The Pragmatic and Stylistic Aspects of Communication Between State Authorities and the Citizen within e-Administration in Poland

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This article discusses the specificity of remote communication between state authorities and...     

Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a patient in a minimally conscious state

This column reports on a recent decision, the first in England in which a court was asked to authorise the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a "minimally conscious state". Since the seminal decision in 1993 in Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] AC 789, in which the House of Lords authorised withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a persistent vegetative state, the relatively new diagnosis of a "minimally conscious state" has been recognised. In deciding whether it was in the patient's best interests that artificial nutrition and hydration be withdrawn and withheld, the court made a key legal determination, with precedential effect, as to whether the so-called "balance sheet" approach to determining a patient's best interests, as opposed to the (discredited) "futility" principle, applies to a patient in a minimally conscious state. The merit of the former approach is that it forces explicit consideration of quality-of-life assessments in favour of and against withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. A significant pitfall of the English position, as it is currently developing, is the premium it places on accurate diagnosis, whether of vegetative state or minimally conscious state. These issues will have to be faced sooner or later by Australasian courts.     

Australia: Supreme Court of Western Australia orders retrial in case of man convicted of infecting girlfriend with HIV

On 3 October 2002, the District Court convicted an HIV-positive man, Houghton, of unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm to his girlfriend for having unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with her. Houghton had not told her of his HIV status prior to intercourse. He had been aware of his status for some years before meeting the woman, but testified at his trial that he believed that he could not transmit HIV if he did not ejaculate inside the woman. The woman became HIV-positive as a result of the sexual intercourse. The question put before the jury was twofold: whether there had been bodily injury caused by the applicant to the complainant; and whether that injury was of sufficient severity to constitute grievous bodily harm. The jury found Houghton guilty and in doing so made a finding that the transmission of HIV constitutes grievous bodily harm.     

Legal Certainty and the Role of the Financial Markets Law Committee

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• The role of the Financial Markets Law Committee (‘FMLC’)is to provide specialist assistance to those who must meet thechallenges of reforming, modernizing and applying financiallaw by identifying issues of legal uncertainty that may facethe wholesale financial markets and by working to resolve them,if possible, before they give rise to any material risk.
• Itis the author's view that the FMLC is uniquely positioned toserve rule of law values such as legal certainty and legal stability.
• Thisarticle suggests that, in the light of the challenges facingthe financial markets today, the rapid emergence of new markets,the accelerating rate of financial products ‘innovation’,the impact of recent international and European initiativesto harmonize financial markets law and the prospect of law reforminitiatives not yet even underway, the FMLC has an importantrole to play for the future.

  Much is said and . . . [Full Text of this Article]