Legislative Interest Research Articles

Political Campaign Contributions of Surgeons in the United States Throughout the 2020 Election Cycle

Political engagement by the physician workforce is necessary to ensure continued representation of their interests in health care legislation. Limited data are available pertaining to the political involvement of US surgeons. To analyze the magnitude and distribution of political donations made by all US surgeons throughout the 2020 election cycle. Partisan and geographical differences in surgeon contributions by aggregating data (January 1 through December 31, 2020) from the US Federal Election Commission database were analyzed. Contributions were labeled as Republican, Democrat, or independent depending on the committee they were designated to. Differences in contributions to Republicans, Democrats, and independent candidates for all US surgeons and for subgroups. For the 2020 election year, a total of 53 944 donations were made by surgeons in the United States, amounting to $9 223 350.68. Among all surgical specialties, the top 5 highest number of contributions were made from orthopedic surgeons (n = 15 081), ophthalmic surgeons (n = 14 836), neurological surgeons (n = 7481), urologists (n = 4544), and plastic surgeons (n = 4060). Of these donations, 59.46% (n = 32 107) were made to the Republican party ($5 420 326), 30.83% (n = 16 644) were made to the Democratic party ($1 612 775), and 9.71% (n = 5243) were made to nonpartisan (ie, independent) organizations ($2 190 250). Overall, pediatric surgeons reported the lowest mean contribution amount of $59.43, whereas thoracic surgeons reported the highest mean contribution amount of $225.19. Health care legislation has an immense impact on how medicine is practiced and utilized. This analysis reveals a high degree of political activity of surgeons across different specialties and geographic regions.

The Public Choice Analysis of Market Failures and Government Failures

In recent years, the Public Choice School scholars argue that public policymaking has its own failures. Public Choice scholars pointed out that the people who make public decisions – politicians or bureaucrats - are in fact just as self-interested as anyone else. They are, after all, the same people; individuals do not suddenly become angels when they get a job in government. We call it ‘democracy’, but actually it is politics, and political interests to colour the whole process. People do not vote at elections out of ‘public interest’, but they vote to promote their own interests. The politicians and bureaucrats also have personal interests of their own. So the Public Choice School economists suggest that it might be better to leave the markets alone, rather than replace market failure by an even worse government failure. 
 Over the last few decades, the Public Choice School’s arguments have had a growing effect to explain real politics. In established democracies, there is more recognition of the private interests of legislators and bureaucrats, and of the need to restrain them. In addition, policies designed to restrain public decision making, inspired by the Public Choice School, are becoming more common. In this essay, I attempt to explain the Public Choice School’s main idea and various issues in a conceptual and critical way.

The Category of an Interest in Tax Law

The author was faced with the task of studying the category of an interest in tax law, identifying signs of this phenomenon and finding forms of its interaction with tax law. The paper defines the concept of an interest as a conscious need with motivation for actions aimed at achieving the goal. From these positions, the approaches of other authors to the category of interest are analyzed, the forms of interaction between tax law and an interest are indicated: firstly, an interest can serve as a socio-legal basis for subjective law; secondly, legitimate interests may exist in tax law as a special technique of legal technique; thirdly, interests may not yet be recognized by a legislator, but they can be in need of such recognition. In the latter case, the task of the doctrine of tax law is to identify and propose legal forms of securing interests in legislation. Through the prism of these forms of interaction of tax law and interests, the author analyzes the norms of legislation on taxes and fees, in which the category of interest appears.

Principles and Strategies of Water Security in Islamic Law: an Analytical Study in the Methodology of Application | مبادئ واستراتيجيات الأمن المائي في الشريعة الإسلامية: دراسة تحليلية في منهجية التطبيق

The study aimed at “Principles and Strategies of Water Security in Islamic Sharia Analytical Study in the Application Methodology” to present the philosophy of the basic principles of water security in Islamic Sharia according to data based on a Muslim fact, which is that water security is a solid foundation for food security for humanity, and in light of that, it requires a study of the principles The main and basic principles of water security in Islamic law, given that achieving the principles of water security in practice is the correct and sound strategy in the way of achieving food security, and accordingly, the research will address the issue by dividing the study into three main axes and a conclusion, and the first axis will include existential principles of water security in Islamic law, and in the second axis, the study will discuss the methodological principles of water security in Islamic law. In the third axis, the study will propose some strategic mechanisms that guarantee the achievement of water security in accordance with the legislative interests indicated by the Sharia texts. Consumption of water resources, development and development of water resources, and preservation from pollution, and water security in Islamic law has existential sources, represented in the importance of water security for food security and human partnership in water resources, and this is what makes it imperative for people as partners in water resources to be partners In achieving water security, which is the basis for achieving food security. And that the Islamic Sharia has made practical contributions to its application, represented in rationalizing the consumption of water resources, developing and preserving them from pollution in all its forms and types.

Agricultural Cooperatives in Mental Health: Farmers’ Perspectives on Potential Influence

ABSTRACT Agricultural cooperatives are formed to promote farmers’ economic, social, and legislative interests. Their role in influencing mental health is less known. We characterized farmers’ experiences with cooperatives and identified the potential impact of cooperatives in promoting mental health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Wisconsin with 12 participants, including farmers, cooperative professionals, and agricultural extension educators. Participants were asked about stress among farmers; cooperative structures and services provided to farmers, and farmers’ interactions with the cooperatives; and the role cooperatives play in reducing stress among farmers. Three main themes were developed: stress farmers were experiencing, available resources from cooperatives, and the role of cooperatives in promoting farmers’ mental health. Stress farmers were experiencing was elucidated through the subthemes: increased stress, depression, and suicide and stressors involving finances, occupational pressure, relationships, isolation, and loneliness. Available resources from cooperatives were described in subthemes: cooperative characteristics, services, and engagement activities. The role of cooperatives in promoting farmers’ mental health was discussed through subthemes: responder, community, facilitator, and divergent views on whether co-ops can protect farmers’ mental health. Cooperatives provide members market stability, services, and opportunities for decision-making, social interaction, and civic engagement. These resources create a community where farmers feel a sense of belonging and retain a level of control. As rural communities continue to struggle with mental health resource shortages, identifying and evaluating community-based resources such as those offered by the cooperatives is imperative.

Сущность концессионного соглашения в американском праве

The nature of the institute of a concession agreement is still not obvious. This aspect is caused by the fact that the concession agreement combines private law and law principles. For a deeper study of this institution, it is necessary to refer to foreign law. This article deals with the concept of a concession agreement in US law. In the United States, the essence of the concession agreement is subject to the theory of complexity, i. e. an agreement at the junction of and private law. The article explored the and private legal elements of the theory of complexity and how they affect the regulation of the concession agreement in US law. The studied case law, doctrinal sources and historical prerequisites make it possible to establish that the institution of concession is a kind of franchise. US law divides franchise into and private. Moreover, the institution of franchise meets all the features of concession. The rules of the US Federal Procurement System discussed in the article define a concession agreement as a government contract for the of services from a concessionaire for the needs of the US Government. The concept of a concession agreement as one of the methods of procurement was considered in the Russian doctrine and is not a feature of only US law. A study of the impact of the concept of on the institution of concession in American and Russian law was also made. The author proposes to consolidate the concept of public interest in the domestic legislation on concessions, taking into account the American experience. The article makes a comparative legal analysis of the institution of concession with other similar institutions in US law, which indicates that there is no uniformity in terms of American law, which requires a more detailed study of a specific legal institute in US law. Applied to a concession and concession agreement, the complexity in comparison is caused by the existence of different types of concessions, for example a mining concession. Also, the legislative acts of separate government departments and agencies contain their own qualifications for the concept of a concession and a concession agreement.

Who delays climate action? Interest groups and coalitions in state legislative struggles in the United States

Gridlock and rollback in Washington have led to a turn to the states for action on climate change in the U.S. The state of Massachusetts presents a particularly puzzling case, since it was an early leader with binding emissions targets, but the succeeding dozen years saw most ambitious efforts stalled or watered down. We collected 1187 pieces of legislative testimony, 4126 reported lobbying visits, and interviews with and input from over fifty experts. Based on their lobbying reports and testimony in legislative hearings, we systematically characterize the legislative interests of nine main coalitions engaged in Massachusetts energy politics. We find that climate and clean energy advocates have few reliable allies and face four coalitions of opponents from the utilities, real estate, power generators, and fossil fuel and chemical industries. Our analysis indicates the central role utilities play in blocking the most ambitious clean energy legislation, and how they remodel those bills that survive the process into forms favorable to their interests.

The measures to protect public legal interests in the civil process

Introduction. The civil legislation of Russia has a list of general ways to protect civil rights. There is comprehensive list of ways to protect public-law subjective rights and interests either in legislation or in legal science. As a result, some methods of protection that are explicitly named in the law are widely used in practice and have been sufficiently studied in science, while others that do not have direct legislative support are little or practically not used in practice, which leads to weak protection of rights and interests that could be protected by such methods. Theoretical Basis. Methods. In order to make the most complete list of the methods of protecting public-law subjective rights and interests and, if possible, bring such methods into the system, the author of the article proceeded from the following ideas: – social interests regulated by law (legal interests) have a different probability of achieving the object (the social good they are aimed at) and are divided into three categories, namely interests with a maximum (subjective rights), minimum (legitimate interests) and intermediate probability of achieving the object (legitimate interests that can be transformed into subjective rights by an act of law enforcement); – legal interests in the implementation process go through a number of stages, each of which can be violated in a special way. Knowing what constitutes a violation in each of the stages, allows an accurate choice of a method of protection from the range of availale measures; – the importance of implementing legal interests for the society is not the same. General (public) significance leads to the fact that the interest is regulated by public law. The private significance of an interest entails its regulation by private law. Results. It is argued that public and private entities can be carriers of public legal interests. It is proved that relations arising from the implementation of public-legal interests can be based on subordination or equality, and therefore the subjects of public-legal relations can have a powerful, subordinate and equal status. The article presents a system of measures and measures that should be applied in cases of violations of public-legal interests of powerful, subordinate and equal participants in public-legal relations at various stages of the implementation of such interests. Discussion and Conclusion. The results obtained can serve as a basis for improving the procedural means of protection and proceedings for the protection of public legal interests.

A robust deep learning-based multiclass segmentation method for analyzing human metaphase II oocyte images

Background and objectiveThe morphology of the human metaphase II (MII) oocyte is an essential indicator of the embryo's potential for developing into a healthy baby in the Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) process. In this case, characteristics such as oocyte and ooplasm area, zona pellucida (ZP) thickness, and perivitelline space (PVS) width are also linked to the embryo's implantation potential. Moreover, oocyte segmentation methods may be of particular interest in those countries' restrictive IVF legislation. MethodsWhile the manual examination is impractically time-consuming and subjective, this paper concentrates efforts on designing an automated deep learning framework to take on the challenging task of segmentation in low-resolution microscopic images of MII oocytes. In particular, we have developed a deep learning network based on an improved U-Net model using our presented unique collection of human MII oocyte images (a new challenging dataset contains 1,009 images accompanied by manually labeled pixel-accurate ground truths). High-quality ground truth (GT) preparation is a labor-intensive task. However, we put considerable effort into assessing how different types of GT annotations (binary and multiclass) impact segmentation performance. ResultsExperimental results on 250 MII oocyte test images demonstrate that the proposed multiclass segmentation algorithm is able to segment complex and irregular ooplasm, ZP, and PVS structures more accurately than its two-class version. Furthermore, the proposed architecture outperforms two other state-of-the-art deep learning models, U-Net and ENet, for the MII oocyte segmentation task. ConclusionsThe findings of this study provide a fascinating insight into the automatic and accurate segmentation of human MII oocytes.

Regulating smart contracts: Legal revolution or simply evolution?

Blockchain-based smart contracts have triggered polarised discussions. They have been applauded as a significant technological achievement, but also criticised as a dumb idea. Their application is rapidly expanding in the financial sector, public sector, supply chain management, and the automobile, real estate, insurance, and health care industries. With the growing use of smart contracts and an increasing variety of smart contracts applications, the debate over the legal implications of this phenomenon has intensified and many legal issues related to smart contracts are being examined. Legal scholars have highlighted potential legal pitfalls, controversies and incompatibilities with existing legal frameworks. Blockchain technology and smart contracts have also been fuelling an interest of legislators, who have begun to recognise regulatory uncertainties and are making the first attempts to introduce legislative solutions to address them. This paper aims to highlight the fervour of the scholarly debate surrounding smart contracts and contrast it with a rather modest response from the legislators thus far. The paper reiterates that smart contracts represent the future. Even though they challenge practitioners, scholars, and legislators, current legislative initiatives indicate that under most legal systems there are no major obstacles for smart contracts and to accommodate smart contracts within the existing legal frameworks we should expect legal evolution rather than revolution.

On the Legitimacy of National Interests of Sponsoring States: A Deep Sea Mining Conundrum

Abstract Beyond national jurisdiction, the deep seabed and its mineral resources are designated as the ‘common heritage of mankind’. Nevertheless, the governing legal framework does not only consist of international instruments, as domestic legislation issued by sponsoring States also plays a decisive role. The legitimacy of certain national provisions can be questioned though, taking into account the duty to carry out activities in the Area for the benefit of mankind as a whole. For instance, can a sponsoring state demand that the proposed mining activities are in the public interest of the State? Are they allowed to generate revenue by introducing a recovery fee or other taxes? Should developing States enjoy more leeway, given the particular consideration for their interests and needs in the Law of the Sea Convention? This article analyses to what extent creeping national interests in domestic legislation on deep sea mining are in accordance with international law.

Are Cryptocurrencies ḥalāl? On the Sharia-Compliancy of Blockchain-Based Fintech

Abstract The discussion of the sharia-compliancy of cryptocurrencies is shaped by the competing interests of legislators, the business and banking sector, private investors and, finally, religious scholars whose conclusions are diverse and often contradictory. This essay provides an overview of historical and modern Islamic conceptions of commodities and property, money, and contract of sale laws, and how they relate to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In doing so, I respond to the most frequent concerns of Muslim scholars: the volatility and speculative nature of cryptocurrencies, security issues and, most commonly, the claim that cryptocurrencies are not ḥalāl because they have no intrinsic value. Finally, I show the consequences of different lines of argument for the sharia compliancy of cryptocurrencies in a case study of four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, OneGramCoin, Steemit and Nexo.

Conflicting Interests of Legislators in India: An Exploratory Study

Law governs society and evolves with it as time progresses. The process of evolution is a complex, continuous and an integrated cycle of different, moving spheres of life. With the evolution of society, there arises a need for laws to govern the new behaviors generated by such evolution. Hence, law-making bodies such as parliaments of countries and states move and aspire to regulate; and mold the behavior of their subjects and citizens in order to avoid, resolve and suppress chaos and maintain the proper and smooth functioning of the society at hand. Persons involved in the law-making process are also party to the society and hence influenced by their circles and spheres of society. The interests of a particular legislator could be varied enough to put a significant effect on the piece of legislation he is working on that will, in future most probably guide the whole nation. With the party based Indian politics, it becomes more difficult for a legislator to serve the interests of the nation before the command and interests of the political party that the Legislator represents. It is thus imperative for us to understand the difficulties and constraints that a legislator face when he drafts or prepares Legislation or is involved in a law-making process. This article explores and describes the scenario in India elaborately.

Relevant problems of the settlement of conflict of interests in the department of internal affairs of the Russian Federation

The subject of this research is the normative legal support of the process of settlement of conflict of interest in the department of internal affairs of the Russian Federation, with consideration of various views of researchers upon the problem of correlation of categories such as “conflict of interests”, “corruption”, “personal interest”, “settlement of conflict of interests”. Special attention is given to the mechanism of settlement of conflict of interests in anti-corruption legislation, as well as prospects for improvement of legal regulation in this area. The goal of this work is to attract attention of the scientific community to the relevant problems of settlement of conflict of interests in the service of the department of internal affairs of the Russian Federation. The methodological framework includes general scientific methods, particularly dialectic and systemic, as well as private scientific methods such as formal-legal, comparative-legal, and content analysis. The scientific novelty of this research consists in an original proposal for changes to the mechanism of the settlement of conflict of interests in the service of the department of internal affairs by introducing specific procedural measures that would contribute to its effective resolution, which in turn would allow eliminating a number of gaps within the content of the issues of not only direct settlement of the conflict, but also prevention of pre-conflict situation.

Critical Remarks on the Law of Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Kurdistan Region - Iraq No. (8) of (2008)

Since the beginning of creation, man has been concerned about protecting the environment with all its various components and components as the natural and fundamental center of his life. The scientific and technological revolution, the misuse of biological resources and the increase in the number of wars and armed conflicts have exacerbated the problems of environmental pollution. Fate of living things, which led to the international and internal efforts and efforts to address environmental pollution and to provide legal cover and regulation for the protection and improvement of the environment? This resulted in the attention of the internal legislator and the enactment of special legislation to protect and improve the environment and the development of texts and rules. Provisions and the establishment of regulatory frameworks to address environmental risks and reduce pollution and emphasize the human right to live in a clean and healthy. In line with these efforts and keeping pace with the internal legislative interest to protect and improve the environment, the legislator in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq enacted the law for the protection and improvement of the environment in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq No. (8) for the year 2008. The gaps in the law of protection and improvement of the environment in the region, the prominent role in our selection of the subject of our research, the research is a serious attempt to shed light on the gaps and deficiencies and shortcomings and legislative limitations contained in the law of protection and improvement of the environment in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq No. (8)for the year 2008, in preparation for the presentation of appropriate proposals to address these gaps.

The Representation Of Interests In The Mechanism For The Legal Regulation Of Environmental Relations: Certain Aspects

The article is aimed at studying the legal means (ways) of representing (formalizing) interests in the mechanism for the legal regulation of environmental relations.
 The conclusion is reached that it deems reasonable to pose a question about an optimal correlation between interests, i.e. about their sound compromise, not a balance between them, since the latter requires balancing them out which is neither factually, nor legally possible.
 One characteristic feature of environmental law is its simultaneous use of a permit-based way of the legal regulation by granting the corresponding rights and introducing prohibitions. It contributes to developing a rigid model of the behaviour between the subjects of environmental relations.
 One of the criteria determining the degree of the efficiency of the mechanism for the legal regulation of a certain type of relations is, among others, taking a full account of the interests of the subjects of this type of relations by means of representing (formalizing) these interests in legislation, their juridization. There exist several ways aimed at formalizing environmental interests: 1) permits, concerning only citizens and public unions, i.e the powers provided for by the environmental rights of the subjects of environmental law; 2) obligations - prescriptions binding on persons to be fulfilled, designed for state authorities, subjects of economic relations, citizens and their unions; 3) proscriptions.
 All of the components of the environmental law mechanism described in the article are complex in terms of their procedure and, in fact, constitute the public law mechanism being aimed at ensuring mostly public environmental interests. Furthermore, its implementation will definitely involve influencing private, often nonenvironmental interests, which should also be taken into consideration. This is what constitutes the very purpose of the environmental law mechanism as a comprehensive coherent system of normatively established measures and requirements, actions and processes aimed at gradually and effectively achieving the objectives of environmental law. This objective lies in developing environmental law and order as a guarantee for the fulfillment of the constitutional environmental rights and nature conservation, including the objective of conserving biodiversity.
 Considering the dynamic nature of the development of environmental and other relations with regard to the possibility of the direction of the interests of the subjects of these relations being changed, it deems necessary to reconsider the nature and content of those legal means that constitute the environmental law mechanism.

PUBLIC INTERESTS AND LEDAL CONSTRUCTIONS DERIVED FROM THEM

The article observes public interests, firstly, as a social regulative system in the Russian law, and secondly, as a scientific conception of law in legal science. It also researches possibilities of building legal constructions based on public interests with an aim to improve the legal regulation. Basing on the general theory of law and administrative law, the authors analyze: 1) the essence and grounds of public interests; 2) transformation of the Russian historical-theoretical conceptions of public interests; 3) modern interpretations of the phenomenon of public interests in the Russian legal doctrine, legislation and judicial practice; 4) some differences in the Western and Russian conceptions of public interests; 5) separate legal mechanics based on public interests. I.e. the authors talk about objectivating public interests, defining its forms of appearance and possibilities of implementation in the Russian society, law and state. Nowadays categories «public interest», «state interest», «social interest», «general public interests» as well as similar ones are widely used in the Russian legal science, law-making and law enforcement. The problem of its defining as well as identifying public and state interests is still not solved. The article emphasizes the absence of legal definition of public interests in the Russian legislation what causes its use as an evaluation category in the law enforcement practice. This follows by uncertainty in the legal regulation. From other side the term remains flexible and movable, helps coordinate moral and legal content, allows take into account specificity of public interests in each and every case. The article observes position of the Constitutional Court of Russia which defines correlation between public interests and similar categories, e.g. general interest. According to the authors’ opinion, public interests form legal mechanics uniting legal principles, institutes and rules. Examples of such mechanics are corporate-public regulation and public-private partnership.

Realitas Bansos Hibah: Lika Liku Pilu Auditor Internal (Studi Kasus Provinsi Indraprasta)

This study aims to describe how the role of the government internal auditors carries out examination tasks, especially in the implementation of social assistance and grants. This study finds that the informant's efforts are actually quite persistent in conducting the audit. However, there are many factors that influence the process of inspection such as the limited human resources, the existence of legislative interest and the character of the receiver itself. Based on understanding of informant roles, there are three audit acts, the first, avoidance if audit was very high risk. Second, justification that emphasizes a neat accountability report rather than audit implementation. Third, safekeeping that give solution and ensure that the missused funds re-deposited to the treasury funds.

Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 by Timothy Minchin

Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 by Timothy Minchin

The Thinking and Approaches of Criminal Law Legislation in a Transitional Period

In this transitional period, the concept of legally protected interests in Chinese criminal legislation is changing with the imposition of new control measures that endow criminal law with new functions, including taking an active part in social governance. Active legislation will not entail the systemic risk of excessive interference by criminal law. Criminalization does not conflict with criminal law’s concept of modest restraint. In terms of overall approach, we need to establish dynamic, rational and diversified legislative mechanisms for the future. In terms of specifi methods, legislation must maintain an approach of actively intervention in the life of society, changing the current centralized legislative model. However, decentralized legislation should not necessarily adopt the tripartite model of the criminal code plus special enactments and auxiliary criminal law. Rather, it should construct a written criminal law system centered on the criminal code and supplemented by the law on minor offences, in parallel with criminal penalties and public security measures. This will produce a mechanism for the seamless incremental convergence of public security administrative punishment law, minor offences law, and criminal law. The net of justice is fine-meshed but its penalties are light. The addition of new crimes must uphold the rule of law, correspond to specifi social situations, maintain an attitude of sensitivity and clarity toward lawlessness and regard criminal law as a last resort, in order to alleviate the pressures legislators currently face from the growing body of criminal law.