30 years on - The review of the Council of Europe Data Protection Convention 108

The Council of Europe is engaging in a process of revising its Data Protection Convention (Convention 108) to meet and overcome these challenges. The Council of Europe celebrates this year the 30th Anniversary of its Data Protection Convention (usually referred to as Convention 108) which has served as the backbone of international law in over 40 European countries and has influenced policy and legislation far beyond Europe’s shores. With new data protection challenges arising every day, the Convention is revising its Data Protection Convention. Computer Law and Security Review (CLSR) together with the Intl. Association of IT Lawyers (IAITL) and ILAWS have submitted comments in response to the Expert Committee’s public consultation on this document. CLSR aims to position itself at the forefront of policy discussion drawing upon the high quality scholarly contributions from leading experts around the world.     

Patients' decisions to die: the emerging Australian jurisprudence

A series of decisions by McDougall J in Hunter and New England Area Health Service v. A (2009) 74 NSWLR 88; Martin CJ in Brightwater Care Group (Inc) v. Rossiter (2009) 40 WAR 84; Higgins CJ in Australian Capital Territory v. JT (2009) 232 FLR 322; and Kourakis J in H Ltd v. J (2010) 240 FLR 402 has built upon prior decisions in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. The combination of authority has provided a reasonably homogeneous set of principles on the basis of which future decision-making can take place by clinicians, institutions and courts. It is apparent that, wherever possible, effect will be given to competent patients' wishes in relation to cessation of treatment, nutrition and hydration. However, scrutiny will be applied to patients' capacity in order to examine not the rationality or correctness of their decisions per se but their capacity to make them. It is probable that a rigorous approach will be taken both to whether patients' mental ill health deprives them of capacity and to whether they are provided with sufficient information to understand the consequences and processes of deprivation of nutrition, hydration and medication.     

Unscientific health practice and disciplinary and consumer protection litigation

Evidence-based health care is expected of their practitioners by contemporary health professions. This requires health care to have a foundation in scholarly literature and to have a scientifically valid methodology. However, there are many instances of registered and unregistered practitioners either providing assessment and treatment that does not conform to such requirements or making representations about likely efficacy that are unjustifiable by reference to peer-reviewed clinical knowledge. Sometimes such conduct is predatory and deliberately exploitative; other times it is simply misconceived on the part of practitioners who regard themselves as medical pioneers. This editorial situates such conduct within unscientific and unorthodox health practice. It surveys recent consumer protection and disciplinary decisions to evaluate the role of the law in regulating such conduct. It argues in favour of an assertive legal response to protect vulnerable patients or potential patients against forms of treatment and promises of outcomes that are unscientific and deceptive.     

The Relationship Between Crime and Electronic Gaming Expenditure: Evidence from Victoria, Australia

Gambling in Australia is a significant economic activity. Expenditure on its many forms is sizeable and has undergone sustained periods of expansion. At the same time, the structure of the gambling industry has undergone substantial change, with the use of gaming facilities in local hotels and licensed clubs now representing one of the most predominant forms of gambling. Despite this, and the extensive international literature on the relationships between gambling and crime, there have been relatively few studies which examine the local area effects of gaming establishments on crime in Australia. This study uses a unique set of data from the Australian state of Victoria, a region in which local area expansion of gaming networks has been considerable since 1991, to investigate the relationship between gaming machine expenditure and various types of crime in 1996, 2001 and 2006. One particular focus is that of income-generating crime, defined here as theft, fraud, breaking and entering, forgery, false pretences, larceny and robbery. After controlling for a host of statistical issues, our results indicate a consistent positive and significant relationship between gaming and crime rates, especially income-generating crime rates, at the local level.     

Retributive and Inclusive Justice Goals and Forgiveness: The Influence of Motivational Values

Who is more likely to forgive, given that justice is important and motivating for people? In this article, we argue that the relation between justice and forgiveness depends on the type of justice involved; specifically, the goals of justice, i.e. retributive versus inclusive. We also explored the influence of motivational values on justice goals and forgiveness. Using data from 178 undergraduate psychology students who responded to measures of retributive and inclusive justice attitudes, forgiveness attitudes and dispositions, and values, we found support for our hypotheses that retributive justice goals are negatively related to forgiving attitudes and dispositions; inclusive justice goals are positively related to forgiveness; and benevolence and power values play the dominant role in predicting forgiveness. The results have implications for how the relation between justice and forgiveness is conceptualised and applied.