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

Premotor-Motor interhemispheric inhibition is released during movement initiation in older but not young adults

Neural interactions between contralateral motor regions are thought to be instrumental in the successful preparation, and execution, of volitional movements. Here we investigated whether healthy ageing is associated with a change in functional connectivity, as indicated by the ability to modulate interhemispheric interactions during movement preparation in a manner that assists rapid movement responses. Thirteen young (mean age 22.2 years) and thirteen older (68.5 years) adults rapidly abducted their left index finger as soon as possible in response to a visual imperative signal, presented 500 ms after a visual warning signal. Interactions between left dorsal premotor cortex (LPMd) and right primary motor cortex (RM1) and between left primary motor cortex (LM1) and RM1 were investigated at six time points between the warning signal and the volitional response using paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation. Relative to the inhibitory interactions measured at rest, both young and older adults released LM1-RM1 inhibition beginning 250 ms after the warning signal, with no significant differences between groups. LPMd-RM1 interactions became facilitatory (from the onset of the imperative signal onwards) in the older, but not the young, group. Regression analyses revealed that for the older adults, modulation of LPMd-RM1 interactions early in the preparation period was associated with faster responses, suggesting that specifically timed modulation of these pathways may be a compensatory mechanism to offset, at least in part, slowing of motor responses. The results suggest a greater reliance on premotor regions during the preparation of simple motor actions with advancing age

Individual tree biomass equations or biomass expansion factors for assessment of carbon stock changes in living biomass - A comparative study

AbstractSignatory countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its supplementary Kyoto Protocol (KP) are obliged to report greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Changes in the carbon stock of living biomass should be reported using either the default or stock change methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector. Traditionally, volume estimates are used as a forestry measures. Changes in living biomass may be assessed by first estimating the change in the volume of stem wood and then converting this volume to whole tree biomass using biomass expansion factors (BEFs). However, this conversion is often non-trivial because the proportion of stem wood increases with tree size at the expense of branches, foliage, stump and roots. Therefore, BEFs typically vary over time and their use may result in biased estimates. The objective of this study was to evaluate differences between biomass estimates obtained using biomass equations and BEFs with particular focus on uncertainty analysis. Assuming that the development of tree fractions in different ways can be handled by individual biomass equations, BEFs for standing stock were shown to overestimate the biomass sink capacity (Sweden). Although estimates for BEFs derived for changes in stock were found to be unbiased, the estimated BEFs varied substantially over time (0.85–1.22ton CO2/m3). However, to some extent this variation may be due to random sampling errors rather than actual changes. The highest accuracy was obtained for estimates based on biomass equations for different tree fractions, applied to data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory using a permanent sample design (estimated change in stock 1990–2005: 420million tons CO2, with a standard error amounting to 26.7million tons CO2) Many countries have adopted such a design combined with the stock change method for reporting carbon stock changes under the UNFCCC/KP

A generic C1C^1 map has no absolutely continuous invariant probability measure

Let $M$ be a smooth compact manifold (maybe with boundary, maybe disconnected) of any dimension $d \ge 1$. We consider the set of $C^1$ maps $f:M\to M$ which have no absolutely continuous (with respect to Lebesgue) invariant probability measure. We show that this is a residual (dense $G_\delta) set in the$C^1$ topology. In the course of the proof, we need a generalization of the usual Rokhlin tower lemma to non-invariant measures. That result may be of independent interest.Comment: 12 page