Showing papers on "Principal (commercial law) published in 1984"

The Economics of Agency.

Abstract: : The agency relationship is a pervasive fact of economic life. Even in the limited sense in which the concept has traditionally been understood in ordinary and in legal discourse, the principal-agent relation is a phenomenon of significant scope and economic magnitude. But economic theory has recently recognized that analogous interactions are virtually universal in the economy, at least as one significant component of almost all transactions. The common element is the presence of two individuals. One (the agent) must choose an action from a number of alternative possibilities. The action affects the welfare of both the agent and another person, the principal. In this study of organizational efficiency this report discusses the following topics: (1) The Two Types--Hidden Action and Hidden Information;(2) Example--Public Utility Rate Setting; (3) Multiple Principles; (4) The Hidden-Action Model; (5) Monitoring; (6) Multiple Agents and Repeated Relations; (7) An Evaluation of Agency Theory.

Customary Law and the Economy

Abstract: In this paper I discuss some aspects of the relationship of African customary law to the economy. Such a vast topic potentially embraces at least three different themes: the economic context in which African customary law has developed and operates today; the economic consequences and implications of different African customary laws; and the relationship between customary law and the economic aspect of society. These three themes inevitably overlap, but while recognising their interconnections I shall concentrate primarily on the third. My principal aim is to identify some of the linkages between customary law and economic relations, especially those linkages which become manifest during broad social changes.An examination of the relationship between customary law and the economy in Africa almost ineluctably requires an historical perspective. This is so, first, because, as I suggest later, customary law is historically specific: it developed in particular historical circumstances and in close conjunction with the formation of the colonial state. Thus, the foundations of customary law in Africa lie partly in the development of capitalism and its expansion from Europe during the colonial era. These interrelated processes have decisively moulded and subtly shaped the law, legal institutions and legal professions of contemporary Africa.More generally, however, it is essential today to envisage the possibility of new, alternative forms of development and social regulation. The particular forms of legal pluralism which characterise third world countries indicate, in many cases, that the subsumption of African economies within capitalist relations of production and exchange has thus far been merely partial and formal.

Agency Problems and Political Institutions

Abstract: To a very large extent, politics is agency. Indeed, agent-principal relationships pervade public and public-private behavior. This paper reviews the extensive but not yet integrated literature applying agency concepts to political settings. This includes agency in definitions of politics or political science; the state as agent and as consisting of agents; agents in the state, i.e., representatives and officials; agency in the relation between constituencies and government; bureaucrats as agents; agency in implementation and compliance; and agency in one functional area of government that has recently seen a great deal of scholarly attention, regulation. An "agency problems" approach to studying political and other agency institutions is proposed. A typology of core agency problems is presented that (unlike the majority of the economics literature) clearly defines the key dimensions of moral hazard and adverse selection. "Principal side" and "agent side" functional problems of agency are identified and discussed; the functional analysis produces another typology that may be employed to develop both theory and prescription in agency settings. Particular problems are displayed almost like games (e.g., the "Major General's problem"), reflecting their syndrome-like features. Three examples of the explicit application of the agency approach to political institutions are presented: diplomacy, policy and other advocacy, and the case of lawyer-legislators.

Trends in the Sociology of the Australian Legal Order

Abstract: It is overwhelmingly the case that the analysis of law in the Australian social order has been, and still is, carried out by lawyers. Moreover, a considerable proportion of this research originates from agencies either dominated directly by the legal profession (for example, law foundations) or by the ideologies of law (for example, law faculties). As will become clear, this has not meant that such work is to be dismissed as universally conservative and legalistic. However, the situation has resulted in the stifling of a sociology of law in Australia, at least in the sense of a body of data expressly articulated with one or other of the varieties of sociological theory. In its place has developed a strong tradition of empiricist research geared to issues of legal policy such as correctionalism and law reform. Only in the past few years has there been any significant challenge to this atheoretical mode, and while the current trends are promising the sociology of law still occupies a fairly marginal role in the field of legal studies. In this paper an attempt will be made to account for this situation in terms of the broader political and intellectual trends in post-war Australia, and to outline the principal problematics which have emerged over the past twenty years.

Consumer Protection in French Law: General Principles and Recent Developments

Abstract: THE law of consumer protection' has been growing extensively in France for about ten years. It does not seem necessary to examine the reasons which motivated the creation of this protective law, the French context being very similar to that of other Western European countries. This answer to economic and technological changes was given by the legislature, which intervened several times, and so it is possible to consider the law of consumer protection as a conglomerate of various legal rules taken from different branches of the legal system. This assumption is correct to the extent that the consumer is indirectly protected by several fundamental principles contained in the Civil, Commercial and Penal Codes, and also directly by new rules enacted to support the public interest in the economic field. Nevertheless, the composite character of this branch of the law should not obscure the reality, as one must not forget that there are specific legislative techniques which do actually give a status to the consumer. This is why one should consider consumer law as a body of codified, statutory and jurisprudential rules which aim to restore a balance between parties whose economic strength is unequal. The principal statutes which should be mentioned here are, in the main, fairly recent. The first in the field was the Law of 1 August 1905 which dealt with frauds. This has been amended several times. It was

The Influence of Aggravating or Mitigating Personal Characteristics on the Liability of the Participants

Abstract: Personal characteristics may be relevant to criminal liability in one of two cases. Firstly, in offences which can only be committed by an actor with a special status (offences of delicta propria): for example, bigamy, committed by a "married person"; perjury which only a "witness" can commit; corruption by a "public servant". Secondly, where the personal characteristic either aggravates or mitigates the basic offence. Thus, in Israeli law, parricide -killing one's parents-defined in sec. 300(a); of the Penal Law, 1977, is an aggravated form of manslaughter; while infanticide-where a mother kills her newborn baby is, according to sec. 303 (a) of the Law, a mitigated form of either murder or manslaughter. Similarly, stealing by an employee, according to sec. 391 of the Penal Law, is an aggravated form of theft; and stealing by public servant, according to sec. 390, is an even more aggravated form of stealing by employee.In this paper I shall limit myself to the second set of characteristics. My aim is to examine the solution required under the law of complicity in instances where the personal characteristic, which either aggravates or mitigates the offence, obtains only in one of the participants. Will the secondary party, who either instigated or aided a son to kill his father, be held liable as an accomplice to the aggravated offence of parricide committed by the son? Will a similar conclusion be applied where the accomplice instigated infanticide? What about an employee who aided another to steal from his employer? And to what offence will the principal offender in that case be held liable?

Consumer protection in Switzerland by means of “soft law” — Practices and perspectives

Abstract: Consumer protection by self-regulation has come into focus as a proposed alternative to consumer legislation. This paper tries to show the principal forms in which “soft law” rules have been established in Switzerland, and to outline some of the main problems to which they have been exposed in practice.

Communist Party Policy Towards Natural Scientists: Impact and Response

Abstract: Two principal themes have run through party policy towards the Soviet scientific community since the late 1960s: first, the enhancement of the role of the party in scientific institutions and, second, the pursuit of effective science. Party policy documents and associated commentary in the press assert that these goals are linked in that research can be conducted with maximum efficiency only in scientific research establishments where the influence of the party is strong. In what follows the measures introduced to strengthen the party are analysed and their impact on the working lives of scientists assessed, with the intention of building up a picture of the role of the party in one of the many segments that together compose the total spectrum of its activities.