Involuntary administration of medication in the community: the judicial opportunity

In a state in which patient refusal of antipsychotic medication in all nonemergency situations must be respected, lawyers and psychiatrists in western Massachusetts have employed probate court decisions as involuntary outpatient treatment orders. The legal, administrative, and clinical issues in sustaining court-ordered outpatient treatment are discussed by focusing on case examples demonstrating some successes, some challenges, and some failures. Judicially sanctioned involuntary outpatient treatment presents an alternative model to statutorily based outpatient commitment.     

反对司法审查的核心理由

本文清楚地阐述了反对立法的司法审查的核心理由,适些理由是在特殊宪法体系下,封特殊决策和司法审查出现的历史的简洁讨论中得出的。本文批判司法审查基于两个基础：第一,文章主张没有理由认为由司法审查保护权利能比由民主的立法机关做得更好。第二,本文认为,除了产生的结果外,司法审查是民主但不正当的。然而,反对司法审查的理由也不是绝对或者无条件的。在本文中,这些理由以若干条件为前提,包括假定社会有着运作良好的民主机构,社会申的大部分公民认真对待权利（即使他们可能并不赞同他们拥有的权利）。文章末尾则讨论这些前提条件丧失时会出现的情形。     

Psychotropic drugs in developmental mushrooms: a case study review

Psilocyn and psilocybin can be identified in different stages of developing psilocybe mushrooms. Knowing the various stages of the mushroom development can be useful when receiving evidence from illicit mushroom growing operations. Exhibits from three separate cases were submitted to the drug analysis section of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Forensic Science Laboratory. Each case contained different stages of developing mushrooms. This report describes the evidence in each case, the sample preparation, the sample analysis and the final report that was written.     

Using court culture to strengthen the administration of trial courts

Managerial culture defines the character of administrative practices in trial courts, shaping the way cases are handled, participants in the legal process are treated, and how a court functions as an institution. In fact, the notion of local legal culture is part of the conventional wisdom. What is missing in such discussions are the benefits of a comprehensive methodological approach to translate rich ideas and hunches into the measurement of court culture. In response, researchers at the National Center for State Courts have developed an analytical framework including a conceptual typology of culture, an instrument for measuring managerial culture and a schema for interpreting results within and between courts. The essay concludes with an invitation for the People＇s Republic of China to adapt the framework to understand the nature of culture in their courts of first instance.     

Jones v. Gerhardstein: the involuntarily committed mental patient's right to refuse treatment with psychotropic drugs

The question of whether an involuntary committed mental patient has a fundamental right to refuse treatment with psychotropic drugs continues to be a subject of much debate. Over the past twenty-five years, psychotropic drugs have become the most common form of treatment for the mentally ill. For many patients, these drugs provide substantial benefits; for others, however, they produce severe, sometimes debilitating, side effects. Because of the possibility of serious harm to the patient and because of the potential for abuse of drug treatment by psychiatric staffs, the mental health bar generally has argued for increased procedural protection for mental patients. In Jones v. Gerhardstein, the Wisconsin Supreme Court responded to these concerns by requiring that a judicial hearing be held on the issue of a patient's competency to refuse treatment before the attending physician may administer medication without the patient's consent. This Note discusses the controversy between the legal and medical communities over treatment refusal by mentally ill patients in light of the impact of the Jones decision on institutional practice and on refusing patients. The author argues that the strictly rights-based analysis used by the Jones court has done little to benefit involuntarily committed mental patients. The author suggests alternative ways of approaching treatment refusal that might be more responsive to the distinctive needs of the mentally ill.     

The relationship between the court and the doctor on the issue of an inpatient's refusal of psychotropic medication

New procedures, tailored after such court decisions as Rogers v. Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, have restricted the doctor's ability to treat psychiatric inpatients with psychotropic medication and have increased the protection of a competent patient's right to refuse. This study investigates how the relationship between the doctor and the court has adapted to these new procedures. All 40 court cases of a maximum security forensic hospital over a two-year period were reviewed. Results suggest that the new procedures have had no dramatic effect upon either the treatment patients receive or the doctor-court relationship. While abstract arguments both in favor of and against these new procedures can be drawn from the same data, the concrete relationship still remains poorly understood.     

The trials and tribulations of court reform: A review essay

This study examines the impact of religious programs on institutional adjustment and recidivism rates in two matched groups of inmates from four adult male prisons in New York State. One group had participated in programs sponsored by Prison Fellowship (PF); the other had no involvement with PF. PF and non-PF inmates are similar on measures of institutional adjustment, as measured by both general and serious prison infractions, and recidivism, as measured by arrests during a one-year follow-up period. However, after controlling for level of involvement in PF-sponsored programs, inmates who were most active in Bible studies were significantly less likely to be rearrested during the follow-up period.     

UK: court orders publication ban in case of HIV-positive health-care worker

In November 2001, an HIV-positive health-care worker brought legal proceedings to prevent the National Health Service from notifying his previous patients that he is infected. The health authorities had intended to carry out a "look back" exercise to notify patients that they may have been exposed.     

US: court rules deportation of HIV-positive Dominican does not violate convention against torture

The US District Court for New York has upheld a tribunal decision deporting an HIV-positive Dominican national. The court held that the tribunal did not err in finding that Rogelio Reyes-Sanchez had failed to show that he would more likely than not be subject to torture if deported. The court agreed that evidence suggesting that people living with HIV/AIDS may receive substandard medical treatment from public and private hospitals in the Dominican Republic di not constitute evidence of torture.     

Lethal self administration of propofol (Diprivan). A case report and review of the literature

The death of a female anaesthesiologist is reported. Although the situation at the scene indicated propofol overdose-related death, self-administration of such high doses of propofol was unlikely, given the pharmacological properties of this drug. The analysis of the situation at the scene and the toxicological analysis in which the blood and liver propofol concentrations were 2.40microg/ml and 0.56microg/g, respectively, supported the conclusion that the death was a consequence of propofol self-administration at therapeutic doses from a person who used the drug on chronic basis seeking to its euphoric effects. However, because the toxic concentrations of propofol in non-intubated patients may be different from those intubated and fully supported in the operating room or in the intensive care unit, a mere interpretation of the blood and tissue concentrations of propofol in the toxicological analysis can confirm the drug intake but it may be of limited diagnostic significance without taking into account this difference.