A snapshot of legal developments and industry issues relevant to information technology, media and telecommunications law in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific – Co-ordinated by Lovells and contributed to by other leading law firms in the region

This column provides a country by country snapshot of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

A comparison of methods used in the UK and Ireland for the extraction and detection of semen on swabs and cloth samples

The recent formation of a United Kingdom and Irish working group, the Body Fluids Forum (BFF), highlighted the need to investigate different working practices prior to any inter-laboratory comparison work and identification of best practice. Various dilutions of semen were seeded onto swabs and cloth samples for each BFF member laboratory to test using their standard techniques. The results showed that the detection of acid phosphatase on swabs is best achieved using direct testing rather than on an extract from the swab. Extraction methods for spermatozoa require a balance to be achieved between using a sufficient volume of water to ensure optimal release and minimal volume to ensure a concentrated extract. PSA tests were investigated and found to be more sensitive than Choline. DNA profiles were obtained from samples in which no spermatozoa had been detected during microscopic examination.     

Military combat, posttraumatic stress disorder, and criminal behavior in Vietnam veterans

Although data are inconclusive, popular perception has linked military combat, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and criminal behavior. This paper discusses the multifactorial elements of this association that include both conscious and unconscious parameters of psychologic functioning. Testimony on combat-related PTSD has been presented in the courtroom to support veterans' claims of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) and diminished capacity and for consideration during judicial sentencing. Because there is a known connection between the degree of combat involvement and PTSD, verification through collateral sources of the veteran's report of combat experiences is an important component of forensic assessment. The DSM-III-defined diagnosis of PTSD and the presence of a dissociative state have particular relevance in NGRI determinations. In other aspects of the judicial process demonstration of the absolute presence or absence of PTSD is often irrelevant and should be replaced by efforts to establish plausible links between provable combat experiences and the circumstances of the crime.     

Risk Aversion, Liability Rules, and Safety

This paper investigates the performance of liability rules in two-party stochastic externality problems where negotiations are feasible and side payments are based on the realized level of externalities. Results show that an increase in polluter liability does not necessarily increase safety or efficiency in cases where the polluter is risk neutral. Complete polluter liability is found to yield Pareto optimality. When either party is risk averse, an increase in polluter liability may sometimes reduce safety and efficiency. If the polluter is risk neutral and the victim is risk averse, Pareto optimality is only achieved by assigning full liability on the polluter, i.e. giving the victim complete property rights to a clean environment. If the polluter is risk averse and the victim is risk neutral, no level of polluter liability is optimal. In this case, optimality can only be achieved through a contract on abatement activities, such that the risk-averse polluter receives a guaranteed payment regardless of the stochastic outcome.