La historia fiscal de Boyacá, 1863-1886: sueños liberales y recursos limitados

Between 1863 and 1886 Boyacá fiscal history reflected the inherent tension between the reality of the State’s moribund economy and the progressive ideals of the radical Liberals who controlled the government. For revenue the government relied on rents evoking the colonial past, such as the degüello, and liberal innovations, such as the impuesto directo, which proved a surprisingly effective source of income given the undeveloped economy. The pattern of government expenditure also reflected this dynamic tension. Expected costs were generally kept in line with the state’s paltry resources, which per capita were among the lowest of the nation. This restraint wavered when it came to education, a priority for the government, and disappeared completely at the prospect of a modern industrial infrastructure. The government sponsored attempts to build better roads or railroads, but reached an extreme with the doomed Ferrería de Samacá. Behind such ambitious and costly schemes were promises of financial support from the Federal Government, though it is not clear how often these promises were kept. This dynamic was a factor in the complex political formula where in Boyacá was a stalwart supporter of the Liberal clique that controlled the Federal government even as its politicians inveighed against Cundinamarca as a State impeding Boyacense development.La historia fiscal de Boyacá entre 1863 y 1886 reflejó la tensión entre la realidad de la economía moribunda del Estado y los ideales progresistas de los liberales radicales que controlaron su gobierno. El Estado se apoyó en tributos utilizados en el pasado colonial, como el de degüello, y en innovaciones liberales, como el impuesto directo, que proveyó una fuente de ingreso sorprendentemente efectiva para una economía subdesarrollada. El patrón de gasto público reflejó la misma tensión dinámica: los costos presupuestados fueron ajustados en línea con los recursos miserables del Estado, que en términos per cápita estaban entre los más bajos de la Confederación. Esta restricción operó cuando se trató de educación, una prioridad del gobierno, pero alcanzó un punto extremo con la fracasada Ferrería de Samacá. Detrás de estos esquemas ambiciosos y de alto costo estaban las promesas de apoyo financiero del Gobierno Federal, aunque no es claro qué tan frecuentemente esas promesas se cumplieron. Esta dinámica fue un factor en la compleja fórmula política en la que Boyacá era un puntal de apoyodel pequeño círculo liberal que controlaba el Gobierno Federal, aun cuando sus políticos se quejaban de que Cundinamarca impedía el desarrollo de Boyacá

The Case Against Constitutionalized Commonality Standards for Collective Civil Litigation

It is no secret that the current Supreme Court is hostile to class actions and other forms of group litigation. One area that has received considerable attention from the Court is the requirement that there [be] questions of law or fact common to the class, and, in most class action suits for damages, that common questions of law or fact . .. predominate over any questions affecting only individual members. In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, the Court held that, under the statutory burdens of proof in Title VII, an employer is entitled to individualized determinations before backpay can be awarded. The Court further disparaged judicial efforts to facilitate such class suits as Trial by Formula. This year, the Court further indicated its skepticism of claims to commonality in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend

Burning Down the House or Simply Rolling the Dice: A Comment on Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Act and Recommendation for Its Implementation

Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act modifies the Securities Act of 1933 to prohibit the underwriter, placement agent, initial purchaser, or sponsor, or any affiliate or subsidiary of any such entity of an asset-backed financial product from betting against that very product for one year after the product’s initial sale. The rule prohibits anyone who structures or sells an asset-backed security or a product composed of asset-backed securities from going short, in the specified timeframe, on what they have sold, and labels such transactions as presenting material conflicts of interest. This Comment discusses traces this new law’s development through the Financial Crisis by recounting the events involving alleged material conflicts of interest that gave rise to Section 621’s drafting as well as statements of its drafters. The Comment then argues that adding a disclosure exemption to Section 621 via the corresponding SEC regulation implementing it would be preferable to an outright prohibition because a disclosure exemption would 1) be more consistent with the securities laws; 2) provide purchasers with sufficient protection while still allowing the markets to operate with limited restriction; and 3) allow buyers to price the risk of securities affected by material conflicts of interest

Los caudillos liberales de la salina de Chita: políticas de financiamiento en Boyacá durante el siglo XIX

El 16 de agosto de 1860, un empleado de la Hacienda pública colombiana que administraba una salina advirtió a sus superiores, en Tunja y Boyacá, sobre una agitación ocurrida cerca de su sitio de trabajo, en un pueblo encaramado a Ínitad de camino entre las traicioneras pendientes de la cordillera del nororiente de Boyacá y los llanos de Casanare

Los caudillos liberales de la salina de Chita: políticas de financiamiento en Boyacá durante el siglo XIX

El 16 de agosto de 1860, un empleado de la Hacienda pública colombiana que administraba una salina advirtió a sus superiores, en Tunja y Boyacá, sobre una agitación ocurrida cerca de su sitio de trabajo, en un pueblo encaramado a Ínitad de camino entre las traicioneras pendientes de la cordillera del nororiente de Boyacá y los llanos de Casanare

Gilberto Enrique Parada García. Ley formal y ley material. La ley penal y su codificación en la construcción del Estado colombiano, 1819-1837.

Even within the historiographical lacunae that exists for the years between the Independence and the Regeneration, the two decades between Bolívar’s final military triumphs in Gran Colombia and the War of the Supremes are understudied. Thus, Gilberto Enrique Parada García’s examination of the law and the development of the New Granada legal code during these years is a much needed study on politics and public life at the beginning of the republic. The book focuses on the history of the legal system in the early republic, specifically the juridical and historical context within which the Penal Code of 1837 was developed. The study engages with legal theory and legal studies while remaining grounded in social and political history. Parts of the study have been published as individual articles and here are placed in a broader, more informative, discussion

The indultados of tescua: criminal rebellion and judicial reckoning during the war of the supremes

In 1841 the public of Bogota followed the trial of 22 prisoners charged with the crime of rebellion during the War of the Supremes. Captured while serving as officers at the battle of Tescua, the accused claimed they had been forced to serve in the rebel army. This excuse was ignored and 21 of the defendants were sentenced to death, only to be spared by decrees of indulto in the following months. This article examines the logic behind such judicial reckoning, the narrative strategies employed by the accused in their defense, and the meaning of clemency in the early republic

An extra double-stranded RNA binding domain confers high activity to a squid RNA editing enzyme

RNA editing by adenosine deamination is particularly prevalent in the squid nervous system. We hypothesized that the squid editing enzyme might contain structural differences that help explain this phenomenon. As a first step, a squid adenosine deaminase that acts on RNA (sqADAR2a) cDNA and the gene that encodes it were cloned from the giant axon system. PCR and RNase protection assays showed that a splice variant of this clone (sqADAR2b) was also expressed in this tissue. Both versions are homologous to the vertebrate ADAR2 family. sqADAR2b encodes a conventional ADAR2 family member with an evolutionarily conserved deaminase domain and two double-stranded RNA binding domains (dsRBD). sqADAR2a differs from sqADAR2b by containing an optional exon that encodes an “extra” dsRBD. Both splice variants are expressed at comparable levels and are extensively edited, each in a unique pattern. Recombinant sqADAR2a and sqADAR2b, produced in Pichia pastoris, are both active on duplex RNA. Using a standard 48-h protein induction, both sqADAR2a and sqADAR2b exhibit promiscuous self-editing; however, this activity is particularly robust for sqADAR2a. By decreasing the induction time to 16 h, self-editing was mostly eliminated. We next tested the ability of sqADAR2a and sqADAR2b to edit two K(+) channel mRNAs in vitro. Both substrates are known to be edited in squid. For each mRNA, sqADAR2a edited many more sites than sqADAR2b. These data suggest that the “extra” dsRBD confers high activity on sqADAR2a