Jurisdictional Changes Research Articles

Canadian Cancer Centre Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: A National and Provincial Response.

Background: COVID-19 has spread rapidly, requiring health delivery systems to undertake dramatic transformations. To evaluate these system changes, we undertook one of the first Canadian health delivery system reviews and the first Canadian cancer centre evaluation of pandemic system modifications. Methods: Questionnaires were distributed to the Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies (CAPCA) members in order to assess changes to cancer centre services and patient management. Documentation relating to COVID-19 from the CAPCA electronic space was accessed, and all publicly available cancer centre documentation related to COVID-19 was reviewed. Results: Seven provinces completed the questionnaire and had documentation available from the CAPCA electronic space. All screening programs across Canada were suspended. In most provinces surveyed, ≥50% of outpatient appointments were occurring virtually, with <25% using video platforms. Generally, the impact on diagnostic imaging and new patient referrals correlated with the impact of COVID-19. Most provinces had a reduction in operating room availability, with chemotherapy and radiation treatments continuing. Public health modification, including personal protective equipment and screening staff, varied across the country. Conclusion: Canadian cancer centres underwent a rapid and aggressive transformation of services in response to COVID-19, with many similarities and differences across provinces. In part, this response was facilitated by communication under a national association, which in Canada remains unique to cancer. This response may serve to inform changes in other jurisdictions or disease states now and in future waves of the pandemic, as well as a record of changes for future health services and patient outcome research.

Takeovers, shareholder litigation, and the free-riding problem

When shareholders of a target firm expect a value improving takeover to be successful, they are individually better off not tendering their shares to the buyer and the takeover potentially fails. Squeeze-out procedures can overcome this free-riding dilemma by allowing a buyer to enforce a payout of minority shareholders and seize complete control of the target firm. However, it is often argued that shareholder litigation restores the free-riding dilemma. Applying a sequential takeover game, we examine the two standard legal remedies of shareholders, the ‘action of avoidance’ and the judicial ‘price fairness review’ and demonstrate that it is not shareholder litigation that brings back the free-riding dilemma, but rather the strategic gambling of buyers for lower prices and flaws in the design and application of squeeze-out laws. We also analyze a favorable change in jurisdiction of the German Federal Court and provide implications for legal policy.

Changes in Alcohol and Cannabis Retail Sales in Canada During the Early Phase of COVID-19

Background: Changes in the use of alcohol and other substances during COVID-19 is of considerable public health interest. This study examined changes in per capita alcohol, cannabis and other essential retail sales across Canada during the early phase of COVID-19, and associations between these changes and different jurisdictional approaches to drug control.Methods: A time series analysis was used to examine trends in monthly per capita alcohol, cannabis, and essential and non-essential retail sales before and during the first three months of COVID-19 for 12 jurisdictions across Canada. We compared observed sales during the first three months of COVID-19 to predicted sales based on model outputs using pre-COVID-19 trends. Next, we used difference in difference models to estimate the associations between different models of alcohol and cannabis retail systems and changes in retail sales during COVID-19.Findings: In Canada, observed per capita sales were significantly greater than predicted for alcohol (+9.6%) and cannabis (+14.1%) during March 2020, and consistent with predicted sales in April and May 2020. Essential retail sales were significantly less than predicted during March to May 2020 (average of -7.4%). During COVID-19, per capita alcohol sales in jurisdictions with a private retail system increased significantly (+$8.5 on average, 95%CIs; 2.1,15.6) after accounting for changes over time. In contrast, the relative change in per capita alcohol sales in jurisdictions with a public retail model prior to and during COVID-19 was, on average, $13.3 lower (95% CIs; -22.6,-4.0) compared to the changes in jurisdictions with a private retail model. Similar trends were observed for cannabis sales with respect to retail model.Interpretation: There was a modest increase in alcohol and cannabis purchasing during the first three months of COVID-19. Changes in sales were influenced by pre-existing policies, and jurisdictions with a private retail model had greater than expected alcohol and cannabis sales compared to jurisdictions with a public model. This study adds to the body of research showing that government-run retail models for alcohol and cannabis provide protection for public health.Funding Statement: There is no funding to disclose for this project. Declaration of Interests: The authors have all completed ICMJE conflict of interest forms. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.Ethics Approval Statement: This project was approved by the Public Health Ontario Ethics Review Board file number 2020-038.01.

OPERATING IN A COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT FROM SHUT DOWN TO REOPENING: INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

OPERATING IN A COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT FROM SHUT DOWN TO REOPENING: INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

From Relief to Compulsion and Back Again in Contract Law

Abstract Relief or compulsion are the two classes of remedy granted for a breach of contract. Traditionally English law is considered to favour relief-based remedies whilst French law prefer compulsion-based remedies. This article seeks to challenge this orthodoxy through the analysis of relatively recent changes in both jurisdictions regarding enforced performance in kind. More importantly, the influence that performance in kind has on other contractual remedies and clauses must be taken into account. Both contractual damages and penalty clauses are shaped by the availability of enforced performance in kind. Comparing English and French law shows that these two systems are converging which enables lawyers to anticipate the evolution of their respective jurisdictions.

Public expenditure spillovers: an explanation for heterogeneous tax reaction functions

In this article, we show that spillovers may provide an alternative explanation for the heterogeneity of tax reaction functions under tax competition. In particular, we assume the existence of nge 2 jurisdictions, which compete to attract mobile capital in a context where public expenditure produces spillovers. We show that the latter can lead to asymmetric responses. For instance, jurisdiction i may react positively to a change in the tax rate of jurisdiction j and negatively to the change in jurisdiction z. From a policy point of view, these findings are helpful to understand the mixed results found by the empirical literature, and to analyse the tax reaction functions of city centres and suburban jurisdictions.

Neo-Liberal Business-As-Usual or Post-Surveillance Capitalism With European Characteristics? The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in a Multi-Polar Internet

Since the Global Financial Crisis from 2008/2009 and the decade which followed it, the tenets of neoclassical economic theory and its application through neo-liberalism have been questioned in western economies including the European Union (EU). The Snowden revelations of US-driven global digital surveillance prompted law and policy changes in various jurisdictions including the EU to counter privacy infringements by both state and corporate actors. This all takes place against a backdrop of an increasingly multi-polar world, including in matters of Internet governance, where the US’s hegemony is weakened and the EU and BRICS emerge as powerful actors, including in the Internet sphere. One highly prominent event in the last ten years thrusting the EU into global prominence is its data protection legislation update, with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), widely believed to be the international ‘gold standard’ in privacy and data protection standards, holding actors in the digital economy to account for their (ab)use of personal data and empowering users thereby seemingly placing some limitations on unfettered digital capitalism and surveillance. Can the GDPR developments be understood as an attempt by the EU to forge a different political economy of digital technology to neo-liberal capitalism whereby large companies are constrained in their actions and EU citizens’ rights upheld? Or can these developments be seen through another lens, that of varieties of capitalism, whereby the European Union, in the context of growing geopolitical multi-polarity, is leveraging its large and attractive market and the ‘Brussels Effect’ to become a ‘regulatory superpower’ after having lost the tech superpower battle to the US and China? The GDPR exposes the nature of contemporary EU internet regulation as a contested and hybrid site, containing both capitalist impulses and overtures to protect aspects of individuals’ privacy and data protection. This latter aspect of protecting privacy and data protection is diminished to the extent that the GDPR facilitates much data gathering and use, and seems to have the effect in practice of consolidating US tech giant Google’s corporate power. Thus, the GDPR seems more an example of EU regulatory capitalism, ‘constraining and encouraging the spread of neo-liberal norms’, rather than an attempt to move to digital post-capitalism. Nevertheless, the external-reaching aspects of the GDPR make it an example of the ‘Brussels effect’ and contribute to shoring up the EU’s regulatory power in a multi-polar Internet by proactively setting de facto standards. In this way, the EU ‘remains relevant as a global economic power’ through its regulation, rather than through its technological innovation like the US and China. The GDPR’s aspects which promote human rights and social goals may also give rise to more privacy protective innovation, albeit innovation which may come from non-EU Big Tech companies.

Climate change, sustainability, and competition law

Abstract Climate Change is an existential threat. Competition law must be part of the solution and not part of the problem. This article draws on the constitutional provisions of the EU treaties and remarks by leaders such as Commissioner Vestager to show how competition law need not stand in the way of urgent action and co-operation by the private sector to fight climate change. It also shows how sustainability is relevant to both the analysis of mergers and dominance cases. It is a call to update our thinking, our guidelines and, if necessary, our law. Based on EU law it contains ideas that could inspire changes in other jurisdictions.

Evidence of an Association of Increases in Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Coverage With Decreases in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Diagnosis Rates in the United States, 2012-2016.

Annual human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses in the United States (US) have plateaued since 2013. We assessed whether there is an association between uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and decreases in HIV diagnoses. We used 2012-2016 data from the US National HIV Surveillance System to estimate viral suppression (VS) and annual percentage change in diagnosis rate (EAPC) in 33 jurisdictions, and data from a national pharmacy database to estimate PrEP uptake. We used Poisson regression with random effects for state and year to estimate the association between PrEP coverage and EAPC: within jurisdictional quintiles grouped by changes in PrEP coverage, regressing EAPC on time; and among all jurisdictions, regressing EAPC on both time and jurisdictional changes in PrEP coverage with and without accounting for changes in VS. From 2012 to 2016, across the 10 states with the greatest increases in PrEP coverage, the EAPC decreased 4.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], -5.2% to -2.9%). On average, across the states and District of Columbia, EAPC for a given year decreased by 1.1% (95% CI, -1.77% to -.49%) for an increase in PrEP coverage of 1 per 100 persons with indications. When controlling for VS, the state-specific EAPC for a given year decreased by 1.3% (95% CI, -2.12% to -.57%) for an increase in PrEP coverage of 1 per 100 persons with indications. We found statistically significant associations between jurisdictional increases in PrEP coverage and decreases in EAPC independent of changes in VS, which supports bringing PrEP use to scale in the US to accelerate reductions in HIV infections.

Disclosure to genetic relatives without consent \u2013 Australian genetic professionals\u2019 awareness of the health privacy law

BackgroundWhen a genetic mutation is identified in a family member (proband), internationally, it is usually the proband’s or another responsible family member’s role to disclose the information to at-risk relatives. However, both active and passive non-disclosure in families occurs: choosing not to communicate the information or failing to communicate the information despite intention to do so, respectively. The ethical obligations to prevent harm to at-risk relatives and promote the duty of care by genetic health professionals (GHPs) is in conflict with Privacy laws and professional regulations that prohibits disclosure of information to a third party without the consent of the proband (duty of confidentiality). In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, amendments to Privacy legislation permits such disclosure to living genetic relatives with the process defined under guidelines although there is no legal duty to warn. This study assessed NSW GHP’s awareness and experience of the legislation and guidelines.MethodsAn online survey collected demographics; theoretical knowledge; clinical scenarios to assess application knowledge; attitudes; confidence; experience with active non-disclosure. A link to correct answers was provided after completion. Knowledge scores above the median for non-parametric data or above the mean for parametric data were classified as ‘good’ or ‘poor’. Chi square tests assessed associations between confidence and knowledge scores.ResultsWhile many of the 37 participants reported reading the guidelines, there was limited awareness of their scope and clinical application; that there is no legal duty to warn; and that the threat does not need to be imminent to warrant disclosure. No association between confidence and ‘good’ theoretical or applied clinical knowledge was identified. Uncertainty of their professional responsibility was identified and in the several case examples of active non-disclosure that were reported this uncertainty reflected the need for further understanding of the guidelines in regard to the processes required before disclosure was initiated.ConclusionsThere is a need for further education and training about the guidelines associated with the legislation that would be relevant to support disclosure. The findings may inform future strategies to support introduction of policy changes in other jurisdictions where similar regulatory regimes are introduced.

EU science diplomacy in a contested space of multi-level governance: Ambitions, constraints and options for action

Science diplomacy recently has gained a remarkable foothold in European policymaking. Both the European Commission and many Member States use the term to label a whole range of issues and activities in their respective policies. This prompts the question what exactly is the current role of the European Commission in the field of external research policies as compared to the Member States traditionally in charge of it. The article draws on the conceptual framework of multi-level governance, in particular the distinction between Type I and Type II governance systems. The aim is to show that the well-established setups for science policy and foreign affairs in the EU at present channel most of the Commission's activities in ways that not run counter to the interests of the Member States. The institutionally set parameters entail a focus on existing programs and activities. However, the Type II character of science diplomacy governance in principle leaves room for changes in jurisdictions and the division of labor, which are subsequently discussed. The paper's argument rests upon the qualitative analysis of expert interviews conducted with representatives from Member States, the Commission, Switzerland, and the US.

Inhabiting institutions: Shaping the first teacher role in Swedish schools

This study examines a recent reform in the Swedish teaching profession—the so-called first teacher reform, aimed at increasing teacher professionalism and the status of teachers. The reform created a situation by which a new role had to be created and inhabited by first teachers, appointed on what were considered arbitrary criteria. There were few existing norms, rules, and routines to draw upon for the newly appointed first teachers. The empirical focus of this study, based upon interviews and observations from seven schools in four Swedish municipalities, is how the newly appointed first teachers shape their role in relation to other teachers and to school management. We contribute to inhabited institutions theory by showing how processes of institutional change rely on externalization by relational work, through which the new role gains legitimacy and mutual recognition, and on objectification by jurisdictional work, through which the new role becomes taken for granted in a new division of labour. We thus argue that changes in the material basis of work processes are key to understanding processes of institutional inhabitation. Moreover, we show how changes in intra-professional jurisdictions can lead to upgrading, rather than degradation, of professional work. (Less)

Takeovers, Shareholder Litigation, and the Free-Riding Problem

When shareholders of a target firm expect a value improving takeover to be successful, they are individually better off not tendering their shares to the buyer and the takeover potentially fails. Squeeze-out procedures can overcome this free-riding dilemma by allowing a buyer to enforce a payout of minority shareholders and seize complete control of the target firm. However, it is often argued that shareholder protection laws and litigation restore or intensify the free-riding dilemma. Applying a game theoretic setting, we demonstrate that it is not shareholder litigation that brings back the free-riding dilemma, but rather the strategic gambling of buyers for lower prices and flaws in the design and application of squeeze-out laws. We find, for example, that lawmakers should refrain from setting separate legal thresholds for corporate control and squeeze-outs. We also analyze a favorable change in jurisdiction of the German Federal Court and provide implications for legal policy.

Strategic Citizenship: Negotiating Public Law 280 in Arizona, 1953–1968

AbstractThis article analyzes how Arizona’s Indigenous leaders responded to attempts by the Arizona legislature to impose the state’s criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indian reservations under Public Law 280. Indigenous Arizonans’ activism included requiring tribal consent to any jurisdictional changes, significant cross-cultural cooperation in law enforcement, and insistence that non-Indian officials respect Indigenous methods of jurisprudence and learn from them. In each of these campaigns, Indigenous Arizonans articulated a vision of citizenship grounded in the opportunity to develop one’s “full potential” as an American citizen. This language signaled a hybrid political identity: sovereign Indigenous peoples with a unique contribution to make to America, who as Arizonans were entitled to participate in post–World War II prosperity as equal citizens.

Соглашение о международной подсудности с участием потребителя: предоставление защитной юрисдикции потребителю в цифровую эпоху

The article raises issues of validity of the international choice of court consumer agreements in favor of foreign jurisdiction taking into account the worldwide practice of concluding agreements on electronic platforms. The author addresses the issue of the conditions of consumer contracts on changes in domestic territorial jurisdiction in order to assess their possible extrapolation to cross-border relations. Based on an analysis of Russian legislation and judicial practice, the author formulates the conditions for providing the consumer with protective jurisdiction.

Conflict and Courts: Civil War and Judicial Independence across Democracies

Many argue that during conflict, executive power expands at the expense of the judiciary and civil liberties. Although this is a common conjecture, no systematic study of conflict and judicial independence exists. We argue that conflict, rather than strictly inhibiting independence, is instead a critical juncture that increases the possibility of institutional change, either positive or negative. We assess this claim in three ways: cross-national analyses of (1) de facto and (2) de jure judicial independence after the onset of conflict, and (3) a case study of statutory and jurisdictional changes to the federal judiciary after the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Each illustrates that conflict onset is associated with a higher likelihood of changing levels—both decreases and increases—rather than unidirectional decreases in judicial independence. We then present preliminary hypotheses and analyses for three factors that, given conflict onset, should be associated with either improved or worsened conditions for the judiciary. This study has implications for research on conflict, courts, and the rule of law in both political science and legal studies.

Matching Ecosystem Functions with Adaptive Ecosystem Management: Decision Pathways to Overcome Institutional Barriers

Environmental management strategies aim to protect or repair ecological assets (ecosystems, species) so that their ecological and social values can be preserved. However, creating an effective strategy is difficult because multiple government departments are involved and because water and land use legislation and policy instruments are often fragmented. A key obstacle that is often overlooked is the spatial mismatch between ecological processes and institutional organisation (i.e., legislative framework and government departments). Successful management depends on the ability to cultivate resilient ecosystems through institutional reforms that take into account the complexity of ecosystems while supporting cross-sectoral and scale-dependent decision-making within the science–policy interface. Here, we use a case study approach to illustrate how collective strategic decisions can be made to manage a valued ecosystem situated within an urban matrix. We used a three-step framework to guide our approach and commenced by identifying a range of adaptation measures (i.e., management interventions) and the actors responsible. For each adaptation measure, we then investigated (i) mismatches among ecosystem and institution scales and levels; (ii) institutional barriers; and (iii) the role of actors in decision making. We use this information to identify ‘decision pathways’: i.e., a flexible decision-making platform that assists stakeholders to make strategic short- and long-term decisions. Key insights included the discussion of policy and practical experiences for ecosystem management at different levels and the necessary conditions to provide better alignment between jurisdictional an ecosystem scale to guide decision makers accordingly. We detail the institutional and jurisdictional changes that must be implemented across all levels of governance to protect and support the resilience of environmental assets. ‘Short-term’ decision pathways were preferred among actors and cross-level cooperation at jurisdictional level provided an adequate fit with the ecosystem scale. ‘Long-term’ decisions require substantial change of the institutional framework to enable the implementation of adaptive management. Although challenges at institutional and jurisdictional scales remain, decision pathways promote adaptive ecosystem management through a better fit of jurisdictional and institutional roles/policy and ecosystem-scale processes.

Militarization of Politics in Brazil

The article provides analyses of the recent events in Brazil that culminated in a movement that I call “militarization of politics.” Changes in military jurisdiction, political speeches by members of the Armed Forces, a “federal interference” commanded by militaries in the State of Rio de Janeiro, the fulfillment of the traditional civilian offices in federal government (as the Ministry of Defense), parallel to the absence of criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity during the dictatorship of 1964-1985, paved the way for poor results in terms of public security and a growing peril for the Constitutional Democratic State designed by the Constitution of 1988.

No Vacancy: Professional-Client Relationships as Barriers to Jurisdictional Shifts

Two core assumptions underpin studies of professional jurisdiction: first, that whenever a profession moves up in the system of professions, someone, a different profession or an occupation, will fill the vacancy left behind; second, that clients play a somewhat passive role in the process of jurisdictional change. Our study aims at exploring these assumptions, and we do so by looking at the question of jurisdictional shifts and the conditions that make them more or less likely to succeed. Our findings are based on an ethnography of an attempted jurisdictional shift, including hundreds of professional–client interactions. We show that clients play a central role in the process of jurisdictional shift, especially in the case of heteronomous professions, an increasingly important class of professions. By clarifying the conditions under which professional jurisdictions change, we contribute to the growing literature on the topic.

The CJEU's Decisions Dano and Alimanovic a Missed Opportunity to Re-embed European Integration?

Whereas earlier decisions of the CJEU concerning social entitlements of EU migrants had constantly expanded the range of eligibility, in Dano and Alimanovic the Court has now decided to significantly limit the access of economically inactive EU migrants to social assistance in the host Member State. Both decisions have been heavily criticised for adhering to populist narratives and for causing social exclusion in the EU. Based on an assessment of the bigger socio-political and socio-economic context of earlier and recent decisions, this paper intends to shed light on additional drivers of this change in jurisdiction and simultaneously argues against overestimating the integrative and ‘social’ potential of the two decisions. In times of earlier decisions, ‘solidarity’ appeared to justify financial burdens on national welfare systems resulting from social integration ‘through law’. By the time of Dano and Alimanovic, however, increased heterogeneity among Member States, austerity politics and rising xenophobia had begun to challenge social cohesion in the EU. These developments fostered asymmetries between economic and social European Integration, resulting in significant pressure on national welfare states. Since the Court does not possess the capacity to soothe such pressure and to change the general tendencies of declining social cohesion in the EU, the expansion of social entitlements to economically inactive EU migrants would have had limited impacts on the ‘social dimension’ of the European Union.