Counseling about More Than the Law

At the end of Professor Menkel-Meadow’s landmark article, she notes “the attraction of the problem-solving approach to negotiations is that it returns the solution of the problem to the client and forces the lawyer to perform her essential role in the legal system—that of solving problems” (p. 841). While most view this article as a call to change the mindset of lawyers to engage in the problem-solving method of negotiation, I want to focus on its underlying message—a lawyer’s essential role includes counseling about more than the law. In fact, as this article was being written in the early 1980s, the Kutak Commission added Model Rule 2.1, authorizing attorneys to counsel clients about the consequences of their actions beyond the law. Professor Menkel-Meadow gives us the road map to do that. Moreover, Professor Menkel-Meadow’s explanation is even more compelling, because it is based on a shift in mindset and is the first to utilize interdisciplinary literature....

Machiavelli and the Bar: Prescient in Part

In Machiavelli and the Bar, Professor James J. White favors adoption of Model Rule 4.1, governing truthfulness in statements to others, but cautions that the Rule may be ineffective in practice. In doing so, White lays the groundwork for later empirical studies examining attorneys’ compliance with the enacted Rule. This response compares White’s predictions with those studies’ findings. I conclude that White was right to be concerned about the Rule’s efficacy, but not necessarily for the reasons he imagined....

The Mauryan Empire

The unique feature of the Mauryan Empire is the religious writings or dhamma-lipi inscribed by King Aśoka on rocks and sandstone pillars across the Indian subcontinent. Many of the edicts are repeated in different parts of the country and present a unified vision for the region. These records have been a primary source for understanding the administrative structure of the Mauryan Empire. It is significant that the edicts have not been replicated by subsequent rulers. Though the nature of Aśoka’s dhamma has been debated by historians, there is no denying the fact that it is in Buddhist writings that Aśoka figures prominently as a righteous ruler whose model rule was followed by later rulers to the present.

Designing Hierarchical Honeycombs to Mimic the Mechanical Behaviour of Composites

Honeycombs are used ubiquitously in engineering applications as they have excellent out-of-plane strength and stiffness properties with respect to weight. This paper considers the properties of honeycombs in the in-plane direction, a direction that is significantly weaker and less stiff than the out-of-plane direction. We assess how judiciously locating structural hierarchy within a honeycomb array can be a geometric design principle with direct consequences on the mechanical behaviour of the honeycomb. Here, we use finite element methods to design reinforced honeycomb mechanical metamaterials that mimic the mechanical behaviour of unidirectional fibre reinforced composites. We specifically incorporate structural hierarchy within hollow honeycomb cells to create mechanical metamaterial pseudo-composites, where the hierarchical parts are pseudo-fibres, and the hollow parts are the pseudo-matrix. We find that pseudo-fibre contribution coefficients are higher than the fibre contribution coefficient of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). We also find that the elastic modulus of unidirectional pseudo-composites can be predicted using the (Voigt model) rule of mixtures with a good level of accuracy.

Determining Indicators Related to Land Management Interventions to Measure Spatial Inequalities in an Urban (Re)Development Process

Nowadays, urban sprawl, urban densification, housing shortages, and land scarcity are some problems that intervene in the practice of urban planning. Those specific problems are currently more than ever emergent because they imply the notion of spatial justice and socio-spatial inequalities. Hence, it seems necessary to promptly research and describe these from a new and different perspective. Thus, we consider the Institutional Analysis and Development to define a conceptual framework to assess spatial justice. We simplify it into a three-dimensional model (rule, process, and outcomes) in which a matrix of indicators applies on each level. We elaborate the indicators to measure spatial inequalities in an urban development project, for which the reason we refer to the egalitarian paradigm of spatial justice. While spatial inequalities raise questions about land management, we elaborate those indicators related to three land management interventions: the use, access to, and redistribution of land use.

Synthesis of a Fuzzy Logic Model Rule Base through Supervised Learning

Intelligent information systems are at present actively incorporated in almost all industry fields. Out of many approaches to construction of such systems, the following two methods are worthy of noting: a method involving the use of expert knowledge, which include, in particular, fuzzy modeling), and a method of supervised machine learning, which estimate this knowledge from the available data marked depending on the objectresponse pairs. Each of these methods has its essential advantages and drawbacks. A combined use of both the approaches for solving the classification case is given. The proposed method for training a fuzzy classifier includes fuzzification of the input features of objects, shaping of logical rule conditions for the fuzzy model rule base, and selection of the most typical rule conclusions for filling the relational matrix. The terms of input features and their membership functions behave as the fuzzy model hyperparameters. As an example, the case of binary classification in a two-dimensional coordinate space with a nonlinear distribution of classes is considered. The sets of terms and membership functions ensuring high-quality classification on the training and test data have been found for each of the coordinates. The fuzzy classifier trained using the proposed method is able to solve a number of binary and multi-class classification cases. It can be applied in a situation involving difficulties in specifying an a priori rule base, and supervised learning is allowed to be used as a solution. Since the approach has logical rules at its heart, transparency of the model is ensured, and explanations to the results yielded by the model can be done.

Towards normatively limited judicial sanction [structured discretion] as a proportional response to the defectiveness of legal action (contract) in modern legal transactions

The primary purpose of the legal considerations herein is to indicate the direction of the modernization of the legality of control mechanisms in modern legal transactions. At the base of these transactions there is still the traditional, dogmatic sanction of nullity (invalidity) regulated by law (ex lege), and the legal effects of a defective legal action (contract), i.e. an action contrary to law or moral norms. In consideration of disproportionality and ineffectiveness of the nullity sanction under new conditions, jurisprudence and legislation have directed their attention to the limited judicial sanction (structured discretion) originating from the common law tradition as a proportional and flexible response to the defectiveness of legal action (contract). The statutory judicial sanction, which became the basis of the reform on the concept of illegality in common law countries, have found expression in the model rule of European private law. The Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR), the latter of which revises and updates the PECL, are the primary references for the model rules of contract law in the EU. The PECL and the DCFR have affected the concept of the defective sanction of legal action (contract) in the new Civil Code, drafted by the Polish Civil Law Codification Commission.