Map and Territory in Comparative Law and Economics

This paper argues that developing more reliable methodological foundations for Comparative Law requires us to acknowledge the virtues and limitations of well-designed simplification in successfully accounting for the complexity of legal reality. If the researcher is aware of its limitations, Law & Economics is well suited to providing analytical frameworks that increase our ability to compare real-life legal institutions by reducing the complexity of the law in action. Relying on some underexplored elements of New Institutional Economics and recent developments in Comparative Law and in Law & Economics, it presents a pathway to overcome the main methodological pitfall of a joint approach. For this purpose, it analyses the problems of the functional method, traces how Law & Economics was brought into Comparative Law, discusses the main methodological advantages and pitfalls of combining both disciplines and proposes concrete forms to make use of such advantages, while avoiding the pitfalls

La configuración legal de la libertad de enseñanza: ¿Un caso de captura regulatoria?

La Constitución garantiza a todas las personas la Libertad de Enseñanza y el Derecho a la Educación. De acuerdo a la interpretación tradicional, la Libertad de Enseñanza incluye el derecho de los establecimientos educacionales para seleccionar los alumnos que postulan a él y el Derecho a la Educación impone al Estado el deber de mantener establecimientos no selectivos. En consecuencia, la regulación legal en la materia establece un sistema altamente diferenciado que autoriza a cada tipo de escuela para implementar formas de selección de diversa intensidad. El resultado de lo anterior es un sistema de selección escolar que genera una segregación quefavorece marcadamente a alumnos de ciertas características,con un potencial desmedro del resultado agregado del sistema educativo (posible captura). El actual entendimiento de la Libertad de Enseñanza autoriza solamente modificaciones de alcance limitado al sistema vigente. Reformas más agresivas probablemente requieren un cambio en la forma en que se consagra o interpreta esta garantía, lo que implicaría un nuevo “pacto político” en la materia

Towards a property sistem over wind in Chile

This paper analyzes the legal and economic nature of the wind as an energy resource in Chile. It holds that wind is becoming a rival good that is originally assigned privately under a rationale dominated by the principle of accession. It suggests that this assignment is subject to criticism from an efficiency and distributive perspective. As an alternative, it proposes to follow an acquisition by first possession logic by means of a symbolic form of occupation and discusses its implication

La relación jurídica cliente-abogado

Al ser una profesión liberal, la abogacía tiene un lugar especial dentro dela división social del trabajo. Esta situación determina que la relación del abogado con su cliente tenga una regulación jurídica propia. Dentro de esta normativa destaca la aplicación de disposiciones provenientes del mandato civil, la lex artis y el Código de Ética Profesional del Colegio de Abogados. El contenido normativo de esta regulación da cuenta del marcado carácter fiduciario de la relación cliente - abogado y de cómo ello debe ser compatibilizado con la lealtad que el abogado debe al ordenamiento jurídico; especialmente en materia de diligencia debida, secreto profesional, conflictos de interés, deberes de información y honorarios. Esta regulación está expuesta actualmente a nuevos desafíos derivados de los cambios que la profesión jurídica ha experimentado durante los últimos 30 años

Stability and change in property law: a comparative approach to the principle of numerus clausus

As a result of following a ‘principle of numerus clausus’, contemporary property systems are frequently described as static, rigid and formalistic. Under this principle, the number and content of property rights are limited by the law. This creates two sources of rigidity: first, it denies private parties the freedom to create new property forms by contract, and second, it restricts the power of courts to develop the property system. Despite this, modern property systems seem largely capable of accommodating the demands created by a vast array of external changes without undergoing noticeable transformations. This dissertation aims to contribute to the solution of this paradox through a comparative research of English and German property law. Contrary to recent views arguing for the relaxation of the numerus clausus principle and the expansion of the list of property rights to keep property law in step with society, this thesis puts forward that the numerus clausus provides property law with an ‘internal’ structure that can accommodate new realities without the need of constant reform. The core of this argument is that the restrictions that the numerus clausus imposes on the free creation of property rights ensure that property law retains a modular structure that preserves the liberty of third parties to ‘functionally transform’ the object of their property rights in the face of changing circumstances. To develop this argument, the dissertation relies on the distinction between trespassory and successor liability recently advanced in Anglo-American scholarship. By noticing that the numerus clausus has different effects in limiting the creation of duties that will affect all strangers and duties that will only affect successors in title to the thing, this dissertation brings to light the doctrinal and functional structures that allow contemporary German and English property law to accommodate real-world changes with limited legislative reforms

Bases conceptuales para la doctrina del secreto profesional del abogado en Chile

Este trabajo propone bases conceptuales para caracterizar dogmáticamente el secreto profesional del abogado. Argumenta que este es parte de un arreglo institucional mayor que busca permitirle al abogado acceder fluidamente a los hechos respecto de los cuales sus servicios son requeridos. Para entender cómo funciona ese entramado normativo es necesario distinguir el secreto profesional del deber de confidencialidad del abogado, por la vía de considerar al primero como una inmunidad procedimental que hace operativo el segundo frente a un requerimiento de información por el Estado. En la medida en que la inmunidad colisiona con el interés del Estado por acceder a los hechos necesarios para el ejercicio de jurisdicción, su ámbito de aplicación debe ser menor al del deber de confidencialida

Global coral disease prevalence associated with sea temperature anomalies and local factors

Coral diseases are taking an increasing toll on coral reef structure and biodiversity and are important indicators of declining health in the oceans. We implemented standardized coral disease surveys to pinpoint hotspots of coral disease, reveal vulnerable coral families and test hypotheses about climate drivers from 39 locations worldwide. We analyzed a 3 yr study of coral disease prevalence to identify links between disease and a range of covariates, including thermal anomalies (from satellite data), location and coral cover, using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model. Prevalence of unhealthy corals, i.e. those with signs of known diseases or with other signs of compromised health, exceeded 10% on many reefs and ranged to over 50% on some. Disease prevalence exceeded 10% on 20% of Caribbean reefs and 2.7% of Pacific reefs surveyed. Within the same coral families across oceans, prevalence of unhealthy colonies was higher and some diseases were more common at sites in the Caribbean than those in the Pacific. The effects of high disease prevalence are potentially extensive given that the most affected coral families, the acroporids, faviids and siderastreids, are among the major reef-builders at these sites. The poritids and agaricids stood out in the Caribbean as being the most resistant to disease, even though these families were abundant in our surveys. Regional warm temperature anomalies were strongly correlated with high disease prevalence. The levels of disease reported here will provide a much-needed local reference point against which to compare future change