Unmasking Undue Influence

Boston College international and comparative law review, 2014

Although at first glance French and U.S. inheritance laws appear to be diametrically opposed, this paper provides a deeper analysis. In doing so, it explains that nuances within both systems have made the laws more similar than they initially appear. U.S. inheritance laws, explicitly characterized by freedom of testation, include numerous substantive limits on how a testator may dispose of her property at death. Courts often use doctrines such as mental capacity, undue influence, and fraud to void wills that do not provide for the decedent's children. Also, because over one half of all Americans die intestate, or without a will, children are provided for in this way as well. French inheritance laws, which on their face appear to require everyone to leave at least half of their property to their children, similarly allow for significant deviation from this rule. Some techniques, such as life insurance, tontines, and usufruct interests have been around for a while. Since 2006, however, the law has given French parents even greater ability to control the distribution of their estates. This paper examines French and U.S. inheritance law, with an eye towards these initial differences, and deeper similarities. I am surprised that ancient and modern jurists have not attributed to [the law of descent] a greater influence on human affairs. It is true that these laws belong to civil affairs; but they ought nevertheless to be placed at the head of all political institutions; for, whilst political laws are only the symbol of a nation's condition, they exercise an incredible influence upon its social state. They have, moreover, a sure and uniform manner of operating upon society, affecting, as it were, generations yet unborn.

2013

provided helpful comments and suggestions while I worked on an earlier draft of this Article. Cynthia Schneider, Lauren Shapiro, and Denise Miles supplied me with invaluable insights from their daily work with the terminally ill. Nkosi Bradley, Geneva Johnson, Dawn Velez, Donald S. Walker, Jr., and Dianne Woodbur all provided unequaled research assistance at different points in time. I owe special thanks to James Quentin Walker for overcoming his distaste for the morbid to provide me and this project with unflagging support, and to Alesandro Quentin Walker for embodying the joy of life made so much more precious by a consideration of the reality of death. This Article also benefitted from the resources of the Yale Law School 1998 Visiting Summer Scholar program and the generosity of Yale Law School Associate Dean Barbara J. Safriet Any shortcomings are my own. t JEssicA MrrFoR.D THE AMEIucAN WAY OF DEATH 181-82 (1963).

Social Science Research Network, 2002

for their helpful comments and suggestions throughout this project and Meighan McCrea, Samuel Lieberman, and Gerald Mae for their excellent research assistance. I am grateful to Boston College Law School and the ACTEC Foundation for their support for this project. 1. The beginning of the current mediation movement is often tied to the 1976 Pound Conference "called to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Dean Roscoe Pound's dissertation on the public's dissatisfaction with the American legal system." KIMBERLEE K. KOVACH, MEDIATION PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 21 (1994). The subsequent meteoric rise in mediation has been associated with the 1981 publication of Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury: Many of us had not heard of mediation before the publication of the national bestseller Getting to Yes by Professors Roger Fisher and William Ury in 1981. That book made people aware of an effective methodology for addressing conflict and provided elegantly simple principles of effective negotiation that could be applied to neighborhood disputes as well as international conflicts. Notions such as 'don't bargain over positions; separate the people from the problem; focus on interests, not positions; invent options for mutual gain; insist on using objective criteria; and develop your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA)' are now familiar to most in the legal profession, in business, and in many other fields where dispute resolution or conflict management is central.

U. Pitt. L. Rev., 1998

provided helpful comments and suggestions while I worked on an earlier draft of this Article. Cynthia Schneider, Lauren Shapiro, and Denise Miles supplied me with invaluable insights from their daily work with the terminally ill. Nkosi Bradley, Geneva Johnson, Dawn Velez, Donald S. Walker, Jr., and Dianne Woodbur all provided unequaled research assistance at different points in time. I owe special thanks to James Quentin Walker for overcoming his distaste for the morbid to provide me and this project with unflagging support, and to Alesandro Quentin Walker for embodying the joy of life made so much more precious by a consideration of the reality of death. This Article also benefitted from the resources of the Yale Law School 1998 Visiting Summer Scholar program and the generosity of Yale Law School Associate Dean Barbara J. Safriet Any shortcomings are my own. t JEssicA MrrFoR.D THE AMEIucAN WAY OF DEATH 181-82 (1963).

Social Science Research Network, 2005

Academia Medicine, 2023

This article examines the role of serum sodium (SNa) on heart, anemia, and diabetes patients based on a real data set of 299 patients and probabilistic modeling. It is derived herein that mean SNa is positively associated with the marginal effects of platelets count (PLC) (P = 0.0019), anemia status (ANS) (P = 0.1053) (partially), creatinine phosphokinase (CRP) (P = 0.0462), smoking habit (SMH) (P= 0.1017), SEX (P = 0.0029), and the joint interaction effects (JIEs) of ejection fraction (EJF) and the status of high blood pressure (HBP), i.e., EJF*HBP (P = 0.1398); ANS and death event (DEE), i.e., ANS*DEE (P = 0.0009); age and time to follow-up (TTF), i.e., AGE*TTF (P = 0.0700); age and serum creatinine (SEC), i.e., AGE*SEC (P = 0.0901); EJF and SEC, i.e., EJF*SEC (P = 0.0044); and CRP and TTF, i.e., CRP*TTF (P = 0.0021). Mean SNa is negatively associated with the marginal effects of DEE (P = 0.0001), TTF (P= 0.0521), SEC (P = 0.0028), diabetes status (DIS) (P = 0.0121), and the JIEs of PLC*ANS (P = 0.1064), CRP*SMH (P = 0.0274), CRP*HBP (P = 0.0044), AGE*PLC (P = 0.0811), AGE*SEX (P = 0.0008), AGE*CRP (P = 0.0463), and EJF*PLC (P = 0.0420). The variance of SNa is marginally positively associated with AGE (P = 0.0933), DEE (P = 0.1408), and the JIEs of AGE*ANS (P = 0.0575), EJF*SEX (P = 0.1001), SEC*SMH (P = 0.0091), EJF*TTF (P = 0.0008), CRP*DIS (P = 0.0039), EJF*DEE (P = 0.0022), and SEC*DIS (P = 0.0001). Also the variance of SNa is marginally negatively associated with ANS (P = 0.0631), EJF (P = 0.0008), DIS (P = 0.0548), PLC (P = 0.0023), SMH (P = 0.0242), TTF (P = 0.0018), CRP (P = 0.0027), and the JIEs of AGE*DEE (P = 0.0003) and SEC*SEX (P = 0.1327). SNa maintains a complex relationship with different patients and factors, and they have both marginal and JIEs on SNa. Medical practitioners and researchers should care about the complicated functional roles of SNa.

Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, 2017

Significance. The environment can elicit biological responses such as oxidative stress (OS) and inflammation as consequence of chemical, physical or psychological changes. As population studies are essential for establishing these environment-organism interactions, biomarkers of oxidative stress or inflammation are critical in formulating mechanistic hypotheses. Recent advances. By using examples of stress induced by various mechanisms, we focus on the biomarkers that have been used to assess oxidative stress and inflammation in these conditions. We discuss the difference between biomarkers that are the result of a chemical reaction (such as lipid peroxides or oxidized proteins that are a result of the reaction of molecules with reactive oxygen species, ROS) and those that represent the biological response to stress, such as the transcription factor NRF2 or inflammation and inflammatory cytokines. Critical issues. The high-throughput and holistic approaches to biomarker discovery used extensively in large-scale molecular epidemiological exposome are also discussed in the context of human exposure to environmental stressors. Future directions. We propose to consider the role of biomarkers as signs and distinguish between signs that are just indicators of biological processes and proxies that one can interact with and modify the disease process.

Perfil general del diseño curricular de la Economía Social, 2024

El contenido, las opiniones y la originalidad de los artículos publicados en este libro son responsabilidad exclusiva de sus autores y no reflejan necesariamente el punto de vista de los coordinadores, del editor o de los avales académicos. Editado en México.

Tornar a Educação Inclusiva, 2009

Apresentação O princípio da educação inclusiva foi adotado na Conferência Mundial sobre as Necessidades Educativas Especiais: acesso e qualidade1 , reafirmado no Fórum Mundial de Educação e apoiado pelas Regras Básicas das Nações Unidas em Igualdade de Oportunidades para Pessoas Portadoras de Deficiências. Esse princípio foi debatido novamente em novembro de 2008 durante a 48ª Conferência Internacional de Educação em Genebra. A educação inclusiva de qualidade se baseia no direito de todos – crianças, jovens e adultos – a receberem uma educação de qualidade que satisfaça suas necessidades básicas de aprendizagem e enriqueça suas vidas. Apesar de ter sido bastante discutido e debatido, não há ainda unanimidade sobre a essência do conceito de educação inclusiva. Em alguns países, de acordo com Ainscow, o termo inclusão ainda é considerado como uma abordagem para atender crianças com deficiências dentro do contexto dos sistemas regulares de educação. Internacionalmente, porém, o conceito tem sido compreendido de uma forma mais ampla como uma reforma que apoia e acolhe a diversidade entre todos os sujeitos do processo educativo. Ainscow entende que o objetivo da educação inclusiva é de eliminar a exclusão social que resulta de atitudes e respostas à diversidade com relação à etnia, idade, classe social, religião, gênero e habilidades. Assim, parte do princípio que a educação constitui direito humano básico e alicerce de uma sociedade mais justa e solidária. A coletânea Tornar a educação inclusiva, resultado da parceria entre a UNESCO e a Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Educação (ANPEd), procura aprofundar a discussão sobre o conceito e as práticas da educação inclusiva, agregando a contribuições de pesquisadores brasileiros às reflexões de especialistas internacionais nesse campo. Em um país tão diverso e complexo como o Brasil, a educação não pode representar mais um mecanismo para excluir as pessoas cujas necessidades de aprendizagem exigem uma atenção especial. Na educação para todos, é inaceitável que se qualifique “todos”. Vincent Defourny Representante da UNESCO no Brasil