Navigating tissue banking regulation: conceptual frameworks for researchers, administrators, regulators and policy-makers

In the "post-genomic" age of biomedical research, researchers often wish to utilise collections of human tissue. This type of research raises many ethical and legal issues and anyone wishing to use such collections is faced with an enormously complex set of regulatory requirements, many of which are still ambiguous, reflecting ongoing ethical and legal debate. Whilst there is no way of entirely avoiding such regulatory complexity and ambiguity, conceptual frameworks can assist those who wish to use, administer, authorise and generate policy on tissue banking research. Two conceptual frameworks are described here: a taxonomy of tissue banking practices, aimed at assisting those who need to ensure that tissue banks meet ethical and legal requirements; and a "syncretic" approach to policy-making, for those who wish to generate new policy, or streamline existing policy relating to tissue banking research.     

The determinants of health policy, a case study: regulating safety and health at the workplace in Sweden

This article analyzes and criticizes the " technocratic " view of occupational health and safety policies, which sees the values of the personnel in "post-industrial" regulatory agencies as the most important determinant of those policies. It takes an alternate position, which explains occupational health and safety policies as primarily resulting from the different degrees of political power of the two major classes (capital and labor), and from the set of influences exerted on the regulatory agencies by the instruments (e.g., parties, unions, trade organizations) of those classes. It shows how an analysis of the historical evolution of those classes in Sweden and their conflict in both civil and political societies explains Swedish occupational health and safety policies better than a mere analysis of the regulators' views. And it concludes that the occupational health and safety policies in Sweden are not identical to those in the U.S.--as the " technocratic " theorists assume--but rather offer more protection to the workers than U.S. policies do. This situation is a result of labor having more power in Sweden than it has in the U.S. The different class formations and class behavior in the two societies are compared, and the implications of this comparison for occupational health and safety policies are discussed.     

The Initiative Process and its Declining Agenda-setting Value

California adopted the initiative process in 1911 as a means to allow the electorate to enact laws or amend the state constitution without acting through representatives. The process was instituted in reaction to an unresponsive legislature dominated heavily by well-financed and professional special interest groups.
Since 1978, however, there has been a clear trend toward the "professionalization" of the initiative process in California. What was once a valuable agenda-setting mechanism for citizens has increasingly become a tool of professional special interest groups. A survey of expenditures made in solely the qualification phase of statewide initiatives over time shows a growing dichotomy between those initiatives that qualify for the ballot and those that fail to qualify. Not only are dramatically more funds spent on behalf of successful qualification efforts, but these funds also are more likely to be spent on enlisting professional signature-gathering services. The era of the "popular initiative" is coming to a close unless steps are taken to reduce the professionalization of its agenda-setting function.     

Why wrongful birth actions are right

A wrongful birth action is a claim in negligence brought by parents of a child against a doctor who has "wrongfully" caused their child to be born. These claims can be divided into two categories: those where a doctor performs a failed sterilisation procedure that leads to a healthy child being born; and those where a doctor fails to provide sufficient information to allow parents to choose to abort a handicapped child. The recent decision of the High Court of Australia in Cattanach v Melchior (2003) 77 ALJR 1312 falls into the former category. The decision to allow the parents to receive damages for the costs of raising and maintaining their child has generated much public debate. Despite the endorsement of this "wrongful birth" action, there are indications that the legislature will overturn the decision. This article examines whether there is a sound doctrinal basis for recognising wrongful birth actions.     

Teenage Drivers and Fatal Crash Responsibility

Data from national files on fatal crashes are analyzed to reveal that young drivers, especially sixteen and seventeen year olds, are more often responsible for fatal crashes than are older drivers. This is particularly the case for young males. Moreover, those killed in crashes for which teenagers are responsible are disproportionately people other than the teenaged drivers. A possible explanation for these facts lies in the "macho" culture of teenaged males. Potential countermeasures include those directed to limiting the driving exposure of teenagers as well as technological devices to moderate the injury-producing forces in crashes.     

沉默权之赋予与证明标准之转型

口供之必取是支撑我国"符合说"之证明标准理论成立的关键。在赋予被追诉者沉默权之后,我国的证明标准必将面临转型。对于那些被追诉者不予供述的案件,应当实行内心确信的证明标准;对于那些被追诉者自愿供述的案件,可实行高度盖然性的证明标准。     

The Council of Europe Laundering Convention: A recent example of a developing international criminal law

Conclusion With the Laundering Convention, the Council of Europe has contributed once again to the development of the international criminal law and to the promotion of international criminal law cooperation. The Council has shown that it is possible to elaborate a complex, highly technical convention within a period of less than a year so long as the political will exists. It is now a matter for the individual member states and other states to sign, if they have not done so, or to ratify, if they have already signed the convention. The future of the Laundering Convention lies in the hands of those states that have responsibility for its application. An efficient tool for international criminal law cooperation has been created-it must now be used.This is a revised version of a paper presented at an international workshop on Principles and Procedures for a New Transnational Criminal Law, organized jointly by the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law and the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany, May 21–25, 1991. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Council of Europe.Juris kandidat, Uppsala University 1979. The author was Secretary to the Council of Europe expert committee that elaborated the Laundering Convention.     

Does Fault Matter?

In this article, I try to go beyond the traditional objections to strict liability public welfare offenses and confront other possible justifications for punishing non-culpable conduct. Specifically, I consider the following arguments:

• Penalties for public welfare offenses are punishment by name only, thus traditional justifications for punishment are not needed;
• Even if those penalties are punishment, punishing those who produce or threaten significant harm to others is not necessarily unjust; and
• Even if such punishment is not entirely just, it is consistent with other widely accepted criminal law doctrines.

     

Some Remarks on the Concept of Toleration

The paper contains a conceptual analysis of "act of toleration" and the property of "being tolerant". Being tolerant is understood as a dispositional property of persons manifested in what the author calls the "circumstances of toleration". The main circumstances distinguished are: a tendency to prohibit a certain behaviour and the competence to determine the deontic status of the behaviour in question. An act of toleration, then, consists in not prohibiting (or cancelling the prohibition of) that behaviour. It is argued that this requires the existence of two different normative systems, the "basic system", and the "justifying system". Acts of toleration must be based on reasons coming from the latter. This insight enables one to establish a difference between reasonable and unreasonable toleration, as well as between toleration and related concepts like indifference, acquiescence, etc. The analysis also introduces the distinction between "vertical" and "horizontal" toleration. Acceptance of this last category implies that toleration does not necessarily require hierarchical relationships between those who tolerate and those whose actions are tolerated.     

公共起诉资格的生成

根据起诉资格的私法模式,救济与权利是相互依存的,只有那些自身权利受到威胁（或损害）的人才有资格获得救济。然而,此种旨在维护个人普通法权利的私法模式对于规制型国家中大量出现的制定法利益已不敷其用,从而导致体现这些制定法利益的公共起诉资格模式应运而生。该模式确认起诉资格的标准相继体现为不法侵害标准和“当事人遭受损害”条款标准,并且宽泛的“当事人遭受损害”条款标准导致的违宪争议也随着法兰克弗特法官所创造的“私人检察总长”术语而得以消解。     

Expert testimony on decision processes in employment cases

The 1991 Civil Rights Act and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have modified standards applicable to psychometric or statistical proof of discrimination in employment cases. Changes in the legal standards have increased the role for psychological experts to prove or rebut allegations of disparate impact of hiring or promotional criteria, whether those criteria caused the observed disparities in the workforce, and whether the legitimate needs of the employer were substantially served by the employer's selection criteria. Three different methods or approaches to meet the legal standards are discussed: (a) reliance on traditional psychometric validity analyses; (b) regression analysis or the policy-capturing method; and (c) the survey data approach. These techniques are illustrated by reference to three cases in which experts successfully presented this evidence. While the application of the 1991 Civil Rights Act remains somewhat unclear, these approaches may prove useful in future employment discrimination cases.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or any other government agency.     

“法律人”：中国法学高等教育的人才目标新探

在中国日益融入全球化进程的背景下,中国法学教育改革的步伐和力度也在不断加快加深。作为基础法学教育的本科法 学教育,“法律人”应作为中国法学高等教育的人才目标。它所具有完整的内涵包括:高尚的法治信仰是“法律人”的首要价值标准,严 谨的法律思维是“法律人”的必备技术,扎实的专业知识和实践技能是“法律人”的生存之本,良好的人文素养和综合素质是“法律人” 的基础条件。     

The grief process in those admitted to regional secure units following homicide

Although there is considerable literature on grief and grief work, there have been few studies of the grief process in those who have killed someone. This paper reviews the scope of this problem in England and Wales and examines a number of issues in connection with the grieving process in those who have killed but, because they were found to be suffering from an "abnormality of mind" at the time of the offence, were found not guilty of murder. Increasingly, these patients are referred for treatment to Regional Secure Units, under hospital orders of the Mental Health Act of 1983.     

Campaign contributions in Texas Supreme Court races

One of the most disturbing features of an elective judiciary is judicial campaign finance. This paper explores the financing of the 1988 Texas Supreme Court races, probably the most expensive partisan judicial election campaign in history. It examines the sources of the funding of those six seats on the court in terms of competition among interest groups for control of the court. It also examines proposed reforms in the system of campaign finance and points out that those reforms are not neutral tools of good government, but that instead they have massive political implications for the interests vying to influence the direction of tort law in the state.     

Deep discount industrial development bonds; proposed rulemaking--Internal Revenue Service, Treasury. Notice of proposed rulemaking

This document contains proposed regulations relating to the determination of the amount of proceeds of issues of industrial development bonds sold by the issuer at a substantial discount. This amount is used in determining whether "substantially all" of the bond proceeds are used for an "exempt purpose", i.e. those described in section 103(b) (4), (5), (6), or (7) of the Internal Revenue Code, and for purposes of the "major portion" test in section 103(b)(2). The regulations would affect issuers, holders, and recipients of the proceeds of industrial development bonds of the type described above.     

Society's retributive response to juvenile violence: A developmental perspective

Examines theoretical and empirical challenges to a national trend toward increasingly punitive determinate sentences in juvenile court, and automatic transfer of juveniles to criminal court, for homicides and other serious violent offenses. Theory and research in developmental psychology, criminology, and child clinical psychology and psychiatry are examined, with special attention to (a) decision-making by adolescents; (b) characteristics of adolescents who commit homicide; and (c) adolescents' recidivism and potential for rehabilitation. Theoretical support is found for promoting legal responses to adolescent violent offenders that are different from those for adult violent offenders, arguing against determinate sentences based on the offense alone. Empirical support, however, is limited by the lack of relevant systematic research, for which specific recommendations are offered.     

GEEKING UP AND THROWING DOWN: HEROIN STREET LIFE IN DETROIT

This paper reports the results of a field study of 15 street-level heroin dealers in Detroit, Michigan. The techniques used by these heroin dealers are different from those described in most previous literature. The Detroit dealers do not conform to the traditional "hustling" model. They operate within a bureaucracy, do not generally sell heroin to fund their own habit, are relatively young, and largely lack an approval ideology for their activities.     

INNOVATIVE APPROACHES IN CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATIONS

This article discusses the joint office interview as an innovative technique for evaluation of families, the feedback or "summary" sessions by evaluators, and the role of the mediator in the feedback process. A retrospective analysis of the procedures revealed that considerable material could be studied and presented. Summaries of these data are offered as a guide to those interested in the resolution of child custody disputes.