Another special relationship? Interactions between health technology policies and health care systems in the United States and the United Kingdom

Confronted with similar challenges, the United States and the United Kingdom have adopted very different health technology policies. In the United States, the focus has been on technology creation, in particular the funding of basic biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health. This both reflects and reinforces an innovation-first culture in the United States, including in health. By contrast, the United Kingdom has been much more heavily committed to applied research and evaluative research, including health-technology assessment. That is, while U.S. policy has focused on technology creation, U.K. policy has been more oriented toward technology diffusion. This article surveys the sources of these differences. We consider the impacts of institutional, cultural, and other factors that may explain them, and emphasize that it is hard to disentangle the separate effects of those factors. We conclude with a discussion of the difficulties in drawing cross-national lessons in health technology policy.     

“Memorialization Laws in the United Kingdom: A Response to Fear or an Increased Occurrence?”

Issues of sexual abuse, predation and rape have received an increased degree of attention over the last decade and as a result have overshadowed similarly offensive crimes. Various highly publicized cases of sexual violence against women and children have gripped both the United States and the United Kingdom and have resulted in the implementation of sexual violence laws. Media coverage of an ‘epidemic’ of sexual violence has led some to question whether the frenzy surrounding these publicized cases has created a “fear factor” among parents and caregivers, begging the question as to whether the incidence of sexual violence has increased or whether the heightened sensitivity is a result of increased media reporting. This article examines approximately 12 years of aggregate sexual abuse prevalence data (crimes reported to the police) in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and compared prevalence change points and sexual offense law implementation. The article then examines the possible theory of whether Sarah’s Law could potentially to be a result of increased fear or a moral panic. Findings indicate sex crime rates were declining prior to the law’s implementation, lending cautious support to the proposition that the genesis of Sarah’s Law may have been due to fear, rather than actual increases in sexual crimes.     

The Changing Position of Legal Academics in the United Kingdom: Professionalization or Proletarianization?

This article analyses changes to United Kingdom (UK) university law schools during the period coinciding with Phil Thomas’ career as a law teacher – the latter part of the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first – in part illustrating the analysis with other examples from Thomas’ career. We will focus specifically on the way in which what it means to be a legal academic has altered, with UK legal academics having been professionalized as a community during this era. Yet, seemingly paradoxically, it is also an era during which, many have suggested, academics in UK universities have become a proletariat.     

Rational rejection? The ethical complications of assessing organ transplant candidates in the United Kingdom and the United States

The practice of allocating scarce organs in medicine is an ethical minefield. Due to the organ shortage, organ procurement agencies in both the United Kingdom and the United States are placed in the unenviable position of having to choose a limited number of patients to compete equally for life-saving treatment. They do this by composing multidisciplinary transplant teams, which must evaluate transplant candidates and their complex range of personal, medical, environmental, psychiatric and financial characteristics. During the candidate assessment process, such teams may often be torn between their moral duty to save those who are most in need, considerations of efficiency, and the battle against forming moral judgments about particular candidates. Several ethical approaches can be adopted by transplant teams during the decision-making process, but do these ideologies provide adequate justification for their sometimes controversial decisions? This article provides a detailed examination of the ethical principles available to transplant teams in the United Kingdom and the United States, and the effect that these principles have on assessment procedures, organ allocation protocols, transplant candidates and their prospects.     

Competition policy in the United States and the United Kingdom ‐ A look at underlying forces*

Summer schools in law are a common feature of Irish legal education today. Originating in the US, summer schools are now an international phenomenon. In 2005, the eLaw Summer Institute (or ELSI), was established at University College Cork as a four-week international summer school. In this article, we reflect on the design and development of ELSI, with reference to three key aspects of this summer school. First, we address issues arising from the intensive teaching aspect of ELSI, including the use of technology as part of a blended learning experience. Second, we explore the challenges posed by the international audience in ELSI. Lastly, we critically examine the comparative elements of the school in terms of curriculum design and delivery of the programme. Our analysis builds upon existing literature in the areas of curriculum design and delivery, intensive teaching, the international classroom and comparative legal studies; and is informed by empirical data in the form of anonymous student questionnaires. The aim of the article is to engage with others involved in summer programmes, to share our experiences and critical analysis and to provide an insight for those not involved in summer school programmes into the challenges and the rewards for students, staff and the institutions involved.     

Robotisation of the manufacturing industries in the EU: Convergence or divergence?

This paper investigates whether convergence or divergence of robot densities in the manufacturing industries of 24 EU countries occurred over the period from 1995 to 2015. An answer to this question permits immediate conclusions with regard to the success of convergence of labour productivities within the manufacturing industries of the EU, since it is expected that the use of robots will contribute to the growth of labour productivity. The empirical analysis is based on the robot data of the International Federation of Robotics and uses the convergence testing approach proposed by Rodrik (Q J Econ 128(1):165–204, 2013). Taking all results together, empirical evidence points to non-convergence of robot densities for a first period from 1995 to 2005, while there is relatively fast conditional as well as unconditional convergence for the second period from 2005 to 2015.

     

Catalyst or Cause? Legislation and the Demise of Machine Politics in Britain and the United States

In the nineteenth century, British and American parties competed by hiring electoral agents to bribe and treat voters. British parties abruptly abandoned this practice in the 1880s. The conventional explanation is that legislation put an end to agent‐mediated distribution. But this explanation leaves many questions unanswered. Why did the parties use agents for decades, even though they imposed great expense on candidates and were viewed as untrustworthy? And why, after decades of half‐hearted reforms, did the House of Commons pass effective antibribery reforms only in 1883? In our formal model, parties hire agents to solve information problems, but agent‐mediated distribution can be collectively suboptimal. Legislation can serve as a credibility device for shifting to less costly strategies.     

A technocratic fix to the "legitimacy problem"? The Blair government and health care rationing in the United Kingdom

The work of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, an agency which has recently been created by Tony Blair's Labour government to provide guidance on best clinical practice to the National Health Service, has generated considerable controversy in the United Kingdom. It has been argued that the role which the institute plays in appraising cost effectiveness, especially of expensive new health technologies, constitutes explicit, national rationing. Although the employment of scientific and evidence-based criteria as the basis of decisions might have been expected to secure legitimacy for the institute--even when its recommendations have the effect of denying access to a particular treatment--the reaction to much of its work so far indicates that this goal has not been fully achieved. While alterations to structure and procedure may be considered as possible means of addressing the agency's difficulties, such proposals are not without problems. Consequently, in the final analysis, the British example may serve as a demonstration that the inherently political nature of priority-setting in health care precludes any easy technocratic solution.     

Discolouring Democracy? Policing,Sensitive Evidence,and Contentious Deaths in the United Kingdom

This article examines recent United Kingdom government proposals for secret inquests, which, it is argued, are part of a general push for secrecy discernible across common law jurisdictions, and which include developments such as increased recourse to sensitive evidence in forensic settings and the normalization of intelligence‐led policing. While the push for secrecy is justified by national security claims, the article shows that in cases of contentious death involving police, the issue is less about national security and more about the use of intercept evidence, covert surveillance, and intelligence‐led policing, all of which have implications for police trust, accountability, and reputation management.     

Child Support Policy in Australia and the United Kingdom: Changing Priorities But A Similar Tough Deal for Children?

This article examines shifts in child support law and policyin Australia and the UK since the establishment of child supportschemes in both jurisdictions from the late 1980s. Our analysissuggests that while original policy goals in Australia and theUK were broadly similar, they also diverged in important respects.Further, legislative and operational elements of the respectiveschemes as originally enacted have played a key role in influencingsubsequent shifts in the substance and policy of the regimes.Yet the practical implications of currently diverging law andpolicy approaches are likely to be similar, in that most fatherswill pay less child support in the future.     

United Nations Mission to Kosovo: in Violation of the Right to Life?

International organisations are expected to abide to human rights standards in the course of their operations. However, to what standards are transitional regimes held accountable? Should the UN exercising executive powers be held accountable to the same or higher standard than a national government? In this article, the author discusses the legal basis relied upon by a UN internal human rights mechanism, the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP), that declared the UNMIK in violation of its positive obligation to investigate enshrined in Article 2 of the EHRC. A closer look at the opinions issued by the HRAP reveals that it might have misapplied the standard set forth in the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights, and thereby held UNMIK accountable under stricter requirements.     

Allies or Foes? A Review of the Relationship between the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Security Council

Netherlands International Law Review - The question concerning the relationship between the United Nations and the International Criminal Court proved controversial during the drafting of the Rome...     

The European Community and the Member States in the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the WTO: United or Divided?

Opinion 1/94 of the European Court of Justice determined the competence of the European Community and the Member States to conclude and implement WTO Agreements. Whilst the European Community enjoys exclusive competence to implement the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, it shares joint competence with the Member States in respect of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. However, the Court’s recognition of a division of competences between the Community and the Member States in WTO agreements has given rise to many fears that such a division would greatly complicate Community and Member State participation in WTO Agreements, would create many problems for them in doing so and, as a result, would greatly impede their successful participation in the WTO. Given the benefit of a number of years’ experience in the WTO, this paper focuses on the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the WTO and addresses the extent to which the division of competences between the Community and the Member States has affected their participation in the DSU. Primarily, it aims to examine the extent to which the provisions of the DSU affect Community and Member State participation in dispute settlement within the WTO. It then analyses the duty of co-operation imposed on the Community and on Member States by the Court of Justice in Opinion 1/94 in the implementation of the WTO Agreements and the degree to which this duty influences their pursuit of dispute settlement. Finally, the paper examines the manner in which Community and Member State dispute settlement proceedings have evolved in practice, the extent to which the division of powers has penetrated dispute settlement proceedings and the manner in which the Community, the Member States and other WTO members have addressed it. In essence, the paper attempts both to highlight some of the more obvious consequences and effects that the internal division of powers between the Community and the Member States has for their participation in the DSU and to suggest some ways in which these consequences may be manipulated for their mutual and successful settlement of disputes.     

FDA approved? A critique of the artificial insemination industry in the United States

Artificial insemination by donor is becoming an increasingly popular means to achieving parenthood. While the majority of couples use artificial insemination to overcome fertility problems, many recipients use artificial insemination to avoid passing a genetic disease to their children. However, case studies reveal the inherent dangers of artificial insemination, namely the lack of proper screening methods to avoid passing genetic diseases to children born by artificial insemination. State-by-state regulation, federal guidelines, and private adjudication have all proven to be inadequate methods of regulating the artificial insemination industry. Ginsberg proposes federal regulation as the only means of achieving a safe artificial insemination industry. The proposed federal regulation would include better genetic screening, a more efficient national sperm donor system, and limited disclosure to recipients of artificial insemination and their children. These measures would help to ensure that couples using artificial insemination get what they expect--healthy sperm, a safe artificial insemination process, and ultimately, a healthy child.     

Does the Use of Voice Lie Detection Equipment in the United Kingdom Breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Equality Act 2010?

Separating truth from lies has long been the goal of the legal system. Unfortunately, determining what is true is as difficult as it is important. Despite the view held by most people that they are able to tell when being lied to, the reality is that humans are very poor lie detectors. In an effort to overcome this fundamental flaw in human abilities, we have turned to technology to fill the gap. One of the many available technologies relies on the computer analysis of the voice of the statement maker. This technique is said by some to be able to highlight features in the voice of the speaker which indicate a high risk that they are not telling the truth. Whether or not the technology works, and the legal and ethical implications of such a finding, are beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, this paper assumes that the system achieves its stated aim, and examines the implications of the use of such devices on the public in terms of Human Rights and the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.     

Cut from the Same Cloth? A Comparative Study of Domestic Extremists and Gang Members in the United States

Despite calls for research on the similarities and differences between violent extremist groups and criminal street gangs, there have been few empirical comparisons. We develop a comparative model that emphasizes explicit, spurious, and indirect linkages between the two groups and use national sources of data on domestic extremists and gang members—the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)—to compare them across group involvement, demographic, family, religion, and socioeconomic status characteristics. Six percent of domestic extremists in PIRUS have a history of gang ties, which constitutes a minimal proportion of domestic extremists and is likely the rare exception among the population of gang members. Gang extremists more closely resemble non-gang extremists in PIRUS than they do gang members in the NLSY97. While these groups have some similarities, one of the major differences is that gang members are younger than domestic extremists. This likely contributes to many of the other differences between the groups across the life course, including marriage, parenthood, unemployment, and education. Given that the evidence is most consistent with the independence model, further comparative testing is needed before generalizing gang-related policies and programs to domestic extremism.