The dating of a will

This paper describes a case in which the authors were able to date a piece of paper. A Will which purportedly was made in 1980 was suspected to have been fraudulently drawn up in 1984. The watermark in the paper provided proof that the Will could not have been in existence before 1983.     

Have paper,will travel: Participation at A.C.J.S. annual meetings

Graduate criminology and criminal justice faculty participation at the 1979–81 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences annual meetings are examined. Results show that institution prestige, not faculty productivity, is the but predictor of meeting participation. It is suggested that further attention be devoted to profroessional concerns in order to understand the development of a academic criminology.     

对生前预嘱相关问题的探讨

生前预嘱是指人在意识清楚时签署一份文书来事先表达出自己在生命末期的医疗意愿。本文针对生前预嘱的理解和适用中存在的相关问题作出探讨。本文以尊严死在我国的提出以及生前预嘱在我国的推广现状为基础,从法律的视角分析了生前预嘱的合法性和必要要件,并阐明了在目前的法律框架下生前预嘱还不是生效的法律文件,生前预嘱的落实还需要亲属的同意。本文借鉴其他国家和地区对生前预嘱的立法状况并结合我国的实际,提出了对于放弃治疗和尊严死的理解,以及针对医疗实践中放弃治疗的困惑提出了对放弃治疗应该严格遵循的原则。     

西班牙华商的生前死后

2011年4月10日下午，笔者接到一个通知，请媒体前往了解情况。一名叫谢晓明（化名）的中国侨民在自己经营的饭店里自缢身亡，谢晓明经营的中餐馆取名叫“汉”，餐馆坐落在巴塞罗那的卫星城市埃斯普盖斯的市中心，离巴塞罗那半个小时的路程。     

The concept of free will and forensic psychiatry

This text examines how conceptions of free will impact on legal systems and forensic psychiatry: free will is generally regarded as a prerequisite for responsibility, criminal responsibility included, while forensic psychiatry to a large extent deals with the limits imposed on responsibility by mental disorder. First we discuss the question of whether there is and has been such an impact. The answer is yes: different conceptions of free will have inspired different systems of law and forensic psychiatry, as becomes clear when looking at the accountability doctrine as compared to the unique Swedish system rejecting this doctrine. However, there is no necessary connection between doctrines of responsibility and conceptions of free will, since the former primarily says something about when someone should be held responsible and the latter says something about when someone really is free in a sense relevant to responsibility. This leads to the second question: should conceptions of free will have an impact on law and forensic psychiatry? We argue: that they should not, given the implausibility the normative theory retributivism, which posits a direct connection between free will and punishment. More importantly, questions of free will are complicated and unresolved philosophical issues that are better left out of the everyday decision-making incumbent on the legal and psychiatric systems. Instead, we recommend using an empirically useful and gradual conception of autonomy to facilitate the determination of legal responsibility. This autonomy conception, being neutral on the question of free will, eliminates the need to take a stand on it.     

The will theory of rights: A defence

Hart's will theory of rights has been subjected to at least three significant criticisms. First, it is thought unable to account for the full range of legal rights. Second, it is incoherent, for it values freedom while permitting an agent the option of alienating his or her capacity for choice. Third, any attempt to remedy the first two problems renders the theory reducible to the rival benefit theory. My aim is to address these objections. I argue that will theory has been made vulnerable due to misinterpretation. The theory has been characterized as placing great stress on liberty rights (or claim-protected liberties), whereas it is powers that are central, and hence not choice but control. My argument does, however, depend upon appealing to an extra-legal notion — the hypothetical contract — but I argue that this is consistent with the main aim of a theory of rights.     

Your data will never die,but you will: A comparative analysis of US and UK post-mortem data donation frameworks

Posthumous medical data donation (PMDD) for the purpose of legitimate, non-commercial and, potentially, very beneficial medical research has been sparsely discussed in legal scholarship to date. Conversely, quite an extensive social science and humanities research establishes benefits of this practice. It also finds that PMDD enables individuals to employ their altruistic motivations and aspirations by helping them participate in ‘citizen's science’ and medical research, thus supporting efforts in finding cures for some of the acutest diseases of today. There appears to be no jurisdiction where a regulatory framework supports and enables PMDD. This paper analyses whether and to what extent law and policy should enable this practice. We take a comparative approach, examining the position under both US and UK law, providing the first comparative legal account of this practice. We do not aim to suggest a detailed legal solution for PMDD, but rather key considerations and principles for legislative/policy reforms, which would support the practice of PMDD. We discuss organ donation and provide a comparative outlook with the aim of drawing lessons from this practice, and applying them to the regulation of PMDD. Our analysis is both normative and black letter since we consider arguments regarding the necessity of organ and data donation, as well as the law that regulates these practices.     

Canada will have a national HIV vaccine plan

Health Canada announces that a national HIV vaccine plan will be developed in consultation with key stakeholders and that it will contribute to the global vaccine effort.