Textual Privacy and Mobile Information

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R v Marakah attempted to resolve the privacy status of text messages under section 8 of the Charter, but offered an incomplete solution because it failed to address the normative basis for protecting such communications. Despite the complexity of section 8 analysis (which itself is a product of multiple and inconsistent tests used to answer the same questions), the privacy of text messages allows for a relatively simple analysis. Normatively speaking, letters, email, and text messages all attract the same basic privacy interest, and should be treated analogously. However, if the police have objective grounds for believing that particular individuals have been exchanging text messages in furtherance of a crime, reasonable suspicion may justify a limited search, aimed solely at obtaining those messages. This approach protects the public from random and baseless police searches while giving the police access to these communications when there are objective grounds to believe they will disclose evidence of crime

Switching noise as a probe of statistics in the fractional quantum Hall effect

We propose an experiment to probe the unconventional quantum statistics of quasi-particles in fractional quantum Hall states by measurement of current noise. The geometry we consider is that of a Hall bar where two quantum point contacts introduce two interfering amplitudes for back-scattering. Thermal fluctuations of the number of quasi-particles enclosed between the two point contacts introduce current noise, which reflects the statistics of the quasi-particles. We analyze abelian $\nu=1/q$ states and the non-abelian $\nu=5/2$ state

Endogenous growth, convexity of damage and climate risk: how Nordhaus’ framework supports deep cuts in carbon emissions

‘To slow or not to slow’ (Nordhaus, 1991) was the first economic appraisal of greenhouse gas emissions abatement and founded a large literature on a topic of worldwide importance. We offer our assessment of the original article and trace its legacy, in particular Nordhaus's later series of ‘DICE’ models. From this work, many have drawn the conclusion that an efficient global emissions abatement policy comprises modest and modestly increasing controls. We use DICE itself to provide an initial illustration that, if the analysis is extended to take more strongly into account three essential elements of the climate problem – the endogeneity of growth, the convexity of damage and climate risk – optimal policy comprises strong controls. Nordhaus, W.D. (1991). ‘To slow or not to slow: the economics of the greenhouse effect’, Economic Journal, vol. 101(407), pp. 920–37

Bulk-edge coupling in the non-abelian ν=5/2\nu=5/2 quantum Hall interferometer

Recent schemes for experimentally probing non-abelian statistics in the quantum Hall effect are based on geometries where current-carrying quasiparticles flow along edges that encircle bulk quasiparticles, which are localized. Here we consider one such scheme, the Fabry-Perot interferometer, and analyze how its interference patterns are affected by a coupling that allows tunneling of neutral Majorana fermions between the bulk and edge. While at weak coupling this tunneling degrades the interference signal, we find that at strong coupling, the bulk quasiparticle becomes essentially absorbed by the edge and the intereference signal is fully restored.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Composite Fermions with Orbital Magnetization

For quantum Hall systems, in the limit of large magnetic field (or equivalently small electron band mass $m_b$), the static response of electrons to a spatially varying magnetic field is largely determined by kinetic energy considerations. This response is not correctly given in existing approximations based on the Fermion Chern-Simons theory of the partially filled Landau level. We remedy this problem by attaching an orbital magnetization to each fermion to separate the current into magnetization and transport contributions, associated with the cyclotron and guiding center motions respectively. This leads to a Chern-Simons Fermi liquid description of the $\nu=\frac{1}{2m}$ state which correctly predicts the $m_b$ dependence of the static and dynamic response in the limit $m_b \rightarrow 0$.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, no figure

Incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in National Law

Incorporation is amongst the legislative measures of implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. This article will discuss incorporation of the CRC in national law. It will show how incorporation is understood in different contexts, and highlight possible tensions between child rights and international law discourse and analysis. It begins by reviewing literature on incorporation of human rights treaties before discussing how incorporation is conceptualised in the context of the CRC. The focus then shifts to a review of studies that provide insights into how incorporation and legal integration of the CRC impact on how children’s rights are treated in national legal systems. While primarily a commentary on the available literature the authors reflect on the significance of incorporation and how this is understood for academic and legal analysis, and what the evidence tells us about its contribution to the realisation of children’s rights