Class Action

The Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act (ODMWA) 1973 (as amended in 2002) provides for compensation of occupational lung diseases in living and deceased miners and ex-miners. Certification data constitute a valuable source of information on occupational diseases in the mining industry. The objectives of the study were: i) To describe the extent and type of compensable lung diseases in South African mining from 2004-2012, by commodity; ii) to describe certification trends over 2004-2012; iii) to examine specific issues related to some of the compensable occupational lung diseases (including service duration in coal miners with coal workers' pneumoconiosis by coal type, describe asbestos related diseases in women and number of miners with exclusive diamond miners certified with mesothelioma during this period); iv) to determine the odds of developing mesothelioma from chrysotile mining and other associated risk factors and v)to determine time from the certification to compensation payment, using a proportion of cases certified in 2009, 2010 and 2011 financial years. Methods: A descriptive analysis was conducted using the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases (MBOD) dataset using claims from living miners, certified from 2004 up to 2012, certified with compensable disease, for the first three objectives. For the fourth objective, the MBOD database was used to select diseases with considerable numbers from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 years. A ten percent sample of each disease group was selected through random sampling using stata 12, to determine time to compensation, joined with Commission for Compensation of Occupational Diseases (CCOD) compensation database. Stataversion 12 was used to clean and analyse data. For the fifth objective, a case control analysis was conducted to estimate the risk of mesothelioma from miners with exclusively chrysotile mining, using exposure data from an external database. Results: There were67660 compensable disease certifications from 2004 to 2012 financial years, in living current and ex-miners. Almost 62% of the certification outcomes for compensable diseases were from tuberculosis alone, comprising of current, first and second degree TB. First and second degree diseases with no tuberculosis comprised 27% and 1.3% respectively. There were 6601 diseases (9.7%) certified as second-degree with tuberculosis. The proportion of specific diseases other than tuberculosis comprised of silicosis (14%); v silico-tuberculosis (9%);obstructive airways disease (2.2%);coal workers' pneumoconiosis (0.5%); asbestos pleural disease (6.7%) ; asbestos interstitial disease (5.2%); mesothelioma (0.2%); lung cancer (0.04%) and 0.1% were from other diseases. Females contributed 3.8% to the disease burden while black miners had 92%. Twenty five percent of the compensable diseases were from ex-miners and 49 179from active miners. Although 63% of compensable diseases were from unknown commodity (missing), 30% were from gold mining. The certification trends for pneumoconiosis and tuberculosis peaked in 2008, with statistically significant trend for asbestosis (p=0.01) and silico-TB (P=0.038). Examination of the specific issues showed no statistically significant difference between CWP certification from anthracite and bituminous coal ranks with regards to service duration, silicosis was certified in 544 platinum miners but none of them had exclusively platinum mining. Asbestos related disease was certified in 2241 women, with 55.4% being pleural disease in the first degree and none of the certified women were younger than 30 years of age, and the average service duration was approximately seven years (mean=6.97 years, SD 6.37 years). From the sample of 389 certified cases, 26.5% (n=103) were certified at the end of the 2012 financial years. The mean time to compensation 38 months, 36 months and 19.4 months for 2009, 2010 and 2011 financial years respectively. The case-control analysis found no statistically significant association between chrysotile mining and mesothelioma from univariate analysis (OR=2.0 p>0.05; 95% CI: 0.7-5.4); as well as multivariate analysis (OR=1.5; p>0.05; 95%CI: 0.4-5.2) compared to the reference group. The burden of occupational lung diseases in living current miners and ex-miners is high, mainly from tuberculosis during this period, irrespective of the commodity and population group. A significant finding from this study was the significant proportion of miners certified with pneumoconiosis with less than fifteen years of mining service. The number of women certified during this period was mainly from asbestos related diseases, a far lesser number of women were certified with disease from other commodities. The findings from this study support what was reported in literature namely; unacceptably long time to compensation; incomplete documentation of exposure history in the form of service records and no established risk for mesothelioma from exclusive chrysotile miners. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my supervisors, Professor David Rees and Dr Spo Kgalamono, thank you for your guidance and support. To Prof Rees, thank you for your insight, clinical and research expertise that you shared selflessly throughout this process. Thank you for your patience, motivation and support even when I seemed to have lost focus and sight. I am grateful to Dr Barry Kistnasamy,the Compensation Commissioner, for allowing me to use and access data from databases in the MBOD and CCOD, of the Department of Health. My undisputed gratitude toMr Cornelius Nattey for the support and advice shared from his experience with databases and statistical expertise. I am grateful and humbled by the support I received from Nontobeko Mtembu and Thando Mabeqa for going an extra mile, tirelessly searching for information and resources that I could not access. To the MBOD and CCOD staff members who helped me understand the processes and content databases, pointing me to the right direction where I could find different resources,

The predominant view in the antitrust field has been that private enforcement, and especially class action cases, yields little or no positive results. On the contrary, they are counterproductive. This prevailing belief was well summarized by J. Thomas Rosch, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, who considered treble damage class action cases "almost as scandalous as the price-fixing cartels that are generally at issue. . . . [T]he plaintiffs' lawyers . . . stand to win almost regardless of the merits of the case." 1 Professor Daniel Crane has gone so far as to claim that "often" in private antitrust class actions "administrative costs swallow the entire recovery." In light of these widespread beliefs, former Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic summarized the conventional wis-* The authors are, respectively, Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship and Professor of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, and member of the Advisory Board of the American Anti-

Recent empirical studies demonstrate five reasons why antitrust class action cases are essential: (1) class actions are virtually the only way for most victims of antitrust violations to receive compensation; (2) most successful class actions involve collusion that was anticompetitive; (3) class victims’ compensation has been modest, generally less than their damages; (4) class actions deter significant amounts of collusion and other anticompetitive behavior; and (5) anticompetitive collusion is underdeterred, a problem that would be exacerbated without class actions. Unfortunately, a number of court decisions have undermined class action cases, thus preventing much effective and important antitrust enforcement.

Class action lawsuits can be detrimental to debtholders because they deteriorate defendant firms’ financial position and lower these firms’ value. This study examines whether banks price their borrowers’ litigation risk in debt contracting. We find that banks charge 19% higher interest spreads on loans to lawsuit firms after litigation. In addition, banks monitor lawsuit firms more closely by using tighter non‐price terms. The results are robust after correcting for possible endogeneity issues using the propensity score matching approach. We further find that the effects of lawsuit filing are more pronounced for firms with weaker corporate governance. Following a lawsuit in the industry, banks also perceive an increased likelihood of litigation for industry peer firms and adjust price and non‐price terms accordingly. Finally, we find that the magnitude of the lawsuit filing effect is greater for firms with lower ex‐ante litigation risk. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that ba...

Multimodal human action recognition with depth sensors has drawn wide attention, due to its potential applications such as health-care monitoring, smart buildings/home, intelligent transportation, and security surveillance. As one of the obstacles of robust action recognition, sub-actions sharing, especially among similar action categories, makes human action recognition more challenging. This paper proposes a segmental architecture to exploit the relations of sub-actions, jointly with heterogeneous information fusion and Class-privacy Preserved Collaborative Representation (CPPCR) for multi-modal human action recognition. Specifically, a segmental architecture is proposed based on the normalized action motion energy. It models long-range temporal structure over video sequences to better distinguish the similar actions bearing sub-action sharing phenomenon. The sub-action based depth motion and skeleton features are then extracted and fused. Moreover, by introducing within-class local consistency into Collaborative Representation (CR) coding, CPPCR is proposed to address the challenging sub-action sharing phenomenon, learning the high-level discriminative representation. Experiments on four datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper explores the oral histories of two survivors of Canada’s institutions for persons labelled with intellectual disability. Both of these men survived the abuses of the institutions and went on to become committed to rights advocacy for others labelled with an intellectual disability. They were determined to tell their stories and act as change agents so that no one else experiences the abuse they did. In this paper, Peter and Martin tell parts of their stories, including their journey toward self-advocacy. This paper provides a space for these truths to be revealed in the time of class action law suits that are underway for these survivors. No opportunity was provided for the class action members to tell their stories in court, so this paper contains pieces of the narrative that survivors want people to know. Their stories are told in both narrative and art form. These artifacts highlight common themes of institutional abuse and isolation, but also of remarkable resiliency ...

Le azioni inibitorie collettive, disciplinate dal codice di procedura civile, e le azioni rappresentative per la tutela degli interessi collettivi dei consumatori e finalizzate a ottenere un provvedimento inibitorio necessitano di essere apprezzate strutturalmente e funzionalmente. Appare opportuno insistere sull’ampiezza rimediale, sulla capacità di incidere sugli assetti di interessi e sull’attitudine regolatoria dei provvedimenti inibitori.

This article examines abusive litigation as a genre, identifying predatory litigation as its possible ultimate cause. Within a context in which it is known that the major litigants identified in the Brazilian Conselho Nacional de Justiça panel practice efficient damage based on Law and economics (AED), it is likely that there is a genuine right being violated and the measures adopted cannot disregard this problem. Thus, it examines what would be the most appropriate method of dealing with predatory litigation according to the Brazilian Código de Processo Civil (CPC), establishing a dialog between the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor's Office with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness.

To enable the effective private enforcement of liability rules sometimes the policy makers have to interfere, creating mechanisms to allow people to litigate claims that, otherwise, would not be taken to the Courts. One of the procedural solutions to this problem is the small claims class actions. In this paper, we adopt the view that deterrence should be the focus of these policies, once the compensation is too low to motivate injured people to pursue it. Some legal systems are more equipped to induce deterrence through class litigation of small claims and to generate other positive externalities, increasing the social welfare. Here we aim to compare the Brazilian and the American systems, and to verify in what extent both class action systems are able to produce social benefits and increase social welfare. Because it is possible to identify that deterrence is not the primary focus of Brazilian legal scenario in this topic, we intend to propose some legislative changes to enhance this feature role in the debate.

Working from a sample of all consumer class actions filed in the Northern District of Illinois during 2010-2012 (totaling 510), this Article reports and analyzes data on class actions under four federal consumer protection statutes, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act ("EFTA"), the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"), and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"). Even assuming that the TCPA cases alleged actual harm to the named plaintiff, over half the cases in the sample sought statutory damages without an allegation of harm to the plaintiff. Especially in large class actions, only 10% to 15% of the class received compensation, and the aggregate compensation paid to the class is far less than the stated or nominal class settlement fund amount. Because courts award attorneys' fees based on the nominal settlement amount, attorneys' fees are a very large fraction of the amount paid to the class, and for some case types attorneys' fees average 300% to 400% of the amount paid to the class. With low class

The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action. We hope they will enrich your understanding of this fascinating chronicle of an epic courtroom battle. Two of the nation's largest corporations stand accused of causing the deaths of children. In Woburn, Massachusetts, several young children have been stricken with leukemia and one of the mothers, suspecting that their drinking water was polluted with industrial waste, initiates a lawsuit against the offending companies. It will be an unequal contest: two mighty corporations, commanding the finest legal representation money can buy, levelled against a few working-class families. Representing the bereaved parents is an unlikely Don Quixote: Jan Schlichtmann, a snazzily dressed, Porschedriving young lawyer who has struck it big on several million-dollar medical malpractice cases. The flamboyant Schlichtmann is totally unprepared for what this particular case will demand of him. In the nine years' battle he comes close to losing everything--money, career, reputation, and even his sanity. Allowed full access to the case and to the lives of Schlichtmann and his staff while they fought it, and given honest and extensive interviews by the lawyers of the opposing team, Jonathan Harr has been able to give the reader a riveting insider's look at not only the legal issues and maneuvers involved in an important lawsuit, but at the human drama and tragedy that can get lost all too easily among the legal details--the grief and loss of the plaintiffs, the anxiety of the lawyers, and the bafflement of the jurors. A Civil Action reads like a fast-paced legal thriller and brilliantly captures the high drama of the courtroom.

My thanks to the editors of the Louisiana Law Review for their diligent editing and thoughtful comments. This Article is partly inspired by my work on several MDLs while a litigation associate. Nevertheless, all views and errors are my own. 1. See Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION (Apr. 5, 2024), https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevent ion/about/understanding-the-opioid-overdose-epidemic.html [https://perma.cc/X PW6-HW6A]. LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 85 overdoses grew six-fold, three-quarters involving an opioid. 2 The consequences for individuals, families, and communities have been devastating. 3 Costs range from the quantifiable-such as those associated with criminal justice or health care 4-to the entirely unquantifiable lives lost, families broken, and futures destroyed. In an attempt to recover damages and to access funds to abate this crisis, numerous public and private plaintiffs turned to the courts. 5 "In hundreds of lawsuits filed across the nation," these plaintiffs alleged that the pharmaceutical industry created the opioid epidemic by "intentionally or recklessly encourag[ing] over-prescriptions, enshroud[ing] the true risks of addiction, and target[ing] vulnerable populations," as well as by flooding communities with excessive volumes of prescription opioids and filling prescriptions without even minimal investigation of their legitimacy and appropriateness. 6 Following 46 plaintiffs' motion, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ("JPML") opened In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation (the "Opioid MDL") on December 1, 2017, by transferring cases pending in nine federal districts to the Northern District of Ohio (the "MDL Court"). 7 As required to form an MDL, these cases shared a common factual core: allegedly improper marketing and distribution of prescription opioids. 8 By February 2019, there were 1,850 cases pending in the Opioid MDL, many with multiple plaintiffs joined on a single 2. Id.

This Article considers the equal protection "class-of-one" doctrine in light of recent developments, both at the Supreme Court and in the lower courts. After Part I explains the background and current state of the doctrine, Part 11 considers how that doctrine provides insights into such basic equal protection concepts as discriminatory intent and animus. It also critiques the Court's analysis of the class-of-one, arguing that the Court has mishandled these concepts and in so doing caused doctrinal anomalies and lower court confusion. Part II offers an alternative approach to the class-of-one that corrects those problems while still addressing the concerns that may have influenced the Court to embrace its mistaken analysis. Part III considers how the Supreme Court's mishandling of the class-of-one risks infecting other areas of equal protection law and American constitutionalism more generally. It explains how the Court's approach threatens the core constitutional commitment that government action must seek to promote a public purpose. It also discusses a subsequent Court decision that cites its most recent classof-one case in a way that aggravates that threat. The Article concludes by calling on the Court to reconsider both its aggressive reading of its class-of-one jurisprudence and the direction of that jurisprudence itself, in order to reverse the doctrinal and conceptual damage it has caused. The Article thus demonstrates that the classof-one provides insight into larger equal protection issues. At the

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more present in our daily lives-on social media apps, productivity websites, legal databases like Lexis and Westlaw, and more. This booming technology might even affect the futures of both animal agriculture and animal advocacy.

È proprio all’interno del PNRR che si rinviene l’attuale apice di attenzione verso l’ambiente, nel quale proprio la Missione 2 fa riferimento alla “Rivoluzione verde e la transizione ecologica” che, tra le altre, rappresenta l’asse con maggiore dotazione di risorse. Con il concetto di “transizione verde” si fa riferimento ad un processo evoluzionistico socio-economico, ma anche giuridico, di rivalutazione e riqualificazione dei modi di produzione, distribuzione e consumo; si tratta, pertanto, di un processo di adeguamento ai cd. “stimoli esterni” che mira a raggiungere un nuovo
equilibrio. Nell’ambito della transizione ambientale lato sensu, pare interessante approfondire il ruolo chiave del consumo nell’ambito di quelle pratiche cd. sostenibili, provando a leggere in un’ottica innovativa il concetto di greenwashing; tali pratiche hanno come fine ultimo quello di indirizzare l’adozione di comportamenti da parte delle imprese verso particolari modelli di “business circolari”, volti a garantire trasparenza e a guardare ad una sana competitività. È evidente che in questa disamina sono diversi gli importanti concetti che vengono in rilievo: il primo è quello del funzionamento del green marketing, che indaga le motivazioni che spingono un’impresa ad assumere una “strategia verde”. Il secondo attiene alle Comunità Energetiche Rinnovabili, nell’ambito della Direttiva RED II. Ed ancora, ulteriori importanti riflessioni sono da farsi relativamente all’impatto che questi temi hanno sui trasporti e sull’agroalimentare.
Accertato, quindi, che il ruolo dei consumatori assume primaria importanza nella “transizione verde”, la parte conclusiva del contributo si soffermerà sull'impiego delle azioni collettive (come la class action e l’azione inibitoria collettiva) nel contrasto al greenwashing. Nel dettaglio, verrà posta, però, particolare attenzione alle azioni rappresentative di cui agli artt. 140ter e seguenti del codice del consumo, entrate in vigore lo scorso 25 giugno e di matrice europea (attuazione della Direttiva (UE) 2020/1828). La fruibilità di queste azioni – laddove confermata – determinerebbe un importante incremento dei rimedi consumeristici nel contrasto al cd. “lavaggio verde”; ferme, infatti, le tutele inibitorie e risarcitorie collettive (già accessibili nell’ordinamento italiano), le nuove azioni – esperibili unicamente dagli enti esponenziali a tutela dei consumatori – potrebbero contribuire alla lotta al fenomeno mediante il riconoscimento di “nuove” forme di tutela “compensativa”, come la sostituzione del prodotto, la riduzione del suo prezzo di acquisto nonché la risoluzione del contratto, tutte esercitate in forma collettiva. Le novità normative non si limitano, però, ad ampliare i bisogni di tutela appagabili dall’ordinamento, ma contribuiscono a delineare un “nuovo” rito, differenziato ed in favor ai consumatori, che – per la prima volta – viene altresì munito di una nuova dimensione sovranazionale, dal respiro transfrontaliero.

' Marlboro cigarettes are the most popular cigarettes sold in the United States, and sales of full-priced brands of cigarettes such as Marlboro constitute nearly 90% of the profits for Philip Morris's tobacco operations. See In re Philip Morris Sec. Litig., 872 F. Supp. 97, 99 (S.D.N.Y. 1995). 2 See id. 3 Four more suits were filed that same day. The remaining five suits were filed the following business day, Monday, April 5, 1993. See id. at 98. 4 See id. ' Other plaintiffs' attorneys law firms filing suit included Abbey & Ellis and Barrack, Rodos & Bacine. SeeJunda Woo,Judges Show Growing Skepticism in Class-Action Securities Cases, WALL ST. J., Jan. 11, 1995, at B8. ' "Aftermarket" refers to the secondary securities market. For example, trades between investors on the New York Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ are part of the aftermarket. This is distinguished from the primary market which involves the offering of securities from companies directly to investors. In 1994 alone, Milberg, Weiss was among the principal law firms in cases that eventually settled for $295 million. SeeJill Abramson & Amy Stevens, Class-Action Clash: King of "Strike Suits" Finds Style Cramped By Legal-Overhaul Bill, WALL ST. J., Mar. 30, 1995, at Al. " Over 90% of securities class actions eventually end in settlement. See infra part II.A.2 (reporting the disposition of suits in an IPO sample).

I. INTRODUCTION Everbody "knows" that antitrust violations lead to mandatory treble damages and attorneys' fees. This provision appears to constitute automatic punitive damages, and would seem large enough both to discourage most defendants from violating the antitrust laws and to over-compensate injured

For a business, exposure to a lawsuit represents substantial costs. Although the court costs and attorneys' fees are obvious expenses, the business manager must face the additional costs litigation imposes upon a business. For example, such costs include the amount of time company employees will be required to spend in preparation for the suit through their testimony or through the furnishing of documentary evidence. Also, there are the costs to the business in the form of damage to the business reputation. To date, no organized method of cost analysis has been developed for use by the manager or the business student in a case study. In this paper, such a revolutionary model is introduced.

The class action is an important instrument for the enforcement of consumers' rights, particularly in personal actions for low sums known as Negative Expected Value (NEV) suits. Collective redress actions transform NEV suits into Positive Expected Value suits using economies of scale by the aggregation of smaller actions into a single legal action which is economically worthwhile pursuing. Collective redress promotes adherence to the law, deters illegal actions and furthers public interests. Collective redress also helps in the management of multiple cases in court. The introduction of a new class action model in Israel has proven to be very workable in the sense that it has improved access to justice, albeit that this system currently suffers from over-use, referred to in this work as the "flood problem". The purpose of this research is to introduce a class action model which brings with it the advantages of the Israeli model, as well as improvements upon it so as to promote consumer confidence in low figure transactions by individuals with large, powerful companies. The new model suggested in this work relies on the opt-out mechanism, monitored by regulatory bodies through public regulation or by private regulators. The reliance on the supremacy of public enforcement and follow-on actions over private stand-alone actions should make the system of collective redress more efficient than the current Israeli model, reducing the risk of a flood of actions whilst at the same time improving access to justice for large groups of claimants. Thus far, no unified European class action mechanism has been developed, and only some member states have developed their own systems. The model discussed in this work may be implemented as a unified set of rules in Europe, with some additional adjustments, such as those covering cross-border trade, to promote confidence in trade within the European Union.

SOMMARIO: 1. Rituali e negozi giuridici. — 2. Il contributo degli antropologi. — 3. Dalla cerimonia al soggetto. — 4. « Contratto » e « forma contrattuale ». — 5. Forma contrattuale e « certezza del diritto ». — 6. Il reg. Ue n. 565 del 2017

This paper explores the transformative potential of class action lawsuits in redefining justice for insurance policyholders in Indonesia. Through an indepth examination of the legal landscape and specific cases, the study delves into the mechanisms and implications of leveraging class actions as a means of seeking justice within the insurance sector. By analyzing notable instances, such as the class action lawsuit initiated by insurance policyholders of PT Asuransi Jiwasraya and PT Asuransi Jiwa Adisarana WanaArtha, the paper scrutinizes the impact of collective legal action in addressing grievances and restoring violated rights. The research also navigates the legal provisions surrounding class actions in Indonesia, shedding light on their relevance and effectiveness in the pursuit of justice for insurance policyholders. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on legal remedies within the insurance industry, offering insights into the potential of class action lawsuits as a powerful tool for policyholders to assert their rights and demand justice in the Indonesian legal context.

Resumen O autor discute um estudo sobre o projeto de lei de ação civil pública, com uma análise das mais importantes instituições processuais que compõem o texto, como ações coletivas, a protecção dos interesses colectivos, caso julgado, o onus probandi, etc .

In recent years, the focus of e-Commerce research has been on better understanding the relationship between the internet marketplace, customers, and goods and services. This has been done by examining information that can be gleaned from consumer information, recommender systems, click rates, or the way purchasers go about making buying decisions, for example. This paper takes a very different approach and examines the companies themselves. In the past ten years, e-Commerce giants such as Amazon, Skymall, Wayfair, and Groupon have been embroiled in class action security lawsuits promulgated under Rule 10b(5), which, in short, is one of the Securities and Exchange Commission's main rules surrounding fraud. Lawsuits are extremely expensive to the company and can damage a company's brand extensively, with the shareholders left to suffer the consequences. We examined the Management Discussion and Analysis and the Market Risks for 96 companies using sentiment analysis on selected financial measures and found that we were able to predict the outcome of the lawsuits in our dataset using sentiment (tone) alone to a recall of 0.8207 using the Random Forest classifier. We believe that this is an important contribution as it has cross-domain implications and potential, and opens up new areas of research in e-Commerce, finance, and law, as the settlements from the class action lawsuits in our dataset alone are in excess of $1.6 billion dollars, in aggregate.

The settlements in WorldCom and Enron, together with enforcement actions by the SEC and the new remedies under Sarbanes-Oxley, indicate that independent directors will face very real financial, regulatory and criminal liability if they fail to execute their duties properly. This paper, written by two attorneys with the SEC, reviews some of the recent cases concerning independent directors. In recent years, the SEC and the private plaintiffs' bar have indicated a willingness to hold independent directors accountable for essentially negligent or reckless supervising by pursuing enforcement actions. In addition, the SEC has brought cases against other public companies to enforce the public's right to know any facts that might compromise the director's independence, particularly when directors receive undisclosed compensation at the direction of management. The paper concludes by noting that early indications suggest that independent directors are taking action and exercising their powers in the face of government investigations of the public companies they serve.

Class action lawsuits have become an increasingly common way to facilitate institutional reform. The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to social workers of child welfare reform by class action lawsuits and subsequent consent decrees. The authors provide an overview of class action lawsuits, with a focus on their role in implementing systematic change in the United States. They highlight consent decrees as a means of settling class action lawsuits. They illustrate the current state of the child welfare system and how child advocacy groups have used class action lawsuits to initiate reform. Authors provide two case examples of child welfare reform by consent decree and engage in comparative analysis to investigate similarities and differences in the two cases. Finally, they note implications for social work practice and education and provide recommendations to equip and train social workers involved in child welfare services.

Аннотация. Рассматриваются отдельные правила группового производства в цивилистическом процессе в контексте правового статуса участников процессуальных отношений. Внимание уделяется правам и обязанностям лица, обратившегося в суд с требованием о защите прав и законных интересов группы лиц и ведущего дело (истца-представителя), а также участников группы лиц, присоединившихся к заявленным требованиям и отказавшихся от своего заявления. С применением сравнительно-правового метода и телеологического толкования делается вывод о существовании процессуальных отношений на активной стороне только между судом и истцом-представителем, что предопределяет возможность совершения распорядительных действий, доказывания и обжалования судебных актов только лицом, которое ведет дело, но не иными участниками группы лиц. Предельно урезанный объем полномочий участников группы лиц обосновывается их добровольным присоединением к коллективному иску. Отношения внутри группы лиц являются по своей природе материально-правовыми, из чего делается вывод о необходимости применения соответствующих частных материальных механизмов реализации интересов большинства участников по правилам норм о решениях собраний. Ввиду возможности консолидации в коллективном иске однородных, но разных по размеру, материально-правовых требований участников группы сделан вывод о необходимости установления критерия большинства вне зависимости от цены требования каждого участника. Также авторами выявлено противоречие в правовом регулировании в случае отказа в сертификации группы лиц после возбуждения производства по групповому иску в гражданском, арбитражном и административном судебном процессах. Обосновывается нецелесообразность оставления коллективного иска без рассмотрения, а необходимость перехода к рассмотрению личных исков участников группы и выделению соответствующих дел в отдельное производство, как это и предусмотрено в АПК РФ. Обращается внимание на пробельность правового регулирования группового производства в части установления размера и порядка оплаты государственной пошлины. Ключевые слова: групповой иск, групповое производство, истец-представитель, участники группы лиц, решение по коллективному иску, правовая эффективность, процессуальные правоотношения в групповом производстве, сертификация группы Конфликт интересов. Авторы заявляют об отсутствии конфликта интересов. Вклад авторов: нераздельное соавторство.

The article aims to analyse the relationship between trade union organizations and the new collective redress instruments provided under Law n. 31/2019. After a brief introduction to these new instruments and to
the reasons why they are relevant to labour law, the article assesses their actual use by trade union organisations, reflects on the main issues addressed by case law, their impact on the way we are used to thinking
about the notion of collective interest, and their potential in terms of access
to justice and the effectiveness of labour law regulations. Finally, it
discusses the tensions that may arise from the use of these instruments in
relation to the way they question the traditional role of the judge in civil
law systems and their potential impact on the overall objectives of trade
union action.

Research on the usefulness of financial information generally focuses on the innovation in the information examined, such as an earnings surprise or cash flow growth. Consequently, prior research sheds little light on the role of the rich historical record of financial information in users' decision-making. Using a sample of published restatements of earnings, we show that the revision of the historical pattern of earnings, distinct from the magnitude of the restatement and its impact on current earnings, significantly affects investors' decisions and predicts class action lawsuits. Specifically, we find that restatements that eliminate or shorten histories of earnings growth or positive earnings have significantly more adverse effects for investor valuations and the likelihood of lawsuits than other restatements. This evidence about the value-relevance of refreshing the historical record of earnings is pertinent to the FASB's recent cautious expansion of the scope of circumstances that require a restatement of financial information in FAS 154.

images of the world govern policy." 5. Deborah A. Stone, Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas, 104 POL. ScI. Q. 281 (1989). Deborah Stone asserts that "[tlhere is an old saw in political science that difficult conditions become problems only when people come to see them as amenable to human action.

For most of the twentieth century, gold mining dominated South Africa's economy. Unlike agricultural produce, it was impervious to bad seasons or fluctuating prices. For several decades, it accounted for more than half of the country's exports. Between 1931 and 1961, it supplied between 12 and 42 per cent of government revenue. In 1941, the mines employed 410,000 workers; at their peak in 1986, 534,000. The mining corporations drew on international capital and advanced technologies to consolidate their size and success. The fixed price of gold enabled them to act in unison in pursuing a common political agenda. Through their extensive use of migrant labour, they helped shape the economies of the southern half of the continent. Several factors drove recruitment to South Africa's gold mines. Foremost among them was the Chamber's determination to control production costs. Recruiting labour from territories to its north and paying This chapter was written four years after Jock McCulloch's death from mesothelioma by his partner Pavla Miller. It summarises the arguments made in the previous chapters and outlines some of the challenges in implementing the class-action settlement.

o presente artigo tem como objetivo apontar os principais reflexos da jurisdicao coletiva nas acoes individuais decorrentes de direitos individuais homogeneos. O trabalho justifica-se pela ausencia de sistematizacao normativa adequada quando da existencia concomitante de demandas coletiva e individuais sobre o mesmo fato/relacao juridica. Sendo assim, analisar-se-a questoes como os efeitos da coisa julgada da acao coletiva sobre a individual, a possibilidade de suspensao desta em relacao aquela e, nas acoes individuais, se e possivel a formacao de litisconsorcio e suas qualificacoes, ou seja, se e facultativo ou necessario, unitario ou simples. Para tanto, o trabalho se utiliza do metodo hipotetico-dedutivo, pois revisitara a teoria existente sobre os temas acima descritos, fornecendo uma nova roupagem para confirmacao posterior de sua validade cientifica.

The article is an attempt to offer a ‘bottom‐up’ explanation of political instability in Latin America by examining patterns of class formation in the region. It argues that the heterogeneous class structure characterizing the popular sectors creates collective action problems that historically have resulted in popular sector mobilization by populist elites, if not apathy or civil war. The possibility of an alternative basis for popular sector mobilization that is more favorable to democratic consolidation is explored on the basis of a neo‐Marxist interpretation of class formation. By incorporating variables dealing with the state and the nature of civil society that are not directly related to the relationship of individuals or groups to the means of production, an effort is made to outline the basis of a new popular sector collective identity which offers a totalizing synthesis of this social heterogeneity. Some of the implications of this are briefly discussed in a concluding sec...

Entre 2004 y 2021, la jurisprudencia del Consejo de Estado colombiano sobre la res-ponsabilidad  extracontractual  ha  abordado  el  estudio  de  casos  en  los  que  el  demandante,  al  atribuir  un  daño  ambiental  al  Estado,  pretende  la  reparación  integral  de  los  perjuicios.  Dado  que  estos  daños  pueden  privar  a  personas  determinadas  del  uso  o  goce  de  los  valores  que  los  ecosistemas que habitan les proveen, esta investigación busca dar respuesta a cuál es la forma idónea de ordenar la reparación de una afectación, imputable al Estado, de la faceta individual del derecho constitucional al ambiente sano. Para ello, se aplica la metodología de la línea juris-prudencial  propuesta  por  López  Medina  (2006)  a  aquellos  casos  en  los  que  le  es  atribuible  al  Estado un daño ambiental consecutivo directo; y se argumenta que la manera idónea de resar-cir  este  tipo  de  daños  es  la  reparación  en  especie.  Se  sostiene  que  el  desconocimiento  de  la  faceta  individual  del  derecho  al  ambiente  sano  en  la  jurisdicción  contencioso  administrativa  implica  que  la  reparación  del  daño  ambiental  sea  parcial,  por  ello,  se  propone  como  solución  una sentencia en la que el Consejo de Estado unifique su jurisprudencia y reconozca la faceta individual de este derecho.

When comparing the success rates of two groups, statisticians often stratify the data into subgroups of individuals with similar levels of other factors related to the response of interest. In the clinical trial context, one might create subgroups according to the number and strength of risk factors the subjects have, while in the equal employment context, one might form strata based on the type of position and seniority. Sometimes the data are naturally stratified, e.g. applicants for different jobs requiring different skills. However, plaintiffs may pool all the data into one large 2 × 2 table, making it easier to find that the pass rates are statistically significantly different. In contrast, defendants may argue that only when statistical significance is reached in many, e.g. at least one-half of the strata, should a court find that the data supports a prima facie case of discrimination. These issues arose in Kerner v. Denver, a case concerning the disparate impact of a pre-employment exam on minority applicants. The statistical presentations of both parties are reviewed and potential issues with them are noted. After demonstrating that the disparities in pass rates in the various jobs are sufficiently similar, the Mantel-Haenszel test is used to combine the data in each stratum into one overall test. Our analysis shows that there is a statistically significant disparity in the odds minority and majority applicants pass the test. Furthermore, the associated estimator of the common odds ratio of the pass rates is 0.40 indicating that the odds a minority applicant had of passing the test were less than one-half those of a Caucasian.

The article aims to examine the characteristics of the damage assessment schemes that are responsible for the success of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund. To this end, the fundamental concepts for understanding mass conflicts and the modalities of collective agreements will be presented first, considering the nature of the obligations involved. This will be followed by a more detailed presentation of the underlying facts and the methodology used in the schemes for fixing damages resulting from the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. At the end, findings relevant to the success of the methodology employed will be presented. The factual support is provided by the case study, with emphasis on the data extracted from the annual reports (VCF Annual Report) published by the United States Government. The research method used is descriptive legal research using a quantitative descriptive analysis method approach and processing primary and secondary data.

The legal-academic literature on litigation settlement describes a range offactors that affect settlement outcomes, but litigant "aspirations "-or ideal goals-are not among them. Negotiation scholars, however, routinely claim that high aspirations can improve bargaining outcomes. This Article presents the "reference point theory of aspirations," which reconciles these competing approaches by situating negotiator aspirations within the standard legal-academic model of settlement. Based on this theory, the Article offers a series of hypotheses concerning the role of aspirations in settlement negotiations, and then reports the results of experimental tests that demonstrate the hypotheses to be plausible. Finally, in light of the reference point theory of aspirations, the Article reconsiders the usual prescriptive advice offered by negotiation scholars that litigants always should set high aspirations for themselves in bargaining situations.