This invaluable and timely book provides a comprehensive “Conflict Prevention and Friction Analysis (CPFA) Model� for researching comparative law in our increasingly technology-led legal and economic order. It provides an in-depth examination of practical case studies, showcasing the real-world application of quantitative methods and theoretical approaches for analysing legal issues. Over the course of this insightful book, Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Mauro Balestrieri thoroughly investigate the theory that the intention of law is not just to resolve conflicts, but to prevent their occurrence. Chapters critically analyse the historical and contemporary issues in quantitative methods, examine the main themes and approaches involved in quantitative and comparative law discussions, and present original research to illustrate key ideas. Providing an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on insights and methodologies from other fields beyond law, including economics, statistics and political science. This authoritative book is an essential resource for students and scholars of comparative law, empirical legal studies and research methods. It will also benefit law clerks, legal advisors and policymakers.

A young college graduate faces some difficult choices in this thriller set in the world of online gambling. When Ritchie (Justin Timberlake) is cheated out of the money he had earmarked for his tuition fees on an online poker game, he sets out for Costa Rica to confront the site's owner, ruthless gambling tycoon Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). It's not long, however, before Ritchie, seduced by the promise of untold wealth and status, is lured into becoming Ivan's protégé and right-hand man. But when the FBI, in the shape of hard-bitten agent Shavers (Anthony Mackie), pressures him into helping to bring Ivan's empire down, Ritchie finds himself between a rock and a hard place, forcing him to use all of his wits and cunning to stay alive.

This revised second edition of Comparative Tort Law offers an updated and enriched framework for analysing and understanding the current state of tort law around the world. Using a critical comparative methodology, it examines common issues such as causation, economic and non-economic damages, product and professional liability, and the relationship between tort law and crime, insurance and public welfare schemes. Featuring contributions from international experts, this book also provides a comprehensive comparative assessment of tort law cultures, contextualising them within the legal systems and societies that sustain them. Chapters cover many jurisdictions often overlooked in the mainstream literature, and explore illuminating case studies from tort systems in Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, including new chapters specifically discussing tort law in Brazil, India and Russia. Comparative Tort Law is a critical tool for students, scholars and academic researchers, especially those specialising in tort and comparative law. It will also be useful to policymakers, practitioners and judges, in particular those dealing with differing tort law systems.

Today, multi-disciplinarity is the key to tackle challenges for the sustainable management of water resources, especially considering the increasing complexity in the water world. It is thus fundamental to link the mathematical laws describing water bodies and the new technologies given by the ICT and information science scientific communities. The 16 chapters in this book cover five main topics: numerical models to predict the water hydrodynamic in terms of flow fields and contaminant dispersion; problems related to floods in urban and coastal areas and to wastewater treatments; problems concerning water distribution networks; hydrological and climate change problems; and groundwater and erosion. The complexity of the problems and the different approaches used within the chapters of this book clearly show the multi-disciplinary nature of the researche focused on water bodies. Thanks to the vivacity of the hydroinformatics community, day by day fundamental advances are made in understanding complex phenomena related to water physics as well as in novel methodologies and tools to drive sustainable and efficient management of natural and artificial water systems. In Focus - a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This handbook is a selection of foundational aspects, security analysis, platforms, and applications of blockchains that consists of four parts. The first part introduces the basic building blocks such as distributed computing and cryptography. Consensus algorithms that form the basic backbone of blockchain protocols are presented. Various cryptographic tools like hash functions, digital signatures and commitment schemes are also introduced. Advanced cryptographic techniques such as zero knowledge protocols, secret sharing, verifiable random functions that are used for privacy-preserving and secure design are discussed.  The second part of this handbook consists of popular blockchain designs and platforms. Architecture of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Tendermint and Algorand have been presented. Various important issues like scalability and security are discussed in the third part. Security design challenges, security vulnerabilities and their analysis are discussed. The final part of this handbook discusses various applications of blockchains. These include supply-chain, identity and credential management, Internet of Things (IoT), data-sharing, e-voting, e-governance, e-health, smart cities, and Industry 4.0. Research challenges and directions of future work are included in this handbook. This comprehensive reference targets students and researchers, who are starting to explore blockchain. Professionals working in blockchain security and applications will find this handbook to be a valuable reference.