Navigating the minefield: legal ethics and healthcare law

Practicing law in the healthcare field is a daunting task due to the highly-regulated nature of the field and the increasing scrutiny of the conduct of industry providers, payors, and vendors. Attorneys must provide difficult opinions regarding matters with civil, criminal, and reimbursement implications and often are asked to represent multiple parties in healthcare-related settings. This article discusses some legal ethics issues for the healthcare practitioner and touches on some of the recent changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which were adopted by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates at its mid-February 2002 meeting. The authors conduct their analysis by applying the model rules to a number of hypothetical fact situations typical of those encountered in the day-to-day practice of healthcare law.     

The legal status of the fetus: an international review

The article examines the way that courts and legislatures in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Australia have answered questions regarding the legal status of a fetus. These questions have arisen in a variety of legal situations: the article deals with succession, criminal, child protection and negligence law. The conclusion offered is that a fetus has a value and an existence that the law should recognise. This does not mean, however, that in all circumstances the law should protect the interests of the fetus. Law-makers will respond differently to claims made on behalf of a fetus, depending on the context. The fetus does not have a uniform value or character in the eyes of the law. The law makes choices as to the situations in which it will take account of actual or threatened antenatal harm.     

Clinical research with children: the European legal framework and its implementation in French and Italian law

According to the International Convention of the Rights of the Child, an improvement of the protection of the rights of children in Europe should be accomplished by inserting the principle of best interests and evolving capacities in the legal framework related to paediatric clinical research. In this article, an overview is given of the European legal framework governing clinical research on minors in a comparative approach. The lack of coordination between different International and European ethical/ legal statements and its impact on national legislations is evaluated by analyzing provisions that have been foreseen in Italy and in France as a result of the ratification/implementation process. A presentation of the perspectives of paediatric research in Europe is provided.     

China's Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Law: the law and the philosophy

The present study introduces and discusses the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China. The law was promulgated in the context of Chinese socioeconomic reforms and legal reforms in response to the rising delinquency since the early 1980s. The study explains the social and political background of the law with respect to the patterns of delinquency in China. The law has several main features that reflect the Chinese philosophical underpinnings of crime prevention and control, and the study discusses the connection between the law and the traditional Chinese philosophy and thinking. Finally, the study discusses the challenges to the enforcement of the law in Chinese society, which has lacked a legal tradition in its history.     

What Clients Know: Client perspectives and legal competence

This article does not have an abstract     

临床法学教育与新世纪法学人才的培养--平等式对话教学方式的魅力

高等法律教育是我国教育事业的一个重要组成部分,担负着为市场经济建设与民主法制建设培养高层次专业人才的重要任务.在更新教育观念,转变培养模式,强化能力培养的教育改革的形势下,作为大学法学院应该教给学生什么?我们不可能在有限的四年时间内教给学生今后一辈子所需的各种法律知识.况且法律变化频繁,知识更新快捷.学校教师传授知识固然重要,但更重要的是教给学生分析、辨别、创造知识的能力.     

Authentic assessment in contract law: legal drafting

Legal drafting is a vital skill for lawyers and thus it is important for law students to be exposed to drafting throughout their degree. One of the first year courses most suited to this exercise is contract law. This paper discusses the inclusion of a drafting exercise as part of the contract law assessment over four years in terms of the authenticity of the assessment task and feedback from students about the exercise. A sample exercise is included in the paper. These exercises required students to draft clauses to be inserted into a contract or draft a short contract and this work demonstrated an application of the material being covered in class. Initially, this assessment was set as a largely independent exercise with students being directed to relevant resources. It was found that additional scaffolding was needed and each year more extensive resources were provided. Although the students who participated in the survey were predominantly students who had passed the course, the majority each year believed that it was a useful exercise, of value for their future careers and of more practical relevance than other forms of assessment.     

Electronic health records: international, structural and legal perspectives

The EHR is a database record that incorporates a patient's health care details from conception to death and which can be distributed over a number of sites or aggregated at a particular source. This article describes the function and concept of the EHR by relating it to other medical information technologies, parallel changes in health care delivery, and a holistic health information model. The article compares the progress that Europe, Australia and the United States have made in the journey towards EHR implementation and concludes by highlighting some of the costs, barriers and consequences associated with the transition to a comprehensive EHR system.     

也论法条竞合犯

一、法条竞合犯的特征 在我国刑法理论上,一般无"法条竞合犯"的称谓,而只有"法条竞合"(又称法规竞合、法律竞合)的概念.这是因为,我国刑法学者普遍认为,法条竞合是揭示刑法不同条文(款)所规定的犯罪构成要件在内涵和外延上有重合交叉关系的一个概念,说明的是刑法分则体系的某种特殊结构,法条竞合不是一种犯罪形态.但正如有的学者指出,任何犯罪形态都是一种法律现象,最终都要涉及适用法条定罪量刑的问题,法条竞合犯说明实际发生的犯罪行为,如何具体触犯相互竞合的法条,是从动态的角度揭示刑法分则内部条文的实际联系[1].因此,"法条竞合犯"范畴的提出具有积极意义,在罪数形态中研究法条竞合犯也是十分必要的.     

论刑法分则中的法定拟制

在我国刑法分则中，有一部分属于拟制条款。本文对刑法之所以规定拟制条款的原因、拟制条款蕴涵的消极因素以及如何规范和使用拟制条款等问题进行了相应的分析和论证。