Reconstruing future conditionality in English jurisprudence : revealing ancient purposes for common law ‘lives in being’

This thesis offers a reassessment of conditionality and perpetuity in English jurisprudence. Here, Chapters 1 to 3 lay important conceptual and historical foundations by exploring how external juristic and philosophical traditions influenced the early common law and the fault- lines which let those influences pass largely unnoticed. From this, Chapter 4 focuses on Avicenna’s application of ancient Greek, Roman, Neoplatonic and Classical Islamic scholarship to produce a creationist theory of ‘thingness’ of great relevance to understanding how a coherent benchmark of conditionality is provided by a ‘life in being’ under England’s Rule Against Perpetuities. Here, that new understanding is rooted in more ancient concepts – notions of causation and necessity – which demonstrate how the Rule pursues objectives of causal certainty, rather than socio-economic policy compromise. This is important to modern scholarship because it also helps answer still-unresolved questions about the selection of any such life. Furthermore, beginning with the Bracton authors, long-standing principles of annexation provide the overarching ‘splint’ or ‘bridge’ which connects a necessary cause with its posited final effect. Indeed, the law of determinable fees is applied to show how the annexation of a living person supplies the necessitated condition which runs with the gift to create a valid common law interest. Chapter 5 assesses this new ‘Necessary Life’ hypothesis alongside modern ‘measuring lives’ theories. Ultimately, it is concluded that the selection of a measuring life is better understood and more reliably applied in a revised definitional formula which proposes – ‘A non-vested interest is void at inception unless the death of one person then-living necessarily causes its ipso facto determination within the following twenty- one years’. If so, modern perpetuity reforms have suffered at the hands of misunderstanding the Rule’s founding purposes and disregarding the Aristotelian logic which is argued to be implicit in its true modus operandi

Two Approaches to Building Time-Windowed Geometric Data Structures

Given a set of geometric objects each associated with a time value, we wish to determine whether a given property is true for a subset of those objects whose time values fall within a query time window. We call such problems time-windowed decision problems, and they have been the subject of much recent attention, for instance studied by Bokal, Cabello, and Eppstein [SoCG 2015]. In this paper, we present new approaches to this class of problems that are conceptually simpler than Bokal et al.\u27s, and also lead to faster algorithms. For instance, we present algorithms for preprocessing for the time-windowed 2D diameter decision problem in O(n log n) time and the time-windowed 2D convex hull area decision problem in O(n alpha(n) log n) time (where alpha is the inverse Ackermann function), improving Bokal et al.\u27s O(n log^2 n) and O(n log n loglog n) solutions respectively. Our first approach is to reduce time-windowed decision problems to a generalized range successor problem, which we solve using a novel way to search range trees. Our other approach is to use dynamic data structures directly, taking advantage of a new observation that the total number of combinatorial changes to a planar convex hull is near linear for any FIFO update sequence, in which deletions occur in the same order as insertions. We also apply these approaches to obtain the first O(n polylog n) algorithms for the time-windowed 3D diameter decision and 2D orthogonal segment intersection detection problems

Enhancing the Supervision of Undergraduate Major Projects

Most undergraduate students are still required to complete a project of some kind, often in their final year of study. However, levels of student satisfaction on project modules and student outcomes are subject to considerable variation. Project modules sometimes detract from rather than add value to the student experience. Published research in the sector focused on best practice in the supervision of undergraduate projects and dissertations is limited. Using a case study approach, this article considers recent academic staff development interventions focused on enhancing supervision practice from a series of workshops and webinars organised by the authors. The analysis draws from existing module evaluation data, an in-session e-voting tool and end of session written evaluations. It considers the nuances of undergraduate supervision, the challenges that stem from cultural differences between disciplines, and the kinds of challenges faced by students and their supervisors. It argues that supervision at UG level constitutes a separate and distinctive aspect of HE pedagogic practice, and involves inducting the student into a different and often ‘alien’ approach to learning. It provides what the authors hope are some useful reflections on practice and proposes opportunities for developing practice of supervision more widely within the sector at undergraduate level

Three Approaches to Building Time-Windowed Geometric Data Structures

Given a set of geometric objects (points or line segments) each associated with a time value, we wish to determine whether a given property is true for a subset of those objects whose time values fall within a query time window. We call such problems time-windowed decision problems. We present algorithms to preprocess for the time-windowed closest pair decision problem in O(n) expected time, for the time-windowed 2D diameter decision problem in O(n log n) time, the time-windowed 2D convex hull area decision problem in O(n α(n) log n) time (where α is the inverse Ackermann function), and the time-windowed 3D diameter decision and orthogonal segment intersection detection problems in O(n polylog n) time. Our first approach is to reduce the closest pair decision problem to 2D dominance range emptiness using grids to compute candidate satisfying pairs. We extend this approach to find the closest pair of points by reducing the problem to 2D dominance range minimum, which we further reduce to 2D point location. Our second approach is to reduce time-windowed decision problems to a generalized range successor problem, which we solve using a novel way to search range trees. Our third approach is to use dynamic data structures directly, taking advantage of a new observation that the total number of combinatorial changes to a planar convex hull is near linear for any FIFO update sequence, in which deletions occur in the same order as insertions

The value of 'writing retreats' in advancing innovative pedagogic research

This paper outlines the work of the Centre for Innovation in Higher Education, which uses an educational laboratory model to advance the intersection of innovative research and teaching at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). This evidence-based approach aims to promote active, reflective engagement with research in teaching and learning; foster collaborative and interdisciplinary inquiry into pedagogic practice; and support the development of a dynamic, sustainable pedagogic research community at ARU. The Centre’s work also increases the visibility and calibre of pedagogic research at national and international level. This paper outlines a current research project being undertaken by researchers from the Centre and Anglia Learning & Teaching which explores the longitudinal impact of its writing retreat provision on participants’ writing practices and productivity, together with their perceptions of writing as a key element of the academic identity. This study is generating valuable original data about academics’ writing practices and perceptions. It will contribute to the understanding of this important topic at a theoretical level, as well as outlining practical means through which universities can foster long-term academic writing productivity leading to enhanced research impact

From norms to normative configurations:A pragmatist and relational approach to theorizing normativity in IR

Normativity matters in international politics, but IR scholarship will benefit from de-reifying 'norms' as units into a relational, configurational alternative. The alternative I propose here is the 'normative configuration': an arrangement of ongoing, interacting practices establishing action-specific regulation, value-orientation, and avenues of contestation. This responds to recent constructivist scholarship, particularly from relational sociology and practice theory, that implies the need for ontological and analytical alternatives to 'norms' as central concepts responsible for establishing rules, institutions, and values in social life. I offer a way of conceptualizing and analyzing normativity consistent with these alternative approaches. Namely, I have brought together a pragmatist theory of action with the social theories of a number of key relational social theorists and philosophers, oriented around a reading of what norms-talk actually does for social enquiry. I then outline a three stage process - de-reification, attributing agency, and tracing transactions - that allows scholars to study transformations in normative configurations. Finally, I discuss what this contributes to the recent turns toward practices and relations, as the latest direction in constructivist scholarship within the discipline.</p