Economic and legal analysis of mandatory non-recourse mortgages with applications to Spain

“The liquidity crisis of the Spanish banks is largely due to the lack of confidence of foreign investors and, therefore, the changes that occur in the legislation should not affect the credibility, stability, legal certainty, predictability that markets expect”.Sergio Nasarre (2011)In the current situation of economic crisis, many people have found they can no longer pay back the mortgage loans that were granted to them in order to purchase a dwelling. It is for this reason that, in light of the economic, political and social problems this poses, our paper studies the state of the Spanish real-estate system and of foreclosure, paying special attention to the solution that has been proposed recently as the best option for debtors that cannot make their mort-gage payments: non-recourse mortgaging. We analyze this proposal from legal and economic perspectives in order to fully understand the effects that this change could imply. At the same time, this paper will also examine several alternatives we believe would ameliorate the situation of mortgage-holders, among them legal reforms, mortgage insurance, and non-recourse mortgaging itself.

Ethical issues in nutrition support of severely disabled elderly persons: a guide for health professionals.

Providing or withholding nutrition in severely disabled elderly persons is a challenging dilemma for families, health professionals, and institutions. Despite limited evidence that nutrition support improves functional status in vulnerable older persons, especially those suffering from dementia, the issue of nutrition support in this population is strongly debated. Nutrition might be considered a basic need that not only sustains life but provides comfort as well by patients and their families. Consequently, the decision to provide or withhold nutrition support during medical care is often complex and involves clinical, legal, and ethical considerations. This article proposes a guide for health professionals to appraise ethical issues related to nutrition support in severely disabled older persons. This guide is based on an 8-step process to identify the components of a situation, analyze conflicting values that result in the ethical dilemma, and eventually reach a consensus for the most relevant plan of care to implement in a specific clinical situation. A vignette is presented to illustrate the use of this guide when analyzing a clinical situation.

Barnbyn Skå (Skå, la vila dels infants) 1947-1972: L’experiència terapèutica de Gustav Jonsson amb infants «irrecuperables»

The article presents the trajectory of the Swedish psychiatrist Gustav Jonsson (1907-1994) who, in the 1940s, revolutionised the therapeutic and educational treatment of children and young people, considered irreclaimable from the social point of view, who were committed to educational institutions. It analyses the social development of the Welfare State in Sweden, the legal framework of child protection, as well as the context of Swedish residential care centres for children and young people in the first half of the 20th century in order to go further into the psychological and educational work conducted with the Barnbyn Skå group. Jonsson redirected the analysis of violent behaviours that were manifest in these children and young people which made them intractable from the educational point of view and established elements of psychoanalytical understanding, based on a systemic approach in which the family context became essential in order to understand the children’s difficulties. Barnbyn Skå was the centre which, under the guidance of Jonsson, developed this new therapeutic and pedagogic approach. The educational work carried out there exceeded the traditional model in terms of control and surveillance. The methods were considered radical from within pedagogy and caused great controversy which led the centre to continuous investigations on behalf of the Social Services of Stockholm between 1960 and 1970. For several decades Barnbyn Skå has been considered a pioneering experience in the field of Scandinavian child psychiatry.

Accessing Legal Information in Catalonia. Open Acces to Legislation and Case Law

The article outlines free online legal resources to conduct research on Catalan and Spanish legislation and case-law. Most of these resources are primary sources made public by government bodies. The list shows how the Spanish and Catalan governments, in their attempt to promote equal access to legislation and case-law, cover the different jurisdictions. The text also mentions some resources to conduct historical legal research about legislation and case law, and some free legal private websites.

Molecular autopsy in sudden cardiac death and its implication for families: discussion of the practical, legal and ethical aspects of the multidisciplinary collaboration.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major cause of premature death in young adults and children in developed countries. Standard forensic autopsy procedures are often unsuccessful in determining the cause of SCD. Post-mortem genetic testing, also called molecular autopsy, has revealed that a non-negligible number of these deaths are a result of inherited cardiac diseases, including arrhythmic disorders such as congenital long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome. Due to the heritability of these diseases, the potential implications for living relatives must be taken into consideration. Advanced diagnostic analyses, genetic counselling, and interdisciplinary collaboration should be integral parts of clinical and forensic practice. In this article we present a multidisciplinary collaboration established in Lausanne, with the goal of properly informing families of these pathologies and their implications for surviving family members. In Switzerland, as in many other countries, legal guidelines for genetic testing do not address the use of molecular tools for post-mortem genetic analyses in forensic practice. In this article we present the standard practice guidelines established by our multidisciplinary team.

Libraries of state welfare institutions, 1930.

State institutions, such as hospitals, penal and correctional institutions and training schools for children have had libraries starting in about 1905. In 1925 the supervisory librarian position became vacant and was not filled. This report states that Iowa is in danger of losing her reputation as a progressive library state.

A satisfaction survey conducted on patients of a medico-legal consultation.

In 2006, a medico-legal consultation service devoted to adult victims of interpersonal violence was set up at the Lausanne University Hospital Centre, Switzerland: the Violence Medical Unit. Patients are received by forensic nurses for support, forensic examination (in order to establish medical report) and community orientation. In 2008, a telephone survey was conducted on patients. The objectives of the survey were to estimate the degree of patients' satisfaction and to document the use of the medical report by six questions. Among the 476 patients admitted to the VMU in 2007, 132 were interviewed. Their overall satisfaction was high with an average mark of 8.7/10. The medical report was used extensively by the interviewed victims (81%) for its primary function - to be produced as evidence. As the consultations are financed by public funds, these results were of interest for advocacy of long-lasting financial support.

Combined report on the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Human Services for the five years ended June 30, 2014

Combined report on the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Human Services for the five years ended June 30, 2014

Combined report on the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Corrections for the five years ended June 30, 2014

Combined report on the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Corrections for the five years ended June 30, 2014

Cobertura y desamparo: garantías jurídicas de los españoles en el Perú (1870-1945) = Coverage and helplessness: legal guarantees of the spanish in Peru (1870-1945)

The archives of the Prefecture of the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs provide a perspective from which to reconstruct the broad range of legal circumstances in which Spanish residents in various regions of the country find themselves immersed (assets of relatives who have died without wills or family in Peru, political conflicts, legal problems -whether criminal or civil as a result of business activities- or the requested intervention ofconsular authorities when decisions considered detrimental to their compatriots are made by prefects and sub-prefects). The legal framework protecting Spanish nationals in Peru is analysed to understand the mechanisms of immigration in the country and the mechanisms that led them to keep their Spanish nationality, even after establishing wide-reaching family and business interests