Commentary on Defoe's Essay on the Regulation of the Press (1704)

Treatise in which Daniel Defoe sets out his arguments concerning the importance of maintaining a free press, as well as the need to provide for a statutory protection to prevent the ‘press-piracy' of published books.
Defoe sets out various public interest arguments concerning the encouragement of learning, industry and the arts, in support of his case for the introduction of copyright legislation. The commentary describes part of the background to the passing of the Statute of Anne 1710 (uk_1710), in particular: the various unsuccessful attempts to reintroduce an alternative to the Licensing Act 1662 (uk_1662); Defoe's public writing on the need for, and social value of, copyright protection; and the influence of his writings in providing the Company of Stationers with a new rhetorical strategy with which to lobby parliament and secure the passing of the Statute of Anne.

Commentary on Copyright Act 1801

Legislation extending the effect of the Statute of Anne 1710 (uk_1710) to Ireland (following the Act of Union 1800 and the unification of Great Britain and Ireland), as well as the first statutory provision to make use of the term ‘copyright'. The commentary assesses the substance of the legislation, its relationship with the King's Bench decision of Beckford v. Hood (uk_1798a), and its impact upon the Irish book trade.

Commentary on Jeffreys v. Boosey (1854)

The second decision of the House of Lords to consider the nature of copyright law. As was the case in Donaldson v. Becket (1774) (uk_1774) the law lords were in disagreement with the majority of common law judges invited to speak to the issue for the consideration of the House. In the course of their opinions, two of the law lords (Lord Brougham and Lord St Leonards) explicitly reject the concept of copyright at common law. Rather than a natural authorial property right, they present copyright as a purely statutory phenomenon specifically grounded in public interest concerns. Ultimately, the Lords decided that a foreign national, resident abroad, but first publishing in Britain, enjoys no protection in his work under British copyright law.

Reframing Public Inquiries as 'Procedural Justice' for Victims of Institutional Child Abuse: Towards a Hybrid Model of Justice

As the number of high profile cases of institutional child abuse mounts internationally, and the demands of victims for justice are heard, state responses have ranged from prosecution, apology, and compensation schemes, to truth commissions or public inquiries. Drawing on the examples of Australia and Northern Ireland as two jurisdictions with a recent and ongoing history of statutory inquiries into institutional child abuse, the article utilises the restorative justice paradigm to critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of the inquiry framework in providing ‘justice’ for victims. It critically explores the normative and pragmatic implications of a hybrid model as a more effective route to procedural justice and suggests that an appropriately designed restorative pathway may augment the legitimacy and utility of the public inquiry model for victims chiefly via improving offender accountability and ‘voice’ for victims. The article concludes by offering some thoughts on the broader implications for other jurisdictions in responding to large-scale historical abuses and seeking to come to terms with the legacy of institutional child abuse.

The Adequacy of Traveller Education in Northern Ireland

The issues facing Travellers, including those associated with education are often linked to social exclusion, widespread disadvantage and discrimination (Reynolds, McCartan, and Knipe 2003




). The Office for Standards in Education (Office for Standards in Education 1999




) referred to Gypsy Traveller pupils as ‘the most at risk in the education system.’ Within this article issues pertaining to Traveller education are discussed and in particular accessing education provision in Northern Ireland. The article focuses on the views of the statutory and voluntary sector to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of educational provision for Traveller children and young people and reviews the policies in place relating to the provision of education for Travellers in Northern Ireland. It also considers the issue of segregated education for the Traveller community and how for some this segregation can exacerbate social exclusion, disadvantage and discrimination.

Staff training in autism: The one-eyed wo/man….

Having well-trained staff is key to ensuring good quality autism services, especially since people affected with autism generally tend to have higher support needs than other populations in terms of daily living as well as their mental and physical health. Poorly-trained staff can have detrimental effects on service provision and staff morale and can lead to staff burn-out as well as increased service user anxiety and stress. This paper reports on a survey with health, social care, and education staff who work within the statutory autism services sector in the UK that explored their knowledge and training with regards to autism. Interview data obtained from staff and service users offer qualitative illustrations of survey findings. Overall, the findings expose an acute lack of autism specific training that has detrimental impacts. At best this training was based on brief and very basic awareness raising rather than on in-depth understanding of issues related to autism or skills for evidence-based practice. Service users were concerned with the effects that lack of staff training had on the services they received. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy routes to achieving quality staff training based on international best practice. The focus is on improving the quality of life and mental health for services users and staff as well as making potentially significant cost-savings for governments.

The making of professionals: Embedded civil society development in a transition country

The paper addresses the development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in transition settings. Caught in the balance of knowledge exchange and translation of ideas from abroad, organisations in turbulent setting legitimise their existence by learning through professional networks. By association, organisational actors gain acknowledgement by their sector by traversing the corridors of influence provided by international partnerships. What they learn is how to conduct themselves as agents of change in society, and how to deliver on stated missions and goals, therefore, legitimising their presence in a budding civil society at home. The paper presents a knowledge production and learning practices framework which indicates a presence of dual identity of NGOs - their “embeddedness” locally and internationally. Selected framework dimensions and qualitative case study themes are discussed with respect to the level of independence of organisational actors in the East from their partners in the West in a post-socialist context. A professional global civil society as organisations are increasingly managed in similar, professional ways (Anheier & Themudo 2002). Here knowledge “handling” and knowledge “translation” take place through partnership exchanges fostering capable and/or competitive change-inducing institutions (Czarniawska & Sevon 2005; Hwang & Suarez 2005). How professional identity presents itself in the third sector, as well as the sector’s claim to expertise, need further attention, adding to ongoing discussions on professions in institutional theory (Hwang & Powell 2005; Scott 2008; Noordegraaf 2011). A conceptual framework on the dynamic involved for the construction professional fields follows: • Multiple case analysis provides a taxonomy for understanding what is happening in knowledge transition, adaptation, and organisational learning capacity for NGOs with respect to their role in a networked civil society. With the model we can observe the types of knowledge produced and learning employed by organisations. • There are elements of professionalisation in third sector work organisational activity with respect to its accreditation, sources and routines of learning, knowledge claims, interaction with the statutory sector, recognition in cross-sector partnerships etc. • It signals that there is a dual embeddedness in the development of the sector at the core to the shaping the sector’s professional status. This is instrumental in the NGOs’ goal to gain influence as institutions, as they are only one part of a cross-sector mission to address complex societal problems The case study material highlights nuances of knowledge production and learning practices in partnerships, with dual embeddedness a main feature of the findings. This provides some clues to how professionalisation as expert-making takes shape in organisations: • Depending on the type of organisations’ purpose, over its course of development there is an increase in participation in multiple networks, as opposed to reliance on a single strategic partner for knowledge artefacts and practices; • Some types of organisations are better connected within international and national networks than others and there seem to be preferences for each depending on the area of work; • The level of interpretation or adaptation of the knowledge artefacts is related to an organisation’s embeddedness locally, in turn giving it more influence within the network of key institutions; An overreaching theme across taxonomy categories (Table 1)is “professionalisation” or developing organisational “expertise”, embodied at the individual, organisational, and sector levels. Questions relevant to the exercise of power arise: Is competence in managing a dual embeddedness signals the development of a dual identity in professionalisation? Is professionalisation in this sense a sign of organisations maturing into more capable partners to the arguably more experienced (Western) institutions, shifting the power balance? Or is becoming more professional a sign of domestication to the agenda of certain powerful stakeholders, who define the boundaries of the profession? Which dominant dynamics can be observed in a broadly-defined transition country civil society, where individual participation in the form of activism may be overtaking the traditional forms of organised development work, especially with the spread of social media?

Do Changes in Current Flow as a Result of Arrays of Tidal Turbines Have an Effect on Benthic Communities?

Arrays of tidal energy converters have the potential to provide clean renewable energy for future generations. Benthic communities may, however, be affected by changes in current speeds resulting from arrays of tidal converters located in areas characterised by strong currents. Current speed, together with bottom type and depth, strongly influence benthic community distributions; however the interaction of these factors in controlling benthic dynamics in high energy environments is poorly understood. The Strangford Lough Narrows, the location of SeaGen, the world’s first single full-scale, grid-compliant tidal energy extractor, is characterised by spatially heterogenous high current flows. A hydrodynamic model was used to select a range of benthic community study sites that had median flow velocities between 1.5–2.4 m/s in a depth range of 25–30 m. 25 sites were sampled for macrobenthic community structure using drop down video survey to test the sensitivity of the distribution of benthic communities to changes in the flow field. A diverse range of species were recorded which were consistent with those for high current flow environments and corresponding to very tide-swept faunal communities in the EUNIS classification. However, over the velocity range investigated, no changes in benthic communities were observed. This suggested that the high physical disturbance associated with the high current flows in the Strangford Narrows reflected the opportunistic nature of the benthic species present with individuals being continuously and randomly affected by turbulent forces and physical damage. It is concluded that during operation, the removal of energy by marine tidal energy arrays in the far-field is unlikely to have a significant effect on benthic communities in high flow environments. The results are of major significance to developers and regulators in the tidal energy industry when considering the environmental impacts for site licences.

Addressing conflict and tolerance through the curriculum

Political, religious and national divisions in Northern Ireland go back many hundreds of years so it is not surprising that the lack of a common national narrative has made the teaching of history in schools difficult. The fact that schools have largely been organized on a denominational basis has added to the challenge. When political violence broke out in the late 1960s many looked to schools to contribute to the promotion of reconciliation and the way history had been taught received significant critical attention. This chapter will outline the evolving nature of the history curriculum and review evidence on the impact of this curriculum on the historical understanding of students and young people. In addition, the chapter will briefly consider other ways in which students engage with historical issues through the teaching of citizenship, and wider family and community influences. Whereas the teaching of history in the past either was largely absent or often took on a partisan character, the development of a statutory curriculum in the 1990s helped promote a more dispassionate, skills-based approach which emphasized critical engagement with evidence and a multiperspectivity. While this represented a significant improvement on what had gone before, evaluation of the impact of this approach has highlighted the need for a consideration of the emotional impact of historical understanding and the need better to connect the lessons of history to contemporary society.

Child Sexual Exploitation in Northern Ireland Report of the Independent Inquiry (PDF 2.73MB)

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), led by Kathleen Marshall In September 2013, a Ministerial Summit was held on the theme of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) referred to Operation Owl, an investigation of allegations of CSE in Northern Ireland, which had resulted in a number of adults being interviewed and some being arrested. Two weeks later, the then Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Edwin Poots, announced three actions to address this issue: an ongoing PSNI investigation focusing on 22 children and young people; a thematic review of these cases by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI); and an independent, expert-led inquiry into CSE in Northern Ireland, to be commissioned by the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety and the Minister of Justice. The Minister for Education agreed that the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) would enjoin the Inquiry in relation to schools and the effectiveness of the statutory curriculum with respect to CSE. The Inquiry was to focus on both children and young people living at home in the community and those living in care. This is an executive summary of the report of this Inquiry.    

A Lender's Vorpal Sword: Expungement Affidavits & Their Power to Void Sheriff's Sales & Revert Mortgages Back to the Homeowner

Like many Americans across the country, Michigan residents have faced a staggering number of foreclosures in the last few years.2 In 2009, Laura Buttazzoni was one of the many Michigan homeowners facing the dire reality that she was going to lose her home.3 After Buttazzoni’s failed attempt to sell her home, her bank initiated a sheriff’s sale in late 2009.4 After the statutory redemption period expired,5 Fannie Mae evicted Buttazzoni and relisted the home in 2011.6 Even though Buttazzoni’s home was foreclosed, sold at a sale, and relisted on the market—she was not done with the property. In June 2012, nearly three years after Buttazzoni’s eviction, Fannie Mae executed an “expungement affidavit,” which voided the 2009 sheriff’s sale and reverted the mortgage back to Buttazzoni’s name.

In Service to Iowa : Public Library Standards, 6th edition, August 8, 2016

The Standards and Accreditation Program exists to encourage the ongoing development of high quality public library services in Iowa. In Service to Iowa: Public Library Standards is the manual for the State Library of Iowa’s standards program. It was first published in 1985 and was updated in 1989, 1997, 2004, 2010, and now in 2016. Iowa’s voluntary public library standards program was established to give public libraries a tool to identify strengths and areas for improvement. It is also used to document the condition of public library service in Iowa, to distribute Direct State Aid funding, and to meet statutory requirements. In 2015, the Iowa Commission of Libraries appointed the Public Library Standards Advisory Task Force to revise In Service to Iowa. The Task Force in turn solicited feedback from the State Library Advisory Panel to ensure that proposed standards meet the changing needs of Iowa’s public libraries. All task force members support and stress the importance of the accreditation process and thank the Iowa public library community for its assistance.

Physician choice making and characteristics associated with using physician-rating websites: cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, physician-rating websites have been gaining attention in scientific literature and in the media. However, little knowledge is available about the awareness and the impact of using such sites on health care professionals. It also remains unclear what key predictors are associated with the knowledge and the use of physician-rating websites. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the current level of awareness and use of physician-rating websites in Germany and to determine their impact on physician choice making and the key predictors which are associated with the knowledge and the use of physician-rating websites. METHODS: This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. An online panel was consulted in January 2013. A questionnaire was developed containing 28 questions; a pretest was carried out to assess the comprehension of the questionnaire. Several sociodemographic (eg, age, gender, health insurance status, Internet use) and 2 health-related independent variables (ie, health status and health care utilization) were included. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and t tests. Binary multivariate logistic regression models were performed for elaborating the characteristics of physician-rating website users. Results from the logistic regression are presented for both the observed and weighted sample. RESULTS: In total, 1505 respondents (mean age 43.73 years, SD 14.39; 857/1505, 57.25% female) completed our survey. Of all respondents, 32.09% (483/1505) heard of physician-rating websites and 25.32% (381/1505) already had used a website when searching for a physician. Furthermore, 11.03% (166/1505) had already posted a rating on a physician-rating website. Approximately 65.35% (249/381) consulted a particular physician based on the ratings shown on the websites; in contrast, 52.23% (199/381) had not consulted a particular physician because of the publicly reported ratings. Significantly higher likelihoods for being aware of the websites could be demonstrated for female participants (P<.001), those who were widowed (P=.01), covered by statutory health insurance (P=.02), and with higher health care utilization (P<.001). Health care utilization was significantly associated with all dependent variables in our multivariate logistic regression models (P<.001). Furthermore, significantly higher scores could be shown for health insurance status in the unweighted and Internet use in the weighted models. CONCLUSIONS: Neither health policy makers nor physicians should underestimate the influence of physician-rating websites. They already play an important role in providing information to help patients decide on an appropriate physician. Assuming there will be a rising level of public awareness, the influence of their use will increase well into the future. Future studies should assess the impact of physician-rating websites under experimental conditions and investigate whether physician-rating websites have the potential to reflect the quality of care offered by health care providers.

Catch and effort from a recreational trolling fishery in a large lake

Over recent decades recreational fisheries have grown substantially throughout the world. Despite this increase, catches from recreational fisheries have often been ignored in fisheries management, although this is now being remedied. Monitoring recreational fisheries can be expensive, and the primary means used for monitoring is angler (creel) surveys, typically funded from sales of fishing licences. The studies presented in this thesis examine different approaches to monitoring recreational trolling fisheries’ catch and effort, where fishing licenses are not required and there are no reporting requirements. I present results from a complemented roving/mail-in survey undertaken during 2013-2014 to estimate recreational effort and catch of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (S. trutta) in the largest lake in the European Union, Lake Vänern, Sweden. I also evaluate different angler catch reporting methods (mail-in, tournament reports and face-to-face interviews) and compare catch rates within and among spring and fall fishing periods. In addition, mail-in survey data are examined for recall bias.   I estimate that 28.7 tonnes of salmon and trout combined were harvested by the recreational trolling fishery in 2014, more than the commercial and subsistence fisheries combined. Seasonal differences in both recreational effort and catch were observed. Effort, in boat hours, was significantly higher in spring than in fall. Catch rates of trout were higher in fall than in spring, but there were no seasonal differences in catches of salmon. Harvest per boat day did not differ significantly among catch reporting methods, indicating that all three methods could be useful for managers interested in harvest rates. In contrast, total and released catch per boat day differed among reporting methods, with tournament anglers catching more fish in total. Finally, there was little evidence for recall bias in mail-in surveys, indicating that mail-in surveys are useful for collecting unbiased catch data. My study is the most comprehensive angler survey to date for Lake Vänern, and my results should be of immediate use to local fisheries managers and should also be of interest to researchers and managers interested in estimating catch and effort for fisheries at large spatial scales.

The Effect of Non-Audit Services on Auditor Independence : A study on 11 food retail- and wholesale companies in the United Kingdom

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of non-audit services on auditor independence, and the importance of non-audit services as a source of income for audit firms in the United Kingdom. Design/method/approach – This study will examine 11 companies in the food retail- and wholesale industry during 2007 - 2014. Five indicators have been used; (1) Appointed auditor and provision of non-audit services to audit clients; (2) Auditor tenure; (3) Non-audit services in relation to total services; (4) Tax-services in relation to non-audit services, (5) Big Four’s revenue. Information has been collected using the quantitative approach through annual- and transparency reports. The threshold used to measure possible independence threats (self-review-, self-interest- and familiarity threat) has been set at 18,5 %. Findings – This study concludes that the jointly provision of audit- and nonaudit services possibly causes impairment of auditor independence, and that non-audit services is an important source of income for audit firms. The findings showed that in 99 %, companies purchased non-audit services from their statutory auditor. Non-audit services in relation to total services surpassed the threshold in 78 % of all financial years. Likewise, tax-services in comparison to non-audit services exceeded the threshold in 65 % of all financial years. The Big Four’s revenue from non-audit services to audit clients in relation to total revenue is almost constantly below the threshold. However, in all financial years except from one, total revenue from non-audit services surpassed revenue from audit services by far. Contribution – The study contributes to the ongoing discussion about nonaudit services effect on auditor independence. Originality/value – This study is one of few that provide detailed information about non-audit services in the food retail- and wholesale industry. It highlights social and ethical issues with regard to agency relationships.