Regulating supreme court recusals

This article presents a critical analysis of the approach of the U.S. Supreme Court to recusal motions aimed at one of the Justices of the Court. The catalyst was the controversy arising from the weekend duck-hunting trip of U.S.Vice-President Richard Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, after which Justice Scalia denied a motion to recuse himself from a pending case in which his hunting partner, Mr Cheney, was a party. This startling decision is final and conclusive since the Supreme Court refuses to intervene in such decisions. Such an approach by the Court is untenable and contrasts starkly with that of the House of Lords, which did not shrink from disqualifying Lord Hoffmann on grounds of bias in the Pinochet case. A comparative study of comparable common law jurisdictions exposes the U.S. Supreme Court as an island of isolation over this issue. It also provides accessible solutions that are disarming in their simplicity. The particular responses that are commended in this article are formalized self-regulation and substitution

Engaging students in ethical debates

This case study outlines an investigation into the acceptance of a new pedagogical paradigm aiming to engage and inspire students in ethical and entrepreneurial activit

Algorithms for aircraft trim analysis on ground 13; AIAA-96-350513;

In the analysis of aircraft dynamics far up and13; away flight, the general practice consists of trimming13; the aircraft for a specific maneuvers at a specified13; Altitude and Mach number. In this paper conditions for13; Quasi-steady equilibrium are motivated for aircraft13; dynamics in the ground roll phase. Algorithms for13; implementation of these conditions are also described.13; By use of these algorithms, the locus of trim points is13; obtained for a comprehensive take-off maneuvers of a13; delta wing aircraft beginning with ground roll,13; followed by rotation and ending in lift-off. This result13; is compared with approximate calculations wherein the13; landing gear states are ignored and linear13; aerodynamics is assumed. The exact result is also13; compared with the simulation of the take-off13; maneuvers in a pilot in the loop simulator.13

Academic research on student engagement - lost formulae to inspiring students

Academic tutors take on a multitude of roles in their current positions at university and while teaching is expected, from most, it is often assumed that the tutor will apply appropriate pedagogical tools to convey knowledge to the students. This view is now being challenged as many students are being actively encouraged to voice their views of the teaching and learning experience, for the module and the university experience, through module evaluation forms and the national student survey. The results from these surveys and comments, left by students, on social networking sites reveal that there is a gulf from student expectations and the actual teaching delivery experienced. The pedagogical elixir appears to have been lost by our fatigued, multi-tasking, poorly resourced academics. This research was driven by a desire to reveal the true nature of an inspired learning experience for students. This is made explicit by the triangulated results (in-depth interviews and a large survey at two universities) that reveal the characteristics that students seek in their tutors. The findings have been categorised into three themes namely: Charisma, Academic skills and Teaching skills (CAsTs) to enable tutors to appreciate the areas that they may need to develop to inspire their students

Bias and the informed observer: A call for a return to Gough

Copyright @ 2009 Cambridge University Press.No abstract available

Sub-regional courts and the recusal issue: Emergent practice of the East African Court of Justice

Copyright @ 2012 African Society of International and Comparative Law / Edinburgh University Press.No abstract available

Study of Charm Baryons with the BaBar Experiment

We report on several studies of charm baryon production and decays by the BaBar collaboration. We confirm previous observations of the $\Xi_c^{'0/+}$, $\Xi_c(2980)^+$ and $\Xi_c(3077)^+$ baryons, measure branching ratios for Cabibbo-suppressed $\Lambda_c^+$ decays and use baryon decays to study the properties of the light-quark baryons, $\Omega^-$ and $\Xi(1690)^0$.Comment: 8 pages, 5 postscript figues, contributed to the Proceedings of ICHEP200

Aggregation of Votes with Multiple Positions on Each Issue

We consider the problem of aggregating votes cast by a society on a fixed set of issues, where each member of the society may vote for one of several positions on each issue, but the combination of votes on the various issues is restricted to a set of feasible voting patterns. We require the aggregation to be supportive, i.e. for every issue $j$ the corresponding component $f_j$ of every aggregator on every issue should satisfy $f_j(x_1, ,\ldots, x_n) \in \{x_1, ,\ldots, x_n\}$. We prove that, in such a set-up, non-dictatorial aggregation of votes in a society of some size is possible if and only if either non-dictatorial aggregation is possible in a society of only two members or a ternary aggregator exists that either on every issue $j$ is a majority operation, i.e. the corresponding component satisfies $f_j(x,x,y) = f_j(x,y,x) = f_j(y,x,x) =x, \forall x,y$, or on every issue is a minority operation, i.e. the corresponding component satisfies $f_j(x,x,y) = f_j(x,y,x) = f_j(y,x,x) =y, \forall x,y.$ We then introduce a notion of uniformly non-dictatorial aggregator, which is defined to be an aggregator that on every issue, and when restricted to an arbitrary two-element subset of the votes for that issue, differs from all projection functions. We first give a characterization of sets of feasible voting patterns that admit a uniformly non-dictatorial aggregator. Then making use of Bulatov's dichotomy theorem for conservative constraint satisfaction problems, we connect social choice theory with combinatorial complexity by proving that if a set of feasible voting patterns $X$ has a uniformly non-dictatorial aggregator of some arity then the multi-sorted conservative constraint satisfaction problem on $X$, in the sense introduced by Bulatov and Jeavons, with each issue representing a sort, is tractable; otherwise it is NP-complete

Can market frictions really explain the price impact asymmetry of block trades? Evidence from the Saudi stock market

We empirically examine the price impact of block trades, in the Saudi Stock Market over the time period of 2005-2008. Using a unique dataset of intraday data consisting of 2.3 million block buys and 1.9 million block sales, we find an asymmetry in the price impact of block purchases and sales. The asymmetry persists even when we account for the bidask bias in block trades, which is contrary to the previous literature. Overall, our findings suggest that in an emerging market where institutional trading is relatively scarce, market microstructure cannot explain the asymmetry in the price impact of large trades