Shape Of Law Research Articles

Experimental and numerical analysis of scarf aluminum adhesive joints

This work consists of a validation of Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) laws in traction and shear, estimated by the application of the direct method, in the strength prediction of joints under a mixed-mode loading. In this context, scarf joints with different scarf angles (α) and adhesives of different ductility were tested. Pure-mode cohesive laws served as the basis for the creation of simplified triangular, trapezoidal and exponential laws that were tested for each of the adhesives. Their validation was accomplished by comparing the numerical predictions with the experimental results. The use of the direct method allowed obtaining very precise maximum load (Pm) predictions, indicating the cohesive law shape more suitable for each adhesive /geometry set. For the geometric and material conditions considered, this study has led to the conclusion that no significant Pm errors are incurred by the choice of a less appropriate law.

Could perverse incentives encourage financial services compliance and internal audit staff to ignore or engage in illegal behaviour?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand why managers, internal auditors and compliance staff (in financial firms specifically and using Malaysia as a concrete example) can want to ignore compliance-related legislation (a law on anticompetitive behaviour in this case).Design/methodology/approachThe authors review, discuss and critique the literature on compliance and institutions in the light of existing data from Malaysia’s financial industry (literally confronting theory with data).FindingsLegislative design can actually encourage managers and their auditors disobey/ignore the law for reasons which previous theories cannot explain.Research limitations/implicationsThis research does not use the regression techniques in vogue now. The findings, nevertheless, imply that attempts to explain phenomenon in management auditing should start with the laws governing managerial activity.Practical implicationsAuditors may use the methods used in this study to assess the extent to which financial services firms’ managers have incentives to comply with laws. Similarly, this research can quantify the extent to which internal auditors in these firms have incentives to find untoward conduct.Social implicationsPoorly designed laws affecting managerial auditing derive from pre-existing social relationships, as well as help shape them (as shown using data). Identifying areas of non-compliance may actually signal deeper problems in the way businessmen and lawmakers make and enforce laws requiring compliance and self-assessment.Originality/valueThe authors know of no study looking at the economic incentives driving internal auditors’ behaviour – particularly in the area of antitrust. They show how law shapes management and auditors’ incentives, quantify these incentives and show how/why previous research fails to explain these incentives.

Who Makes International Law? The Case of the Law of Armed Conflict

Who makes international law? That is the subject of this article, with a focus on the particular case of the law of armed conflict (international humanitarian law). Is it states and only states? Or are other actors also involved? What is the role of international courts and tribunals? And where does the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross fit? Drawing on ideas of communities of practice and interactional international law, the article argues that it is the community of international humanitarian lawyers that makes international humanitarian law through a process of dialogic interaction. This community includes states, international courts and tribunals, the International Committee of the Red Cross, academics, and others. Through interaction in the selection of issues, during the drafting of outputs, and following the publication of the finished product, the community makes and shapes international humanitarian law. States thus play a crucial role in law-making, particularly insofar as the conclusion of treaties and the formation of customary international law are concerned. However, states have tended not to react to the interpretation, application and identification of the law by other members of the community. This relative silence on the part of states has had a number of consequences. Silence has been taken as acquiescence. The response of other members of the community to the publication of an output has taken on a greater significance. And states have been side-lined. The Article concludes by discussing ways in which states can re-engage in the making and shaping of international humanitarian law.

The Shaping, Enactment and Interpretation of the First Hate-Crime Law in the United Kingdom - An Informative and Illustrative Lesson for South Africa

Hate crimes are crimes that are motivated by personal prejudice or bias. Hate-crime laws criminalise such conduct and allow for the imposition of aggravated penalties on convicted perpetrators. This article examines the historical, social and political factors which influenced the shaping and enactment of the first British hate-crime law. The South African context is also considered since the Department of Justice has recently released the Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill for public commentary and input.
 While Britain has had a long historical record of criminal conduct that was motivated by the race and the ethnicity of victims, it was only in the twentieth century that civil society first drew attention to the problem of violent racist crimes. Nevertheless, successive British governments denied the problem of racist crimes and refused to consider the enactment of a hate-crime law. Following a high-profile racist murder and a governmental inquiry, a British Labour Party-led government eventually honoured its pre-election commitment and passed a hate-crime law in 1998.
 Some parallels are apparent between the British and the South African contexts. South Africa also has a long historical record of racially motivated hate crimes. Moreover, in the post-apartheid era there have been numerous reports of racist hate crimes and hate crimes against Black lesbian women and Black foreigners. Despite several appeals from the academic and non-governmental sectors for the enactment of a hate-crime law, and the circulation for public commentary of the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, such a law has hitherto not been enacted in South Africa. This article posits that the enactment of a hate-crime law is a constitutional imperative in South Africa in terms of the right to equality and the right to freedom and security of the person. While the enactment of a hate-crime law in South Africa is recommended, it is conceded that enacting a hate-crime law will not eradicate criminal conduct motivated by prejudice and bias.
 

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW?

Patrick Macklem’s The Sovereignty of Human Rights is underpinned by a commitment to explaining the role of human rights law from the ‘inside’ of international law, distinguishing this strictly legal realm from global politics. We explore questions surrounding the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of international law by juxtaposing Macklem’s positivist, validity-focused, account and our own ‘interactional’ approach, which embraces the embeddedness of law in social norms and social practices while emphasizing distinctive traits of legality and legal interaction. We argue that a validity-based conception of legality results in a necessarily thin account of the ‘justice’ that human rights can do. Next, we consider Macklem’s focus on collective rights as being central to the role that he argues human rights play in mitigating the distribution and exercise of sovereign power and in legitimating international law’s normative architecture. We assess whether or not international human rights law really plays the legitimating role for international law that Macklem claims it does, given that these rights are subject to a range of limitations built into positive law, such as reservations to treaties, derogation provisions, or substantive limits. Finally, we ask whether human rights serve the distinctive normative function within international law that Macklem accords to them, concluding that several branches and processes of international law shape and restrict sovereignty alongside human rights law.

The young star cluster population of M51 with LEGUS – I. A comprehensive study of cluster formation and evolution

Recently acquired WFC3 UV (F275W and F336W) imaging mosaics under the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) combined with archival ACS data of M51 are used to study the young star cluster (YSC) population of this interacting system. Our newly extracted source catalogue contains 2834 cluster candidates, morphologically classified to be compact and uniform in colour, for which ages, masses and extinction are derived. In this first work we study the main properties of the YSC population of the whole galaxy, considering a mass-limited sample. Both luminosity and mass functions follow a power law shape with slope -2, but at high luminosities and masses a dearth of sources is observed. The analysis of the mass function suggests that it is best fitted by a Schechter function with slope -2 and a truncation mass at $1.00\pm0.12\times10^5\ M_\odot$. Through Monte Carlo simulations we confirm this result and link the shape of the luminosity function to the presence of a truncation in the mass function. A mass limited age function analysis, between 10 and 200 Myr, suggests that the cluster population is undergoing only moderate disruption. We observe little variation in the shape of the mass function at masses above $1\times10^4\ M_\odot$, over this age range. The fraction of star formation happening in the form of bound clusters in M51 is $\sim20\%$ in the age range 10 to 100 Myr and little variation is observed over the whole range from 1 to 200 Myr.

Do Anti-Immigrant Laws Shape Public Sentiment? A Study of Arizona’s SB 1070 Using Twitter Data

Scholars have debated whether laws can influence public opinion, but evidence of these “feedback” effects is scant. This article examines the effect of Arizona’s 2010 high-profile anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, on both public attitudes and behaviors toward immigrants. Using sentiment analysis and a difference-in-difference approach to analyze more than 250,000 tweets, the author finds that SB 1070 had a negative impact on the average sentiment of tweets regarding immigrants, Mexicans, and Hispanics, but not on those about Asians or blacks. However, these changes in public discourse were not caused by shifting attitudes toward immigrants but by the mobilization of anti-immigrant users and by motivating new users to begin tweeting. While some scholars propose that punitive laws can shape people’s attitudes toward targeted groups, this study shows that policies are more likely to influence behaviors. Rather than placating the electorate, anti-immigrant laws may stir the pot further, mobilizing individuals alre...

EU migration law shaping international migration law in the field of expulsion of aliens – the case of the ILC draft articles

Since the Treaty of Maastricht, EU law has become more open to international law and has engaged with it in different forms of interactions. The influence of EU law on universal law-making has found its way through different legal channels and techniques. The article thoroughly scrutinizes the impact of EU return acquis on the development of the international law governing the ‘expulsion of aliens’, which can be best analysed through the work of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) on the expulsion of aliens (2004–2014). The ILC’s approach has come a long way from the mere ignorance of EU law and the EU’s submissions by the special rapporteur in the early stages of the codification work until it has gradually taking into account major EU migration law concepts in ILC reports and in the draft articles. The 2014 ILC draft articles on the expulsion of aliens have finally been, in many aspects, inspired and influenced by EU law, especially the Return Directive (2008/115/EC). This short piece meticulously explores the inroads EU return law made in relation to the ILC work on the expulsion of aliens, by identifying and critically evaluating the tangible impact of EU law on the UN codification project.

Direct and inverse methods applied to the determination of mode I cohesive law of bovine cortical bone using the DCB test

This work addresses the determination of the cohesive law under mode I loading of bovine cortical bone tissue using the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) test. Direct and inverse methods were proposed to assess the cohesive laws representative of bone fracture under mode I loading. The direct method combines the evolution of the strain energy release rate under mode I loading with the crack tip opening displacement that is monitored by digital image correlation technique. According to this method, the cohesive law is obtained by differentiation of such relation with respect to the crack opening. The inverse procedure is performed through a finite element analysis including cohesive zone modelling, conjointly with a developed optimization algorithm. This identification strategy does not require a pre-established shape of the cohesive law as with the conventional inverse based procedures, which is viewed as a novelty of this work. It was concluded that both methods provide consistent results, being appellative tools concerning systematic and methodical studies dedicated to bone fracture characterization.

U.K. Counterterrorism Law, Pre-Emption, and Politics

Since the turn of the century, across North Atlantic countries, counterterrorism law has been an area of relentless, highly prioritized, legal production that often challenges rule of law principles. This article provides a general overview of United Kingdom counterterrorism legislation and, drawing from jurisprudence, state theory, and political philosophy, constructs an analytical framework to assess its implications for the broader shape, function, and logic of law. It starts by assessing the dynamic tension between authoritarian and democratic elements that constitutes modern law, thus setting the overall conceptual framework in which counterterrorism law pertains. It proceeds to analyze U.K. counterterrorism law, by juxtaposing it to its United States counterpart and by deciphering the key trends into which its provisions combine. Based on this account, the article considers the implications of counterterrorism law for the law-form, that is, for the articulation between legal content, logic, and institutionality. It finds that, although the content and logic of counterterrorism law are incompatible with rule of law principles, they are developed in an institutional framework adherent to the rule of law. To account for this paradox, the article concludes that counterterrorism law signals the advent of authoritarian legality, a reconfiguration of the rule of law where the latter holds its institutional shape, but comes to consist of, and be driven by, authoritarian content and purposes. The article outlines the main characteristics of authoritarian legality, compares it to existing approaches to counterterrorism law, and indicates its plausibility for U.S. counterterrorism jurisprudence.

TENSILE CHARACTERIZATION OF TEXTILE REINFORCED MORTAR

Textile reinforced mortar (TRM) is a composite material consisting of dry fibers embedded in a cementitious matrix, commonly used for strengthening masonry and concrete structures. In general, tensile characterization is required to identify the TRM mechanical properties, which are considered the key parameters needed for the structural design of strengthening systems. This paper presents the results of an experimental study conducted to investigate the tensile properties of TRM. In this effort, a total of 15 TRM coupons of 410 mm in length, 50 mm in width, and 10 mm in thickness were tested under uniaxial tensile load with clevis-type anchors. Three different types of textile materials were considered: carbon, glass, and polyparaphenylene benzobisoxazole (PBO). As for the study results, a common shape of the TRM tensile constitutive law was observed. Moreover, the average mechanical properties were listed for each type of TRM. Finally, the results and considerations presented in this work can enrich the literature with background data, which are beneficial for future applications of TRM systems in structural rehabilitation and repair.

On the strength prediction of adhesively bonded FRP-steel joints using cohesive zone modelling

The variety of failure modes that are likely to occur in fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP)/steel joints used in the construction industry adds to the complexity associated with the design of these joints. This variation in possible failure modes is mainly attributed to the lack of a controlled application environment and to rather insufficient quality assurance protocols and procedures. The use of energy-based methods such as, cohesive zone modelling (CZM), can be a solution to circumvent such complexities. This paper investigates a number of issues related to CZM analyses of FRP/steel adhesive joints using various test configurations and a comprehensive numerical study. Parameters such as the effect of shape and type of cohesive law, crack path location, length of damage process zone, variations of adhesive and FRP properties, and different failure modes including cohesive, interfacial debonding and FRP failure on the strength of joints are investigated. The results show that the behaviour of the tested joints is accurately predicted provided that the variation of failure modes are taken into account. Moreover, it is shown that the damage process zone in adhesive layer is directly proportional to the shape of cohesive laws. This feature can be employed in the design phase to ensure sufficient overlap length and to account for important in-service parameters such as temperature and moisture.

Rediscovering Blackstone: wpływ Williama Blackstone’a na rozwój amerykańskiej nauki prawa w recepcji Alberta W. Alschulera

The reception of common law in the United States was stimulated by a very popular and influential treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone, published in the late 18th century. The work of Blackstone strengthened the continued reception of the common law from the American colonies into the constituent states. Because of the large measure of sovereignty of the states, common law had not exactly developed in the same way in every state. Despite the fact that a single common law was originally exported from England to America, a great variety of factors had led to the development of different common law rules in different states. Albert W. Alschuler from University of Chicago Law School is one of the contemporary American professors of law. The part of his works can be assumed as academic historical-legal narrations, especially those concerning Blackstone: Rediscovering Blackstone and Sir William Blackstone and the Shaping of American Law. Alschuler argues that Blackstone’s Commentaries inspired the evolution of American and British law. He introduces not only the profile of William Blackstone, but also examines to which extent the concepts of Blackstone have become the basis for the development of the American legal thought.

International Law: 50 Ways It Harms Our Lives

At its 100th anniversary, the American Society of International Law released a brochure, “100 Ways International Law Shapes Our Lives”. At the 101st Annual Meeting of the Society, the President, Jose E. Alvarez, used the occasion of his annual address to present “The Future of Our Society” (subsequently published in the American Society of International Law’s Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting, April 9-12, 2008 at 499.) As part of that address, he introduced his “50 Ways International Law Hurts Our Lives.” As Alvarez indicates in his address, while the ASIL’s 100 Ways remains a useful instrument to educate the general public about the uses of international law, his much more critical “50 Ways” seeks to prevent complacency and encourage critical thought among those who write or practice international law. Today, Professor Alvarez still uses both the “100 Ways” and the “50 Ways” as a way to introduce international law to those just beginning to study it.

European Criminal Law After Brexit

The victory for the ‘Brexit’ vote in the referendum last June has sent shockwaves around Europe. The initial shock has given way for some to the realisation of the legal and constitutional complexity of untangling the UK’s relationship with the EU and re-engineering this relationship for a post-Brexit era, an era when the UK will be a third country for the EU. The legal challenges underpinning the reconfiguration of the UK’s relationship with the EU are manifold, and, in many areas of EU law, they are interwoven with a series of practical and operational challenges. One of these areas is European criminal law, where post-Brexit complexity is compounded by ongoing constitutional complexity underpinning the UK’s participation in the EU acquis while remaining an EU member state. Taking into account these complexities, this article will attempt to assess the future of European criminal law after Brexit. In order to do so, the article will focus on four main questions: what are the current constitutional complexities in the UK’s participation in European criminal law (Sections I–III)? What will be the impact of Brexit on domestic criminal law and security in the UK (Section IV)? What are the possible legal avenues for EU-UK post-Brexit co-operation in the field of criminal law (Section V)? And what, if any, will be the impact of Brexit on the shaping and development of European criminal law in the future (Section VI)? By way of conclusion (Section VII), the article will attempt to synthesise the threads and common themes arising from the preceding sections, by emphasising the continuum of legal complexity from pre-to post-Brexit developments and casting light on the paradox of the UK’s position after Brexit: if the UK wishes to continue participating in EU criminal law instruments and mechanisms, or to develop equivalent mechanisms of co-operation, the UK will have to comply with more EU instruments as a non-EU country compared to those it is bound by under its current status as an EU member state – ironically, ongoing links with the EU post-Brexit will spell the end of the UK’s current ‘pick-and-choose’ approach to European integration in criminal matters.

David Kennedy: A World of Struggle: How Power, Law, and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy

David Kennedy: A World of Struggle: How Power, Law, and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy

Conspicuous Absence and Mistaken Presence - A Note on the Ambiguous Role of Scandinavian Legal Realism in Nordic Approaches to International Law

This contribution deals with more methodological and theoretical issues in relation to the study of Nordic approaches to international law. It focuses, in particular, on the role played by Scandinavian realism in relation to two different aspects of this question. On the one hand, there is the legal political dimension of shaping international law directly in treaties. On the other hand, there is the more legal doctrinal dimension in national constitutional law having to do with the domestication of such international law particularly through the integration by national judiciaries of the case law of international courts and tribunals. In the contribution, I argue that Scandinavian realism apparently plays two rather different roles in international legal scholarship relating to these two dimensions: it is conspicuously absent in discussions about the direct shaping of international law, and it is mistakenly present in discussions about the apparently reluctant domestication of such law in the national judiciaries of the Nordic countries.

Validation of pure tensile and shear cohesive laws obtained by the direct method with single-lap joints

Joining with structural adhesives in the aeronautical industry dates back to some decades, although only more recently this technique has been implemented to load bearing parts in other industries. This technique enables joining steel with aluminium or fibre-reinforced composites, with a major weight advantage. Cohesive Zone Models (CZM) are an accurate design method for bonded structures but, depending on the adhesive type and specimen's geometry, the accuracy of the strength predictions may be highly compromised by the choice of the cohesive laws. This work presents a validation of tensile and shear CZM laws of three adhesives obtained by the direct method applied to Double-Cantilever Beam (DCB) and End-Notched Flexure (ENF) tests, respectively. The validation is carried out by considering a mixed-mode bonded geometry (the single-lap joint) with different overlap lengths (LO) and adhesives of distinct ductility. Initially, the precise shape of the cohesive law in tension and shear of the adhesives is estimated, followed by their simplification to parameterized triangular, trapezoidal and linear-exponential CZM laws. Validation of the CZM laws was accomplished by direct comparison of the load-displacement (P-δ) curves and maximum load (Pm) of the single-lap joints as a function of the tested LO values. The strength predictions were accurate for a CZM law shape consistent with the adhesive type, although the differences between CZM shapes were not too significant.

‘Amne adverso’ means ‘looking upstream’. Remarks on the book by Laurent Waelkens, ‘Amne Adverso’. Roman Legal Heritage in European Legal Culture (Leuven University Press, 2015)

Arnaldo Momigliano, an Italian historian and an internationally renowned professor of classics and Roman law in particular, in the late sixties of the twentieth century, expressed the view about the end of the history of law as a discipline independent from positive law. This opinion led to the formation of two diff erent approaches towards the study of Roman law: researchers practicing pure history of the ancient world (the so-called antiquisti), who combine historical and philological sciences and are detached from the contemporary law; and legal historians, who regard dialogue between legal historians, including Romanists, and representatives of various legal dogmatics as necessary. The first approach undoubtedly marginalises Roman law in the context of disciplines taught at universities, while the second one allows a discursive cooperation with other disciplines of law, especially positive law and legal comparatistics, or even theory and philosophy of law. According to supporters of the second approach, modern law dates back to Roman law which provides the basis for agreement between academics. From time to time reformers of legal studies have stressed the need for such model of legal studies which would equip graduates with knowledge that prepares them in the best way for their future profession, which undoubtedly is of paramount importance for the proper functioning of society. Lectures on Roman law, in its ancient and subsequent incarnations, make sense when the taught materia is associated with problems disputed in the current curriculum studiorum. What is more, the search for crossreferences between various scientifi c materiae is a rational postulate on the level of scientific research, especially that its strength is refl ected by the quality of research. The presented review of ‘Amne Adverso’. Roman Legal Heritage in European Legal Culture (Leuven University Press, 2015), the book by Laurent Waelkens, not only discusses the content, but addresses as well such issues as the presence and shape of law in Roman antiquity and its topicality for subsequent generations of lawyers - representatives of diff erent historical schools. Finally, the review presents a possible rational model of the presence of Roman law in modern academic reality, particularly in today legal education

Rola ekspertów w procesie legitymizacji działań Europejskiego Urzędu ds. Bezpieczeństwa Żywności

Celem artykułu jest wykazanie uwarunkowań legitymizacji technokratycznej (wynikowej) w przypadku Europejskiego Urzędu ds. Bezpieczeństwa Żywności. Na tle innych agencji regulacyjnych instytucja ta cieszy się dużym zaufaniem i uważana jest za modelowy przykład doradczego gremium Komisji Europejskiej, dostarczającego wysokiej jakości opinii naukowych. Otwartym pozostaje jednak pytanie, czy takie technokratyczne uprawomocnienie działań urzędu jest wystarczające. Nie ma on wprawdzie ani uprawnień regulacyjnych, ani decyzyjnych, ale za pośrednictwem projektów legislacyjnych Komisji Europejskiej, które niejednokrotnie w pełni odzwierciedlają stanowisko urzędu, uczestniczy w kształtowaniu europejskiego prawa żywnościowego.