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A Journey Towards Fair Contracting: Regulating Unfairness in International Commercial Contracts in English and French Law
No full textThis chapter examines the effectiveness of the legal mechanisms in English and French law in regulating unfairness in international business-to-business (B2B) contracts, particularly in contexts marked by asymmetries in bargaining power and information. These asymmetries typically manifest themselves in contractual arrangements that disproportionately advantage the dominant parties, often through the imposition of one-sided or oppressive clauses, or abusive conduct impairing the bargaining process or the content of the contract itself. The chapter undertakes a comparative analysis of statutory and judicial responses in both jurisdictions. Framed through the dual lens of procedural and substantive fairness, it evaluates how each legal system addresses unfairness and the extent to which they curb unfair contracting in international commercial transactions. A key insight is the shared reliance on the dual unfairness test—procedural and substantive—as a threshold for judicial intervention. The chapter concludes that contractual freedom commonly trumps controls of unfairness in B2B transactions in both jurisdictions. Despite the availability of legal tools to address unfairness, English and French courts apply them with notable restraint, guided by a shared commitment to preserving freedom of contract and legal certainty. Consequently, only the most egregious cases prompt judicial redress, limiting the broader effectiveness of these mechanisms. A more assertive yet principled judicial application of these tools in instances where heightened unfairness exists arising out of a relationship of trust or dependency would pave the way to fairer contracting in these contexts in both jurisdictions
Sensuous Abstraction: hip-hop, money and the popular
No full textThis article examines the absorption of hip-hop into the upper echelons of the popular music charts. It identifies 1997 as a pivotal turning point in this history and focuses on three albums released that year by the Bad Boy Entertainment label, in particular, as decisive: Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death, Mase’s Harlem World, and Puff Daddy and the Family’s No Way Out. These releases, the article argues, codify money as a sensuous abstraction and it situates this aesthetic gesture within broader social transformations, including the gentrification of New York, the financialisation of the recording industry, and shifts in the US economy. It argues that hip-hop came to uniquely aestheticise money at a historical juncture where money itself was growing increasingly abstract; ‘floating’ without any attachment to gold or other precious metals. In this respect, the Bad Boy label’s output in 1997 is exemplary of the way different orders of value – economic, cultural and moral – can intersect cultural objects
Responsible Cultural Consumption and Production: Insights from live experiences, film and fashion
No full textExploring the Sustainability Development Goal for Responsible Consumption and Production, this volume provides insights from the performing arts, festivals and events, film industry, and fashion sectors.
With a variety of examples and case studies, contributors illuminate the political and social importance of the creative and cultural industries in driving sustainable transitions. The influence of policy, funding, and international standards are also considered, alongside other key themes such as social entrepreneurship, the post-growth economy, and the importance of overcoming barriers to equity, equality and social justice.
Alongside a sister publication, Responsible Consumption and Production in the Creative and Cultural Industries, this edited book explores how creative and cultural organisations embrace the challenge of sustainable development, highlighting best practice across geographic and cultural contexts. The result is a comprehensive overview that is valuable reading for research, policy and practice
Language Teacher Associations as innovative and collectively autonomous spaces in changing times: A global study
No full textThe first systematic survey of language teacher associations (LTAs) was conducted in 2008 and resulted in a practical handbook and an academic publication (Lamb et al., 2012; Lamb, 2012). This article discusses new research conducted in 2024–2025 that revisits key aspects of the original survey and explores changes in LTA activity since the first study, as well as new developments and challenges for language educators and LTAs themselves since 2008. Data were collected primarily through a global survey of 40 LTAs, representing national and international, unilingual and multilingual associations across the globe. The thematic analysis of the survey responses was integrated with insights from two in-depth group discussions with 13 LTA leaders from FIPLV member associations. Five thematic dimensions emerging from the data analysis are discussed: spaces for manoeuvre; LTAs as knowledge producers; technological developments: opportunities and challenges; interlingual shared spaces; and advocacy and critical collective autonomy. The findings demonstrate an enduring pattern of the professional identity of LTAs as dynamic, multidimensional, interlingual spaces for their members’ collaborative learning, fostering critical collective autonomy and innovation with the strong potential to find the spaces for manoeuvre to develop value-based practices locally and globally. These dimensions also imply that, whatever their internal and external challenges, LTAs will continue to play a central role in advocating for languages and sustaining language teacher agency amidst wider global changes
Expression and signaling patterns of CD180/MD-1 and CD150 in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) cells
No full textChronic lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) is a B-cell malignancy marked by biological heterogeneity, variable progression and survival outcomes. Orphan toll-like receptor CD180 (RP105) complexed with the accessory protein MD-1 and CD150, which belongs to the signalling lymphocyte activation molecule family (SLAMF1), have emerged as an important modulator of CLL cell signaling and fate. However, their functional interplay, remains insufficiently understood.
This study investigated the surface and intracellular expression of CD180, CD150, and MD-1 in primary CLL cells and the MEC-1 cell line, alongside their downstream signaling responses. Flow cytometric analyses revealed that MD-1 expression is tightly associated with CD180 and CD150 positivity, which may further indicate a role for MD-1 in stabilizing CD180 surface localization.
Stimulation of MD-1⁺CD180⁺ CLL cells revealed four distinct signaling phenotypes: AKT signalers, p38MAPK signalers, dual signalers, and non-responders. CD150low cells preferentially activated AKT, whereas CD150high cells favored p38MAPK signaling, indicating context-dependent modulation of downstream pathways. Notably, stimulation via CD150 alone induced phosphorylation of both AKT and p38MAPK in specific subsets, confirming its independent signaling capacity.
In synchronized MEC-1 cells, CD180 and MD-1 expression peaked at 48 hours, coinciding with enhanced AKT phosphorylation upon combined CD180/CD150 stimulation. These data suggest that the temporal dynamics of CD180 expression modulate the outcome of CD150-driven signaling, indicating a tightly regulated and interdependent interaction.
Collectively, these findings define a CD180/MD-1/CD150 signaling axis that underlies the intracellular signaling heterogeneity in CLL. The relative expression balance between CD180 and CD150 may steer cells toward pro-survival or stress-associated signaling, providing novel mechanistic insight into CLL biology and identifying candidate biomarkers or therapeutic targets
Conceptualising active transmobilities as infrastructure: a research agenda
No full textVery little work sofar has explored trans and LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of active travel,compared to an emerging scholarship covering public transport systems. Thispaper draws on recent queer and feminist scholarship to propose an infrastructuralapproach to researching transgender mobilities and specifically ‘activetransmobilities’. This infrastructural approach centres relational flows ofcare and neglect that constitute the material, social, and experientialdimensions of mobility spaces. It seeks to reframe gender equalities away froman individualistic, box-ticking approach to policy, instead foregroundingconnections between people, spaces, and technologies, and exploring howintersectional differences shape spatially differentiated experiences of activetravel. The paper reflects on originalcreative mapping and interview data constructed with transgender inhabitants ofBrighton & Hove, UK, to empirically ground a consideration of thespecificities and politics of transmobilities as part of wider research andpolicy agendas of active travel and mobility justice. It concludes byconsidering how moving towards a more care-full agenda within active travel andtransmobilities research can contribute to active travel research and to transliberation
Managerial tone and audit outcomes: Do information environment and governance monitoring matter?
No full textThis study examines the relationship between managerial tone and audit outcomes. We employ 42,250 firm-year observations from United States non-financial firms from 2000 through 2020. Our results show that firms with a more positive managerial tone in their 10-K filings tend to experience more favorable audit outcomes. This is evidenced by fewer financial restatements, fewer adverse opinions on the strength of internal controls, lower audit fees, less audit effort, and fewer going concern opinions. We also find that such favorable impacts are more pronounced in financially non-distressed firms, thereby reinforcing the credibility of the positive managerial tone as perceived by auditors. Our main findings are robust across various sensitivity tests and alternative variable approaches. Our analysis also suggests that the relationship between managerial tone and audit outcomes is more pronounced for firms with a poorer quality information environment and weaker governance monitoring. Finally, our findings suggest that a positive managerial tone is negatively associated with both earnings management and the likelihood of whistleblowing, which in turn have a positive influence on audit outcomes. Overall, our study contributes to the literature and practice by demonstrating the significant role that client-firm managerial tone plays in audit outcomes
UCL East Engagement Trellis Skills Exchange
No full textKnowledge exchange event exploring creative approaches to collaboration and community engagement with members of the Trellis network. The event featured a variety of drop-in activities designed to showcase and generate discussion around techniques and approaches to community engagement and multidisciplinary collaborations. I contributed a session on my creative method using porcelain to co-create pinchpots as a conversation starter and facilitator