Intellectual Property Rights and the Potential for Universal Access to Treatment: trips,acta and hiv/aids medicine

Where hiv/aids is concerned, the twin goals of ‘zero new infections’ and an ‘aids-free generation’ are now, due to advances in treatment (and treatment as prevention), a realistic possibility. However, these goals can only be achieved through the scaling-up of treatment to the point of universal access. It is inevitable that the success of any scaling-up will be predicated on cost, particularly of hiv/aids medicines. This article argues that recent changes in the global intellectual property landscape—effected by way of bilaterally- and plurilaterally-negotiated trade agreements initiated by developed countries—jeopardise the target of universal access. Enhanced protection of international intellectual property rights increasingly poses a threat to the development of, and international trade in, generic medicines. Unless developing countries move to reinvigorate moribund multilateral institutions, particularly the wto, they will lose control of the intellectual property agenda, and thus the ability to impose an alternative vision regarding universal access.     

Mind the Gap: Attitudes about Miranda Warnings among Police Chiefs and Citizens

Research shows that the police subculture can be characterized by a distinct set of values and beliefs. Much of the police subculture research has focused on common characteristics and values found among a sample of police officers. Fewer studies have considered how the police, as a group, are similar to citizens. In this study, attention is given to similarities and differences in how the police and the public perceive the Miranda warnings. Attention is also given to whether type of neighborhood (low crime versus high crime) is related to attitudes about the Miranda warnings. Findings suggest that while the warnings are perceived in different ways there are similarities that could bridge the gap between the police and public. Implications are suggested.     

Building the Base: Al Qaeda's Focoist Strategy

Al Qaeda has developed a coherent strategy for insurgent violence that has much in common with the focoism advocated by Che Guevara in the 1960s. In their strategic writing, explored here, key Islamist strategists stress the role of violence in creating revolution, and describe the export of committed fighters to focoist enclaves at the margins of enemy control. In contrast to some prominent themes in recent scholarship, the article argues that physical space is demonstrably important to the revolutionaries, that their development of leaderless jihad is designed to supplement not replace territorial control, and that their violence is avowedly strategic.     

The impact of situational factors, officer characteristics, and neighborhood context on police behavior: A multilevel analysis

While a considerable number of studies had been conducted to examine the effects of various variables on police behavior, very few studies had simultaneously analyzed factors that accounted both for police coercive and noncoercive behaviors. Equally limited is the research on the influences of officer characteristics and neighborhood context on police behavior controlling for all individual situational factors. Using observational and survey data collected by a large-scale project and hierarchical linear modeling techniques, this study assessed the effects of situational, officer, and neighborhood variables on police coercive and noncoercive actions, as well as the cross-level effects between these variables. Findings showed that situational characteristics played a strong role in determining officer coercive behavior, but not noncoercive activities. Similarly, officer-level predictors explained better officers' variation in coercive behavior than noncoercive behavior. Meanwhile, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods were more prone to receive coercive activities than were other neighborhoods. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Probation Philosophies and Workload Considerations

Researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to understanding the punishment attitudes of different groups. Much of this research has focused on punishment attitudes of members of the public, while a few studies have considered how criminal justice officials perceive different sanctions. This study explores the justifications of probation rated by a sample of probation and parole officers. Attention is given to whether justifications are tied to the way officers rated the importance of different tasks as well as how much time officers reported their agencies devoting to different types of probation and parole activities. The results show some inconsistencies between justifications and work preferences/work activities. Implications are provided.     

Peer‐learning at university,trusting the students

This paper is a development of the Association of Law Teachers’ annual Lord Upjohn lecture, delivered on 29 January 2015 at City Law School, London, by the principal investigators of the Legal Education and Training Review’s (LETR) research team. In it, each of the authors takes a different theme arising from the LETR Report, and explores its implications and application, focusing on research and innovation; access and flexibility; deprofessionalisation, and, finally, reflecting on the way the Report addressed themes of common training, oversupply and access to justice. As our title indicates, the paper comprises both individual performances and performance as a consort, and we hope that in this way, we enact one of our key themes: the social nature of legal education and its regulation.