Duress in the Canadian and English Law of Restitution:

The early history of restitution reveals that duress was relevant in two situations. In the first, one party compelled another to pay him money by reason of some threat. In the second situation, one party compelled another to pay him money which was in fact owed by a third party to the one exercising the compulsion. The former situation was a straight forward one, in which the party exercising the duress falsely or legitimately (though perhaps erroneously) caused the party subjected to the duress to accept that a debt existed between the two parties, or that the party exerting pressure ought to be paid, so as to avoid undesirable consequences. The latter situation was more complex, as there was never any question of a legitimate debt existing or arising between the party exerting pressure and the party paying. Whatever debt or obligation existed, or was believed to exist on the part of the one exerting pressure, also existed or was thought to exist between some third person and the party exerting the pressure. One distinguishing feature between these two situations was, and still is, with some important consequences, that in the two-party situation the issue of duress might be intertwined with the issue of mistake (so creating two potential sources of restitutionary recovery), whereas in the three-party situation the issue was thought to be one of bare duress, uncomplicated by questions of mistake. Another potentially vital distinction was that in the three-party situation the action of the party paying might give rise to the question whether his payment was officious (the term that has come to be used to mark the difference between a recoverable and a non-recoverable payment),? In the twoparty situation there could never be any question of officiousness. The sole criterion for recovery was whether the appropriate pressure had been exercised to justify recovery. These distinctions had, and still have, material effects upon the chances of restitutionary recovery. They do not detract from the fact that common to both situations was the problem of determining the nature of the duress that might form the basis for a successful action for restitution

Lawyers as Agents

This article addresses the nature and effect of the agency relationship that exists between a lawyer and his client. There are two aspects of this, the internal relationship and its external effects. Under the first heading are considered the duties of the lawyer towards his client, including his fiduciary duties, which have recently been broadened, and the obligation of the client to pay his lawyer. The external aspect of a lawyer's role as agent for his client raises the issue of the agent's authority which may be express, implied or apparent. The scope of that authority is vital. It is analysed in respect of two different situations. The first is where no litigation is involved, but the lawyer is required to deal with money on behalf of the client, contracts within the Statute of Frauds, or notices. The second relates to the conduct of litigation. A number of important issues arise in this respect, of which the most important is the authority of a lawyer to compromise or settle an action. This is considered in some depth with special reference to English and Canadian cases, in order to elucidate the extent to which and grounds upon which a lawyer may validly affect his client's position.L 'article suivant étudie la nature et les conséquences des relations d'agence qui existent entre un avocat et son client. On envisage deux aspects principaux: les relations internes et les conséquences externes. Le premier thème traite des obligations de l'avocat envers son client y compris les obligations fiduciaires, qui ont été elargies récemment, et de la responsabilité du client de régler les honoraires de son avocat. L'aspect externe du rôle de l'avocat, comme agent de son client, soulève la question de l'autorité de l'agent qui peut être expresse, implicite ou apparente. L'étendue de cette autorité est d'importance capitale. On l'analyse en tenant compte de deux situations différentes: La première n 'implique aucun litige, plutôt l'avocat doit s'occuper des affires de son client, des contrats dans le cadre du Statute of Frauds, ou des préavis. La deuxième situation sa rapport à la conduite du litige. De nombreuses questions se présentent, la plus importante étant l'autorité de l ’avocat de régler une cause par compromis, ou de la résoudre. On a réfléchit longuement à ces questions en tenant compte des arrêts Anglais et Canadiens, afin de pouvoir élucider dans quelle mesure et sous quel motif un avocat peut affecter la position de son client

Metastatic Melanomas Express Inhibitory Low Affinity Fc Gamma Receptor and Escape Humoral Immunity

Our research, inspired by the pioneering works of Isaac Witz in the 1980s, established that 40% of human metastatic melanomas express ectopically inhibitory Fc gamma receptors (FcγRIIB), while they are detected on less than 5% of primary cutaneous melanoma and not on melanocytes. We demonstrated that these tumoral FcγRIIB act as decoy receptors that bind the Fc portion of antimelanoma IgG, which may prevent Fc recognition by the effector cells of the immune system and allow the metastatic melanoma to escape the humoral/natural immune response. The FcγRIIB is able to inhibit the ADCC (antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity) in vitro. Interestingly, the percentage of melanoma expressing the FcγRIIB is high (70%) in organs like the liver, which is rich in patrolling NK (natural killer) cells that exercise their antitumoral activity by ADCC. We found that this tumoral FcγRIIB is fully functional and that its inhibitory potential can be triggered depending on the specificity of the anti-tumor antibody with which it interacts. Together these observations elucidate how metastatic melanomas interact with and potentially evade humoral immunity and provide direction for the improvement of anti-melanoma monoclonal antibody therapy

The use of Th in HTR: State of the art and implementation in Th/Pu fuel cycles

Nowadays nuclear is the only greenhouse-free source that can appreciably respond to the increasing worldwide energy demand. The use of Thorium in the nuclear energy production may offer some advantages to accomplish this task. Extensive R&D on the thorium fuel cycle has been conducted in many countries around the world. Starting from the current nuclear waste policy, the EU-PUMA project focuses on the potential benefits of using the HTR core as a Pu/MA transmuter. In this paper the following aspects have been analysed: (1) the state-of-the-art of the studies on the use of Th in different reactors, (2) the use of Th in HTRs, with a particular emphasis on Th-Pu fuel cycles, (3) an original assessment of Th-Pu fuel cycles in HTR. Some aspects related to Thorium exploitation were outlined, particularly its suitability for working in pebble-bed HTR in a Th-Pu fuel cycle. The influence of the Th/Pu weight fraction at BOC in a typical HTR pebble was analysed as far as the reactivity trend versus burn-up, the energy produced per Pu mass, and the Pu isotopic composition at EOC are concerned. Although deeper investigations need to be performed in order to draw final conclusions, it is possible to state that some optimized Th percentage in the initial Pu/Th fuel could be suggested on the basis of the aim we are trying to reach

Dynamic stabilization of non-spherical bodies against unlimited collapse

We solve equations, describing in a simplified way the newtonian dynamics of a selfgravitating nonrotating spheroidal body after loss of stability. We find that contraction to a singularity happens only in a pure spherical collapse, and deviations from the spherical symmetry stop the contraction by the stabilising action of nonlinear nonspherical oscillations. A real collapse happens after damping of the oscillations due to energy losses, shock wave formation or viscosity. Detailed analysis of the nonlinear oscillations is performed using a Poincar\'{e} map construction. Regions of regular and chaotic oscillations are localized on this map.Comment: MNRAS, accepted, 7 pages, 9 figure