US: court refuses to order disclosure of HIV status to police

In February 2001, Massachusetts' highest court ruled that a man whose blood was splattered on police officers during his arrest is protected under that state's law from having to reveal his HIV status.     

Extraterritorial enforcement: US court refuses to enforce foreign patents

Upholding principles of territoriality, the US Court of Appealsfor the Federal Circuit has refused to extend its jurisdictionto enforce related foreign patents.     

UK: Welsh court reduces sentence, cites HIV status

A Welsh appeal court has reduced the sentence handed down to an offender because of his HIV status, despite his lengthy criminal record. The court reduced the sentence from five to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment.     

Australia: court reduces prison sentence of person with HIV

In August 2002, the Court of Appeals of the state of Victoria, Australia, reduced the non-parole portion of a man's prison sentence from two years to 18 months because imprisonment would be a greater burden on someone with HIV than on a healthy person.     

Draft discussion paper on HIV/AIDS and immigration released

In October 2000, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network released a 57-page draft discussion paper on HIV/AIDS and immigration, reacting to the announcement that HIV testing may become mandatory for all prospective immigrants to Canada. A final version of the paper will be released in early 2001.     

US: appeals court dismisses employment discrimination suit by HIV-positive dental hygienist

Shortly before the decision in Toyota Motor Manufacturing, the US Court of Appeals (11th Circuit) issued another restrictive judgment, in a case dealing specifically with HIV-based discrimination. On 21 December 2001, in Waddell v Valley Forge Dental Associates Inc, it dismissed the case of a dental hygienist who sued his employer for suspending him from treating patients after he tested HIV-positive. The decision is a setback for efforts to ensure that the Americans with Disabilities Act translates into actual protection against discrimination for people with HIV/AIDS.     

US: hospital negligent for failing to warn prior patient of risk of HIV infection by transfusion

The Supreme Court of Tennessee has ruled that a university hospital was negligent for not contacting patients who had received blood transfusions in the early 1980s to advise them of the risk of HIV infection. In Amos v Vanderbilt University, it awarded US$4.3 million in damages to the estate and family of a woman who died eight years after receiving HIV-tainted blood during surgery.     

United Kingdom: HIV status,psychiatric problems of asylum seeker did not stop removal

In November 2002, the High Court of Justice rejected an application for judicial review of a decision to remove an Ivoirian asylum seeker to France, despite her HIV status, tuberculosis, psychiatric condition, and attempted suicides. The Court argued that removal to France would not necessarily result in a return to Ivory Coast or in poorer health care.     

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.     

Australia: court orders doctors to pay damages to woman who contracted HIV from her husband

IN a case that received extensive media coverage, the New South Wales Supreme Court has found two doctors negligent for failing to take steps to make a bride aware that she was at risk as a result of her prospective husband's HIV infection. The court awarded the woman AUD$727,437 in damages. The couple had attended the physicians together to be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, but had received their test results separately. She subsequently contracted HIV as a result fo unprotected sexual intercourse with him.