The idea of the book, was not there originally. It was something that started to grow during the years after I lost her. At first they were simple phrases on paper, memories and lines, in order to deal with her passing. You could see it as a journal, as where I tried to write it away from me, to spend hours on a single sentence, just to confront the memories and write them down. It was my way of dealing with the pain, my way of talking about it. During the years however, these phrases began t...

Tax authorities face the challenge of influencing tax compliance by behaving in such a way that taxpayers perceive to be treated fairly and thus comply voluntarily with tax rules. In order to meet this challenge it is crucial that institutions such as tax authorities frequently interact with taxpayers and selectively apply instruments so that a sustainable basis of trust in taxation is created. At the same time, tax authorities need to have the capacity to adjust to a rapidly changing technol...

For some years now, certain EU Member States have been promoting their national courts as the best places to litigate cross-border commercial disputes. This has led to a competition between jurisdictions, which recently has been re-energised by the upcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. This civil justice competition affects, among other things, governments' policies, court organisation, and cross-border litigation strategies.

Building on an interdisciplinary methodology, this...

The governing contract law dictates and regulates the life of a contract. Despite its importance, little is known about the choice of law decision-making process. Is there (ir)rationality involved? How can we ascertain this? How can we improve these judgements?

Rethinking Choice of Law in Cross-Border Sales is an innovative, multi-disciplinary, and practice-oriented initiative to examine what factors determine the way contracting parties choose the law to govern their agreements. It presents ...

National system striving for protecting prisoners' labor and social security rights has been conducted in legislative area in many countries all over the world. And nowadays, national law concerning the protection of prisoners' rights is trying to become more substantial and in tune with international standards. Then while launching penal reforms on prisoners' labor and social security rights in the present and the future, the national legislator might want to be provided with insights and re...

This is the published version of the first Maastricht Private Law Lecture which was delivered by Reinhard Zimmermann on 27 January 2017. According to a widely held view, the law of succession is shaped by the cultural values of the society within which it prevails. Related to this is the perception that the law of succession is marked by great stability. It is thus resistant both to change and to legal harmonization. Comparative research, too, has traditionally been regarded as impractical an...

This pioneering research focuses on Biomimetic Interactive Architecture using "Computation", "Embodiment", and "Biology" to generate an intimate embodied convergence to propose a novel rule-based design framework for creating organic architectures composed of swarm-based intelligent components. Furthermore, the research boldly claims that Interactive Architecture should emerge as the next truly Organic Architecture. As the world and society are dynamically changing, especially in this digital...

Sustainability and resilience have become indispensable parts of the contemporary debate over the built environment. Although recognised as imperatives, the complexity and the variety of interpretations of sustainability and resilience have raised the necessity to again rethink their notion in the context of the built environment and to reframe the state-of-the-art body of knowledge.

The purpose of this book is to present ongoing research from the universities involved in the project Creating...

This special issue of the Journal of Facade Design and Engineering (JFDE) is linked to the conference FAÇADE 2018 – Adaptive!, the fifth conference that has been organised by Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts within the framework of the European Façade Network, EFN. FAÇADE 2018 is also the final conference of the COST Action TU1403 ‘Adaptive façades network’ (www.tu1403.eu) and dedicated to multifunctional, adaptive, and dynamic building envelopes.

Cardiovascular diseases have a detrimental effect on a patient`s quality of life. The condition is associated with high morbidity, invalidity and mortality rates if left untreated.

Cardiovascular diseases have diverse clinical manifestations, varying diagnosis and thus require a personalised treatment approach.

Consequently, cardiovascular pathologies, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis are challenging to comprehend for many persons who are not directly involved in this pathology, particular...