On the one hand, it can be argued that the increasing economic and political interdependence of countries has led to the convergence of national legal systems. On the other hand, advocates of the ...counterhypothesis maintain that this development is both unrealistic and unnecessary. Mathias Siems examines the company law of the UK, the USA, Germany, France, Japan and China to see how this issue affects shareholder law. The author subsequently analyses economic and political factors which may or may not lead to convergence, and assesses the extent of this development. Convergence of Shareholder Law not only provides a thorough comparative legal analysis but also shows how company law interconnects with political forces and economic development and helps in evaluating whether harmonisation and shareholder protection should be enhanced.
The principle of legal certainty is of fundamental importance for law and society: it has been vital in stabilising normative expectations and in providing a framework for social interaction, as well ...as defining the scope of individual freedom and political power. Even though it has not always been fully realised, legal certainty has also functioned as a normative ideal that has structured legal debates, both at the national and transnational level. This book presents research from a range of substantive areas regarding the meaning, possibility and desirability of legal certainty in the context of a rapidly changing global society. It aims to address these issues by bringing together scholars from various jurisdictions in order to examine changes in the shifting meaning of legal certainty in a comparative and transnational context.
MAPPING LEGAL RESEARCH Siems, Mathias M.; Mac Síthigh, Daithí
Cambridge law journal,
11/2012, Letnik:
71, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article aims to map the position of academic legal research, using a distinction between “law as a practical discipline”, “law as humanities” and “law as social sciences” as a conceptual ...framework. Having explained this framework, we address both the “macro” and “micro” level of legal research in the UK. For this purpose, we have collected information on the position of all law schools within the structure of their respective universities. We also introduce “ternary plots” as a new way of explaining individual research preferences. Our general result is that all three categories play a role within the context of UK legal academia, though the relationship between the “macro” and the “micro” level is not always straight-forward. We also provide comparisons with the US and Germany and show that in all three countries law as an academic tradition has been constantly evolving, raising questions such as whether the UK could or should move further to a social science model already dominant in the US.
Background & Aims: Familial predisposition as a risk for colorectal cancer in ulcerative colitis has not been rigorously explored. The aim of this study was to compare colorectal cancer frequency ...among kindreds of patients who had ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer with that of control patients who had ulcerative colitis but no cancer.
Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to subjects to assess cancer occurrence among relatives. Eligible cases included 174 ulcerative colitis patients with colorectal cancer seen at Mayo Clinic in 1976–1994; 174 contemporaneous ulcerative colitis controls without cancer were matched on birth year, sex, and extent and duration of colitis.
Results: The responding 147 case and 150 control subjects reported on 1044 and 1090 first-degree relatives, respectively. Colorectal cancer occurred in 14.3% case kindreds and 6.7% control kindreds (
P = 0.03). By logistic regression, a family history of sporadic colorectal cancer was an independent risk factor for cancer in ulcerative colitis (odds ratio, 2.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–5.14;
P = 0.03).
Conclusions: A familial association exists between colorectal cancers occurring with ulcerative colitis and those in the general population. Colorectal cancer in persons with ulcerative colitis represents a risk factor for colorectal cancer in their noncolitic relatives. Likewise, a family history of sporadic colorectal cancer increases the risk of colorectal cancer with ulcerative colitis.
GASTROENTEROLOGY 1998;115:1079-1083
Legal Originality Siems, Mathias M.
Oxford journal of legal studies,
04/2008, Letnik:
28, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In legal academia it is highly controversial how to 'be original' in legal research. This article will try to maintain an attitude of tolerance in not promoting or discrediting one particular ...methodology. Instead, it will identify four different ways of 'being original'. Perhaps the most common approach is to deal with 'micro-legal questions'. Many legal academics also pursue research in 'macro-legal questions'. Less common but growing is the importance of 'scientific legal research' and research in 'non-legal topics'.
Legal scholars, economists and other social scientist often refer to the idea that countries can be classified into a number of ‘legal families’ or ‘legal origins’. Yet, this research is ...unsatisfactory as regards the actual classifications of the legal systems of the world. It is the aim of this paper to fill this gap and to develop a more robust taxonomy of legal systems. This taxonomy is based on a new dataset of 156 countries that is subsequently analysed with tools of network analysis. Applying cluster optimisation, this paper finds that the world's legal systems can be divided into four clusters. It displays those clusters in a map, akin to the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map. It is suggested that those findings have important implications, not only for our understanding of the legal world, but also for the feasibility of legal transplants and harmonisation.
This volume of essays draws together research on different types of collective actions: group actions, representative actions, test case procedures, derivative actions and class actions. The main ...focus is on how these actions can enhance access to justice and on how to balance the interests of private actors in protecting their rights with the interests of society as a whole. Rather than focusing on collective actions only as a procedural device per se, the contributors to this book also examine how these mechanisms relate to their broader social context. Bringing together a broad range of scholarship from the areas of competition, consumer, environmental, company and securities law, the book includes contributions from Asian, European and North American scholars and therefore expands the scope of the traditional European and/or American debate.
The theoretical arguments in favor and against citations to foreign courts have reached a high degree of sophistication. Yet, this debate is often based on merely anecdotal assumptions as to their ...actual purpose. This Article aims to fill this gap in the literature. It offers quantitative evidence from ten European supreme courts in order to assess the desirability of such cross-citations. In addition, it examines individual cases qualitatively, developing a taxonomy of cross-citations based on the degree to which courts engage with foreign law. The Article highlights the often superficial nature of cross-citations in some courts. Yet, by and large, our analysis supports the use of cross-citations: it does not have the pernicious effects sometimes suggested by critics, such as undercutting national sovereignty or the legitimacy of the legal system. At best, cross-citations provide a source of inspiration to interpret national law. At worst, they are largely ornamental and of marginal help to make a particular policy argument more persuasive.
For the first time an excess of photons above an energy threshold of 730 GeV from the giant radio galaxy M 87 has been measured at a significance level above 4 σ. The data have been taken during the ...years 1998 and 1999 with the HEGRA stereoscopic system of 5 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The excess of $107.4\,\pm\,26.8$ events above 730 GeV corresponds to an integral flux of 3.3% of the Crab flux or $N_\gamma(E > 730\,\mbox{GeV}) = (0.96 \pm 0.23) \times 10^{-12}$ phot cm-2 s-1. M 87 is located at the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies at a relatively small redshift of $z = 0.00436$ and is a promising candidate among the class of giant radio galaxies for the emission of TeV γ-radiation. The detection of TeV γ-rays from M 87 – if confirmed – would establish a new class of extragalactic source in this energy regime since all other AGN detected to date at TeV energies are BL Lac type objects.
PDF
