Banks and the Communities They Serve: Time to Legislate?

In March 2007 HM Treasury published its latest thoughts on Financial Inclusion (HM Treasury Financial inclusion: The way forward, 2007), highlighting that after 10 years of activity in this area there is still growing evidence that the market is not meeting everyone’s needs, with significant numbers of people not able to access basic financial services such as credit. This continues alongside media stories of further bank branch closures in some areas, branches for high income earners only in others and the continuing controversy surrounding charges. This article will, with reference to the UK government’s financial inclusion agenda assess whether the time has come to implement legislation mandating that UK credit institutions have regard to customers needs when making decisions that could affect those most at risk from restricted access to financial services. These needs can include both access to affordable credit and access to financial services, such as bank accounts. The paper will use as a comparator the much talked about United States Community Reinvestment Act, enacted in 1977 and since amended, hailed (Barr New York University Law Review 80:513, 2005) and criticised (Macey and Miller Virginia Law Review 78:291, 1993) in equal measures, designed to ensure that depository institutions meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, particularly low and moderate income areas. Although not designed to tackle the perceived problems identified by the UK government, would enactment of similar legislation do more to achieve these aims that the activities undertaken so far. The article proposes that one way in which to improve the fight against financial exclusion is to improve the disclosure requirements of financial institutions, forcing them, where necessary, to provide data on lending patterns in disadvantaged areas.

非正式行政行为的内涵——基于比较法视角的初步展开

非正式行政行为的概念在我国学术界有被混淆和误用的现象,迫切需要比较法意义上的澄清。在对抗主义程序观盛行的关国,对抗性要素是否充分,是界分行为正式与非正式的基准;受形式法治主义观影响,日本采取"是否超越立法授权"的分析路径;受法效意思和行为形式论影响的德国,倾向于用"欠缺法律形式"来界定非正式行政行为的内涵。了解其不同内涵旨趣和形成机理,对我国的概念建构和展开这一新型课题的研究具有一定的启发意义。     

Why university inventions rarely produce income? Bottlenecks in university technology transfer

As intended, universities have gained ownership to an increased number of inventions from their labs after the enactment of Bayh-Dole act in 1980. But, how well are the universities taking advantage of the provisions of this Act? One aspect of this question is addressed empirically in this study. An analysis of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) periodic Licensing Activity Surveys of 1995–2004 indicated that the annual income generated by licensing university inventions was 1.7% of total research expenditure in 1995 and 2.9% in 2004. Some consider this and the rate of commercialization of university inventions to be too low. A premise of this study is that the slow rate of commercialization of university inventions may be due to the lack of adequate trained staff and inventions processing capacity in University Offices of Technology Transfer (UOTT). This paper describes an empirical study of the non-legal, technical, and legal invention processing capacity of US UOTT and its implications. A survey questionnaire was sent to 99 randomly selected US research universities. Seventy-five percent of the respondents mentioned shortage of staff for non-legal and legal processing of inventions. More than a third of the respondents claimed that, in 2006, they failed to process more than 26% of the inventions due to insufficient processing capacity in the UOTT. The study includes multiple regression models to estimate the effect of staffing on performance variables (i.e., Provisional Applications Filed, Patent [non-provisional] Applications and Licenses Executed) and “Inventions Not Processed” by the UOTTs due to staff/budget shortages. It is argued that, when short of staff and budget, UOTTs will be reduced to devoting their resources to ensuring patent applications are filed and patents are issued at the expense of marketing of inventions. Further, high-tech inventions are difficult to market because, often, there are no ready markets for them, especially if the inventor had no pre-invention contacts with a potential licensee. High-tech inventions originating from university labs may need market space/niche identification, new market creation, and the translation of the lab result into an “investor friendly” business plan; most UOTTs may be significantly short on these skills. Recommendations of this study are: first, an in-depth study of universities that are prolific in licensing inventions (40 or more licenses a year) is necessary to understand the reasons for their success in the context of UOTTs capacity to process inventions. Further, all federal agencies sponsoring university research must earmark a small percentage of each grant exclusively for commercialization purposes at the university. The paper offers multiple options for the effective use of these funds. The paper also offers several avenues for future research.     

试评韩国《集合建筑物法》第三次修订

虽然韩国《民法》中的土地和建筑物属于不同的所有权客体,但两者基本上适用相同的物权变动法理。然而,就部分所有权而言,土地和建筑物之间存在一定差异。土地可仅依当事人的意思及分割登记而实现对其一部分之所有。相比之下,建筑物却不能仅凭当事人的意思对其一部分进行分割和所有。只有当建筑物的相应部分具备独立性时,才能在将该建筑物的一部分登记为独立所有权的客体后,实现受法律保护的区分所有。上述内容所涉及的规定建筑物部分所有权的韩国法律,即为《关于集合建筑物的所有及管理的法律》。但由于韩国法院担心区分所有权的泛滥可能造成不动产所有权秩序的混乱,因此对《集合建筑物法》项下建筑物之一部分的独立性要件采严格审核原则,其结果导致区分所有权不会轻易得到认定。但是,综观区分所有的具体事例,从平衡性和比例性的角度来看,则会产生法院拒绝提供保护是否正确的疑问。正是基于对这种情况提供保护之必要性的考虑,遂有《集合建筑物法》第1条之2的新设,以便将此等情形中的一部分作为法律所保护的对象。但即使在法律修订后,韩国法院基本上仍对区分所有权的认定持消极态度。对此,试将区分所有权的保护问题与因韩国不动产物权变动登记主义造成的事实所有权的保护问题相联系,提出扩大保护之必要。     

“非正式行政行为”概念界定——兼“非强制行政行为”评析

作为行政指导、行政合同等行为的上位概念,"非强制行政行为"从提出到广泛引用一直缺乏学理论证。实质上这一概念本身的存在意义及其科学性是存有质疑的,在"新公共服务理论"背景之下其更加显露。相反,"非正式行政行为"则在语义上更具科学性、内容上更具全面性和功能上更具现实性。     

Divine Witness

Journal of Indian Philosophy - When People were falsely accused, and yet there existed no human means to testify to the truth, to whom did they resort for the final judgment? In ancient India, it...     

Who's Your Daddy?: The Marital Presumption of Legitimacy in the Modern World and its Application to Same‐Sex Couples

Recently, the definition of marriage has been significantly altered. No longer do we find ourselves exclusively in the midst of “traditional marriage” between one man and one woman. Instead, everywhere we experience different kinds of marriages and diverse, nontraditional families. The United States has finally caught up to many advanced democracies in universally recognizing same‐sex marriage through the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. However, the next question remains unanswered: what about families of same‐sex couples? This Note explores the nature of same‐sex couples, their families, and in particular, their children. It addresses the issue of the marital presumption of legitimacy and encourages its application to all legally recognized married couples regardless of sexual orientation and biology. Even though prior to Obergefell some states were unwilling to apply the presumption, since the implementation of marriage equality, the next logical step would be to utilize the presumption to ensure that all parents, regardless of gender, are recognized and families are preserved.     

Insurance Fraud and the Role of the Civil Law

Two UK Supreme Court decisions have considered insurance fraud. The first, Versloot Dredging BV v HDI‐Gerling Industries Versicherung (The DC Merwestone), concerned the use of a fraudulent device being harnessed to support a legitimate claim which, in the view of the majority, was an area of insurance law in need of re‐evaluation. The second, Haywood v Zurich Insurance Co, concerned the use of fraud to increase the settlement paid by the insurer and whether an insurer, which suspects fraud but has nevertheless chosen to settle a claim, is entitled to set aside the settlement under the tort of deceit where it subsequently discovers proof that it was in fact fraudulent. This case note examines not only the legal implications of the decisions and their likely impact on industry practice, it also focuses on the broader issue of the proper province of the civil law and whether general deterrence can be justified as a proper objective where the criminal law is deficient in punishing fraud because of its higher standard of proof.     

Mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS on rural livelihoods in Southern Africa

A variety of interventions to mitigate the increasing impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic on smallholder agricultural production and food security are currently implemented in sub-Saharan Africa. However, documentation and dissemination of such interventions is limited and patchy. Building on emerging experiences from the field, this article seeks to move beyond charting the impacts of HIV and AIDS on rural livelihoods to review existing mitigation policies and programmes, identify the challenges to mitigation, and provide suggestions for future mitigation strategies and policy priorities. The experiences cited in the article are mainly drawn from the hardest-hit regions in Southern and Eastern Africa, but they provide useful lessons for AIDS-affected rural communities in other contexts. The main conclusion is that, as current initiatives are to a large extent ad hoc and localised, there is a need for documentation, dissemination, and scaling up of existing interventions, as well as greater coherence and co-ordination in policies and programmes to extend their reach and make the most of limited resources.