cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Balancing Act: Finding Consensus on Standards for Unmasking Anonymous Internet Speakers

The growth in popular use of the internet has led to a dramatic increase in both the amount of anonymous speech and the number of aggrieved plaintiffs claiming to be harmed by it. Lawsuits involving anonymous internet speech present thorny questions for courts because plaintiffs typically must obtain the identity of anonymous speakers during discovery before any adjudication of the underlying claim. Compelled disclosure of identifying information thus risks chilling speech by subjecting anonymous speakers who have done nothing illegal to unwarranted harassment and retaliation. In response to these concerns, courts have formulated “unmasking” standards for determining when to allow anonymous speakers to be identified. This Note examines trends within various unmasking standards and proposes a single standard for future courts that requires notice, an evaluation on the merits of the plaintiff’s claim, and a balancing of the First Amendment rights of the anonymous speaker against the strength of the plaintiff’s claim and the need for unmasking.
Patent Quality and a Two-Tiered Patent System

We study the determinants of patent quality and the volume of patent applica- tions when inventors care about perceived patent quality. We examine the eects of various policy reforms, in particular, a proposal to establish a two-tiered patent system. In the two-tiered system, applicants can choose between a regular patent and a more costly and possibly more thoroughly examined "gold-plate" patent. Introducing a second patent-tier can reduce patent applications and the incidence of bad patents, it sometimes increases welfare. The gold-plate tier attracts inven- tors with high ex-ante probability of validity, but not necessarily applicants with innovations of high economic value.
The Aggregate Harmony Metric and a Statistical and Visual Contextualization of the Rehnquist Court: 50 Years of Data

Electronic Services Librarian. Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington: Doctoral Student. School of Library and Information Science (SUS). Indiana UniversityBloomington. (JD University of Kansas 1997, MSLIS University of Illinois 2000). Mr. Hook researches in the area of information visualization. Particular interests include the educational use of knowledge domain visualizations. concept mapping, and the spatial navigation of bibliographic data in which the underlying structural organization of the domain is conveyed to the user. Additional interests include social network theory. knowledge organization systems. legal bibliometrics. and legal informatics. (The following website contains color versions of the visualizations used in this article: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/-pahook/index.html.) 1. See The Supreme Court, 2005 Term. 120 HARV. L. REV. 372. 372-84 (2006). 2. The Harvard Law Review first published the annual matrix in 1957 (regarding the 1956 Term). and has provided annual matrices ever since. See The Supreme Court. l'J56 Term. 71 HARV. L. REV. 84. 103 (1957): The Supreme Court, 1957 Term, 72 HARV. L. REV. 96. 103 (1958): The Supreme Court, ]')5/i Term, 73 HARV. L. REV. 128. 133 (1959): The Supreme Court, 1959 Term. 74 HARV. L. REV. 95. 105 (1960): The Supreme Court, 1960 Term. 75 HARV. L. REV. 80. 89 (1961): The Supreme Court, 1961 Term, 76 HARV. L. REV. 75. 85 (1962): The Supreme Court, 1962 Term. 77 HARV. L. REV. 79. 87 (1963): The Supreme Court, 1963 Term. 78 HARV. L. REV. 177. 183 (1904): The Supreme Court, l'JM Term, 79 HARV. L. REV. 103.109 (1965); The Supreme Court, ]')65 Term. 80 HARV. L. REV. 123. 145 (1966): The Supreme Court, 1966 Term. 81 HARV. L. REV. 110. 131 (1967): The Supreme Court, 19{57 Term. 82 HARV. L. REV. 93. 307 (1968): The Supreme Court, Noli Term. 83 HARV. L. REV. 60. 279 (1969): The Supreme Court, /';)6') Term. 84 HARV. L. REV. 30. 252 (1970): The Supreme Court, l'J70 Term, 85 HARV. L. REV. 38. 351 (1971): The Supreme Court, 1971 Term. 86 HARV. L. REV. 50. 301 (1972): The Supreme Court, l'J72 Term. 87 HARV. L. REV. 55. 304 (1973): The Supreme Court, 1973 Term. 88 HARV. L. REV. 41,275 (1974): The Supreme Court, 1974 Term. 89 HARV.
Relation between time-series and cross-sectional effects of idiosyncratic variance on stock returns

Abstract Consistent with the post-1962 US evidence by Ang et al. [Ang, A., Hodrick, R., Xing Y., Zhang, X., 2006. The cross-section of volatility and expected returns. Journal of Finance 51, 259–299], we find that stocks with high idiosyncratic variance (IV) have low CAPM-adjusted expected returns in both pre-1962 US and modern G7 data. We also test in three ways the conjecture that IV is a proxy of systematic risk. First, the return difference between low and high IV stocks – that we dub as IVF – is a priced factor in the cross-section of stock returns. Second, loadings on lagged market variance and lagged average IV account for a significant portion of variation in average returns on portfolios sorted by IV. Third, the variance of IVF correlates closely with average IV, and the two variables have similar explanatory power for the time-series and cross-sectional stock returns.
Information, Decisions, and Productivity: On-Board Computers and Capacity Utilization in Trucking

Productivity reflects not only how efficiently inputs are transformed into outputs, but also how well information is applied to resource allocation decisions. This paper examines how information technology has affected capacity utilization in the trucking industry. Estimates for 1997 indicate that advanced on-board computers (OBCs) have increased capacity utilization among adopting trucks by 13 percent. These increases are higher than for 1992, suggesting lags in the returns to adoption, and are highly skewed across hauls. The 1997 estimates imply that OBCs have enabled 3-percent higher capacity utilization in the industry, which translates to billions of dollars of annual benefits. (JEL D24, L92, O33, O47)
Firm profitability: Mean-reverting or random-walk behavior?

Abstract We analyze the stochastic properties of three measures of profitability, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on investment (ROI), using a balanced panel of US firms during the period 2001–2010. We employ a panel unit-root approach, which assists in identifying competitive outcomes versus situations that require regulatory intervention to achieve more competitive outcomes. Based upon conventional panel unit-root tests, we find substantial evidence supporting mean-reversion, which, in turn, lends support to the long-standing “competitive environment” hypothesis originally set forward by Mueller (1977) . These results, however, prove contaminated by the assumption of cross-section independence. After controlling for cross-section dependence, we find that profitability evolves as a non-stationary process in some sectors in the US economy. Our findings, especially taken as a whole, remain fairly robust to various assumptions regarding the underlying data generation process.
A Canadian Copyright Narrative

Copyright policy, like other major areas of public policy, requires a solid anchoring in fundamental principles. The perceived need to anchor copyright debates in a solid policy context and, hence, to develop a coherent (and hopefully convincing) narrative has been the subject of excellent contemporary research. We are indebted to a number of scholars for their work in this area. The attempt to find normative applications from a historically derived model for copyright is not either. However, the research thus far tends to provide a blurred picture, by espousing justiflcatory theories based on one or many of the following: commercial and personal Interests of authors, understood as property and/or liability rules; commercial interests of publishers and other “rights holders”; and/or the social costs of overprotection and the related economic-driven search for an optimal point of protection. This article looks at pieces in the Canadian narrative puzzle and tries to present a faithful picture of its current stage of evolution. To do so, however, a detour via England is required, because that is whence the soil from Which the Canadian narrative comes. This historical detour will be the focus of Part 1. Part III will suggest a path for the next stages of the Canadian narrative that is both consistent with international norms and hopefully useful in moving the debate forward. The part ends with a brief look at the impact that the linkage with trade rules may have on copyright.
Information Privacy in the Cloud

Cloud computing is the locating of computing resources on the Internet in a fashion that makes them highly dynamic and scalable. This kind of distributed computing environment can quickly expand to handle a greater system load or take on new tasks. Cloud computing thereby permits dramatic flexibility in processing decisions – and on a global basis. The rise of the cloud has also significantly challenged established legal paradigms. This Article analyzes current shortcomings of information privacy law in the context of the cloud. It also develops normative proposals to allow the cloud to become a central part of the evolving Internet. These proposals rest on strong and effective protections for information privacy that are sensitive to technological changes. This Article examines three areas of change in personal data processing due to the cloud. The first area of change concerns the nature of information processing at companies. For many organizations, data transmissions are no longer point-to-point transactions within one country; they are now increasingly international in nature. As a result of this development, the legal distinction between national and international data processing is less meaningful than in the past. Computing activities now shift from country to country depending on load capacity, time of day, and a variety of other concerns. The jurisdictional concepts of EU law do not fit well with these changes in the scale and nature of international data processing. A second legal issue concerns the multi-directional nature of modern data flows, which occur today as a networked series of processes made to deliver a business result. Due to this development, established concepts of privacy law, such as the definition of “personal information” and the meaning of “automated processing” have become problematic. There is also no international harmonization of these concepts. As a result, European Union and U.S. officials may differ on whether certain activities in the cloud implicate privacy law. A final change relates to a shift to a process-oriented management approach. Users no longer need to own technology, whether software or hardware, that is placed in the cloud. Rather, different parties in the cloud can contribute inputs and outputs and execute other kinds of actions. In short, technology has provided new answers to a question that Ronald Coase first posed in “The Nature of the Firm.” New technologies and accompanying business models now allow firms to approach “make or buy” decisions in innovative ways. Yet, privacy law’s approach to liability for privacy violations and data losses in the new “make or buy” world of the cloud may not create adequate incentives for the multiple parties who handle personal data.
Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case for Eliminating Counties' Role in the Death Penalty

INTRODUCTION 308 I. THE PROBLEMS WITH COUNTY-CONTROLLED CAPITAL CASES 312 A. Differentiating State Arbitrariness from County Arbitrariness 312 B. Wide Disparities in Application of the Death Penalty Within States 314 C. Explaining the Discrepancies between Counties ..... 318 D. A County-Based System Allows the Problem of Inadequate Lawyers and Under-Funded Indigent Defense to Fester 323 E. Poor Judges Fail to Stop Misconduct and Allow Reversible Error to Occur 326 II. DESIGNING A STATEWIDE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM 328 A. An Anecdotal Example of a Fair Fight: Bringing in Top-Notch Lawyers from Outside the County Line 329 B. Transitioning to a Statewide Capital Punishment System Staffed by Elite Prosecutors, Defense Lawyers, and Judges 331 1. Selecting the Best Prosecutors by Relying on Quantitative and Qualitative Information 331 2. Selecting the Best Defense Attorneys 335 3. Selecting a Pool of Exceptional Judges ........ 337 4. Adopting a Committee Approach to Capital Charging 338
Equilibrium prices in the presence of delegated portfolio management.

Abstract This paper analyzes the asset pricing implications of commonly used portfolio management contracts linking the compensation of fund managers to the excess return of the managed portfolio over a benchmark portfolio. The contract parameters, the extent of delegation, and equilibrium prices are all determined endogenously within the model we consider. Symmetric (fulcrum) performance fees distort the allocation of managed portfolios in a way that induces a significant and unambiguous positive effect on the prices of the assets included in the benchmark and a negative effect on the Sharpe ratios. Asymmetric performance fees have more complex effects on equilibrium prices and Sharpe ratios, with the signs of these effects fluctuating stochastically over time in response to variations in the funds' excess performance.
International Momentum Strategies

International equity markets exhibit mediumn-term return continuation. Between 1980 and 1995 an internationally diversified portfolio of past medium-term Winners outperforms a portfolio of medium-term Losers after correcting for risk by more than 1 percent per month. Return continuation is present in al:l twelve sample countries and lasts on average for about one year. Return continuation is negatively related to firm size, but is not limited to small firms. The international momentum returns are correlated with those of the United States which suggests that exposure to a common factor may drive the profitability of momentum strategies. MANY PAPERS HAVIE DOCUMENTED that average stock returns are related to past performance. Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) document that over mediumterm horizons performance persists: firms with high returns over the past three months to one year continue to outperform firms with low past returns over the same period. By contrast, DeBondt and Thaler (1985, 1987) document return reversals over longer horizons. Firms with poor three- to fiveyear past performance earn higher average returns than firms that performed well in the past. There has been an extensive literature on whether these return patterns reflect an improper response by markets to information, or whether they can be explained by market microstructure biases or by properly accounting for risk.' Fama and French (1996) show that long-term reversals can be consistent with a multifactor model of returns, but their model fails to explain medium-term performance continuation. Chan, Jegadeesh, and Lakonishok (1996) find that medium-term return continuation can be explained in part by underreaction to earnings information, but price momentum is not subsumed by earnings momentum. Return reversal and continuation are only two of many pat;terns that empirical researchers have uncovered using substantially the same database of U.S. stocks. It can therefore not be ruled out that these apparent anomalies are simply the outcome of an elaborate data snooping process. This paper is
Ecosystem services from agriculture: steps for expanding markets.

Abstract Farmers in the United States produce a wide variety of commodities for food and fiber. Farmers can also produce a variety of non-commodity ecosystem services for which markets do not exist or are imperfectly formed. Such services may be valued by society, but due to their nature or institutional arrangements, farmers often do not receive a price signal for them. This results in inefficient allocations of resources, in that farmers under-produce non-commodity ecosystem services. One possible way to increase private investment in ecosystem services is to create a market for them. We draw lessons from six different markets for providing ecosystem services from farms (water quality trading, wetland mitigation, carbon cap-and-trade, over-the-counter carbon, eco-labeling, and fee hunting) on what is required for a market to function, and the problems these markets might face.
Medical loss ratio regulation under the Affordable Care Act.

The minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations in the Affordable Care Act guarantee that a specific percentage of health insurance premiums is spent on medical care and specified activities to im...
Short Run Impacts of Accountability on School Quality

In the fall of 2007, New York City began using student tests and other measures to assign each school a grade (A to F), and linked grades to rewards and consequences, including possible school closure. These grades were released in late September, arguably too late for schools to make major changes in programs or personnel, and students were tested again in January (English) and March (math). Despite this time frame, regression discontinuity estimates indicate that receipt of a low grade significantly increased student achievement, more so in math than English, and improved parental evaluations of school quality. (JEL H75, I21, I28, J45)
Intellectual Capital Statement of a Company Operating in a Made to Measure Industry

This article is a case study of a company operating in the MTM (Made to Measure) industry. The main issue of this manuscript is the evaluation and analysis of a company's intellectual capital in three main areas: human capital, structural and relational capital. The starting point was the analysis of the external environment, its opportunities and threats in relation to the identification of the strategic goals of the company. Against the background of these considerations, key business processes and desired business success of a company that contribute to the achievement of defined strategic objectives were identified. The article used the ICS (Intellectual Capital Statement) method without going into too much detail in defining this method in order to limit the size of the manuscript. For a more detailed description of the ICS method readers should refer to the article [Ujwary-Gil 2012].
What are the Potential Economic Benefits of Enlarging the Gulf Cooperation Council

Abstract This paper uses a variant of the IMF's Global Economy Model (GEM) to estimate the macroeconomic benefits of Yemen's accession into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). After calibrating the model to Yemen and the GCC block, several simulations are carried out to estimate the potential impact of economic integration on both regions. The paper draws two fundamental conclusions. First, regional integration enhances competition which produces large economic benefits for both Yemen and the GCC. In particular, we show that in some cases economic integration can increase GDP in Yemen by up to 14% and in the GCC by up to 7% over the long run. Second, even if market structures do not improve substantially, GCC enlargement can still generate substantial spillover gains in each block. More specifically, one measure of economic prosperity measured by consumption can increase by up to 7% in Yemen and up to 8% in the GCC.
When Law Makes Climate Change Worse: Rethinking the Law of Baselines in Light of a Rising Sea Level

This article discusses the revolution of the law of baselines, notes that how this aspect of the law of the sea rests upon assumptions that there will not be a significant rise in sea level, and argues that the current law of baselines will not only hamper adaptation to a rising sea level, but indeed may aggravate the consequences of climate change. The article then offers alternatives to the present law of baselines.
Sanctioning North Korea: The Political Economy of Denuclearization and Proliferation

Following North Korea9s second nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council tightened sanctions. However, North Korea has tilted its relations toward partners uninterested in such measures. Since 2005, it has retreated from economic reform, most obviously in the 2009 confiscatory currency reform. These developments raise doubts about North Korea9s interest in engagement.
Beyond sweatshops: Positive deviancy and global labour practices

Disputes concerning global labour practices are at the core of contemporary debates regarding globalization. Attention frequently focuses on the real or alleged unjust exploitation of workers in developing economies by multinational corporations (MNCs) and their suppliers. Critics charge MNCs with the unjust exploitation of workers in developing nations and seek laws restricting the use of sweatshop labour (Gray 1998, Kaplan 2001, Featherstone 2002). Many economists and sociologists retort that the existence of sweatshops is an important and inevitable feature of economic development, and that laws that seek to restrict the production of goods in sweatshops will harm the very people they were intended to help (Maitland 1997, Krugman 1999, Kristof 2000, Henderson 2001, Norberg 2003). However, insufficient attention has been paid to firms that engage in truly good and beneficial activities with regard to their global workforces, where the result is not a ‘sweatshop’ environment but is instead a safe and healthy workplace where labourers are treated with respect. Workers have basic rights that should not be violated, notwithstanding the geographical locale of their workplace. In this essay, we argue that the labour practices of ‘positive MNC deviants’ can serve as models for other MNCs that wish to respect human rights while taking advantage of the economic benefits of a global workforce. Positive deviants are MNCs that deviate from specific norms in praiseworthy ways. While positive deviancy can occur in reference to both strategic and legal norms, in this essay we are primarily concerned with positive deviance from ethical norms. In particular, we call attention to those positive MNC deviants in the footwear and apparel sector that demonstrate enhanced respect for basic human rights and corresponding workers’ rights. These positive deviants have used creative approaches to global labour practices in order to move beyond sweatshops and to provide workers with wages and working conditions that respect their basic human dignity. The organization of this essay is as follows. First, we outline the conventional debate over sweatshops. Second, we provide a summary of the basic human and workers’ rights that ought to be respected by employers. Third, we present a pioneering account of positive deviancy and explain why our view is preferable to two alternative views that have recently been defended in the literature. Next, we use recent empirical field studies of MNC factories in developing nations conducted by one of the present authors, together with other recent research, as a basis for arguing that MNCs are capable of voluntarily respecting the basic rights of workers while remaining economically competitive. Finally, we provide a summary of the numerous strategic Respectively, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA and Associate Vice President and Professor of Business Ethics, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Slipping Through the Cracks: The Dual Victimization of Human-Trafficking Survivors

This article examines how jurisdictions respond when human trafficking victims are charged and criminally prosecuted for crimes committed as a result of a then-present trafficking situation. Characterizing such a situation as a "dual victimization," this article argues that all jurisdictions should provide some form of relief to such individuals; ideally, every jurisdiction should provide an affirmative defense an individual may raise during a criminal trial and a vacation of judgment for prior convictions. Furthermore, to prevent dual victimization, jurisdictions should mandate human trafficking training for their law enforcement officers in order that officers in the field would be more able to recognize a victim of human trafficking as a victim and render aid and support.
The Paradox of Judicial Foreclosure: Collateral Value Uncertainty and Mortgage Rates

Using a sample of 26,892 rate quotes on home purchase loan applications, the current paper investigates interstate variation in residential mortgage interest rates. More specifically, we find posted rate quotes by lenders are directly related to measures of foreclosure process risk including the length of time required to complete foreclosure proceedings within a jurisdiction and the presence (and length) of statutory redemption periods. Mortgage rates are also found to be contingent upon differential underwriting fees and conditions, housing appreciation and volatility measures, and the competitive nature of the economic marketplace in which each lender operates. In contrast to the previous literature, we find the judicial foreclosure process requirements exert little to no impact on observable mortgage interest rate quotes after controlling for these additional dimensions of risk.
The Emergence of Life as a First-Order Phase Transition

It is well known that life on Earth alters its environment over evolutionary and geological timescales. An important open question is whether this is a result of evolutionary optimization or a universal feature of life. In the latter case, the origin of life would be coincident with a shift in environmental conditions. Here we present a model for the emergence of life in which replicators are explicitly coupled to their environment through the recycling of a finite supply of resources. The model exhibits a dynamic, first-order phase transition from nonlife to life, where the life phase is distinguished by selection on replicators. We show that environmental coupling plays an important role in the dynamics of the transition. The transition corresponds to a redistribution of matter in replicators and their environment, driven by selection on replicators, exhibiting an explosive growth in diversity as replicators are selected. The transition is accurately tracked by the mutual information shared between replicators and their environment. In the absence of successfully repartitioning system resources, the transition fails to complete, leading to the possibility of many frustrated trials before life first emerges. Often, the replicators that initiate the transition are not those that are ultimately selected. The results are consistent with the view that life's propensity to shape its environment is indeed a universal feature of replicators, characteristic of the transition from nonlife to life. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding life's emergence and evolutionary transitions more broadly. Key Words: Origin of life-Prebiotic evolution-Astrobiology-Biopolymers-Life. Astrobiology 17, 266-276.
Brands and Branding

Brands and branding have emerged as key concepts in marketing, management, and strategy, and the concept of branding, referring to the process of bringing attention to a product, company, concept, person, or cause, has become an everyday term. Research and thinking about brands and branding can be divided into four perspectives: corporate perspectives, consumer perspectives, cultural perspectives, and critical perspectives. These four perspectives demonstrate the growing interdisciplinary interest in brands and branding, and how brand research sheds light on basic issues of consumer agency, consumer behavior, and consumer culture. Keywords: consumption; culture; globalization
Unscheduled School Closings and Student Performance.

Do students perform better on statewide assessments in years in which they have more school days to prepare? We explore this question using data on math and reading assessments taken by students in the 3 rd , 5 th and 8 th grades since 1994 in Maryland. Our identification strategy is rooted in the fact that tests are administered on the same day(s) statewide in late winter or early spring, and any unscheduled closings due to snow reduce instruction time, and are not made up until after the exams are over. We estimate that in academic years with an average number of unscheduled closures (5), the number of 3 rd graders performing satisfactorily on state reading and math assessments within a school is nearly 3 percent lower than in years with no school closings. The impacts of closure are smaller for students in 5 th and 8 th grade. Combining our estimates with actual patterns of unscheduled closings in the last 3 years, we find that more than half of schools failing to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in 3 rd grade math or reading, required under No Child Left Behind, would have met AYP if schools had been open on all scheduled days.
Crime, Punishment, and the Market for Offenses

Crime is a subject of intense emotions, conflicting ideologies. However, economists have generally explained it as a reflection of individual choice and equilibrating market forces. Two major themes of the literature are outlined: the evolution of a 'market model' to explain the diversity of crime across time and space, and the debate about the usefulness of 'positive' versus 'negative' incentives. Systematic analyses generally indicate that crime is affected on the margin by both positive and negative incentives; there are serious limitations to the effectiveness of incapacitation and rehabilitation; and optimal enforcement strategies involve trade-offs between narrow efficiency and equity considerations.
The Gift of the Dying: The Tragedy of AIDS and the Welfare of Future African Generations

This paper simulates the impact of the AIDS epidemic on future living standards in South Africa. I emphasize two competing effects. On the one hand, the epidemic is likely to have a detrimental impact on the human capital accumulation of orphaned children. On the other hand, widespread community infection lowers fertility, both directly, through a reduction in the willingness to engage in unprotected sexual activity, and indirectly, by increasing the scarcity of labor and the value of a woman's time. I find that even with the most pessimistic assumptions concerning reductions in educational attainment, the fertility effect dominates. The AIDS epidemic, on net, enhances the future per capita consumption possibilities of the South African economy.
Fictitious States, Effective Control, and the Use of Force Against Non-State Actors

This Article examines how states respond to violent non-state actors operating from “fictitious” states. Fictitious states possess international legal personality but they lack effective control over their territories and populations. Examples of fictitious states include Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. These entities are not states that “failed” but territories where the paradigm of traditional statehood is inapplicable.In contrast to much of the literature analyzing the use of force vis-a-vis contemporary threats, this Article contends that the global security problem posed by fictitious states is more fundamental than that posed by terrorism or failed states. The modern threat emanating from fictitious states is most vividly illustrated by Al Qa’ida; however, violent non-state actors have long exploited territories beyond the writ of any central government. Often, when threatened by these non-state actors, victim states have responded with transborder force.This Article discusses key incidents over the past two centuries that elucidate the extensive and under-appreciated history of a state’s right to exercise defensive force against non-state actors in ungoverned territory. Such incidents include US intervention in Spanish Florida, British intervention in New York State, and Russian intervention in Mongolia. These incidents show that: (1) there is a well established customary right of self-defense of victim states that is not contingent upon the consent of host states; and (2) this customary right was preserved by the United Nations (UN) Charter.The challenge for the international community is identifying the conditions under which a victim state may act in self-defense against a non-state actor. The state practice and legal claims investigated in this Article demonstrate that the principles governing such action are the same as those that apply to state-to-state self-defense: necessity and proportionality. This Article explains how these principles structure the use of force against non-state actors and delineate the battlefield in a conflict between a victim state and a non-state actor, such as the Unit-ed States’ conflict with Al Qa’ida.
Exploring the toolkit of Jean Bourgain

Gian-Carlo Rota once asserted that "every mathematician only has a few tricks". The sheer breadth and ingenuity in the work of Jean Bourgain may at first glance appear to be a counterexample to this maxim. However, as we hope to illustrate in this article, even Bourgain relied frequently on a core set of tools, which formed the base from which problems in many disparate mathematical fields could then be attacked. We discuss a selected number of these tools here, and then perform a case study of how an argument in one of Bourgain's papers can be interpreted as a sequential application of several of these tools.
Credibility, debt and unemployment: Ireland's failed stabilization

Ireland's disinflation Rudiger Dornbusch Disinflation requires a switch to tough policies. If these are fully and immediately reflected in expectations and actual prices, there need be little output cost of disinflation. This paper analyses the stabilization programme in Ireland in the 1980s. It may be that EMS membership offers a credibility bonus: by joining the EMS, playing by the rules of fixed exchange rates and tying the currency to German price stability, a country can achieve a dramatic turnaround in expectations, inflation, and long interest rates. But the evidence shows international disinflation in the 1980s was not limited to EMS members. The Irish example demonstrates a second lesson. Disinflation and tight money have been accompanied by a serious public debt problem and soaring unemployment. Unless these problems can be tackled it may become necessary in future to resort once more to inflation and the printing press. Long interest rates suggest that the bond market does not yet take such fear seriously.
Preference-estimating statutory default rules

One puzzlement about statutory interpretation is that so many statutory canons run contrary to likely legislative preferences, sound policy, or even the judicial self-interest in avoiding being legislatively overridden. This puzzlement is deepened by the commonplace observation that judges do not consistently apply these canons but often ignore them or apply counter-canons. This article argues that the solution to these puzzles is to understand many canons as preference-eliciting statutory default rules, which maximize the satisfaction of enactable political preferences by eliciting a legislative reaction that eliminates uncertainty about what those preferences are. A preference-eliciting default rule will, however, enhance political satisfaction only when it is sufficiently more likely to elicit a legislative response than another interpretation that better estimates uncertain enactable preferences. This explains the seemingly inconsistent application of these canons because this theory indicates these canons should not be applied uniformly but rather should be (and generally are) applied when these limited conditions hold. Where the preferences of neither the enacting nor current legislatures can be reliably estimated or elicited, courts should and do use default rules that track the preferences of political subunits or, where that is unavailing, that limit the variance of judicial judgment. Various alternative default rules—like interpreting all statutory ambiguities to disfavor interest groups, protect reliance interests, or reduce the effect or change caused by the statute—should be rejected because they are not limited to cases where they satisfy the conditions for maximizing political satisfaction, but rather advance one view concerning substantive controversies that should be resolved by the political process.
Dilemmas of Cultural Legality: A Comment on Roger Cotterrell's 'The Struggle for Law' and a Criticism of the House of Lords' Opinions in Begum

In Orientalism, Edward Said’s seminal critique of Western discourse on the Arab and Islamic world, Said begins with an epigram from Karl Marx: ’They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented‘ (Said, 1979, p. xiii, quoting Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte). Said then argues that Marx’s statement captures a basic reality about Western representations of ’Oriental‘ societies, which is that they often rest on a pattern of cultural hegemony. The dominance of European colonial powers, primarily Great Britain and France, over their subjugated populations is what allowed the latter to be depicted in a way that reinforced ‘the idea of European [superiority] in comparison with. . .non-European peoples and cultures’ (p. 7). For example, in Gustave Flaubert’s popular novels, ‘Flaubert’s encounter with an Egyptian courtesan produced a. . .model of the Oriental woman. . .[who] never spoke of herself. . .[and] never represented her emotions, presence or history. He spoke for and represented her. . .telling his readers in what way she was typically Oriental’ (p. 6, emphasis original). Moreover, Flaubert’s superiority in relation to her ‘was not an isolated instance. It fairly stands for the pattern of relative strength between East and West, and the discourse about the Orient that it enabled’ (p. 6).
The Uniform Commercial Code Meets the Seventh Amendment: The Demise of Jury Trials Under Article 5?

This Article will examine the right to a jury trial in a letter of credit case, and whether revised section 5-108(e) of the Uniform Commercial Code violates that right. It will consider the historical use of jury trials in letter of credit cases, and will examine the constitutional implication of revised section 5-108(e), both with respect to the Seventh Amendment and state constitutional law.The policies and goals underlying revised section 5-108(e) will be considered, as well as the drafters' proffered justifications for assigning to the court in this subsection questions of fact normally decided by juries. The Article concludes that revised section 5-108(e) unconstitutionally abridges the jury's role both in deciding disputed factual issues and in drawing inferences from the evidence. It also concludes that even assuming no constitutional defect, the proposed revision will not promote the stated goals of efficiency, predictability, speed, and uniformity.
A two‐scale model for sheared fault gouge: Competition between macroscopic disorder and local viscoplasticity

We develop a model for sheared gouge layers that accounts for the local increase in temperature at the grain contacts during sliding. We use the shear transformation zone theory, a statistical thermodynamic theory, to describe irreversible macroscopic plastic deformations due to local rearrangements of the gouge particles. We track the temperature evolution at the grain contacts using a one-dimensional heat diffusion equation. At low temperatures, the strength of the asperities is limited by the flow strength, as predicted by dislocation creep models. At high temperatures, some of the constituents of the grains may melt leading to the degradation of the asperity strength. Our model predicts a logarithmic rate dependence of the steady state shear stress in the quasistatic regime. In the dense flow regime the frictional strength decreases rapidly with increasing slip rate due to thermal softening at the granular interfaces. The transient response following a step in strain rate includes a direct effect and a following evolution effect, both of which depend on the magnitude and direction of the velocity step. In addition to frictional heat, the energy budget includes an additional energy sink representing the fraction of external work consumed in increasing local disorder. The model links low-speed and high-speed frictional response of gouge layers and provides an essential ingredient for multiscale modeling of earthquake ruptures with enhanced coseismic weakening.
A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online

Abstract Recent media revelations have demonstrated the extent of third-party tracking and monitoring online, much of it spurred by data aggregation, profiling, and selective targeting. How to protect privacy online is a frequent question in public discourse and has reignited the interest of government actors. In the United States, notice-and-consent remains the fallback approach in online privacy policies, despite its weaknesses. This essay presents an alternative approach, rooted in the theory of contextual integrity. Proposals to improve and fortify notice-and-consent, such as clearer privacy policies and fairer information practices, will not overcome a fundamental flaw in the model, namely, its assumption that individuals can understand all facts relevant to true choice at the moment of pair-wise contracting between individuals and data gatherers. Instead, we must articulate a backdrop of context-specific substantive norms that constrain what information websites can collect, with whom they can share...
Managerial overconfidence and audit fees

Abstract We investigate the association between managerial overconfidence and audit fees, as well as the effect of a strong audit committee on this relation. Overconfident managers tend to overestimate their ability and the future payouts of projects but underestimate the likelihood and impact of adverse events. If auditors perceive managerial overconfidence as increasing audit risk, they will charge additional fees to compensate for the increased audit effort. Conversely, audit fees for companies with an overconfident manager will be lower if managers demand less audit services due to either hubris in their companies' financial reporting or a desire to reduce auditor scrutiny over aggressive accounting practices. We find evidence of a negative relation between managerial overconfidence and audit fees for companies lacking a strong audit committee. Additionally, we find that overconfident managers are less likely to use an industry specialist auditor.
The role of non-convex costs in firms' investment and financial dynamics

Abstract This paper shows that non-convex costs of financial adjustment are quantitatively relevant for explaining firm dynamics. First, empirically, financial activity is lumpy, more than investment activity. Second, non-convex costs are necessary, in the context of a dynamic investment and financing model, to rationalize this lumpiness. Two versions of the model, with and without non-convex costs, are compared. Only the non-convex costs version replicates the dynamics in the data, generating financial lumpiness higher than investment lumpiness. Other predictions of the model with respect to investment and finance are discussed.
Postdoctoral training, departmental prestige and scientists’ research productivity

An implicit assumption prevailing in the science community is that scientists with postdoctoral training demonstrate a higher rate of productivity than their peers without such experience (Folger et al. in Human resources and higher education. Russell Sage, New York, 1970; NRC in Postdoctoral training in the biomedical sciences. National Academy of Science, Washington DC, 1974; NRC in Research training and career patterns of bioscientists: The training programs of the National Institutes of Health. National Academy of Science, Washington DC, 1976; Reskin in Am Sociol Rev 41(4):597–612, 1976), and especially so if postdocs are employed in research intensive settings (McGinnis et al. in Soc Force 60(3):701–722, 1982; Zumeta in Extending the educational ladder: The changing roles of postdoctoral education in the United States. National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va, 1985). In contrast, by exploring the reward structure of the science system, sociologists contend that departments where scientists obtain positions play a substantial role in shaping their research productivity (Long in Am Sociol Rev 43(6):889–908, 1978; Long and McGinnis in Am Sociol Rev, 46(4):422–442, 1981; Allison and Long in Am Sociol Rev, 55(4):469–478, 1990). This study investigates both theories in an attempt to unfold how these factors impact scientists’ research productivity over time. Using curriculum vitae (CV) from a nationally representative sample of academic scientists and engineers, the findings suggest that postdoc training indeed boosts individual research productivity during scientists’ early career periods (the first 3 years after the doctoral degrees), however, the effect fades quickly. While departmental prestige plays a role in scientists’ research productivity, further investigation indicates that only scientists placed in highly prestigious departments demonstrate a consistently higher productivity level than their peers in other departments. Given that postdoc training contributes significantly to the higher likelihood of being placed in highly prestigious departments, postdoctoral training and the subsequent placement in highly prestigious departments together are conducive to the presence of the accumulative advantage effect.
Dividend Swaps and Dividend Futures: State of Play

The authors of this article use derivatives regulatory data to quantify the over the counter (OTC) index dividend swap market and contrast it with the listed index dividend futures market. They find US$2.5 billion in notional outstanding of market-facing OTC dividend swaps between dealers and end users, with another US$4 billion outstanding between dealers. The majority of the dealer–dealer swaps are in the S&P 500 (which has no listed futures contract), whereas the majority of transactions for non-U.S. underlyings are between dealers and end users. Although very standardized OTC swaps and listed futures coexist for several major indexes, only the listed EURO STOXX 50 future clearly dominates the OTC market, with nearly five times the notional outstanding of the OTC swaps. The authors observe an average of around one end user transaction per week for the OTC EURO STOXX market, with less activity in other indexes. Risk transfer appears to be largest for the EURO STOXX 50, with dealers net short nearly US$1 billion notional to end users.
The Composition Matters: Capital Inflows and Liquidity Crunch during a Global Economic Crisis

This paper studies whether the volume and composition of capital flows affect the degree of credit crunch during the 2007-2009 crisis. Using data on 3823 firms in 24 emerging countries, we find that, on average, the decline in stock prices was more severe for firms that are intrinsically more dependent on external finance for working capital. Interestingly, while the volume of capital flows per se has no significant effect, the composition matters a lot. In particularly, greater dependence on non-FDI capital inflows before the crisis worsens the credit crunch during the crisis, while exposure to FDI alleviates the liquidity constraint.
Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase statistical power

Participants are not always as diligent in reading and following instructions as experimenters would like them to be. When participants fail to follow instructions, this increases noise and decreases the validity of their data. This paper presents and validates a new tool for detecting participants who are not following instructions – the Instructional manipulation check (IMC). We demonstrate how the inclusion of an IMC can increase statistical power and reliability of a dataset.
Barriers to effective use of knowledge management systems in software engineering

An organization must recognize that information technology is only one means to foster knowledge.