Historical Gloss and the Separation of Powers

Arguments based on historical practice are a mainstay of debates about the constitutional separation of powers. Surprisingly, however, there has been little sustained academic attention to the proper role of historical practice in this context. The scant existing scholarship is either limited to specific subject areas or focused primarily on judicial doctrine without addressing the use of historical practice in broader conceptual or theoretical terms. To the extent that the issue has been discussed, most accounts of how historical practice should inform the separation of powers require “acquiescence” by the branch of government whose prerogatives the practice implicates, something that is viewed as critical to giving historical practice the force of law. Yet the concept of acquiescence has been treated much too casually in the literature. Claims about acquiescence are typically premised on a Madisonian conception of interbranch competition, pursuant to which Congress and the Executive Branch are each assumed to have the tools and the motivation consistently to guard against encroachments on their authority. It has become apparent from political science scholarship, however, that the Madisonian model does not accurately reflect the dynamics of modern congressional-executive relations. This requires a reexamination of the premises and implications of the idea of institutional acquiescence in particular, and of the role of historical practice more generally. Ultimately, we argue, the problems with the Madisonian model are not fatal to crediting historical practice in interpreting the separation of powers. But they do require more attention to the reasons why such practice is invoked, the extent to which the reasons demand institutional acquiescence, and the precise method by which such acquiescence is identified. To illustrate the importance of each of these questions, we present three case studies of constitutional debates concerning the separation of powers in which practice-based arguments are prominent - war powers, congressional-executive agreements, and removal of executive officers

Presidential Power, Historical Practice, and Legal Constraint

The scope of the President’s legal authority is determined in part by historical practice. This Essay aims to better understand how such practice-based law might operate as a constraint on the presidency. Some scholars have suggested that presidential authority has become “unbounded” by law, and is now governed only or primarily by politics. At the same time, there has been growing skepticism about the ability of the familiar political checks on presidential power to work in any systematic or reliable fashion. Skepticism about law’s potential to constrain in this context is heightened by the customary nature of much of what purports to be the law of presidential power, and by the limited availability of judicial review. As the Essay explains, no examination of whether law constrains the President can succeed without careful specification of what constraint entails and how it relates to distinct but related phenomena like genuine disagreement about the content of the law. After attempting such specification, the Essay identifies various internal and external causal mechanisms through which law, including practice-based law, could constrain the President. The Essay explains, among other things, that one way that law might constrain the President is through the simple fact that issues of presidential power are publicly criticized and defended in legal terms. To gain additional traction on the topic, the Essay considers two other areas of debate that pose analogous questions about the constraining effect of law: whether the doctrine of stare decisis (itself a practice-based norm) constrains Supreme Court decision making, and whether international law (including the international law that is based on customary practice) constrains the behavior of nation-states. The Essay concludes by suggesting some avenues of possible empirical research

The Quantum de Laval Nozzle: stability and quantum dynamics of sonic horizons in a toroidally trapped Bose gas containing a superflow

We study an experimentally realizable system containing stable black hole-white hole acoustic horizons in toroidally trapped Bose-Einstein condensates - the quantum de Laval nozzle. We numerically obtain stationary flow configurations and assess their stability using Bogoliubov theory, finding both in hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic regimes there exist dynamically unstable regions associated with the creation of positive and negative energy quasiparticle pairs in analogy with the gravitational Hawking effect. The dynamical instability takes the form of a two mode squeezing interaction between resonant pairs of Bogoliubov modes. We study the evolution of dynamically unstable flows using the truncated Wigner method, which confirms the two mode squeezed state picture of the analogue Hawking effect for low winding number.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Bond Strength of an Amorphous Calcium Phosphate–Containing Orthodontic Adhesive

Objective: To determine whether an amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP)-containing adhesive has an acceptable level of shear bond strength to be used as an orthodontic adhesive. Materials and Methods: Sixty extracted premolars were randomly divided into three groups for orthodontic bonding. Group 1 used a composite resin adhesive (Transbond XT), group 2 was bonded with an ACP-containing adhesive (Aegis Ortho), and group 3 used a resin-modified glass ionomer (Fuji Ortho LC). All bonded teeth were stored in distilled water at 37°C for 40 ± 2 hours prior to debonding. Shear bond strength and adhesive remnant index (ARI) were recorded for each specimen. Results: The mean shear bond strengths for the three test groups were: group 1 (15.2 ± 3.6 MPa), group 2 (6.6 ± 1.5 MPa), and group 3 (8.3 ± 2.8 MPa). A one-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference in bond strengths between the groups. A post hoc Tukey test showed group 1 to be significantly (P \u3c .001) greater than groups 2 and 3. A Kruskal-Wallis test and a Mann-Whitney U-test showed groups 1 and 3 exhibited lower ARI scores than group 2, but a majority of specimens in each group had greater than 50% of the cement removed along with the bracket during debonding. Conclusions: The ACP-containing adhesive demonstrated a low, but satisfactory bond strength needed to function as an orthodontic adhesive

Mesoscopic dynamical differences from quantum state preparation in a Bose-Hubbard trimer

Conventional wisdom is that quantum effects will tend to disappear as the number of quanta in a system increases, and the evolution of a system will become closer to that described by mean field classical equations. In this letter we combine newly developed experimental techniques to propose and analyse an experiment using a Bose-Hubbard trimer where the opposite is the case. We find that differences in the preparation of a centrally evacuated trimer can lead to readily observable differences in the subsequent dynamics which increase with system size. Importantly, these differences can be detected by the simple measurements of atomic number.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, theor

Properties of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation: Projected Ehrenfest relations and the optimal plane wave basis

We investigate the properties of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation describing a condensate interacting with a stationary thermal cloud derived by Gardiner and coworkers. We find the appropriate Ehrenfest relations for the SGPE, including the effect of growth noise and projector terms arising from the energy cutoff. This is carried out in the high temperature regime appropriate for the SGPE, which simplifies the action of the projectors. The validity condition for neglecting the projector terms in the Ehrenfest relations is found to be more stringent than the usual condition of validity of the truncated Wigner method or classical field method -- which is that all modes are highly occupied. In addition it is required that the overlap of the nonlinear term with the lowest energy eigenstate of the non-condensate band is small. We show how to use the Ehrenfest relations along with the corrections generated by the projector to monitor dynamical artifacts arising from the cutoff. We also investigate the effect of using different bases to describe a harmonically trapped BEC at finite temperature by comparing the condensate fraction found using the plane wave and single particle bases. We show that the equilibrium properties are strongly dependent on the choice of basis. There is thus an optimal choice of plane wave basis for a given cut-off energy and we show that this basis gives the best reproduction of the single particle spectrum, the condensate fraction and the position and momentum densities.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

Recent Reform of Social Security Adjudication in Great Britain

Cet article expose les transformations qu'a subies en 1984 le système des tribunaux administratifs de la sécurité sociale en Grande-Bretagne. Ce système avait jusqu'alors comme caractéristique principale la répartition du contentieux des prestations de sécurité sociale entre deux réseaux de tribunaux locaux. Les uns étaient chargés d'entendre les appels relatifs aux prestations, pour la plupart contributives, prévues par le Social Security Act 1975, tandis que les autres avaient compétence en matière d'aide sociale (supplementary benefits,). L'élément majeur de la réforme de 1984 est la fusion de ces deux réseaux. Les nouveaux tribunaux locaux de la sécurité sociale se distinguent de leurs prédécesseurs par leur composition : ils seront obligatoirement présidés par un juriste, exerçant cette fonction à temps partiel mais encadré au niveau national et régional par un état-major permanent constitué d'un juge et d'avocats ; les autres membres ne seront plus désignés selon le système paritaire syndicats-patronat qui avait traditionnellement prévalu en matière d'assurances sociales. Le renforcement de la présence des juristes prolonge l'évolution amorcée par les réformes antérieures du régime d'aide sociale. Celles-ci favorisaient à la fois la judiciarisation de la procédure et la réduction du pouvoir discrétionnaire de l'administration par le développement de la réglementation. L'unification des tribunaux administratifs avait également été amorcée dès 1980, par l'attribution aux Social Security Commissioners de la compétence de dernier ressort relativement à la plupart des prestations sociales. L'auteur commente cette réforme en fonction des objectifs qu'elle prétend servir : la qualité des décisions, l'indépendance des juridictions, ïaccessibilité d'une instance d'appel unique, la rapidité des décisions. Il fait observer que la réforme n'a rien fait pour simplifier et assouplir la procédure, ou pour rendre l'aide juridique accessible aux prestataires. Il note que les tribunaux administratifs spécialisés chargés du contentieux médical de la sécurité sociale n'ont pas été visés par la réforme, en dépit de la contestation dont ils font l'objet, et que l'aide au logement échappe également à la compétence des tribunaux de la sécurité sociale. Enfin, il fait valoir que le développement de l'encadrement réglementaire des prestations de sécurité sociale ne garantit en rien ni la rapidité du processus juridictionnel, ni la qualité des rapports entre décideurs et prestataires ; par ailleurs, il accroît le contrôle du gouvernement sur la mise en oeuvre de sa politique sociale

Match running performance during fixture congestion in elite soccer: Research issues and future directions

Match congestion in elite soccer has been proposed to result in residual fatigue and underperformance in ensuing competition due to insufficient recovery time. In this article, matters relating to match congestion and running performance in elite soccer competition are discussed. The authors suggest a need to determine the extent to which elite players are in reality exposed to periods of match congestion hence to potential declines in performance. Despite evidence of exercise-induced muscle damage combined with a decline in physical performance up to 72-hours post-match, research using time-motion analyses suggest running performance represented by distances covered is unaffected over periods of match congestion. The authors recommend analysis of alternative movement variables including accelerations, decelerations and turns that are taxing metabolically and contribute greatly to muscle damage. Moreover, a holistic approach combining subjective ratings with biochemical, hormonal and immunological responses to exercise would be pertinent especially in players frequently exposed to match congestion. Contemporary practitioners typically implement various post-match recovery treatments during dense schedules in an attempt to accelerate recovery and ensure that subsequent running performance is not unduly affected. However, empirical evidence to support their efficacy in maintaining running performance is lacking and the authors recommend controlled intervention studies using match simulations in an attempt to verify their effectiveness. These points are critically addressed using findings from the current scientific literature while gaps in the current body of knowledge and future directions for research are highlighted