The Shadows of Litigation Finance

Litigation finance is quickly becoming a centerpiece of our legal system. Once a dispute arises, litigants may seek money from third-party financiers to pay their legal bills or monetize their claims, and in turn those financiers receive a portion of any case proceeds. Yet policymakers are struggling with how to evaluate and regulate litigation finance. There are two problems. The first is an awareness problem. Some commentators consider litigation finance “likely the most important development in civil justice of our time,” but others have hardly heard of it. As a result, many policymakers do not quite understand what litigation finance is, how it works, and what is actually new about it. The second problem is analytical. There is no scholarly framework policymakers can rely on to evaluate whether litigation finance is actually good for the legal system and society. Moreover, the existing scholarship has overlooked important welfare effects, risking inefficient and suboptimal regulatory decisionmaking. This Article addresses both problems. First, it articulates what exactly litigation finance is, who uses it, why they use it, and—most importantly—what is (and is not) new about this form of financing. Second, it provides a novel framework for analyzing the welfare implications of litigation finance. Existing scholarship focuses narrowly on the effects of litigation finance on behavior after a claim accrues and a litigant seeks funding. This Article’s framework provides new insights by explaining how litigation finance also significantly affects parties’ behavior before a legal dispute ever arises. Once these “pre-claim” effects of litigation finance are understood alongside the “post-claim” effects that scholars have previously identified, it becomes clear that policymakers should encourage rather than obstruct litigation finance

‘War on piracy’: the conflation of Somali piracy with terrorism in discourse, tactic and law

This paper argues that since 2005, the global security discourse has confused maritime piracy off the Horn of Africa with terrorism. American and European policymakers and financiers have tapped a vulnerable public imaginary to exaggerate Somali pirates as ‘maritime terrorists’ linked to Shabaab and Al Qaeda, driving the militarization and legal obfuscation of counter-piracy operations. The discursive conflation of piracy and terrorism has thereby launched a tactical and legal War on Piracy that mirrors the War on Terror. This approach is pushing pirates to become more daring and dangerous in response. We conclude that the tactical extension from counterterrorism to counter-piracy is unlikely to succeed, as it is insensitive to the origins, motives and modus operandi of Somali pirates. The paper proposes a shift from military to developmental responses to piracy, with an emphasis on respecting local institutions of law enforcement and governance in Somalia

Remittances, liquidity constraints and human capital investments in Ecuador.

Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital investments through relaxing resource constraints and facilitate households in consumption smoothing by reducing vulnerability to economic shocks. Our results show that remittances increase school enrolment and decrease incidence of child work, especially for girls and in rural areas. Furthermore, we find that aggregate shocks are associated with increased work activities, while remittances are used to finance education when households are faced with these shocks

Evaluation of problem-solving skills: what we really do

Abstract no. 1394published_or_final_versio

Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities: Chemical constituents of essential oils of Ocimum gratissimum, Eucalyptus citriodora and Cymbopogon giganteus inhibited lipoxygenase L-1 and cyclooxygenase of PGHS

The following studies report the inhibitory effect produced by chemical constituents of essential oils of three plants used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, in vitro, on soybean lipoxygenase L-1 and cyclooxygenase function of prostaglandin H synthase (PGHS), the two enzymes involved in the production of mediators of inflammation. The essential oils were extracted from plants of three families: O. gratissimum (Labiatae), C. giganteus (Poaceae), and E. citriodora (Myrtaceae). Their chemical composition was established by GC/MS analyses. Among the three essential oils, one showed evident inhibition of L-1 with IC50 value of 72 µg/mL for Eucalyptus citriodora. Only one essential oil that of O. gratissimum inhibited the two enzymes, cyclooxygenase function of PGHS and lipoxygenase L-1, with an IC50 values, respectively, of 125 µg/mL and 144 µg/mL, whereas that of C. giganteus and E. citriodora, two of them had no effect on cyclooxygenase. KEY WORDS: Essential oils, Soybean lipoxygenase (L-1), Cyclooxygenase function ofprostaglandine H synthase-1, PGHS, O. gratissimum (Labiatae), C. giganteus (Poaceae), E. citriodora (Myrtaceae), Enantia chlorantha, Inhibition  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2003, 17(2), 191-197

Electrospinning of poly(methyl methacrylate) nanofibers in a pump-free process

The effects of processing parameters, including solution concentration, viscosity, nozzle diameter, voltage bias and the nozzle to collector distance, on the morpho logy and diameters of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fibers have been systematically investigated, using a unique pump-free electrospinning method. For PMMA solution concentrations less than the critical entanglement concentration, c e, prolate spheroidshaped droplets or beads with fibers were formed, whereas at concentrations above c e, good quality beadfree fibers were formed. Quantitative analysis revealed a linear dependence between the solution viscosity and fiber diameter. Larger fiber diameters were achieved by increasing the nozzle diameter and voltage bias. Increasing the bias voltage has the additional effect of broadening the diameter distribution, as a result of splaying and splitting. By contrast, when the strength of the electrical field was reduced by increasing the distance between the nozzle and collector, the overall fiber dia meter was reduced

Linking Social Protection Schemes: The Joint Effects of a Public Works and a Health Insurance Programme in Ethiopia

In developing countries and in particular in sub-Saharan Africa, social protection schemes tend to operate in silos. However, schemes targeting the same geographical areas may have synergies that have not yet been examined, and which are worth scrutinising. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by examining the joint impacts of two social protection programmes in Ethiopia, that is, the Productive Safety Net Programme and a Community Based Health Insurance Scheme. Based on three rounds of individual level panel data and several rounds of qualitative interviews, we find that individuals covered by both programmes, as opposed to neither or only one of the two programmes, provide greater labour supply, have larger livestock holdings, and have a lower amount of outstanding loans. Furthermore, joint participation is associated with greater use of modern health care facilities as compared to participating only in the safety net programme. These results show that bundling of interventions enhances protection against multiple risks and that linking social protection schemes yields more than the sum of their individual effects