Defendants' liability for pure mental harm to third parties in Australia : still a work in progress

In Australia, both common and statutory law allows compensation for negligently occasioned recognised psychiatric injury, but distinguishes between pure mental harm and consequential mental harm. This column briefly discusses the concept of pure "mental harm" and the major Australian cases relating to defendants' liability to third parties for causing them pure mental harm (Jaensch v Coffey (1984) 155 CLR 549 [PDF]; Tame v New South Wales; Annetts v Australian Stations Pty Ltd (2002) 211 CLR 317 [PDF]; Sullivan v Moody (2001) 207 CLR 562 [PDF]; and Gifford v Strang Patrick Stevedoring Pty Ltd (2003) 214 CLR 269 [PDF]). The analysis focuses on judicial approaches to determining liability in these cases, especially causation. Lack of guiding principles and precise tests for attribution of liability are illustrated by Kemp v Lyell McEwin Health Service (2006) 96 SASR 192 [PDF]. This case is analysed first in the context of common law, and then in the light of the reform legislation contained in the Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA) and similar provisions in other jurisdictions.

Political parties and democracy : Post-Soviet and Asian political parties

Political Parties and Democracy: Volume III: Post-Soviet and Asian Political Parties is the third volume in this five-volume set. It offers clearly written, up-to-date coverage of post-Soviet and Asian political parties from the unique perspective of distinguished indigenous scholars who have lived the truths they tell and, thus, write with unique breadth, depth, and scope.

Presented in two parts, this volume overviews post-Soviet parties, then discusses the realities on the ground in Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. Likewise, the book offers an introduction to Asian political parties, followed by chapters on China, India, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea. Throughout, contributors explore the relationship between political parties and democracy (or democratization) in their respective nations, providing necessary historical, socioeconomic, and institutional context, and clarifying the balance of power among parties—and between them and competing agencies of power—today

Running on empty : 'modernising' the British and Australian labour parties

Australia's cultural cringe towards Britan does not just focus on the monarchy. Many in the ALP and the media pay undue deference to Tony Blair's so-called new Third Way. This book shows why the ALP needs to reassess its own history and examines the complex reality of how it compaes with the British Labor Party.

Succeeding and seceding in Iraq: the case for a Shiite State

The US project to democratize Iraq has given way to a dramatic upsurge in ethno-religious factionalism in which a series of groups have sought to use ‘democracy’ to create or exacerbate division. Among these divisive political elements a relatively fringe idea held mostly by power-hungry elites has become a central driving force of much political debate within Iraq: separatism. Although there are many examples of political factions within Iraq which have called for territorial separatism since 2003 (such as some Kurdish, Sunni, Assyrian and Turcoman political parties), this chapter focuses on the less known case for a Shiite state. Specifically, it concentrates on the Shia Arab Islamist political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which differs from other Shia political factions in their calls for a decentralized federal Iraq with an autonomous Shia Islamic state in the south.

Indonesia's national parties and the representation of a diverse society

 This study explores laws that promote the nationalisation of Indonesia’s political parties, and considers what this means for the representation of a diverse society. Overall, the research finds that the laws have restricted the development of political parties, but not for the reasons commonly expected.

Democracy, governance and political parties in India: an introduction

The party political domain of India is replete with a large number of parties representing the tapestry of Indian society. Many of them are based in specific regions and states, built around social and linguistic identities. While this enhanced the representative character of the parties, it also contributed to varied patterns of political competition and unstable governments. The two major national parties – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party – becoming coalitionable heralded an era of coalition governments both at the Centre and states, enabling parties to increase their power and their pay-offs. Parties across the political spectrum have tended to converge on macro-economic policy, but continue to diverge on social policies and larger issues that confront India, such as nation building and secularism. Chronic lack of internal democracy coupled with the rise of political corruption and clientelist practices are matters of serious concern. A broader view of governance, resisting temptations to concentrate power and pursue personal enrichment, would enable parties to deliver policies for a better, more just society.

Aggregate uncertainty in the citizen candidate model yields extremist parties

We extend the citizen candidate model of electoral competition with sincere voting to allow for k ≥ 2 states of aggregate uncertainty. We discuss and characterize the equilibrium set in this framework. We provide conditions for the existence of two-party equilibria when k = 2 and show that the policies of the two parties in any such equilibrium are not only divergent but that the parties are extremist: when the political mood is left-wing, the left-wing party wins decisively with a platform that is to the left of the left-wing median voter, while when the political mood is right-wing, the right-wing party wins decisively with a platform that is to the right of the right-wing median voter. We then provide conditions under which such equilibria remain robust for an arbitrary value of k.