Discerning Immunity for Governmental Entities: Analyzing Legislative Choices

In 2006, three disagreements about the scope of immunity for governmental entities were considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Governmental entities were seeking to avoid liability for their actions, claiming the defense of sovereign immunity. Other lawsuits involving governmental immunity under state constitutional and statutory provisions disclose controversies concerning the responsibilities of governments to injured persons. The complicated jurisprudence governing immunity for governmental entities shows two alternatives for legislatures. They have the ability to increase liability by waiving immunity or to add defenses that defeat liability. The trend seems to be to waive immunity for governmental entities while adding statutory defenses that are available to both the private sector and governmental entities.     

Indicators of Democracy in Professional Associations: Elite Recruitment, Turnover, and Decision Making in a Metropolitan Bar Association

This study considers political structure in bar associations with respect to one central problem: the tension between democracy and oligarchy in the internal politics of bar associations. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical material, the authors outline a series of indicators on which the degree of democracy and oligarchy in the organized bar may be measured and then apply these criteria to the Chicago Bar Association from 1950 through 1974. The authors briefly review writings on the political structure of bar associations in the United States and note relevant theoretical perspectives on the politics of voluntary associations. They distinguish several patterns of oligarchy and democracy and explore the consequences of certain trends for the Chicago Bar Association and other bar associations.     

Fatal postpartum spontaneous liver rupture: case report and literature review

Maternal hepatic rupture is a rare complication of pregnancy that can be fatal to both mother and child. This phenomenon is most often associated with preeclampsia/eclampsia and/or HELLP syndrome, which is defined by a collection of clinical features including hemolysis (H), elevated liver enzymes (EL), and a low platelet count (LP). These disease processes are typically identified and treated during pregnancy, often in the last trimester. The described case is unusual in that the decedent had no known history of preeclampsia/eclampsia or HELLP syndrome during this pregnancy, and she died suddenly several days postpartum of liver rupture with massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage following a routine cesarean section delivery and an uneventful hospital course. Similar cases are infrequent in the literature, which is reviewed in this report.     

Dual‐indexed mortgages in reforming socialist economies: Evaluating the risks and institutional requirements

Abstract

Although housing finance systems in reforming socialist economies have attempted to increase their market orientation, the high inflation rates accompanying the reform process have introduced new distortions. Mortgage instruments designed for high‐inflation economies, such as the dual‐indexed mortgage (DIM), can reduce these distortions. However, the introduction of new financial instruments should not be undertaken lightly. Both the performance of the instruments under various macroeconomic conditions and the technical requirements for implementation must be examined carefully.

Such an analysis was performed for the hypothetical introduction of a DIM in Hungary. In the Hungarian example, the risks of losses on a DIM portfolio are minimal and are considerably less than the risk faced by traditional fixed‐rate mortgages. An examination of the institutional and technical issues associated with the DIM shows that reforming socialist economies face special difficulties. In the Hungarian case, as the structure of the economy changes, the accuracy of traditional methodologies for gathering government statistics, and therefore the accuracy of the indices, declines. Lenders have delayed implementation of the instrument for this reason. Lenders in other reforming socialist economies should take such risks into account and should, at the very least, adjust their underwriting standards to account for such risks. In the long run, reconstruction of the government statistical system should alleviate this problem.     

The noble art of the chase in the Arab world

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman, and is the author of many articles in specialist journals on hunting and co‐author of The Saluqi: Coursing Hound of the East (1995), Dogs in Antiquity (2001) and Oman in Time (2001). This article is based on a lecture delivered to the Society on 23 October, 2002.     

Singapore's cultural policy and its consequences

Abstract

This article explores the effects of Singapore's Global City for the Arts project on the local theater industry. It begins by describing the character of the Singapore state and its ability to meet the challenges of globalization. It then shows that while historically global in orientation, the city-state's early cultural policies were resolutely local and insular prior to the economic recession in 1985. From that year on, local arts and culture was driven by an economic rationale — eventually culminating in the birth of a globally oriented national cultural policy: the Global City for the Arts project. The author contends that the Global City for the Arts project has pressured the Singapore state into shedding some of its authoritarian practices in order to conform to international norms. However, the author also illustrates how certain theater companies with the requisite cultural capital for the Global City for the Arts project have benefited from the country's cultural policies while others that do not possess such cultural capital are marginalized. The article concludes by arguing that the Singapore state, in going global, exacerbates the economic disparity by accentuating preexisting inequalities and divisions in the local.     

Politics,Economic Crises and Corporate Governance Reforms: Regulatory Capture in Malaysia

Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the regulatory system involving governance of the corporate sector was subjected to major legislative and institutional reforms, primarily in response to exposures of serious cases of corruption and abuse in the financial sector by well-connected businesspeople. However, the 2008 global financial crisis indicated continued occurrence of irresponsible forms of corporate development and practices, underscoring structural weaknesses within the regulatory system in spite of these reforms. This article argues that the reforms that had been introduced ignored how state-business nexuses shape the way firms operate, a core reason for the persistence of unproductive and speculative forms of corporate development, grand corruption and cronyism. Utilising Malaysia as a case study, this article indicates that institutional reforms involving devolution of power to regulatory institutions are imperative to provide them with the autonomy to objectively institute prudential controls and indict errant firms that violate legislation overseeing corporate activities.