Graeme Laurie stepped down from the Chair in Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh in 2019. This edited collection pays tribute to his extraordinary contributions to the field. Graeme has often spoken about the importance of ‘legacy’ in academic work and has forged a remarkable intellectual legacy of his own, notably through his work on genetic privacy, human tissue and information governance, and the regulatory salience of the concept of liminality. The chapters in this volume animate the concept of legacy as a lens of analysis for the study and practice of medical jurisprudence. In this light, legacy reveals characteristics of both benefit and burden, as both a facilitator of and an encumbrance to the development of law, policy and regulation. Overall, the contributions reconcile the ideas of legacy and responsiveness and show that both dimensions are critical to achieve and sustain the health of medical jurisprudence itself as a dynamic, interdisciplinary and policy-engaged field of thinking.

In the Gorgias, Socrates famously declares that he is alone among contemporary Athenians in taking up the “true craft of politics.” But the claim is extremely puzzling, since Socrates also claims to be ignorant and lacking in any significant wisdom of any kind. Crafts, for Socrates, involve cognitive achievement. But Socrates declares that he has accomplished little of such achievement. Shows how the model of craft-knowledge can resolve this paradox by allowing Socrates to regard taking up the craft of politics as an attempt to improve his ability in achieving the goals of that craft: benefiting others. Shows how Plato’s early dialogues give abundant evidence of Socrates’ activities in both of what he characterizes as the branches of politics: legislation and correction.

Research showed that the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) effect progressively disappeared in Chinese speakers of English as their English proficiency increased and their exposure to Chinese-accented English decreased. As a result, ISIB effects were obvious in less proficient speakers. We explore the hypothesis that ISIB is still present in proficient L2 English speakers when tasks go beyond sound transcription and relate intelligibility to more complex sound-meaning mappings. Results showed that, in general, native English speakers outperformed Chinese speakers of English showing no evidence of an overall ISIB effect despite that Chinese speakers of English rated Chinese-accented sentences as more comprehensible. Only in the compound versus noun contrasts (e.g., ‘bluebird’ vs. ‘blue bird’), Chinese speakers of English outperformed native English speakers in the Chinese-accented stimuli, showing a mild ISIB-L effect. This modest evidence in support of ISIB encourages further exploration on aspects of sound perception that could affect ISIB in proficient L2 speakers.

As a general rule once a trust is fully constituted the terms are binding on the trustees and the provisions of the trust must be carried out. Occasinally where circumstances have changed there is scope to vary the trust usually in the event of an unforeseen event arising. This chapter examines when the terms of a trust can be varied. The court holds inherent jurisdiction to vary the trust in certain circumstances but the jurisdiction is limited. There are several statutory provisions that give the court jurisdiction to vary a trust but the statute with the widest range of powers is the Variation of Trusts Act 1958. Under the Act the court can authorise a variation on behalf of a range of beneficiaries including any person with an interest both vested and contingent and who by reason of infancy or incapacity is incapable of assenting. It also includes a category of beneficairies who may become entitled if certain events occur in the future. Exercise of the jurisdiction depends on whether it is for the benefit of the beneficiaries and this is dependent on whether a benefit can be shown both financial and non-financial. The jurisidiction is very wide but cannot be exercised if the court believes there is a resettlement as opposed to a variation.

Ballad opera flourished in the 1730s and was one of the most profitable forms of theatrical entertainment in Britain. Significantly, over a quarter of all recorded ballad operas were premiered at benefit performances in London theatres, making a direct link between the benefits and the development of this extremely influential genre. This chapter utilizes advertisements for the benefit performances as well as the texts and music of ballad operas themselves in order to find out more about these important premieres. We shall see that benefit performances drove the development of ballad opera, whether by initiating experimental works by new authors, prompting a musical revision of an older repertory piece (as in the case of Flora), or by encouraging a performer to try out a new character type or singing role (as with the frequent benefit revivals of The Beggar’s Opera). This chapter argues that the benefit performances occupied a central role in the development of ballad opera and helped to craft the genre that dominated British stages for the second quarter of the century.

The music-theatrical benefit is an open acknowledgement of the role that audiences play in the economy of the musical and theatrical worlds. Ostensibly put on as a means to provide performers or other playhouse personnel with a direct reward from audiences, the occasions also serve as a means for performers to reward audiences for their attentiveness, fidelity, and participation throughout the season. To conceive of benefits without audiences is as impossible as it is to conceive of them without performers. As part of the panoply of patronal relationships common before and during the long eighteenth century, the benefit is still with us and plays the same role, notwithstanding the variety of ways in which we chose to cloak it these days. By examining the structure of who, when, where, how much, and how often, through examination of original archival materials, published correspondence, commentary in the London Stage volumes, and other sources, including both straightforward and satirical portrayals in poems, novels, plays, and cartoons, I examine the ecology of the benefit to reveal its extent, its boundaries, and its value.

This article examines the contribution the Mercer’s Hospital charity services made to musical life in eighteenth-century Dublin, contextualizing how this activity reflects aspects of Dublin’s wider social and cultural life during this period. The extent to which the Mercer’s charity services reflect benefit performances in eighteenth-century Ireland and Britain will be established, before the discussion turns to an exploration of the performing network. Mercer’s Hospital was one of several voluntary hospitals established during the eighteenth-century, its governors, dominated by the Anglo-Irish elite, possessing established connections with musical, social, and religious organizations in Dublin, provincial Ireland, and London. Mercer’s governors were part of a wider network of amateur musicians who through their patronage of the arts enabled Dublin to sustain an intense level of musical activity for much of the eighteenth century. Works by Handel dominated programming, thus demonstrating the preference for music in the Italian style and the desire to identify with London tastes, illustrating the strong cultural connections between Ireland and Britain.

Subscription series were a relatively late development in North-east England (in the late 1720s and early 1730s) and the first known concerts in the region were almost all benefits given by visitors to the area. This paper looks at the different types of benefits in the North-east during the eighteenth century, the similarities and differences between benefits in the region and elsewhere in England, and the advantages and disadvantages of holding such concerts.

This article traces benefit performances of English oratorios by Handel, his contemporaries, and his successors between 1732 and the 1770s, exploring how the performances contributed to the success and popularity of English oratorio, as well as to question their strategic employment by composers and theatre managers. The relationship between criticism of oratorio performances in the theatre and the success they achieved through charitable association, particularly as a result of the Foundling Hospital performance of Messiah in 1750, will also be explored, offering new insights into the development of the genre and the practical uses of benefit nights in the mid-eighteenth century.

The known benefit concerts in which Mozart was involved will be the main focus of this chapter. In such settings, the focus was on the extraordinary gifts of the young composer–performer, as is plain from prior advertisements in the London press. These concerts will be contextualized in various ways, including private concerts for the Royal family and aristocrats; ‘society’ concerts (principally those of Mrs Cornelys); the Bach–Abel concerts; ‘exhibition’ concerts at which Mozart’s precocious talent was displayed; close analysis of the press advertisements through the lenses of ethics and anthropology; a necessarily speculative discussion of the new compositions (including symphonies) that Mozart may have performed at the benefit concerts; concert representation as a barometer of Mozart’s developing compositional style, including an examination of the sonatas K10–15 in the light of domestic music making; and especially the ‘London Notebook”, K15a–ss, a remarkable testament of his development at the age of eight or nine.

The benefit concert in early eighteenth-century London is traditionally associated with professional singers and vocal music, but it has equal importance for instrumental music and the Italian concerto in particular – a genre whose success in Britain preceded that of opera seria. As with opera seria it was Continental composers and performers working in London who were the driving force behind the performances of concertos at benefit concerts. The new Italian concerto sought to rival the da capo aria in musical, physical, and aural experiences – a situation unique to Britain at the time. The rise in status of the concerto is also reflected in changes to the language of benefit advertisements. By the 1720s, rather than the earlier and more generic mention of ‘instrumental music’, readers now expected to know the composers and soloists of any concertos presented, just as they came to expect to know the names of singers, operas and arias – a distinction not always given to other instrumental genres.

Chapter 2 examines how and why the United States chose to deliver the EITC in one annual payment as a tax refund, and how this is a stark contrast to how other social benefits are administered. One reason is administrative cost – it is relatively inexpensive to allow taxpayers to self-declare eligibility and receive benefits as a tax refund. Because other social benefit programs have direct contact with their recipients prior to payment, those programs have far higher administrative costs and far smaller overpayment rates. Delivery of social benefits through the tax system also avoids the stigma associated with applying for benefits through social welfare workers. This chapter cites empirical studies about taxpayer preferences as to delivery method and timing of refund and evidence as to how EITC recipients spend their refund. It also describes experiments with periodic payment, including the Advance Earned Income Tax Credit.

Chapter 4 delivers a comparative perspective. The United States served as a model for many other countries to adopt earnings-based family tax credits, and this chapter seeks to borrow ideas back by examining how New Zealand and Canada administer similar credits. The chapter provides an overview of New Zealand’s Working for Families Tax Credits and Canada’s Working Income Tax Benefit and Canada Child Benefit. It describes the mechanics of each, explores critiques raised by domestic scholars, and draws takeaways for the United States. While acknowledging that there are cultural differences and conceding that no design is perfect, this chapter sets the stage for a reimagination of how the United States delivers its antipoverty benefits to working families.