Institutional Duties Research Articles

Confining Pogge’s Analysis of Global Poverty to Genuinely Negative Duties

Thomas Pogge has argued that typical citizens of affluent nations participate in an unjust global order that harms the global poor. This supports his conclusion that there are widespread negative institutional duties to reform the global order. I defend Pogge’s negative duty approach, but argue that his formulation of these duties is ambiguous between two possible readings, only one of which is properly confined to genuinely negative duties. I argue that this ambiguity leads him to shift illicitly between negative and positive duties, and ultimately to overstate the extent of the negative ones. I also argue that recognition of this ambiguity makes it possible to draw a meaningful distinction between the relevant positive and negative duties, and that Pogge’s analysis can therefore be revised in a way that reveals substantial negative institutional duties to the global poor, albeit less extensive ones than Pogge asserts. In order to demonstrate this, I discuss two aspects of the global order that Pogge has criticized: the system of intellectual property rights in pharmaceuticals and the rights of de facto rulers to dispose of a nation’s natural resources. In each case, although I do not specify the relevant negative institutional duties precisely, I try to identify intelligible questions whose answers would reveal genuinely negative duties and show that their likely answers are distinct from the conclusions asserted by Pogge and suggested by his analysis.

Opinions of the academic and management staff concerning administrational expectations: Sampling of Aegean Region of Turkey

The academic and management staff while dealing with activities to perform the functions of the university also wishes their administrational expectations to be filled out by the university itself since such awareness of the university to consider the academic staff’s expectations are assumed to surely maximize the staff’s performance and contribution of institutional targets and duties of the university. The purpose of this study is to clarify the opinions of the academic and management staff concerning effects of the realization level of their administrational expectations on their performance (The sampling of the Aegean Region). The data of the study was collected through specifically developed poll, including 1121 people of sampling in Adnan Menderes University, Dokuz Eylul University, Mu gla University, Pamukkale University and U sak University. Among the participants of the poll, there was 620 academic and 501 management staff. According to the findings of the study, the opinions of the academic and management staff in the sampling of the poll are “never” for administrational expectations while for the level of realization of these expectations “mostly” and for the effect of the realization of these expectations on their performance “negatively affecting”.

Non-profit Organisations and Socially Responsible Investments: The Case of Italian Foundations

In times of turmoil and of meagre resources, both s ocially responsible investments (SRI) and non-profi t organisations (NPOs) must strive hard to find new opportu nities to make their activities more and more effec tive. The possibility of using criteria other than the mo re traditional risk-return parameters has been on t he agenda of various different fiduciaries. For NPOs, in particu lar, there seems to be a wide gap between the manag ing and the granting of funds. This paper aims to investigate if, and to what exte nt, it is possible for NPOs, and for foundations in particular, to break down the barriers between mission attainment and investment policies. To do that a twofold inter pretation of the foundations’ fiduciary duty is proposed: the mission or institutional duty and the economic dut y.

DUTY TO CARE: ACKNOWLEDGING COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY

DUTY TO CARE: ACKNOWLEDGING COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY

Joint Forest Management In Chome Catchment Forest Reserve, Tanzania: The Role Of Socio-Economic And Institutional Factors In Determining Sustainable Forest Conservation

This study was conducted in Chome Catchment Forest Reserve, South Pare Mountains, Tanzania to assess the role of ecological, socio-economic and institutional factors in determining successful implementation of the Joint Forest Management approach. Data were collected through participatory rural appraisal techniques, household questionnaire surveys and key informant interviews. Data on timber resources were based on existing inventories and direct observations. It was observed that the volume of timber resources in the forest is among the highest known for the Eastern Arc forests. Over 72% of this volume consists of high value timber species, making this resource an extremely desirable option for income generation. Household income is at par with other Eastern Arc areas but existing land scarcity is relatively higher. Household plot sizes tend to be as small as (>0.44 ha) with population density of about 13 persons ha-1. Farm plot fragmentation through inheritance is also high. Limited livelihood options, high timber demands and poor resources accessibility are the major drivers of illegal timber harvesting in the reserve by adjacent communities. Illegal timber harvesting was estimated at 100.7 thousand m3 per annum between 1998 and 2001. The implementation of joint forest management, centered on Village Environmental Councils, lacks clear guidelines on institutional responsibilities and duties leading to its failure. A number of other factors including corruption, policing difficulties and inadequate benefit sharing contribute to management failure. It is recommended that joint forest management be developed and implemented in a holistic framework which promotes alternative livelihood options; reduce dependency on forest-based income and strength institutional structures through legal frameworks. It is proposed that the forest sector expand its management approach through adopting a multi-disciplinary approach which incorporates external sectors, particularly agriculture. TJFNC Vol. 76 2007: pp. 1-10

Human Rights, Institutional Duties and Cosmopolitan Responsibilities

Human Rights, Institutional Duties and Cosmopolitan Responsibilities

Human Rights: Universalism and Cultural Relativism

Much mainstream legal comment on human rights law presents an unhelpfully crude picture of disagreement concerning the significance that should be attached to human rights in particular cultural co...

10.1023/A:1005884330974

We analyse the relationship between applicability and effectiveness of legal norms from a philosophical perspective. In particular, we distinguish between two concepts of applicability. The external applicability of norms refers to institutional duties; a norm N is externally applicable if and only if a judge is legally obliged to apply N to some case c. Internal applicability refers instead to the sphere of validity of legal norms. A norm N is internally applicable to actions regulated by its sphere of validity. We also explore the consequences of a thesis which maintains that applicability restricts the concept of effectiveness, so that only applicable norms can be considered effective. Our analysis illustrates that a proper reconstruction of the concept of applicability is of great importance not only for understanding the concept of effectiveness but also for providing insight into the nature of law.

Wellness activities address inequities

The medical model is no longer accepted by many as the best means of achieving optimal health. Financial constraints are pushing more efficient and effective ways to deliver services. In Saskatchewan, greater emphasis is being placed on wellness activities (preventive medical counselling, clinical work with other professionals, training, teaching and research and institutional medical administrative duties). We sought to determine if predicted support for these activities was related to equity of income as perceived by physicians. The study design was a cross-sectional study of all 1462 physicians actively practising in Saskatchewan during 1991/1992. The data were originally collected by Lepnurm and Henderson during the summer of 1992. ANOVA tests were conducted between predicted support for wellness activities and income equity to determine if there were significant interactions. Predicted support for wellness activities was measured by four items: preventive medicine counselling activities during office visits, clinical work with other health professionals, teaching and research, and institutional medical administrative duties. The first income equity construct was based on: satisfaction with income, fairness of fee-for-service between general practitioners and specialists, fairness of fee-for-service between cognitive and procedural/technical specialists, and the current method of payment reflected factors important to physicians. To increase sample size a second equity construct was created by dropping fairness of fee-for-service between cognitive and procedural/technical specialists. The main effect and significant interactions with control variables were subjected to further analysis using Tukey's test. Significant relationships were found between changes in wellness activities under fee-for-service and income equity ( p=0.001 and p=0.033) and between changes in wellness activities under salary and income equity ( p=0.002 and p=0.037). No significant relationships ( p=0.858 and p=0.610) were found between support for wellness activities under capitation and income equity. The findings of this study demonstrate a relationships between perceived equity of income and predicted support for wellness activities. The authors suggest that these findings were not merely a reflection of the desire by physicians to modify their tasks to accommodate perceived inequity associated with their method of remuneration. Physicians were given the option of considering which method of payment (fee-for-service, salary or capitation) best reflected factors important to them. We suggest that many physicians value wellness activities and would prefer to modify their current patterns of practice, whether they are paid by fee-for-service or by salaried methods.

Risk Management Questions for News Reporting Classes

A college student assigned as part of news writing class to cover state fair decided to do first-person story on bungee jumping. He buckled himself into harness, climbed 50 feet up ladder, plunged into space attached to giant rubber band and bounced just above the ground. Another student fulfilled her class assignment to write profile by writing about police officer after riding with him on the night shift. When the officer ran after an armed robber, he hollered, You can come. She did. Both students wrote stories with such strong verbs and description that they earned praise and top grades in their classes. What if those same students had been injured? Would the court hold the university and/or the professor liable? Though no court decisions directly involved students injured on journalism assignments, an analysis of rulings on similar issues shows that student over the age of 18 may be considered an adult responsible for his or her own decisions on how to best complete an assignment, but postsecondary institutions may have to warn, to help neophyte reporters realize the dangers of some assignments and understand alternate actions that could be taken to avoid such dangers. Literature review Research of the law shows that the key tests of the extent of liability for failure to safeguard the student is the foreseeability that the student could be harmed by the activity and the precautions taken by the institution and its staff to safeguard the student. Most rulings involving this issue have come from the lower courts in the federal and state systems. Though such rulings are not law across the land, they provide useful guide. Therefore, for the university and its faculty, forewarned is forearmed in society that has become dangerously litigious. This study points out the need for journalism professors to develop policies to reduce liability and minimize risk for students sent on assignments. study concludes by offering methods of risk control. In determining liability, central question is the extent of the institutional duty to protect the student from harm. Historically, the duty of care has fallen on continuum from the traditional concept of in loco parentis to the exercise of due warning and minimum care. concept of in loco parentis was set aside by 1979 ruling in the landmark case Bradshaw v. Rawlings(1) in which student became intoxicated during sophomore class picnic sponsored by the college, drove car, and caused an accident that severely injured passenger. A federal appeals court held that college students were adults able to take care of themselves and make their own choices, therefore university did not owe special duty of care to students. U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, essentially upholding the lower court's decision. Since then, courts have been reluctant to impose liability on institutions for injuries to students participating in curricular or extracurricular activities, but where they have, the liability appears to hinge on the foreseeability of the events that led to injuries and the safeguards taken by the institution to offset danger. James P. Murphy (1980), professor who writes about higher education and the law, sees the courts' approach on duty of care evolving toward rule of duty defined by foreseeability. The most that the foreseeability test requires is that one exercise reasonable care, Murphy said, a reasonable care founded not in the intricacies of privity or the metaphysics of the action-inaction variation, but in ethics--that people exercise the same reasonable care towards others that they expect others to exercise towards them.(2) In other words, the golden rule applied with common sense, perhaps, as Murphy pointed out, based on the moral axiom set down in Thomas v. Winchester(3) in 1852: So highly does the law value human life, that it admits of no justification where life has been lost or injury suffered due to the carelessness of another. …

The teaching head in primary schools: tensions, paradigms and coping strategies

Headteachers stand at an interface between external and internal demands. Whilst the management of this role is clearer for non‐teaching heads, for teaching heads the problems are sharpened where daily class teaching and loyalties to public demands and to the school as an institution could become conflictual. Such tensions were investigated in a study of head teachers’ own perceptions of their roles and coping strategies. Whilst acknowledging clear pressures within their public and institutional duties the sample indicated strong allegiance to a class teacher role. As such they operated in a paradigm which differs significantly from that of the non‐teaching head. Strategies were evolved to cope with these administrative and public functions though shortcomings were observed in their successful implementation.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND NURSING

In this second of the series of articles on the status of nursing in America, we present an objective study of the attitudes of the medical profession towards professional nurses in institutional and private duty. Thefirst article dealt with the contribution of nurses to victory. The recommendations made to bring about better relations between nurses and physicians are based on factfinding and public opinion measurement technics which have been used successfully to meet comparable problems in other fields. Future articles will develop suggestions about other aspects of nursing. Your comments are cordially invited.-THE EDITORS.

Preparing Students for Community Service

schools of nursing were pouring forth graduates prepared for institutional and private duty nursing. At the same time the whole field of public health was expanding more rapidly than well-qualified personnel were being prepared for the family health service. It was executives and staff members of public health nursing agencies who first became conscious of the fact that nurses needed more than the usual