Torture, Democracy and Human Rights

Indagación histórica y conceptual del término 'tortura' en relación con la democracia y los derechos humanos, recurriendo a autores clásico como Beccaria o contemporáneos como Améry.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Rousseau et l’Italie. Littérature, morale et politique, sous la dir. de Philippe Audegean, Magda Campanini, Barbara Carnevali

Espace géographique, culturel et linguistique, l’Italie joue un rôle fondamental dans la vie et la formation intellectuelle de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, sous des facettes et registres multiples – politique, religion, littérature, musique. Preuve en est la place centrale – en tant que véritable péripétie – accordée dans La Nouvelle Héloïse au voyage en Italie de Milord Edouard et de Saint-Preux. Malgré l’occurrence non négligeable du nom « Italie » et des adjectifs « italienne » et « italien » da..

SELECTIVE ASSOCIATIVE PHONAGNOSIA AFTER RIGHT ANTERIOR TEMPORAL STROKE

We report the case of a 48 year old men who developed a selective impairment in famous voice recognition after ischemic stroke in right subcortical structures (lenticular nucleus and head of the caudate) and right anterior temporal lobe. He underwent fibrinolytic treatment. During the following days he progressively recovered and was discharged without neurological focal sign. Patent foramen ovale was found. When he got back to his house he noticed that he was unable to recognize the voice of his favoured singers and needed to ask who was the singer to his relatives. Neuropsychological examination revealed a selective impairment in famous voice recognition in the absence of alteration of voice perception, face perception and famous face recognition. All other neuropsychological domains were spared. In particular language, memory and executive functions were intact. Neuroimaging carried out by means of PET and MRI revealed two small ischemic lesions in the right subcortical region, involving lenticular and caudate nuclei and in the right temporal pole. To our knowledge, this is the first case described in literature of a patient showing a selective associative phonagnosia after right anterior temporal stroke. The present case helps to clarify the brain circuits underlying famous voice recognition and adds evidence in favour of a right hemisphere involvement in processing knowledge of familiar voices. These findings are discussed in relation to current models of brain organization of person-specific and general semantic knowledge.

What's in a Sign? Trademark Law and Economic Theory

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to summarise the extant theory as it relates to the economics of trademark, and to give some suggestions for further research with reference to distinct streams of literature. The proposed line of study inevitably looks at the complex relationship between signs and economics. Trademark is a sign introduced to remedy a market failure. It facilitates purchase decisions by indicating the provenance of the goods, so that consumers can identify specific quality attributes deriving from their own, or others', past experience. Trademark holders, on their part, have an incentive to invest in quality because they will be able to reap the benefits in terms of reputation. In other words, trademark law becomes an economic device which, opportunely designed, can produce incentives for maximising market efficiency. This role must, of course, be recognised, as a vast body of literature has done, with its many positive economic consequences. Nevertheless, trademark appears to have additional economic effects that should be properly recognized: it can determine the promotion of market power and the emergence of rent-seeking behaviours. It gives birth to an idiosyncratic economics of signs where very strong protection tends to be assured, even though the welfare effects are as yet poorly understood. In this domain much remains to be done and the challenge to researchers is open

Natural Law and the Law of Nations in 18th and 19th Italy

This volume sheds new light on modern theories of natural law through the lens of the fragmented political contexts of Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the dramatic changes of the times. From the age of reforms, through revolution and the ‘Risorgimento’, the unification movement which ended with the creation of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861, we see a move from natural law and the law of nations to international law, whose teaching was introduced in Italian universities of the newly created Kingdom. The essays collected here show that natural law was not only the subject of a highly codified academic teaching, but also provided a broader conceptual and philosophical frame underlying the ‘science of man’. Natural law is also a language wherein reform programmes of education and of politics have taken form, affecting a variety of discourses and literary genres