Vers un repli de l’individualisme contractuel ? L’exemple du cautionnement

L’étude qui suit porte sur le contrat de cautionnement, considéré dans son environnement social, économique et juridique qui ne permet plus de l’aborder sous l’angle du volontarisme contractuel tel qu’il a été reconduit dans le Code civil du Québec. Elle a pour objet de permettre la reconsidération du rôle sociétal du contrat et de l’importance de la coopération des parties dans le contexte de la formation et de l’exécution du cautionnement, et ce, dans la mesure où il ne paraît plus raisonnable de stimuler la recherche d’équilibre entre les parties au contrat en considérant avant toute chose les besoins du crédit, la moralité contractuelle et la responsabilisation des cautions. Tant le contexte dans lequel la majorité des cautions inexpérimentées s’engagent que la forme de contrat d’adhésion sous laquelle est généralement présenté le cautionnement perturbent la compréhension de la caution quant à la nature de son engagement. Par conséquent, une « recompréhension » moins libérale et individualiste de cet acte normatif doit être envisagée.The ensuing paper examines the contract of suretyship from within its social, economic and legal environment that no longer makes it possible to broach the subject from the standpoint of contractual voluntarism as it has been reintroduced into the Civil Code of Québec. Its purpose is to allow for the reconsidération of the contract’s societal role and the importance of the parties’ cooperation within the framework of the formation and the performance of the suretyship, insofar as it no longer appears to be reasonable to stimulate research for equilibrium between parties privy to the contract by primarily considering needs for credit, contractual morality and the sureties’ accountability. The extent to which most inexperienced sureties agree that the type of contract of adhesion under which the suretyship is generally presented disturbs the understanding of the surety regarding the nature of its commitment. Consequently, a less liberal and individualistic “renewed understanding” of this normative act must be considered

Sustainable consumption: from escape strategies towards real alternatives

Better sustainability policy is supposed to lead to better sustainability performance. Nonetheless, recent research predicts further growth of the ecological footprint and stable ecological deficit in Europe and North America despite their impressive policy efforts (Lenzen et al. 2007) [1]. Similarly, individual strategies result in somewhat reduced load for committed consumers, but this reduction cannot offset the total impact of the socio-economic configuration: consumers in higher income countries tend to pollute more. Comitted consumers "offset" a part of their environmental load by carrying out green purchases. A radical change assumes a change in lifestyle (Shove, 2004) [2]. The conference paper is the first step of the study that aims at measuring the significance of attitude elements as compared to the significance of the socio-economic system on different elements of consumption and environmental aspects This paper focuses on measuring the ecological footprint impacts of consumption in different product groups as well as in different income groups of the society

Chopped basalt fibres: A new perspective in reinforcing poly(lactic acid) to produce injection moulded engineering composites from renewable and natural resources

This paper focuses on the reinforcing of Poly(lactic acid) with chopped basalt fibres by using silane treated and untreated basalt fibres. Composite materials with 5–10–15–20–30–40 wt% basalt fibre contents were prepared from silane sized basalt fibres using extrusion, and injection moulding, while composites with 5–10–15 wt% basalt fibre contents were also prepared by using untreated basalt fibres as control. The properties of the injection moulded composites were extensively examined by using quasi-static (tensile, three-point bending) and dynamic mechanical tests (notched and unnotched Charpy impact tests), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), heat deflection temperature (HDT) analysis, dimensional stability test, as well as melt flow index (MFI) analysis and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observations. It was found that silane treated chopped basalt fibres are much more effective in reinforcing Poly(lactic acid) than natural fibres; although basalt fibres are not biodegradable but they are still considered as natural (can be found in nature in the form of volcanic rocks) and biologically inert. It is demonstrated in this paper that by using basalt fibre reinforcement, a renewable and natural resource based composite can be produced by injection moulding with excellent mechanical properties suitable even for engineering applications. Finally it was shown that by using adequate drying of the materials, composites with higher mechanical properties can be achieved compared to literature data

Linear Inequality Measures and the Redistribution of Income

A class of inequality measures that is a natural companion to the popular Lorenz curve is the class of measures that are linear in incomes. These measures, which include the Gini and S-Gini coefficients, can be interpreted as ethical means of relative deprivation feelings. Their change through the tax and benefit system can be decomposed simply as a sum of progressivity indices for individual taxes and benefits, minus an index of horizontal inequity measured by the extent of reranking in the population. These progressivity and horizontal inequity indices can also be interpreted as ethical means of perceptions of fiscal harshness and ill-performance. We furthermore derive the asymptotic sampling distribution of these classes of indices of redistribution, progressivity, and horizontal inequity, which enables their use with micro-data on a population. We illustrate the theoretical and statistical results through an application on the distribution and redistribution of income in Canada in 1981 and in 1990.

Embracing the role of societal factors in the lowcarbon transition = Embracing the role of societal factors in the lowcarbon transition

To achieve the transition to a low-carbon economy, societal barriers need to be overcome. The importance of societal factors in engaging in low-carbon behaviour and actions stands in the centre of this thesis. Currently, the way we produce and consume goods and services is not on sustainable track and also in terms of CO2 reduction current production and consumption practices have to be reconsidered to approach low-carbon future. To reduce carbon emission, on the one hand, we need to adopt low-carbon and renewable technologies and increase energy and resource efficiency. On the other hand, consumption patterns have to be changed radically. _____ Az alacsony karbon-kibocsátású (AKK) gazdaság felé vezető utat társadalmi akadályok szegélyezik. Jelen disszertácio központi témája az alacsony-karbon kibocsátású viselkedés és cselekvések vizsgálata. A CO2 szint folyamatos növekedése a jelenlegi és múltbeli fogyasztási és termelési szokások egyenes következménye, melyet a klímapolitika egyelőre nem képes megfelelően stabilizálni. eléréséhez a jelenlegi termelési és fogyasztási gyakorlatok felülvizsgálata és radikális változtatása szükséges. Mindkettő a társadalom aktív részvételét követeli meg. A fogyasztási gyakorlat megváltoztatása az AKK viselkedési minták elterjesztésével és az anyagi javak fogyasztásának visszafogásával érhető el, míg a termelési tevékenységek CO2 csökkentését az AKK és megújuló technológiák alkalmazásával, illetve az energia- és erőforrás-hatékonyság növelésével érhető el

A megnyilvánult és kinyilvánított időpreferenciák - mennyire vagyunk rövidlátóak?

A társadalmi időpreferenciák vizsgálatához két út áll rendelkezésünkre; a megnyilvánult és a kinyilvánított időpreferenciák vizsgálata. A megnyilvánult preferenciák egyfajta top-down módszertan, vagyis a társadalmi időpreferenciákat makroadatokból számítják ki (pl. megtakarítások, jövedelemrugalmasság, gazdasági növekedés stb.) és vonnak le következtetéseket az emberek preferenciáival kapcsolatosan. Egy másik lehetséges módszer a diszkontráta meghatározásához a kinyilvánított preferenciák megfigyelése, illetve ami azt jelenti, hogy felmérések útján hipotetikus szituációkon át mérjük fel az egyén preferenciáit [Lippai, 2009], vagyis ez esetben egy bottom-up módszertant alkalmazunk