Midwives experiences of establishing partnerships: working with pregnant women who use illicit drugs

OBJECTIVE: To present the interpreted experiences of midwives who choose to work with pregnant women who also use illicit drugs. DESIGN: Twelve (n=12) Australian midwives were interviewed. Each interview was audio-taped, de-identified and transcribed. The interviews were analysed using a systematic, thematic analysis approach informed by Heideggarian hermeneutic phenomenology. FINDINGS: Three themes identified from the data that encapsulate the experience were establishing partnerships, making a difference, and letting go and redefining practice. The interpretations of establishing partnerships which includes engagement, genuine regard and compassion, with a subtheme courting the system are presented in this paper. The midwives' experiences were both positive and negative, as they were rewarded and challenged by the needs of women who use illicit drugs and the systems in which they worked. CONCLUSION: The midwives in this study found that establishing partnerships was essential to their work. They appraised their experience of working with pregnant women who used illicit drugs and found strategies that attempted to meet the needs of the women, the system and themselves. The participants revealed that to support women and families who use illicit drugs in their community, partnerships must be based on deep respect and trust. Significant components engagement, genuine regard and compassion that are central to midwifery partnerships require revisiting to address the needs of this vulnerable population of women.

The implications of contractualism for the responsibilisation of higher education

Within the context of heightened perceptions of risk within thehigher education sector worldwide, responsibility for outcomes isincreasingly required not only of universities but, also, ofindividual academics. In turn, contracts have become a key formof governance for institutions in mediating and modulating thisrisk and responsibility. While much writing around the use ofcontracts in higher education has focused on market-based,competitive neoliberal conceptions of contractualism, thisarticle argues that there are, in fact, two largely antagonisticnew modes of contractualism – market contractualism andrelational contractualism – and a third, residual mode, paternalcontractualism. These three modes of contractualism coexistwithin universities, in tension. The article draws on two Australianexemplars to highlight how these tensions play out and tohighlight the potential for contractualism to create spaces forshared goals and projects and shared risks resulting from theways in which responsibility and individual agency are negotiated.

On legal positivism's word and our 'form-of-(non-)living'

This paper is about two stories. The more reassuring one states that byestablishing that a norm is valid because of its source, not its merit, legal positivism is, in its various forms, perhaps one of the greatest achievements in Western legal theory and practice. From constitutionalism to human rights policies, from criminal to international law and free trade agreements, from contracts to torts and e-commerce, legal validity, predictability, and coherence have found their most powerful ally in positivist thought. This contribution argues that it is time for a different, neorealist story: the metaphysical, ontological and biopolitical essence of its language demonstrates that legal positivism has in fact played a fundamental role in the substitution of action with behaviour, and consequently, in the normalisation of humankind’s self-annihilating animality as post-historical and post-political ‘form-of-(non-)living.’

The legal structure and regulation of securities lending (Pt 1)

Securities lending is the temporary transfer of securities(mainly shares) from one party to another. At theconclusion of the loan, the borrower is required to deliverequivalent securities to the lender. Securities lending isan important and growing part of global market activity.While it is said to perform valid and useful functions suchas increasing market liquidity, many—particularly duringthe global financial crisis—have expressed concerns thatit also leads to market instability. Concerns with securitieslending have focused primarily on its role in facilitatingshort selling. During the global financial crisis, marketsand regulators were concerned about the potentialdestabilising effect of short selling on financial markets.1Regulators across the globe took action to ban naked andcovered short selling.This article undertakes a comprehensive examinationof the legal structure of securities loans in Australia. Itexamines securities lending in Australia and other majorfinancial markets, namely Europe, the United Kingdomand United States. This article examines the Australian and international industry standard form contracts. It alsoconsiders the current regulatory environment for securitieslending in Australia.

Has the Financial Services Reform Act fixed the problems with the regulation of securities and derivatives?

The Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth) introduced new definitions of“derivative” and “financial product” into the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), andreplaced the separate regulatory regimes governing futures contracts andsecurities with a single financial markets authorisation regime and a singleintermediary licensing regime. This article examines the reforms to evaluatewhether they have been successful. It is argued that there are definiteimprovements resulting from the reforms, and the scope for regulatoryarbitrage has been greatly reduced. However, numerous problems remain.There are significant differences in the regulation of securities and deriva-tives. The distinction between securities and derivatives is still based on legalcharacteristics, not economic function. There is uncertainty as to the exactscope and interaction of the definitions, particularly with respect to equityderivatives, warrants and options. The current law has thus not fullyaddressed many of the problems that existed prior to the reforms.