Assets under attack: metal theft, the built environment and the dark side of the global recycling market

This paper explores the effects of, and apparent cause of, unprecedented levels of metal theft from the built environment (both in the UK and globally) in the period 2005 to 2008. Readily accessible and unguarded metallic elements present in the built environment, such as manhole covers, road signs, church roofs, electricity substations, rail cable, statues, memorial plaques, wiring and piping have all been pillaged, causing major distress, disruption and/or repair expense. This paper describes the relationship between soaring metal prices for copper and lead and economic demand in China and examines the contemporary legal, policy and practical responses to the metal theft phenomenon. Through this analysis the paper shows how metal theft raises some unusual (and uncomfortable) questions about what happens when recycling becomes too successful in terms of its financial attractiveness and the ease of integration of materials back into the materials markets. The paper explains that whilst neither metal theft nor attempts at its regulation are new, the scale of contemporary metal theft calls for a greater focus and co-ordination of asset defence and enforcement action at national policy level.</p

A Penal Colony for Bad Lawyers

In this article I set out what I believe is an extreme and unconventional way to discipline egregiously bad lawyers. For starters, I think it might be useful to survey briefly the kinds of lawyering conduct currently subject to disciplinary sanctions. Regulation of the conduct of defense lawyers in the U.S. is hedged by various legal and professional rules that are enforced by courts and disciplinary bodies essentially to ensure a minimum level of competent and ethical representation. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel--the so-called “sacred” right--seeks to ensure at least a reasonable degree of lawyering skill. Also, professional codes seek to ensure zealous and meaningful representation. Nevertheless, these standards are very broad, and bad lawyering often escapes sanctions or even notice. Ironically, although bad defense lawyering, in my opinion, happens at least as often as bad prosecuting, the latter appears to have elicited more criticism by the media and the academic community. Why this disparate treatment of prosecutors and defense lawyers? It is a curious dichotomy, especially since bad lawyering by defense attorneys, as documented in many studies, accounts for at least as many miscarriages of justice as misconduct by prosecutors. To be sure, just as most prosecutors behave fairly and professionally, so do most defense lawyers represent their clients with skill and dedication. But, just as some prosecutors behave dishonorably, some defense lawyers behave incompetently. However, bad prosecutors are excoriated; bad defense lawyers are marginalized or ignored. Thus was born the idea--borrowed loosely from Kafka--of a “Penal Colony” as a disruptive innovation to improve the quality of American lawyers and punish the bad ones

The Prosecutor\u27s Obligation to Grant Defense Witness Immunity

The author enumerates the three most common situations in which the courts have required the prosecutor to offer immunity to defense witnesses: (1) to safeguard the defendant\u27s right to essential exculpatory testimony; (2) where the use of the prosecutor\u27s powers to grant immunity causes such distortion in the fact-finding process as to require granting immunity to defense witnesses; and (3) where immunity is required to remedy prosecutory misconduct such as the intimidation of witnesses. The use of the missing witness instruction to avoid reaching the constitutional issue is also discussed

Proving the Defendant\u27s Bad Character

The classic study of the American jury shows that when a defendant\u27s criminal record is known and the prosecution\u27s case has weaknesses, the defendant\u27s chances of acquittal are thirty-eight percent, compared to sixty-five percent otherwise. Because of the danger that jurors will assume that the defendant is guilty based on proof that his bad character predisposes him to an act of crime, the courts and legislatures have attempted to circumscribe the use of such evidence. Some prosecutors, however, although well aware of the insidious effect such prejudicial evidence can have on jurors, violate the rules of evidence, as well as ethical standards, by deliberately introducing inadmissible evidence in order to obtain a conviction, despite the risks involved

Landowners' liability? is perception of the risk of liability for visitors accidents a barrier to countryside access?

The study seeks to analyse both the perception and reality of liability risk for owners of countryside land for injuries suffered by recreational visitors. The study starts by evaluating the relevant legislation and case law in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on countryside access and liability in tort for injury suffered by visitors to such places. In doing so it reviews legislation such as Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, Countryside &amp; Rights of Way Act 2000, Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 &amp; 1984, Animals Act 1971 and the Compensation Act 2006. Through appraisal of this legislation and key cases such as Tomlinson -v- Congleton Borough Council (2004) the actual level of liability risk is assessed to be low. The study then investigates the rise of a pervasive discourse amongst policy makers, judiciary and senior business figures asserting the need to avoid further development of a risk adverse culture within the UK and/or to tackle a growth in the perceived "compensation culture". A link to deregulation and pro-entrepreneurship interests is shown. The reality of compensation claim rates and associated behaviours is then examined. Issues of liability risk perception are then addressed by reviewing in detail the limited available UK literature on liability perception by landowners and comparing this with evidence from the United States and New Zealand. Case studies of alleged risk adverse land management are then examined to test the evidence base for common assertions of excess regulation and/or withdrawal of access to land or facilities through fear of liability. Finally, the study explores (via interviews of 21 land managers and representative bodies) how liability risks are actually perceived by land owners and the extent of awareness of recent changes in discourse and case law regarding public safety issues. In doing so the study reveals the ways in which land managers in large pro-access agencies and utilities develop common standards and understandings around the level of "reasonably practicable" safety provision. The study concludes with recommendations for further research to investigate the way in which liability risk perceptions are formed by smaller landowners who are more remote from such "interpretive communities" (Fish 1980).</p

The OAST space power program

The NASA Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) space power program was established to provide the technology base to meet power system requirements for future space missions, including the Space Station, earth orbiting spacecraft, lunar and planetary bases, and solar system exploration. The program spans photovoltaic energy conversion, chemical energy conversion, thermal energy conversion, power management, thermal management, and focused initiatives on high-capacity power, surface power, and space nuclear power. The OAST space power program covers a broad range of important technologies that will enable or enhance future U.S. space missions. The program is well under way and is providing the kind of experimental and analytical information needed for spacecraft designers to make intelligent decisions about future power system options

Changing Farming Systems - Case Studies Assessing the Financial Implications

The ability to adapt to changing circumstance is a determinant of future farm prosperity. Managers need to assess the performance of their current farming system and alternative farming options to identify possible profitable management changes. This paper uses the STEP (Simulated Transitional Economic Planning) model to provide case study analyses of the financial implications of changing a farming system. STEP simulates the process of transition allowing the user to assess the financial costs and benefits of transition. The case studies examined in this paper use financial data from farms at Wickepin, and Meckering in Western Australia. The case studies demonstrate how the rate of transition into a new farming system can affect the distribution of profit, and how environmental benefits can alter the profitability of a transition strategy.Farm Management,

Results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mapped the distribution of temperature and polarization over the entire sky in five microwave frequency bands. These full-sky maps were used to obtain measurements of temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background with the unprecedented accuracy and precision. The analysis of two-point correlation functions of temperature and polarization data gives determinations of the fundamental cosmological parameters such as the age and composition of the universe, as well as the key parameters describing the physics of inflation, which is further constrained by three-point correlation functions. WMAP observations alone reduced the flat $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model (six) parameter volume by a factor of >68,000 compared with pre-WMAP measurements. The WMAP observations (sometimes in combination with other astrophysical probes) convincingly show the existence of non-baryonic dark matter, the cosmic neutrino background, flatness of spatial geometry of the universe, a deviation from a scale-invariant spectrum of initial scalar fluctuations, and that the current universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion. The WMAP observations provide the strongest ever support for inflation; namely, the structures we see in the universe originate from quantum fluctuations generated during inflation.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, invited review for Special Section "CMB Cosmology" of Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (PTEP). (v2) New ns-r figure added. Accepted for publicatio

Lie Detection: The Supreme Court\u27s Polygraph Decision

In United States v. Scheffer, decided this past Term, the Supreme Court considered for the first time the admissibility of polygraph evidence. The Court held that exclusion of such evidence on behalf of a criminal defendant was supported by valid justifications and offended no constitutional right to present a defense