A Model for Arbitration: Autonomy, Cooperation and Curtailment of State Power

As compared with the formal pleadings, massive discovery, aggressive motion practice, and endless appeals of litigation, arbitration is undoubtedly more efficient as a dispute resolution mechanism. However, efficiency is only one of many advantages of arbitration. Arbitration empowers disputing parties, promotes individual autonomy and cooperation, and curtails the power of government in the process. Still, the state should not wholly limit its involvement in arbitral processes; the courts do and should have a substantial role in determining the enforceability of arbitration agreements and awards in a few select contexts. Overall, courts should enforce arbitration agreements and only limit enforceability that are vulnerable to contract defenses like fraud, duress or illegality. Courts should also monitor arbitration to ensure that arbitrators properly enforce the intent of the contracting parties, and if they fail at this task, there may be necessary judicial review for errors of law. However, the state should be hestitent to tamper with arbitration processes beyond this point. This approach maximizes individual autonomy and cooperation while minimizing governmental interference

Forecasts of the Scottish economy [March 2006]

There has undoubtedly been a slight slowing in the world economy but it is more marked in the US than elsewhere. Japanese performance was better than expected however and has offset the deterioration in the US. While the Euro Area remains relatively weak there are clear signs of a strengthening of activity and a modest recovery is taking place. The US is forecast to grow by 2.9 per cent this year, Japanese growth is forecast to be 2.3 per cent and the Euro Area forecast is 1.9 per cent. Inflationary pressures have been building as oil prices have surged but there are few signs of this passing through to wage bargains and over the next year as monetary policy is further tightened; inflationary pressures are expected to abate

The world economy [June 2003]

The world economy has weakened slightly further again this quarter. This is primarily due to weaker economic data at the end of 2002 and for the first quarter of 2003. The expectation is for activity to strengthen in the latter half of 2003 and for GDP growth to intensify in 2005 relative to 2004. The factors that have stabilised the world economy are the relative pick-up in global equity markets, the re-alignment of currencies (this may lead to an improvement in imbalances in the world economy) and oil price stability, although the fall in oil prices is smaller than was expected. Clearly the situation in Iraq has resolved according to the US plan and this has reduced uncertainty significantly. Despite this the West still has to be vigilant to any terrorist threat. The economic consequences of the war however are relatively minor

Forecasts of the Scottish economy [December 2003]

The outlook for the world economy remains promising with the US driving growth. There is also strong growth in the Far East particularly in China. An area of concern is the Euro Area, which remains depressed compared to other major economies. This is largely due to the situation in Germany. Forward indicators for the Euro Zone are improving suggesting that recovery will take place in 2004 but that trend growth will not be achieved until 2005. The UK economy continues to perform well. GDP data for the UK has been revised up (mainly due to the construction sector) and growth is forecast to be 2.0 per cent in 2003 and 2.6 per cent in 2004. There are some inflationary pressures in the economy. The Bank of England is concerned over household debt and a strong housing market. These were significant factors in their decision to raise the Bank of England interest rate in November to 3.75 per cent. The UK labour market remains buoyant with employment growth and low unemployment. We are forecasting that the UK will return to trend growth by 2004 and certainly by 2005. The latest Scottish GDP data were encouraging overall. Manufacturing is still experiencing problems but the service sector continues to grow at just below 3 per cent on an annual basis up to the second quarter of 2003. Within services transport and communication, financial services and real estate and business services are the strongest growing sectors. We are forecasting that Scottish GDP growth will be 1.3 per cent in 2003 and 2.1 per cent in 2004. In 2005 we forecast growth of 2.3 per cent

Progress on symmetry breaking and generational mixing in topcolor-assisted technicolor

Topcolor-assisted technicolor provides a dynamical explanation for electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking and for the large mass of the top quark without unnatural fine tuning. I briefly review the basics of topcolor-assisted technicolor, including major constraints and a general approach to satisfying them. The main challenge to topcolor-assisted technicolor is to generate the observed mixing between heavy and light generations while breaking the strong topcolor interactions near 1 TeV. I argue that these phenomena, as well as electroweak symmetry breaking, are intimately connected and I present a scenario for them based on nontrivial patterns of technifermion condensation. I also exhibit a class of models realizing this scenario.First author draf