Tax Havens as Producers of Corporate Law

This Review Essay situates Christopher Bruner’s new book, Re-imagining Offshore Finance, within the literature examining the regulation of cross-border finance and highlights its import for thinking about the complicated (and contested) relationship between territorially-configured domestic laws and the increasingly liberal movement of capital. Part I sets out the book’s central thesis. In addition to highlighting Bruner’s novel framework identifying the factors that propel certain small jurisdictions into becoming magnets for cross-border finance, I outline the limits of the framework in accounting for the stability in the overall demand for the commercialization of sovereignty, only one of which is facilitating international tax evasion. Part II examines the rise of offshore financial havens as they relate to the territorially-configured domestic rules — a subject that has yet to attract the attention that it deserves. While the rise of offshore financial havens has been viewed as typifying the continued dominance of territorial sovereignty, I show that it is private choice and juridical rules that have been privileged over strictly territorial conceptions of the law. I use recent developments in corporate law and bankruptcy law to show that domestic laws governing certain financial transactions are already ceding to privately-curated juridical rules, albeit not without resistance

The Use of Graduated Scenarios to Facilitate the Learning of Complex and Difficult-to-describe Concepts

There are many complex concepts in higher education learning that are difficult to convey to learners in words. Some examples are reflective learning, critical thinking, clinical reasoning; processes of evaluation (e.g. in art and design subjects) and professional practice (eg teaching itself). These are important concepts that evade straight forward uses of language that might explain how to ‘do’ them and how then to ‘do them better’ or at a ‘deeper level’ and so on. This paper explores a method that has been developed to facilitate the learning of such concepts - the graduated scenario technique. The paper describes the initial development of the method with respect to the concept of reflective learning. Graduated scenarios are based on two practices – firstly, the use of examples and demonstrations that show learners – in this case - how to write reflectively. Secondly they demonstrate the characteristics of deep reflection as opposed to superficial and descriptive reflection. This demonstration is made explicit at the end of the exercise, in a framework for,– in this case, reflective learning. The assumption is made that better quality learning emanates from deeper reflection (eg Hatton and Smith, 1995). The paper goes on to discuss the application of the graduated scenario technique to critical thinking. It then moves to a more generic approach, considering why such the technique appears to be helpful - and it provides examples of other areas of learning in which the it could be used

Conformational studies of various hemoglobins by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy

Studies of variously liganded hemoglobins (both from human and rabbit) by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy have revealed apparent conformational differences that have been interpreted on the basis of two quaternary structures for the α2ß2 tetramer, and variable tertiary structures for the individual α and ß subunits. In solution, rabbit hemoglobins appear to have somewhat more flexibility than human hemoglobins

Pressure-strain-rate events in homogeneous turbulent shear flow

A detailed study of the intercomponent energy transfer processes by the pressure-strain-rate in homogeneous turbulent shear flow is presented. Probability density functions (pdf's) and contour plots of the rapid and slow pressure-strain-rate show that the energy transfer processes are extremely peaky, with high-magnitude events dominating low-magnitude fluctuations, as reflected by very high flatness factors of the pressure-strain-rate. A concept of the energy transfer class was applied to investigate details of the direction as well as magnitude of the energy transfer processes. In incompressible flow, six disjoint energy transfer classes exist. Examination of contours in instantaneous fields, pdf's and weighted pdf's of the pressure-strain-rate indicates that in the low magnitude regions all six classes play an important role, but in the high magnitude regions four classes of transfer processes, dominate. The contribution to the average slow pressure-strain-rate from the high magnitude fluctuations is only 50 percent or less. The relative significance of high and low magnitude transfer events is discussed

Local structure of intercomponent energy transfer in homogeneous turbulent shear flow

Intercomponent energy transfer by pressure-strain-rate was investigated for homogeneous turbulent shear flow. The rapid and slow parts of turbulent pressure (decomposed according to the influence of the mean deformation rate) are found to be uncorrelated; this finding provides strong justification for current modeling procedure in which the pressure-strain-rate term is split into the corresponding parts. Issues pertinent to scales involved in the intercomponent energy transfer are addressed in comparison with those for the Reynolds-stress and vorticity fields. A physical picture of the energy transfer process is described from a detailed study of instantaneous events of high transfer regions. It was found that the most significant intercomponent energy transfer events are highly localized in space and are imbedded within a region of concentrated vorticity

Conservative treatment of boundary interfaces for overlaid grids and multi-level grid adaptations

Conservative algorithms for boundary interfaces of overlaid grids are presented. The basic method is zeroth order, and is extended to a higher order method using interpolation and subcell decomposition. The present method, strictly based on a conservative constraint, is tested with overlaid grids for various applications of unsteady and steady supersonic inviscid flows with strong shock waves. The algorithm is also applied to a multi-level grid adaptation in which the next level finer grid is overlaid on the coarse base grid with an arbitrary orientation

Notes on Spinoptics in a Stationary Spacetime

In arXiv:1105.5629, equations of the modified geometrical optics for circularly polarized photon trajectories in a stationary spacetime are derived by using a (1+3)-decomposed form of Maxwell's equations. We derive the same results by using a four-dimensional covariant description. In our procedure, the null nature of the modified photon trajectory naturally appears and the energy flux is apparently null. We find that, in contrast to the standard geometrical optics, the inner product of the stationary Killing vector and the tangent null vector to the modified photon trajectory is no longer a conserved quantity along light paths. This quantity is furthermore different for left and right handed photon. A similar analysis is performed for gravitational waves and an additional factor of 2 appears in the modification due to the spin-2 nature of gravitational waves.Comment: 15 pages, to appear in PR

Velocity Distributions and Correlations in Homogeneously Heated Granular Media

We compare the steady state velocity distributions from our three-dimensional inelastic hard sphere molecular dynamics simulation for homogeneously heated granular media, with the predictions of a mean field-type Enskog-Boltzmann equation for inelastic hard spheres [van Noije & Ernst, Gran. Matt. {\bf 1}, 57 (1998)]. Although we find qualitative agreement for all values of density and inelasticity, the quantitative disagreement approaches $\sim 40$ at high inelasticity or density. By contrast the predictions of the pseudo-Maxwell molecule model [Carrillo, Cercignani & Gamba, Phys. Rev. E, {\bf 62}, 7700 (2000)] are both qualitatively and quantitatively different from those of our simulation. We also measure short-range and long-range velocity correlations exhibiting non-zero correlations at contact before the collision, and being consistent with a slow algebraic decay over a decade in the unit of the diameter of the particle, proportional to $r^{-(1+\alpha)}$, where $0.2 < \alpha < 0.3$. The existence of these correlations imply the failure of the molecular chaos assumption and the mean field approximation, which is responsible for the quantitative disagreement of the inelastic hard sphere kinetic theory.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, Phys. Rev. E, in pres

Backward Raman compression of x-rays in metals and warm dense matters

Experimentally observed decay rate of the long wavelength Langmuir wave in metals and dense plasmas is orders of magnitude larger than the prediction of the prevalent Landau damping theory. The discrepancy is explored, and the existence of a regime where the forward Raman scattering is stable and the backward Raman scattering is unstable is examined. The amplification of an x-ray pulse in this regime, via the backward Raman compression, is computationally demonstrated, and the optimal pulse duration and intensity is estimated.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR