Evaluating the Human Rights Performance of Legislatures

Despite increased recognition of the role of legislatures inprotecting human rights, particularly through their scrutinyof proposed legislation, there has been little detailed considerationof how best to evaluate their performance in discharging thisrole. This article aims to fill this significant gap by outliningand defending a methodology for carrying out such an evaluation.Our objective is to provide a rich and valid account of theperformance of legislatures by identifying strengths and weaknessesof existing legislative institutions and processes. Such a processcan also inform recommendations as to how institutions and processes,in particular legislatures, might be improved.     

Ensuring the safe and effective FDA regulation of fecal microbiota transplantation

Scientists, policymakers, and medical professionals alike have become increasingly worried about the rise of antibiotic resistance, and the growing number of infections due to bacteria like Clostridium difficile, which cause a significant number of deaths and are imposing increasing costs on our health care system. However, in the last few years, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), the transplantation of stool from a healthy donor into the bowel of a patient, has emerged as a startlingly effective means to treat recurrent C. difficile infections. At present, the FDA is proposing to regulate FMT as a biologic drug. However, this proposed classification is both underregulatory and overregulatory. The FDA''s primary goal is to ensure that patients have access to safe, effective treatments—and as such they should regulate some aspects of FMT more stringently than they propose to, and others less so. This essay will examine the nature of the regulatory challenges the FDA will face in deciding to regulate FMT as a biologic drug, and will then evaluate available policy alternatives for the FDA to pursue, ultimately concluding that the FDA ought to consider adopting a hybrid regulatory model as it has done in the case of cord blood.     

Choosing Among Parallel Health Care Systems in a Bariba Community

This article assesses the significance of Canada's role in the Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) and, more generally, Canada's foreign policy during the early months of the Congo crisis. It argues that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government pursued a policy that recognized the importance of achieving Western objectives in the Congo but at the same time eschewed the strident Cold War views of some North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. The Canadian government was forced to weigh the importance of sometimes-conflicting foreign policy considerations when developing policy during the Congo crisis, and this ultimately lead to an unwillingness to be seen to be pursuing a concerted NATO approach to the Congo's tribulations. This would suggest recent interpretations that portray Canadian participation in ONUC as an example of how Canada's peacekeeping policy primarily served Western, Cold War objectives might not be entirely correct.     

Lost in translation? Teaching law to non‐lawyers: Reviewing the evidence from social work

Abstract

This paper considers pedagogical questions surrounding the teaching of law to non‐lawyers. It draws on research into the teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education. The research comprised a systematic review of international literature, a practice survey, focus groups with students and practice teachers, and two stakeholder conferences. The evidence suggests that law teaching in social work education is of particular interest in highlighting key dimensions of education practice that affect students’ learning. The paper provides some signposts towards research‐informed organisation of teaching, learning and assessment, and highlights important areas for further study.