitative demand equations for public spending on education, welfare, housing, health, highways, and defense. The demand for public spending for a particular category is hypothesized to be a function of income, tax-price, private benefit measures, and tastes as well as demands for other public expenditure categories. Based on individual survey data, the conditional maximum likelihood estimates of the logit equations are obtained. The results indicate the significant role of tastes, private benefit variables, and tax-prices. In addition, positive rather than negative, demand interrelationships are found to exist. These findings question the validity of the median voter hypothesis as a model for public budget allocation.     

Human blood stain identification and sex determination in dried blood stains using recombinant DNA techniques

DNA was extracted from human and non-primate dried blood stains. Human male and female specimens were readily distinguished by analysis with a Y-chromosome specific DNA probe. Human and non-primate blood stains were also readily differentiated using a repeat sequence (Alu) DNA probe. The potential power of recombinant DNA analysis in forensic science is discussed.