bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Underlying Complexities within the Line of Disruption
Authors: Dell'Erba Marco 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter adopts complexity science to explain the technological disruption affecting multiple dimensions of the financial system (contractual, financial, corporate governance, and financial networks at the level of central banks and shadow banking). It also provides a historical contextualization of technological changes, and characterizes technology—in particular the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System—as one of the responses to the financial crisis of 2008. Since then, a series of events have happened in the financial system which are characterized in this chapter as ‘the line of disruption’. Finally, this chapter identifies the layers of complexity as they emerged in the new paradigm, and as they will be developed in the book. Furthermore, it identifies a static and a dynamic approach to technological changes and more generally to the transformative stages of capitalism.
Concluding Remarks: What’s Next?
Authors: Dell'Erba Marco 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
After answering the key questions from a static and dynamic perspective, this chapter considers the way complexity affects regulatory responses to disruption. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of approaching the regulation of disruptive technologies as a foundational case study for regulating disruption more generally, including disruption brought by sustainability, and considers the intersection between technology and sustainability, which leads to the emergence of sustainable digital finance. Finally, this chapter identifies the next step in the technological and societal disruption, namely the creation of a new synthetic universe, the ‘metaverse’. Here, blockchain will likely be the foundational layer, and DeFi the finance of the metaverse. The chapter considers these further developments and anticipates the forthcoming legal challenges in this field.
Third Conversation
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The narrator and his wife Laura hold a dinner party for their friends Martin, Tamsin, and Carl. Soon the conversation turns to Dostoevsky and his relation to existentialism is discussed from the perspectives of Catholic theology and critical theory. There is also discussion of film versions of Dostoevsky’s novels, with particular reference to Robert Bresson, and of the use of colours in his novels. Laura offers a critical view of Dostoevsky’s representation of women, with particular reference to Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. Interspersed in the chapter are two conversations between Dostoevsky and the narrator; the first offers the writer’s response to existentialism, the second presents his view of what, in his time, was called ‘the woman question’.
Sixth Conversation
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
A seminar on Dostoevsky’s anti-Semitism and its relation to the rise of Nazism prompts the narrator to read what Dostoevsky wrote about the Jewish question. He is shocked by the writer’s anti-Semitism, though he notices that he nevertheless affirms the possible brotherhood of Jews and Russians in principle. In the seminar itself, the speaker highlights both the explicit anti-Semitism of the Diary of a Writer and anti-Semitic elements in the novels; he also argues that Dostoevsky played a significant role in the formation of Nazi ideology. This is challenged by those attending the seminar, including the narrator’s friend Carl, who puts the view that literature is never a primary element in shaping societal movements. At the end of the seminar, the narrator is joined by Dostoevsky, who acknowledges his guilt but also pushes back against aspects of the views proposed by the speaker, ending with the suggestion that the narrator look at Solovyov’s views about Jewish–Christian reconciliation as a necessary precondition of God’s Kingdom, conceding that they may be correct.
Epilogue
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
In a short epilogue, the narrator attends Easter worship and reflects on what it now means to him in the light of his conversations with Dostoevsky. Some weeks later, he and his wife visit Glasgow’s Botanical Gardens where they meet Dostoevsky. No words are spoken, but his wife recognizes Dostoevsky and the narrator is required to explain the conversations he has been having to his wife and undertakes to write them up for her.
Introduction
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The introduction explains the way in which Dostoevsky is fictionalized in the Conversations, comparing this with other fictionalizations of the author in literature, biography, and film. Issues relating to Dostoevsky’s Christianity are considered and attention is drawn to the limits of any ‘theology’ that might be derived from his writings. How much the Dostoevsky represented in the Conversations reflects the historical Dostoevsky is considered, and there is an explanation of who the narrator is, and what function he performs. A brief discussion of the merits of the Constance Garnett translation, used in the Conversations, follows, and the chapter ends with a list of the abbreviations used.
Commentary on the Third Conversation
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The commentary includes discussion of Dostoevsky and film, Dostoevsky and existentialism, and ‘the woman question’. With regard to film, Dostoevsky’s novels have attracted many filmmakers, in Russia and globally, and key examples are considered, notably Robert Bresson, who adapted several Dostoevsky novels for the screen. Dostoevsky is widely associated with existentialism and was approvingly cited by Jean-Paul Sartre in the lecture that popularized existentialism. However, Dostoevsky’s conception of the human personality was markedly different from Sartrean existentialism, as Simone de Beauvoir noted. The importance of the woman question in Dostoevsky’s novels and publicist writings is discussed at length. The relation of the sexes is perennially present in literature, but in Dostoevsky’s case this is sharpened by nineteenth-century debates about women’s emancipation. Although aspects of his views are traditional and sentimental, he also embraced and promoted other aspects of women’s emancipation, especially with regard to education, while exposing the roots of male violence against women.
Commentary on the Fifth Conversation
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The commentary contains the first of three discussions of Dostoevsky’s politics, the philosopher V. S. Solovyov, and ‘living life’, i.e. the vitalist element in Dostoevsky’s world view. The commentary tracks the development of Dostoevsky’s political views and his post-Siberia faith in tsar, people, and Orthodoxy and his analysis of the threat to Russia from Western liberal ideas and their radical application by Russian nihilists, as portrayed in The Possessed. The claim that Russia is a ‘god-bearing’ nation is examined and it is argued that, against some commentators, this is not Dostoevsky’s own view, without significant qualification. The career and thought of V. S. Solovyov and his relation to Dostoevsky are introduced, and his sophiological speculations are commented on. His speeches on Dostoevsky show how he developed Dostoevsky’s social thought in a universal, rather than narrowly nationalistic, direction. Lastly, it is argued that Dostoevsky, like Solovyov, saw human history as developing a movement that is found in the immediate experience of life, linking human destiny to that of the cosmos as a whole.
Commentary on the Epilogue and Postscript
Authors: Pattison George 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The postscript revisits Dostoevsky’s politics for a third time in the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Noting the use made of Dostoevsky by contemporary Russian nationalists, including President Putin, the commentary considers whether the view encountered on the internet that Dostoevsky ‘would have’ supported the invasion is examined. However, this view depends on a problematic identification of the present-day Russian state with the Orthodox tsarist autocracy of Dostoevsky’s own time, which seems highly questionable in view of the titanic disruptions of Russian history in the twentieth century. Although the elements to which nationalists appeal are present in Dostoevsky’s text, their application to present-day circumstances requires handling with care. While Dostoevsky looked to the moral reform of Russian society, his nationalism arguably has a spiritual and religious character that directly political applications fail to consider.
Object, Holder, and Content of Property Rights
Authors: von Bar Christian , Allen Jason Grant 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter explores the objects in which property rights can arise, who can hold (or acquire) such property rights, and which powers property rights give their holder. This introduces the reflexive relationship between property law and property rights. Legal systems differ considerably across these three interrelated aspects of property law. Property rights arise in a different, broader or narrower set of objects from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they are not always available to every person, and they do not have the same substantive content—not even when they are called by the same name. Underpinning this analysis is the fundamental distinction between persons (subjects) and things (objects) of the legal system, which we will examine in more detail in the next chapter.
Purely Normative Things
Authors: von Bar Christian , Allen Jason Grant 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter broaches a category of objects of property rights that occupies the frontier of property law in some legal systems: purely normative objects. This category includes economically important objects such as claims, shares in a business, enterprises, business relationships and goodwill, intellectual creations, discoveries, marks, and other similar objects are often of appreciable economic value—which is growing in response to current trends in digital technology. These objects are protected by property rights in all legal systems, but their legal treatment is not always consistent, and the question whether they are fitting objects for the right of ownership is contentious. This chapter reviews the various normative phenomena that can serve as the point of reference for special property rights and how they do (or do not) function as ‘things’. It concludes that purely normative things do not require the right of ‘ownership’ to guarantee exclusive use by a person and are not fitting objects of the right of ownership.
Objects of Legal Transaction Connected to Things
Authors: von Bar Christian , Allen Jason Grant 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter explores the legal dynamics of dealing with objects in ways that bear on the object’s nature and legal status. This includes combination and mixture, which are named and dealt with differently in different legal systems but present a universal problem. Combination and mixture are processes that can result in the creation of a new thing. They can also result in the loss of ‘thing’ status by an object, for example where it becomes a mere component of another thing. This chapter also covers the creation of new things by separation, the transformation of things through manufacturing processes, and the status of objects with a ‘double nature’ that are either independent things or things accessory to another. These processes provide another helpful context in which to probe the concept of thing-ness and to apply the approach to things set out in our conceptual scheme.
Historical Truth in Fifteenth-Century Italy
Authors: Mori Giuliano 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Historical Truth in Fifteenth-Century Italy addresses Renaissance history, philosophy, rhetoric, and jurisprudence to shed light on how humanists conceptualized truth and, more specifically, historical truth. While humanists agreed on identifying the main requirement of the historical genre with truthfulness, they disagreed on their notions of historical truth. Some authors equated historical truth with verisimilitude, thus harmonizing the quest for truth with other ingredients of their histories, such as their political utility and rhetorical aptness. Others, instead, rejected the notion of verisimilitude, identifying historical truth with factuality. Accordingly, they sought to produce bare and exhaustive accounts of all the things that pertained to their historical explorations, often resorting to innovative disciplines, such as archeology, philology, and the history of institutions. The humanist historiographical debate is especially significant because the notion of verisimilitude encompassed crucial elements required for the development of methods of critical assessment. By perceiving verisimilitude and factuality as irreconcilable, Quattrocento humanists reached a critical impasse—those who were interested in factual truth mostly lacked the means to ascertain it, while those that developed embryonic notions of historical criticism were not eminently concerned with the factual account of the past. This critical weakness exposed humanists to considerable risks, including that of accepting non-verisimilar historical forgeries passed off as factual. Such forgeries eventually served as a testing ground for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scholars, who sought to restore factual truth by means of critical criteria grounded in verisimilitude, thus overcoming the humanist impasse.
Introduction
Authors: Mori Giuliano 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
The Introduction sets the subject and goals of the book against the backdrop of past scholarship. Compared with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historiography, fifteenth-century theories of historical writing have received less scholarly attention. The study of the fifteenth-century emergence of an autonomous philosophical theory of historical writing has been hampered by a series of longstanding misconceptions about the allegedly untheoretical or unoriginal nature of humanist historiography. The Introduction contests these assumptions, suggesting that the Quattrocento debate on the theory of historical writing was characterized by the opposition between two concurrent views—one that rejected verisimilitude in favor of sheer factual truth and one that instead privileged notions such as those of historical verisimilitude and decorum over the precise exposition of individual facts.
Quattrocento Antiquarianism
Authors: Mori Giuliano 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Chapter 3 investigates the “antiquarian” historiographical current that rejected verisimilitude in favor of factual truth, discussing its characteristic assumptions and their practical consequences. Analyzing works such as those of Flavio Biondo, Poggio Bracciolini, and Cyriac of Ancona, this chapter demonstrates that these authors shared Lorenzo Valla’s conviction that historians should not abstain from factual digressions on topics other than history proper. This conviction ultimately fostered the development of disciplines such as archeology, philology, and chorography—disciplines that allowed Quattrocento antiquarians to produce historical knowledge not by resorting to abstract conjectures grounded in verisimilitude but by restoring the memory of ancient “facts.” By taking the factual account of events as a standard of historical veracity, sheer quantity, along with objectivity, inevitably became the historian’s target; true history came thus to be seen as the exhaustive account of all kinds of details, irrespective of their possibly non-verisimilar character. These principles caused “radical” antiquarians to suffer from a lack of critical insight resulting from the rejection of assessment criteria grounded in verisimilitude. These critical shortcomings are analyzed through the works of authors including Pomponio Leto, whose quest for historical truth resulted in the production of virtually exhaustive catalogs of allegedly factual data whose intrinsic reliability was not or could not be assessed.
Collective Political Decision-Making in Tragedy
Authors: Hardwick Alexandra 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Chapter 2 discusses the portrayal of off-stage group decision-making in tragedy, using the assembly scenes in Euripides’ Suppliants, Aeschylus’ Suppliants, and Euripides’ Orestes. These plays explore group decision-making with considerable nuance, demonstrating the complex middle ground between idealized rational decisions and stereotyped demagogic persuasion. Furthermore, they surround the assembly scenes with individual characters’ discourse on how to persuade the dêmos, which means group decision-making is interpreted through multiple characters’ perspectives. I posit that setting plays in Argos enabled democratic assemblies to be probed and problematized more freely than setting them in Athens, comparing the assembly scenes in Aeschylus’ Suppliants and Euripides’ Orestes with Euripides’ Suppliants.
Off-Stage Populations
Authors: Hardwick Alexandra 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Chapter 4 discusses amorphous groups whose role is not clearly defined in plot terms (‘populations’). It argues that, even when an off-stage population does not make decisions that concretely change the course of events, characters are often acutely aware of the population’s watchful presence, demonstrated especially by a study of Oedipus Tyrannus. On other occasions, the off-stage population’s influence pointedly resists identification and definition. Analysis of Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus demonstrates the various ways in which characters’ claims about the population are undermined: the plays exploit the difficulty of verifying claims made about populations we cannot see. Finally, an off-stage population’s absence may itself contribute to a tragedy’s political landscape: both Persians and Agamemnon create a backdrop of political dysfunction in which elite individuals are not held accountable.
Digital Supplies in a Cross-Border Context
Authors: Traversa Edoardo , Lamensch, Marie , Masseglia Elena 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter analyses the notion of digital supply in European Union (EU) law and critically discusses recent EU legislative developments imposing new value-added tax (VAT) collection and reporting obligations on digital platforms concerning digital services, distance sale of goods, and imports from outside the EU through digital platforms. It focuses, in particular, on the situation of cross-border supplies involving suppliers or customers from non-EU countries. The chapter argues that the EU legislative framework has undergone major changes in terms of the VAT treatment of e-commerce, greatly improving coordination between Member States as regards collection, but questions remain as regards the effectiveness of the control mechanism and its robustness against fraud.
Good Faith in English Contract Law: Lessons from Comparative Law?
Authors: Cartwright John 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter considers the place of good faith in English contract law, by contrast with other common law and civil law systems, and discusses the role that comparative law can play in deciding on any potential development of English law. Ewan McKendrick has a natural sensitivity to the significance of differences in legal rules in different legal systems. The chapter emphasizes the need for caution in borrowing rules from another legal system, both generally and in the particular context of good faith in contract law. The form in which an obligation of good faith is accepted must fit the legal system’s model of contract law.
Repeal the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943
Authors: Stevens Robert 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter argues for the repeal of the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943. It explains why the common law position reached immediately prior to the Act was correct in principle. It differentiates between two different species of claims for restitution: the full unwinding of the performance rendered by both parties to a contract following its avoidance, and the restitution of a performance that it was agreed was conditional, where that condition has failed. The Act confuses these two. Results that are (obviously) incorrect in principle can only currently be avoided by creative reading of the legislation by the courts. Once the text of the Act is read with care, its flaws are revealed.
The Critical Reception of Cavendish Square Holdings v Makdessi
Authors: Halson Roger 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter examines the Supreme Court’s restatement of the law of contractual penalties in Cavendish Square Holding BV v Makdessi. This major reformulation of a key area of commercial law has been subject to extensive discussion in appellate courts in other common law jurisdictions. These decisions are discussed and the divergences between different systems of law are summarised and critiqued.
Transnational Commercial Law and Impediments to Its Development
Authors: Goode Roy 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
This chapter focuses on transnational commercial law and its impediments to its development. It defines transnational commercial law as the set of private law principles and rules which governs international commercial transactions and is common to legal systems generally or to a significant number of legal systems. Transnational commercial law is the product of the convergence of rules drawn from a variety of sources, both legally binding and facultative. The chapter details several sources of law for harmonization, such as legally binding rules and facultative rules. It then elaborates on the obstacles to overcome in correlation with the harmonization of commercial law, which includes the issues of process and substance.
Inventing Slavonic
Authors: Ivanova Mirela 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Few alphabets in the world are actively celebrated, none more so than the Slavonic. This book offers a new reading of the invention of the alphabet and its implications. Its premise is simple: namely that the alphabet was not invented once, but that it continued to be contested and redefined in the first century after its creation. But it goes against the grain of modern scholarship and popular common-sense, where a stable and fossilised story about Cyril, his brother and companion Methodios, and the alphabet can be found. The book posits that this well-known story is in fact a Frankenstein’s monster, bolted together from texts which originally attributed quite different, often conflicting meanings to the elements which make up this supposedly unified narrative. In this narrative’s place, the book offers a series of new readings of our earliest sources for the alphabet’s appearance. Through this, it offers a new social history of the fragility of the early script, and the ways in which its existence was conditioned by changes in sociopolitical life between Rome and Constantinople.
Learned Saints between Rome and Constantinople
Authors: Ivanova Mirela 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Having understood what the text is arguing, in Chapter 2, this chapter makes arguments about who the Life of Constantine-Cyril is arguing with. This chapter situates the Life of Constantine-Cyril through a generic comparison with other contemporary Byzantine hagiographic texts. It situates the text within Byzantine hagiography and picks out two subgenres of saints’ lives that our text merges: the roaming ascetic and the educated bishop. The chapter then moves on to contextualising the Life within the wider intellectual context of a ninth-century Constantinopolitan elite preoccupied with the relationship between learning and piety, most recently articulated through the patriarchal schism between Photios and Ignatios. The Life did not perceive itself as a mythical account of a predestined alphabet inventor, but rather as a specific contribution to an immediate intellectual problem.