When things go wrong, it is always good to find someone to blame. As the credit crisis started to unfold in 2007, credit rating agencies (“CRAs”) emerged as the villain – or scapegoat, one might say – for commentators and regulators alike. To sum up, observers accused CRAs of doing a...

Under the Restatement (Third) of Trusts, the prudent investor rule states that “The trustee is under a duty to the beneficiaries to invest and manage the funds of the trust as a prudent investor would, in light of the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the...

In 2005, Professor Phillipa Weeks published an insightful chapter entitled ‘Employment Law – A Test of Coherence Between Statute and Common Law' in S Corcoran and S Bottomley (eds) Interpreting Statutes. That chapter examined the emergence, development and ultimate emasculation of an implied...

The genealogy of risk is closely linked with the development of insurance, which in turn is linked to changes in the forms of political liberalism. This paper examines shifts in this triangular relationship from the early 19th century to the present, and argues that risk has changed its forms...

The ‘gig economy', comprised of app-enabled enterprises that profit from connecting consumers with service providers through smart communications technology, is growing exponentially. For the workers who provide the services, however, this kind of labour market engagement looks very much like...

In a number of high-income countries over the past few decades there has been a large growth in income inequality and at the same time a shift in the burden of taxation from the top to the middle of the income distribution. This paper applies the theory of optimal piecewise linear taxation to...

It was Robert Nozick who, distinguishing the classical Liberal ‘night-watchman state' which protected citizens against violence and enforced contracts on their behalf, conjured instead the ‘ultraminimal state' in which the task of the state is confined to the monopolisation of violence...

The rule of law remains a hallowed principle even in the unpromising environment of counterterrorism, but failures to live up to rule of law rhetoric must be highlighted. As a result, one might question whether counter terrorism can realistically be conducted wholly in accordance with the rule...

For a number of years there has been nothing at all unusual about the United Kingdom finding itself in a state of constitutional upheaval; indeed, for some time, this has been the UK constitution’s default setting. This has sometimes been as a result of long-anticipated and carefully planned...