An Economic Justification for Open Access to Essential Medicine Patents in Developing Countries

This paper offers an economic rationale for compulsory licensing of needed medicines in developing countries. The patent system is based on a trade-off between the "deadweight losses" caused by market power and the incentive to innovate created by increased profits from monopoly pricing during the period of the patent. However, markets for essential medicines under patent in developing countries with high income inequality are characterized by highly convex demand curves, producing large deadweight losses relative to potential profits when monopoly firms exercise profit-maximizing pricing strategies. As a result, these markets are systematically ill-suited to exclusive marketing rights, a problem which can be corrected through compulsory licensing. Open licenses that permit any qualified firm to supply the market on the same terms, such as may be available under licenses of right or essential facility legal standards, can be used to mitigate the negative effects of government-granted patents, thereby increasing overall social welfare.     

Access to justice for New Zealand health consumers

New Zealand has evolved a just, sensible and balanced system for addressing adverse medical events. This article considers potential changes to enhance justice for health consumers after an adverse event. Patient motivations for claiming are described. Changes to the complaints regime are considered with the aim of opening up access to the Human Rights Review Tribunal. Modest change only is advocated, to avoid the potential for the tribunal to become a de facto appeal mechanism. The preferable solution is greater access to Health and Disability Commissioner investigations. The second part of the article considers changes, some implemented already, to the compensation regime to make it more affordable. These will compromise the ability of the scheme to address the remedial interest of injured patients in compensation. Undesirable consequences are likely to occur across the system. Policy-makers need to consider the ramifications of change for the system as a whole.     

Social Security,Student Loans and Access to Education

The issue of student loans has been under public discussion for some time, but another change in their finances which affects many of them has not been debated so much in public — and that is the removal of their housing benefit … It is very unfortunate that, just as the wish of students to participate in higher education is growing, they should be discouraged in this particular way.     

方法·质量·战斗力——新时期大学生党员教育方法途径研究

新时期大学生党员教育方法一直是学校开展党建工作的重头戏。本文从分析大学生思想心理状况出发,阐述了怎样把思想工作落到实处。在大学生入党前如何加强对其进行切实、有效的教育;将党建、团建工作结合起来,提高大学生的理论修养;以正确、笃实的教育方法,来确保大学生党员队伍的质量,不断提高党的战斗力。     

入世导致的中国立法新趋势

未来中国的立法将会出现以下趋势:进入又一轮继受法制定的新阶段;大力加强对私法的制定;从实质上改变程序严重滞后于实体法的状况;更积极地参与国际法的制定。至于原因,则与WTO的准入有着直接的关系。     

The New Zealand Law Commission Report on Access to Court Records

The first part of this article was published in the Commonwealth Law Bulletin, Volume 33, No 2. The article examines various elements that form part of a modern public fiscal management law as well as the role played by key players and puts forward a number of proposals for reform. Also examined in this article are elements impacting on the effective implementation of a modern fiscal law. The author moreover draws on a wide array of case law to propose core definitions of key fiscal law. While the preoccupation of this article is primarily legal in focus, the author cautions that unless other elements for effective re‐engineering, such as training and proper remuneration, are in place, the benefits mooted by such a legal regime may not materialise. The ultimate aim of a legal and regulatory framework supporting a modern financial management system is for increased accountabilities, transparency and value for money. Where these principles permeate the system of public financial management, from the identification and accounting of public money and the design and content of the Budget or public expenditure system, to the monitoring of the expenditure, the demands of the governed for better government and the protection of the public interest are met. So too are the demands of the governed for better government from the governing and the promotion of the public interest.     

Patents impediment or expedient to technology transfer

This paper examines the role that patents play in transferring technology. The history of our patent system and the requirements for patentability are reviewed. The option of keeping an invention as a trade secret rather than applying for a patent is presented. The paper also discusses the rationale behind the government’s change in its policy which permits exclusive licensing of public-owned patents. The author concludes that patents are not a barrier but a significant help in promoting technology transfer.     

Access and allocation: rights to water,sanitation and hygiene

This paper provides a decadal review of earth system governance (ESG) literature surrounding access and allocation to water, sanitation and hygiene. ‘access and allocation’ is one of five analytical problems, and ‘water’ a cross-cutting theme, identified in the ESG science and implementation plan (Biermann et al. 2010). A focused review of ESG and related literature reveals that the ESG literature is very robust in relation to access to water, sanitation and hygiene as a human right. However, the ESG literature lacks a robust, independent consideration of the right to hygiene or sanitation or its linkage and costs vis-à-vis other rights. There is no criteria for resolving competing demands on finite freshwater resources, as well as procedures for balancing rights. It is unclear how a transformed nuanced narrative of water access and allocation rights will address vulnerability and social inequality within this new balancing act.

     

走近论题学法学

伯尔曼对西方法律传统的描述,并未细致地揭示11世纪之前西方古代法学在知识论和方法论上的特征。不可否认的是,近代大学体制不仅打造了一个"以学术为生"、专事学问研究的知识群体,而且也铸造了一种追求逻辑形式主义的科学精神,但是,"经院派"以及以后的"公理方法派"法学家们的做法,实际上遮蔽了古老的法学作为一门法的实践知识的性格。古代的论题学体现了这种性格,它将法学的论辩活动带入到了更复杂、更可靠、更贴近人类社会生活现实的思考结构之中。     

Access to justice

Conclusion The central aim of providing access to justice should be to ensure that every citizen receives implementation of his legal rights at the lowest overall cost, not just the cost to litigants, or the courts' budget, or insurers, but to society as a whole. How far the proposals in the Report will achieve that will have to be seen when they are implemented, whether in whole or in part. Although the proposals are radical in many ways, it is certainly possible to argue that on one construction they merely preserve the present distinction between small claims, County Court, and High Court cases, with a variety of significant modifications. If that be so, it is equally arguable that very much the same result could be achieved by modifications to both the County Court and High Court rules without the need for universal sweeping changes. Certainly all practitioners and judiciary are going to find that the next few years are full of challenge and interest. It will be fascinating to observe the changes and the outcome. Q.C., M.A., LL.M. (Cantab), J.D. (Chicago), one of Her Majesty's Circuit Judges since 1987. The opinions expressed in this article are purely personal to the author and should not be attributed to any other member of the judiciary.     

坚持改革创新 推动法律援助工作再上新台阶

2010年是继续应对国际金融危机、保持经济平稳较快发展的关键一年，是全面实现“十一五”规划目标、为“十二五”发展打好基础的重要一年。各级司法行政机关和法律援助机构按照司法部的统一部署，坚持面向基层，突出工作重点，扎实做好服务困难群众的各项工作，取得了明显成效。