Enhancing regulatory capability through a blended delivery learning and development framework: an empirical Australian example

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) is a Commonwealth statutory authority responsible for the regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemical products in Australia. Effective regulation is built on engaging with risk in alignment with the relevant legislation, and requires a combination of core public service, foundation, and technical skills, in addition to management and leadership capabilities. Mapping skills, competencies, and capabilities provided the scaffolding for the 2019-21 APVMA Learning and Development Framework (the Framework). As the Framework was established to support blended delivery of distance and face-to-face learning activities, it was largely uninterrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the public service increasingly pivoted to online learning.

16. Trespass to land and nuisance

This chapter considers two ‘land torts’: trespass to land and private nuisance. Trespass to land protects a person in possession of land against direct invasion of his property. The right to sue includes not only those with a proprietorial interest in the land, such as owners and tenants, but also those who have exclusive occupation such as squatters. The fact that any invasion of land, however minute and whether it causes damage or not, is a trespass, indicates that the primary function of this tort is to protect rights in property, rather than simply to provide compensation. The chapter continues by distinguishing between public and private nuisance. It then discusses the interests protected in private nuisance; the standard of reasonable user; the person(s) liable for nuisance; remoteness of damage; statutory authority and planning permission; and the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 on nuisance claims.

Multi-Stakeholder Platform in Water Resources Management: A Critical Analysis of Stakeholders’ Participation for Sustainable Water Resources

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have gained momentum in addressing contentious and cross-sectoral aspects of natural resources management. They have helped to enhance cross-learning and the inclusion of marginalized groups. Tanzania’s water resources management sub-sector has championed these platforms as a means of breaking silos around planning, coordination, and resource mobilization. However, it is not uncommon to experience the occasional dominance of some influential sectors or groups due to their resources contribution to the process, contemporary influence, or statutory authority. Between 2013 and 2020, Tanzania has pioneered the establishment of MSPs at a national level and across the river and lake basins. This paper examines the representation of stakeholder groups in these platforms. Additionally, it establishes the baseline information that contributes to unlocking the current project-based platform design characterized by inherent limitations to potential changes in stakeholders’ attitudes and actions. The research analyzed stakeholder’s views, their representation, and the local and international literature to formulate opinions. Findings indicated that gender equality had not been adhered to despite being in the guidelines for establishing MSPs. The balance of public, private, and civil society organizations (CSOs) is acutely dominated by the public sector organizations, especially water-related ones. Finally, participation on the decision-making level is minimal, causing unsustainable platforms unless development partners continue to support operational costs.

Sustainable Well-Being in Israel

Well-being is a common human aspiration. Governments and states, too, seek to promote and ensure the well-being of their citizens; some even argue that this should be their overarching goal. But it is not enough for a country to flourish, and for its citizens to enjoy well-being, if the situation cannot be maintained over the long term. Well-being must be sustainable. The state needs criteria for assessing the well-being of its citizens, so that it can work to raise the well-being level. Joining many other governments around the world, the Israeli government adopted a comprehensive set of indices for measuring well-being in 2015. Since 2016, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics has been publishing the assessment results on an annual basis. Having determined that the monitoring of well-being in Israel should employ complementary indices relating to its sustainability, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Bank of Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and Yad Hanadiv asked the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities to establish an expert committee to draft recommendations on this issue. The Academy's assistance was sought in recognition of its statutory authority "to advise the government on activities relating to research and scientific planning of national significance." The Committee was appointed by the President of the Academy, Professor Nili Cohen, in March 2017; its members are social scientists spanning a variety of disciplines. This report presents the Committee's conclusions. Israel's ability to ensure the well-being of its citizens depends on the resources or capital stocks available to it, in particular its economic, natural, human, social, and cultural resources. At the heart of this report are a mapping of these resources, and recommendations for how to measure them.

Conclusion

This chapter looks at the major environmental laws of the United States after the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan was signed into law. It also presents Senator Henry Jackson's National Land Use Policy Act in 1970. The act used incentives and sanctions to encourage states to develop land use plans for environmentally sensitive areas and large development sites. The chapter then highlights the Adirondack Park Agency's (APA) job to protect the wilderness character of a state park that was much larger than any of the national parks that existed in 1973. Many regional land use plans of the era depended on local governments taking voluntary incentives, but the Adirondack law gave a state agency statutory authority to protect environmental quality by reviewing and modifying zoning regulations. The chapter recounts the APA's three main goals: to prevent building in the park's backcountry, to make sure that development happened in places where it would not hurt the park's wild character, and to protect Adirondack shorelines. Ultimately, the chapter examines the emergence of threats to the ecological health of the Adirondacks that are beyond the park agency's power to control.

Preventing Harm to Vulnerable Older Adults: A Social Justice Perspective

This article presents the results from a qualitative study that explored how legislation in British Columbia, intended to protect vulnerable adults from harm, is implemented in practice. The legislation contains guiding principles that require the least restrictive and minimally intrusive form of support or intervention be used and that the adult’s wishes be respected. Sixteen professionals who work as elder abuse responders in British Columba participated in this study through interviews and a focus group. Fifteen of the study participants were social workers. Grounded theory method was used, and themes were identified. The first theme reveals that responders prefer to obtain older adult consent to service provider involvement, rather than forcing compliance by using statutory authority. The second theme reveals that responders may not be able to intervene in a minimally intrusive manner because of resource shortages and organizational structural issues. These findings have human rights and social justice implications.

Unpacking the SEC’s new disgorgement powers

Purpose To analyze the impact of recent legislation that amended the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to expressly empower the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to seek disgorgement in federal district court proceedings and to codify applicable statutes of limitations. Design/methodology/approach This article provides an overview of the authors’ prior work analyzing courts’ treatment of SEC disgorgement and summarizes how the scope of the remedy has evolved since Kokesh v. SEC (2017). Then, the article analyzes the changes to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 contained in Section 6501 the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which statutorily empowered the SEC to seek and obtain disgorgement in federal court actions. Finally, the authors discuss the impact of the legislation on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Kokesh and Liu v. SEC (2020). Findings The availability and appropriateness of SEC disgorgement have been the subject of vigorous debate. Just as courts began to iron out the contours of SEC disgorgement in the wake of Kokesh and Liu, Congress intervened by granting to the SEC explicit statutory authority to seek a remedy traditionally obtained at equity. In passing this legislation, Congress answered some questions that remained after Liu but also raised many new ones. These new questions will likely take years to resolve through subsequent litigation and potentially additional legislation. Originality/value Original, practical analysis and guidance from experienced lawyers in financial services regulatory and enforcement practices, many of whom have previously worked in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

A proposal for shoring up Federal Trade Commission protections for electronic health record–connected consumer apps under 21st Century Cures

Under the 21st Century Cures Act and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) rule implementing its interoperability provisions, a patient’s rights to easily request and obtain digital access to portions of their medical records are now supported by both technology and policy. Data, once directed by a patient to leave a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–covered health entity and enter a consumer app, will usually fall under Federal Trade Commission oversight. Because the statutory authority of the ONC does not extend to health data protection, there is not yet regulation to specifically address privacy protections for consumer apps. A technologically feasible workflow that could be widely adopted and permissible under ONC’s rule, involves using the SMART on FHIR OAuth authorization routine to present standardized information about app behavior. This approach would not bias the patient in a way that triggers penalties under information blocking provisions of the rule.

The regulation of midwives in England, c.1500–1902

Throughout the 19th century, midwives were depicted as incompetent slatterns in both popular imagery and medical literature. We examine how, between 1500 and 1800, midwifery was regulated by a combination of formal licensing by the Church and informal oversight within the community. We argue that episcopal licensing demanded that midwives demonstrate knowledge and competence in midwifery, not only that they were spiritually fit to baptise dying infants. Although episcopal licensing lacked statutory authority, the symbiosis of formal and informal systems of regulation ensured good midwifery practice and midwives were regarded as experts in all matters relating to childbirth. The Midwives Act 1902 introduced statutory regulation of midwives, restoring their ‘professional status’ if in a subordinate role. We show that the history of the regulation of midwives across four centuries casts light on the interplay between formal and informal regulation and matters of gender and professional status.