COMP1205 Legal Issues 2: Workplace Contexts and Legislation

Overview and Lecture Slides

Low cost home ownership: legal issues of the shared ownership lease

Analysis of the decision in Richardson v Midland Heart Ltd (formally Focus Homes Options) [2008] L&TR 31

Unresolved legal issues pertaining to the native residential school

“The research paper considers the legal issues arising from the Canadian Native Residential Schools and the Australian ‘stolen generation’. The paper compares and contrasts the approaches taken by the respective courts and governments in these Nations to the various causes of actions stemming from such. Building on this, the paper will focus on the legal issues that are yet to be considered by the courts including breaches of domestic and international treaties, liability for loss of culture and language intergenerational claims.”

Legal issues: minors' decision-making capacity to refuse life-saving and life-sustaining treatment: legal and psychiatric perspectives

Laws in Belgium and the Netherlands permit euthanasia and assisted suicide for seriously ill children who experience "constant and unbearable suffering" – they have the capacity to request death by lethal injection if they convey a "reasonable understanding of the consequences" of that request. The child's capacity to understand death is therefore a prerequisite to the implementation of the request. However, modern neuro-psychological and fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies of the relationship between the neuro-anatomical development of the brain in human beings and their emotional and experiential capacity, demonstrates that both are not fully developed until the early 20s for girls and mid-20s for boys. Unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, the clinical and legal implications of the immaturity of the brain on medical decision-making of minors, in particular life and death decisions, have been implicit in the Australian courts' approach to the refusal of life-saving and life-sustaining treatment by minors. This approach is exemplified by X v Sydney Children's Hospitals Network [2013] NSWCA 320 (and a series of earlier cases).

Legal issues: Disciplinary proceedings for inappropriate prescription of opioid medications by medical practitioners in Australia (2010-2014)

An analysis of 32 cases reported between July 2010 and September 2014 byprofessional disciplinary tribunals in New South Wales and Victoria againstmedical practitioners found guilty of inappropriately prescribing Sch 8 medications(mainly opioids) and Sch 4 drugs (mainly benzodiazepines) demonstrated, among others, a lengthy delay between the occurrence of the miscreant conduct and the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings. The study also raised questions about the appropriateness of utilising common criminal law theories of punishment and deterrence by non-judicial tribunals.

Family carers: ethical and legal issues

This chapter examines the ethical and legal issues related to family caregiving in palliative care. The result suggests that death per se is not an ethical issue, and false perceptions of what the law and ethics require have the capacity to obstruct good care and decision-making at the end of life. The findings also indicate that ethics in palliative care is mainly about good process rather than theory and that effective, appropriate and sensitive work with families is necessary for good palliative care to be delivered.

IVHS Institutional and Legal Issues Program. Review of the Travlink and Genesis operational tests. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

ITS Institutional and Legal Issues Program. Review of the Houston Smart Commuter operational test. Final report.

Transportation Department, Joint Program Office for Intelligent Transportation Systems, Washington, D.C.