Palm Fronds in the Public Square

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Méadhbh McIvor

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Christian legal activism. In a rapidly changing religious landscape, Protestant Christianity — although it remains both legally and culturally established — has become relativised. This relativisation is, in many ways, the product of centuries' worth of political dispute and interreligious negotiation, as the legal privileges associated with established religion have been diluted. Yet it has taken on a particular salience in recent years, one which can be dated to a seismic shift in England's regulation of religion: English law's transition from viewing 'religious freedom' as a negative civil liberty to ensuring it as a positive human right. While many English Christians have responded to these changes with resignation, some have embraced modes of legal and political engagement born of very different church–state paradigms, including a litigiousness more often associated with the United States. Armed with law degrees, evangelical conviction, and 'a passion to see the United Kingdom return to the Christian faith', these activists lobby and litigate to contest what they see as Christianity's ousting from the public square. This book argues that a willingness to take on legal challenges to protect Christian values risks those same values' marginalisation, as moralities previously woven into the fabric of national life are filtered out from their quotidian context and rebranded as 'religion' or 'religiously motivated'.

Author(s):  
Breen Creighton ◽  
Catrina Denvir ◽  
Richard Johnstone ◽  
Shae McCrystal ◽  
Alice Orchiston

The purpose of the research upon which this book is based was empirically to investigate whether the ballot requirements in the Fair Work Act do indeed impose a significant obstacle to the taking of industrial action, and whether those provisions are indeed impelled by a legitimate ‘democratic imperative’. The book starts from the proposition that virtually all national legal systems, and international law, recognise the right to strike as a fundamental human right. It acknowledges, however, that in no case is this recognition without qualification. Amongst the most common qualifications is a requirement that to be lawful strike action must first be approved by a ballot of workers concerned. Often, these requirements are said to be necessary to protect the democratic rights of the workers concerned: this is the so-called ‘democratic imperative’. In order to evaluate the true purpose and effect of ballot requirements the book draws upon the detailed empirical study of the operation of the Australian legislative provisions noted above; a comparative analysis of law and practice in a broad range of countries, with special reference to Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States; and the jurisprudence of the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organisation. It finds that in many instances ballot requirements – especially those relating to quorum – are more concerned with curtailing strike activity than with constructively responding to the democratic imperative. Frequently, they also proceed from a distorted perception of what ‘democracy’ could and should entail in an industrial context. Paradoxically, the study also finds that in some contexts ballot requirements can provide additional bargaining leverage for unions. Overall, however, the study confirms our hypothesis that the principal purpose of ballot requirements – especially in Australia and the United Kingdom – is to curtail strike activity rather than to vindicate the democratic imperative, other than on the basis of a highly attenuated reading of that term. We believe that the end-result constitutes an important study of the practical operation of a complex set of legal rules, and one which exposes the dichotomy between the ostensible and real objectives underpinning the adoption of those rules. It also furnishes a worked example of multi-methods empirical, comparative and doctrinal legal research in law, which we hope will inspire similar approaches to other areas of labour law.


Author(s):  
Ratnaria Wahid ◽  
Ida Madieha Abdul Ghani Azmi

While education is considered a basic human right, the copyright system however seems to hamper public access to information and knowledge. This is especially so when information that largely comes from developed countries are used as commodities that have to be bought by developing countries. This paper compares the international and national laws in Malaysia, United Kingdom and Australia on the copyright exceptions to materials used for teaching purposes. It analyzes the different ways countries manage and balance between copyright owners and copyright users’ interest and shows that in many circumstances, copyright owners are over-protected by national copyright systems although this is not required by international copyright law. This paper also shows that international treaties governing copyright law do allow some flexibility for member countries to implement copyright systems based on their own needs and circumstances but such opportunity is not fully utilized by member countries for the benefit of the public.  


2021 ◽  
pp. 198-220
Author(s):  
Ajay K Sharma ◽  
Dipa Dube

Intellectual property (IP) law protects the private rights of owners, while criminal law secures the public interests, for harm to the society. In the present technology-driven society, magnitude of IP violations, particularly, in the form of counterfeiting, etc. affect the interests of the general public, calling for the application of criminal law to ensure stringent IP protection. The intersection of IP and criminal law remains controversial, yet significant, as it is in the interest of those in the field to examine the provisions beyond the scope of private right regime, as a public policy that can have a direct impact on public interests. This chapter analyses the intersection of criminal law and IP through a blend of exploratory and analytical methods. First, the authors situate the criminal law discussion in the domain of IP rights and examine how far the elements of crime may be identified in IP violations. Second, the concept of economic crimes as distinct from conventional crimes is discussed. In this regard, the laws of India, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) are examined, along with the most recent international developments, to show the trend towards criminal enforcement as the best possible protection for legitimate businesses and consumers. The chapter leaves much scope for future work whereby a balanced response to counter IP violations may be designed to benefit innovation and development.


Author(s):  
Armando Saponaro

This chapter outlines the “conflict” and “peace-keeping” victim-oriented justice paradigms. The latter empowers the victims of crime, putting them at the center of an encounter and using interindividual mediation or collective circles to address conflict resolution. Two models are critically discussed in the conflict victim-oriented justice paradigm. The European continental “visible victim” model structures the role of the victim as a full-fledged processual party together with the public prosecutor and offender. In this model, the victim has the same rights and powers of the defendant. The “invisible victim” common law model views the victim as a trial witness, participating, for example, through a victim impact statement (in the United States) or victim personal statement (in the United Kingdom) at the sentencing stage. The visible victim conflict paradigm model enhances a victim's role and involvement in the criminal justice system, offering a solution to existing controversial and critical common law system issues.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Crime Coverage

This chapter sets up the thesis of the book: Crime coverage practices serve as a lens to consider underlying cultural attitudes to concepts like privacy, public, public right to know, and justice. Differing decisions, for example, about whether to name suspects, suggest varying beliefs about the value of privacy and the public right to know. The chapter outlines the methodology and situates the work in relation to Daniel Hallin and Paulo Mancini, whose book Comparing Media Practices influenced the selection of countries, as well as the initial premises. We name the ten countries that comprise the basis of our comparison, and briefly introduce our three media models: the Protectors (Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden), the Watchdogs (the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States), and the Ambivalents (Spain, Italy, and Portugal). The chapter concludes with a brief overview of individual book chapters.


1985 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Newton

Most commentators on the 1949 sterling crisis have viewed it as an episode with implications merely for the management of the British economy. This paper, based on the public records now available, discusses the impact of the crisis on British economic foreign policy. In particular it suggests that the crisis revealed deep Anglo-American differences, centring on the nature of the Marshall Plan, on the international value of the sterling area, and on the proper relationship between the United Kingdom and Western Europe, Ultimately the British succeeded in resolving these disagreements: but this triumph ironically implied both the defeat of British aims in post-war European reconstruction and a long term delusion that great power status could be maintained on the basis of a special relationship-with the United States.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 130-170
Author(s):  
Myrisha S. Lewis

In many areas of innovation, the United States is a leader, but this characterization does not apply to the United States' position in assisted reproductive technology innovation and clinical use. This article uses a political science concept, the idea of the “democratic deficit” to examine the lack of American public discourse on innovations in ART. In doing so, the article focuses on America's missing public consultation in health care innovation. This missing discourse is significant, as political and ethical considerations may impact regulatory decisions. Thus, to the extent that these considerations are influencing the decisions of federal agency employees, namely those who work within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the public is unable to participate in the decision-making process. This lack of a public discourse undermines the goals of the administrative state, which include democratic participation, transparency, and accountability.The United Kingdom, on the other hand, has had a markedly divergent experience with assisted reproductive technology innovation. Instead of ignoring the various ethical, social, and legal issues surrounding assisted reproductive technology innovation, the United Kingdom engaged in a five-strand public consultation on the topic of mitochondrial transfer, a form of assisted reproductive technology that uses genetic modification in order to prevent disease transmission. This article argues that after a multi-decade standstill in terms of the public discourse related to ethical issues associated with assisted reproductive technology and germline modification, it is time for the United States to institute a more democratic inquiry into the scientific, ethical, and social implications of new forms of assisted reproductive technology and ultimately, forthcoming medical innovations that involve genetic modification.


1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel S. B. Rawson

In a recent article, Lexchin asks “who needs faster drug approval times in Canada?” and, on the basis of extremely limited and selective data, draws the conclusion that neither the public nor the pharmaceutical industry does. Whether the Canadian system is really slower is investigated by comparing Canadian and U.S. marketing approval dates and by using information on regulatory approval times from the two countries and elsewhere. Marketing approval dates in Canada are significantly later than those in the United States, although not consistently across all therapeutic categories; anti-cancer and gastrointestinal drugs have earlier approval dates in Canada. However, Canadian and U.S. regulatory approval times are not significantly different, indicating that marketing applications are submitted later in Canada, but both are considerably longer than those in the United Kingdom. The evidence shows that Canadians need faster drug approval times if individuals requiring the medications are not to suffer unnecessarily. A significant decrease in drug approval times and the establishment of comprehensive and effective postmarketing surveillance would reduce the time it takes for new drugs to be made available to Canadians while, at the same time, providing a high level of drug safety.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Imam ◽  
Ban A. AbdulMajeed

BACKGROUND: NBOMe compounds, some of which commercially known as “N-Bomb” or “Smiles” signifying their potency, represent a uniquely potent group of phenethylamine derivatives. These have been recently used in the past decade for their powerful hallucinogenic properties to induce a “psychedelic trip”.METHODS: This study is an analytics of the surface web incorporating data from; the published literature, grey literature, drug fora, and trends’ databases. The study aims to review the pharmacodynamic effects of three most popular N-Bombs (25b, 25c, and 25i), analyse reported cases of intoxications and fatalities, and correlate these incidents with data retrieved from Google Trends.RESULTS: The potency and popularity of NBOMe compounds are tallied worldwide, 25b-NBOMe (least potent and least popular), 25i-NBOMe (most potent and most popular), while the 25c-NBOMe is in the middle. The popularity of each has been on the rise since 2011-2012, these compounds are most popular in the United States and the United Kingdom, while data from the developing world and the densely-populated India and China are either lacking or inadequate. The reported cases of intoxications and deaths were statistically proven to be correlated with the trends’ dataCONCLUSION: Inferential statistical information has associated cases of NBOMe(s)’ morbidities-mortalities with the public interest of surface web users in these hallucinogens. This study can serve a blueprint for an early warning system to be activated based on changes in trends’ data.


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