Modeling eligibility under national systems of compensation for treatment injury

How can different schemes of compensation for treatment injury be evaluated? This article offers an empirical approach to assessment based on the simulation of alternative models of eligibility using real-world data. It draws on information about adverse events generated from a representative survey of public hospital admissions in New Zealand and classifies these under a range of eligibility criteria for different possible compensation systems. These are then evaluated according to a number of policy design considerations, using variables available from the New Zealand study.     

Norberto Bobbio,liberal socialism and the problem of language

Norberto Bobbio's theory of procedural democracy grows out of his refusal of totalising knowledge in favour of a belief that the ‘sparrow's’ view is preferable to that of the ‘eagle’. Only in this way is irreducible human difference protested. History is reduced by Bobbio from both its liberal and its marxist presumptions about its total sense to a realm of partial empirical proof for assertions about the good. It cannot be understood as more than a contested area of facts whose overall laws and telos cannot be known. The good can only be agreed upon in a debate. Thus he sees politics as a place where all voices must be heard and consensus arrived at on contingent and limited goods. Thus practically politics becomes today the practice of more representative democracy in more places. The condition for such a practice is a liberal socialist regime of rights. His valuable theory of procedural democracy as the defender of difference in society finds its limits in an undeveloped theory of communication across difference. What is a common acceptable, undistorted language for the debate?     

MEDIATION IN THE FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

The chief justice of the Australian Family Court discusses the use of mediation in the Family Court of Australia. He traces the legislative origin and the basic purposes of the service. Of particular interest is the differentiation between mediation, conciliation, and the court process. The limitations are also discussed, especially the use of mediation in domestic violence situations.     

Maximising trace soil evidence: an improved recovery method developed during investigation of a $26 million bank robbery

Obtaining as much particulate material as possible from questioned items is desirable in forensic science as this allows a range of analyses to be undertaken and the retention of material for others to check. A method of maximising particulate recovery is described using a kidnap case, where minimal staining on clothing (socks) remained as possible indications of where the victim had been held captive. Police intelligence led to a hostage scene that was sampled. Brushing of the socks recovered about 50 sand grains with some silt: ultrasonic agitation and centrifuging recovered over 300 grains of sand, silt and clay. These were visually compared to scene and control samples, allowing exclusion of 52 samples and the retention of one comparison sample as well as other possibles, saving time and money, but maximising sample quantity and quality.