Empirical Study of the Civil Justice System

In this essay, we discuss empirical research on the economic effects of the civil justice system. We discuss research on the effects of three substantive bodies of law- contracts, torts, and property- and research on the effects of the litigation process. We begin with a review of studies of aggregate empirical trends and the important issues involving contracts and torts, both positive and normative. We survey some of the more interesting empirical issues, and we conclude with some suggestions for future work. Because studies involving property law are so divergent, there is no simple description of aggregates that adequately characterizes the subject. In its place, we offer an overview of a number of the most important issues of interest. We describe (selectively) the current state of empirical knowledge, and offer some suggestions for future research. The section on legal process builds on the previous substantive sections. With respect each of the steps, from violation to trial to appeal, we review some of the more important empirical contributions.

Three dimensional finite temperature SU(3) gauge theory in the confined region and the string picture

We determine the correlation between Polyakov loops in three dimensional SU(3) gauge theory in the confined region at finite temperature. For this purpose we perform lattice calculations for the number of steps in the temperature direction equal to six. This is expected to be in the scaling region of the lattice theory. We compare the results to the bosonic string model. The agreement is very good for temperatures T<0.7T_c, where T_c is the critical temperature. In the region 0.7T_c<T<T_c we enter the critical region, where the critical properties of the correlations are fixed by universality to be those of the two dimensional three state Potts model. Nevertheless, by calculating the critical lattice coupling, we show that the ratio of the critical temperature to the square root of the zero temperature string tension, where the latter is taken from the literature, remains very near to the string model prediction.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Fiscal Federalism in Europe: Lessons From the United States Experience

The existing political and legal institutions of fiscal policy-making are under challenge. As the United States and the eastern European and Soviet states experiment with policy decentralization, the states of western Europe are looking to a more centralized policy structure via the E.E.C.. This paper seeks to raise issues of importance to all such reform efforts--notably, the need to consider, and balance, the inefficiencies of fiscal policy decentralization (spillovers and wasteful fiscal competition) against the inefficiencies of fiscal policy centralization (policy cycles and localized 'pork barrel' spending and taxes). The need to develop new fiscal policy institutions emphasizing voluntary agreements and responsive 'agenda-setters' is stressed.

Understanding the Democratic Transition in South Africa

South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy stands as one of the past century’s most important political events. The transition has been successful to this point because the new constitution adopted a form of federal governance that has been able to provide protection for the economic elite from maximal redistributive taxation. Appropriately structured, federal governance creates a “hostage game” in which the majority central government controls the tax rate but elite run province(s) control the provision of important redistributive services to a significant fraction of lower income households. At least to today, the political economy of South Africa has found a stable equilibrium with less than maximal redistributive taxation. Moreover, the move to a democratic federalist system has improved the economic welfare of both the white minority and the black majority. Whether the federal structure can continue to check maximal taxation depends crucially upon the rate of time preference of the majority and their demands for redistributive public services. A new, impatient and more radical majority (ANC) party threatens the current equilibrium.

The Neutrino Suppression Scale from Large Volumes

We present an argument in which the scale ~ 0.1 eV associated with neutrino masses naturally appears in a a class of (very) large volume compactifications, being tied to a supersymmetry scale of 10^3 GeV and a string scale of 10^11 GeV. The masses are of Majorana type and there is no right-handed neutrino within the low-energy field theory. The suppression scale 10^14 GeV is independent of the masses of the heavy states that are integrated out. These kind of constructions appear naturally in Type IIB flux compactifications. However, the arguments that lead to this result rely only on a few geometrical features of the compactification manifold, and hence can be used independently of string theory.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX; v2. matches journal versio

From manuscript catalogues to a handbook of Syriac literature: Modeling an infrastructure for Syriaca.org

Despite increasing interest in Syriac studies and growing digital availability of Syriac texts, there is currently no up-to-date infrastructure for discovering, identifying, classifying, and referencing works of Syriac literature. The standard reference work (Baumstark's Geschichte) is over ninety years old, and the perhaps 20,000 Syriac manuscripts extant worldwide can be accessed only through disparate catalogues and databases. The present article proposes a tentative data model for Syriaca.org's New Handbook of Syriac Literature, an open-access digital publication that will serve as both an authority file for Syriac works and a guide to accessing their manuscript representations, editions, and translations. The authors hope that by publishing a draft data model they can receive feedback and incorporate suggestions into the next stage of the project.Comment: Part of special issue: Computer-Aided Processing of Intertextuality in Ancient Languages. 15 pages, 4 figure