Understanding the wage patterns of Canadian less skilled workers: the role of implicit contracts

We examine the wage patterns of Canadian less skilled male workers over the last quarter century by organizing workers into job entry cohorts. We find entry wages for successive cohorts declined until 1997, and then began to recover. Wage profiles steepened for cohorts entering after 1997, but not for cohorts entering in the 1980s - a period when start wages were relatively high. We argue that these patterns are consistent with a model of implicit contracts with recontracting in which a worker's current wage is determined by the best labour market conditions experienced during the current job spell.

The 'ratione temporis' elements of self-defence

This article focuses on one particular factor that is of crucial importance to all self-defence actions. It is a factor that is almost always present in the application and appraisal of the right, but one that is not always explicitly engaged with: time. There are various ratione temporis elements underpinning the lawful exercise of the right of self-defence, and questions related to the timing of both an attack being responded to in self-defence and the response itself are notably controversial. The self-defence timeline is therefore charted, and the key legal debates encountered along its trajectory are identified. In particular, there is a focus on three temporal ‘stages’ of the right of self-defence: (i) the much-debated question of preventative forms of self-defence (the ‘before’); (ii) the timeliness of a state's defensive action, or what is sometimes called the need for the response to be ‘immediate’ (the ‘during’); and (iii) the duration of self-defence actions, including the crucial issue of when they must end (the ‘after’). The aim of this article is not to break new substantive ground with regard to these ‘stages’ as such, but is, rather, to draw together the temporal strands of self-defence in a more focused manner than is often the case in the literature

An Ethical Evaluation of Offshore Finance in the Cayman Islands

The conception of the Cayman Islands as a tax-haven and safe space for unethical money launderers and tax evaders from around the world has achieved mythic status in the media of developed nations such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the member states of the European Union. Meanwhile, the government and financial firms of the Cayman Islands have stressed that the jurisdiction is in compliance with, or at the forefront of, every international tax code and regulatory standard. Born of this juxtaposition is my thesis question: is offshore finance in the Cayman Islands unethical? Politicians, regulators, academics, and the public have all contributed in some way or another to the discourse surrounding this question; yet, these commenters rarely display even a rudimentary understanding of how financial services function in Cayman and of Cayman as a whole. I hope this thesis draws attention to the dearth of informed discussion regarding Cayman, injects the discussion with critical cultural, historical, and economic information about Cayman, and provides useful critiques of the ethical arguments for and against the jurisdiction. This thesis also shines a light on the bigoted, neocolonial, and prejudiced language which pollutes many discussions regarding the ethics of Cayman. This language may be partially responsible for the uninformed academic, and public discussions about Cayman and the regulation efforts to restrain the jurisdiction.Philosoph

Skylux Smartphone Controlled Skylight

There are numerous electric skylight openers available for purchase for home-use, but the majority of them are remote based, or operated by a wall-unit. Furthermore, these devices are in hard to reach places, so if one were to lose the remote on a remote operated system, the only option is to contact the manufacturer for a new device. As such, my senior project, in collaboration with Colton Sundstrom’s senior project, build upon our existing capstone project in order to allow operation of the Internet of Things (IoT) device over the internet. Our client, Richard Murray, was unsatisfied with the current state of his Velux skylight operator, so we wanted to create an end-product that could allow the operation to be controllable with any of his iOS devices, whether or not he was at home. Furthermore, the end-product should be secure, in that only authorized users could control the device. Since my client deemed that this project is very expansive, this project will also include a setup guide for new students to get the system running on their own environment for further improvements in areas such as scheduling, security, and more expansive features

The American Religious Landscape and the 2004 Presidential Vote: Increased Polarization

Presents findings from a post-election survey conducted in November and December 2004. Explores the polarization between different religions, as well as within the major religious traditions

Non-Perturbative Tachyon Potential from the Wilsonian Renormalization Group

The derivative expansion of the Wilsonian renormalization group generates additional terms in the effective beta-functions not present in the perturbative approach. Applied to the nonlinear sigma model, to lowest order the vanishing of the beta-function for the tachyon field generates an equation analogous to that found in open string field theory. Although the nonlinear term depends on the cut-off function, this arbitrariness can be removed by a rescaling of the tachyon field.Comment: 6 pages, further references adde

The Chilcot Report: some thoughts on international law and legal advice

The Report of the Iraq (Chilcot) Inquiry was finally published, 7 years after the Inquiry’s creation, on 6 July 2016. The scope of the Inquiry’s work was vast, and this was reflected in the enormous size of its final Report. The publication of the Report thus raises a multitude of questions requiring further analysis. In this short article, we aim to contribute some initial thoughts, immediately following the Report’s publication, in just two (interrelated) areas. First, we comment on the role of international law in the Chilcot Inquiry. To what extent was international law considered and how was it presented in the Report? We also ask whether the Report reaches any implicit substantive legal conclusions, despite formally refraining from determinations of law. Secondly, we review the Inquiry’s findings concerning international legal advice and legal advisers. In particular, we contribute some thoughts on the Report’s treatment of questions relating to the appropriate recipients of legal advice and its transparency, the timeliness of advice, the perception and treatment of law and legal advice by the Government, and the independence and quality of that advice

The Threat of Force as an Action in Self-Defense Under International Law

Self-defense is a universally accepted exception to the prohibition of the use of force in international law, and it has been subjected to careful academic scrutiny. The prohibition of the threat of force, although equally important in terms of its normative status to the prohibition on use, has attracted far less academic commentary to date. This Article examines the relationship between the two prohibitions--of the use and threat of force--and considers the largely unexplored possibility of states utilizing a threat of force as a means of lawful defensive response: self-defense in the form of a threat. The status of this concept under international law is assessed, and the criteria that may regulate it are analyzed. This Article is based on an analogy between traditional forcible self-defense and the notion of threats made in self-defense. However, one cannot automatically apply the well-established rules of self-defense to a defensive threat, largely because of the practical differences between a threatened response and a response involving actual force