Showing papers on "Settlement (litigation) published in 2004"

Ancient Jomon of Japan

Abstract: Part I. Overview: 1. Introduction 2. Background to the study: overview of the Jomon Period Part II. Subsistence and Settlement: 3. Subsistence strategies 4. Settlement archaeology Part III. Rituals, Crafts and Trade: 5. Mortuary and ceremonial practices 6. Crafts and exchange networks Part IV. Discussion and Conclusion: 7. Discussion and conclusion.

Availability and use of public information and conspecific density for settlement decisions in the collared flycatcher

Abstract: Availability and use of public information and conspecific density for settlement decisions in the collared flycatcher

Tobacco control in the wake of the 1998 master settlement agreement.

Abstract: This Special Report discusses the implications of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the states and the tobacco industry. In the context of current state budget crises, a decreasing proportion of the settlement dollars is being spent on programs to reduce smoking. This report presents an overview of local, state, and federal tobacco-control policies and reviews recent developments focused on taxation, smoking cessation, bans on smoking in public areas, and international trade policies.

The Price of Smoking

Abstract: What does a pack of cigarettes cost a smoker, the smoker's family, and society? This longitudinal study on the private and social costs of smoking calculates that the cost of smoking to a 24-year-old woman smoker is $86,000 over a lifetime; for a 24-year-old male smoker the cost is $183,000. The total social cost of smoking over a lifetime -- including both private costs to the smoker and costs imposed on others (including second-hand smoke and costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) -- comes to $106,000 for a woman and $220,000 for a man. The cost per pack over a lifetime of smoking: almost $40.00. The first study to quantify the cost of smoking in this way, or in such depth, this accessible book not only adds a weapon to the arsenal of antismoking messages but also provides a framework for assessment that can be applied to other health behaviors. The findings on the effects of smoking on Medicare and Medicaid will be surprising and perhaps controversial, for the authors estimate the costs to be much lower than the damage awards being paid to 46 states as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.

Bargaining and Fighting: The Impact of Regime Type on War Onset, Duration, and Outcomes

Abstract: Recent research suggests that democracies have advantages and disadvantages in wars. Democracies are more likely to win the wars they initiate and the ones in which they are targeted. Wars initiated by democracies are also uniformly shorter and less costly than wars initiated by nondemocracies. However, democracies are also less likely to continue fighting and less likely to win as war drags on. Democracies are also particularly likely to be targeted. We present a bargaining model that reconciles these divergent findings. The model explains why democracies are more likely to win but are also more likely to settle and more likely to be targeted than other types of regimes. The model's explanation of these facts differs in important ways from existing explanations. The model also suggests several new hypotheses relating regime type to the terms of settlement and the onset of war.

Trends and Causes of Armed Conflict

Abstract: From the start of 1990 to the end of 1999 there were 118 armed conflicts world wide, involving 80 states and two para-state regions and resulting in the death of approximately six million people. If we seek to prevent conflict from escalating into armed warfare, or, failing that, to at least achieve an end to fighting as soon as possible, and if we want to maximise the opportunity for avoiding the return of the war after apparent settlement, we must first be sure that we properly understand armed conflicts and their causes.

The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of Apartheid

Abstract: Preface Abbreviations Maps Milner's Model of Settler Capitalism The Theory of Apartheid Apartheid in Practice Apartheid in Crisis and Militarized-Reform The Struggle Against Apartheid-Alternative Visions The Struggle Against Apartheid-The 1980s Uprising Negotiating a Settlement to End Apartheid The Emerging Post-Apartheid Society Globalization and the New South Africa Select Bibliography

Taming Intractable Conflicts: Mediation in the Hardest Cases

Abstract: Mediating in the Danger Zone Mediator Motivation Forgotten Conflicts and the International Community First Steps and Hidden Traps Building a Negotiating Strategy Hitting the Wall The Ingredients of a Settlement Making a Settlement Stick Conclusions

Historic Landscape Analysis: Deciphering the Countryside

Abstract: Reproduced with permission of the publisher. All of the images and illustrations have been reproduced with permission of the copyright holders. This is the author's final post-print version of a book as accepted for publication by the Council for British Archaeology. Copyright © 2004 Author and Council for British Archaeology. The definitive publication is available at: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/pubs/

In search for a virtual settlement : an exploration of weblog community boundaries

Abstract: This article suggests an alternative, non-linear approach to identifying traces of community in weblog networks. Further, this paper addresses the ethnographic problem of participation observation ...

When Ignorance Is Bliss: Information Exchange and Inefficiency in Bargaining

Abstract: Most theories of legal discovery assume that the sharing of information among disputing parties will lead to convergence of expectations and facilitate settlement. However, psychological research shows that shared information, if open to multiple interpretations, is likely to be interpreted egocentrically by the disputants, which can cause beliefs to diverge rather than converge. We present results from a bargaining experiment that demonstrate that information sharing leads to divergence of expectations and to settlement delays when the information exchanged is amenable to multiple interpretations. By contrast, when there is only one obvious interpretation, information sharing leads to convergence of expectations and speeds settlement. We show, further, that information sharing moderates the relationship between the size of the bargaining zone and the prospects for settlement.

A Geographic Information Systems and cellular automata-based model of informal settlement growth

Abstract: There exists a vital need to increase our understanding of the fast-growing informal settlements (IS) within the burgeoning mega cities of the less developed countries. Previous attempts have used descriptive speculation about underlying social, political and cultural forces, but they have not generated sufficient understanding to underpin useful and effective management policies. The result has been the piecemeal application of planning procedures and IS policies that were developed elsewhere, in developed nations. This thesis explains why such methods tend not to work within developing countries. Nevertheless, recent progress in studies of complex urban systems conducted in developed countries, combined with the power of modern computer simulations, facilitates new insight into the dynamics of developing nations’ IS. Accordingly, this research utilises a cellular automata model, which is formally joined to a Geographic Information System (GIS), to better simulate the spread of informal settlements in

The ‘Australian settlement’ and Australian political thought

Abstract: Arguments for reshaping political agendas invariably begin from an appraisal of past errors and achievements. Paul Kelly's notion of the 'Australian Settlement' attempts such a task. Kelly identifies a particular ideological and institutional tradition in Australian politics that dominated much of the twentieth century and that is now deemed to have broken down. This article accepts that the notion of a Settlement provides certain insights into the evolution of Australian political thought. Nonetheless, the paper takes issue with the specific content of Kelly's version of the 'Australian Settlement' and indicates how it may be reformulated. It argues that, to the extent that we can speak of a 'Settlement' in Australia, it was one reached on a wider range of key conflicts or cleavages than those to which Kelly refers.

A Population History of the United States

Abstract: 1. Paleo Indians, Europeans and the settlement of America 2. Colonization and settlement of North America 3. The Early Republic to 1860 4. The creation of an industrial and urban society, 1860-1914 5. The evolution of a modern population, 1914-1945 6. The baby boom and changing family values, 1945-1980 7. A modern industrial society, 1980-2003.

Conflict, collaboration, fuzzy jurisdictions and partial settlements. Accountants, lawyers and insolvency practice during the late 19th century

Abstract: Inter-professional conflict over insolvency work in Victorian England and Wales is often considered a formative instance of jurisdictional competition between accountants and lawyers. The paper explores this episode in the context of Abbott's theory of The System of Professions. It is shown that the Bankruptcy Act, 1869 disturbed inter-professional relations and unleashed competition between accountants and lawyers for insolvency work. However, the resultant hostility was substantially conducted through the professional media and did not engage unified occupational communities. In everyday practice accountants and lawyers maintained relations of mutual dependency rather than conflict. Some elements of a jurisdictional settlement between accountants and lawyers over bankruptcy work was achieved during the 1870s and 1880s through an intellectual division of labour, judicial decision making and organisational change. However, these forms of settlement seldom proved conclusive and statutory changes e...

A Comparison of Conventional, Final-Offer, and “Combined” Arbitration for Dispute Resolution

Abstract: Two widely used forms of arbitration are conventional arbitration, in which the arbitrator makes an unconstrained settlement choice, and final-offer arbitration, in which the arbitrator must choose between disputants' final offers. Under an innovative, as yet unused approach called "combined arbitration," if the arbitrator's notion of a fair settlement lies between the disputants' final offers, final-offer arbitration rules are used; otherwise, conventional arbitration rules are used. Theoretically, by combining the risks that the two standard forms of arbitration pose for disputants who do not voluntarily settle, combined arbitration should generate convergent final offers. The results of this controlled laboratory study show, however, that dispute rates are highest in combined arbitration and lowest in conventional arbitration. These results challenge the theoretical predictions for combined arbitration as well as claims that final offer arbitration should reduce disputes compared to conventional arbitration. The results are, however, consistent with a simple theory of disputant optimism.

The "global settlement" with the tobacco industry: 6 years later.

Abstract: On June 20, 1997 a group of attorneys and health advocates proposed a “global settlement” of all public and private litigation against the tobacco industry. This agreement was controversial, and the subsequent implementing legislation was defeated. We sought to determine whether the global settlement represented a “missed opportunity” or a dead end. We compared the global settlement with subsequent laws, regulations, settlements, and judgments against the tobacco industry and found that other than Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco, tobacco control advocates have achieved many of the policies included in the global settlement and several beyond it. The policies that have been developed since 1997 have advanced tobacco control substantially, often beyond the provisions of the global settlement.

Where Have All the Trials Gone? Settlements, Non-trial Adjudications and Statistical Artifacts in the Changing Disposition of Federal Civil Cases

Abstract: If trials have been vanishing from the federal courts in the past few decades, it matters, from a normative perspective, whether this trend reflects an increase in private settlements (as many assume) or an increase in public non-trial adjudication. In this paper I investigate the coding of disposition by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts as the first step in an effort to assess changes in the use of trial, non-trial adjudication (such as summary judgment and dismissal) and settlement to resolve federal civil cases. Based on audits of the 2000 data using electronic docket information available through PACER, I identify substantial error rates - as high as 70% - in the most ambiguous and relevant disposition codes, making simple interpretation of the raw codes highly unreliable. Using the sample frequencies of true dispositions determined from these audits, I correct the 2000 data. Comparing this corrected data to the raw 1970 data would lead to the surprising conclusions that a smaller percentage of cases were disposed of through settlement in 2000 than was the case in 1970, that vanishing trials have been replaced not by settlements but by non-trial adjudication, and that it is the bench, not jury trial, that has been transformed in this way. These conclusions are suggestive only, but they point to the importance of performing the more onerous task of auditing the pre-PACER data produced by the federal courts in order to assess whether we are witnessing a fundamental shift out of public adjudication into private settlements or merely a shift in how and when judges decide cases.

Local Empowerment Through Community Mapping for Water and Sanitation in Dar es Salaam

Abstract: This paper describes a community enumeration and mapping programme in five low-income settlements in Dar es Salaam. The inhabitants documented their settlement and its problems in detail, especiall...

Europeanization and secessionist conflicts: concepts and theories

Abstract: This chapter explores the potential of the EU to bring about conflict settlement and conflict resolution in the divided states on its periphery through its multi-level framework and capacity for foreign policy action. A third level of governance provides new institutional options for conflict settlement and creates new incentives that may lead to a redefinition of the interests and identities of the parties involved in a secessionist conflict. Europeanization is defined as a process which is activated and encouraged by European institutions, primarily the European Union, by linking the final outcome of the conflict to a certain degree of integration of the parties involved in it into European structures. The Europeanization mechanisms of conditionality and socialization aimed at conflict settlement may have unintended effects which can undermine the objective of conflict resolution.

Tibetans in Nepal: The Dynamics of International Assistance among a Community in Exile

Abstract: Based on eighteen months of field research conducted in exile carpet factories, settlement camps, monasteries, and schools in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, as well as in Dharamsala, India and Lhasa, Tibet, this book offers an important contribution to the debate on the impact of international assistance on migrant communities. The author explores the ways in which Tibetan exiles in Nepal negotiate their norms and values as they interact with the many international organizations that assist them, and comes to the conclusion that, as beneficial as aid agency assistance often is, it also complicates the Tibetans' efforts to define themselves as a community.

The Japanese in Peru History of Immigration, Settlement, and Racialization

Abstract: Peruvians of Japanese descent, though constituting only 0.3 percent of Peru’s population, were brought to the world’s attention by the election of Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, as president, and today they are arguably one of the country’s most influential ethnic communities both economically and politically. While well integrated into Peruvian society, they remain a racial/ethnic minority and a close-knit community. Prominent but closed, the Japanese-Peruvian community has evolved through the processes of immigration, settlement, and racialization over the past century. At the end of the nineteenth century in Japan, the rumor spread that a country called Peru somewhere on the opposite side of the earth was “full of gold.” This country, moreover, was a paradise with a mild climate, rich soil for farming, familiar dietary customs, and no epidemics, according to the advertisements of Japanese emigration companies (Konno and Fujisaki, 1984). A Japanese immigrant in Peru, now in her late 80s, told me, “I came here because I heard there was gold and no snow in this country.” Another, in his 90s, said that he had followed his uncle to Peru because “I wanted to become a farmer. Owning land was my dream.” With various dreams in mind, some 790 Japanese, all men between the ages of 20 and 45, left Japan in 1898 to work on Peru’s coastal plantations as contract laborers. Their purpose was simple: to earn and save money for the return home upon termination of their four-year contracts. The 25-yen monthly salary on Peru’s plantations was more than double the average salary in rural Japan (Suzuki, 1992). In four years’time, then, they expected their savings to amount to 860 yen. The history that followed is one of misery and hardship. Japanese immigration was simultaneously a form of exclusion from Japan. Rather than being simply voluntary labor migration for higher wages, it was shaped by a

Where Have All the Trials Gone? Settlements, Nontrial Adjudications, and Statistical Artifacts in the Changing Disposition of Federal Civil Cases

Abstract: If trials have been “vanishing” from the federal courts in the past few decades, it matters, from a normative perspective, whether this trend reflects an increase in private settlements (as many assume) or an increase in public nontrial adjudication. In this article I investigate the coding of “disposition” by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts as the first step in an effort to assess changes in the use of trial, nontrial adjudication (such as summary judgment and dismissal), and settlement to resolve federal civil cases. Based on audits of the 2000 data using electronic docket information available through PACER, I identify substantial “error” rates—as high as 70 percent—in the most ambiguous and relevant disposition codes, making simple interpretation of the raw codes highly unreliable. Using the sample frequencies of true dispositions determined from these audits, I correct the 2000 data. Comparing this corrected data to the raw 1970 data would lead to the surprising conclusions that a smaller percentage of cases were disposed of through settlement in 2000 than was the case in 1970, that vanishing trials have been replaced not by settlements but by nontrial adjudication, and that it is the bench, not jury, trial that has been transformed in this way. These conclusions are suggestive only, but they point to the importance of performing the more onerous task of auditing the pre-PACER data produced by the federal courts in order to assess whether we are witnessing a fundamental shift out of public adjudication into private settlements or merely a shift in how and when judges decide cases.

Relentless Colonialism: the case of the Remote Area Development Programme (RADP) and the Basarwa in Botswana

Abstract: Colonial processes continue to dominate many indigenous peoples' development programmes in countries around the world. This paper examines some of the underlying factors that contribute to continued failure in the implementation of the Remote Area Development Programme (RADP) in Botswana. It argues that the problem is not just failed implementation, but a more fundamental problem found in its philosophy, which suggests relentless colonialism. This paper is based on the empirical findings of a recent study in one Basarwa settlement in Botswana and draws on the practical experience of the author. Case examples from this study are used to unravel and illustrate embedded colonial practices of the RADP. Recommendations from the findings argue for the development of a ‘decolonising approach to development practice’ that may respond effectively to problems that resulted from relentless colonialism.