Implementation of the Equal Access to Justice Act in agency proceedings--HHS. Final rule

These regulations implement the Equal Access to Justice Act, 5 U.S.C. 504 and 504 note, for the Department of Health and Human Services. They describe the circumstances under which the Department may award attorney fees and certain other expenses to eligible individuals and entities who prevail over the Department in specified administrative proceedings where the Department's position in the proceeding was not substantially justified.     

诉权的宪政之维

目前我国的诉权研究视野比较狭窄、法理根基的探讨比较单薄,基于诉权与宪政之间的内在逻辑联系,从宪政的维度更能够厘清诉权的来源、属性与价值,这有助于拓宽诉权的思考空间,深化对诉权的理论研究,凸显加强诉权的宪法保障之重要意义。     

The Florida Health Care Access Act: a blended regulatory/competitive approach to the indigent health care problem

The problem of indigent health care has received much attention from governmental officials, health care providers, health policy analysts, and others. A majority of states have generated legislative proposals to deal with the problem, although their strategies differ in terms of method and scope. This article discusses Florida's approach to the problem as contained in the Health Care Access Act of 1984 and subsequent legislation. The article will provide background on the reasons a hospital assessment strategy was chosen as the funding mechanism and will examine the problems that occurred during the implementation phase of the legislation.     

The Rise of Digital Justice: Courtroom Technology,Public Participation and Access to Justice

This article addresses a little discussed yet fundamentally important aspect of legal technological transformation: the rise of digital justice in the courtroom. Against the backdrop of the government's current programme of digital court modernisation in England and Wales, it examines the implications of advances in courtroom technology for fair and equitable public participation, and access to justice. The article contends that legal reforms have omitted any detailed consideration of the type and quality of citizen participation in newly digitised court processes which have fundamental implications for the legitimacy and substantive outcomes of court‐based processes; and for enhancing democratic procedure through improved access to justice. It is argued that although digital court tools and systems offer great promise for enhancing efficiency, participation and accessibility, they simultaneously have the potential to amplify the scope for injustice, and to attenuate central principles of the legal system, including somewhat paradoxically, access to justice.     

Safeguarding Access to Justice in the Age of the Online Court

In 2016 Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service embarked on a significant modernisation programme with a view to developing online courts. In pursuit of this ambition the Courts and Tribunals (Online Procedure) Bill seeks to introduce new procedural rules to govern the online jurisdiction, giving the Lord Chancellor and an Online Procedure Rule Committee the power to mandate which proceedings will be conducted online and what assistance will be provided to users. In this study we analyse survey data and case decisions to highlight the importance of channel plurality and digital support in light of the shift to online courts. Our findings identify the groups most at risk of digital exclusion, and the expectations the judiciary sets in relation to internet access, capability, and the design of online systems. We conclude by detailing what our findings mean for safeguarding access to justice in the digital age.     

Privacy Act of 1974: amendment of existing system of records--HHS. Notice of intent to amend a Privacy Act system of record for purposes of the Debt Collection Act of 1982

The Department of Health and Human Services is amending system of records 09-90-0024 to add new routine uses for the purpose of collecting debts owed the Federal Government, and to add a disclosure to consumer reporting agencies as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) (12) as added by the Debt Collection Act of 1982 (Pub. L. 97-365). A number of other amendments have been made to reflect changes of organization and titles. We invite public comment on these routine uses.     

The Injustice of Enforced Equal Access to Transplant Operations: Rethinking Reckless Claims of Fairness

The globalizing or totalizing imposition of a particular understanding of justice, fairness, or equality, as seen, for example, in Canada's single health care system, which forbids the sale of private insurance and the purchase of better basic health care, cannot be justified in general secular terms because of the following limitations: (1) the plurality of understandings of justice, fairness, and equality, and (2) the inability to establish one understanding as canonical. The secular state lacks plausible moral authority for the coercive imposition of one such account on peaceable, consenting adults. This state of affairs, with regard to the weakness of human moral epistemological powers, means that the secular state fails to have the moral authority to forbid coercively the sale and purchase of organs. It further lacks the secular, moral authority to impose equal access to organ transplantations. Assertions of such authority amount to reckless claims of fairness, and for this reason, health care policy must be set within the constraints of limited, constitutional regimes.     

裁判请求权保障与法院审判人员的优化配置

在实行法官员额制改革过程中,必须一并考虑法院审判人员的分类管理和优化配置问题。在民事诉讼中,为保障公民的裁判请求权,对于民事纠纷案件的审理,必须配置入额法官;对于非讼案件的审理、诉前或审前的法院调解以及立案登记等程序事项的处理应交由司法实务官进行,从而让法官专注于民事纠纷案件的审判,以更好地落实公民的裁判请求权保障之宪法理念。司法事务官不同于助理审判员,其不能审理所有的民事案件;司法事务官也不同于法官助理,司法事务官不是法官的助手,其可以依法独立行使职权。司法事务官不是宪法意义上的处理民事纠纷的法官,司法事务官不必进入法官员额。     

浅议新《消防法》的变革和仍需完善的问题

笔者阐述了新<消防法>的八大变化,结合参加地方立法工作,总结了消防法中仍需要完善的九个方面的问题,供制定<消防法>配套行政法规时参考.新修订的<中华人民共和国消防法>(以下简称<消防法>)已于2008年10月28日经第十一届全国人大常委会第五次会议审议通过,自2009年5月1日起施行,相比现行<消防法>,无论从内容和理念上都有非常大的进步,但通过近期参与修订<天津市消防条例>的立法研讨,发现有些问题仍然需要国务院行政法规予以立法解决,下面,笔者通过研究<消防法>修订的主要变化,结合工作实际,总结了新<消防法>中仍需完善的问题.     

Alternatives to Public Provision: The Role of Legal Expenses Insurance in Broadening Access to Justice: The German Experience

The literature suggests that the main barriers to justice range from a general lack of knowledge about legal rights, and the related prevalent use of technical language within justice systems (which has led to commentators describing law as a 'leviathan'), to a vague 'fear of the unknown'. In Germany the principal barrier is thought to be the problem of funding legal services. Empirical research indicates that the question of whether or not to consult a lawyer is primarily one of cost, although over one–third of potential clients have little idea about lawyers' fees. To find ways to surmount this barrier is therefore of paramount importance for a modern society. In broad terms, there are three potential attitudes to legal costs: reliance on one's own resources; hope for third party assistance (such as legal aid or pro bono ); and insurance. This article concentrates on the last of these three options, comparing, in particular, the systems in Germany and England and Wales.     

Some Reflections on the Relationship between Citizenship, Access to Justice, and the Reform of Legal Aid

The reflexive, reciprocally constitutive relationship between law and society makes a substantive right of access to justice pivotal to the content of citizenship. It is therefore arguable that the establishment of legal aid, however limited in practice, was fundamental to the expanded citizenship which the post-war settlement sought to achieve. However this social form of citizenship has been attenuated by the reconfiguration of the state and the neo-liberal reconstruction of the public sector. Yet at the same time, the concepts of citizenship and social exclusion have become key discursive mechanisms in this reconstruction, including in the New Labour reform of the legal aid sector. This paper considers the various meanings attributed to the concepts of citizenship, social exclusion, and access to justice through the optic of the history of policy changes in legal aid. The impact of globalization and economic restructuring on social citizenship is explored, both in terms of the experience of recipients of public goods like legal services, and the professionals who supply them. The commensurability of the New Labour Community Legal Service (CLS) model with other models of justice is discussed. The conclusion briefly returns to the theme of law's 'citizen-constitutive' role and considers the potential of the CLS for combating social exclusion.