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  Fatal love : Spousal Killers, Law, and Punishment in the Late Colonial Spanish Atlantic

  Victor M. Uribe-Uran

  For historians, spousal murders are significant for what they reveal about social and family history, in particular the hidden history of day-to-day gender relations, conflicts, crimes, and punishments. Fatal Love examines this phenomenon in the late colonial Spanish Atlantic, focusing on incidents occurring in New Spain (colonial Mexico), New Granada (colonial Colombia), and Spain from the 1740s to the 1820s. In the more than 200 cases consulted, it considers not only the social features of the murders, but also the legal discourses and judicial practices guiding the historical treatment of spousal murders, helping us understand the historical intersection of domestic violence, private and state/church patriarchy, and the law.

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  The Uncertain Hope of Body Cameras

  Howard Wasserman

  Police body cameras offer numerous benefits and are likely a net positive, especially with members of the public increasingly concerned about police misconduct and excessive force and increasingly armed with their own recording technology. But the public debate about body cameras must reflect the nuance and complexity of camera policy, grounded in the limitations of video evidence and the hard questions of implementation. The current discussion-in which cameras are erroneously touted as magic solutions that resolve all problems-highlights the failure to recognize that complexity. And it should prompt government officials and all other stakeholders in the public debate to take a more cautious, realistic, and, hopefully, more effective approach to body cameras and to video evidence. If there is a common lesson from Ferguson, that should be it.

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  The Bluebook Uncovered : A Practical Guide to Mastering Legal Citation : (Twentieth Edition of the Bluebook)

  Dionne E. Anthon

  "This book is designed to help first-year law students master the fundamental Bluebook citation rules that will be needed in legal research and writing courses (LRW) and in legal practice. It can also act as a Bluebook refresher for other law students, clerks, attorneys, judges, and paralegals"--P. xi.

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  Governance Feminism’s Imperial Misadventure: Progress International Law, and the Security of Afghan Women

  Cyra Akila Choudhury

  Contesting Feminisms explores how Asian Muslim women make decisions on appropriating Islam and Islamic lifestyles through their own participation in the faith. The contributors highlight the fact that secularism has provided the space for some women to reclaim their religious identity and their own feminisms. Through compelling case studies and theoretical discussions, this volume challenges mainstream Western and national feminisms that presume homogeneity of Muslim women’s lives to provide a deeper understanding of the multiple realities of feminism in Muslim communities.

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  El Nuevo Latinoamericanismo Jurídico

  Jorge L. Esquirol

  El análisis de la economía política del conocimiento jurídico pone en evidencia que el conocimiento jurídico es una forma de poder que tiene dinámicas propias e importantes implicaciones prácticas. El conjunto de normas y actividades que componen esta economía política determina cuestiones como cuáles son los objetos de estudio que se consideran valiosos en las facultades de derecho; cuáles son los contextos de producción de conocimiento jurídico que se imaginan ricos o pobres; cuál es la dirección que toma el intercambio de productos jurídicos en un mundo globalizado, y cómo se describen los aportes que hacen los países del Norte y del Sur global a las tradiciones dominantes.

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  Think Again : Contrarian Reflections on Life, Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, and Education

  Stanley E. Fish

  From 1995 to 2013, Stanley Fish's provocative New York Times columns consistently generated passionate discussion and debate. In Think Again, he has assembled almost one hundred of his best columns into a thematically arranged collection with a substantial new introduction that explains his intention in writing these pieces and offers an analysis of why they provoked so much reaction. Some readers reported being frustrated when they couldn't figure out where Fish, one of America's most influential thinkers, stood on the controversies he addressed in the essays--from atheism and affirmative action to plagiarism and postmodernism. But, as Fish says, that is the point. Opinions are cheap; you can get them anywhere. Instead of offering just another set of them, Fish analyzes and dissects the arguments put forth by different sides--in debates over free speech, identity politics, the gun lobby, and other hot-button topics--in order to explain how their arguments work or don't work. In short, these are essays that teach you not what to think but how to think more clearly. Brief and accessible yet challenging, these essays provide all the hard-edged intellectual, cultural, and political analysis one expects from Fish. At the same time, the collection includes a number of revealing and even poignant autobiographical essays in which, as Fish says, "readers will learn about my anxieties, my aspirations, my eccentricities, my foibles, my father, and my obsessions--Frank Sinatra, Ted Williams, basketball, and Jews." Reflecting the wide-ranging interests of one of today's leading critics, this is Fish's broadest and most engaging book to date.

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  Central Banks, Systemic Lending, and Collateral Markets

  Jose M. Gabilondo

  This chapter examines the evolving role that central banks play in funding private banks and, increasingly, a wider range of nonbank financial intermediaries. During periods of financial stability, the central bank may provide last resort funding to an individual bank suffering a temporary liquidity shortage due to factors specific to that bank. During a financial crisis in which it is not individual banks but, rather, a sector of the funding market that becomes illiquid, the central bank will also engage in systemic lending to help stabilize an entire sector of the financial market. Traditionally, access to the central bank’s last resort liquidity was available only to depository banks with a preexisting relationship to the central bank and with collateral that met strict guidelines. This chapter analyzes how the traditional approach to central bank funding has changed. The first part of this chapter situates last resort lending by the central bank in the context of the recent emergence of the interbank funding channel, a liquidity clearinghouse more inclusive of collateral and counterparties than the traditional money market. The second part focuses on how central banks changed their traditional approach to providing last resort lending after the 2007 liquidity break. Previous approaches had emphasized efforts to ensure that solvent banks remained liquid. This time, though, central banks served a wider range of financial intermediaries and became willing to accept as collateral a wider range of private assets, including structured finance instruments.

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  La Manipulación del Derecho a Través de la Agenda Social : el Caso Dos Misiones Bolivarianas

  Manuel A. Gomez

  La idea del derecho como instrumento no es nueva. Por mas de un siglo el derecho ha sido visto como un medio para alcanzar un fin en vez de un valor en si mismo (Gilmore, 1961) Los objetivos perseguidos por el derecho generalmente se relacionan con la consecución de propósitos ejemplares (Tamanaha, 2007) tales como la justicia (Pound, 1913), el cambio social (Ball et al, 1962) o el desarrollo económico (Garcia-Bolivar, 2008). Las formas concretas como el derecho puede ser utilizado para lograr estos objetivos son de variada índole. En terminos generales, sin embargo, los instrumentos jurídicos suelen oscilar entre dos extremos. De una parte, la ley aparece como un mecanismo que limita la conducta oficial, como una forma de facilitar la iniciativa privada y la libertad. Esto es, el derecho es concebido como una herramienta facilitadora. En el otro extremo, el derecho es visto como un instrumento de largo alcance cuya función primordial es extender la acción del estado a todos los ámbitos de la vida social, regulando la conducta y minimizando la iniciativa privada.

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  Cultura Jurídica y Política en Venezuela Revolucionaria (1999-2013)

  Manuel A. Gómez and Rogelio Pérez Perdomo

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  Estudio Introductorio: Cultura Jurídica y Política en Tiempos de Chavez

  Manuel A. Gomez and Rogelio Perez-Perdomo

  Generalmente se admite que Venezuela inició en 1999 un nuevo período de su historia política que ha implicado cambios importantes en su sistema político, en la economía, el derecho y, en general, en la sociedad. El gobierno mismo dice que estamos viviendo una revolución socialista y que se han producido cambios capaces de producir una sociedad y un hombre nuevos. Se puede discutir que sea una revolución socialista, o aún una revolución, se podría discutir también que sea bolivariana, como inicialmente fue bautizada, pero estos no son temas que nos preocuparán en esta obra. Lo que creemos que esta fuera de duda es que ha implicado importantes cambios en la sociedad, la economía, la política y el derecho, y nos interesa especialmente detectar cuáles de esos cambios son culturales en el sentido de que no se quedan en los meros instrumentos jurídicos aprobados o las políticas públicas anunciadas, sino que afecten las valoraciones, creencias y actitudes de la población o de ciertos sectores de ella.

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  The Law and Politics of the Charles Taylor Case

  Charles C. Jalloh

  This cahpter discusses a rare successful prosecution of a head of state by a modern international criminal court. The case involved former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Taylor, who was charged and tried by the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (“SCSL”), was convicted in April 2013 for planning and aiding and abetting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious international humanitarian law violations. He was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment. The SCSL Appeals Chamber upheld the historic conviction and sentence in September 2013. Taylor is currently serving his sentence in Great Britain. This article, from an insider who worked as an interim court-appointed defense attorney during the opening of the trial in The Hague in June 2007, is the first to comprehensively evaluate this significant international case since it concluded. I expose the numerous controversies that dogged the trial of Liberia’s former president — from the questions that arose about how best to sequence peace for Liberia and justice for Sierra Leone following the prosecution’s initial unveiling of his judicially sealed indictment through to concerns about whether he should be tried in the heart of Europe, as opposed to Africa, to the completion of appeals. I conclude that the trial of former President Taylor is significant for the SCSL because he was the most powerful suspect to be indicted by the court. Although it may be too early to draw definitive conclusions, a key lesson that we can derive for international criminal justice is that the indictment of a sitting president for international crimes may sometimes help loosen his grip on power, thereby enabling his subsequent prosecution.

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  The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Advancing International Criminal Justice

  Charles C. Jalloh

  This chapter examines the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in advancing international criminal justice. I argue that NGOs have had considerable impact by contributing, among other things, to the global struggle against impunity through advocacy for the creation of more robust institutional mechanisms to prosecute those who perpetrate such crimes. This ranges from supporting the processes that led to the creation of several ad hoc international tribunals for Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, all the way through to the establishment of an independent permanent international penal court based in The Hague. The crux of my claim is that a historically sensitive approach to evaluating the role of NGOs in international governance shows that these entities are not only willing, but also capable of enhancing the protection of human rights and international criminal justice especially but not exclusively in less developed regions of the world.

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  International Criminal Justice Processes in Rwanda and Sierra Leone: Lessons for Liberia

  Charles C. Jalloh and Andrew Morgan

  This article seeks to evaluate the role and contributions of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) to the task of dispensing justice to those most responsible for the commission of international crimes during the Rwandan and Sierra Leonean conflicts. The authors contrast those two situations to that of Liberia, where a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in lieu of criminal accountability. We argue that part of the unfair criticism of international criminal law is driven by the unrealistic expectation that ad hoc criminal courts such as the ICTR and the SCSL cannot only mete out credible justice, but also help to restore peace and promote national reconciliation in deeply divided post conflict societies. We submit that, even in best case scenarios, such courts can only serve justice to individual perpetrators of horrific crimes in fair trials that complies with their statutes and international human rights law. We therefore call for a return to their primary intended roles as criminal courts when evaluating their legacies. Toward that end, we test the work of the ICTR and the SCSL against eight factors relevant to assessing their achievements and limitations as criminal courts. We show that, although ours is not an empirical study, it appears that those special tribunals made important contributions to the process of giving justice to victims of atrocity crimes in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

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  Transfer of Cases Under the Jurisprudence of the ICTR and Lessons Learned for the ICC

  Alhagi Marong and Charles C. Jalloh

  In this chapter, we examine the Rule 11bis jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Under that caselaw, which spurred significant legal reforms in Rwanda, the judges fleshed out the requirements that national criminal justice systems must meet in order to prosecute serious international crimes where they enjoy concurrent jurisdiction with an international tribunal that enjoyed primacy. Though rooted in fundamentally different assumptions, we suggest that there is convergence between the primacy principle of the ad-hoc tribunals, under which national jurisdictions may at any stage of their criminal procedures be formally requested to defer to the competence of the international court, and the principle of complementarity at the International Criminal Court ("ICC") which essentially reverses the top down relational model in favour of a bottom up approach. With the shift to complementarity, which governs at the permanent ICC, the international court is not entitled to step in to a domestic jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute the core atrocity crimes unless the State is inactive, unwilling and or unable to prosecute. We argue that a creative approach to the interpretation and application of the complementarity principle offers the ICC an opportunity to learn from the ICTR's rich Rule 11 bis experience. By taking a nuanced approach that articulates the minimum standards that domestic jurisdictions of situation countries must fulfill for cases to be rendered inadmissible at the permanent court in The Hague, the ICC could help "bring up" the standards in domestic courts and to also potentially stimulate deep legal reforms at the national level.

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  Testamentary Proceedings in Spanish East Florida, 1783-1821

  Matthew C. Mirow

  The East Florida Papers in the Library of Congress reveal a great deal about law, legal institutions, legal practice, and legality in colonial Florida during the second Spanish period from 1783 to 1821. This contribution provides an initial study of the 372 testamentary proceedings related to 168 decedents recorded in these papers. It describes these cases and discusses the dossier of one case to illustrate the administrative and legal work done by Spanish officials to distribute a decedent's property. Proceedings include individual claims for debts against estates; sets of documents related to the administration of estates such as wills, inventories, birth records, and marriage records; and a variety of petitions dealing with administration and the distribution of property. The materials provide a window into will making, family life and structure, commerce, women, and accidental and suspicious deaths. Numerous petitions sought the disposition, transfer, and manumission of slaves. The contribution concludes with a description and analysis of the documents related to the estate of Pedro Dimarache, a Corsican carpenter who died testate in St. Augustine in 1792.

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  The Cadiz Constitution in Cuba and Florida

  Matthew C. Mirow

  This chapter seeks to provide new insights into the promulgation and effect of the Constitution of Cádiz in Cuba and Florida. While Havana and St. Augustine were both part of Spain’s expansive Caribbean colonies, St. Augustine was militarily, politically, and economically dependent on Cuba during the early nineteenth century. The two locales were socially quite different: Havana was wealthy, closely tied to the peninsula, and replicated the common aspects of Spanish colonial society. By the early decades of the nineteenth century, St. Augustine outside its fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, was poor, sparsely populated, and socially mixed. This lack of resources and personnel led St. Augustine to modify or to improvise when complying with the Constitution. Despite these accommodations, St. Augustine was quite careful to carry out the legal requirements of the Constitution and to establish and to use the required constitutional institutions and procedures. The Floridanos of St. Augustine felt themselves to be as profoundly Spanish as their Cuban counterparts to the south who were able to comply more exactly with the dictates of the Constitution and its procedures. Both cities and regions appear to have appropriated the Constitution deeply into their political structures. They both promulgated the Constitution several times and established constitutional institutions in light of the guiding provisions. Only recently have scholars recognized the extent of the second promulgation of the Constitution of Cádiz in St. Augustine in 1820 and of the third promulgation of the Constitution in Santiago de Cuba in 1836. This contribution will examine the effect of the decrees of the Cortes, the promulgation and implementation of the Constitution of Cádiz, and the varied responses to revocation and re-promulgation of the Constitution in both locations.

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  Latin American Constitutions : The Constitution of Cádiz and its Legacy in Spanish America

  M. C. Mirow

  Latin American Constitutions provides a comprehensive historical study of constitutionalism in Latin America from the independence period to the present, focusing on the Constitution of Cádiz, a foundational document in Latin American constitutionalism. Although drafted in Spain, it was applied in many regions of Latin America, and deputies from America formed a significant part of the drafting body. The politicization of constitutionalism reflected in Latin America's first moments proved to be a lasting legacy evident in the legal and constitutional world of the region today: many of Latin America's present challenges to establishing effective constitutionalism can be traced to the debates, ideas, structures, and assumptions of this text. This book explores the region's attempts to create effective constitutional texts and regimes in light of an established practice of linking constitutions to political goals and places important constitutional thinkers and regional constitutions, such as the Mexican Constitution of 1917, into their legal and historical context.

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  Poverty and Financial Regulation: Socioeconomic Human Rights in the Obama Era

  Hannibal Travis

  By adopting sensible economic policies over the past several decades, Germany and Japan have reduced their unemployment rates without sacrificing the health or financial well-being of their populations. Japan's unemployment rate is less than 5%, and Germany's is less than 7.5%, while the U.S. rate [at the time of this writing-2012] is over 9%. Their legal tools for achieving these levels include: ( 1) consideration of the interests of workers when executives plan mass layoffs, and direct action to create jobs; (2) creation of a healthy and well-educated workforce; ( 3) preservation of an industrial base that in- . eludes a vibrant manufacturing sector, by shifting many of the costs of supporting workers and their families from employers onto the government; and ( 4) taxation of goods and services imported from abroad, rather than mainly taxing domestic but not foreign producers' incomes.

  Author updated from version originally published in Poverty & Public Policy, 3.3 (2012).

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  Preventing religious genocide: from the war in Biafra to the torture convention

  Hannibal Travis

  This volume explores dynamic conversations through history between individuals and communities over questions about religion and state. Divided into two sections, our authors begin with considerations on the separation of religion and state, as well as Roger Williams’ concept of religious freedom. Authors in the first half consider nuanced debates centered on emerging narratives, with particular emphasis on Native America, Early Americans, and experiences in American immigration after Independence. The first half of the volume examines voices in American History as they publicly engage with notions of secular ideology. Discussions then shift as the volume broadens to world perspectives on religion-state relations. Authors consider critical questions of nation, religious identity and transnational narratives. The intent of this volume is to privilege new narratives about religion-state relations. Decentering discussions away from national narratives allows for emerging voices at the individual and community levels. This volume offers readers new openings through which to understand critical but overlooked interactions between individuals and groups of people with the state over questions about religion.

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  Las Ficciones del Derecho Latinoamericano

  Jorge L. Esquirol

  Reseña escrita por el Profesor Diego Lopez Medina sobre el libro "Las ficciones del derecho latinoamericano" escrito por Jorge L. Esquirol: Como descubrirá el lector a lo largo del ibro, las ficciones que describe el profesor Esquirol son fundamentalmente dos. En primer lugar, que el derecho latinoamericano es concebido como una mera proyección del europeo y, en segundo lugar, que el derecho latinoamericano, no importa cuánto lo intente, continúa siendo un esfuerzo social fallido porque casi nunca cumple adecuadamente con las funciones básicas del derecho que sí se satisfacen en sociedades "bien ordenadas". La primera de estas ficciones proviene de la construcción del derecho comparado clásico en la primera mitad del Siglo XX; la segunda, es propia del derecho y de las políticas públicas comparadas de los últimos 50 años. Ambas mantienen indudable vigencia y el propósito de Esquirol, en estas páginas, es diseccionarlas vivas para ver si logramos comprender su funcionamiento y neutralizar su poder. Para lograr dichos objetivos, este libro resulta ser un aporte esencial dentro de las ciencias jurídicas de la actualidad: la lectura de la obra de Esquirol es imprescindible para entender la posición estructural de Latinoamérica en el Derecho y las políticas comparadas contemporáneas y nos ofrece un camino para repensarnos en el mapa global del derecho y para superar ideas que han dominado por tanto tiempo.

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  Regulation of Derivative Financial Instruments (Swaps, Options and Futures) : Cases and Materials

  Ronald H. Filler and Jerry W. Markham

  As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, derivatives regulation has become a hot topic on Wall Street and is, therefore, of much interest to law firms with financial institutions as clients. An increasing number of classes on this subject are being taught at law schools around the country, but, to date, there has been no casebook on the subject. This casebook explores the regulation of swaps, futures and options by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. It examines the regulatory history of derivative instruments and traces the development of modern market structures while addressing the role of the exchanges, the clearinghouses, and market participants, such as futures commission merchants, swap dealers, and hedge funds that act as commodity pool operators. Structured in a traditional format, this casebook uses cases to teach students important points of law and industry practices needed to understand the role played by derivative instruments in modern finance. The cases are accompanied by commentary from the authors expanding on the points raised in the cases.

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  Versions of academic freedom from professionalism to revolution

  Stanley Fish

  Analyzes various arguments for the value of academic freedom: Is academic freedom a contribution to society's common good? Does it authorize professors to critique the status quo, both inside and outside the university? Does it license and even require the overturning of all received ideas and policies? Is it an engine of revolution?

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  The Rise of Risk-based Regulatory Capital: Liquidity and Solvency Standards for Financial Intermediaries

  Jose Gabilondo

  In a capitalist economy, a private firm seeking finance must negotiate with prospective investors in the open market, which establishes standards about the terms on which debt and equity investment will be forthcoming. In addition to these market-financing standards, the capital structure of some financial firms—particularly broker-dealers, federally insured depository institutions, and insurance companies—must satisfy other requirements imposed by federal or state regulators to promote liquidity and solvency. Regulators take a heightened interest in these firms because they serve a public function in providing credit and other financial services. To grasp what regulatory capital rules try to accomplish, the reader must make a conceptual shift to see these financial firms as highly leveraged borrowers, contending with the demands of their own creditors. From this perspective, the financial stability of these firms becomes a matter of public concern. The first section explains regulatory capital as a corporate finance issue about how capital structure can protect creditors—especially unsecured ones – from unexpected financial losses. The rest of the chapter examines the major features of the regulatory capital regimes that apply to financial intermediaries. The second section starts with depository institutions, i.e., banks. These standards have become the locus of policy debates about risk-based capital. The third section discusses the regulatory capital rules that apply to broker-dealers registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).1 Broker-dealers have long been subject to net capital rules that promote the firm’s liquidity in order to promote orderly self-liquidation. More recently, large broker-dealers have been allowed to adopt a risk-based method—akin to that used in bank capital—for meeting their net capital requirements. The fourth section considers insurance companies, which adhere to risk-based capital standards imposed by state law. The fifth section warns that large, complex financial organizations may find themselves inadvertently subject to bank-style capital rules if deemed “systemically important” by the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”).

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  The Rise of Risk-Based Regulatory Capital : Liquidity and Solvency Standards for Financial Intermediaries

  Jose M. Gabilondo

  This essay traces the risk of risk-based capital standards for regulated financial intermediaries. In a capitalist economy, a private firm seeking finance must negotiate with prospective investors in the open market, which establishes standards about the terms on which debt and equity investment will be forthcoming. In addition to these market financing standards, the capital structure of some financial firms – particularly broker-dealers, federally insured depository institutions, and insurance companies- must also satisfy other requirements imposed by federal or state regulators to promote liquidity and solvency. Regulators take a heightened interest in these firms because they serve a public function in providing credit and other financial services. Part I explains regulatory capital as a corporate finance issue about how capital structure can protect creditors – especially unsecured ones - from unexpected financial losses. The rest of the chapter examines the major features of the regulatory capital regimes that apply to financial intermediaries. Part II starts with depository institutions, i.e., banks. These standards have become the locus of policy debates about risk-based capital. Part III discusses the regulatory capital rules that apply to broker-dealers registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Broker-dealers had long been subject to net capital rules that promote the firm's liquidity so as to promote orderly self-liquidation. More recently, large broker-dealers have been allowed to adopt a risk-based method – akin to that used in bank capital – for meeting their net capital requirements. Part IV considers insurance companies, which adhere to risk-based capital standards imposed by state law. Part V warns that large, complex financial organizations may find themselves inadvertently subject to bank-style capital rules if deemed 'systemically important' by the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

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  Dusty Order: Law Enforcement and Participant Cooperation at Burning Man

  Manuel A. Gomez

  Media depictions of Burning Man focus on the picturesque and eccentric appearance of the weeklong affair. The event is sometimes misportrayed as a lawless environment where participants are encouraged to engage in rowdy behavior. Most carnivalesque events offer an escape from reality and are generally thought to enable unruly conduct. Despite stereotypes, Burning Man is a different beast. Not only is the crime rate in Black Rock City lower than any other city of comparable size, but Burners show a high level of cooperative and law abiding behavior that helps maintain the social order without depending on official means of external social control. Looking at the interplay between the Black Rock Rangers, law enforcement agencies and participants themselves helps clarify how this works.

  "Helping lost souls to find their way home": the Black Rock Rangers.