Policy Forum: A Critical Analysis of Property Taxation Under the First Nations Fiscal Management Act as a Self-Government Tool

The First Nations Fiscal Management Act (FMA) delegates the power to levy property taxes to band councils. The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the effectiveness of the legislation as a self-government tool. Section 5(1) of the FMA allows band councils to levy property taxes both to increase their economic capacity—providing them with a source of income—and to improve self-government. However, this grant of power is subject to numerous conditions. These include compliance with the financial management requirements set out in the act, as well as approval of property tax laws by the First Nations Tax Commission (FNTC) (the majority of the members of which are appointed by the federal government). Also, the taxes imposed must comply with regulations set by the governor in council, which currently cover the property assessment process (including an appeal process), interest and penalties, and inspection of property. There have been two attempts by property taxpayers to overturn the decisions of the FNTC by way of judicial review. The fact that both were unsuccessful has somewhat mitigated criticism of the constraints on First Nation self-government imposed by the FMA. Overall, the federal government maintains significant control over the law-making process by which First Nations levy property taxes, both directly through regulations and indirectly through its dominant presence on the FNTC. Reform is needed: real powers need to be delegated to meet the stated objective of creating meaningful self-government for participating First Nations. The power to impose property taxes was first delegated to band councils by the Indian Act in 1951. Therefore, it is high time that First Nations be granted the right to exercise that power without federal intervention. Constitutional protection of the right to self-government must be the ultimate goal.

Prisoners’ Access to Justice: Family Support, Prison Legal Education, and Court Proceedings

This study investigates the extent of prisoners’ legal entitlements as well as how prisoners acquire legal assistance within the prison setup. It is argued that inmates’ legal entitlements within the prison bureaucracy are devoid of the ideal of access to justice. The study used the mixed-method approach in data gathering. For the quantitative aspect, a sample of 300 inmates was used. Simple random and systematic sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. For the qualitative aspect, the following participants were purposively selected: ex-convicts, a paralegal prison officer, a court warrant officer, prison after-care officer, registrars, and relatives of inmates. The analysed data showed that most inmates did not receive family support during their trial before conviction. It was also found that inmates had no access to legal materials due to lack of law libraries, yet received some form of legal education from prison staff. Even though the court proceedings of inmates formed a critical part of their appeal process, a little above half of the inmate population had access to these documents. With the advancement in Information and Communication Technology, it is recommended that all courts should be digitized with relevant logistics and improved infrastructure to smoothen access to case files.

ROMAN LAW AS THE BASIS OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT APPEAL IN CIVIL CASES

Appeal as a guarantee of the right to judicial protection, appeared and took shape in the Roman civil procedure. Thanks to the reception of the Roman law the achievements in the field of appeal were adopted by the European legal system, which allowed to create a unified basis for the legislative appearance of the right to appeal a court decision and proceedings in the appellate court. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, as part of the widespread reform of civil proceedings, changes have been made in the appeal process. Many of them are in line with the provisions of the Roman sources of law – the Digest of Justinian and the Code of Justinian. Legislative regulation of Russian civil appeals is characterized by goal ambiguity, which negatively affects the quality of judicial protection and necessitates changes. The experience of Roman appeal allows to answer topical issues of appellate procedure, to determine the vector of development of the appellate court proceedings. The article proves that the source of legal knowledge about civil appeal is corresponding regulations of Justinian’s Code and provisions of Digest of Justinian.

The appeal process and beyond (part three of 3). When residents shouldn’t become clinicians: getting a grip on fair and defensible processes for termination of training

Training programs have the dual responsibility of providing excellent training for their learners and ensuring their graduates are competent practitioners. Despite everyone’s best efforts a small minority of learners will be unable to achieve competence and cannot graduate. Unfortunately, program decisions for training termination are often overturned, not because the academic decision was wrong, but because fair assessment processes were not implemented or followed. This series of three articles, intended for those setting residency program assessment policies and procedures, outlines recommendations, from establishing robust assessment foundations and the beginning of concerns (Part One), to established concerns and formal remediation (Part Two) to participating in formal appeals and after (Part Three). With these 14 recommendations on how to get a grip on fair and defensible processes for termination of training, career-impacting decisions that are both fair for the learner and defensible for programs are indeed possible. They are offered to minimize the chances of academic decisions being overturned, an outcome which wastes program resources, poses patient safety risks, and delays the resident finding a more appropriate career path. This article (Part Three in the series of three) will focus on the formal appeals and what to do after the appeal.

Performance Appraisal – A Source of Employee’s Motivation: A Case Study of Educational Institute of Karachi

The organizational success is largely depending on its employees; they are considered as vital assets for any organization. Therefore, the management should know how to appraise them so that they can get the desired results. The current study aims to investigate the impact of performance appraisal on employee’s motivation in an educational institute of Karachi. The population of interest was permanent faculty, visiting faculty and non-teaching staff of the ABC institute which was selected through convenience sampling technique. A survey of 56 employees was conducted with the help of a questionnaire based on close ended items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agrees to strongly disagree. For data analysis, SPSS was used to check the reliability test, descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The research findings provided the insights regarding the impact of performance appraisal on employees’ motivation and showed a positive significant impact. The more satisfied employees are by their appraisals, the more motivated and committed they would be. Moreover, the study also shed light for future direction by keeping in view the respondents concern regarding biasness free rating, feedback and appeal process. The educational institutes should come up with better strategies in order to build trust among employees by providing fair appraisal solely based on their performance.

STORYTELLING CASE STUDY: HOW TO WIN A TAX DISPUTE AGAINST TAX AUTHORITY?

This study focuses on answering five research questions, namely how to understand the background of a tax dispute, how to carry out the tax audit, how to perform the tax audit closing conference, how to run the objection process at the regional level, and how to win the appeal process at Tax Court. This research employed the case study framework as a methodology. The data were collected via interview as well as documentation. The information gathered was analyzed by contextualizing the meaning of the data collected. The result of this research provided insights on winning a tax dispute by implementing several strategies abstracted from the case study.

OP230 How Legitimate Is The Process Of Updating the Benefits Package In Israel? A 20 Year Overview

IntroductionThe National Health Insurance Law enacted in 1995 stipulates a minimum list of health services (benefits package) that the four health plans in Israel have to provide to their members. The recommendations on which new technologies or new indications for existing ones should be added every year to the benefits package, subject to a predetermined budget, are made by a public committee that evaluates and prioritizes candidate technologies according to their clinical merit, economic (mainly budget impact), social, ethical and other aspects. We assessed the legitimacy of this coverage decision process over the past 20 years.MethodsThe legitimacy of the process was assessed by adherence to the conditions outlined in the accountability for reasonableness (A4R) framework. A4R defines four conditions for legitimate and fair healthcare coverage decision processes: relevance, publicity, appeals/reversibility, and enforcement. We reviewed the changes made in the coverage decision process over the past 20 years and examined whether these changes have changed its legitimacy.ResultsOur analysis suggests that despite several changes made over the years in the process for updating the benefits package, for example, increase in transparency, introducing a structured appeal process, it only partially fulfills the four A4R conditions. In order to accomplish these goals more fully, several widely used considerations such as cost-effectiveness analysis and incorporating views from patients should be included. Additionally, this decision-making process should become even more transparent than it currently is.ConclusionsThe annual process of updating the benefits package in Israel where hundreds of technologies are “competing” with each other for coverage under a pre-defined budget is unique and not without merit. This process has been operating in the same pattern with only minor changes made since 1999. The main barriers for fulfilling all A4R conditions may relate in part to the large number of technologies assessed each year within a short time frame. Several changes in the process including the assessment of societal values, involvement of diverse stakeholders including patient advocate groups should be made to improve its legitimacy.

La Salud y la regulación alimentaria europea: el nivel de riesgo tolerado

T. Boer & Zonen es una empresa neerlandesa productora de carne. Por violaciones de la normativa alimentaria europea, se le imponen sendas multas que, tras ser recurridas, culminan en una cuestión prejudicial del tribunal en cuestión ante Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea sobre si la refrigeración de los productos puede entenderse realizada dentro de los camiones frigoríficos (encontrándose estos en las dependencias del matadero), como pretende la empresa, o debemos atender a la literalidad de la norma y otros requisitos, que este proceso solo puede entenderse realizado en el sitio especificado como “matadero”. Por la propia naturaleza del bien jurídico y el elevado nivel de precaución y riesgo tolerable que ha asumido la Unión Europea, el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea falla en favor de la interpretación consonante con dichos principios y de manera desfavorable para la empresa. Boer & Zonen is a meat producing Dutch company. Due to breaches of the European food legislation, it is fined and, after the appeal process, culminates in a preliminary ruling from the appeals court to the Court of Justice of the European Union about whether it can be interpreted that the refrigeration process requirement was met if it was performed in the freezing trucks (being these located within the slaughterhouse), as the company pretends, or it must be understood as met only if it was performed as the literality of the rule expresses and also other requirements. Given the nature of the legally protected good and the elevated level of precaution and risk tolerance assumed by the European Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union rules in favor of the interpretation compatible with said standards and against the company.

No Place Called Home. The Banishment of ‘Foreign Criminals’ in the Public Interest: A Wrong without Redress

This article examines the legal and ethical rationale for the deportation of ‘foreign criminals’ who have established their homes in the United Kingdom. It argues that provisions relating to automatic deportation constitute a second punishment that can be more accurately described as banishment. The human rights of those defined as ‘foreign criminals’ have been reduced to privileges that are easily withdrawn with reference to the ill-defined public interest. The ability to challenge deportation is then compromised by a non-suspensive appeal process that deliberately undermines the right to an effective remedy whilst further damaging private and family life. With reference to social membership and domicile theories of belonging, it is suggested that those who have made their lives in the UK and established their place and domicile here should be regarded as unconditional members of civil society. As such, they are entitled to equality of treatment in the criminal justice system and should be immune from punitive ‘crimmigration’ measures.