"No compensation" or "pro compensation": Moore v. Regents and default rules for human tissue donations

The much studied case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California is often considered important in property law for denying property rights in human tissue. This widespread misunderstanding of Moore has not only misplaced the legal emphasis of human tissue donations on property law instead of contract law, but has also hindered the creation of a much-needed default rule governing the issue of compensation for donated tissue. While it is possible that the majority of donors rarely consider compensation as an incentive to donate, without a legally recognized default rule the law remains blurred as to what contractual provisions apply to the exchange between donor and researcher. This Article argues that the solution is a weak default rule of no compensation that may be overridden by evidence that the parties intended otherwise.     

知识产权与人权:后TRIPS时代的知识产权国际保护

TRIPS的产生,在促进知识产权国际保护发展的同时,也被认为造成了知识产权制度与国际人权法之间的冲突。从立法宗旨上讲,不管对知识产权采用什么样的措辞,知识产权保护应与维护人类尊严和实现其他人权相一致。所以,我们必须开展有关研究工作,探寻如何在包括TRIPS在内的国际条约框架下,协调好知识产权与人权之间的关系;具体说来,知识产权国际保护制度必须以国际人权公约的价值取向为指导,在保护作者精神权、隐私权、公共健康与环境等方面进行制度改革。     

人体组织提供者法律保护模式之建构

在我国民法界，在如何保护人体组织提供者利益问题上尚有分歧，但一般认为，与人体分离后的组织和器官为“物”。基于知情同意的人格保护模式可以有效地保护人体组织提供者就组织的分离、使用和处置进行控制的权利，能达到我国目前的财产保护学说所需要的效果，单辟一个不完整的财产权利价值不大。更重要的是，启用知情同意和人格保护的制度有利于保护人的尊严和自主权，能与各国所倡导的无偿捐赠模式达到一致，且能促进利他主义价值观和社会凝聚力，副作用较小但益处却不小，应得到优先考虑。知情同意原则的不断发展将使其发挥更大的作用。主张基于知情同意的人格保护和无偿捐赠并不排斥人体组织提供者就商业后续开发主张利益分享。     

生物科技研究中人体组织提供者补偿模式研究

在生物科技飞速进步的时代,人体组织被广泛应用于科学研究当中,研究成果的开发进而可能带来巨大商业回报。如何保护组织提供者的利益,适度引入利益分享机制而不堕入人格商品化漩涡,是自美国摩尔案以来引发法律界思考的重大问题。现行的无偿捐赠模式显失公平,急待改革。人体组织纵然与人体脱离,亦不可与物等同,套用物权规则的市场化改革模式因笼罩着难以消弭的人格商品化阴云而不具可行性,合理补偿模式作为第三条道路是最理想的选择,而补偿模式怎样落实为具体的法律制度设计值得探讨。     

Determining health care rights from behind a veil of ignorance

Should our society establish positive rights to health care that each citizen could claim, as many health policy analysts believe? Or should it provide only background rules of contract and property law and leave the provision of health care to the free market, as Richard Epstein advocates in Mortal Peril? In this article, Professor Korobkin argues that this question should be addressed from the Rawlsian "veil of ignorance" perspective. That is, the question should be answered by asking what kind of society would individuals agree to form if they had no knowledge of their individual skills or endowments; if they did not know whether they were rich or poor, healthy or sick, weak or strong. Professor Korobkin contends that individuals behind such a veil of ignorance would balance their inherent risk aversion (which favors a safety net of "rights") against the inefficient incentives created by rights regimes that would reduce net social wealth (which favors a free market). Whether they would choose to establish rights to health care or not is ultimately an empirical question that turns on how inefficient any particular right would be. The question thus requires a case-by-case analysis of proposed rights. The article then considers the policy issues of (1) community rating of private health insurance and (2) the mandated provision of emergency medical care. It concludes that in these cases the inefficient incentives created by establishing rights are probably smaller and/or controllable enough to lead individuals behind the veil of ignorance to favor a regime of positive rights.     

City of Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital: government responsibility for an arrestee's medical care

City of Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital presented the United States Supreme Court with its first opportunity to consider whether a state or municipality has a constitutional duty to pay for medical treatment received by an individual in police custody. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts had held that the city had an eighth amendment duty to pay for an arrestee's treatment. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, observing that eighth amendment rights and duties are not implicated prior to conviction and that fourteenth amendment due process concerns were met once the arrestee received adequate medical care. No obligation to pay arises, the Court held, absent a specific state law provision requiring such payment. Because arrestees are subject to physical restraints similar to those imposed on convicted prisoners, this Case Comment argues that courts undertaking to determine the scope of a state's duty to provide treatment to arrestees should apply a due process standard which draws upon eighth amendment analysis. The Comment concludes that under such an eighth amendment equivalence approach, no duty to pay arises because the state's failure to pay the health care provider does not reflect "deliberate indifference" towards the recipient of the treatment.     

“Error But Without Malice” in Defamation of Public Officials: The Value of Free Expression in International Human Rights Law

Government officials in various parts of the world use defamation to silence critics, but defamation liability may curtail freedom of expression on topics of public interest and undermine human rights generally. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees freedom of expression unless a state can show need to protect individual reputation and acts proportionally. In its adjudication of complaints for violations of Article 19, and in its General Comment 34, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has crafted the principle that defamation liability may not be imposed if an erroneous statement about a public official was made in “error but without malice.” Although soft law, General Comment 34 represents the committee's most compelling articulation of the values animating freedom of expression in international human rights law, and chief among the values is the role played by free expression to promote realization of all human rights.     

物之遗失与丧失占有——兼论具体公共空间内的拾得人判定

遗失物须为丧失占有的非无主动产。基于遗失物拾得的立法目的,在遗失物的范畴内排除了无主物,即所有权人主动放弃占有的物。除此之外,遗失物的丧失占有无须考察占有人或者遗失人的主观意思。遗失之丧失占有的判断是管领力的事实判断,不以当事人的主观认识为准,而强调客观上控制力是否及于物。此外,拾得人的权利义务产生于对物的占有取得,因此遗失物之丧失占有与其说是原权利人的丧失占有,不如说是物上丧失占有。而物上是否存在第三人的占有是判断遗失物是否丧失占有的难点。在私宅中私宅主人基于对房屋的控制力而对物有管领力;但是在具体的公共空间内丢失的物,因为人员流动性和不确定性,因此不能基于所有人对空间的管领而认为其对物有实际管领力。换言之,具体公共空间内丢失的物,在被拾得或者被工作人员等取得占有以前亦为遗失物。但是工作人员基于其身份的特殊性而不能取得拾得人的权利。     

The transfer of property rights by theft: an economic analysis

This article studies the voluntary transfer of property that had been stolen—a topic almost unexplored in the law and economics literature. The question is whether a buyer of a stolen good should obtain title to the good if he/she has purchased it in good faith. As described in the article different jurisdictions treat this issue differently. The traditional theory suggests that there is a trade-off between the costs of protecting the good and the costs of verifying the ownership. However, as shown, the rule of law concerning this issue significantly affects parties’ incentives. Specifically, it is shown that a rule of law where good faith is irrelevant in determining the issue of property rights Pareto dominates a rule where good faith may protect an innocent buyer. Thus, an owner of an asset will spend more resources on protecting his property and potential buyers will incur higher costs in order to verify the ownership when good faith is decisive for the transfer of property rights.     

Health and human rights: challenges of implementation and cultural change

The author identifies the evolution of discourse about human rights to health in medical law, health law and public health law, as well as in major international instruments. He emphasises the importance of General Comment No 14 on Art 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He argues that its breadth but also its specificity in terms of accountable benchmarks and measures of health service provision are likely to frame discourse on "rights to health" in the succeeding years. He identifies the need for translation of the rhetoric in such instruments into meaningful and patient-informed data so that it becomes possible to compare and contrast advances (or otherwise) in rights to health within and among different countries.     

关于非法医疗机构内执业医师是否构成非法行医罪主体的探讨

依最高人民法院《关于审理非法行医刑事案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释》规定,个人未取得《医疗机构执业许可证》开办医疗机构的行为应认定为《刑法》第三百三十六条第一款规定的“未取得医生执业资格的人非法行医”,即在个体行医的场合下,医师必须取得《医疗机构执业许可证》,方能开展诊疗活动,否则便属于非法行医。然而,非个体行医的情形下,医师在无执业许可证的医疗机构行医,是否属于非法行医？对此,法律并无相关规定,本文对此类案件所涉医师是否属于刑法规定的“未取得医生执业资格的人”进行探讨。     

民法上的人与物——对我国物权立法的考察

我国的物权法已经出台,为了使物权法更有生命力,更好地促进人的生存与发展,对既有的物权法的相关规定保持必要的反思与批判也是物权的人文精神的应有之义。因此,本文试图从物权的人文向度、物权立法的人文解读以及现行物权法的人文检讨等方面对此展开讨论。     

对当前我国医疗损害技术鉴定制度的思考

随着<侵权责任法>的实施,医疗纠纷司法鉴定将在医疗损害中起着越来越重要的作用.目前我国的医疗损害技术鉴定存在二元化的状态,有一定的优势也存在一定的弊端,建立统一、独立的医疗损害技术鉴定体系是非常必要的,这对切实保护医患双方的合法权益,依法公正解决医疗损害赔偿案件,构建和谐的医患关系有重要意义.     

罗隆基:一个人权理论的构建

罗隆基在人权论战时期,用功用的标准来诠释人权与国家、人权与法律的关系,指出不同时间不同国度的人权具有时空性特点,由此构建其人权理论体系,旨在说明在国民党党治下人权是人们必争的权利,进而评析其人权理论。     

Intellectual property rights on creativity and heritage: the case of the fashion industry

Recently, as different projects aiming to define and reinforce property rights in the fashion industry have been elaborated and discussed, a lot of papers have been dedicated to the question of property rights in this industry. Our paper considers the problems from a specific point of view; it focuses on the relation between property rights and creativity. If property rights allow the allocation of the majority of standard industrial goods without any special difficulty, however, when they are applied to creative goods, new problems arise. Then, for us, the persistence of a low system of IPRs in the fashion industry does not mainly derive from its efficiency but from the characteristics of the inputs that are used in the creative production process. They constitute strong constraints for defining, entitling, legitimating, enforcing, valuating and exchanging property rights. Thus, the different economic actors develop different kinds of strategic behaviour in order to obtain earnings and can try to protect copyrights, trademarks, new assets, old assets (heritage), private or collective assets, and so on. The institutional characteristics of this specific industry—such as the models of management, the type of ownership, the size of the firms, … lead to different historical models of management through IPRs. Peculiarly, the financial groups that integrate fashion into the new luxury industries currently try to implement new IPRs and to move towards a stronger system of IPRs but the management model of the street fashion puts an obstacle to this project.     

从占有性个人主义到兼容性个人主义——对民事权利的经济学分析

人权重要还是财产权重要,如何认识民事权利体系的变迁,概念法学是否能够容纳开放性的民事权利体系等都是民法理论中的热点问题。本文运用经济学的知识结合经济基础的变迁给出了对民事权利的全新认识,并在此基础上回答了上述问题。最后,论文从方法论的角度回答了概念法学应当如何被超越的问题。     

Raz on Rights: Human Rights,Fundamental Rights,and Balancing

After clarifying the outlines of Raz's interest theory of rights and its relationship to aspects of the principles theory of rights, I consider how his recent observations on human rights manage to fit (or fail to fit) into the interest theory. I then address two questions. First, I elaborate on Raz's definition of morally fundamental rights, arguing that he is right in claiming that there are no such rights. I then show that the interest theory accommodates the notion that rights may take qualitative precedence over conflicting considerations—a question that has become increasingly relevant in light of recent writing on rights.     

Sorting Out Mixtures of Property at Common Law

This article asks a simple question: when indistinguishable items of personal property owned by A and by B are mixed together, what rights do A and B have in relation to the resultant mass? It is argued that there is insufficient evidence in the positive law to provide any convincing answer to this question, and so it is asked which interpretation that can be drawn out from the law ought to be adopted. It will be shown that – both in relation to mixtures of goods and mixtures of cash – a rule of co‐ownership is to be preferred. The article's framework of analysis will be of interest to all those concerned by the relatively sparse case law that deals with foundational principles of personal property, and can help to guide a way forward in other contexts where the cases are silent, muddled, or fail to speak with one voice.     

Fatal virus-associated hemophagocytic syndrome in a young adult producing nontraumatic splenic rupture.

A 24-year-old man with no previous medical history was admitted to a local hospital with pancytopenia after a recent "viral illness." During his hospitalization, he developed sudden abdominal distension and hypotension. Surgical exploration of his abdomen revealed a ruptured spleen. The spleen was removed, but the patient did not survive the operation. We investigated this unexpected and unexplained hospital death for any traumatic or iatrogenic injury. The cause of death after review of the clinical history, autopsy, and microscopic sections was virus-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (VAHS). VAHS consists of a generalized histiocytic proliferation and marked hemophagocytosis associated with a systemic viral infection. Clinically it presents as pancytopenia and organomegaly. This recently described entity is often confused with malignant histiocytosis. This is the first case report of VAHS producing nontraumatic splenic rupture, thus adding to the differential diagnosis of spontaneous splenic rupture and sudden natural death.     

On the Edge of the Law: Women's Property Rights and Dispute Resolution in Kisii, Kenya

Scholars have argued that economic efficiency requires a clear definition of the rights of ownership, contract, and transfer of land. Ambiguity in the definition or enforcement of any of these rights leads to an increase in transaction costs in the exchange and transfer of land as well as a residual uncertainty after any land contract. In Kenya, government efforts at establishing clearly defined property rights and adjudication mechanisms have been plagued by the existence of alternative processes for the adjudication of disputes. Customary dispute resolution has been praised as an inexpensive alternative to official judicial processes in a legally pluralistic environment. However, our research demonstrates that customary processes may also carry a monetary cost that puts them beyond the means of many citizens. This article compares the costs and processes of the formal and informal methods of property rights adjudication for women in the Kisii region of Kenya. The research results suggest that women have weak property rights overall, they have limited access to formal dispute resolution systems because of costs involved, and even the informal systems of conflict resolution are beyond the means of many citizens.