Responding to crisis: When the telephone fails

The world is changing. Advances in telecommunications have meant that the world is shrinking – data can be moved across continents in the time it takes to send an email or access the cloud. Although developments such as these highlight the extent of scientific and technological evolution, in terms of legal liability, questions must be asked as to the capacity of our legal structures to evolve accordingly.

This article looks at how emergency telephone provision and any shift to VoIP systems might fit with existing tort liability and associated duty implications. It does so by analysing the technology through the principles that signpost UK tort law. This article recognises that as an emerging area, the legal liability implications have not yet been discussed in any great detail. The aim of this article therefore is to introduce the area, encourage debate and consider the issues that may become increasingly relevant as these types of technologies become industrial standards.

Legalizing physician-assisted suicide and/or euthanasia: Pragmatic implications

Objective: Despite the availability of palliative care in many countries, legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EAS) continues to be debated-particularly around ethical and legal issues-and the surrounding controversy shows no signs of abating. Responding to EAS requests is considered one of the most difficult healthcare responsibilities. In the present paper, we highlight some of the less frequently discussed practical implications for palliative care provision if EAS were to be legalized. Our aim was not to take an explicit anti-EAS stance or expand on findings from systematic reviews or philosophical and ethico-legal treatises, but rather to offer clinical perspectives and the potential pragmatic implications of legalized EAS for palliative care provision, patients and families, healthcare professionals, and the broader community.

Method: We provide insights from our multidisciplinary clinical experience, coupled with those from various jurisdictions where EAS is, or has been, legalized.

Results: We believe that these issues, many of which are encountered at the bedside, must be considered in detail so that the pragmatic implications of EAS can be comprehensively considered.

Significance of Results: Increased resources and effort must be directed toward training, research, community engagement, and ensuring adequate resourcing for palliative care before further consideration is given to allocating resources for legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

The Shifting Battleground of Article 4(2) TEU: Evolving National Identities and the corresponding need for EU management?

Article 4(2) TEU requires that the European Union (EU) respect the Member States’ national identities, creating a legal obligation enforceable before the CJEU and valuable in political negotiations. However, the concept of national identities is unclear, leaving open questions about the scope or parameters of the provision and its applicability. The CJEU appears likely to take a relatively flexible approach in light of Article 4(2) TEU’s relationship with national constitutional courts’ reserves. This flexible approach would enable Member States to rely upon a range of aspects as part of their national identity, including ones that were previously unidentified. This is a crucial feature if one considers that national identities may evolve gradually or even dramatically, including where Member States purposefully attempt to develop their national identities further. This possibility of an evolved national identity is exemplified by the French Charte de l’Environnement. It may thereby be possible for Member States to stretch the scope and application of Article 4(2) TEU through reference to these evolving national identities. This potential raises significant challenges for the EU regarding the management of Article 4(2) TEU, which it will need to address if it wishes to ensure harmonisation and uniformity in the relevant areas.

Activism and Restraint within the UK Supreme Court

This article provides evidence for the extent to which the UK Supreme Court as a body - and Supreme Court Justices as individuals - have displayed an activist or restrained attitude to their decision-making role. Taking October 2009 as the starting point (when the UKSC came into existence) the article surveys the degree to which the Court and individual Justices have (1) departed from precedents, (2) interpreted legislation in unanticipated ways, (3) rejected the government's position on matters of social, economic or foreign policy, and (4) developed the common law. The article concludes that, while the Supreme Court as a whole remains as conservative as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords which preceded it (with the possible exception of its approach to immigration law), there are notable differences between the attitudes of individual Justices, one or two of whom appear to be straining at the leash.

The impact of next generation sequencing technologies on haematological research - A review

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have begun to revolutionize the field of haematological malignancies through the assessment of a patient's genetic makeup with a minimal cost. Significant discoveries have already provided a unique insight into disease initiation, risk stratification and therapeutic intervention. Sequencing analysis will likely form part of the routine diagnostic testing in the future. However, a number of important issues need to be addressed for that to become a reality with regard to result interpretation, laboratory workflow, data storage and ethical issues. In this review we summarize the contribution that NGS has already made to the field of haematological malignancies. Finally, we discuss the challenges that NGS technologies will bring in relation to data storage, ethical and legal issues and laboratory validation. Despite these challenges, we predict that high-throughput DNA sequencing will redefine haematological malignancies based on individualized genomic analysis.

Merit, Speech Disability and Discrimination

There is a substantial body of evidence – going back over decades – which indicates that the employment sphere is difficult for those who suffer a speech disability. To a large extent, I argue, this is due to the setting of merit in terms of orality and aesthetic. It also relates to the low perception of competence of the speech disabled. I argue that to be effective against discrimination the notion of merit and its assessment requires focus. ‘Merit’ as a concept in discrimination law has had its critics, yet it remains important to investigate it as social construct in order to help understand discrimination and how to counter this. For example, in this article I look at an instance where the resetting of what was viewed as ‘meritorious’ in judicial recruitment successfully improved the diversity in lower judicial posts.

Further, given the relative failure of the employment tribunal system to improve the general position of those who are disabled, I look to alternative methods of countering disability discrimination. The suggestion provided is that an enforced ombudsman type approach capable of dealing with what may be the core issue around employment discrimination (‘merit’) would provide a better mechanism for handling the general situation of disability discrimination than the tribunal system.

Toward A Reliable Quality Control Test For Microneedle Insertion

Microneedles (MNs) are emerging devices that can be used for the delivery of drugs at specific locations1. Their performance is primarily judged by different features and the penetration through tissue is one of the most important aspects to evaluate. For detailed studies of MN performance different kind of in-vitro, exvivo and in-vivo tests should be performed. The main limitation of some of these tests is that biological tissue is too heterogeneous, unstable and difficult to obtain. In addition the use of biological materials sometimes present legal issues. There are many studies dealing with artificial membranes for drug diffusion2, but studies of artificial membranes for Microneedle mechanical characterization are scarce3. In order to overcome these limitations we have developed tests using synthetic polymeric membranes instead of biological tissue. The selected artificial membrane is homogeneous, stable, and readily available. This material is mainly composed of a roughly equal blend of a hydrocarbon wax and a polyolefin and it is commercially available under the brand name Parafilm®. The insertion of different kind of MN arrays prepared from crosslinked polymers were performed using this membrane and correlated with the insertion of the MN arrays in ex-vivo neonatal porcine skin. The insertion depth of the MNs was evaluated using Optical coherence tomography (OCT). The implementation of MN transdermal patches in the market can be improved by make this product user-friendly and easy to use. Therefore, manual insertion is preferred to other kind of procedures. Consequently, the insertion studies were performed in neonatal porcine skin and the artificial membrane using a manual insertion force applied by human volunteers. The insertion studies using manual forces correlated very well with the same studies performed with a Texture Analyzer equipment. These synthetic membranes seem to mimic closely the mechanical properties of the skin for the insertion of MNs using different methods of insertion. In conclusion, this artificial membrane substrate offers a valid alternative to biological tissue for the testing of MN insertion and can be a good candidate for developing a reliable quality control MN insertion test.

Reintegrative and Disintegrative Shaming:Legal and Ethical Issues

Abstract
This chapter considers a range of legal and ethical issues raised by the use of reintegrative and disintegrative shaming techniques (Braithwaite, 1989) with sex offenders. ‘Disintegrative shaming’ labels and stigmatises offenders, ostracises them from the local community and may result in violence directed towards offenders (McAlinden, 2005, 2007). ‘Reintegrative shaming’, on the other hand, focuses on rehabilitating the offender within a supportive community environment and assisting the offender in their efforts to change. The former is evident in the range of recent legislative responses designed to protect the community from sex offenders such as notification as well as the popular demand for measures which ‘name and shame’ known sex offenders. The latter is more clearly related to restorative measures such as circles of support and accountability. This chapter argues that although traditionally at opposite ends of the intervention spectrum, each type of mechanism gives rise to potentially difficult legal and ethical considerations.

A Preference for Mephedrone: Drug Markets, Drugs of Choice, and the Emerging “Legal High” Scene

This study focuses on individuals' preferences for mephedrone, a new psychoactive substance that has emerged in several countries. We examine the reasons for mephedrone preferences, and describe the positive and negative effects of the drug experience, route of administration and consumers' views about the legality of mephedrone. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 45 adults who had used mephedrone since January 2010. Respondents resided in one of two jurisdictions that were characterized by different legislative controls over mephedrone. The findings suggest the importance of macro-level drug market factors that shaped people's preferences for mephedrone. Additionally, respondents' preferences were guided by pharmacological properties that helped them conceal the effects of mephedrone in public and semi-public spaces. Respondents were not deterred by the (impending) change from legal to illicit drug. The findings have implications for the study of localized drug markets, and in particular, legislative controls over emerging legal highs.

Export Cartels: Is it Legal to Target your Neighbour? Analysis in Light of Recent Case Law

Despite the growing sophistication of antitrust regimes around the world, export cartels benefit from special treatment: they are almost universally tolerated, if not encouraged in the countries of origin. Economists do not offer an unambiguous policy recommendation on how to deal with them in part due to the lack of empirical data. This article discusses arguments for and against export cartels and it identifies the existing gaps in the present regulatory framework. The theoretical part is followed by an analysis of the recent case law: a US cartel challenged with different outcomes in India and South Africa, as well as Chinese export cartels pursued in the USA. The Chinese cases are particularly topical as the conduct at stake, apart from being subject to private antitrust actions before US courts, was also challenged within the WTO dispute settlement framework, pointing out to the existing interface between trade and competition. While the recent developments prove that unaddressed issues tend not to vanish, the new South-North dimension has the potential of placing export cartels again on the international agenda. Pragmatic thinking suggests looking for the solution within the WTO framework.

The Irish High Court Issues its First Order on a Commitment Agreement between the NCA and an Undertaking (Fitflop)

The Irish Competition (Amendment) Act 2012 introduced court-endorsed commitment agreements to Irish competition law. The new section 14B of the principal Competition Act 2002 provides for making commitment agreements between the Irish Competition and undertakings an order of the Irish High Court. This piece, first, investigates the prior Irish practice regarding commitment or settlement agreements and its legal basis. It looks then into the newly introduced rules on court-endorsed commitment agreements. Finally, before concluding, it points to the first instance of their application — to an order issued by the High Court in the FitFlop case in December 2012, which came into effect in February 2013.

The legal needs of children and young people in Northern Ireland: the views of young people and adult stakeholders

This research was conducted on behalf of the Department of Justice to explore the following issues: the nature and extent of the legal needs of children and young people; the extent to which these legal needs are being met; barriers to children and young people accessing legal advice, information and representation; potential solutions to these barriers; and potential future mechanisms for meeting identified legal needs of children and young people.