Patient narrative: an ‘on-switch’ for evaluating best interests

This article examines how the wishes, feelings, values and beliefs of adults lacking capacity can be evaluated and the extent to which they are given effect in best interests decision-making. One way of fulfilling the clinician’s legal responsibilities to take a patient’s preferences into account is to explicitly link these to the notion of narrative. Narratives provide a compelling grounding and give weight to views and values that may have been informally and consistently expressed in the past. An evaluation of recent case law suggests that the trajectory of a person’s life, their character and personality, and the perspectives of those with whom the patient has valued relationships are given increasing judicial recognition. Attending to the narrative of the patient could lead to a more sophisticated judgement of best interests than an objective ‘balance sheet’ approach would allow and enable greater alignment with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.     

Regulating Hedge Funds for Systemic Stability: The EU's Approach

This article offers a critical appraisal of the way in which the EU regulates hedge funds (HFs) in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFM Directive) and its proposal to regulate the repo markets from which they obtain much of their leverage. It argues that the EU's scheme is not a radical departure from the pre‐crisis market liberalist approach and that its reliance on discretionary intervention is misplaced because it does not take account of the fundamental uncertainty that characterises financial markets. The article outlines the operations of HFs and explores the extent to which they pose a threat to systemic stability, paying particular attention to the use of leverage by HFs. It explores the background to the AIFM Directive and the post‐crisis international consensus on financial regulation and then evaluates the complex division of responsibility for regulating HFs between the national and supranational authorities. Finally, it discusses how HFs should be regulated. Drawing on the work of Minsky, it argues that a leverage cap would have been more likely to prevent HFs contributing to systemic instability than the scheme adopted. Nor are the proposed rules on mandatory ‘haircuts’ in repo markets or the AIFM Directive's rules on remuneration likely to prevent HFs contributing to systemic instability.     

Estimating China's Urban Unemployment Rate: Background,mechanics and an alternative

This paper opens by explaining the political processes that lie behind the definition and measurement of China's urban unemployment. Thereafter, it uses publicly available sources to replicate the inscrutable official urban unemployment estimate for the year 1997. Scholars widely critique the official estimate as under-counting the number of unemployed people, though it is less appreciated that official statistics also under-estimate the number of employed urban people. This paper addresses both deficiencies, unofficially calculating that urban unemployment for the year 1997 was at the rate of 4.5%, higher than the officially stated rate of 3.1%, but closer to the official rate than is often assumed. We conclude by proposing additional research that would enable more precise estimates of China's urban unemployment rate.     

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FAMILIES DISPUTING CUSTODY

This article reports data on allegations of domestic violence in two samples of high-conflict families in child custody disputes. It delineates five basic types of interparental violence and corresponding patterns in parent-child relationships. The findings should be viewed as preliminary exploratory hypotheses, which, if confirmed in future research, suggest that differential assessment of domestic families is important when helping divorcing parents make custody and visitation plans.