Recent legal developments European law

EMPLOYMENT LAW HANDBOOK: AN ADVISOR'S HANDBOOK By TAMARA LEWIS [Legal Action Group, 2005, 6th ed., 739 pp., £28.00 (paperback)]

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL CLAIMS: TACTICS AND PRECEDENTS By NAOMI CUNNINGHAM [Legal Action Group, 2005, 396 pp., £25.00 (paperback)]

DISCRIMINATION LAW: TEXT, CASES AND MATERIALS By AILEEN MCCOLGAN [Hart Publishing, 2005. 2nd edn., 757 pp., £25 (paperback)]

FAMILY LAW AND FAMILY VALUES Edited By MAVIS MACLEAN [Hart Publishing, 2005, 342 pp., £22.00 (paperback)]

TRUSTS AND EQUITY By NIGEL STOCKWELL and RICHARD EDWARDS [Pearson Longman, 2005, 7th edn., 556 pp., £29.99 (paperback)]

HAYTON AND MARSHALL: CASES AND COMMENTARY ON THE LAW OF TRUSTS AND EQUITABLE REMEDIES By DAVID HAYTON and CHARLES MITCHELL [Sweet &; Maxwell, 2005, 12th edn., 985 pp., £32.95 (paperback)]

MODERN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW By CATHERINE COLSTON and KIRSTY MIDDLETON [Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 2005, 2nd ed., 808 pp., £35.95 (paperback)]

INSURANCE LAW: DOCTRINE AND PRINCIPLES By JOHN DOWRY and PHILIP RAWLINGS [Hart Publishing, 2005, 2nd edn, 447 pp., £25.00 (paperback)]

MASON &; MCCALL SMITH'S LAW AND MEDICAL ETHICS Edited By KENYON MASON and GRAEME LAURIE [Oxford University Press, 2005, 7th ed., 774 pp., £21.99 (paperback)]

LEGAL CONUNDRUMS IN OUR BRAVE NEW WORLD By BARONESS HELENA KENNEDY QC [Sweet and Maxwell, 2004, 57 pp., £17.95 (paperback)]

CRIMINAL LAW By CATHERINE ELLIOTT and FRANCES QUINN [Pearson Education, 2006, 6th ed. xxvi + 420 pp., £22.99 (paperback)]

DRUGS, ADDICTION AND THE LAW By LEONARD JASON‐LLOYD [ELM Publications, 10th ed., 232 pp., £29.95 (loose‐leaf with updating service)]

THE VIOLENT WORKPLACE By P. A. J. WADDINGTON, DOUG BADGER and RAY BULL [Willan Publishing, 2006, xii + 204 pp., £25.00 (hardback)]

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW By J. THORNTON and S. BECKWITH [Sweet and Maxwell, 2004, 2nd ed., 447 pp., £24.95 (paperback)]     

Whatever happened to regionalization? The curious case of Nova Scotia

Abstract: The case of Nova Scotia well illustrates the complexities involved in implementing a strategy of regionalization in health care. In 1996, under the leadership of Liberal Premier John Savage, thirty‐six local hospital boards were amalgamated into four regional health boards. By 2001, however, Conservative Premier John Hamm had expanded the four regions into nine district health authorities. Both measures were justified by explicit references to cost containment and greater accountability, even though the first took numerous units and amalgamated them, while the second took the few units and multiplied them. How can this seeming contradiction be explained, and what does it say about the nature of regionalization as a policy tool for health care? The authors find that neither cost containment nor citizen engagement can explain the system of regionalization which currently informs the health care system in Nova Scotia. Rather, the present form of regionalization exists because it is useful politically in two ways: it maintains the centralization of power that existed previous to the formal decentralization of health care; and it restores the system of representation that existed prior to the implementation of regionalization. The authors conclude that, to understand how regionalization has been implemented in any given jurisdiction, one must pay close attention to the political context in which strategies of regionalization have been executed. Sommaire: Le cas de la Nouvelle‐Écosse illustre bien les complexités inhérentes à la mise en œuvre d'une stratégie de régionalisation dans les soins de santé. En 1996, sous le leadership du Premier ministre libéral John Savage, 36 conseils d'hôpitaux locaux ont fusionné pour former quatre conseils de sante régionaux. En 2001, cependant, le Premier ministre conservateur John Hamm a élargi les quatre régions pour les transformer en neuf conseils de santé de district. Ces deux mesures ont été justifiées par des références explicites à la compression des coûts et à une plus grande imputabilité, même si la première a consistéà prendre de nombreuses unités et à les fusionner, tandis que la seconde a consistéà prendre quelques rares unités et à les multiplier. Comment peut‐on expliquer cette apparente contradiction, et qu'est‐ce que cela nous dit sur la nature de la régionalisation en tant qu'outil de politique en matière de soins de santé? Les auteurs trouvent que ni la compression des coûts, ni la participation des citoyens ne peuvent expliquer le système de régionalisation qui caractérise actuellement le système de soins de santé en Nouvelle‐Écosse. Au contraire, la forme actuelle de régionalisation existe parce qu'elle est politiquement utile de deux manières: elle maintient la centralisation du pouvoir qui existait avant la décentralisation officielle des soins de santé; et elle restaure, jusqu'à un certain point, le système de représentation qui existait avant la mise en œuvre de la régionalisation. Les auteurs concluent que, pour comprendre la manière dont la régionalisation a été mise en œuvre, il faut prêter une grande attention au contexte politique dans lequel ces stratégies de régionalisation ont étéélaborées.     

Why is the Bodiless (aṅanga) Gnostic Body (jñāna-kāya) Considered a Body?

Journal of Indian Philosophy - This paper analyzes the reasons for which the incorporeal ultimate reality called the “Gnostic Body” (jñānakāya) is categorized as a...     

Banishment and the Post-Industrial City: Lessons from Seattle

Seattle deploys several mechanisms by which individuals’ presence in particular spaces can constitute a crime. Through a range of means, police in Seattle are given wide authority to question and arrest those who appear as human manifestations of the “disorder” that is of concern to many. Importantly, these programs accentuate the power of criminal law by mobilizing other forms of law, most notably civil law and administrative law. This legally-hybrid structure works to accentuate the police’s power notably. Yet increased police power does not actually work to reduce “disorder” to any appreciable extent. For this reason, and others, we suggest that different approaches to addressing social marginality represent more promising avenues for cities like Seattle to explore.     

The Analysis of Black Powder Substitutes Containing Ascorbic Acid by Ion Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry*†

Abstract: Black powder substitutes containing ascorbic acid are a group of low explosives that utilize ascorbic acid as the fuel. The analysis of these powders is complicated by the degradation of ascorbic acid which occurs rapidly in solution and may also occur as the powder ages. Aqueous extracts of both intact powders and postblast residues were analyzed by an existing ion chromatography/mass spectrometry (IC/MS) method used at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Results have shown that while ascorbic acid itself is not detected in this method, its diagnostic degradation products (threonic acid, monohydrated diketogulonic acid, and oxalic acid) can be identified. In addition, anions from the inorganic oxidizers (perchlorate and nitrate) and combustion products such as chloride, chlorate, and nitrite, can be identified within the same experiment. While this IC/MS method shows promise, future modifications are necessary because of limitations in identifying threonate in postblast residues, as well as coeluting compounds observed in postblast residues.