The States of Law in Papua New Guinea

This article employs a consideration of Peter Fitzpatrick’s early work in Papua New Guinea to reflect on legal and social developments in the country since his residence there during the independence period. In particular, Fitzpatrick’s concerns about the emergence of a Papua New Guinean bourgeois legality that would shape the postcolony are shown to have been prescient in some respects, and also to have had other outcomes unanticipated by the Marxist legal and anthropological imagination of the 1970s. Finally, I use examples from the heterogeneous lawscape of Papua New Guinean cities to illustrate how the ‘true people’s law’ envisioned by Fitzpatrick is in the process of emerging in spaces outside of formal legislative or court processes.

     

The unrecognised uses of legal education in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

POSTAL CORRESPONDENCE courses were for many years the traditional means to acquire qualifications, gain promotion or change one's career, and thus to get on in life. Radio and television came to play their respective parts in the process, and these in turn have been supplemented although not supplanted by a variety of on‐and off‐line electronic delivery modes. However, the means to learn are delivered, students must study and be assessed, and it is likely to remain necessary to retain a variety of traditional learning, teaching and assessment modes and methods, whilst building on them for the future.

In an era when the process of globalisation operates in a variety of spheres, not least in respect of education and communication, the importance of distance learning is bound to be of continuing and probably increasing importance, and the quality of the teaching delivered and the learning absorbed is crucial.

This paper, based on recent research undertaken by members of the School of Legal Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, set out to investigate some aspects of the effectiveness of law students’ distance learning with particular reference to how they acquire legal knowledge and the extent to which they take a deep or surface approach to that learning.¹     

The limitations of neoliberal logic in the anti-corruption industry: Lessons from Papua New Guinea

To acknowledge concerns about the rising power of the private sector, key international anti-corruption organisations have supported initiatives that emphasise the role that businesses play in corruption. Yet the way these initiatives have impacted the practices and perceptions of anti-corruption organisations in developing countries has received scant attention. As businesses can be key perpetrators of corruption, understanding the way anti-corruption organisations respond to the private sector can highlight the efficacy of anti-corruption efforts. Drawing on interviews with anti-corruption policy makers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) conducted between 2008 and 2009, this article shows how two international anti-corruption organisations perceived and worked with the private sector. It finds that there have been some initiatives designed to address, and raise awareness about private sector corruption in the country, reflecting international trends. At the same time the private sector is viewed, often uncritically, as an anti-corruption champion; this has affected the way anti-corruption organisations engage with businesses operating in the country. This article argues that despite a change in international discourse about the private sector’s role in corruption, in developing countries like PNG, neoliberal logic about the nature of the state still guide anti-corruption activity. These findings have implications for the efficacy of international anti-corruption efforts.     

法医学鉴定实践中的伦理考量

法医学鉴定的对象是人及与人相关材料,因此在法医学检案实践中需要考虑伦理问题。基于法医学鉴定中的公平正义、尊重、真相告知三大基本原则,进一步衍生出法医学检案实践活动的具体伦理要求,即法医学鉴定的称职性、对鉴定涉及案件及其当事人伦理考虑、如何处理案件检材。然而当前法医学鉴定却存在部分法医鉴定人不称职、重技术轻程序、鉴定机构选择出现争议、利益输送与利益冲突等问题。笔者针对以上问题提出相应对策,并重点讨论三大矛盾,保证法医学鉴定称职性。     

Ethical considerations underpinning the donation of live,non-regenerative organs

The recent donation of a kidney to one of Australia's most prominent citizens by a long-time friend and employee has brought to attention the problems of access facing patients who require renal transplantation as a life-saving measure. The lack of availability of cadaver organs, the improved techniques available to minimise tissue rejection and the potential to genetically engineer tissue-compatible individuals for future organ donation have generated an interest in the ethical and legal considerations that underlie live organ donation.     

The leadership styles of police managers

Leadership involves both the activity and behavior of managers. There are at least six leadership theories, one of which, the personal-situational, has resulted in the development of a number of contingency models of managerial style. The one created by Hershey and Blanchard is used to assess the styles of 155 police managers. Findings of this research indicate that police managers use two or three styles, are as effective as nonpolice managers, and tend to avoid “risky” styles, particularly delegating.     

Coping With Crime in a Developing Country: The Fear of Crime in Port Moresby,Papau New Guinea

The purpose of this article is to describe the various responses to the crime problem in Port Moresby and to compare the fear of crime among three groups living in Port Moresby (college staff, college students, and senior level managers).

Urban crime has become a major problem and a public issue in Port Moresby and the various responses to it are similar to those found in the U.S.: individual strategies for maintaining security, ad hoc collective measures among neighbors, pressure group demands, and political proposals.

Three groups were compared on their levels of fear of four types of crime and the security precautions they took in order to protect themselves. It was found that the group with the most economic resources and greatest community cohesiveness had the lowest level of fear of crime. The group with the most fear tended to rely more on neighbors for assistance and took greater security precautions than the “low-fear” group. Also, the findings suggest that expatriates may have a lower level of fear than nationals. Proposed policy responses include neighborhood organization and youth development.