The City as Laboratory and the Urban-Rural Divide: the Revival of Private Property and its Limits in Post-Mao China

This paper focuses on the revival of private property and its limits in urban China. It explores the emergence of urban property markets; urban property-holding in relation to the complexity of urban governance; “minor property rights apartments” that form a de facto real estate market and cross over the urban-rural divide; the “grey areas” of blurring legal and administrative boundaries in modern China; and recent changes to the rural land system and the rural-urban divide. The conclusion flags the theme of the city as laboratory with regard to the blurring legal and governmental urban-rural distinction.

Possession Taken by Theft and the Original Acquisition of Personal Property Rights

This paper queries the soundness of the view that wrongful possession (eg a thief’s possession of goods he has stolen) should be protected by the standard actions for interference with goods. It uses close historical analysis of the development of the relevant concepts through the cases to argue that this is not a proposition that is compelled on the authorities, nor one demanded as a matter of principle. It then abstracts to consider the implications of this argument at a theoretical level, exposing great need for development in the common law’s basic principles of possessory protection. It argues innovatively that the objects of the law might be better served by the creation of a more limited form of possessory protection, achieved through the possessor’s acquisition of a personal right, and correlatively that the values that underpin and justify our basic rules of possessory protection entail a more nuanced response to matters of property acquisition.

Effects of process parameters upon the shape memory and pseudo-elastic behaviors of laser-welded NiTi thin foil

This article discusses the effects of laser welding parameters such as power, welding speed, and focus position on the weld bead profile, microstructure, pseudo-elasticity (PE), and shape memory effect (SME) of NiTi foil with thickness of 250 um using 100W CW fiber laser. The parameter settings to produce the NiTi welds for analysis in this article were chosen from a fractional factorial design to ensure the welds produced were free of any apparent defect. The welds obtained were mainly of cellular dendrites with grain sizes ranging from 2.5 to 4.8 um at the weld centerline. A small amount of Ni3Ti was found in the welds. The onset of transformation temperatures (As and Ms) of the NiTi welds shifted to the negative side as compared to the as-received NiTi alloy. Ultimate tensile stress of the NiTi welds was comparable to the as received NiTi alloy, but a little reduction in the pseudo-elastic property was noted. Full penetration welds with desirable weld bead profiles and mechanical properties were successfully obtained in this study.

The Revival of Private Property and Its Limits in Post-Mao China

This monograph examines the nature and significance of the re-emergence of private property in rapidly changing post-Mao China.

In examining this issue, the study explores a key dichotomy in Chinese law, that is, ‘public versus private’, and examines the manner in which the Chinese define ownership. The study stresses the importance of lack of clarity in the boundaries between the public and the private in property rights.

While there is a limited move towards the recognition of private property in real estate in contemporary China, this analysis also shows that ownership in the law, and ownership as understood and practised socially, often diverge significantly.

From the Qing dynasty reforms of the late nineteenth century onwards, ‘modernist’ law and entrenched social practice have often opposed each other. In contrast to the official, and indeed legal, support for unitary and exclusive property rights, the reality of the property regime has been a fragmentation of property rights. ‘Modern’ conceptions and theories of property rights emerged in the context of nation-building from the late Qing onwards, and unitary and exclusive property rights were considered as ‘badges’ of modernity.

These conceptions and theories served (and still serve) the purposes of control and governance but were, and still are, often resisted in social practice and popular thinking, leading to alienation and conflict. As a result, analysis of the nature and the social and political implications of re-emerging private property rights provides important insights for our understanding of the changing nature of modern China.

Landmark Cases in Property Law

This book explores the development of basic principles of property law in leading cases. Each paper considers a case on land, personal property or intangibles, discussing what that case contributes to the dominant themes of property jurisprudence - how are property rights acquired? What is the content of property rights? What are the limits or boundaries of property? How are property rights extinguished? Individually and collectively, the papers identify a number of important themes for the doctrinal development of property institutions and their broader justification. These themes include: the obscure and incremental development of seemingly foundational principles, the role of instrumentalism in property reasoning, the influence of the law of tort on the scope of property doctrines, and the impact of Roman legal reasoning on the common law of property. One or more of these themes (and others) is revealed through careful case analysis in each paper and they are collected and critically explored in the editors' introduction. This makes for a coherent and provocative collection.

Characterization of physio-chemical processes and hydration kinetics in concretes containing supplementary cementitious materials using electrical property measurements

The current study monitors both the short- and long-term hydration characteristics of concrete using discretized conductivity measurements from initial gauging, through setting and hardening, the latter comprising both the curing and post-curing periods. In particular, attention is directed to the near-surface concrete as it is this zone which protects the steel from the external environment and has a major influence on durability, performance and service-life. A wide range of concrete mixes is studied comprising both plain Portland cement concretes and concretes containing fly-ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag. The parameter normalised conductivity was used to identify four distinct stages in the hydration process and highlight the influence of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) on hydration and hydration kinetics. A relationship has been presented to account for the temporal decrease in conductivity, post 10-days hydration. The testing procedure and methodology presented lend itself to in-situ monitoring of reinforced concrete structures. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Graphs to Visualise and Detect Anomalies in Access Control System Transactions

Physical Access Control Systems are commonly used to secure doors in buildings such as airports, hospitals, government buildings and offices. These systems are designed primarily to provide an authentication mechanism, but they also log each door access as a transaction in a database. Unsupervised learning techniques can be used to detect inconsistencies or anomalies in the mobility data, such as a cloned or forged Access Badge, or unusual behaviour by staff members. In this paper, we present an overview of our method of inferring directed graphs to represent a physical building network and the flows of mobility within it. We demonstrate how the graphs can be used for Visual Data Exploration, and outline how to apply algorithms based on Information Theory to the graph data in order to detect inconsistent or abnormal behaviour.

Atomistic investigation on the structure-property relationship during thermal spray nanoparticle impact

During thermal spraying, hot particles impact on a colder substrate. This interaction of crystalline copper nanoparticles and copper substrate is modelled, using MD simulation. The quantitative results of the impacts at different velocities and temperatures are evaluated using a newly defined flattening aspect ratio. This ratio between the maximum diameter after the impact and the height of the splat increases with increasing Reynolds numbers until a critical value is reached. At higher Reynolds numbers the flattening aspect ratio decreases again, as the kinetic energy of the particle leads to increasing substrate temperature and, therefore, decreases the substrate resistance. Thus, the particle penetrates into the substrate and deforms less.

Intellectual Property and the EU’s Deep Trade Agenda

The EU is considered to be one of the main proponents of what has been called the deep trade agenda—that is, the push for further trade liberalization with an emphasis on the removal of domestic non-tariff regulatory measures affecting trade, as opposed to the traditional focus on the removal of trade barriers at borders. As negotiations on the Doha Development Round have stalled, the EU has attempted to achieve these aims by entering into comprehensive free trade agreements (FTAs) that are not only limited exclusively to tariffs but also extend to non-tariff barriers, including services, intellectual property rights (IPRs), competition, and investment. These FTAs place great emphasis on regulatory convergence as a means to secure greater market openings. The paper examines the EU's current external trade policy in the area of IP, particularly its attempts to promote its own regulatory model for the protection of IP rights through trade agreements. By looking at the IP enforcement provisions of such agreements, the article also examines how the divisive issues that are currently hindering the progress of negotiations at WTO level, including the demands from developing countries to maintain a degree of autonomy in the area of IP regulation as well as the need to balance IP protection with human rights protection, are being dealt with in recent EU FTAs.

The German Federal Constitutional Court's Ruling on Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) - Another Step Towards National Closure?

The German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) ruling of 14 January 2014 deserves a thorough evaluation on several accounts: It is the first ever reference by the FCC to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it represents a continuation of FCC case law aimed at restricting the impact of European Union law as interpreted by the Court of Justices of the European Union (CJEU) on German law as well as questioning Germany’s participation in an ever closer European Union, and it has the potential to dictate the future course of the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

This case note discusses three aspects of this decision. First, it considers the aims of challenging the youngest measures to contain the euro currency crisis before the FCC, focusing on the question in how far the claims are based on national closure as opposed to an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe. Secondly it analyzes in how far the aims the claims pursue are reflected in the FCC’s response. Thirdly, it considers the substantive relevance of this reference, highlighting the surprisingly vague consequences the FCC envisages should the CJEU not re-interpret the OMT decision as the FCC suggests, and illuminating the strategic aims of the reference without deference. In conclusion, it sketches the remaining scope for the EU to engage in or at least facilitate transnational solidarity.