Proactive Evaluation of PRP Status at Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites

Two keys to avoiding potentially responsible party (PRP) status at future Superfund sites are to manage all waste with appropriate care and to perform appropriate inquiries into the history of new properties prior to acquisition. However, corporations can become PRPs because of their ownership and/or operation of historically contaminated property, their historical waste management practices, or their historical disposal of hazardous substances at nonowned disposal sites, such as landfills. This article describes a method by which insurance companies, waste producers, and property owners can proactively evaluate their potential liability associated with environmental response action costs at contaminated sites.     

Occupancy rights: life planners and the Navajos

ABSTRACT

This Comment focuses on the limitations of Stilz’s individualist conception of occupancy rights. Her account of occupancy is critical to her attempt to answer the question of where one holds territorial rights as well as related place-related rights like the right of return. Her account appeals to the geographical location of individual life plans. This Comment argues that this fails to distinguish between Indigenous People who are connected historically and in many other ways to a place and individual Life-Planners: it treats the two as equivalent, which I argue is counter-intuitive. I also argue that Stilz’s occupancy account fails to explain the scope of occupancy rights in a number of cases that she appeals to in her examples, such as the Navajos’ expulsion from the area in which they lived. What she needs, I argue, is a group based conception of occupancy rights, in addition to the idea of individual rights of residency.     

Decentralized decision‐making and urban planning: A case study of density for benefit agreements in Toronto and Vancouver

This article compares the design and implementation of density for benefit agreements (DBAs), a form of density “bonusing” in Toronto and Vancouver. The cities identify many of the same priorities for benefits secured from developers, but in practice they prioritize widely different benefits. By comparing practice in Toronto and Vancouver, this article demonstrates how institutional differences and the decentralization of policy decision‐making in major cities can affect urban planning decision‐making.     

Neuropsychological Services Following Motor Vehicle Collisions

Motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI), accounting for between 17 and 28 % of all TBIs. Although about 86 % of those who are involved in MVCs sustain no injuries, the remaining 14 % commonly experiences temporary or permanent cognitive, physical, and emotional problems; decreased functioning; and adverse lifestyle changes, which often result in litigation or pursuit of disability benefits. Although by far the most common severity of brain trauma resulting from MVCs falls at the mild end of the spectrum, many patients sustain moderate and severe brain injuries. Because of differing neuropathology, clinical presentations, recovery courses, and treatment and care needs, the neuropsychological conceptualization of, and services provided to, those who have sustained mild traumatic brain injuries typically differ from the conceptualization and services needed for those who sustained moderate–severe TBIs. Physical pain, emotional distress, effects of medications, and various motivations to seek services often contribute to the complexity of issues experienced by patients and confronted by clinicians. The purpose of this article is to review the assessment and treatment of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems experienced by persons who have been involved in MVCs, with a primary focus on outpatient settings and TBIs that fall at the mild end of the severity spectrum.     

Reviews

Les relations de pouvoir façonnent le cours de l'existence du secteur pétrolier depuis la découverte et la commercialisation de l'or noir remontant au 19e siècle. Progressivement, quoique bien rapidement, cette substance devint le moteur de l'évolution économique mondiale toujours en vigueur. Étrangement, plusieurs études actuelles, que l'on rassemble sous la thèse de la malédiction des ressources (resource curse [RC]), semblent pourtant esquiver leur centralité à la compréhension de la paupérisation et des violences vécues chez les populations de certaines régions riches en ressources pétrolières. À travers la problématisation de la littérature analytique portant sur la RC appliquée à la situation chaotique de la région du delta du Niger au Nigéria et sa mise en relation avec les débats appréciatifs des pratiques de RSE (responsabilité sociale des entreprises), cet article démontre l'importance de prendre en compte l'ensemble des dimensions politiques du vécu de la RSE dans une réalité locale, nationale et internationale aux diverses ramifications "s'inter-constituant."     

Challenges to the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers in Traditional Nonprofit Organizations: A Case Study of Australian Meals on Wheels

Australian Meals on Wheels (MoWs) is a well-known, traditional nonprofit organization operating for over 60 years in a mixed economy of welfare, where it is positioned between the increasingly complex demands of state regulation and market efficiency. These contextual challenges cause critical tensions to an organization reliant on humanitarian principles and a large volunteer workforce. Findings show that this organization is experiencing conflicting and multiple identities which are having a significant impact on volunteer recruitment and retention. Specifically, data highlight the external challenges that threaten volunteers relating to regulation and funding, and internal challenges that tend to ignore volunteer value and instead picture volunteers as ageing and resistant to change. Findings suggest that the organization needs to work with all stakeholders to develop a shared organizational identity that blends humanitarianism with managerialism. New inclusive processes can enable better recruitment and retention practices, enabling the organization to “unfreeze” its traditional ways of operating to build a sustainable future for this much-needed organization.     

Notes on contributors

Robyn Eckersley: Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Arne Naess: Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. Translated and revised by David Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

M. Annette Jaimes, ed.: The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance. Race and Resistance Series, Boston, South End Press, 1992.

Alexander Wilson: The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1992.     

Legal Reality: A Naturalist Approach to Legal Ontology

Law and Philosophy -