Medical treatment of dementia patients at the end of life: can the law accommodate the personal identity and welfare problems?

This article considers whether two significant philosophical objections to autonomy-based legal approaches to decision-making for incompetent individuals could be accommodated by the law. These philosophical objections are known as the personal identity and welfare problems. The article first sets out the autonomy-based approaches and their objections. Next, the present legal position is briefly canvassed in a comparative vein. Finally, the article suggests how the personal identity and welfare problems might be accommodated were legislators minded to do so, by proposing specific statutory amendments to the recent English legislation on advance decisions and evaluating their viability, particularly in light of the European Convention on Human Rights.     

A law for need or a law for greed?: Restoring the lost law in the international law of foreign investment

The 1990s brought about a change in the international law of foreign investment due to the primacy achieved by the tenets of neo-liberalism. They drove concerns about the environment and poverty away from the concerns of the law and gave priority to the interests of multinational corporations by enhancing their ability for movement of assets and the absolute protection of these assets through treaty rules. The regime created by this law was operated through secure systems of dispute settlement through arbitration which also enabled the stabilization of these rules. In the process, private power of a section within the hegemonic state was able to subvert international law through the use of low order sources of the law and secure a system of investment promotion and protection. The restoration of the more universal themes of environmental protection and poverty alleviation is necessary. This paper outlines the developments that accentuated the sectional interests of multinational capital and explores the means by which a change that reflects the global interests could be effected.

Child soldiers and distributive justice: addressing the limits of law?

This paper discusses the limitations of legal responses to the problem of child soldiery, beginning from the premise that the crime of using child soldiers is comprised of both the recruiter and the recruit. While legal approaches are addressed to the recruiter, because of the dearth of enforcement mechanisms, the protections established in international law have failed to prevent the recruitment of under-aged combatants. It remains to be seen how efficacious a deterrent the precedent-setting recent and on-going prosecutions of recruiters will be. Nonetheless, legal approaches do not address the recruit, and thus they fail to account for the complex of social reasons that prompt many children to join armed groups “voluntarily”. This paper argues that the conditions that lead children to join armed groups are structural and, thus, must be addressed structurally through developing greater “distributive justice”.     

A century of the law profession in Palestine: quo vadis?

The main challenge encountered by the law profession in Palestine throughout its 100-year history is the division over political lines. The split started with the establishment of the Palestinian Jewish and Arab Bar Associations under British rule before 1948. The division took another form of separation between Palestinian lawyers in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel between 1948 and 1967. Under Israeli occupation (1967–1994), lawyers were partitioned into three factions: striking lawyers who affiliated with the Jordanian Bar Association, practicing lawyers who formed the Arab Lawyers Union, and the Gaza lawyers who founded the Lawyers Society. Together these three bodies formed the transitional council of a Palestinian Bar in 1997. Since the 2003 Bar election, lawyers have been unified under the Palestinian Bar Association, which has become a well-established body, notwithstanding all the challenges facing not only the law profession but also the country as a whole.     

Considering advances in neuroscience through the lenses of law and human?rights

Advances in neuroscience should be subject to a robust public dialogue that includes attention to the legal and human rights issues raised by both research and its applications.     

Sovereign impunity in America’s war on terror: examining reconfigured power and the absence of accountability

Significant socio-legal transformations since September 11th have attracted scholarly investigations in pursuit of identifying the precise nature of a newly configured form of power. In the course of suspending law, the US government has instituted controversial tactics in the war on terror, many of which are deemed illegal under international law (i.e., the unlawful enemy combatant designation, torture, and the war in Iraq). This work attends to recent analyses on sovereignty, governmentality, counter-law, and states of exception in an effort to elaborate on state impunity since it is regarded as an important phenomenon warranting greater exploration. Due to an absence of accountability that would otherwise hold specific government actors responsible, key counter-terrorism strategies perpetuate serious state crimes. The article situates those transgressions within a conceptual context that deepens our understanding of power in a post-9/11 world while inviting further critique on the war on terror as it undermines the rule of law and established human rights protections.

---

Lost in space? the role of place in the delivery of social welfare law advice over the telephone and face-to-face

ABSTRACT

Advice that is provided exclusively over the telephone has been promoted by government as more convenient and accessible than face-to-face appointments. The resulting push towards telephone-only provision, as implemented by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, challenges the long history of association between social welfare law advice and local delivery within disadvantaged communities. This article reports on qualitative research comparing telephone and face-to-face advice which uncovers the continuing relevance of place in the dynamics and mechanics of social welfare law provision. Familiarity with the geographical location, knowledge of local policies and procedures, relationships with opponents and allies, and an understanding of the ‘local legal culture’ mean that face-to-face advisers are often able to conduct their legal casework more effectively. Conversely, local knowledge is unlikely to be available to Community Legal Advice telephone advisers. This research suggests that, in addition, telephone-only advisers may be developing a more narrow understanding of the essential qualities of casework. These findings are particularly significant in view of the likely future expansion of remote methods of delivery in legal aid work.