Science and ethics in the post-political era: strategies within the Camp for Climate Action

Despite a peak in activism against climate change in the UK, new environmental direct action networks have not yet received much academic attention. This article takes as a case study perhaps the most prominent of such networks – the Camp for Climate Action – which held several high-profile protest events between 2006 and 2011. Using a theoretical framework which understands society as being distinctly ‘post-political’ in character, we ask questions about the knowledge claims that form the foundations of radical environmental politics. Drawing on published statements and press releases, as well as from our insights as active participants in the Camp, we analyse the strategy of environmental protest where climate change has become its focus. The Camp for Climate Action was a contested political arena. We argue that this contestation existed over the Camp’s strategy in the context of a ‘scientised’, ‘post- political’ politics which operated within an ethical framework that prescribed individual responsibility as the primary basis for action

An illusion of success: The consequences of British rail privatisation

AbstractThis article accounts for the British experiment with rail privatisation and how it has worked out economically and politically. The focus is not simply on profitability and public subsidy, but on the appearances which accounting arrangements create. The article scrutinises the Network Rail subsidy regime, which enables train operators to achieve fictitious profitability without increased direct state support. This enables supporters of privatisation to claim train operators produce a net gain for the British taxpayer. The claim forms the heart of a trade narrative which is employed by the industry and their political backers to deflect criticism and stymy reform

Genes 101: Are Human Genes Patentable Subject Matter?

Genes are the fundamental building blocks of all living things. They dictate hair color, eye color, even susceptibility to cancer. As such, genes inherently possess untold power. The ability of a sole company to wield this omnipotence makes a human gene patent highly sought after

Genes 101: Are Human Genes Patentable Subject Matter?

This comment proposes a totality-of-the-circumstances approach to analyzing biological molecules under § 101 such that both the structure and its information is examined. Part II of this note reviews relevant precedent in patent law. Part III analyzes the Federal Circuit\u27s Myriad decision, and Part IV explains the potential effects of the recent Supreme Court decision Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories. Finally, in Part V, the patent eligibility of human genes is examined. Analyzing this issue under the proposed totality-of-the-circumstances approach, this article concludes that isolated human genes are not patentable

Built-in Gain Discounts for Transfer Tax Valuation: A Resolution for the BIG Debate

This article considers whether and to what extent courts should permit a built-in gain discount. It begins by presenting the challenges of valuing assets for transfer tax purposes, discussing the general principles of transfer tax valuation, and highlighting the particular methodologies used to value closely-held entities. The article then examines how, during the era of the General Utilities doctrine, a prospective liquidation test, which considered the prospect and affect of liquidation, led courts to repeatedly disallow the built-in gain discount. However, since the repeal of the General Utilities doctrine, the prospective liquidation test has been discarded, at least in part, and courts have become receptive to allowing the discount. The article considers the current debate, which the Supreme Court has declined to resolve, and analyzes the holdings in three prominent court of appeals cases, the Tax Court opinions these cases overruled, and the parties\u27 underlying arguments. The article demonstrates that the decisions in Estate of Dunn and Estate of Jelke relied on a problematic assumption-namely, that the corporation being valued is deemed liquidated on the valuation date. The article exposes that this assumption may lead to inaccurate outcomes in future cases. To avoid such results, the article proposes a modified liquidation test, which would yield a more accurate calculation of the built-in gain discount

Central Bank-Led Capitalism?

Since the first acute episode of financial crisis in autumn 2008, the world has manifestly changed in dramatic ways that reinforce skepticism and challenge the old assumptions of political economy. Hence this Article about central banks, whose pivotal role in post-crisis capitalism has not been adequately politically or theoretically addressed in any existing literature and can now be opened up by a conjunctural analysis that recognises uncertainty and mutability. There are several reasons why this is an intellectually and politically interesting task. Central banks have become an object of controversy and public attention after being pivotally involved in crisis management, which has since 2010 increasingly involved nonstandard monetary-policy crisis measures applied on a heroic scale. For example, in December 2011 and February 2012, Mario Draghi offered one trillion euros of cheap credit to European banks. This is a kind of role reversal for the bankers and a bouleversement of an institution that had been recently reinvented in a technocratic paradigm. After the 1980s, central bankers became respected econocrats whose technical practice was inflation targeting via shortterm interest-rate variation with freedom from political interference (or democratic accountability) justified by claims of technical mastery and neutrality. This Article that explores these issues is organized in a relatively straightforward way. Part II provides a brief overview of the scientization of central banking and the recent return to improvization. Then, Part III focuses on the peculiarity of a new conjuncture where the central banks have gone long on no growth capitalism. Part IV provides an overview of mainstream verdicts for and against quantitative easing, while Part V presents our analysis of the distributive issues