Designating Safety,Denying Persecution: Implications for Roma Refugee Claimants in Canada

In response to the arrival in Canada of thousands of Hungarian Roma asylum seekers, a new and restrictive refugee regime was installed. Legislation included Designated Countries of Origin or “safe” countries from which refugee claimants were stripped of some entitlements. Acceptance rates fluctuate in loose reticulation with several factors. When negative decisions are made on refugee claims, conditions of persecution in Hungary are denied even though they are clearly demonstrable. Inclusion of claimants' voices substantiates a normalized violence. When decision makers parse the criterion of persecution and when political leaders dismiss claims as “bogus,” the consequence is the reconfiguration of the Roma as essentially nomadic.     

关于修改后刑事诉讼法执行情况的若干思考

The revised Law of Criminal Procedure, of which the key idea is to tighten the restraint on and supervi-sion over public power and protect the private rights effectively, shows the pursuits of refined,...     

The Need for a Stronger Definition: Recognizing Abandonment as a form of Elder Abuse Across the United States

Elder abuse is a growing public health problem in the United States and statistics show that each year, hundreds of thousands of elders are abused in some manner. This Note discusses elder abuse while focusing specifically on the occurrence of elder abandonment and how the majority of states do not recognize elder abandonment as a form of elder abuse in their statutes. Moreover, this Note proposes a model statute to be adopted by every state in an effort for elder abandonment to become more widely reported. Elder abandonment is an unfortunate phenomenon and those who contribute to elder abandonment should face criminal liability similar to those abusers who engage in elder neglect or other types of elder abuse. Furthermore, this Note emphasizes that there should be a greater focus on how caregivers can seek assistance in order to prevent elder abuse in the United States.     

Pat‐Downs But No Hugs: Why Prison Visitation Protocol Should be Changed to Help Keep Familial Structures Intact

In the United States there are almost three million children who have one or both parents incarcerated. Parental incarceration negatively impacts children in several ways. Visitation protocol varies across facilities nationwide with no modification in protocol for minors. Parental rights are disrupted by visitation protocol because of cost‐prohibitive access and extreme security measures. This Note proposes a model statute that would change visitation protocol to facilitate a clear‐cut set of visitation processes that are tailored to ensure prison safety while also fostering and maintaining a positive relationship between a minor child and his/her incarcerated parent.     

Caregiver Stress and Elder Abuse among Korean Family Caregivers of Older Adults with Disabilities

This study aims to identify risk factors and mediating factors of elder abuse among older adults with disabilities being cared for by their family caregivers. The data were based on a sample of 1,000 primary family caregivers from the Comprehensive Study for the Elderly Welfare Policy in Seoul (2003). Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify significant indicators for the degree of elder abuse, such as cognitive impairment, functional ability (ADL), caregiving involvement, economic strain, caregiver burden, and social support for the degree of elder abuse. In the full model, ADLs, cognitive problems, economic strain, caregiver burden, informal social support, and formal social support were significantly associated with elder abuse. The findings suggest that psychosocial support services and programs for family caregivers are needed to prevent and reduce the prevalence of elder abuse in South Korea. The research data were drawn with permission from the Seoul Development Institute and this project was funded by the Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor’s Office, Welfare & Women’s Bureau.     

The Devil's Lettuce: Primary Caregivers have the Constitutional Right to Distribute Medicinal Marijuana to Their Terminally Ill Child

Pediatric cancer is a tragedy that affects many American families. Despite the effectiveness of pediatric cancer treatments, patients experience adverse side effects that can be relieved by medical marijuana. However, medicinal marijuana is only lawful in twenty‐eight states, including the District of Columbia. This Note proposes that all fifty states enact compassionate‐use statutes permitting parents to lawfully possess and distribute the herb to their terminally ill child (between the ages of five to fourteen) to alleviate the effects of cancer treatments. Medicinal marijuana use provides pediatric cancer patients with better‐quality lives and the determination to win the war against cancer.     

Cohabitation,Registration, and Reliance: Creating A Comprehensive and Just Scheme for Protecting the Interests of Couples' Real Relationships

This paper argues that courts and legislatures should recognize and protect adult relationships other than marriage, in two ways. First, couples in committed, cohabitating relationships should be protected when their relationship dissolves—even if they are not formally married. The law in this area is currently inconsistent and confusing, and should be cleaned up to reflect the reality of the lives of committed couples in need of legal protection. Second, all states should establish a registration scheme along the lines of Colorado's designated beneficiary law, which allows couples to flexibly design their legal relationship. This status should include specific arrangements about the ownership of property over the course of a long relationship, and should also be expanded to allow people to enter into more than one such relationship at a time, as long as the rights and obligations are not inconsistent. Given the number of couples operating outside of traditional marriage today, these two reforms will increase certainty of legal outcome and better protect the reliance interests of those in committed relationships.     

The right of caregivers to access health information of relatives with mental illness

This article reviews the legal, ethical and practical challenges of complying with the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) within the context of a Canadian mental health system that is overburdened and under resourced. The advent of deinstitutionalization has placed significantly increased responsibilities on the families of mentally ill individuals. While research evidences that involving family members in the care of their mentally ill relatives improves treatment outcomes, mental health practitioners constantly face the challenge of engaging family caregivers while also complying with privacy laws. The authors propose an Ontario Caregiver Recognition Act (OCRA) to formally recognize family caregivers as informal health information custodians based on the practice of other jurisdictions which incorporate the rights of family members actively engaged in providing care to their mentally ill relatives.