Evaluation of the Macroeconomic Stability of Central and Eastern European Countries with a View Toward their Membership in the European Union. Multidimensional Risk Analysis

The shapes of the macroeconomic stabilisation pentagon for CEEC economies in 2014 shows that none of the analysed countries is characterised by total filling of the pentagon. This means that the economic situation in these countries is not stable and requires constant monitoring. The figures related to all analysed indicators, apart from GDP, are characterised by a flattened shape, which is characteristic for such a situation

The Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces in odd characteristic

We show that the classical Kuga-Satake construction gives rise, away from characteristic 2, to an open immersion from the moduli of primitively polarized K3 surfaces (of any fixed degree) to a certain regular integral model for a Shimura variety of orthogonal type. This allows us to attach to every polarized K3 surface in odd characteristic an abelian variety such that divisors on the surface can be identified with certain endomorphisms of the attached abelian variety. In turn, this reduces the Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces over finitely generated fields of odd characteristic to a version of the Tate conjecture for certain endomorphisms on the attached Kuga-Satake abelian variety, which we prove. As a by-product of our methods, we also show that the moduli stack of primitively polarized K3 surfaces of degree 2d is quasi-projective and, when d is not divisible by p^2, is geometrically irreducible in characteristic p. We indicate how the same method applies to prove the Tate conjecture for co-dimension 2 cycles on cubic fourfolds

Changing Views of Competition and EC Antitrust Law

During the last few years the application of EC antitrust law has been subject to a number of changes, aiming at giving a greater role to economic analysis. This is leading to the abandonment of the traditional ordoliberal inspiration of EC competition law. This paper explores how justi ed is this change. In particular it argues that economic analysis provides di erent views of how competition works and thet it may a ect the application of antitrust at di erent stages. From this point of view a more economic approach is not necessarily incompatible with a reformed ordoliberal paradigm. What appears incompatible is an approach which substitutes eciency for competition. Such an approach has gained a role in the US antitrust, but its extension to the EC legal context is bound to produce a number of problems, and to lead to results di erent from the desired ones.antitrust,models of competition,ordoliberal paradigm,EC competition law

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

This paper examines the adoption of environmental practices in small and medium sized companies inthe surface mining industry in Catalonia (Spain). To fulfill this aim, a survey of 41 items concernint environmental management systems and environmentally sustainable practices has been conducted. Results show that companies have committed themselves to environmental and sustainable issues. The majority of companies claim to understand the effects of their activities on the environment and they care for responsible access and management of natural resources. Restoration plans and the annual waste declaration are mandatory in Catalonia, and rational resources exploitation practices have been adopted by a high percentage of mines. Finally, some examples of good environmentally sustainable practices are introduced.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Wrongful birth and wrongful life. Floodgate argument and the balancing of conytrasting rights in courts law making

The decision analyzed affects damages forthe born child because of the impossibility for the mother to exercise the right to abortion, as the diagnosis was missing and she was not aware of the hard risk for her physical and psychological health coming from the birth of a child affected by \u201cdown syndrome\u201d. The study starts from the distinction between: a)Wrongful birth: the personal damages suffered by pregnant women, who have not had the possibility of self-determining in the prosecution of the pregnancy in case of pathological processes of the fetus; in particular, in those cases when a disease exposes herself and her health to a severe risk (a pre-condition for abortion, according to the Italian L. 194/1978), caused by the doctor's breach of contract and, in particular, because of the latter not informing the patient of the fetus illness. b)Wrongful life: the damages suffered directly by the conceived but not yet born fetus, because of the missed abortion; this category of damages has been invoked often by parents in case of fetus malformations o genetic diseases, when it is not possible to ascertain the doctor's responsibility for the child's health damages, since the disease preexisted to medical treatment and intervention. The wrongdoing concerns only the lack of diagnosis and of subsequent information, as the woman consequently could not exert her right to choose abortion and the child was born, while she/he shouldn\u2019t have. After years of contrasting decisions SS.UU., has stated that there is no place for a \u201cright to birth only if healthy\u201d in the Italian legal system. In analyzing such decision, the study focus especially on: I. burden of proof; II. potential plaintiffs of such kind of action (parents, brother and sisters of the child and the child her/himself); III. comparative insights on how legislation, judges and scholars in other legal systems (Great Britain and France) have managed with the floodgate argument, the rights of both the woman and the \u201cunborn\u201d child