Legislative Efforts Research Articles

Preventing Firearm Violence in Youth Through Evidence-Informed Strategies.

Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults (AYA) aged 12-24years in the U.S. The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) believes that a comprehensive approach addressing firearm access for AYA can decrease the morbidity and mortality that AYA experience due to firearms. SAHM's position paper builds on the 2005 position statement, the scientific literature, and expert opinion. SAHM believes that the safest home for AYA is one without firearms. If firearms are present, they must be stored unloaded, locked up, with ammunition locked and stored separately. SAHM supports legislative efforts at the local, state, and national levels that focus on sensible laws proven to decrease 1: mortality from firearms; 2: the availability of illegal firearms; and 3: the availability of firearms to individuals who should not possess firearms, such as children and those with suicidal ideation. Clinicians across disciplines working with AYA can affect change by screening AYA and their parents for the presence of firearms in their home and environment; administering safe storage counseling to all, including those without firearms in their homes; and facilitating distribution of safe storage devices-lock boxes or cable locks, including when possible through the clinic setting. Clinicians should pay particular attention to higher risk situations, such as youth with suicidal ideation, to convey the risk that firearms pose. Finally, as part of a comprehensive approach that values scientific evidence, SAHM supports the expansion of research on firearms and youth safety through federal agencies and encourages firearm risk reduction education for all health care providers.

Beyond the Nurse Practice Act: Making a Difference through Advocacy

Policy frames nursing practice in the most fundamental way: through state nurse practice acts (NPA) which date back over one hundred years in many states. NPAs frame nursing practice by defining a professional scope and educational requirements for practice. NPAs have not remained stagnant over the past century, rather they have evolved – but only with the active involvement of nurses in legislative efforts to change statute and update policies related to nursing practice. However, changing practice through policy does not stop with the NPA. This article will begin by briefly addressing the role of nurses in advocacy to advance professional practice, and offer background information about the changing healthcare industry that has influenced the example of advocacy we discuss. We offer exemplars that illustrate policies that regulate the environment of practice, such as nurse staffing, musculoskeletal injury prevention, and failure to advocate, and discuss needed protections, including whistleblower protections in our state. We conclude by considering implications for nursing organizations and nurses among these exemplars.

Legal analysis of Qatar’santi-money laundering and combating terrorist financing legislation and regulation amidst the summer 2017 GCC crisis

Purpose The recent diplomatic split between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Qatar with accusations of terrorist financing (TF). This paper aims to study Qatar’s domestic legislations, which specifically targets money laundering and TF activities. The country has stringently worked in compliance with international standards on combating financing of terrorism (CFT) and anti-money laundering (AML) practices by imparting autonomous power to regulatory bodies, such as the Qatar Central Bank and other agencies. Design/methodology/approach This paper studies independent legislations passed under the Emir’s decree over the past decade advancing Qatar’s AML ranking, with significant effort in CFT regulations. The paper also analyses the advancement in AML/CFT regulation and their validity with respect to international standards set by various governmental, intergovernmental and non-profit agencies. Findings The analysis finds Qatar in compliance with strong AML/CFT regulations. Further, it finds the government to have provided transparent oversight to international organizations that attest to the findings of the legislative efforts. This paper disproves claims and accusations that have possibly been presented to the GCC and subsequently led members to abruptly end diplomatic relations with Qatar over allegations of TF activities, amongst others. Originality/value The paper offers insight into Qatar’s legislative and regulatory advancement with respect to the AML/CTF in the past decade. The paper also discusses Qatar’s legislative advancement in relation to the evolutions of the country’s financial system, adopting a more robust mechanism to combat financing of terrorism and ML.

Green federal tax credits impact on US housing prices

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether increases in homeowner green amenities occurred because of income tax credits to the degree that changes in housing prices are measurable. Are higher incomes, lower mortgage rates and green income-tax credits impacting housing price changes?Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the least-squares regression model with natural log specifications. The log of income and a dummy variable, which was assigned to the Energy Policy Act (2005) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) coverage dates are used as independent variables. Two regression models were examined using monthly housing price data from January 1990 through the year 2018. The first regression model used a single dummy variable for credits available under the Policy Act of 2005 and the Recovery Act of 2009. The second regression model considered the credits granted under these two laws separately. Disposable income per capita impacts demands for housing while green upgrade expenditures affect the cost of housing.FindingsThe laws set low credit limits of $500 followed by $1,500 but because of the multiplier effect, the spending appears to have magnified and been much higher. The credit availability variables have positive coefficients and were significant at 1 per cent. This implies that single-family housing prices were sensitive to the existence of residential energy property income-tax credits. TheR2results were 0.93 or above for both models.Research limitations/implicationsThe data used was aggregated and publicly available online. Many studies use aggregated macroeconomic data when modeling housing prices using the exogenous variable of disposable income but there is no substitute for examining individual homes by location and their sales price to see under what conditions green income-tax credits have the most impact. There could be demographic issues that are missed when using aggregated information.Practical implicationsSpending on heating/cooling systems, dual pane windows and other green amenities keeps the housing stock modernized and housing prices steady or rising. An additional benefit is that spending motivated by self-interest can simulate household consumption spending. Houses deteriorate due to wear and tear. Physical-repairable depreciation represents a situation where maintenance funds are continuously needing to be spent. Repairs and upgrades to the structure of the property keep its price stable by stopping the physical depreciation that would otherwise occur with the passage of time.Social implicationsThe paper provides support for the idea that residential green amenity upgrades positively impact the value of a house. These green-amenity upgrades, which other research studies have suggested should be included explicitly in the appraisal process, are a major characteristic of a property when a price estimate is being done. Housing being sold should have a section on the information sheet noting the property green upgrades that exist and an energy efficiency score should be assigned to each house listed for sale.Originality/valueThere are few (if any) academic research papers studying the impact of green tax credits available under the Energy Policy Act (2005) and under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009). The degree to which green income-tax credits stimulate spending on housing has not been addressed by researchers. This paper is an initial research attempt to quantify whether these legislative efforts measurably encouraged homeowners to adopt newer, greener technologies.

Appropriate Dairy Calf Feeding from Birth to Weaning: "It's an Investment for the Future".

Simple SummaryResearch has indicated that dairy farms often do not feed calves according to recommended best practice, despite legislation and industry advisory efforts. This study used interviews with dairy farmers and their advisors to investigate why farmers feed calves the way they do. Various calf feeding practices were used by participating farmers, largely based on perceived convenience and calf performance. Advisors were concerned that calves were commonly underfed, which may be partly due to farmers receiving inadequate instructions for calf feeding. Our results highlight the need for more consistent and effective recommendations for farmers regarding calf feeding and weaning. Standard guidelines for calf milk replacers should be improved to ensure that calves are fed enough to support basic biological functions and growth. Further research is needed to establish best practices for weaning calves whilst supporting rumen development, health and weight gain. All recommendations for calf feeding should facilitate the achievement of standard industry targets including rearing replacement dairy heifers to calve by 24 months of age. Dairy calves must be fed appropriately to meet their nutritional needs, supporting optimal growth and development to achieve the recommended target age at first calving (AFC) of 24 months. Traditional restricted milk feeding practices suppress growth, contribute to negative welfare states and may result in malnutrition and immunosuppression. Despite more recent recommendations to increase milk allowances for pre-weaned calves, restricted feeding remains a common practice. This study explored the rationales behind the calf feeding protocols used by dairy farmers in England. Forty qualitative interviews (26 farmers, 14 advisors) were conducted between May 2016 and June 2017, transcribed in full, then coded into themes. Results indicate that a variety of calf feeding regimes are used on farms, largely determined by farmers’ attitudes regarding ease of management and the wellbeing of calves. Advisors were concerned about widespread underfeeding of calves, which may be partially due to insufficiently clear recommendations for calf milk replacer (CMR) feeding rates. There was also evidence of uncertainty regarding best practices for weaning calves. Collaboration between academic research and industry is essential to establish a consensus on calf feeding standards which support physiological function, facilitate weaning, support growth targets and ensure calf health and welfare is protected.

How to Regulate Blockchain's Real-Life Applications: Lessons from the California Blockchain Working Group

How should legislators write a law regulating a brand-new technology, one that they may not yet fully understand? With the advent of blockchain and other advanced computational technologies, this generation of legislators faces more complex questions than their predecessors. Drawing on the author’s experience as a member of California’s Blockchain Working Group, this article offers guidance to lawmakers, lawyers, and industry leaders seeking to draft effective laws regulating applications of this new technology. The article focuses on regulation of financial assets created by or facilitated by blockchains, including cryptocurrencies and other types of digital assets. Part II explains why blockchain and crypto-related laws are necessary, but are also more difficult to draft and pass than laws regulating less technical industries. Part III recommends five factors state and federal legislators should consider as they embark on drafting or amending blockchain-related laws, including policy decisions, ethical considerations, transparency, inter-jurisdictional competition, and uniformity. Part IV considers whether these factors exist in current legislative efforts by evaluating the existing federal statutory and regulatory structure. This section uses the Cryptocurrency Act of 2020, a federal bill proposed in early 2020, as a case study in legislative failure. Part V turns the lens to state legislative efforts, analyzing methods used by three states who were among the first to regulate blockchain technology in the United States: California (the “tortoise” approach), Wyoming (the “hare” approach), and New York (the “boomerang”) approach. The result is a novel article that will do two things for its readers: (1) encourage them to be informed participants in conversations relating to federal and state regulation of blockchain applications, and (2) offer a snapshot of these regulatory processes early in the development of blockchain technology, which will prove to be useful in coming years. Blockchain technology will continue developing quickly, regardless of how governments frame regulation. Everyone—including industry players, members of the public, and governments themselves—will gain if lawmakers can strike the right balance between innovation and public protection.

Der manipulierbare Embryo: Konsequenzen für das Recht

Innovative techniques of developmental biology facilitate the artificial creation of embryo-like entities. This contribution analyses, first, whether certain artificially created embryo-like entities are ‘embryos’ within the meaning of existing statutory law definitions laid down in the Embryo Protection Act, the Stem Cell Act and the Patent Act. These definitions are non-uniform and their interpretation and application with regard to artificially created embryo-like entities is not always conclusive. Accordingly, the legal definitions of the term ‘embryo’ should be harmonised and, thereby, adapted to the state of developmental biology. Any such legislative efforts need to be in conformity with the constitution, primarily with the guarantee of human dignity (Article 1‍(1) of the Basic Law). However, said provision cannot provide guidance to the legislature because the constitutional status of both embryos and embryo-like entities in vitro is highly disputed. It is held that this irresolvable debate is due to a fundamental lack of a widely shared experience that such entities possess a supreme unique value. This article argues that in such a situation it is, in the first instance, for the legislature (i. e. parliament) to determine the legal status of embryos and embryo-like entities in vitro. This argument is based on a particular doctrinal approach according to which the individual right to respect of one’s human dignity arising from Article 1‍(1) BL depends on recognition of the relevant entity as being a ‘human’ or a member of ‘humankind’ respectively. Such recognition has, hitherto, not been accomplished with a view to embryos and embryo-like entities in vitro. Against this backdrop, for the time being, the legislature may determine the legal status of embryos and embryo-like entities in vitro, lay down rules regarding their creation and particular use, and, especially, define the legal term ‘embryo’, albeit within some outer constitutional limits. The article, finally, analyses several elements of, and submits a proposal for, a new legal definition of the term ‘embryo’.

Transition Home: Safe Plan of Care for Infants With a History of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Opioid use disorder is an ever-expanding health epidemic affecting populations across the lifespan. Infants diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) often require additional resources while inpatient and after discharge to support ongoing NAS symptoms and improve outcomes. The purpose of this article is to highlight the need for a "safe plan of care" for infants with a history of NAS and provide evidence-based recommendations for providers. In response to the opioid crisis, legislative efforts were passed to enhance access to care and provide valuable resources for families and clinical providers. These efforts require the development of comprehensive plans of care that include assessment of the home environment along with specialized care and services. Despite active legislation, infants and families continue to lack adequate access to resources such as therapy, specialized nutritional support, developmental specialists, and financial support. An effective safe plan of care ensures that infants with a history of NAS are discharged to caregivers who are prepared, devoted, and responsive to the infants' needs. These essential components include responsive caregiving, safe and secure environments, appropriate nutrition, and health-promoting behaviors. A review of current practice and evidence-based recommendations reveals essential components of a safe plan of care for infants with a history of NAS. By embracing the need for a comprehensive plan, providers can empathize with family needs and activate resources to promote healthy families and improve long-term outcomes of these infants.

Quakers and the Disciplines. Vol. 5: Quakers, Politics, and Economics ed. by David R. Ross and Michael T. Snarr

Reviewed by: Quakers and the Disciplines. Vol. 5: Quakers, Politics, and Economics ed. by David R. Ross and Michael T. Snarr Issac Barnes May Quakers and the Disciplines. Vol. 5: Quakers, Politics, and Economics. Ed. by David R. Ross and Michael T. Snarr. Philadelphia: Friends Association for Higher Education, 2018. xvi + 380 pp. Notes and index. Paperback $19.95; Kindle $9.95. One of the chief virtues of this latest addition to the Friends Association of Higher Education's "Quakers and the Disciplines" series is that its scope is extremely broad; most topics in Quaker history are in some way connected to either economics or politics. The twenty-two contributors come from a variety of fields. The book's focus is largely restricted to British and American Friends, but the sixteen articles address time periods that range from the foundation of Quakerism until the present. The breadth of the collection's content makes it less focused, though most chapters address Friends' response to social concerns arising from capitalism. Taken on their own merits, many of the contributions are fascinating additions to scholarship on Quakerism. In a section of the book labeled "Historical Engagement and Friends," Thomas D. Hamm's contribution to the volume highlights how a small collection of Hicksites in New York began to critique market economics in the 1830s, linking liberal theology and radical economic ideas. This is followed by Robin Rogers Healey's nuanced history of debates over how to end apartheid that occurred between South African Friends and the American Friends Service Committee in the late 1970s. Healey works to center South African Quaker perspectives, highlighting how these Friends accused the AFSC of imperialism and abandoning nonviolence. The work and thought of several prominent Quakers are repeatedly referred to this volume. Sociologist Elise Boulding and economist Kenneth Boulding are the focus of a chapter by Robert Scott and Russell Boulding (the Bouldings' eldest son). John Bellers, the seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century English social reformer who designed a workers' community, is the subject of a chapter by Keith Hemuth. John Woolman's attitude towards economics is the focus of two chapters, one by Mike Heller the other by Geoffrey Plank. Plank makes a compelling case that understanding Woolman requires not just focusing on his opposition towards slavery and support for boycotting goods, but also examining his ownership of land. Woolman's land meant he was wealthy compared to many of his neighbors, and he was comfortable with such systems of privilege and hierarchy. [End Page 57] There are discussions of the role of Quaker organizations in politics. Ruth Flowers provides an insider's account of the Friends Committee on National Legislation's efforts to convince the U.S. Congress to pursue antipoverty programs. One of the most fascinating details in Flowers's account is that the FCNL was hostile to federal support for these efforts for the first twenty years of its history, until the early 1960s. Lori Heninger and David Atwood provide two case studies of the work of the Quaker United Nations Office, focusing on work for small-arms control and efforts to reduce global inequality. A few of the chapters are not written from a position of detached scholarship, but try to propose a new direction for contemporary Quakerism. Activist George Lakey, for example, calls on Friends to model society on Sweden, Norway, Demark and Iceland, which provide considerable government services to their residents. For Lakey, these Nordic nations "serve as a reminder to today's Religious Society of Friends that God's Peaceable Kingdom is achievable today on this earth" (p. 55). It is a testimony to the vibrancy of Quaker studies scholarship that this edited collection can contain theological reflections, alongside history, sociology, political science and a host of other methodological approaches to scholarship. Disciplinary divides are still firmly in evidence, and one does not get the sense that this is a shared conversation, but the individual contributions ably show the ongoing work about Quakerism in their respective fields. Anyone interested in the study of Quakerism is likely to find something useful in this volume. Issac Barnes May University of Virginia Copyright © 2020 Friends Historical Association

Competing Public and Private Television Advertising Campaigns and Marketplace Enrollment for 2015 to 2018

The Affordable Care Act was a landmark political achievement in reforming the American health insurance system but has been subject to considerable political pressure. Administrative actions, such as eliminating federal advertising, have served as a replacement for failed legislative repeal efforts. We use a county-level fixed-effects model with data for thirty-four states for the 2015 to 2018 open enrollment periods to measure dose-response relationships between health insurance and health-care-related political advertising and Marketplace enrollment. State-sponsored advertising is related to greater Marketplace enrollment, but we find no association between federal advertising and enrollment. We are, however, unable to account for the endogeneity of advertising decisions across media markets and potential federal coordination with other sponsor types. These results have implications for understanding public roles within privatized policy implementation.

Appraisal Waivers

Appraisal is a controversial topic. Policymakers have debated the goals served by the appraisal remedy, and legislatures have repeatedly revised appraisal statutes in an effort to meet those goals while minimizing the cost and potential abuse associated with appraisal litigation. Courts have struggled to determine the most appropriate valuation methodology and the extent to which that methodology should depend on case-specific factors. These difficulties are exacerbated by variation in the procedures by which mergers are negotiated and the potential for conflict-of-interest transactions. Private ordering offers a market-based alternative to continued legislative or judicial efforts to refine the appraisal remedy. Through firm-specific appraisal waivers, issuers can limit or eliminate the scope of appraisal rights, thereby reducing the cost and uncertainty of appraisal ex ante. Private companies are making increasingly use of such appraisal waivers, an effort facilitated by a Delaware decision upholding the validity of an appraisal waiver in a private company shareholder agreement. Public companies have not followed the lead of private companies, however, presumably because of impracticality of using shareholder agreements in public companies and a concern that an appraisal waiver in a charter or bylaw would be invalid. This Article considers both the normative and legal case for appraisal waivers. It argues that the modern role of appraisal rights – disciplining the merger negotiation process and policing potential conflicts of interest – warrants understanding appraisal as a structural component of corporate governance rather than a personal right of individual shareholders. Accordingly, it challenges legal analysis that distinguishes between contractual waivers and those in a corporation’s governing documents. It nonetheless reasons that firm-specific freedom to limit or eliminate appraisal rights through waivers is normatively desirable in that it reduces the pressure on lawmakers to get the appraisal remedy “right,” allows appraisal rights to vary in accordance with firm-specific factors and allows tailored appraisal rights that vary according to transactional features. It concludes that both public and private companies should have the power to adopt appraisal waivers. The Article then considers the legal case for appraisal waivers and determines that their validity under current law is questionable at best based on both the scope of existing appraisal statutes and public policy considerations. In light of its conclusion that the availability of appraisal waivers is normatively desirable, the Argument advocates resolving this uncertainty through legislation. The Article proposes that corporation statutes explicitly authorize corporations to modify or eliminate appraisal rights, but that such waivers should only be permitted in corporate charters. This paper was originally posted with the working title of “Appraisal Waivers.”

歐盟企業社會責任之面面觀

The European legislative and regulatory efforts for corporate accountability are broad in scope, encompassing a diversity of concerns for corporate transparency; the overall protection of human rights; the protection of animals and the physical environment; the rights of the consumer; the rights of the workers; and the impact of multinational firm operations on the local communities in efforts to generate shareholder wealth. A major legal issue with cases of corporate misbehavior on a global scale has been the rights of certain courts to hear corporate irresponsibility claims filed against companies which operate abroad. An outcome of the explosive growth of industry, the exploitation of poor countries with deficient critical infrastructures by multinational corporations has continued to plague society through blatant abuses of the physical environment as well as basic human rights. Nonetheless, poor countries continue to pursue financial investments from multinational corporations as well as from global sources of public aid. The European Union has endeavored to regulate such relationships in order to protect human rights and preserve the environment. This article provides an overview of corporate social responsibility in the European Union with a case study of the social and economic impact of the Royal Dutch Shell business activities and performance in the Niger Delta. The outcomes for European corporations who do not incorporate the principles of corporate social responsibility in their business structure and activities include lawsuits based upon claims of environmental degradation and socioeconomic exploitation. The integration of corporate social responsibility into the European corporate business practices and operations has a limited yet positive affect on the financial performance of the firm.歐盟對於企業問責制的立法規範可說是不遺餘力，涉及層面廣，包含對公司透明度的各種關注、人權全面保護、動物與實體環境的保護、消費者權利、勞工權利及跨國企業一心一意為股東創造財富的營運模式對於當地社區的影響。企業在世界各地的不當行為案例所引發的重大法律議題，長久以來的爭議，是特定法院是否有權審理海外公司因不負責任為由遭到控訴的案件。工業爆炸性成長的後果是跨國公司不斷利用關鍵基礎設施缺乏的貧窮國家，持續公然濫用自然環境和基本人權，為社會帶來紛擾與不安。儘管如此，貧窮國家仍繼續尋求跨國公司和全球公共援助來源的金融投資。歐盟一直努力規範這層關係，以便保護人權及保存環境資源。本文透過荷蘭皇家殼牌集團在尼日河三角洲的商業活動及表現，產生的社會經濟影響實際案例，概述歐盟的企業社會責任。未將企業社會責任原則納入旗下業務結構和活動的歐盟企業，面臨的後果包括以環保破壞與社會經濟剝削為基礎提起的訴訟。將企業社會責任原則併入歐盟企業實務營運會對企業的財務表現產生有限、卻正面積極的影響。

Readex America's Historical Imprints: Early American Imprints Series I: Evans (1639–1800)

Reviewed by: Readex America's Historical Imprints: Early American Imprints Series I: Evans (1639–1800) Helen Hunt (bio) Readex America's Historical Imprints: Early American Imprints Series I: Evans (1639–1800) Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society Readex America's Historical Imprints: Early American Imprints Series I: Evans (1639–1800) Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia Taken together, the Early American Imprints Series I: Evans supplements from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS and the Library Company of Pennsylvania (LCP) add 3,400 texts printed from 1652 to 1800 to the Readex America's Historical Imprints database. The sheer size of these supplements is impressive; these thousands of texts offer a wealth of information reaches into every corner of early American life. The breadth of these supplements represents one of its main strengths, complemented by the excellent organization and the high-quality images. Both databases are organized in the same manner. The texts can be sorted by the standard categories of author, place of publication, and language, but the databases also benefit from an extensive genre list, detailed subject categories, and a history of printing feature that sorts by bookseller, printer, and publisher. The subject list has two levels and includes everything from honeybees to gynecology to fairy tales. These subjects make the database very easy to browse, enabling users to easily discover new texts. The extensive subject list and types of works available lend themselves to undergraduate exploration of this archive, if students were, for example, to have an assignment that asked them to browse the archive and find a text [End Page 923] that relates to main themes of their class and report their findings in some way. Exploration of this archive takes advantage of one the best features of this database: its potential to ground familiar literary narratives in the wide-ranging, everyday world of writing in early America. The databases purport to include "newly discovered" works printed in America (AAS: 2,300 from 1652 to 1800; LCP: 1,100 from 1670 to 1800). "Newly discovered" should be taken with a grain of salt. It does not necessarily mean entirely new texts, though there must be virtually unknown material in the three thousand entries, but local, specific imprints of texts that exist in other places. For example, the fiction lists do not reveal a hitherto unknown American novel, but they do show American printings of fiction published first in England and France. The idea of "newly discovered" can perhaps best be understood by considering the three texts under the subject "Labor—Slavery" in the AAS supplement. One, Anthony Benezet's "Notes on the Slave Trade," published in Philadelphia in 1783, strongly condemns the American slave trade and attempts to inspire the reader with "a suitable abhorrence for that detestable practice of trading in our Fellow Creatures" and probably is the first version of this text (2). Benezet was born in France, but he emigrated with his Huguenot family to join the Quakers in Philadelphia when he was eighteen, where he became an abolitionist. There is also a 1784 version of John Welsey's Thoughts upon Slavery, first published in London in 1774, with a preface from its Philadelphia printer Enoch Story justifying its printing and praising legislative efforts to abolish slavery. These two texts demonstrate local engagement with international colonial issues, and they could inspire class discussion on the international context of slavery, immigration, and the transatlantic print trade. But the most interesting text in this subject might be "A Negro Song: They Lightened Their Labour by Songs, Verified by the Duchess of Devonshire, Composed by Benjamin Carr" from 1800. Carr was a composer born in London who moved to the US in 1793 and became a prominent part of the Philadelphia musical community. The song lyrics represent Black women taking pity on a lost, weakened white man, caring for him and singing, "Ah! the white man shall our pity share." The tension between race, power, and sympathy in the text only grows more complicated when the text's history and the Duchess of Devonshire's involvement are taken into account. Carr's composition was apparently inspired by Mungo Parke's Travels, when Parke traveled down the...

Tobacco Litigation, E-Cigarettes, and the Cigarette Endgame

Among his many contributions to the field of public health law, Professor Richard Daynard is perhaps best known for (a) advancing the idea that affirmative litigation, particularly against the tobacco industry, can serve as an effective public health tool, (b) introducing the discussion of an “endgame,” in which the commercial sale of cigarettes—the most deadly form of tobacco use—is phased out. This article unites these two topics and analyzes the potential for affirmative litigation to hasten the end of commercial cigarette sales. In recent years, the major tobacco companies have suggested that they support moving towards a “smoke-free world,” with non-combustible nicotine products such as e-cigarettes gradually replacing more harmful cigarette smoking. Though this rhetoric is deeply cynical—these same companies continue to spend heavily to promote their cigarette brands—it may nonetheless create a window of opportunity for litigants. Past litigation against tobacco companies has foundered on the absence of a “reasonable alternative design” for cigarettes. Today, the tobacco companies’ own statements can be used to show the availability of such alternatives. More importantly, now-public documents from the tobacco industry’s archives help establish the case for treating e-cigarettes as a “reasonable alternative design” for cigarettes. These documents show that the major tobacco companies developed the essential components of e-cigarette technology decades ago, but they chose not to commercialize these products because they feared they would prove to be viable alternatives to cigarettes. This article reviews how the introduction of e-cigarettes may reinvigorate products liability litigation against the manufacturers of conventional cigarettes. Building on the work of Professor Daynard, it also considers how these lawsuits, even if ultimately unsuccessful in court, might nonetheless benefit public health by pressuring the tobacco industry to live up to its public statements and by catalyzing legislative efforts to phase out the sale of cigarettes.

Posledice nezakonitog otkaza u slučaju diskriminatorskog postupanja poslodavca

This article focuses on the procedural norms concerning antidiscrimination and labour rights protection. By analyzing concrete legal norms, the authors attempt to address the key question: what is the appropriate way of ensuring legal protection for victims of unlawful termination due to discrimination? The fact is that two different legal procedures contain different rules about time limit for initiating civil proceedings, filing a claim or motions, as well as didderent rules on the burden of proof. These complex issues have been insufficiently addressed in theory and practice. For the purpose of overcoming this problem, the authors provide an insight into the comparative law solutions which may be used as guidelines in prospective legislative efforts and adjusted to the specific features of the legal system in the Republic of Serbia.

Peace and Progress: The Life and Political Contributions of Senator Jennings Randolph

Peace and Progress: The Life and Political Contributions of Senator Jennings Randolph Christopher Price In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the bill that led to the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a massive public works project that contributed to flood control and rural electrification. Fifty years after that historic event, a group of individuals met in the House Caucus room in the US Capitol to celebrate the achievements of the TVA. Among those in attendance was a long-time senator from West Virginia, Jennings Randolph. Senator Randolph held an important distinction as he neared the end of his career in the Senate. He was the last of the New Deal Democrats who had voted for the creation of the TVA to remain active in the halls of Congress. When he finally stepped away from public office in 1985, he was the last remaining legislator who had served during the First 100 Days of the FDR administration.1 Randolph was an influential legislator who left his mark on American history, yet the scholarly investigation of his life has been quite thin to this point. Outside of a short biographical sketch by Nicholas Kersten and an unpublished biography, there is little written regarding his achievements.2 Throughout his career in Congress, Randolph made visionary and progressive contributions to legislation that led to important and lasting change in American society. Randolph’s legislative efforts included support for disabled people and people who were disfranchised and discriminated against. Additionally, the senator was remarkably prescient in proposing efforts at creating a governmental department that might ensure a lasting peace after World War II. While Senator Randolph was legislatively innovative in many ways, his life in politics also tended to be representative of the period in which he served. The era between the New Deal and the period in which the New Right really began to gain traction was largely a period in which many Americans felt that government had the expertise, the ability, and even the responsibility to solve problems.3 Jennings Randolph fell within this milieu, and he did much to shape it. [End Page 1] Early Life Jennings Randolph, the son of Ernest Fitz and Idell Randolph, was born into an influential political family on March 8, 1902.4 The Randolph family had deep roots in Harrison County and had been prominent in the founding of New Salem, Virginia (now Salem, West Virginia). The congregation of the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, moved to western Virginia as a group in 1789, and the Randolph family was among the prominent families who made the trek to the mountains.5 Jennings Randolph’s father and grandfather both served as mayors of Salem, West Virginia. Additionally, his grandfather, Jesse Fitz Randolph, won election as a state legislator and was known as a “natural leader” in both his church and political endeavors.6 Randolph’s father, Ernest, was a one-time candidate for Congress, and counted three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan as a friend. Indeed, he even asked the famous orator and Democratic presidential nominee to name his newborn son.7 The Randolphs were a deeply religious family and held leadership positions in Salem’s Seventh Day Baptist congregation. While agreeing with other Baptist groups on many major points of doctrine, the Seventh Day Baptists held to Saturday as the proper day for worship and rest from labor. The Baptist churches that follow Sabbatarian teachings had their origins in seventeenth-century England just after the rise of the more mainstream Baptist movement.8 Jennings Randolph was active in his Seventh Day Baptist church from an early age, and he drew heavily from the church’s theology in his political career. The future legislator appeared in his local church’s annual report for the Seventh Day Baptist denomination as early as 1919, serving as a chorister for the youth and as an usher.9 Throughout his career in Congress, the West Virginia politician published occasional articles in the Sabbath Recorder, and this organ of the denominational press published a lengthy eulogy of the former senator upon his death in 1998. This remembrance of Jennings Randolph’s life...

Campaigns and the Selection of Policy‐Seeking Representatives

Can voters learn meaningful information about candidates from their electoral campaigns? As with job market hiring, voters, like employers, cannot know the productivity of candidates, especially challengers, when they elect them. The real productivity of representatives only reveals itself after the election. We explore if the information revealed during the “hiring process” is a good signal of the legislative effort of elected representatives. In the incomplete information environment of election campaigns, candidates should turn to credible signals to indicate their “type” to voters. Campaigns—and campaigning—are means by which candidates can, in principle, signal their motivations to voters. Is a candidate’s behavior on the campaign trail informative about his or her behavior and effort as a legislator? Does it, for example, reveal whether a candidate will be more hard working and legislatively active? Using evidence from the European Parliament, we show that campaign activity prior to the election is not related to policy‐seeking behavior in the legislature post‐election. The finding also holds in two national‐level settings and across a variety of measures of legislative effort. Those who campaign harder do seem more likely to win the election, but campaign effort seems to provide a poor guide to what the winner does once elected.

Morire senza coscienza. La giustificazione morale della sedazione palliativa profonda continua

Un recente disegno di legge sulle cure alla fine della vita ha proposto di estendere l’opzione della sedazione palliativa profonda continua anche a pazienti che non siano in fase terminale di malattia. Questo sviluppo del dibattito sulle cure alla fine della vita richiede un nuovo sforzo per chiarire i termini della questione e risolvere alcune persistenti ambiguità. Il presente articolo sottolinea come la sedazione palliativa profonda continua sia eticamente lecita, e in effetti parte integrante delle cure palliative, solo quando eseguita in modo conforme alle principali linee guida. Daremo argomenti per mostrare come ‘l’imminenza di morte’, generalmente intesa come morte attesa entro poche ore/giorni, sia un importante criterio clinico per decidere della liceità etica di questa pratica medica. Nella nostra argomentazione (1) spiegheremo come la Dottrina del Duplice effetto, cui frequentemente si fa ricorso nei dibattiti etici su questa pratica, non sia invece necessariamente applicabile al caso della sedazione palliativa; (2) identificheremo una giustificazione alternativa, etica e clinica, per il ricorso alla sedazione in situazioni di fine vita; infine (3) discuteremo l’eventuale liceità del ricorso alla sedazione palliativa in casi di sofferenza esistenziale. Contiamo in tal modo di contribuire allo sviluppo del dibattito bioetico in corso su questi temi.

Humane Communities: Social change through policies promoting collective welfare

ABSTRACT A Humane Community is defined by the presence of leaders, institutions, and policies working collaboratively across social and political systems to create and implement sustainable human, animal, and environmental welfare. Social-environmental-economic impact assessment (SEEIA) is a tool that can be used to inform policymaking at the municipal, county, state, and national levels to gain a comprehensive assessment of a proposed policy’s impacts on humans, animals, and the environment. In this paper, the Humane Community framework will be described and demonstrated by summarizing three previous studies that applied SEEIA to three different animal welfare policies: the “Compassion Center” concept of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the “No Kill” Resolution of Austin, Texas; and the “Pit Bull Ban” in Denver, Colorado. The authors will discuss how SEEIA studies support stakeholders in identifying potential mechanisms including, but not limited to, legislative efforts through which social change can be generated to achieve a Humane Community.

Caveat Jurisconsultus: Warrantless Access to the Client Records of Legal Practitioners

A client legitimately regards almost all communications with his or her lawyer as confidential. However, there are circumstances in which client information is not protected under the attorney-client relationship and is accessible to certain third parties. In South Africa, the client records of legal practitioners are available to the anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) agencies, which conduct inspections of law offices under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001. In terms of a 2008 amendment, these inspections did not require a warrant.In 2014, the South African Constitutional Court declared warrantless non-routine inspections unconstitutional. A legislative amendment of 2017 sought to restore the constitutionality of these inspections. However, neither the Constitutional Court nor the legislature addressed the issue of warrantless routine inspections. For the most part, then, AML/CFT inspections of the premises of legal practitioners need not be warrant-based. The danger here is that client records become ready evidentiary resources for the prosecution service.The Canadian AML/CFT legislation also envisaged a mostly warrantless inspection regime. However, unlike South African legal practitioners, their Canadian counterparts launched a vigorous and sustained assault against the legislative efforts to erode the attorney-client relationship and the legal professional privilege. The Federation of Law Societies of Canada eventually secured exemption for its members from the compliance measures of the AML/CFT legislation. The Canadian experience should serve as an object lesson for the legal profession in South Africa.