Bills of Rights:A Comparative Perspective

Bills of rights are currently a much debated topic in various jurisdictions throughout the world. Almost all democratic nations, with the exception of Australia, now have a bill of rights. These take a variety of forms, ranging from constitutionally entrenched bills of rights, such as those of the United States and South Africa, to non-binding statements of rights. Falling between these approaches are non-entrenched, statutory bills of rights. As regards the latter, a model which has become increasingly popular is that of bills of rights based on interpretative obligations, whereby duties are placed upon courts to interpret national legislation in accordance with human rights standards. The aim of this book is to provide a comparative analysis of the bills of rights of a number of jurisdictions which have chosen to adopt such an approach. The jurisdictions considered are New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Australian Capital Territory and the Australian state of Victoria.

There have been very few books published to date which contain a detailed comparative analysis of the bills of rights which this book addresses. The book adopts a unique thematic approach, whereby six aspects of the bills of rights in question have been selected for comparative analysis and a chapter is allocated to each aspect. This approach serves to facilitate the comparative discussion and emphasise the centrality of the comparative methodology.

Intelligent demand response electric water heating to integrate wind power in Ireland

Dwindling fossil fuel resources and pressures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will result in a more diverse range of generation portfolios for future electricity systems. Irrespective of the portfolio mix the overarching requirement for all electricity suppliers and system operators is that supply instantaneously meets demand and that robust operating standards are maintained to ensure a consistent supply of high quality electricity to end-users. Therefore all electricity market participants will ultimately need to use a variety of tools to balance the power system. Thus the role of demand side management (DSM) with energy storage will be paramount to integrate future diverse generation portfolios. Electric water heating (EWH) has been studied previously, particularly at the domestic level to provide load control, peak shave and to benefit end-users financially with lower bills, particularly in vertically integrated monopolies. In this paper, a continuous Direct Load Control (DLC) EWH algorithm is applied in a liberalized market environment using actual historical electricity system and market data to examine the potential energy savings, cost reductions and electricity system operational improvements.

Integrating wind power using intelligent electric water heating

Dwindling fossil fuel resources and pressures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will result in a more diverse range of generation portfolios for future electricity systems. Irrespective of the portfolio mix the overarching requirement for all electricity suppliers and system operators is to instantaneously meet demand, to operate to standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore all electricity market participants will ultimately need to use a variety of tools to balance the power system. Thus the role of demand side management with energy storage will be paramount to integrate future diverse generation portfolios. Electric water heating has been studied previously, particularly at the domestic level to provide load control, peak shave and to bene?t end-users ?nancially with lower bills, particularly in vertically integrated monopolies. In this paper a number of continuous direct load control demand response based electric water heating algorithms are modelled to test the effectiveness of wholesale electricity market signals to study the system bene?ts. The results are compared and contrasted to determine which control algorithm showed the best potential for energy savings, system marginal price savings and wind integration.

Narrative on the Net:Bill and his hyper- lives, loves and texts

Narrative, by its very nature, is changing as a consequence of internet developments. Hypertexts are, for example, changing not just the way in which we disseminate information, but also the ways in which we write, speak and think. In this paper a narrative approach is taken to assess a case study of a person’s extensive home site on the web. Bill maintains an extensive web site documenting his life with Parkinson’s Disease, his love for running and all matters relating to the island of Montserrat in the Eastern Caribbean. Bill’s Parkinson’s Disease hypertext diary forms the focus of this case study of a life spent on-line. Though set up just as a diary about this progressively degenerative disease, because of its hypertextual qualities, this paper argues that it is through the diary that Bill comes to produce and sustain - to narrate - his identity. This paper thus contributes to the position that though hypertext encourages the construction of fragmented and false identity narratives, it is also a medium for sustaining linear and coherent representations of self-identity.

Energy efficiency investments in the home: Swiss homeowners and expectations about future energy prices

Using conjoint choice experiments, we surveyed 473 Swiss homeowners about their preferences for energy efficiency home renovations.We find that homeowners are responsive to the upfront costs of the renovation projects, governmentoffered rebates, savings in energy expenses, time horizon over which such savings would be realized, and thermal comfort improvement. The implicit discount rate is low, ranging from 1.5 to 3%, depending on model specification. This is consistent with Hassett and Metcalf (1993) and Metcalf and Rosenthal (1995), and with the fact that our scenarios contain no uncertainty. Respondents who feel completely uncertain about future energy prices are more likely to select the status quo (no renovations) in any given choice task and weight the costs of the investments more heavily than the financial gains (subsidies and savings on the energy bills). Renovations are more likely when respondents believe that climate change considerations are important determinants of home renovations. Copyright © 2013 by the IAEE. All rights reserved.

Linking Parliamentary Records through Metatdata

The LIPARM schema links the parliamentary record together for the first time by creating a unified metadata scheme for all of its key elements. People, bills, acts, items of business, debates, divisions and sessions will all be described by the scheme and will be linked together across resources which are currently spread out and isolated. For the first time, it will be possible to trace a given MP’s entire voting record or to find every speech they made. It will be possible to follow the passage of every bill or act, and every contribution to the debates that accompany it. Both the historical and the contemporary record of parliamentary proceedings will become accessible in this way for the first time.

Tooth replacement for partially dentate elders: a randomised controlled trial

Objective: This study aimed to compare two different tooth replacement strategies for partially dentate older patients namely; removable partial dentures (RPDs) and functionally orientated treatment based on the shortened dental arch (SDA) concept. Method: 88 partially dentate older patients (mean age 69.4 years) completed a randomised controlled clinical trial. 43 patients received RPDs and 45 received functionally orientated treatment where resin bonded bridgework was used to provide 10 pairs of occluding contacts. Patients were followed for 1 year after treatment intervention. The impact of treatment on oral health-related quality of life (OHrQOL) and cost effectiveness were used as outcome measures. Each patient completed the short form of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) at baseline, 6 months and 1 year after treatment intervention. All costs involved in providing and maintaining each intervention were recorded including dental laboratory bills, materials and professional time. Result: Both the RPD (p=0.004) and the functionally orientated (p<0.001) treatment groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in OHrQOL 1 year after treatment intervention. On average 9.4 visits were required to complete and maintain the RPDs over the 1 year period as compared to 5.3 visits for the functionally orientated group. The average laboratory cost for the RPDs was $537.45 per patient versus $367.89 for functionally orientated treatment. The cost of achieving the Minimally Important Difference of 5 scale points in OHIP-14 score with RPDs was $732.17. For the functionally orientated group the cost was $356.88. Therefore, functionally orientated treatment was more than twice as cost effective (1:2.05). Conclusion: For partially dentate older patients, functionally orientated treatment based on the SDA concept resulted in sustained, significant improvements in OHrQOL. Provision of functionally orientated treatment was also more than twice as cost effective compared to conventional treatment using RPDs.

Rural communities and wind farms: a contingent valuation investigation

Using the contingent valuation method, this study investigates the preferences of local people for a wind farm that is planned in the Province of Rome. We estimate the reductions in their bimonthly electrical bills over a period of time that respondents are willing to accept as compensation for the installation of the wind farm. Our results suggest that respondents who perceive that the wind farm generates substantial negative impacts on landscape beauty ask higher reductions than others, while respondents who believe that the wind farm produces economic benefits for local communities ask lower reductions than others. Finally, we find that the demand for compensative measures is influenced particularly by socio-economic factors such as age and education.