Equality,risk and responsibility: Dworkin on the insurance market

The concept of risk occupies centre-stage in debates about individual and social responsibilities and, within a broadly neo-liberal regime, the paradigmatic form of risk management is insurance. Nevertheless analysis of these recent shifts in welfare politics appears curiously disconnected from dominant trends of normative political theorizing. The rise of ‘insurance as government’ and ‘risk management as responsibility and opportunity’ has not obviously been addressed even by prominent liberal political theorists. Similarly the analysts of neo-liberalism have devoted little attention to tracing these concepts through the literature on political theory. This article seeks to remedy this disconnection, by showing how Ronald Dworkin – perhaps the foremost liberal theorist writing today – offers us an account of equality which foregrounds the apparatus of insurance, and represents the management of risk within the welfare system as both an opportunity and a responsibility. Furthermore, his account inherits many of the ambiguities and weaknesses of neo-liberal theory and redeploys them within the political theory of equality.     

Compromising liberty: Friedrich Hayek's The road to serfdom in practice

Abstract

This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken in 1944 by Friedrich Hayek for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. Hayek's subsequent reports suggested the reorganization of the state-regulated Gibraltar housing market in line with free market principles designed to relocate the colony's working-class population into neighbouring Spain. However, rather than freeing Gibraltarians from the evils of state planning, as identified in The road to serfdom (also 1944), this proposal would have delivered them into the dictatorship of General Franco. Not only was Franco's regime brutal, but it also practised autarkic economic policies virtually identical to those which Hayek maligned in The road to serfdom. In sum, Hayek's proposals would have benefited Gibraltar's landlords at the expense of the liberty of the majority of the civilian population.     

Reluctant Appeaser: Douglas Hailsham and the German Problem 1932–1938

This article considers the ministerial career of Douglas Hogg, first Viscount Hailsham, during the 1930s and, in particular, his attitude towards the appeasement of Germany. Although Hailsham was a leading Conservative in the inter-war period and held key posts during the 1930s, his role in Britain's policy of appeasement has been overlooked. He was consistently wary of the Nazi menace and as Secretary of State for War from 1931–1935 he urged a firm line towards Hitler's Germany. As the decade progressed, however, the inescapable realities of Britain's international predicament drove Hailsham to support the government's appeasement policy, at least until September 1938. Although he forecast the near inevitability of the Second World War, he could not devise a viable alternative to the appeasement of Germany. Hailsham's experience thus offers a significant addition to the historiography of appeasement and to understanding the distinctions between “appeasers” and “anti-appeasers.”     

Karen Mossberger,Susan E. Clarke and Peter John (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Urban Politics

This article discusses the current state of the ethical framework for local government, which developed under the broader Modernisation Agenda of the Local Government Act 2000. It argues that the local government framework stands at a crossroads between the high road and the low road of ethics. Whereas the low road leads down the path of compliance and quantifiable performance measures, the high road is far more ambitious and leads to a culture of ethical governance. Recent developments - such as upcoming Section 66 regulations and the expansion of the role of the monitoring officer - have highlighted the choice between these two paths. This article will analyse the scope of unethical activity in local government, primarily in England, and map the regulatory terrain of the local government ethical framework. It identifies precursors to the framework and examines the way in which the Local Government Act 2000 built upon, and deviated from, the recommendations of the third report of the Committee for Standards in Public Life. Finally it discusses what has happened since the LGA 2000 Act was implemented, and assesses whether the framework is now poised to go down the high road of ethical culture or low road of compliance.     

A Historical Analysis of Mass Casualty Bombers

Over the past two decades repeated attempts have been made to identify the next "new" form of terrorism, but all have come up short. Modern terrorism is not about the next trend, but is--and long has been--characterized by mass casualty bombers (defined as those terrorist groups that have killed 25 or more people in a bombing attack). When compared to other "new" terrorists, mass casualty bombers are more prolific than state-sponsored terrorists, more deadly than suicide terrorists, more identifiable than religious terrorists, and more plausible than CBRN terrorists. Mass casualty bombers have long presented the greatest terrorist threat to international peace and security and will likely continue to do so in the future.     

The Contingent Public Value of ‘Good Design’: Regulating the Aesthetics of the Australian Urban Built Environment

The proposition that the urban built environment can, and indeed should, be made more visually attractive is a long‐standing feature of the governance of Australian cities. In this vein, this paper examines how ‘good design’ in terms of visual aesthetics is currently pursued including through the development assessment process and the work of government architects. The paper begins by tracing the background of contemporary regulatory practice from long‐standing ideas around beauty and its value through to the urban design movement of today. Next, it considers in more detail various rationales for aesthetic governance and what might be better forms of regulatory practice. In short, it will be argued that while there can be scope for regulation to deliver superior outcomes, this practice must be sensitive to a high degree of contingency in what the public values and that deliberate empirical inquiry into the latter is desirable.     

An extremely sensitive species-specific ARMs PCR test for the presence of tiger bone DNA

The survival of the tiger (Panthera tigris) is seriously threatened by poaching to provide raw materials for Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs). Most highly prized are the tiger's bones, which are used in combination with other animal and plant derivatives in pills and plasters for the treatment of rheumatism and other ailments. Hundreds of patent remedies have been produced which claim to contain tiger bone, but proof of its presence is needed, if legislation prohibiting the trade in endangered species is to be enforced. A highly sensitive tiger-specific real-time PCR assay has been developed to address this problem. Using primers specific to the tiger mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, successful amplification has been reliably achieved from blood, hair and bone as well as from a range of TCMs spiked with 0.5% tiger bone. Although capable of detecting fewer than 10 substrate molecules, the seven varieties of TCM pills and plasters tested showed no detectable trace of tiger DNA before spiking. Furthermore, sequencing several "tiger bone" fragments seized from TCM shops has shown that they actually originated from cattle and pigs. The potential effects of traditional bone preparation methods, evidence that much lower concentrations are used than alleged on TCM packaging, and substitution of bones from other species all suggest a low likelihood of detecting tiger DNA in patent medicines. Despite this, the basic methods have been thoroughly proven and can be readily applied to derivatives from other CITES protected species providing a rapid and highly sensitive forensic test for species of origin. Potential applications to the monitoring of wild populations are demonstrated by the successful identification of shed hairs and faecal samples.     

For the health of the economy and patent system: rationale and scope of patent attorney privilege

Legal context: There exists, in some countries, a patent attorney privilege.This privilege allows an actual or potential holder of patentrights to withhold from a court communications that it has hadwith its patent attorney. The privilege is not recognized inall jurisdictions and there is variation in the extent of theprivilege in those countries where it does exist. Key points: This article explores the rationale for the privilege in orderto see if there is a sound basis upon which to found it. Througha consideration of the justifications for other legal privileges,the article finds that patent attorney privilege is a justifiableprotection for communications between clients and their patentattorneys. If there was a possibility that the communicationswould have to be revealed in court, this may impact the fulland frank nature of the communications. Such communicationsassist patent attorneys, as professionals with expertise ina specialized field, to provide clients with appropriate andeffective advice. That advice goes directly to the maintenanceand benefit of the patent system and the overall economy. Practical significance: As a result of the variation in the extent of the privilegearound the world, there are moves afoot to reform its operation.This article reveals strong public policy reasons for the recognitionof a patent attorney privilege. These grounds also reinforcethe need to ensure that privilege is not unduly limited in itsoperation in any jurisdiction.