On a code of ethics for policy experts

Advances in science and technology have exposed society to risks of unprecedented magnitude, which sometimes must be faced on very short notice, as in the field of nuclear power. Those developments have greatly increased the significance of the opinions of policy experts. When adversaries are pitted against one another on such issues, the risk that policy experts may lose legitimacy in the eyes of the public is very high. At such times, the concern grows that the experts' views may be influenced by pressure from their principals or by conflicts of personal interest. One step that could reduce the risk of a loss of legitimacy for policy experts is to develop a code of ethics, which would include such issues as defining the responsibility of the expert, identifying unacceptable conflicts of interest, determining the expert's obligations regarding secrecy and disclosure, and developing standards for the process of decision-making in emergencies.     

Codification in the Commonwealth: Earlier efforts

This is a revised version of a paper presented at the fourth conference of the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., January 21–25, 1990.     

Social protection

The term ‘social protection’ has been widely used around the world and is often treated as synonymous with ‘social security’, which is misleading. This article considers the numerous terms that have become part of the language of social protection, indicating that the image conveyed by the term is rather different from what is meant by it.