What this book intends to do is to study three-dimensionalism (the distinction values-norms-facts) not in what could be called its historical dimension, but in its substantive aspect, as a “form” that, when applied to different legal themes, would construct a “material” theory of law.

This book presents a unified hierarchical formulation of theories for three-dimensional continua, two-dimensional shells, one-dimensional rods, and zero-dimensional points. It allows readers with varying backgrounds easy access to fundamental understanding of these powerful Cosserat theories.

Equity is a multi-faceted subject, an authentic crossroads of problems. The perspective of this study is, as a result, a mix of focuses, which includes: the philosophy of law, general legal theory, justice theory, the history of law, comparative law, legal dogma, etc. In this book, as in various earlier studies of the author, she uses the "three-dimensional" method, which facilitates a stratified focus in agreement with three levels: facts, norms, and values. The subject of equity has never been analysed as completely as in this work. It includes a dynamic study of the different types of equity throughout history and in the different legal systems; the concept, content, limits, functions and types of equity; the relationship between equity and related ideas, and equity in all the branches of the legal order.

At the present time stability theory of deformable systems has been developed into a manifold field within solid mechanics with methods, techniques and approaches of its own. We can hardly name a branch of industry or civil engineering where the results of the stability theory have not found their application. This extensive development together with engineering applications are reflected in a flurry of papers appearing in periodicals as well as in a plenty of monographs, textbooks and reference books. In so doing, overwhelming majority of researchers, con cerned with the problems of practical interest, have dealt with the loss of stability in the thin-walled structural elements. Trying to simplify solution of the problems, they have used two- and one-dimensional theories based on various auxiliary hypotheses. This activity contributed a lot to the preferential development of the stability theory of thin-walled structures and organisation of this theory into a branch of solid mechanics with its own up-to-date methods and trends, but left three-dimensional linearised theory of deformable bodies stability (TL TDBS), methods of solving and solutions of the three-dimensional stability problems themselves almost without attention. It must be emphasised that by three dimensional theories and problems in this book are meant those theories and problems which do not draw two-dimensional plate and shell and one-dimensional rod theories.

There is a tradition to organize IUTAM Symposia "Creep in Structures" every ten years: the first Symposium was organized by N.J. Hoff in Stan ford (1960), the second one by J. Hult in Goteborg (1970), and the third one by A.R.S. Ponter in Leicester (1980). The fourth Symposium in Cracow, September 1990, gathered 123 par ticipants from 21 countries and reflected rapid development of the theory, experimental research and structural applications of creep and viscoplas ticity, including damage and rupture. Indeed, the scope of the Sympo sium was broad, maybe even too broad, but it was kept according to the tradition. Probably the chairman of "Creep in Structures V" in the year 2000 (if organized at all) will be forced to confine the scope substantially. Participation in the Symposium was reserved for invited participants, suggested by members of the Scientific Committee. Total number of sug gestions was very large and the response - unexpectedly high. Apart from several papers rejected, as being out of scope, over 100 papers were accepted for presentation. A somewhat unconventional way of presenta tion was introduced to provide ample time for fruitful and well prepared discussions: besides general lectures (30 minutes each), all the remain ing papers were presented as short introductory lectures (10 minutes) followed by a I-hour poster discussion with the authors and then by a general discussion. Such an approach made it possible to present general ideas orally, and then to discuss all the papers through and through.

Business law and labour law are driving forces and core areas of European private law. New concepts and approaches are thus required that are not limited to civil law and that are different from those traditionally embraced by national private law. These new challenges regarding the current status and perspectives of European private law are discussed in this volume by sixteen highly reputed researchers from across Europe. The contributions concern various areas of European private law, including contract, property, company, competition and labour law. This book will be an invaluable source for all those working on European law and private law within Europe.

The 19th century pioneers of motor physiology - Helmholtz, Hering, Fick and others - used the mathematics of motion, known as kinematics, to describe the laws of human movement and to deduce the neural control principles underlying these laws. After long neglect - partly due to limitations in stimulation and recording techniques - the kinematic approach is now resurging, fortified with modern computers and electrophysiology. New developments in recording techniques, as well as an improved understanding of the complex control properties of three-dimensional movements, have led to a flood of new research in this area. The classical laws of Donders and Listing have been confirmed and generalized, and computer simulations of the neural control of three-dimensional movement have been developed and tested. In this book, some of the world's leading scientists of motor control discuss how the brain represents and tranforms the kinematic variables of movement. Background chapters explain the basic concepts - non-commutativity, redundancy and the classical laws - and their application to normal function and motor disorders, and shorter articles describe current research. The contributions are based on presentations at a symposium held in Tübingen in August 1995. The wide scope of the book should enable researchers to gain an overview of current research, but should also help newcomers tot he field to get a good understanding of the questions and problems involved in three-dimensional movement control.