Two Arguments for an Empirical Foundation of Natural-Law Norms: An Examination of Johannes Messner\u27s and Victor Kraft\u27s Approaches

The first question that confronts the doctrine of natural law is: how can social norms be ascertained from the Is of human nature? This question raises the preliminary problem as to whether there is a constant human nature at all, a secondary issue which has to be decided before the answer to the main question can be sought

NAFTA Chapter 11 as Supraconstitution

More and more legal scholars are turning to constitutional law to make sense of the growth of transnational and international legal orders. They often employ constitutional terminology loosely, in a bewildering variety of ways, with little effort to clarify their analytical frameworks or acknowledge the normative presuppositions embedded in their analysis. The potential of constitutional analysis as an instrument of critique of transnational legal orders is frequently lost in methodological confusion and normative controversy. An effort at clarification is necessary. We propose a functional approach to supraconstitutional analysis that applies across issue areas, accommodates variation in kinds and degrees of supraconstitutionalization, recognizes its simultaneously domestic and transnational character, and reflects its uneven incidence and impacts. We apply this framework to NAFTA to consider whether and how it superimposes a supraconstitutional legal order on member states\u27 domestic constitutional orders. We show that the main thrust of this contemporary supraconstitutional project is to restructure state and international political forms to promote market efficiency and discipline, enable free capital movement, confer privileged rights of citizenship and representation on corporate capital, insulate key aspects of the economy from state interference, and constrain democratic decision-making

Between history and values: A study on the nature of interpretation in international law

My thesis discusses the place of evaluative judgements in the interpretation of general international law. It concentrates on two questions. First, whether it is possible to interpret international legal practices without making an evaluative judgement about the point or value that provides the best justification of these practices. Second, whether the use of evaluative judgements in international legal interpretation threatens to undermine the objectivity of international law, the neutrality of international lawyers or the consensual and voluntary basis of the international legal system. I answer both questions in the negative. As regards the first, I argue that international legal practice has an interpretive structure, which combines appeals to the history of international practice with appeals to the principles and values that these practices are best understood as promoting. This interpretive structure is apparent not only in the claims of international lawyers about particular rules of international law (here I use the rule of estoppel as an example) but also in the most basic intuitions of international theorists about the theory and sources of general international law. I then argue that some popular concerns to the effect that the exercise of evaluation in the interpretation of international law will undermine the coherence or the usefulness of the discipline are generally unwarranted. The fact that international legal practice has an interpretive structure does not entail that propositions of international law are only subjectively true, that the interpreter enjoys license to manipulate their meaning for self-serving purposes, or that international law will collapse under the weight of irresolvable disagreements, divisions and conflicts about its proper interpretation

Calendar anomalies in cryptocurrencies

Zahlreiche Forscher*innen haben sich mit dem Thema Kalenderanomalien bereits besch\ue4ftigt. Auf Grund des zunehmenden Interesses an Kryptow\ue4hrungen, soll die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchen, ob Kryptow\ue4hrungen als Gesamtes Kalenderanomalien aufweisen. Dazu wird folgende Forschungsfrage gestellt: \u201eWeisen die Preise von Kryptow\ue4hrungen Kalenderanomalien auf?\u201cUm die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurden historische Preise der 100 nach Marktkapitalisierung gr\uf6 ften Kryptow\ue4hrungen extrahiert. Die Kryptow\ue4hrungen wurden dann zu einem Gesamtsample zusammengef\ufcgt, welches alle Kryptow\ue4hrungen beinhaltet, die mindestens seit dem 1.1.2020 gelistet sind. Anschlie fend wurden aus diesen Preisdaten die stetigen Renditen berechnet und anhand von gepoolten Regressionen auf Kalenderanomalien untersucht. Die zu untersuchenden Kalenderanomalien umfassten Wochentags-, Monats-, Monatswechsel-, Within the Month - und Halloween Effekte. Zus\ue4tzlich wurden die Daten in drei Subsamples aufgeteilt, um zu untersuchen, ob sich die Kryptow\ue4hrungen bez\ufcglich der untersuchten Kalenderanomalien im Zeitverlauf ver\ue4ndern. Die Untersuchungen der Kryptow\ue4hrungen zeigten, dass Kalenderanomalien vorliegen. Die Untersuchungen zeigten positive Wochentagseffekte f\ufcr Dienstag, Mittwoch, Freitag und Samstag. Die Monatseffekte waren f\ufcr Februar und April positiv und f\ufcr Juni und September negativ. Rund um den Monatswechsel kam es zu h\uf6heren Renditen. Der Within the Month Effekt war bei den untersuchten Kryptow\ue4hrungen ebenfalls vorhanden und bestand in h\uf6heren Renditen im ersten Monatsdrittel und niedrigeren Renditen im dritten Monatsdrittel jeweils im Vergleich zum zweiten Drittel. Auch der Halloween Effekte konnte in dieser Arbeit gefunden werden. Dabei kommt es zu h\uf6heren Renditen in den Monaten von November bis April. Bei der Untersuchung, wie sich diese Kalenderanomalien im Zeitverlauf ver\ue4ndern, fiel auf, dass diese Anomalien in bestimmten Subsamples nicht vorkommen oder sich teils im Vorzeichen umkehren.Numerous researchers have dealt with the topic of calendar anomalies. Due to the increasing interest in cryptocurrencies, the aim of this paper is to answer whether cryptocurrencies as a whole exhibit calendar anomalies. The research question is: "Do cryptocurrency prices exhibit calendar anomalies?\u201d To answer the research question, historical prices of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation were extracted. The cryptocurrencies were then combined into an overall sample that includes all cryptocurrencies that have been listed since at least 1.1.2020. The logarithmic returns were then calculated from this price data and examined for calendar anomalies using pooled regressions. The calendar anomalies to be examined included day of the week, month of the year, turn of the month, within the month, and Halloween effects. In addition, the data was split into three subsamples to examine whether cryptocurrencies change over time with respect to the calendar anomalies examined. The examinations of the cryptocurrencies showed that calendar anomalies exist. The investigations showed positive weekday effects for Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The month effects were positive for February and April and negative for June and September. Around the turn of the month higher returns occurred. The Within the Month effect was also present for the studied cryptocurrencies and consisted of higher returns in the first third of the month and lower returns in the third of the month, each compared to the second third. The Halloween effect was also found in this work. Here, higher returns occur in the months from November to April. When examining how these calendar anomalies change over time, it became apparent that these anomalies do not occur in certain subsamples or that their sign is partly reversed.Daniela VerdrossAbweichender Titel laut cbersetzung des Verfassers/der VerfasserinMasterarbeit Universit\ue4t Graz 202