General Contract Research Articles

The time of deducting fees for variable annuities under the state-dependent fee structure

We investigate the total time of deducting fees for variable annuities with state-dependent fee. This fee charging method is studied recently by Bernard et al. (2014) and Delong (2014) in which the fees deducted from the policyholder’s account depend on the account value. However, both of them have not considered the problem of analyzing probabilistic properties of the total time of deducting fees. We approximate the maturity of a general variable annuity contract by combinations of exponential distributions which are (weakly) dense in the space that is composed of all probability distributions on the positive axis. Working under general jump diffusion process, we derive analytic formulas for the expectation of the time of deducting fees as well as its Laplace transform.

Soft governance, restratification and the 2004 general medical services contract: the case of UK primary care organisations and general practice teams.

In the UK National Health Service, primary care organisation (PCO) managers have traditionally relied on the soft leadership of general practitioners based on professional self-regulation rather than direct managerial control. The 2004 general medical services contract (nGMS) represented a significant break from this arrangement by introducing new performance management mechanisms for PCO managers to measure and improve general practice work. This article examines the impact of nGMS on the governance of UK general practice by PCO managers through a qualitative analysis of data from an empirical study in four UK PCOs and eight general practices, drawing on Hood's four-part governance framework. Two hybrids emerged: (i) PCO managers emphasised a hybrid of oversight, competition (comptrol) and peer-based mutuality by granting increased support, guidance and autonomy to compliant practices; and (ii) practices emphasised a broad acceptance of increased PCO oversight of clinical work that incorporated a restratified elite of general practice clinical peers at both PCO and practice levels. Given the increased international focus on the quality, safety and efficiency in primary care, a key issue for PCOs and practices will be to achieve an effective, contextually appropriate balance between the counterposing governance mechanisms of peer-led mutuality and externally led comptrol.

Social Contract 2.0 : Terms of Service Agreements and Political Theory

This essay advances the thesis that the most influential and important political documents of the twenty-first century are not neces-sarily the constitutions and charters written for new or reconfigured nation states, but the often-overlooked terms of service agreements that users must sign (or, more precisely, click agree) in order to participate in social networks like Facebook, Second Life, Google+, Bebo, etc. These agreements, which constitute the principle governing documents of online social worlds (Grimes et al., 2008), constitute a kind of postmodern, post-nation state social contract. As such, they articulate, structure, and regulate not only the kind of social interactions and political opportunities that are available within these global networks but determine what forms of social activity and affiliation are considered to be appropriate, acceptable, and even possible. The examination, which takes a critical approach to this subject, will be divided into three parts. The first situates these agreements within the history and lineage of modern political thought in general and social contract theory in particular. The second pursues a critical reading of the Terms governing Facebook, a social network with a population of active users that now exceeds Brazil making it the fifth most populous polity on the plant. The final section extrapolates the broader social and political consequences of these agreements, arguing that informed users not only need to read these documents carefully but also need to recognize the way these seemingly unimportant texts define and delimit the very conditions of (im)possibility for social involvement and interaction in the 21st century. Although the subject addressed by the essay is contemporary and a product of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the method of its presentation is rather anachronistic and deliberately dissimulates the rhetoric and tone of an 18th century treatise. And this has been done, I can tell you dear reader, not out of affectation, but because the subject matter will have required nothing less.

The UNIDROIT Principles as global background law

After twenty years of existence, it becomes apparent that the role actually played by the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) is quite different from the one originally intended. This article first presents nine surprising findings concerning the actual use of the PICC, as it can be assessed on the basis of published opinions, legislation, and scholarship. It then uses these findings to suggest that the PICC should not be viewed as a code or even a non-state law. Instead, their nature is that of a Restatement of global general contract law, and their function is that of a global background law. The article finally discusses implications of these findings for concrete questions: their use in private international law, their use to interpret the CISG, their relationship with other non-State codifications, and their relationship with a possible global commercial code.

Implementation With Contingent Contracts

We study dominant strategy incentive compatibility in a mechanism design setting with contingent contracts where the payoff of each agent is observed by the principal and can be contracted upon. Our main focus is on the class of linear contracts (one of the most commonly used contingent contracts) which consist of a transfer and a flat rate of profit sharing. We characterize outcomes implementable by linear contracts and provide a foundation for them by showing that, in finite type spaces, every social choice function that can be implemented using a more general nonlinear contingent contract can also be implemented using a linear contract. We then qualitatively describe the set of implementable outcomes. We show that a general class of social welfare criteria can be implemented. This class contains social choice functions (such as the Rawlsian) which cannot be implemented using (uncontingent) transfers. Under additional conditions, we show that only social choice functions in this class are implementable.

A Unified Theory of Insurance Risk

There exists a high degree of uncertainty as to the boundaries and role of risk in the framework of contract law. This uncertainty exists even in the context of insurance law where the subject of the contract is necessarily the commodity of risk. While risk has been probed and examined as a matter of business strategy by several prominent studies and by experts who have catalogued human thought regarding risk, risk has not been the subject of systematic examination in the legal sphere. What follows is a reexamination of how we deal with the concept of risk within insurance law. My aim is to show that an insured's behavior, the notion of risk, and basic insurance law doctrine are all related I begin by analyzing how general contract law has handled risk and note the limitations of contract law as applied to insurance due to its core: risk. Next, I examine the essence of the insurance bargain by focusing on risk as a commodity, and look at insurance risk in light of basic contract principles. Because describing risk as a commodity is of little value without understanding what risk is, I then discuss what risk means in the insurance context and what it does not mean. This illuminates both the role of risk and the role of the insured in the insurance bargain. Lastly I use the role of the insured and the notion of risk as a commodity to explain how several insurance law doctrines can be traced to and explained by fundamental principles of contract law. Relying on these principles, the examination will show that an insured's ability to alter the risk calculus made by the insurer should, as a matter of contract law, have consequences. ISSN 0041-9915 (print) 1942-8405 (online) * DOI 10.5195/lawreview.2013.297 http://lawreview.law.pitt.edu UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LAW REVIEW PAGE | 716 | VOL. 74 12013

Optimal investment and contingent claim valuation in illiquid markets

This paper extends basic results on arbitrage bounds and attainable claims to illiquid markets and general swap contracts where both claims and premiums may have multiple payout dates. Explicit consideration of swap contracts is essential in illiquid markets where the valuation of swaps cannot be reduced to the valuation of cumulative claims at maturity. We establish the existence of optimal trading strategies and the lower semicontinuity of the optimal value of optimal investment under conditions that extend the no-arbitrage condition in the classical linear market model. All results are derived with the “direct method” without resorting to duality arguments.

Study on Agent Construction System in Engineering Projects

Agent constriction system is a product of government reforming investment system. Firstly, the definition of agent constriction system was given based on governmental decision. Secondly, agent construction mode was compared with general contract mode from the point of identity, management main body, management objective and character. Moreover, sameness and difference were discussed between agent construction mode and project management mode. Thirdly, Chinese actuality of agent construction system was analyzed. Some important problems have exposed during the operation process. They are about legal status of agent units, agent units’ right, agent charge standard, talents echelon development of agent units. Finally, pointed at these problems, improvement measures were put forward such as improving laws and regulations about agent construction system, cultivating and developing capable agent units, and strengthening performance evaluation of agent units. It is seen that agent construction system is an inevitable tendency reforming project management system.

Trading Networks with Bilateral Contracts

We consider general networks of bilateral contracts that include supply chains. We define a new stability concept, called trail stability, and show that any network of bilateral contracts has a trail-stable outcome whenever agents' choice functions satisfy full substitutability. Trail stability is a natural extension of chain stability, but is a stronger solution concept in general contract networks. Trail-stable outcomes are not immune to deviations of arbitrary sets of firms. In fact, we show that outcomes satisfying an even more demanding stability property -- full trail stability -- always exist. For fully trail-stable outcomes, we prove results on the lattice structure, the rural hospitals theorem, strategy-proofness and comparative statics of firm entry and exit. We pin down a condition under which trail-stable and fully trail-stable outcomes coincide. We then completely describe the relationships between various other concepts. When contracts specify trades and prices, we also show that competitive equilibrium exists in networked markets even in the absence of fully transferable utility. The competitive equilibrium outcome is (fully) trail-stable.

International emergency medicine: Past and future

Much has been written about the development of emergency medicine (EM) and its impact on the medical system as a whole. It is still described as ‘new’ and very much seen as a specialty that is evolving, rather than a static domain of knowledge and skills with rigid boundaries. In reality, the fundamentals of emergency treatment in mitigating the effects of acute illness and injury go back to ancient times. This is evidenced by descriptions of the urgent management of acute pain with analgesics, splinting of injured limbs, and more sophisticated procedures, such as the removal of kidney stones and craniotomies. The treatments at that time were limited, but the application of these skills brought relief to many people (and a little pain). The practitioners were generalists and did not limit themselves to emergency treatment alone. Over the past half-century, there has been an acceleration of development in emergency medical treatments and a massive explosion in emergency medical system enhancement. This has resulted in a unique body of knowledge and skills, with the evolution of a new medical specialty specific to the delivery of emergency medical care. It is worth reflecting on the drivers for EM specialisation, where the specialty has come from, and what we can expect as the complexity of medical care increases with technological innovation and social changes associated with increasing connectivity.

사회계약에 근거한 의료의 윤리적 의사결정:의료 전문직의 계약 책임의 형성과정을 통하여

The normative principles of medical ethics are classified into two categories: traditional ethical theories (utilitarianism and deontological ethics) and empirical principles like the Hippocratic Oath. Each of these two streams of medical ethics has strengths and limitations. This article presents social contract theory as a new approach to understanding medical ethics. On this view, medical professions are based on social contracts for protecting patients from therapists with no licenses. These social contracts consist of hyper-norms, general or whole social contracts, regulations, stewardships and personal contracts. Medical professionals and medical societies both must uphold all of the social responsibilities (including legal liability) of these contracts. In order to strengthen the observance of these social contracts, this article proposes a process of medical ethical decision-making based on social contracts. Additionally, to reduce patient-physician conflicts, this article identifies the appropriate decision-making participants and argues for the necessity of hierarchical clinical ethics committees.

Discretion or discretions? Delineating professional discretion: The case of English medical practice

There has much debate about the extent to which professional discretion has been challenged by recent organisational changes such as through the new forms of governance associated with the introduction of the principles of the New Public Management (NPM) into health systems and other public sector services. What appears to be missing from these debates is a detailed analysis of the concept of professional discretion itself. This paper attempts to fill this gap by delineating the key concepts of professional discretion evident in the literature and exploring their significance in an empirical study of the influence of the 2004 new general medical services contract (nGMS) and the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), a prescriptive pay-for-performance system designed to standardise the quality of care provision in general medical practice in the United Kingdom. The study adopted a longitudinal design using semi-structured interviews with general practitioners (GPs, N = 62) working in the English National Health Service (NHS) between 2007 and 2009. A multi-dimensional conception of discretion was used to explore how GP discretion might have been influenced by contractual changes and in particular, QOF. The findings suggest that through a complex interplay of factors, a post-QOF reduction in GP discretion was identifiable, highlighting different potential sources of constraint such as in the social, organisational and economic dimensions of discretion. The evidence also suggested the emergence of a new form of organisational medical professionalism within general practice characterised by standardisation, bureaucracy and performance management.

Index Based Livestock Insurance for Northern Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands: The Marsabit Pilot

In Kenya’s arid and semi arid lands (ASALs), drought is the most pervasive hazard, natural or otherwise, encountered by households on a widespread level. This is especially true for northern Kenya, where more than 3 million pastoralist households are regularly hit by increasingly severe droughts. In the past 100 years, northern Kenya recorded 28 major droughts, 4 of which occurred in the last 10 years. For livelihoods that rely solely or partly on livestock, the resulting high livestock mortality rate has devastating effects, rendering these pastoralists amongst the most vulnerable populations in Kenya. As the consequences of climate change unfold, the link between drought risk, vulnerability and poverty becomes significantly stronger.Index-based insurance products represent a promising and exciting innovation for managing the climate related risks that vulnerable households face. The creation of insurance markets for events whose likelihood of occurrence can be precisely calculated and associated to a well defined index is increasingly being championed as a way to make the benefits of insurance available to the poor. Over the past year, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University, has pursued a substantial research program aimed at designing, developing and implementing market-mediated index-based insurance products to protect livestock keepers - particularly in the drought prone ASALs – from drought-related asset losses.Much of the initial preparatory phase, which included an extensive program of field work and stakeholder consultation, is now complete. An index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) contract has also been modeled, priced, and is ready for implementation. The remainder of this note defines the key features of a general index-based contract, highlighting the specifics of our IBLI contract, and lays out a pilot strategy to test its effectiveness and commercial sustainability.

Assessing the Risks of Asian Development Projects: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Findings

The global construction market has been gradually changing from general contracts to development projects. It is necessary to perform risk management for international construction projects because there can be multiple risks for which the degree of risk can be very high. Although international construction project risk management is important, there has been very little research regarding objective and quantitative risk assessment that reflects the project characteristics and decision-making. Therefore, research into risk assessment in Asia-centered international development projects (IDPs) is necessary. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze key risk indicators (KRIs) through a proposed risk assessment framework for Asian Development Projects (ADPs). The methods and procedures of this study are as follows: First, quantitative indicators of main risk are identified. Second, critical risk indicators are analyzed and assessed by applying Fuzzy theory and the Analytical Hierarchy Procedure (AHP) methods. Finally, risk response attitudes are suggested and 12 risk indicators are selected according to priority evaluation in ADPs.

Menaquinones content of human serum and feces

Bacterially‐synthesized menaquinones (MKn) may contribute to vitamin K (VK) nutriture. There are limited data on interindividual variability in endogenous MK synthesis and its relation to circulating forms of VK. Serum and fecal VK concentrations were assessed in 13 healthy adults (45–65 yr) consuming a standardized diet for 14 d. Phylloquinone (PK), MK4 and MK6‐MK13 concentrations were measured by HPLC in fasting serum collected on day 8 and 72 hr‐fecal homogenates collected days 8–10. LC/MS was used to confirm individual MKn. PK, the primary dietary form, comprised only 6 ± 3% of total fecal VK content (fecal PK [mean ± SD]; 0.45 ± 0.17 μg/g dry wt), and was not correlated with serum PK concentrations (1.85 ± 0.89 pmol/L). No MKn were detected in serum. MK4 and MK6‐MK12 were detected in all, and MK13 in 7 fecal homogenates. Mean fecal MKn concentrations ranged from 0.17 ± 0.05 μg/g dry wt for MK4 to 4.95 ± 2.30 μg/g dry wt for MK10, with MK10 comprising 63 ± 19% of total fecal MKn content. Based on fecal contents, we conclude that the majority of MKn isoprenologues are present in the human colon, but with evidence of interindividual variation despite 10 d of diet standardization. The clinical implications of these findings, and the role of MKn in supporting VK nutriture are yet to be determined. Funded by a grant from General Mills and USDA contract #58–1950‐7–707.Grant Funding Source: USDA

Mainstreaming Employment Contract Law: The Common Law Case for Reasonable Notice of Termination

This Article simultaneously exposes a fundamental error in employment termination doctrine and a paradox in contract law jurisprudence. Contemporary employment law has developed under the assumption that at-will parties may terminate their relationship both without reason and without notice. This Article argues that the second half of this formulation – the idea that parties reserve the procedural right to terminate without notice – is neither historically supported nor legally correct. Employment at will, as originally expressed, was a mere duration presumption reflecting America’s rejection of the predominant British rule favoring one-year employment terms. While subsequent caselaw expanded the presumption in various ways, a reinterpretation that requires advance notice of termination remains compatible with the way in which most contemporary courts articulate the rule. In fact, an examination of general contract law reveals that in a variety of non-employment contexts courts impose on parties to an indefinite relationship the duty to provide reasonable notice while still safeguarding their right to terminate at will. Such an obligation serves not only as a gapfiller in the face of contractual silence, but as a good faith limitation on parties’ exercise of substantive discretion. Absent such a notice requirement, employment is an illusory relationship, one that lacks the modicum of consideration necessary to create a binding contract. While courts have sought to circumvent this problem by theorizing employment as a unilateral contract, that formulation is ill-suited to the reality that both sides generally aspire to an ongoing, dynamic relationship. Instead, this Article recasts employment as a bilateral contract terminable at will by either party upon reasonable notice. Establishing a reasonable notice obligation will grant terminated workers much needed transition time in which to seek new employment and develop new skills. At the same time, adopting this rule paves the way for a more unified body of contract law. The case for deviations from general contract principles is strongest where context-specific rules fulfill the reasonable expectations of the weaker party. Employment-specific contract rules, as they currently stand, do precisely the opposite. While ordinary contract law cannot adequately protect workers’ interests in all circumstances, this Article demonstrates that in at least some instances mainstream doctrine, properly understood and creatively applied, can produce results that are both good for workers and in harmony with existing law.

The Arbitration Clause as Super Contract

It is widely acknowledged that the purpose of the Federal Arbitration Act was to place arbitration clauses on “equal footing” with other contracts. Nonetheless, federal and state courts have placed arbitration clauses on a pedestal by creating special interpretive rules for arbitration clauses that do not apply to other contracts. In doing so, they have relied extensively on the Supreme Court’s adoption of a “federal policy favoring arbitration” in the case of Moses H. Cone Memorial Hosp., Inc. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 463 U.S. 1 (1983). While many scholars have focused attention on the public policy rationales for and against arbitration, few have explored how arbitration clauses should be interpreted. This article fills that gap and asserts that judicial reliance on the federal policy favoring arbitration unfairly deprives litigants of access to the courts by pushing cases into arbitration that do not belong there. By creating special rules that favor arbitration and that deviate from state contract law, courts are enforcing arbitration agreements in situations where they would not enforce other agreements. This article questions the basis for the federal policy favoring arbitration and identifies several areas in which courts are relying on it to over-enforce arbitration clauses. Because the original purpose of the Federal Arbitration Act was to make arbitration clauses just like other contracts, this article proposes that courts should not rely on a poorly-conceived federal policy favoring arbitration, but instead should apply general contract principles to arbitration clauses. Doing so best ensures that litigants are not unfairly forced into arbitration in situations where they never agreed to it.

IS THE DOCTRINE OF DEVIATION ONLY A HISTORICAL RECORD TODAY?

As of today the origins of the doctrine of deviation have not yet been firmly established and probably never will be. However, that does not detract from the fact that the doctrine itself has influenced shipping and general contract law and continues to do so even in the modern times. House of Lords judgements in Photo Productions v Securicor, Suisse Atlantique and their interpretations are posing a threat to the continued existence of the deviation doctrine. This paper examines the roots of the doctrine, its importance in sea carriage and intricacies of general contract law. The research findings lead to the conclusion that the law community should not dismiss the notion of deviation as it still remains a doctrine worth preserving.

Convocation regimes for environmentalism in Brazilian business magazines

The tensions between the liberal-capitalist discourse and the antagonistic discourses of environmentalism are of special interest in Brazil. This paper outlines a study of the convocation regimes employed in environmental reports published in 2010 in the two most prominent Brazilian economics and business magazines, whose communication contracts propose the modalization of executives and companies towards economic success. Its objective is to analyze how enunciators thematize environmental antagonisms while keeping their general communication contract within the liberal-capitalist paradigm. The enunciator constitutes a regime of sameness/otherness, where sameness is built upon the terms of the reformist orientation of environmentalism, while deep ecology and radical ecology are presented as othernesses. The nodal points that connect the chains of equivalence of the discursive field of environmentalism, in terms of environmental reformist sameness, or “sustainability,” are technology and efficient management, which return the reader to the original communication agreement.

Cross-Sea Bridge Construction Contract Management Research

The cross-sea bridge construction environment is poor, and its construction technology is complex. To determine the general contract management idea, realize the overall operation goal, achieve the standardized management and maximized and optimized benefits of the engineering project, it is of great practical significance to discuss the management of the cross-sea bridge construction contract. The construction enterprises should pay attention to the management of construction contract, which is as the basis of arranging for construction, pursuing for claim, controlling engineering cost and settlement and providing possibilities for risk transfer, carry through the real-time institution development and establish the contract management system, so as to control the business cost and drop the business risk. Incorporated with the actual situation of the construction contract signing, the issues and improvement measures in the signing and management of the cross-sea bridge construction contract are given.