Legal Risk Management Research Articles

Локальное техническое регулирование как способ снижения правовых рисков промышленных предприятий

The article is considering problems of use of local technical and legal acts by commercial enterprises for decrease in legal risks. Feature of norms accepted at local level consists in regulation by them of the relations with participation of experts, which participate and don’t participate in production. Normative regulation of technological processes aims to order production, distribute spheres of responsibility of experts and departments, to provide legislation observance by production and sale. Local technical and legal acts as way of legal risk management allow to describe risk factors, specify them in certainPositive kind of activity of the enterprise, establish algorithms of identification and minimization of risks. Potential of use of these acts for legal risk management is caused by their ability to concretize technical activity of the enterprise, establish its duties and rights in relation to workers, state and other persons.

Research on International Engineering Contracting Legal Risk Management

International engineering contracting market has very large differences in national laws. In the project implementation process, the legal risk loss will be immeasurable. The characteristics of legal risk make it predictable and preventable, thus strengthening international engineering contracting legal risk identification and coping strategies has a certain practical significance. This article starts from the related theory of legal risks, study our international engineering contracting market development process. On the basis of case studies, from the formation mechanism and the process and the type of legal risk to measure the international engineering contracting legal risk. Then, specific coping strategies for the identified legal risks are proposed for contractors.

Liability, blame, and causation in Norwegian risk regulation

This paper addresses the mechanisms, processes, and rationales for causal attribution, blame, and liability within the legal context of Norwegian risk regulation, using the petroleum industry as a point of reference. Legalistic and judicial norms and practices have traditionally favored blaming approaches, whereas mature risk management philosophies have gradually abandoned single-cause/human error approaches. A variety of systemic models are developed that analyze accidents and incidents or near-misses as complex interactions between a variety of underlying root causes. Technical failure and human error may be triggering causes, but allowed only by failures in underlying systems, conditions, or barriers. This has created contradictions between legal liability approaches and risk management approaches to industrial failure and accidents. The purpose of the former has been criminalization and punishment, whereas the purpose of the latter has been organizational learning, preferably across sectors and domains. The paper examines how systemic models gradually have entered into the judicial context and discusses different factors that can account for this development. First, a mature model of risk management adapted to complex technologies and encompassing a highly institutionalized no-blame culture within the regulatory domain; second, the combination of close and – in terms of professional expertise – asymmetric relations between the regulators and the police/prosecuting authority; third, available legal rationales and warrants that allow systemic and situational attribution of causes; fourth, national egalitarianism and an institutionalized tripartite regulatory system, including strong unions that actively and effectively resist any attempts to attribute causes of industrial failures and accidents to operational error at the blunt end (‘human error’).

Risk management in business: the problems of regulatory framework

The definition of the concept of «risk management in entrepreneurship», formulation of the stages of risk management, the study of the state of legal regulation for risk management and of the proposed ways to improve it are the objectives of this article.The article considers three phases of legal risk management: information analysis, assessment, assumption and implementation of the risk. The article suggests the necessity of developing and adopting for the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine of the Regulation on the risk management procedures for business entities.

A Legal Perspective of E-Businesses and E-Marketing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Electronic businesses are witnessing enormous growth as more and more people are switching to online platforms. The widespread use of Internet has opened new channels to operate trade for many businesses. Also electronic marketing has become a proven channel of passing on the word to the customers. Legal and ethical issues quickly become an area of concern. In this research recommendations are made to harmonize IT and Internet Laws. A novel approach is proposed to promote legal risk management culture in organizations. It begins with revising current state of regulations surrounding eBusinesses and electronic marketing. The proposed approach offers risk management by considering risk mitigation strategy, educating people and use of information technology. Monitoring compliance requirements are met by reviewing the latest changes in regulations and rewarding the employees who ensures the successful implementation of the strategy.

A Legal Perspective of E-Businesses and E-Marketing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Electronic businesses are witnessing enormous growth as more and more people are switching to online platforms. The widespread use of Internet has opened new channels to operate trade for many businesses. Also electronic marketing has become a proven channel of passing on the word to the customers. Legal and ethical issues quickly become an area of concern. In this research recommendations are made to harmonize IT and Internet Laws. A novel approach is proposed to promote legal risk management culture in organizations. It begins with revising current state of regulations surrounding eBusinesses and electronic marketing. The proposed approach offers risk management by considering risk mitigation strategy, educating people and use of information technology. Monitoring compliance requirements are met by reviewing the latest changes in regulations and rewarding the employees who ensures the successful implementation of the strategy.

Understanding Agricultural Liability: Legal Risk Management Considerations

This fact sheet can serve as another tool in a farmer’s risk management plans by providing information on how farmers can protect themselves from legal challenges from a nuisance or violation of an environmental permit. The information discussed in this fact sheet will not eliminate threats of lawsuits. Elimination of 100 percent of legal risk is not possible.

Medicine, law, ethics: teaching versus learning

Doctors' anxieties about the legal environment begin during medical school. The signals faculty members send to medical students contribute to this anxiety. A pilot study was conducted to examine signals sent by faculty members to students regarding the relationship of legal risk management and ethical patient care at one medical school. It was also intended to determine the agreement between the messages faculty staff believe they are transmitting and those that students think they are hearing from faculty mentors. A survey with six multiple-choice questions was sent electronically to clinical faculty staff of one medical school to elicit the signals faculty members send students regarding the relationship of legal risk management and ethical patient care. A complementary survey instrument was sent to all 240 third- and fourth-year students to elicit their perceptions of what they were being taught by their mentors about the legal environment. Responses were tabulated, analysed, and interpreted. Faculty staff and student responses to six questions regarding teaching and learning about the relationship of legal risk management and ethical patient care revealed, for four of the six questions, statistically significantly different perspectives between what faculty members thought they were teaching and what students thought they were learning. Medical schools should be teaching patient-centered medicine, reconciling an awareness of the legal environment with the provision of ethically and clinically sound patient care. To improve performance, we must address the messages faculty members send students and reduce the disparity between perceived faculty teaching and claimed student learning in this context.

Trends—Legislation: Legislative environment makes compliance crucial for corporate social responsibility programs

AbstractOne of the challenges of working in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is that there are such varied ideas of what the term means. Some view CSR as an umbrella term for philanthropic endeavors, others as a guideline for legal risk management, and others as a public relations exercise. Whatever else CSR may be, it is a powerful tool for change both within a corporation and in its operating environment. However, leveraging the potential of CSR for maximum impact within an organization requires a thoughtful and thorough approach to implementation.

Research and confidentiality: Legal issues and risk management strategies.

Maintaining the confidentiality of research subjects and research data is essential to the research process. However, the legal landscape surrounding the concept of confidentiality is a dynamic one. This article discusses why confidentiality in research is important, various threats to it, efforts to protect it through a privilege, as well as other statutory and regulatory provisions relevant to research confidentiality. The article concludes with a discussion of risk management tools that researchers concerned with maintaining confidentiality can use in the design and implementation of research. Ogden has continued his research on assisted and is now studying the consensual deathing industry. Part of this research involves scrutiny of social reactions to those involved in consensual death, as occurs when persons are charged with crimes such as counselling suicide or aiding and abetting a suicide, a violation of section 241(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada. When such charges were laid against a Vancouver Island woman, Ogden attended the preliminary hearing early in 2003 to observe and take notes. Outside the courtroom the Crown prosecutor informed Ogden that he was a person of interest in the case because of his presumed research-related knowledge, and subsequently subpoenaed him, apparently in the vague hope that he might have information that could aid the prosecution. 1 Russel Ogden is a Canadian researcher whose work has been subpoenaed several times by prosecutors. He has resisted the subpoenas, which have eventu- ally been withdrawn, and the matter has caused considerable commentary in Canada about whether researchers should have a privilege against being forced to disclose their notes and related materials in legal proceedings. 2 Ogden's case, and others like it 3 raise important issues regarding the confi- dentiality of research data. Researchers have long assumed that maintaining

The Public Management of Liability Risks

Contemporary discussions of the relationship between negligence liability and the provision of services by both public and private organizations frequently suggest the emergence of a ‘compensation culture’. Despite empirical evidence that compensation culture claims are somewhat inflated, an anxiety persists that risks of tortious liability may still undermine the implementation of public policy. Concerns about the potential negative effects of liability on public administration frame the problem in various ways. First, there is an anxiety that public authorities may overreact to liability risks by becoming excessively risk averse. Secondly, there is a fear that compensation claiming will divert financial resources away from service delivery and towards the payment of insurance premiums and compensation awards. Thirdly, there is the fear that insurance companies will, as ‘risk bullies’, curtail public service activities. And, finally, there is the suggestion that risk management, including legal risk management, is becoming the dominant mode of government decision-making to the exclusion of professional judgement. This article addresses these concerns through a set of empirical case studies about the management of liability risks associated with road maintenance services. Although our findings suggest that public authorities respond to liability risks in a variety of ways, we found only limited evidence of the above concerns. In general terms, it was a case of public authorities being risk aware and responsive as opposed to risk averse.

A Quantitative Comparison of the Safety Margins in the European Indicative Occupational Exposure Limits and the Derived No-Effect Levels for Workers under REACH

The new European Union (EU) REACH legislation requires derived no-effect levels (DNELs) to be calculated for substances produced in quantities above 10 tonnes/year. Meanwhile, the setting of occupational exposure limits (OELs) continues both at the member state and the EU levels. According to REACH, indicative OEL values (IOELVs) from the Commission may under some circumstances be used as worker-DNELs. On the other hand, worker-DNELs will be derived for several thousand substances, far more than the approximately 100 substances for which IOELVs have been established. Thus, the procedure to set health-based OELs may become influential on that of DNELs and vice versa. In this study, we compare the safety margins of 88 Scientific Committee on OELs (SCOEL) recommendations with those of the corresponding worker-DNELs, derived according to the default approach as described in the REACH guidance document. Overall, the REACH safety margins were approximately six times higher than those derived from the SCOEL documentation but varied widely with REACH/SCOEL safety margin ratios ranging by two orders of magnitude, from 0.3 to 58 (n = 88). The discrepancies may create confusion in terms of legal compliance, risk management, and risk communication. We also found that the REACH guidance document, although encompassing detailed advice on many issues, including default assessment factors for species and route extrapolation, gives little quantitative guidance on when and how to depart from defaults.

Using model form contracts in the Australian oil and gas industry

The adoption of model form contracts makes good business and legal risk management sense. In an Australian context there are a number of model form contracts available for each phase of an oil and gas project. This paper focuses on a few key examples including the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) Model Form Farmout Agreement and related Term Sheet, and the AIPN Model Form International Operating Agreement. Recent statutory changes, world events and practical drafting trends affecting the use of model form contracts also are commented on.

Defensive Medicine and Tort Reform: A Wide View

Defensive Medicine and Tort Reform: A Wide View

Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID): Is legal risk management relevant in consumer privacy?

RFID is regarded as technological perfection. Prediction of market analysis asserted that the Return of Investment of RFID might reach its widespread deployment by 2010. Despite that, there are handfuls of debates on the risks of RFID data surveillance. This paper reveals some of its flaws, if uncontrollable, and how it leads to privacy debates in the spectrum of regulatory and commercial developments of selected jurisdictions. It outlines the respective stakeholders' positions and feedbacks. Significantly, it attempts to argue the relevance of legal risk management in consumer privacy as a consideration towards balancing the approach between RFID technology and privacy.

Legal Risk Management of the Telecommunication Companies Regarding the Resolution of the Consumer Complaints - Focusing on the U.S. Telecommunication Consumer Protection and the Process of the Resolution of the Consumer Complaints -

Legal Risk Management of the Telecommunication Companies Regarding the Resolution of the Consumer Complaints - Focusing on the U.S. Telecommunication Consumer Protection and the Process of the Resolution of the Consumer Complaints -

The Interface of Law and Medical Ethics in Medical Intensive Care

The delivery of medical care in the intensive care setting is subject to various legal principles and processes, as well as important ethical precepts. This article outlines the basic medicine-law interface, explaining the concepts of medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine. It then provides fundamental information about the current American medical malpractice system, including a brief discussion of the elements of a medical malpractice claim, the public policy rationales and goals purportedly undergirding the system, and potential alternatives to the existing medical malpractice system in the United States. Recognizing that the challenge, in the entire range of intensive care as in other medical settings, is adhering in practice to ethical principles while at the same time trying to minimize the providers' possible exposure to legal risks, the article identifies a number of components to the art of delivering care ethically and effectively within a pervasive legal environment, as follows: interfacing positively with the institutional legal counsel and risk management departments; utilizing (as appropriate) clinical practice guidelines or parameters; and pursuing continuing medical-legal education.

Strengthening maturity levels by a legal assurance process

AbstractOne of the key elements for the viability of information system projects is given by the adoption of legal assurance activities and measures since nowadays they can arise legal risks that, in some cases, can suppose a serious threat for project commercial and financial success. When calculating the return of investment (ROI) for a software process improvement initiative, readers would not take care which are the cost issues impacting on such values, supposing the activities generating such value are referable only to the processes included in a Maturity Model (MM) such as CMMI or ISO 15504. During last years, moving from the initial Philip Crosby's idea for measuring and checking the organizational evolution of an organization, a plenty of MM have been created, but there is no news about a legal assurance (LAS) process that make more systematic the way legal risks are (or should be) managed. On the other hand, professional practice usually does not incorporate standardized processes in order to discipline the legal assurance activities and measures, returning a feeling for a lack of project legal security.This article proposes to take care of LAS process as an additional process area within an MM, in order to provide a suitable instrument for the management of inherent legal risks to any information systems project. After presenting main elements for this new process, it will be presented using the typical CMMI Process Area architecture, where it would be configurable as a support process at Maturity Level 2 (ML2). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The ten commandments of legal risk management

Effective legal risk management is not a separate field of endeavor. Rather, it is inextricably linked with good management and with ethical management; managers who behave professionally and according to ethically defensible principles of action are quite unlikely to find themselves and their organizations stuck in a legal and/or ethical quagmire. Behavioral decision theory offers some explanations for why those managers who go astray do so, but explaining how basic human tendencies, uncorrected, may incline us to questionable decisions is not to justify such decisions. Managers who follow the guidelines set forth in this article may nonetheless find themselves or their companies under assault in the law courts or the court of public opinion, but should such an unlikely event occur, they will be far more likely to be able to successfully defend themselves.

SLA: A legal assurance process model for software engineering management

AbstractThe legal assurance activities and measures are a key element for the viability of information systems projects because nowadays there can arise legal risks in some cases, which can be a serious threat for project commercial and financial success. In spite of this, there does not exist in the main evaluation and improvement processes models a process of legal assurance that systematizes and orders the activities and measures precisely by to manage such legal risks. On the other hand, the professional practice does not generally incorporate standardized processes in order to discipline the legal assurance activities and measures. This circumstance can generate the appearance of deficits in the project's legal security. This work proposes to consider the legal assurance activities and measures as a process to implement more in the evaluation and improvement processes models, with the objective to provide a suitable instrument for the management of inherent legal risks to any information systems project. This concept of the legal assurance activities and measures as a process allows the exceeding of the present reactivity characteristic of the effective professional practice and elevates it to proactive management, suitable for avoiding the legal risks that can threaten the project. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.