Distinct Obligations Research Articles

Offences against Status.

Philosophical accounts of status understand it either pejoratively, as social rank, or laudatorily, as the dignity possessed by all in virtue of our shared humanity. Status is considered to be something either we all have or no one should have. This article aims to show that there is a third, neglected, sense of status. It refers to the moral rights and duties one holds in virtue of one's social position or role. Employees, refugees, doctors, teachers and judges all hold social roles in virtue of which they have distinctive obligations, rights, privileges, powers and the like. This article aims to do two things: first, to distinguish the role-based notion of status from ideas of social rank, and to identify the various ways in which it constitutes a distinct category of moral wrongdoing; and second, to show that status, thus understood, is justified on egalitarian grounds even though, unlike dignity, not everyone has it. The moral point of status, I argue, is to regulate asymmetrical relations in which one of the parties suffers from background vulnerabilities and dependencies. Status as a moral idea vests both parties with a complex set of rights and duties, whose aim is to restore moral equality between the parties.

Environmental Risk Assessment of Technical Mixtures Under the European Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals—A Regulatory Perspective

The European Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation has been in force since 2007 and is intended to ensure a high level of protection for human health and the environment. The REACH regulation is based on the principle that manufacturers, importers, and downstream users take responsibility for their chemicals. Currently about 23 000 single chemicals are registered within the REACH legislation. A large proportion of substances registered under REACH end up in technical mixtures, intentionally manufactured as such, or generated mixtures containing byproducts of processes. Such mixtures that contain a number of different components are, for example, ink, paint, lacquer, mortar, or cleaning agents. However, REACH focuses on single substances and addresses the safe use of substances as such (e.g., bisphenol A) or substances in mixtures (e.g., bisphenol A used as an antioxidant in mixtures) and in articles (e.g., bisphenol A used as a monomer for polycarbonate production from which greenhouse sheets may be made). In contrast to other substance regulations, under REACH the registrants and downstream users of chemicals are responsible for the risk assessment. According to the REACH regulation, they also have the obligation to derive and communicate safe use conditions for their technical mixtures. Currently, no guidance document and no distinct obligations for an assessment of technical mixtures exist. In light of the available evidence for the joint exposures and effects of chemicals due to co-exposures, the need for approaches for a mixture assessment and improved data communications were highlighted by various stakeholders from industry, European member states, and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The lead component identification (LCID) methodology and the safe use of mixtures information (SUMI) tool were proposed by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) as working tools for the evaluation of the hazard potential, derivation of safe use conditions, and data communication for mixtures along the supply chain. The present paper analyzes the workability and pitfalls of these proposed methodologies from a regulatory perspective, aiming at a safe use of technical mixtures which considers the joint effects and exposures of its components. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:498-506. © 2021 Umweltbundesamt. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

The Distinctive Political Status of Dissident Minorities

“Dissident minorities” are members of marginalized groups who dissent from the consensus group position on matters seen as critical to their group’s collective liberation. This paper articulates the distinctive political status—powers, vulnerabilities, and obligations—of dissident minorities. Dissident minorities may be especially vulnerable to slurs or ostracism as “self-hating.” But they also can wield significant public influence by positioning themselves as exceptional and exemplary members of their group. Both the powers and vulnerabilities of dissident minorities, in turn, converge around the prospect of “tokenization”—the use of the dissident minority’s dissident opinion by majority group actors as a means of discharging a stipulated obligation to engage with the minority group writ large. While dissident minorities should be free to hold and advocate for their divergent positions in public spaces, they retain a distinctive obligation to not offer themselves out as adequate replacements for engagement with the broader group.

Trust-Based Theories of Promising

AbstractThis paper discusses the prospects of a comprehensive philosophical account of promising that relies centrally on the notion of trust. I lay out the core idea behind the Trust View, showing how it convincingly explains the normative contours and the unique value of our promissory practice. I then sketch three distinct options of how the Trust View can explain the normativity of promises. First, an effect based-view, second, a view drawing on a wider norm demanding respect to those whom one has invited to something, and finally, as a new suggestion, a Normative Interest View. This view holds that promising is a normative power that serves our interest in facilitating or enabling the relationship of trust between promisor and promisee. I argue that only those embracing the third view can fully account for the distinctive obligation that results from the giving of a valid promise in all cases.

Multi-Use of Stationary Battery Storage Systems with Blockchain Based Markets

This article proposes a basic concept for the multi-use of stationary battery storage systems with multiple stakeholders to improve the economic value of battery storage systems. An auction market is suggested, where segments of the energy storage system and rights of use are auctioned. The blockchain technology is incorporated to develop a generic, low-cost concept that enables distinct obligations between the stakeholders caused by the technical operation of the battery storage system. Smart contracts allow flexible sharing of the battery storage system and increase the system’s utilization ratio in the presence of prediction uncertainties.

Company directors have legal obligations to their company and creditors

Running a company, as opposed to a sole trader or partnership, and holding a directorship, involves a number of distinct duties and obligations. The law is very prescriptive about this, and for good reason. In exchange for limited liability and general immunity for company debts, Adam Bernstein explains why directors must care for the success of the business and also, should insolvency loom, protect its creditors

The WTO and FCTC Dispute Settlement Systems: Friends or Foes?

The paper examines the relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) dispute settlement mechanisms. It concludes that since two regimes relate to distinctive legal obligations, one cannot describe the relationship between their dispute settlement mechanisms in terms of conflict of jurisdiction Even if one assumes that such conflict exists a mere existence of an alternative dispute settlement system (i.e. the FCTC) does not preclude a WTO panel from examining a case with respect to possible violation WTO law. The paper also notes that while the FCTC Parties may introduce in the future a new clause in the Convention that will prioritize, over other available alternative mechanisms, its dispute settlement system, this will not affect the jurisdiction of WTO panels (or make a particular case inadmissible). The Appellate Body in its recent report (Peru – Additional Duty on Imports of Certain Agricultural Products), while agreeing that WTO Members can waive their right in the extraneous agreement to have a recourse to the WTO dispute settlement system, also set very strict standards. In particular, such a decision needs to be clearly formulated and can be made only with respect to the settlement of a specific dispute rather than as a general clause. In addition, this cannot lead to the violation of applicable WTO provisions, meaning that a WTO panel will need to examine the contested measure as to its substance anyway. This obviously limits the relevance, under WTO law, of any exclusion clause that may be introduced by the FCTC Parties in the future.

Living in a Retirement Village: Choice, Contracts, and Constraints

ABSTRACTRetirement village living is a growing housing option for older people. Research to date has focused primarily on the social milieu of the village with limited attention to the legal and financial obligations associated with this form of specialized seniors' housing. Using data from a survey of 312 Australian residents, this article suggests while residents place financial and legal obligations at the forefront when considering relocation and during residency, there is variability in professional advice and constraints on choices when needs and capacities change. The distinctive obligations associated with retirement village living require greater attention to ensure an informed lifestyle decision.

Adult Learners in Higher Education: A Rural–Urban Analysis of Pennsylvania FAFSA Applicants’ Educational, Demographic, and Financial Characteristics

This article paints a comprehensive portrait of the demographic, financial, and educational characteristics of Pennsylvania postsecondary students who are adult learners, and identifies rural-urban differences within this group. The study analyzed data from the 2010-11 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (n = 610,925), supplemented by interviews with two policy experts and six financial aid administrators at rural postsecondary institutions. Adult learners differed from younger students on all measures and experienced more disadvantage. Economic hardship was pronounced: Adult learners’ mean annual family income was less than half that of traditional-age students, and 60% lived in poverty or near-poverty. Salient rural-urban differences included institutional type, parental education, marital status, dependent children, and income. Together, quantitative and qualitative data revealed that adult learners have distinct economic situations (employment status, income), family obligations, and enrollment patterns (e.g., part-time study, short-duration degree programs). Thus, they need different forms of support and financial aid.

The Obligation of Perfect and Perpetual Continence and Married Deacons in the Latin Church: Canonical Implications

Through the reception of diaconate a man becomes a cleric. Canon 277 §1 states: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy.” Accordingly, it would seem that clerics have two distinct obligations: perfect and perpetual continence and celibacy with continence presented as the fundamental norm. While canon 288 of the 1983 code exempts permanent deacons (no distinction is made between married and unmarried deacons) from some obligations common to all clerics, canon 277 §1 is not one of them. This raises a fundamental question: “Are married deacons, though dispensed from the obligation of celibacy unless their wife dies, obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence?” The author establishes why diaconal continence is even a question by examining the long canonical history associated with continence for clergy, and demonstrates that depending on how one answers the question there are significant implications for the current interpretation and implementation of the prescripts of canon 277 §1.

Vulnerability in Research Ethics: a Way Forward

Several foundational documents of bioethics mention the special obligation researchers have to vulnerable research participants. However, the treatment of vulnerability offered by these documents often relies on enumeration of vulnerable groups rather than an analysis of the features that make such groups vulnerable. Recent attempts in the scholarly literature to lend philosophical weight to the concept of vulnerability are offered by Luna and Hurst. Luna suggests that vulnerability is irreducibly contextual and that Institutional Review Boards (Research Ethics Committees) can only identify vulnerable participants by carefully examining the details of the proposed research. Hurst, in contrast, defines the vulnerable as those especially at risk of incurring the wrongs to which all research ethics participants are exposed. We offer a more substantive conception of vulnerability than Luna but one that gives rise to a different rubric of responsibilities from Hurst's. While we understand vulnerability to be an ontological condition of human existence, in the context of research ethics, we take the vulnerable to be research subjects who are especially prone to harm or exploitation. Our analysis rests on developing a typology of sources of vulnerability and showing how distinct sources generate distinct obligations on the part of the researcher. Our account emphasizes that the researcher's first obligation is not to make the research participant even more vulnerable than they already are. To illustrate our framework, we consider two cases: that of a vulnerable population involved in international research and that of a domestic population of people with diminished capacity.

Marine Biodiversity in Southeast Asia: An International Law Guide for Marine Researchers

This paper outlines some of the key international rules to be considered by researchers documenting, monitoring or protecting marine biological diversity. It discusses the weaknesses of the international legal framework but also provides guidance for marine researchers to assist in the implementation of protection mechanisms. Biological diversity is the subject of one specialised international convention (widely ratified globally and regionally in Southeast Asia) devoted to the identification, monitoring and protection of biological diversity, the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This paper investigates and discusses the application and pitfalls of the Convention to the biodiversity of the seas of Southeast Asia and of the concept of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas in need of protection. Where marine biological diversity is concerned, the implementation of the CBD has to be conducted within the framework set by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS sets specific and distinct rights and obligations for coastal States, flag States and other States (i) in different geographic zones (territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, continental shelf, etc.); and, (ii) for different uses of the sea such as shipping and fishing. Notably, coastal States have to take into consideration the rights of other states when enacting laws and regulations to identify, monitor, research and protect marine biodiversity, which they may consider to be located within their jurisdiction.

Obligations and the Legal Point of View

It's uncontroversial that politics shapes the law. The tough question is how exactly that works: which kinds of political action have a law-shaping effect and how they produce that effect. Consider the enactment of a statute. A. Which precise aspect of the action is relevant to the legal impact of the enactment (the change in legal rights and obligations that obtains without further such action)? B. Why - what gives some aspect of the action its legal relevance? Analogous questions also arise in connection with the explanation of some other phenomena, including making a promise, decision or request - actions or attitudes which are generally understood to result in some distinctive obligations or to have some other distinctive normative significance or impact, or at least to be capable of so doing. The relevant theoretical choices are posed particularly clearly in these domains, so I explore them in some detail in relation to promising.

Risk-based siting considerations for LNG terminals – Comparative perspectives of United States & Europe

Siting regulations and industrial standards for liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are evolving along different paths within Europe and the United States (U.S.). The 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 190 continues to delineate the United States process to adopt and revise safety regulations pertaining to LNG terminals and peak shaving plant sitting. 1 1 Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 190, Pipeline Safety Programs and Rulemaking Procedures. Embodied in these regulations are rich legal and regulatory traditions that are unique to the U.S. perspective. For example, the public is encouraged to petition existing regulations and to comment on regulatory proposals. Litigation within the U.S. court system is another means by which industry and the public may seek regulatory change. This approach promotes public involvement in governmental oversight and creates a distinctive obligation and accountability for U.S. regulatory agencies, which uniquely shape technical, safety, risk mitigation, and societal risk perspectives for siting LNG terminals. European traditions shape siting regulations for LNG terminals as well. Though American siting guidance includes references to the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 59A and 49 CFR, Part 193, European developers also apply the guidance within EN 1473 – a risk-based case-by-case analysis directive. 2,3,4 2 Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 193, Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities: Federal Safety Standards. 3 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 59A, Standard for the Production, Storage, and Handling of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), 2001 Ed. 4 EN-1473, Installation and Equipment for Liquefied Natural Gas. Design of Onshore Installations. The NFPA 59A standard is applied for a basis to examine property line spacing as they pertain or may relate to off-site hazard impacts. The European approach applies the assessment and suitability of code compliance and the application of accepted engineering practices. In addition the approach incorporates the application of empirical risk assessments and computational modeling to reach an understanding of risk exposures. European policies set limits on the population’s cumulative exposure to facility risks and require LNG facility developers not to exceed established risk criteria. This paper describes how the U.S. and Europe site LNG terminals, identifies key differences in their risk-based approaches, and explains why these differences exist. This discussion also examines historical precedents that have influenced regulations and approval processes for siting LNG terminals within each continent.

What the ICJ did not say about the Duty to Punish Genocide: The Missing Pieces in a Puzzle

The article focuses on the legal implications of the construction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ or the Court) of the duty to punish genocide under Article VI of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro judgment. It posits that the Court's discussion of the duty to punish is satisfying in terms of what it says and less satisfying in terms of what it is silent about. It is satisfying in the sense that the Court's construction of the duty to cooperate with international tribunals prosecuting genocide as including a duty of extradition, seems to extend beyond the plain language of the Convention and indeed beyond the parties’ original intent. It is not fully satisfying because the duty to prosecute remains quite limited. It is further argued that the obligation to punish genocide as established in Article I and the obligation to prosecute genocide as established in Article VI should be understood as two distinct obligations. Article VI merely sets the institutional arrangements for prosecution. Other normative sources support the conclusion that a general duty to prosecute perpetrators of genocide or extradite them for prosecution elsewhere applies even in those cases where the offence was not committed in the territory of a contracting state or when the offender is prosecuted by an international court that has jurisdiction over the state where the alleged perpetrator is found.

A Defense of Unqualified Medical Confidentiality*

It is broadly held that confidentiality may be breached when doing so can avert grave harm to a third party. This essay challenges the conventional wisdom. Neither legal duties, personal morality nor personal values are sufficient to ground professional obligations. A methodology is developed drawing on core professional values, the nature of professions, and the justification for distinct professional obligations. Though doctors have a professional obligation to prevent public peril, they do not honor it by breaching confidentiality. It is shown how the protective purpose to be furthered by reporting is defeated by the practice of reporting. Hence there is no conflict between confidentiality and the professional responsibility to protect endangered third parties. *A longer version of this article will appear as “Medical Confidentiality” in The Blackwell Guide to Bioethics, ed. R. Rhodes et al. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2006.

Dirty Hands and Loyalty in Organisational Politics

Abstract:Organisational politics can raise the problem of “dirty hands,” illustrated in this paper by an example drawn from a textbook on organisation theory. The initial question is whether the main character has different ethical and political obligations, but this leads on to the question to what extent we can distinguish various different categories of obligation. The example may be of special interest because of the importance of close personal relationship in organisational politics, which brings the dirty hands problem together with the question to what extent friendships generate distinctive obligations. However, it is doubtful whether the allocation of obligations to different categories can be sustained in a useful way. It may be that we can put aside loyalty to an organisation, as a consideration which does not generate any distinctive obligation, but balancing other factors against one another may require the sort of judgment that has sometimes been called “political wisdom,” and sometimes “moral imagination.”

Falsely, Sanely, Shallowly

Our reluctance to demystify grief is a sign of the distinctive obligation and discomfort that people feel towards those who have died. These feelings, however, are instructive about the nature of grief. As a vehicle of a living person's relation to the dead, grief is mysterious- and we are rightly reluctant to take that mystery away. But grief is not to be avoided by philosophy on that account I defend a less Romantic view of grief, in which a grieving person's experience of normal grief: 1) is felt to require an objectively recognized loss; 2) is felt to be dedicated to that lost object 3) seems to most people to be something that she ought to feet, and 4) probably ought not to be medicalized, nor consequently medicated. This view of grief affords an understanding and appreciation of this rather special and important emotion without reducing its mystery.

To warn and to control: two distinct legal obligations or variations of a single duty to protect?

Prior to the Tarasoff decisions, jurisprudence pertaining to the duty to warn, or inform, to prevent violence to third persons, was separate from that pertaining to the duty to control to prevent such violence. The Tarasoff Principle consolidated preventive obligations in the face of foreseeable violence under a single "duty to protect." Even as courts adopted divergent rules for establishing foreseeability, many held to a single duty to protect with warnings as one possibility for fulfilling this option. Particularly over the past decade, courts have again disengaged the duty to warn and the duty to control, each requiring different legal predicates to occur. In recent years, courts have upheld or rejected a duty to warn, upheld or rejected a duty to control; and several courts have, within a single opinion, articulated fundamental distinctions between these two separate protective duties.

Supporting Professional Development: Understanding the Interplay Between Health Law and Professional Ethics

ABSTRACT Physical therapists in all practice settings-clinical, educational, and research-- are bound by legal and ethical professional standards governing practice. In recent times, the substance of these formerly distinct obligations have become blended into increasingly unitary standards of professional conduct. Courts now examine health care professional codes of ethics as secondary sources of legal obligation, licensure statutes and regulations derive from professional codes of ethics, and professional association ethics codes encompass legal concepts, including patient abandonment, informed consent, and confidentiality, among others. Physical therapists must simultaneously conform official conduct to legal as well as ethical standards to avoid sanctions on the privilege to practice in a variety of disciplinary forums. THE MODERN BLENDING OF LAW AND ETHICS Although legal and health care professional ethical obligations seemingly involve distinct duties incumbent upon physical therapists (and other health care professionals), in fact they have become in modern times very closely intertwined. What constitutes a breach of professional ethics more often than not also violates regulatory, civil, and/or criminal legal standards. This concept of duality of ethical-legal duties is referred to as the modem blending of health and ethics, and is illustrated in Figure 1. Modern legal standards and health care professional codes of ethics derived, in part, from the pronouncements and processes of medieval ecclesiastical and equity courts within the British commonwealth system. These specialty jurisdiction courts enforced moral standards and ensured fundamental fairness and justice, respectively. The sovereign law courts, or King's bench, on the other hand, strictly enforced written statutory laws, without explicit regard for morals or fairness. Historically, ecclesiastical courts reviewed church-related matters, including the fact and validity of marriage, and questions of legitimacy. Equity courts heard civil (private dispute) cases that could not be resolved through the ordinary mechanisms of justice in the courts and were the first to hear pro bono cases of poor litigants without the financial means to pay for requisite writs (legal papers). Over time, ecclesiastical courts were dissolved, and the and equity courts merged into the unitary legal system that exists in the Anglo-American world today.1 Part of the rationale for the modern blending of health and professional ethics relates to the fact that peoples within the western world are highly litigious, and societies inordinately legalistic--especially in the United States, where as many as 20 million new civil lawsuits are filed annually.2 Additionally, consumers (including patients) are better educated, more sophisticated, and acclimated to the legal culture, so that they more readily assert and enforce their legal rights. The processes of submitting claims to professional associations and licensure entities for breaches of health care professional ethics very closely mirror those for legal complaints within administrative, civil, and criminal legal systems. SOURCES OF LEGAL AND ETHICAL DUTIES Legal obligations bind everyone in society (except those with diplomatic immunity) to their provisions. Health care professional ethics codes formally obligate members of a health care discipline's professional association (and, indirectly, nonmembers as well) to their provisions and address professional conduct. There are four primary sources of legal obligation. They are briefly discussed in descending hierarchal order. The highest-order primary source of legal obligation in the United States is the federal Constitution, particularly, its Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, which delineate personal rights and duties, including the constitutional right of privacy from undue governmental intrusion. …