Do White Police Officers Unfairly Target Black Suspects?

Using a unique data set we link the race of police officers who kill suspects with the race of those who are killed across the United States. We have data on a total of 2,706 fatal police killings for the years 2013 to 2015. This is 1,333 more killings by police than is provided by the FBI data on justifiable police homicides. We conducted three tests of discrimination. The results of these tests are different. In the first test we find some evidence that white officers are more likely to kill a black suspect who is later found to be unarmed than they are to kill an unarmed white suspect. However, this result could not be confirmed using a fixed effects model on panel data aggregated to the city level. In the second test, we find that white police officers are no more likely to kill an unarmed black suspect than are black or Hispanic officers. The results of this test are confirmed by the panel data version of the test. The third discrimination test indicated that black suspects, whether armed or not, are no more likely to be killed by a white officer than they are to be killed by black or Hispanic officers. Similarly, Hispanic suspects are no more likely to be killed by white offices than officers of other races. These results are also confirmed by panel data analyses. We find that when there is more than one officer on the scene, unarmed black suspects are not more likely to be killed by white police officers than unarmed white suspects. This could be evidence supporting a policy of reducing the number of officers working alone. Also, we find no evidence that body cameras affect either the number of police killings or the racial composition of those killings.

Developing an Effective Strategy for the Enforcement of the Constitutional Mandate of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions (ECCPP) is one of the committees of the Senate of Nigeria’s National Assembly. The Committee was one of the earliest Special committees established under Order XIII of the Senate Standing Orders 2015, as amended (SSO 2015). It is one of the committees through which the Senate conducts legislative investigations in fulfilment of its constitutional and statutory role under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution, as altered. The major challenge of the ECCPP Committee in the exercise of its investigation power is the refusal by some chief executives of government agencies and corporate organisations to honour its invitation. This study finds that among the reasons for this are the absence of ethical prescriptions in the SSO 2015 to guide the conduct of honourable members against unethical conduct that undermine their integrity, and absence of prescribed fine for failure to honour the Committee’s summons. To strengthen the enforcement capacity of the Committee, the study recommends, among others, that members of the Committee eschew unethical tendencies that undermine their integrity and conduct the business of the Committee in a manner that avoids conflicts of interest or its appearances.

Effects of the Covid-19 Measures on the Economy and the Environment

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and governmental countermeasures are described in this work by putting it in the framework of the Energy Theory of Value. It is found that the downturn in economy is not accompanied by an equal downturn in energy consumption nor of carbon emissions. Moreover, not even the empirical fifth-power law linking the former two is any longer sustained, more so proving the state of virtualization of our economy (disconnecting it from a physical reality). It is also found that the reduction of carbon emissions had no impact on the dynamics of carbon in the atmosphere, which goes on business as usual. All these results undermine the planned policies of the world agenda.

Near Identification of Policy Trade-Offs Using Preference Proxies to Elicit Hidden Information in the Linear Case

This paper shows that neither OLS nor 2SLS can generically identify policy trade offs in the linear case, except under extreme assumptions. Practitioners must be content with near identification and the paper discusses how to choose between these two methods. It shows that a two-stage approach using preference proxies to elicit hidden information can potentially narrow the identification gap and that a simple specification test can be used to assess whether these proxies really contribute to improving identification.

Analysis on Criminal Governance of Bitcoin-related Corruption Cases

Bitcoin is extremely easy to be used in corruption cases due to its pseudonym, easy circulation, easy cross-border and other characteristics. As a decentralized electronic account book, the circulation of regulatory funds is jointly confirmed by each node in the bitcoin network, which can ensure the authenticity of the criminal evidence and is not easy to be lost or damaged. It provides great convenience for evidence collection in bitcoin corruption cases. However, there are also shackles in criminal governance, such as how to prove the subjective intent of the bribe takers, the impact of fluctuations in market value on the identification of the case and, most importantly, how to effectively recover stolen goods across borders. Therefore, the difficulty of bitcoin-related cases does not lie in the “anonymity” that some scholars believe, but lies in the determination of subjective intent, the determination of the amount of the crime and the international judicial assistance in recovering the stolen money.

Extraterritorial Reference of China’s Labor Market Flexibility Adjustment

China’s labor market is facing a policy and legal dilemma of balanced flexibility and security adjustment. Under the condition of the continuous development of new economic conditions such as sharing economy and platform economy, the new employment pattern of the labor market presents new challenges to the current legal system. It is of great significance to optimize and perfect China’s existing labor policies and regulations by studying the experience of representative countries such as the United States, Japan, and Germany in labor market regulation and drawing on their scientific adjustment model.

Provisional Measures of Trademark Enforcement in Pakistan: A Comparative Analysis with Malaysia and USA

Trademark is mark, name, sign, smell or a sound distinguishes goods and services of one undertaking from goods and services of other undertakings. It is required to be distinctive and non-descriptive. It losses its distinctiveness when registered owner of trademark does not take prompt action against its infringement. Provisional Measures of trademark enforcement is a measure initiated by the owner of trademark during civil or administrative procedure of trademark enforcement to prevent further counterfeiting of his trademark and to protect evidence he relies upon during civil or administrative procedure of trademark enforcement. Provisional Measures of trademark enforcement in member states of World Trade Organization (WTO) must be expedient, adequate, fair, equitable, and must not be complicated, costly and time consuming. Provisional measures of trademark enforcement is a civil procedure where owner of trademark may ask the Court to prevent counterfeiter from trademark counterfeiting. This study is qualitative method of research a comparative analysis of provisional measures of trademark enforcement in Pakistan, Malaysia and USA. After a comparative analysis of provisional measures of trademark enforcement in Pakistan, Malaysia and USA, it is found that Lanham Trademark Act 1946 is comprehensive trademark law of United States of America (USA) prescribed grounds to grant and refuse to grant injunctions to prevent trademark counterfeiting. It is also found that there is a requirement in Lanham Trademark Act 1946 for a person against whom injunctive relief is passed to submit report in writing about manner and method of compliance with injunction order. These findings are required to be prescribed in trademark law of Pakistan for betterment of provisional measures of trademark enforcement.

Rule of Law Today

Witnessing the actual Trump presidency, one searches for conceptual tools to document US decline. The World Justice Project (WJP) comes to mind, attempting to measure Rule of Law (RL) comparatively. The WJP presents interesting findings for 2017-2020. Canada ranks higher than USA. Venezuela is bottom 128 country. Rationale of rule of law?

A Saga of Intellectual Property Licensing: Investigating the Credibility of 25 Percent Rule

A healthy IP system creates opportunities and benefits for the industries, consumers, small businesses, governments, and the economy, including greater innovation, choice, competition, and jobs. Incentives to innovate, job creations, opportunities and revenue generation for governments make the environment interoperable and beneficial for all stakeholders. The IP created by industries and individuals can be licensed to others as a way of generating revenue. It is within this, already complex environment, where negotiating a fair royalty rate can become one of the most challenging tasks. It is here where the application of the 25 percent rule emerged as a rule of thumb, to determine royalty rates in most licensing transactions, specifically in patent licensing. In light of the above, this research study has looked into different issues relating to the credibility of the 25 percent rule after the Uniloc case. Moreover, this study tried to trace out and examine multiple issues, such as the validity of the grounds for rejecting the Rule, the criticism leveled against it, the applicability of the Daubert standards, limitations and exceptions to the Rule and other related issues that will answer the credibility of the 25 percent rule.

The US Regulations on Foreign Ownership of Land-Practical and Theoretical Perspectives

This article examines the US regulations on Foreign Owenrship of land from practical and theoretical perspectives. It focuses on the broad theme of political, economic, human rights and national security factors that affect the property rights of foreigners in the US. It aims to address the underlying theoretical issues by examining whether these social forces provide a satisfactory jurisdiction for the host state’s management of land ownership; and pursues an assessment of the current pattern of treatment towards further modification or improvement, against the background of the new established criteria.