Private lawyers,public law: administrative law in the making

Abstract: The law of public administration suffers from a lack of conceptual identity. One of the principal reasons for that deficiency is the limiting nature of administrative law theory. That theory generally fails to address the concerns of the private lawyer who is dealing with public administrators. What is needed is a more sophisticated understanding of the everyday interaction of lawyers and administrators. The author proposes an analytical scheme, based on the idea of decision-making as textual interpretation, by which that interaction might be better understood and more usefully studied. He argues that the essential skill of administrative lawyers is a fine appreciation of how administrative decision-makers differ from judges; the good administrative lawyer understands administrators and the administrative process, and knows how to turn that knowledge to advantage. Sommaire: Le droit administratif souffre d'un manque d'identité conceptuelle. L'une des raisons principales de ce manque est la qualité limitée de la théorie de droit administratif. En général la théorie existante ne répond pas aux besoins des avocats en pratique privét-traitant avec des fonctionnaires. II est nécessaire d'arriver à tine compréhension plus approfondie des interactions quotidiennes entre avocats et fonctionnaires. L'auteur propose un schéma analytique fondé sur l'idée qu'une décision administrative est line “interprétation textuelle” permettant de mieux saisir et d‘étudier les relations réciproques entre le fonctionnaire et l'avocat. II soutient que la qualité essentielle de l'avocat en droit administratif est une capacité d'identifier l'existence et la nature des différences entre les prises de décision du fonctionnaire et les décisions du juge. Enfin, un bon avocat en droit administratif comprend le fonctionnaire et le processus administratif et sait en tirer profit.     

Navigating the minefield: legal ethics and healthcare law

Practicing law in the healthcare field is a daunting task due to the highly-regulated nature of the field and the increasing scrutiny of the conduct of industry providers, payors, and vendors. Attorneys must provide difficult opinions regarding matters with civil, criminal, and reimbursement implications and often are asked to represent multiple parties in healthcare-related settings. This article discusses some legal ethics issues for the healthcare practitioner and touches on some of the recent changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which were adopted by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates at its mid-February 2002 meeting. The authors conduct their analysis by applying the model rules to a number of hypothetical fact situations typical of those encountered in the day-to-day practice of healthcare law.     

Mitochondrial DNA sequencing of beetle larvae (Nitidulidae: Omosita) recovered from human bone

The isolation, amplification, and characterization of human DNA from hematophagous (blood feeding) and necrophagous (carrion feeding) arthropods have been advanced significantly by the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA sequencing methodologies. Historically, DNA technology has been successfully utilized to identify individual hosts upon which species of hematophagous arthropods have fed. The analysis of hematophagous insects' gut content blood meals has led to major advances in medical entomology and vector-borne disease epidemiology. In the forensic arena, the ability to apply similar techniques to insects recovered from badly decomposed remains has been greatly enhanced through the advent of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) techniques. Mitochondrial DNA analyses have been utilized to identify both the human remains upon which fly larvae (maggots) have fed and the species of the larvae themselves. The preliminary work detailed here demonstrates, for the first time, the successful application of mtDNA sequencing techniques to the analysis of necrophagous beetle larvae. A small sample of sap beetle larvae, Omosita spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), was collected from human skeletal remains during anthropological examination and analyzed for human DNA using mtDNA sequencing. The beetle larvae yielded mtDNA matching that of the host human bone. The results detailed here further demonstrate the robust nature of human mtDNA and the ability to recover valuable mtDNA evidence from forensically important, late decompositional stage insect species.