Orphan drugs: the question of products liability

Orphan drugs, essential for the treatment of persons with rare diseases, generally are unprofitable for manufacturers to develop and market. While congressional and administrative efforts to promote the development of orphan drugs have met with modest success, application of products liability doctrine to orphan drug sponsors could subvert those efforts. This Note describes the provisions of the Orphan Drug Act and analyzes products liability law with respect to orphan drug litigation. It argues that the goals of tort law support the imposition of liability for design defect, failure to warn and negligence in testing. Finally, the Note acknowledges that liability costs create disincentives for orphan drug development and suggests mechanisms for reducing manufacturers' liability concerns.     

Self-Representation versus Assignment of Defence Counsel before International Criminal Tribunals

After examining the drafting history of Article 14 of the UNCovenant on Civil and Political Rights, which lays down a defendant'sright ‘to defend himself in person or through legal assistanceof his own choosing’ — the relevant national andinternational case law and scholarly commentary — theauthor argues that the underlying purpose of the right at issueis to ensure a fair trial. This objective can best be met incases of former leaders accused of international crimes by assigningthe defendant a highly qualified attorney who is vigilantlycommitted to representing his client's interests. In his view,there are two main reasons why a court in international crimestrial should be able to require the defendant to work throughcounsel: (1) the likelihood that a defendant will act in a disruptivemanner; and (2) the unique need in a complex international crimescase for an orderly trial.     

The Development of Gender Role Attitudes During Adolescence: Effects of Sex,Socioeconomic Background,and Cognitive Abilities

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - How gender role attitudes develop during adolescence, and how biological, social, and cognitive factors predict this development, remains a matter of debate. This...     

The Iraqi High Tribunal: A Viable Experiment in International Justice?

The Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) joins the Bosnian War Crimes Chamberin Sarajevo as the first of a new breed of accountability mechanismswhich the author characterizes as ‘internationalized-domestictribunals’. Unfortunately, the IHT faced world-wide oppositionfrom its conception, and once the Dujail trial began, the proceedingswere marred by the assassination of defence counsel, the resignationof judges, the boycott of defence lawyers, the disruptive conductof the defendants and finally by a botched execution that wasuniversally condemned. But judged in light of the unique challengesthat the IHT faced, the fact that there were no feasible alternativesavailable for trying Saddam Hussein, and that war crimes trialsare historically divisive and messy, the IHT cannot simply bewritten off as an utter failure. Rather, an objective assessmentof the IHT would have to acknowledge that there were in factsome positive aspects as well, which are described in this essaywritten by one of the experts who trained the judges that presidedover the Saddam Hussein Trial.