Industrial Relations and Public Sector Reform: The Victorian Case

Few anticipated the radical program of public sector reform introduced by the Kennett government. A commitment to downsizing, markets and privatisation has transformed employment relations in the Victorian public sector. Familiar institutions have disappeared, major employment areas have been restructured, and jurisdiction for much public sector industrial relations has been transferred to the Commonwealth. Despite some industrial unrest, and occasional successes, public sector unions have been unable to fend off this ideological assault on traditional patterns of public sector employment.     

Ethics for Lawyers or Ethics for Citizens? New Directions for Legal Education

The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education andConduct (ACLEC) has called for the reconstruction of the ethicalfoundations of legal education. However, it has not justified its premisethat teaching legal values at the initial stage will enhance professionallegal ethics. It is argued that the present system of education, given itstechnocratic, individualistic, and authoritarian tendencies, cannot meetACLEC's challenge. A more ethical legal education can be envisagedwithin a neo-Aristotelian framework. This perspective emphasizes thereflexivity between micro and macro ethics, and utilizes the active andparticipatory learning approaches which should enable students to engagein meaningful moral discourse and problem solving.     

High‐Performance Human Resource Practices and Employee Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation

This article responds to recent calls for research examining the mechanisms through which high‐performance human resource practices (HPHRPs) affect employee outcomes. Using the theoretical lens of social exchange and process theories, the authors examine one such mechanism, public service motivation, through which HPHRPs influence employees’ affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors in public sector organizations. A sample of professionals in the Egyptian health and higher education sectors was used to test a partial mediation model using structural equation modeling. Findings show that public service motivation partially mediated the relationship between HPHRPs and employees’ affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors. Similar results were achieved when the system of HPHRPs was disaggregated to consider the individual effects of five human resource practices.     

War,liberalism, and modernity: the biopolitical provocations of ‘Empire’

The relationships between war, liberalism and modernity remain heavily under‐theorised within international relations. Existing critiques emphasise the ways in which the developments of liberal societies have been facilitated by the deployment of instrumental forms of force and violence in the extension and control of spaces beyond the boundaries of the zone of ‘liberal peace’. Yet, the ordinary functioning of liberal societies themselves can also be understood in terms of the roles of war. This article utilises ideas derived from Michel Foucault and Antonio Negri to advance our understanding of the ways in which liberal powers pursue security through the creation of what this author terms a logistical order of relations between the subjects that they govern. Simultaneously, the strategisation of social relations within liberal societies fosters the development of new forms of antagonistic subjectivities that contest the logistical foundations of liberal societies. This dual set of developments poses problematic questions as to how we should understand the relationships between the organisation of liberal societies and the forms of resistance that emerge in their midst. As the author details, these questions are made all the more pressing by the current context of the War on Terror.     

United Kingdom: Sisters and inheritance tax

Joyce and Sybil Burden are two sisters who have lived togethersince birth and currently occupy a UK farmhouse. When one ofthem dies the other will face a large inheritance tax bill andwill have to sell the     

Microcrystalline identification of drugs of abuse: stimulant street drugs

The microcrystallographic properties of the diliturate (5-nitrobarbituric acid) derivatives of certain stimulant drugs found in illicit street preparations have been determined. These microcrystallographic data can be used as a means of drug identification.     

Deciding about life-support: a perspective on the ethical and legal framework in the United Kingdom and Australia

This article is concerned with the legal right of health service providers to decide whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to patients. In particular, an examination of recent decisions by the English Court of Appeal in R (Burke) v General Medical Council (Official Solicitor and Others Intervening) [2005] EWCA Civ 1003 and the European Court of Human Rights in Burke v United Kingdom (unreported, ECHR, No 19807/06, 11 July 2006) is provided. An analysis of Australian case law is undertaken together with a consideration of the limits of a patient's legal right of autonomy in relation to choosing life-prolonging medical treatment; the basis upon which such treatment can be legally withdrawn or withheld from an incompetent patient against the patient's earlier expressed wishes that it should be continued or initiated; the concept in ethics and law of a patient's best interests; and the role of courts in adjudicating disputes about the continuation of treatment in light of the recent decisions.