So many impossibly powerful foes have opposed the wolves and their allies over the years. Evil witches, warlocks, fae, elves, and alphas, just to name a few. And all have found the pack too strong to break. But the foe hellbent on taking down the pack now—the vampire king, Cain—has a plan that might finally tip the balance of power away from the wolves. In the middle of the desert, Cain works desperately to find a way to mix the blood of wolves and vampires. While most find the idea reprehensible, Cain believes it is the key to his victory. He imagines an army of unstoppable hybrids with the combined power of the vampires and the Canis lupus. Such a force would be unstoppable, even for the powerful of alpha of alphas, Fane Lupei. And Cain just might have found the secret ingredient necessary to bring his plans to fruition.
Neoliberalism has been the reigning ideology of our era. For the past four decades, almost every real-world event of any consequence has been traced to the supposedly omnipresent influence of neoliberalism. Instead, this book argues that states across the world have actually grown in scope and reach. The authors in this volume contest the view that the past three decades have been marked by the diminution of the state in the face of neoliberalism. They argue instead that we are witnessing a new phase of state formation, which revolves around hybrid rule—that is, a more expansive form of state formation that works through privatization and seeks pacification and depoliticization as instrumental to enhancing state power. Contributors argue that that the process of hybridization, and hybrid rule point towards a convergence on a more authoritarian capitalist regime type, possibly, but not necessarily, more closely aligned with the Beijing model—one toward which even the United States, with its penchant for surveillance and discipline, appears to be moving. This volume will shed new light on evolving public-private relations, and the changing nature of power and political authority in the 21st century and will be of interest to students and scholars of IPE, international relations and political theory.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems, RR 2007, held in Innsbruck, Austria. It address all current topics in Web reasoning and rule systems, including acquisition of rules and ontologies by knowledge extraction, design and analysis of reasoning languages, reasoning with constraints, rule languages and systems, semantic Web services modeling and applications.
Hybrid Financial Instruments, Double Non-taxation and Linking Rules Félix Daniel Martínez Laguna Hybrid financial instruments (HFIs) are widespread ordinary financial instruments that combine debt and equity features in their terms and design and may lead to double non-taxation across borders. This important book provides a deeply informed and critical analysis and guide to the “linking rules” developed to combat double non-taxation stemming from HFIs within the framework of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the anti-avoidance initiatives of the European Union (EU). These complex rules have now become essential in international taxation. The book deals incisively with crucial theoretical and practical issues as the following: Economic and legal reasons for financing business activity through debt instruments, equity instruments and/or HFIs. Qualification of financial instruments from different perspectives such as economics, corporate finance, corporate law, financial accounting law, regulatory law and tax law and their interrelation. The concept of double non-taxation as a mere outcome of parallel exercises of sovereignty by different states and the role it plays within the international debate. The concepts of tax planning, tax avoidance and the misleading concept of aggressive tax planning within a tax competition international scenario and their relation with HFIs. Comprehensive policy, legal and technical detail and explanation of the linking rules proposed by the OECD (i.e., BEPS Project Action 2) and the EU (e.g., Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive). The (in)compatibility of linking rules with existing tax treaty rules and EU primary law. The author refers throughout to relevant model convention provisions, EU case law and a vast number of references of official documentation and literature. With its detailed attention to the concept and legal nature of HFIs and double non-taxation, the critical and comprehensive analysis of the linking rules developed by the OECD and the EU, this provocative book allows to reconsider the legality of these linking rules and will quickly become a much-used problem-solving resource for policymakers, tax practitioners, tax authorities and tax academics. This book allows to rethink whether linking rules relate to a solution or create actual legal issues.
Shines a light on the ways in which civil procedure may privilege—or silence—voices in our justice system In today’s increasingly hostile political and cultural climate, law schools throughout the country are urgently seeking effective tools to address embedded inequality in the United States legal system. A Guide to Civil Procedure aims to serve as one such tool by centering questions of systemic injustice in the teaching, learning, and practice of civil procedure. Featuring an outstanding group of diverse scholars, the contributors illustrate how law school curriculums often ignore issues such as race, gender, disability, class, immigration status, and sexual orientation. Too often, students view the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, immigration/citizenship controversy, or LGBTQ+ issues as mere footnotes to their legal education, often leading to the marginalization of many students and the production of graduates that do not view issues of systemic injustice as central to their profession. A Guide to Civil Procedure reveals how procedure is, and always has been, a central pressure point in the struggle to eradicate structural inequality and oppression through the courts. This book will give students and scholars alike a more complex view of their roles as attorneys, sharpen their litigation skills, and provide a stronger sense of community and purpose in the law school classroom.
The book builds on hand-coded data on nearly 300 dimensions on the substance of property law in 156 jurisdictions globally and applies plain-language economic analysis to real-world legal schemes. Cutting-edge machine learning algorithms and statistical analysis are applied. Detailed citations to laws in each jurisdiction are useful to lawyers.
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Artificial Evolution, EA 2005, held in Lille, France, in October 2005. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 78 submissions. The papers cover all aspects of artificial evolution: genetic programming, machine learning, combinatorial optimization, co-evolution, self-assembling, artificial life and bioinformatics.
The book presents papers from leading proponents of realist, relativist, and constructivist positions in epistemology and the philosophy of language and ethics.
