证人作证：保护比补偿更重要

证人作证"难"的问题是司法改革中遇到的难点问题之一,能否保证证人安全顺利的参与庭审是诉讼直接言词原则能否得到落实的关键。学术界目前将解决证人出庭问题的关键放在了证人补偿与惩戒方面,对证人保护却未提到应有的重视地位。笔者通过对现实中存在的证人恐吓现象和证人心理的分析,指出"安全"是人性的首要需求,因此,应当采用适当的措施,充分保障证人的安全,确实为证人作证创造良好的外部条件。     

Home blood transfusions: the medical, economic, and legal issues surrounding a new treatment procedure

Blood transfusions have almost always been confined to hospital settings in the past. Recent medical care trends have shifted some therapies (e.g., renal dialysis, hemophilia treatment) into the patient's home. Transfusions are now being given in increasing numbers to stable patients in their homes. This paper examines the medical aspects, the economic issues, and the legal implications of such transfusions. Candidates for home transfusion must be carefully chosen primarily according to the medical guidelines for such treatment. Any legal issues must be satisfactorily answered before approval is given. The paper concludes that if done properly, home transfusions can be safe, cost-effective, and convenient for a carefully selected segment of patients.     

Advanced directives,the right to die and the common law: recent problems with blood transfusions

The Australian common law suffers from a lack of judicial authority on the right to die, in particular the right of patients to make anticipatory decisions to refuse treatment. Recent cases concerning the right of patients to refuse life-saving blood transfusions have highlighted the need for a substantial judicial clarification of this area. This article critically examines one of the most recent Australian cases in detail and compares its approach with those from other common countries. After taking this comparative analysis the article puts forth a common law model of anticipatory decision-making and examines how that model might work in the context of current legislative frameworks.     

Court clerks,court administrators,and judges: Conflict in managing the courts

This article presents the results of a survey conducted in conjunction with the National Association for Court Administration (NACA), the National Association of Trial Court Administrators (NATCA), and the National Center for State Courts. A questionnaire designed to gauge role perceptions of court managers was sent to 410 NACA members and 321 NATCA members. One of the key elements of the survey is the issue of conflict — specifically, the types and sources of conflict encountered by court managers in the performance of their jobs. Over half (55.7 percent) of those surveyed responded, and most indicated one or more sources of conflict in managing their courts. Much has been written in the court administration literature about conflict, or the potential for conflict, in conducting court business. The results of this survey provide empirical evidence on the conflicts most frequently encountered in court management, including case-flow management problems, personnel matters, financial issues, policy and planning issues, and communication problems.     

Antitrust, health care quality, and the courts

Antitrust law represents the principal legal tool that the United States employs to police private markets, yet it often relegates quality and nonprice considerations to a secondary position. While antitrust law espouses the belief that vigorous competition will enhance quality as well as price, little evidence exists of the practical ability of courts to deliver on that promise. In this Article, Professors Hammer and Sage examine American health care as a vehicle for advancing understanding of the nexus among competition, quality, and antitrust law. The Article reports results of a comprehensive empirical review of judicial opinions in health care antitrust litigation between 1985 and 1999, with specific attention to courts' handling of quality and other nonprice concerns. Professors Hammer and Sage conclude that, although antitrust law cannot be expected to serve as the sole oversight mechanism for industries as complex and quality dependent as health care, courts have been successful incorporating some nonprice factors into antitrust analysis.     

Patients as consumers: courts, contracts, and the new medical marketplace

The persistent riddle of health-care policy is how to control the costs while improving the quality of care. The riddle's once promising answer--managed care--has been politically ravaged, and consumerist solutions are now winning favor. This Article examines the legal condition of the patient-as-consumer in today's health-care market. It finds that insurers bargain with some success for rates for the people they insure. The uninsured, however, must contract to pay whatever a provider charges and then are regularly charged prices that are several times insurers' prices and providers' actual costs. Perhaps because they do not understand the healthcare market, courts generally enforce these contracts. This Article proposes legal solutions to the plight of the patient-as-consumer and asks what that plight tells us about market solutions to the health-care quandary.     

论证人反对被迫自我归罪的特权与证人豁免制度

反对被迫自我归罪的特权是证人的一项重要权利。为保证诉讼发现真实的目标,许多国家在规定了反对被迫自我归罪的特权的同时还确立了证人豁免制度,以最大限度地减少证人反对被迫自我归罪特权的消极影响,保证在证人援用该特权时能够通过赋予其豁免而获取重要的证据。我国应当在立法中确立反对被迫自我归罪的特权和证人豁免制度。     

Occupational health ethics: OSHA and the courts

Recent court decisions have stressed the necessity for cost-benefit analysis in evaluating Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) standards, thus raising difficult ethical questions which this paper analyzes using classical approaches of deontology and teleology. Since both modes of analysis have deficiencies, the need for a synthesis using economic and noneconomic measures is suggested.