Contractional Structures Research Articles

Inverted Basins by Africa–Eurasia Convergence at the Southern Back-Arc Tyrrhenian Basin

The southern part of Tyrrhenian back-arc basin (NW Sicily), formed due to the rifting and spreading processes in back-arc setting, is currently undergoing contractional tectonics. The analysis of seismic reflection profiles integrated with bathymetry, magnetic data and seismicity allowed us to map a widespread contractional tectonics structures, such as positive flower structures, anticlines and inverted normal faults, which deform the sedimentary sequence of the intra-slope basins. Two main tectonic phases have been recognised: (i) a Pliocene extensional phase, active during the opening of the Vavilov Basin, which was responsible for the formation of elongated basins bounded by faulted continental blocks and controlled by the tear of subducting lithosphere; (ii) a contractional phase related to the Africa-Eurasia convergence coeval with the opening of the Marsili Basin during the Quaternary time. The lithospheric tear occurred along the Drepano paleo-STEP (Subduction-Transform-Edge-Propagator) fault, where the upwelling of mantle, intruding the continental crust, formed a ridge. Since Pliocene, most of the contractional deformation has been focused along this ridge, becoming a good candidate for a future subduction initiation zone.

TA-SPESC: Toward Asset-Driven Smart Contract Language Supporting Ownership Transaction and Rule-Based Generation on Blockchain

Aiming at insufficient situation to express and operate assets in smart contracts, in this article we attempt to add a new asset model into smart contract language (such as SPESC) through combing method of asset's expressions and transactions in real-world contracts. Moreover, a translation mechanism can be set up to accomplish a conversion from the asset model to an executable contract program. On this basis, we propose a new language design toward asset-driven specific smart contracts, called TA-SPESC. This language complies with the structure of real-world contracts and supports a formal definition composed of four modules: Party, asset, term, and contract attribute. This asset model on it can be used to define various types of rights (including the right of ownership, use, possession, usufruct, and disposition of assets), as well as five asset operations (including asset registration, deposit, withdrawal, transfer, and cancellation) to effectively support asset transaction. More important, a series of generation rules are proposed to translate the TA-SPESC contract to an executable contract program. Moreover, taking house rental contract as an example, we provide a TA-SPESC instance and its specific description of translation process according to the generation rules, which supports a semiautomatic generation to executable programs. Finally, the Solidity codes derived from TA-SPESC contracts are run and tested, and the experiment and comparison results indicate that TA-SPESC contracts have high abstraction and low complexity, as well as versatility and convenience of asset transaction, which lead to more reliable software with less errors and fewer misunderstanding.

Supply Chains and Antitrust Governance

Antitrust regulations are meant to promote fair competition in the market, but balancing administrative and legal costs with enforcement can be difficult when multilayered supply chains are involved. The canonical example of this challenge is the landmark Illinois Brick ruling, which limits antitrust damages to only the direct purchasers of a product; for instance, consumers can file antitrust claims against colluding retailers but not against colluding manufacturers—only retailers can file claims against manufacturers. This controversial ruling was meant to reduce legal costs, but it can clearly lead to missed enforcement opportunities. In this paper, we demonstrate how the Illinois Brick ruling interacts with contracts adopted in the supply chain, and we show that otherwise equivalent supply chain arrangements can have markedly different effects. In particular, we find that wholesale price, minimum order quantity, revenue sharing, and quantity discount contracts lead retailers to take legal action against manufacturers in the event of collusive behavior. However, the wholesale price plus fixed fee contract structure (also known as a two-part tariff or slotting fee contract) facilitates collusion among the manufacturers with retailers compensated by the fixed fee and not filing the antitrust litigation. We further demonstrate that collusion is more likely under high demand uncertainty and high competition at the retail level but is less likely under high competition at the manufacturer level. Our paper helps public enforcers identify market conditions conducive to antitrust violations. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Ceo Pay and the Rise of Relative Performance Contracts: A Question of Governance?

Abstract We exploit the large rise in relative performance awards in the United Kingdom over the last two decades to investigate whether these contracts improve the alignment between CEO pay and firm performance. We first document that corporate governance appears to be stronger when institutional ownership is greater. Then, using hand-collected data from annual reports on explicit contracts, we show that (1) CEO pay still responds more to increases in the firms’ stock performance than to decreases, and, importantly, this asymmetry is stronger when corporate governance is weak as measured by low institutional ownership; and (2) “pay for luck” persists as remuneration increases with random positive shocks, even when the CEO has equity awards that explicitly condition on firm performance relative to peer firms in the same sector. A major reason why relative performance contracts do not eliminate pay for luck is that CEOs who fail to meet the terms of their past performance awards are able to obtain more generous new equity rewards in the future in weakly governed firms. We show the mechanism operates both through the quantum of shares and the structure of new contracts. These findings suggest that reforms to the formal structure of CEO pay contracts are unlikely to align incentives in the absence of strong corporate governance.

Complex Basement‐Involved Contractional Structures in the Pre‐Andean Basins of Northern Chile: A Review From Seismic Data

AbstractFor many years, the geometry, kinematic, and the age of the basement‐involved structures of the Pre‐Andean basins of northern Chile have been debated. Even, many tectonic models supported by surface geological data have ignored how is the continuity of these structures in the subsurface, and also their possible relation with ancient preorogenic structures, thus difficulting the understanding of the main tectonic mechanisms that acted during the Andean uplift. To solve this problem, we discussed in this study the geometry and timing of the basement‐involved contractional structures present in the Pre‐Andean basins of northern Chile. We present field and seismic evidences of different basement‐involved structural styles, including reverse faults, inverted normal faults, basement thrust ramps, and rotated and reworked basin margins, and use it them to produce three large structural cross‐sections showing the geometries and distribution of structures along the inner forearc region. The structures are interpreted to have resulted from basin inversion, which was followed by large reverse faulting accumulating 43 km in the Salar de Atacama, 10 km in the Salar de Punta Negra, and 27 km in the Salar de Pedernales. Major reverse faults are predominantly located along the western and eastern edges of the basins, whereas inverted normal faults, basement thrust ramps, and other structures are confined to the central sections. In this context, large basement thrust ramps and reverse faults are the most effective structures for generating crustal thickening. Previous analyses (U‐Pb dating) of synorogenic deposits over inverted structures and apatite fission track data from Paleozoic basement prerift rocks suggest that contraction in the region began in the Late Cretaceous‐Paleocene and continued throughout the Cenozoic; however, basement rocks experienced rapid cooling due to tectonic uplift during the Eocene. Further, the results indicate that basement‐involved contractional structures are not only generated by flat‐slab subduction processes, but also observed in other regions of northern Chile (e.g., Frontal Cordillera). Finally, we conclude that the observed structural complexity predominantly results from the initial distribution of preorogenic extensional structures.

Rules of Medical Necessity

Health insurance contracts have long excluded coverage for care that is “experimental” or not “medically necessary.” Historically, insurance policies defined these key terms of coverage using broad standards. For example, “medically necessary” care might be defined as care that is “generally accepted in the medical community.” This contractual structure provided insurers with significant flexibility when making coverage determinations, even though denying coverage could pad their bottom line. For this reason, lawmakers developed various tools to prevent insurers from exploiting their discretion to determine when care was “medically necessary” or “experimental.” These safeguards allowed insureds to challenge coverage denials internally within the insurance company, externally to an independent medical expert, and before courts via a contract law or ERISA cause of action. Additionally, state and federal mandates required insurers to cover specific medically necessary treatments and services. This Article documents a dramatic shift in health insurers’ contracts and practices from a standard-based approach to determining the medical and scientific appropriateness of health care towards a rule-based approach for making these determinations. It shows how health insurers have increasingly made incredibly detailed and specific rules of medical necessity part of their formal contractual obligations to policyholders. The Article then argues that health insurers’ shift from standards to rules for defining medically and scientifically appropriate health care undermines the effectiveness of traditional legal tools designed to constrain the risk of health insurer over-reaching. The Article concludes by exploring reforms that might effectively address the increasing rulification of medical necessity.

The Content of a Paid Medical Services Contract: Theoretical and Applied Analysis

Introduction: the paper deals with the features and conditions of a contract structure that is widely in demand at the present time – a paid medical services contract. The paper analyzes the provisions of the key legal acts regulating the sphere of paid medical services, including their contractual formalization, the legislation on consumer protection, which applies to the legal relations of the parties arising from paid medical services contracts, and the content of this contract. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the legislative and doctrinal approaches to the issue of essential and mandatory conditions of the contract under consideration, as well as to the relevant judicial and contractual practice. Methods: in the presented research, the traditional general scientific research methods were used, such as the dialectical method of cognition, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc., as well as the specific scientific legal methods, including formal legal, the method of legal interpretation, etc. Results: the authors substantiate the point of view that the essential conditions of the paid medical services contract are only the conditions on its subject. The authors believe that the conditions stipulated in par. 17 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1006 of 04.10.2012 “On approval of the Rules for providing paid medical services by medical organizations” should be considered as mandatory conditions. Taking into account the existing approaches in the law enforcement practice, the conditions that are reflected in the paid medical services contract would help prevent disputes, as well as protect the rights and legitimate interests of the parties to the contract. Based on the analysis of the judicial practice, a list of conditions of the paid medical services contract that infringe on the rights of consumers has been formed, which should not be included in it. Conclusions: based on the results of the study, the two groups of factors were identified, which influence the formation of the methodological recommendations for drawing up a paid medical services contract; the recommendations for improving contractual work in the medical organizations are formulated.

Funding and financing infrastructure: The joint-use of public and private finance

Attracting private financing is high on the agenda of policy makers concerned with closing the infrastructure gap in developing countries. To date, however, private finance represents a minor share of overall infrastructure financing and the poorest countries struggle to attract any private investors. This paper develops a model that rationalizes these facts. We characterize the structure of financial and regulatory infrastructure contracts and derive conditions under which public and private finance coexist. This requires a combination of regulated prices and public subsidies sufficiently attractive for outside financiers, pointing at a fundamental trade-off between financial viability and social inclusion. While improvements in the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures facilitate access to private finance, institutional changes lowering the cost of public funds make public finance more attractive.

Moral hazard with limited liability: Random-variable formulation and optimal contract structures

This paper studies the optimal contract for a risk-neutral agency with limited liability. We introduce a novel formulation of the model, in which the contract design problem reduces to a problem of constructing the distribution function of a random variable. This formulation directly balances the principal's tradeoff between incentivizing the agent to exert proper effort and minimizing the cost of the agent's compensation. We show that the optimal contract may involve one or two tiers of performance-based bonuses. We obtain new sufficient conditions for the optimality of bonus contracts and provide new insights into the choice of contract parameters.

Development of surface ruptures by hanging-wall extension over a thrust ramp along the Ragged Mountain fault, Katalla, Alaska, USA: Applications of high-resolution three-dimensional terrain models

AbstractHigh-resolution three-dimensional terrain models are used to evaluate the Ragged Mountain fault kinematics (Katalla, Alaska, USA). Previous studies have produced contradictory interpretations of the fault’s kinematics because surface ruptures along the fault are primarily steeply dipping, uphill-facing normal fault scarps. In this paper, we evaluate the hypothesis that these uphill-facing scarps represent extension above a buried thrust ramp. Detailed geomorphic mapping along the fault, using 20-cm-resolution aerial imagery draped onto a 1-m-resolution lidar (light detection and ranging) elevation model, was used to produce multiple topographic profiles. These profiles illustrate scarp geometries and prominent convex-upward topographic surfaces, indicating significant disturbance by active tectonics. A theoretical model is developed for fault-parallel flow over a thrust ramp that shows the geometric relationships between thrust displacement, upper-plate extension, and ramp dip. An important prediction of the model for this study is that the magnitude of upper-plate extension is comparable to, or greater than, the thrust displacement for ramps with dips greater than ∼45°. This model is used to analyze profile shapes and surface displacements in Move software (Midland Valley Ltd.). Analyses of scarp heights allow estimates of hanging-wall extension, which we then use to estimate slip on the underlying thrust via the model. Assuming a low-angle (30°) uniformly dipping thrust and simple longitudinal extension via normal faulting, variations in extension along the fault would require a slip gradient from ∼8 m in the north to ∼22 m in the south. However, the same north-south variation in extension with a constant slip of 8–10 m may infer an increase in fault dip from ∼30° in the north to ∼60° in the south. This model prediction has broader implications for active-fault studies. Because the model quantifies relationships between hanging-wall extension, fault slip, and fault dip, it is possible to invert for fault slip in blind thrust ramps where hanging-wall extension is the primary surface manifestation. This study, together with results from the St. Elias Erosion and Tectonics Project (STEEP), clarifies the role of the Ragged Mountain fault as a contractional structure within a broadly sinistral shear system in the western syntaxis of the St. Elias orogeny.

Contractual relations of participants in the life cycle of a construction project

Contracts accompany all stages of the life cycle of a construction object. The contractual relationship should ensure a balance of production and economic interests of numerous participants in the construction project and stakeholders of the project. When a project is being implemented by several dozen contractors, it is difficult to achieve a balance of interests, the content of contracts is often multidirectional or contradicts each other. In order to systematize the relationships of the project participants, contractual relations in the construction industry and the functions of the subjects of contracts are analyzed. The structure of contracts in construction, based on the cash flow of the project, is proposed. Allocated 6 groups of contracts: agreements concluded by the investor; contracts concluded by the developer, employer; contract agreements; contracts for the supply of goods and the provision of services; collective and individual labor contracts. The main features of each group of agreements and the functions of the subjects of agreements in Russia and abroad are considered. It is shown that, as part of the theory of project management, it is relevant and expedient to develop a section on the structure of contracts, planning a contract campaign and support for a complex of project contracts. It is proposed to develop contracts and think through the contractual terms of the project agreed, under the leadership of the project management team.

СООТНОШЕНИЕ ПРАВОВЫХ КОНСТРУКЦИЙ ПРЕДВАРИТЕЛЬНОГО ДОГОВОРА И ОПЦИОНА НА ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ ДОГОВОРА: АНАЛИЗ ТЕОРИИ И СИСТЕМНОСТИ ПРАВОПРИМЕНИТЕЛЬНОЙ ПРАКТИКИ

In this article, based on the analysis of the current civil legislation, judicial practice and scientific literature, the problem of the correlation of a preliminary agreement with an option to conclude an agreement is considered. Their legal nature is analyzed, criteria for similarities and differences between the specified contractual structures are determined. The paper provides examples of cases of incorrect differentiation of a preliminary contract and an option to conclude a contract in practice, and also describes the features of their qualification as mixed contracts. The authors conclude that the design of a preliminary contract is different from an option to conclude a contract, despite some similarities. The necessity of legal delimitation of the specified contractual forms, as well as the inclusion of some mixed structures in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which will allow to avoid their misuse by the law enforcement officer, is noted.

LEGAL NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP ARISING FROM THE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT

The article is devoted to the study of the current legislation of Ukraine governing relations arising in connection with the conclusion of property management agreements, as well as analysis of the legal nature of property management agreements in civil law of Ukraine and current issues of application of this contractual structure in today's conditions. Highlighting the relevance of the topic of this study, analyzes and takes into account the views of scholars on this issue at the theoretical level, and the layout of the application of the property management contract among other contractual structures. It is investigated that the management contract defines the powers of the manager in relation to the material resources transferred to him management, according to which the titular owner uses the property effectively and rationally in the interests of the owner or the person specified by him. The combination of these features in the framework of the contract of property management indicates a mixed – property and contractual nature of the relationship of property management, which arise on the basis of the contract. Trust property management combines absolute (real) and relative (obligatory) rights. The binding nature of the property management contract does not preclude a property relationship because the owner, by transferring the property to the management, pursues a specific goal, namely to use the property with the most optimal outcome. The fact that automatic prolongation of trust property relations is not allowed is analyzed. Therefore, the absence of statements of the founder of the management and the manager on termination of the contract cannot be interpreted as a basis for prolongation of trust relations of property, as the manager in civil turnover at the conclusion of contracts must indicate that he is not the owner. To confirm his authority, the manager must have the appropriate title, in this case, a property management agreement concluded in writing, or a real estate management agreement, which must be notarized.

Ключевые аспекты смарт-контракта, его использование в современном мире. Перспективы развития «умного договора» в условиях формирования цифровизации

The rapid spread of digital technologies, namely – innovative technologies, has set the trajectories for the development of a new stage in the economy of the information society. Such growth is closely related to the emergence of new ways of doing business, new ways of concluding contracts and fulfilling contractual obligations, new forms of existence of contracts and new contractual structures. Thus, there is a need to form a new regulatory environment that provides a favorable legal regime for the emergence and development of modern technologies, as well as for the implementation of economic activities related to their use. Of particular importance in this case is the conclusion of transactions in electronic form. One of the varieties of such transactions can be called a smart contract, which has long been actively distributed in foreign countries, but is not used so often in the Russian Federation. The main reason for the low number of such «smart» contracts is that the legislator has practically not paid attention to the legal regulation of this category. The purpose of the work is to analyze smart contracts, identify problems in their application and propose solutions to the current situation. The following methods were used: historical, comparative law, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. The author came to the conclusion that there is no legal definition of smart contracts and the specifics of its conclusion in the current legislation. Cryptocurrency is also closely related to smart contracts, which is also not fully regulated. In this regard, the author suggests ways to solve the identified problems.

The Effects of a Selective Tax on Contract Design and Tax Timing

Taxation affects income via both a compensation contract response and a worker response. I show that executive contracts adjust to a tax on severances, and executives shift their taxable income timing in response to the interaction of tax and contract. In particular, “golden parachute” severances tend to bunch at a threshold (tied to taxable income) where the tax rate discontinuously increases, and CEOs exercise stock options in bulk to raise their taxable income and boost their threshold. Identification comes from a bunching analysis exploiting a discontinuous change in exercise incentives over time and variation across CEOs in contract incentives and deal timing. The paper demonstrates the role of contract structure in tax avoidance and additionally shows how contract structure affects worker behavior.

КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНІ ПІДХОДИ ДО УПРАВЛІННЯ ІННОВАЦІЙНО-ІНВЕСТИЦІЙНИМ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯМ РОЗВИТКУ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ АГРАРНОГО СЕКТОРУ

The main functions of management, such as: planning, organization, motivation and control in the context of innovation and investment support for the development of agricultural enterprises. As a result of generalization of scientific achievements of domestic and foreign scientists, a general scheme of investment design at different phases of innovation development in agricultural enterprises is proposed. The importance of forming the organizational structure of management and its key role in the process of introducing innovations in agricultural enterprises is substantiated. The main aspects of forming the organizational structure of enterprise management as a basic tool for making management decisions in planning and design, as well as the implementation of innovations and evaluation of the results of their implementation. It is proved that the most adequate in the process of managing innovation and investment support for the development of agricultural enterprises are matrix organizational management structures as the most flexible and adaptive in a changing environment of the innovation process. The advantages and disadvantages of the types of matrix organizational structure, such as: functional, balance, design, contract structure, as well as network structure and virtual organization. Substantiated as a result of the study, the advantages and disadvantages of each of the modern organizational management systems allow you to choose the most adequate to the needs of the enterprise management system and change it in case of need. The main requirements for staff motivation in the implementation of innovation and investment support are summarized. The information component is studied and its role for the effective process of management and control over the innovation process is substantiated. The application of all these functions by project managers and functional managers is proposed to obtain an effective management system for innovation and investment support for the development of agricultural enterprises.

Survey of Smart Contract Technology and Application Based on Blockchain

With the vigorous development of blockchain technology represented by Bitcoin, blockchain technology has gradually surpassed the era of programmable currency and entered the era of smart contracts. Smart contracts are event- driven and stateful. With the in-depth development of blockchain technology, smart contracts use protocols and user interfaces to complete all steps of the contract process, allowing users to implement personalized code logic on the blockchain. Contract technology has the characteristics of decentralization, autonomy, observability, verifiability, and information sharing. It can effectively build programmable finance and programmable society, and is widely used in digital payment, financial asset disposal, multi-signature contracts, cloud computing, Internet of Things, sharing economy and other fields. First, it explains the basic concepts, full life cycle, basic classification, basic structure, key technologies, development status and main technology platforms of smart contracts; then discusses the application scenarios and development issues of smart contract technology, aiming to provide smart contract technology. The research and development provides reference.

Правоотношения, возникающие при заключении предварительного договора

Relevance. Despite the widespread use in civil circulation of the civil law structure of the preliminary contract and the attention to it from the scientific community, in law enforcement practice there are many controversial issues related to the application of this structure. The article presents the results of a study of the complex of legal relations that emerge upon the conclusion of a preliminary contract. The author qualifies these legal relationships as organizational obligations, reveals in their content mutual subjective civil rights and obligations. The fulfillment of these obligations is due to demand, but the new provisions of the legislation governing the conditional performance of obligations turned out to be worked out to a lesser extent than the conditional performance of obligations based on the preliminary agreement. The purpose of the study is an attempt to formulate new scientific provisions based on an in-depth analysis of the provisions of the current legislation concerning the conclusion and execution of a preliminary contract. Objectives: identify and study the specifics of legal relations that develop in the process of concluding a prelim-inary contract, give them scientific qualifications, analyze the norms of the current legislation and determine the direc-tions of its development. Methodology. In the study there were used the dialectical-materialistic method, the system method, the methods of analysis and synthesis, and the formal-legal method. The results the research is of a theoretical and applied nature and is aimed at improving the quality of law en-forcement practice and improving legislation. Conclusions. The author, on the basis of the analysis, comes to the conclusion that as a result of the conclusion of a preliminary contract, an obligation arises with conditional performance, the conclusion of a preliminary contract regarding a real contract does not contradict the current legislation, although it has features in terms of the con-sequences of failure to fulfill the main obligation.

Structure of a property contract: a fashionable trend of foreign legal doctrine or the reality of national law and order?

Structure of a property contract: a fashionable trend of foreign legal doctrine or the reality of national law and order?

Resource Sharing of Smart City Based on Blockchain

The concept of smart city refers to the improvement of the quality of life of the city by making full use of idle resources by sharing. However, limited by the technical level, the current resource sharing system mostly adopts centralized data storage mode. Systems managed in this way are vulnerable to multiple threats. The tested blockchain technology with the characteristics of decentralization and tamper resistance can effectively prevent various risks. Starting with the architecture of blockchain intelligent contract, this paper puts forward a structural optimization factor model of intelligent contract. To optimize the structure of blockchain intelligent contract, the gas optimization theory is put forward by changing the order, reducing the use of costly EVM data fields, reducing redundant fields, and optimizing intelligent contract codes. Experimental analysis of the proposed model is carried out, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by comparing the transaction execution time of cost calculation with the cost of executing gas, which can provide reference for the selection of intelligent contract organization structure of smart city resource sharing system.