Precedents are decisions judges have issued in prior cases. In the common law, precedents are used to determine what the outcome of present cases should be, under the doctrine of "stare decisis, "which stipulates that new cases are resolved by applying legal rules developed in the process of deciding past cases. This volume postulates a relationship between the concept of legal precedent and the means that are used to make specific precedents available to the legal profession. The author concentrates specifically on the effect computer databases such as lexis and westlaw will have on the use of precedent in the common law. By tracing the history of law reporting, Professor Brenner demonstrates how the Anglo-American conception of precedent has altered over the past seven hundred years, and that these alterations reflect changes in the means used to distribute precedents. She explains why computers will become the primary means of disseminating precedents and describes the evolution and operation of the two on-line services that provide access to precedents by means of computer terminals and modems. These services--lexis and westlaw-- are operated by private entrepreneurs in the business of providing precedents to the legal profession. Arguing that such services will have a profound effect on the conception and use of precedent, Brenner provides an empirical study of both services to show the effects they have already had, and outlines the conception of precedent that will result from the use of computers as "law reporters." This, she believes, will be a quantitative conception in which judicial decisions will be used in a manner analogous to the use of quantitative data in scientific endeavors. This study, written with a brilliance often reserved for popular writing at its best, is unique in its application of sociology of knowledge principles to the analysis of law reporting in its examination of citations to approximately 25,000 judicial decisions. It will be of special interest to lawyers, sociologists, and policymakers.

Inflation is a simple topic, in that the basic concepts are something that everyone can understand. However, inflation is not a simplistic topic. The composition of inflation and what the different inflation measures try to represent cannot be summarised with a single line on a chart or a casual reference to a solitary data point. Investors very often fail to understand the detail behind inflation, and end up making bad investment decisions as a result. The Truth About Inflation does not set out to forecast inflation, but to help improve its understanding, so that investors can make better decisions to achieve the real returns that they need. Starting with a summary of long history of inflation, the drivers of price change are considered. Many of the "urban myths" that have built up about inflation are shown to be a consequence of irrational judgement or political scaremongering. Some behaviour, like the unhealthy veneration of gold as a means of inflation protection, is shown to be the result of historical accident. In the modern era of lower nominal investment returns, inflation inequality (whereby some groups experience persistently higher inflation than others) is a very important consideration. This book sets out the realities of price changes in the modern investing environment, without using economic equations or jargon. It gives investors the framework they need to think about inflation and how to protect themselves against it, whether the aggregate inflation of the future rises or falls from current levels.

This book shows how inflation can disrupt politics and society. With no recent precedent, mild inflation spurred mass protests, myriad remedial schemes, and partisan political reversals between 1910 and 1914. Then wartime demand and inflationary fiscal policy doubled consumer prices from 1915 to 1920, triggering waves of strikes, food riots by immigrant housewives, class conflict, and elite fears of revolution. Middle-class households resented falling real incomes. Even more than today, food prices dominated consumer concerns. Yet farmers wanted high commodity prices. Accordingly, both sides blamed and attacked meatpackers, wholesalers, and retailers. Then as now, inflation hurt whichever party held the White House. Fumbling responses by Wilson’s administration and the Federal Reserve led to hesitant price controls, punitive raids and prosecutions, and a now-familiar fallback—high interest rates in 1920 and subsequent recession. An epilogue traces continuing popular and political responses to changes in the consumer price index down to 2020.

This book contains a series of essays discussing the uses of precedent as a source of law and a basis for legal arguments in nine different legal systems, representing a variety of legal traditions. Precedent is fundamental to law, yet theoretical and ideological as well as legal considerations lead to its being differently handled and rationalised in different places. Out of the comparative study come the six theoretical and synoptic essays that conclude the volume.

Under inflation, national accounts at current as well as at constant prices will be seriously distorted unless special adjustment techniques are applied. By explaining these systematically, this book brings new insights into the measurement of income as well as the calculation of indices.