Lawyers in a Divided Society: Legal Culture and Legal Services in Northern Ireland",

Also published as Ch. 9 in Tomorrow's Lawyers (ed. P. Thomas) Oxford: Blackwell 1992. (With M. Fox.)

"A Note of Caution about the Role of Law in Controlling the Administration in the United Kingdom"

"A Note of Caution about the Role of Law in Controlling the Administration in the United Kingdom"

Europe’s Information Society project and Digital Inclusion: universal service obligations or social solidarity?

The importance of digital inclusion to Europe is obvious: as we move towards an ever more internet-communicating society the lack of access to basic digital infrastructures for a significant segment of the population is both problematic for those individuals without access and also problematic for those providing services which should be efficient and fully utilised. The EU’s ‘Information Society’ project has been the central plank of the European attempt to build a European digital marketplace, a concept which necessitates digital inclusion of the population at large. It is a project which prefers universal service obligations to achieve inclusion. If that is to be the preferred solution I suggest that we must consider exclusion from the banking system, given that the Information Society is at root an economic community.

However, universal service obligations are not the only method whereby digital inclusion can be encouraged and I posit we may need to reconsider the role of the state as supplier of services through the concept of ‘social solidarity’.

Dry Excess Electrons in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids

In this article, we describe general trends to be expected at short times when an excess electron is generated or injected in different room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). Perhaps surprisingly, the excess electron does not localize systematically on the positively charged cations. Rather, the excess charge localization pattern is determined by the cation and anion HOMO/LUMO gaps and, more importantly, by their relative LUMO alignments. As revealed by experiments, the short-time (ps/ns) transient UV spectrum of excess electrons in RTILs is often characterized by two bands, a broad band at low energies (above 1000 nm) and another weaker band at higher energies (around 400 nm). Our calculations show that the dry or presolvated electron spectrum (fs) also has two similar features. The broad band at low energies is due to transitions between electronic states with similar character on ions of the same class but in different locations of the liquid. The lower-intensity band at higher energies is due to transitions in which the electron is promoted to electronic states of different character, in some cases on counterions. Depending on the chemical nature of the RTIL, and especially on the anions, excess electrons can localize on cations or anions. Our findings hint at possible design strategies for controlling electron localization, where electron transfer or transport across species can be facilitated or blocked depending on the alignment of the electronic levels of the individual species.

Electrical methods of controlling bacterial adhesion and biofilm on device surfaces.

This review will summarize the significant body of research within the field of electrical methods of controlling the growth of microorganisms. We examine the progress from early work using current to kill bacteria in static fluids to more realistic treatment scenarios such as flow-through systems designed to imitate the human urinary tract. Additionally, the electrical enhancement of biocide and antibiotic efficacy will be examined alongside recent innovations including the biological applications of acoustic energy systems to prevent bacterial surface adherence. Particular attention will be paid to the electrical engineering aspects of previous work, such as electrode composition, quantitative electrical parameters and the conductive medium used. Scrutiny of published systems from an electrical engineering perspective will help to facilitate improved understanding of the methods, devices and mechanisms that have been effective in controlling bacteria, as well as providing insights and strategies to improve the performance of such systems and develop the next generation of antimicrobial bioelectric materials.

Environmental Regulation in a Transitional Society

12,430 words Submitted for peer review