Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is a rapidly growing field of international law, due mainly to a proliferation of investment treaties among states that grant foreign investors the right to pursue binding arbitration against states for alleged violations of property rights. However, many have argued that poorer countries are systematically disadvantaged in arbitration since the costs of...

T he current decline in the economic well-being of the residents of the rural Heartland is well documented. High poverty rates, limited job growth, falling real per capita income, and increased out-migration are all signs of current economic problems. The region’s future is far from certain. As noted in earlier chapters, the rural Heartland is extremely diverse. Not all of its communities are s...

This paper examines the use of sorting by defendants as a strategy for lowering their overall costs of litigation. The effectiveness of this strategy relies on the defendant’s ability to bundle settlement offers with some other variable that is valued differently by plaintiffs. The example I examine in this paper is settlement delay. For example, if plaintiffs have different time costs of pursu...

Knowledge of larval behaviours of sessile marine invertebrates from release to recruitment and of the role these behaviours play in determining adult distributions is limited. In manipulative experiments using larvae from the Great Barrier Reef sponge Rhopaloeides odorabile, we quantified larval behaviours associated with vertical migration, phototaxis and swimming ability. We also measured set...

This paper presents the results of a recent study about the following aspects relevant to tunneling in soft grounds:e) The domain of deformations due to tunneling in soft ground can be specified within a boundary of a parabolic shape. This boundary is defined by a parabolic formula as a function of a central angle which depends on the soil type i.e., either cohesive or cohesionless. This para...

This paper presents the results of a recent study about the following aspects relevant to tunneling in soft grounds:e) The domain of deformations due to tunneling in soft ground can be specified within a boundary of a parabolic shape. This boundary is defined by a parabolic formula as a function of a central angle which depends on the soil type i.e., either cohesive or cohesionless. This para...

Population growth involves demographic bottlenecks that regulate recruitment success during various early life-history stages. The success of each early life-history stage can vary in response to population density, interacting with intrinsic (e.g. behavioural) and environmental (e.g. competition, predation) factors. Here, we used the common reef-building coral Acropora millepora to investigate...

Manipulative field experiments carried out on sheltered rocky shores investigated settlement and post-settlement interactions between Semibalanus balanoides and three species of fucoid canopy algae, Fucus spiralis L., Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jolis and Fucus serratus L. All three species had a negative effect on settlement and early recruitment of S. balanoides, densities being significantly...

Litigation and regulatory assaults on the tobacco companies may create a willingness among tobacco manufacturers to bargain resources and acceptance of public policy changes for limitations of liability, as has been seen by the recent settlement with the Liggett Group. Two elements absolutely critical to any plan are the elimination of tobacco advertising and promotion and the removal of addict...

The Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, is a commercially, culturally, and ecologically significant species in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), whose offshore stages were likely impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWH). To test for DWH effects and to better understand the planktonic ecology of this species, we monitored Callinectes spp. megalopal settlement and condition at sites within and outsi...