CASENOTES - Fitzkriston LLP v Panayi - Best Rents, Parol leases and Law of Property Act 1925 Section 54(2)

Casenote considers nature of ruling in Fitzkriston v Panayi and its implications for the interpretation of S.54(2) Law of Property Act 1925

Employment effects of privatisation and foreign acquisition of Chinese state-owned enterprises

This paper investigates the effects of domestic privatisation or foreign acquisition of Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) on employment growth, using firm level data for China and a combination of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences in order to identify the causal effect. Our results suggest that, controlling for output growth there is some evidence that domestic privatisation leads to contemporaneous reductions in employment growth compared to firms that did not undergo an ownership change. By contrast, there is some evidence that foreign acquisitions show higher employment growth in the post acquisition period than non-acquired SOEs.

The acquisition of French past tenses by tutored anglophone advanced learners : is aspect enough?

Following Andersen's (1986, 1991) study of untutored anglophone learners of Spanish, aspectual features have been at the centre of hypotheses on the development of past verbal morphology in language acquisition. The Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis claims that the association of any verb category (Aktionsart) with any aspect (perfective or imperfective) constitutes the endpoint of acquisition. However, its predictions rely on the observation of a limited number of untutored learners at the early stages of their acquisition, and have yet to be confirmed in other settings. The aim of the present thesis is to evaluate the explanatory power of the PAH in respect of the acquisition of French past tenses, an aspect of the language which constitutes a serious stumbling block for foreign learners, even those at the highest levels of proficiency (Coppieters 1987). The present research applies the PAH to the production of 61 anglophone 'advanced learners' (as defined in Bartning 1997) in a tutored environment. In so doing, it tests concurrent explanations, including the influence of the input, the influence of chunking, and the hypothesis of cyclic development. Finally, it discusses the cotextual and contextual factors that still provoke what Anderson (1991) terms "non-native glitches" at the final stage, as predicted by the PAH. The first part of the thesis provides the theoretical background to the corpus analysis. It opens with a diachronic presentation of the French past tense system focusing on present areas of competition and developments that emphasize the complexity of the system to be acquired. The concepts of time, grammatical aspect and lexical aspect (Aktionsart) are introduced and discussed in the second chapter, and a distinctive formal representation of the French past tenses is offered in the third chapter. The second part of the thesis is devoted to a corpus analysis. The data gathering procedures and the choice of tasks (oral and written film narratives based on Modern Times, cloze tests and acceptability judgement tests) are described and justified in the research methodology chapter. The research design was shaped by previous studies and consequently allows comparison with these. The second chapter is devoted to the narratives analysis and the third to the grammatical tasks. This section closes with a summary of discoveries and a comparison with previous results. The conclusion addresses the initial research questions in the light of both theory and practice. It shows that the PAH fails to account for the complex phenomenon of past tense development in the acquisitional settings under study, as it adopts a local (the verb phrase) and linear (steady progression towards native usage) approach. It is thus suggested that past tense acquisition rather follows a pendular development as learners reformulate their learning hypotheses and become increasingly able to shift from local to global cues and so to integrate the influence of cotext and context in their tense choice.

From transferred technology to technological capability:a framework for examining the acquisition of technological capability by Chinese enterprises

This paper conceptualises the enhancement of technological capability by firms, following international technology transfer, as an evolutionary process. During this process, the existing technological, managerial and other complementary resources may require restructuring. Since China is in transition from central planning to market orientation, the organisational and managerial practices of Chinese firms are different from those of international technology suppliers. Resourcebased and evolutionary theories of the firm, which provide insights into the evolution of structures, mechanisms, skills, experiences and technical know-how, have been applied to outline the processes of acquiring technological capability. Selected case studies have been used to illustrate the issues and the framework provides guide for further empirical work.

An investigation into the effects of processing instruction on the acquisition of English relative clauses by Syrian learners

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of Processing Instruction (VanPatten, 1996, 2007), as an input-based model for teaching second language grammar, on Syrian learners’ processing abilities. The present research investigated the effects of Processing Instruction on the acquisition of English relative clauses by Syrian learners in the form of a quasi-experimental design. Three separate groups were involved in the research (Processing Instruction, Traditional Instruction and a Control Group). For assessment, a pre-test, a direct post-test and a delayed post-test were used as main tools for eliciting data. A questionnaire was also distributed to participants in the Processing Instruction group to give them the opportunity to give feedback in relation to the treatment they received in comparison with the Traditional Instruction they are used to. Four hypotheses were formulated on the possible effectivity of Processing Instruction on Syrian learners’ linguistic system. It was hypothesised that Processing Instruction would improve learners’ processing abilities leading to an improvement in learners’ linguistic system. This was expected to lead to a better performance when it comes to the comprehension and production of English relative clauses. The main source of data was analysed statistically using the ANOVA test. Cohen’s d calculations were also used to support the ANOVA test. Cohen’s d showed the magnitude of effects of the three treatments. Results of the analysis showed that both Processing Instruction and Traditional Instruction groups had improved after treatment. However, the Processing Instruction Group significantly outperformed the other two groups in the comprehension of relative clauses. The analysis concluded that Processing Instruction is a useful tool for instructing relative clauses to Syrian learners. This was enhanced by participants’ responses to the questionnaire as they were in favour of Processing Instruction, rather than Traditional Instruction. This research has theoretical and pedagogical implications. Theoretically, the study showed support for the Input hypothesis. That is, it was shown that Processing Instruction had a positive effect on input processing as it affected learners’ linguistic system. This was reflected in learners’ performance where learners were able to produce a structure which they had not been asked to produce. Pedagogically, the present research showed that Processing Instruction is a useful tool for teaching English grammar in the context where the experiment was carried out, as it had a large effect on learners’ performance.

Take up of property-level flood protection:an exploratory study in Worcester

Significant numbers of homes within the UK are at risk of flooding. Although community level flood protection schemes are the first line of defence for mitigating flood risk, not all properties are protectable. Property-Level Flood Protection (PLFP) provides those unprotected homeowners with an approach for protecting their homes from flooding. This study sought to establish why property-level flood protection is needed and secondly assess the extent of take up using Worcester as the study area. An exploratory questionnaire survey was conducted to achieve these objectives. After consultation of available literature it was established that the introduction of PLFP protection provided numerous benefits including limiting the health & psychological effects flooding poses, the direct financial benefits and also the possible influence on gaining flood insurance. Despite the benefits and the recognition given to PLFP by the government it was found that the overall take up of the measures was low, findings which were further backed up by data collected in the study area of Worcester with only 23% of the sample having introduced PLFP measures. Reasoning for the low take up numbers typically included; unawareness of the measures, low risk of flood event, installation costs and inability to introduce due to tenancy. Age was noted as a significant impacting factor in the study area with none of the respondents under 25 suggesting they had “a good amount of knowledge of PLFP measures” even when they claimed their properties to be at risk of flooding. Guidance and support is especially recommended to those who are unable to manage their own flood risk for e.g. social housing/rental tenants.

Certainty of subject matter in the law of trusts

This piece argued that the accepted orthodoxy concerning the requirement that each individual piece of property is individually segregated for a valid trust to exist is unsupported by the case law, and that there is nothing wrong in principle or theory with a trust that exists for unsegregated property.