Resourceful communities: empowering traditional knowledge holders

Community Resources is itself a community resource (CR), interrogatingand reframing the debate over IP and traditional knowledge (TK)with a range and spirit that is rare in dense, arid academicliterature. With energy, insight, and originality, it probesthe dilemmas of global governance initiatives that aim to addressintrinsically local TK systems. The hundred-page bibliography, itself a CR, measures both theauthor's industry and the diffuse academic discourse this bookaugments. TK is a rich resource for the academic community.Yet can this analytical effort respect the irreducible diversityof those communities for whom TK is integral to their collectiveidentities? Community Resources systematically critiques international efforts,underscoring their limitations and embedded values, before settingout the conceptual foundations for a new form of internationalgovernance, with CR as the central organizing idea. How canjustice be done to the cultures, values, and interests of disparate     

The European Redistributive State and a European Law of Struggle

Its more central involvement in the government of economic and fiscal policy requires a new public law for the EU. This must be alive to the positive, negative and intractable qualities of conflicts associated with these fields. Such a law would internalise conflicts within the political process so that their irresolution and ongoing struggle become the dynamo endowing the Union with qualities of political engagement, imagination and justice. The recent reforms make mediation of conflicts a central mission of the Union but still use the public law structures of the regulatory state which lack these three qualities.     

Social Network Analysis to evaluate organisational networks on sexual health and rights

There are many challenges in evaluating international networks. The use of conventional tools can be difficult and often provides less than useful information. Social Network Analysis offers benefits for network evaluators by allowing for documentation and analysis of inter-relationships between individuals and organisations. This paper describes the use of this approach in the evaluation of a major international project entitled the Global Dialogues on Sexual Health and Well-being. It highlights the value of maps in enabling clear visual representations of networks, the identification of areas needing greater focus and the basis on which networks are constructed.

Analyse des réseaux sociaux pour évaluer les réseaux organisationnels sur les droits et la santé génésiques

L’évaluation des réseaux internationaux présente de nombreux défis. L'utilisation d'outils conventionnels peut être difficile et fournit souvent des informations qui ne sont pas des plus utiles. L'analyse des réseaux sociaux comporte des avantages pour les évaluateurs des réseaux, car elle permet la documentation et l'analyse des corrélations entre individus et organisations. Cet article décrit l'utilisation de cette approche dans l’évaluation d'un important projet international intitulé Global Dialogues on Sexual Health and Wellbeing (Dialogues mondiaux sur la santé et le bien-être génésiques). Il met en relief la valeur des cartes pour permettre des représentations visuelles claires des réseaux, l'identification de zones nécessitant un axe central plus marqué et la base sur laquelle les réseaux sont construits.

Análise de Rede Social para avaliar redes organizacionais sobre saúde sexual e direitos

Existem muitos desafios para se avaliar as redes internacionais. O uso de ferramentas convencionais pode ser dificil e frequentemente oferece informações que não são úteis. A Análise de Rede Social oferece benefícios para avaliadores de rede ao considerar a documentação e análise das inter-relações entre indivíduos e organizações. Este artigo descreve o uso desta abordagem na avaliação de um grande projeto internacional chamado Diálogos Globais sobre Saúde Sexual e Bem-Estar. Ele destaca o valor de mapas para permitir representações visuais claras de redes, a identificação de áreas que estejam precisando de um maior enfoque e a base sobre a qual as redes são construídas.

El Análisis de Redes Sociales para evaluar redes de organizaciones que trabajan en salud y derechos sexuales

A la hora de evaluar las redes internacionales surgen muchos retos. Los métodos tradicionales pueden presentar dificultades y a menudo proporcionan información poco útil. El Análisis de Redes Sociales presenta ventajas para los evaluadores de redes ya que ofrece la posibilidad de documentar y analizar relaciones entre individuos y organizaciones. El presente ensayo examina cómo se utilizó este método para evaluar un importante proyecto internacional llamado “Diálogos globales sobre salud sexual y bienestar”. También ilustra cómo los mapas son valiosos porque muestran una clara representación visual de las redes, revelan las áreas que necesitan mayor atención y señalan las bases sobre las que se construyen las redes.     

Professional self-regulation and guidelines in assisted reproduction

Australia's scientific expertise in ART has not been matched by similar standards in national regulation. Scientific breakthroughs in the early 1980s were followed by cohorts of State and national inquiries. Early guidelines by the National Health and Medical Research Council were followed by status of children legislation clarifying their parentage where donated gametes were used. The practice and procedure of ART was legislatively regulated in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia but left to guidelines and accreditation of the Fertility Society of Australia in the remaining States and Territories. The article examines the consequences of an absence of national regulation in dealing with embryo experimentation now that debates have shifted to human cloning and stem cell technology. The article also considers arguments for and against regulation in areas of parental procreative decision-making and embryo experimentation.     

Rediscovering Implementation: Public Sector Contracting and Human Services

There is vast literature on how to implement public policies, with endless case studies emphasising a few key lessons. The drive to contracting in the public sector raises familiar threats to coherent program implementation, and adds those of control and incentives. Contracting fragments program responsibility among multiple contractors, and separates policy agencies from service delivery contractors. It raises questions about political control and accountability, and the prospect of gaps between intention and outcome. This paper 'rediscovers implementation' by reviewing the practical difficulties of constructing public-private relationships which can deliver quality human services. After considering broad arguments about the efficacy of contracting, the paper turns to the provision of human services by examining the contracting out of welfare services and the Job Network. Our argument is modest: that public sector contracting fails if the challenges of implementation are not addressed explicitly, since service delivery through the private sector can falter for exactly the same reasons as traditional public bureaucracies.     

Human genetic research databases and biobanks: towards uniform terminology and Australian best practice

This article examines international best practice for the establishment, maintenance and use of human genetic research databases (HGRDs), particularly focusing on large-scale population biobanks, and considers the measures that should be taken in Australia to comply with this best practice. These HGRDs play a pivotal role in basic research aimed at understanding the basis of human disease at the genetic level, and applied research aimed at putting that basic knowledge into practical application. In particular, the large-scale biobanks are vital research tools in the drive to uncover the causes and consequences of human health and disease. Biobanks are being established at regional, national and international levels throughout the world. Although their governance structures are uniformly complex, some best practices are emerging with regard to consent (particularly consent to future research and withdrawal of consent), privacy and data protection and intellectual property ownership and access. Best practices with regard to benefit-sharing are emerging much more slowly. This article reviews these international best practices with the aim of providing guidance for the development of appropriate regulatory structures in Australia.     

Negative Mythology

Law and Critique - Can mythology be a form of critical theory in the service of right? From the standpoint of an Enlightenment tradition, the answer is no. Mythology is characterised by...