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In early 2016, representatives from a number of churches in Australia publicly stated that they would offer sanctuary to asylum seekers who were at risk of deportation to Nauru. These statements were made after the High Court handed down a decision which rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. The offer of sanctuary by certain churches in Australia is a significant development both legal and politically, particularly as the legality of sanctuary has never been tested under Australian law. This paper therefore addresses the legal concept of sanctuary as it applies to refugees and asylum seekers. It discusses the current legal position under the Australian Migration Act, the historical practice of sanctuary and its categorisation as an act of civil disobedience. In doing so, it will analyse the Sanctuary Movement in the United States in the 1980s as an analogous example of civil disobedience and to establish how this has been dealt with in another jurisdiction.

Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill, which has been reintroduced into parliament, is a deeply flawed piece of prospective legislation. The way in which it has been presented is different from what it actually does, and it dilutes the law’s ability to protect patients. It also attempts to solve a problem that does not exist. Moreover, the unintended consequences inherent in the Bill provide the potential for it to be actively harmful rather than benignly useless. This article identifies the myths propagated on behalf of the Bill, examines the current legal position and the Bill’s framework and argues that the Bill must not become law.

This article analyses the significance of changes to the law in Scotland dealing with stalking by outlining the previous legal position and examining the new legal rules and their impact. Stalking has been proven to be extremely harmful to the victims of the behaviour and their families, and proper legislative rules to deal with it in Scotland have been long overdue. The legislative protection required for stalking victims was introduced in 2010 and it now seems an opportune time to review the legal rules and their impact in protecting victims against stalkers in Scotland. In the process, consideration of statistical data concerning stalking prosecutions is also considered. The article also includes analysis of the legal position of stalking victims in England and Wales where new offences have recently been introduced.

How can we explain the emergence and evolvement of the overlaps between the Colombian Water and Sanitation Regulatory Commission (CRA) and the Constitutional Court? This paper shows the dominant literature's limitations in explaining these overlaps. By contrast, I argue that the "regulatory enterprise" approach developed by Tony Prosser (2010) and the theory of "institutional isomorphism" explained by DiMaggio and Powell (1991) are better equipped to offer plausible explanations. Moreover, I hypothesize that the lack of understanding regarding the differences between the role of a regulatory agency in developed countries and the role of a regulatory agency in Colombia is critical in these overlaps. The specific conditions that determine these differences are a precarious legislature, a "thick" constitution that includes several social rights, and an activist judicial enforcement of these rights. This qualitative research does not allow for generalizable conclusions. However, the intention of this study is to provide insights into the role and specific challenges for a regulatory agency in developing countries. Furthermore, this case study seeks to demonstrate that regulation researchers must focus on the political context to develop tools appropriate for evaluating regulatory agencies outside the developed world. (author's abstract)

The Commission on Assisted Dying was an unofficial body set up to investigate the legal position on assisted dying in the UK in the autumn of 2010. Its report was published to some degree of media attention in the first week of January 2012; its most headline-grabbing suggestion provided a framework setting out how British law might be reformed to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill. In this paper, I analyse some of the key points of the report and argue that it adds little that could settle – or even add to – the assisted dying debate.

The paper examines the ethical and legal background to the current debate in the Republic of Ireland on the use of human embryos and embryonic stem cells (hESC) for research. How should public policy be formed to balance the potential health benefits of such research against the moral values of 21st century Irish society? The legislature has failed to address the constitutional ambiguities that have contributed to the current uncertainty as to the legal position of hESC research in Ireland. In view of the challenges posed by hESC research, it is argued that an appropriate regulatory framework should be adopted in Ireland, which will bring a degree of certainty as to what is and is not permitted. In adopting such a framework, it is suggested that hESC research should be permitted on donated supernumerary embryos up to day-14 post fertilisation.

The ethics of creating ‘saviour siblings’ for the benefit of another has received much attention, but little consideration has been given to the legal position of those saviours born who may be asked to provide tissue for transplantation to another during childhood. This article examines the ethical issues surrounding minor donation as well as the existing legal framework in the UK and Australia that regulates minors providing tissue for the benefit of another. Against this background the position of minor saviours, who are called upon to donate bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells, is examined. This analysis suggests that the law does not provide sufficient protection for minor saviours who are called upon to donate to another. It is argued that specific ethical obligations are owed to saviours—that ought to be reflected in the law—in order to protect them from exploitation while they remain minors.

Abortion is controversial and often sparks polemic debate. Nevertheless, theatre staff need to know the different methods of abortion, to be aware of the current UK legal position and possible future directions. Theatre staff must be mindful of their own ethical and emotional position in order to play a vital role in making women attending for this surgery feel at ease during such an emotionally charged event.

The purpose of this research paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the scope of auditors' liability to third parties in Australia. In addition to examining the current legal position in Australia, the law on auditors' liability in other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and New Zealand, will be examined and compared to the extent of their influence on Australian laws. It is argued that auditors in Australia are subject to a greater scope of liability than in other countries. As a result, there is a need for reform of audit laws in Australia to limit the extent of auditors' liability. Further, it is submitted that the development of future auditing laws in Australia should allow for the appropriate consideration of international trends in limiting liability. It is also anticipated that the proposed reforms will adequately safeguard auditors from the threat of litigation by third parties, and ultimately ensure that the floodgates for liability in Australia are not opened to an indeterminate level.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism brought a radical change in the position of religion in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The legal position of the Churches changed to a model recognizing freedom of religion as a basic human right. Under these conditions in Eastern Europe, where the dominant religion was Orthodoxy, people moved towards that religion. The number of those who declared their belief in God and their adherence to the Orthodox tradition rose as dramatically as the number of atheists under communist persecution of religion. However, the nature of this religious revival, and the meaning of the “return” to Orthodoxy and being Orthodox, are unclear because the religiosity of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians also includes elements of New Age spirituality. Commitment to the Church, and the level of religious practice, are as low as in the most secularized Western European societies. Thus the author claims that, paradoxically, the picture of religiosity in countries where atheism was imposed for so many years is quite similar to that in countries where secularization has developed spontaneously.

The extramarital sexual underground is defined by its prevalence and by its secret nature, even to the degree that marriage counselors may not be informed that an extramarital affair has occurred or is occurring. Reasons for affairs and for secrecy are provided, and the identifying characteristics of extramarital affairs are described. The authors present ethical methods that can be used by marriage counselors to promote revelation ofsecret andpotentially detrimental extramarital affairs. A strict ethical and legal position is taken regarding counselor responsibilities.

The case is described of a naked sleepwalker who was convicted of indecent exposure. The literature relating to sleepwalking and indecent exposure is briefly reviewed and the legal position discussed. Sleepwalkers are seldom convicted of crimes which they commit while asleep. In recent years a successful defence has usually been mounted on the basis that sleepwalking is, in legal terms, an automatism. Occasionally, however, sleepwalkers are convicted and this report illustrates one such case.

Dr Jackson and Dr Warner (December 2002 JRSM1) point to large gaps in doctors' knowledge of consent and capacity. Two aspects of their project should, however, be questioned. First, the concept of a patient in whom capacity issues may be relevant is problematic. As White has pointed out,2 even if legal and ethical standards support a positive assumption regarding the decision-making competence of the patient, a physician, when seeking approval of a treatment plan, should always make sure that the patient possesses adequate decision-making abilities. Second, whatever the legal position, physicians and other healthcare professionals remain the ones who are responsible for the first-hand evaluation. When a court must decide on a decision-making-capacity issue, the judge depends almost exclusively on the evaluation made by the physician. Research must then look to the process of decision-making capacity of the patient as affected by special diseases. Marson et al. did this in Alzheimer's disease.3, 4, 5 Other researchers, myself included, are turning their attention to the ethico-clinical judgment of the physician. Doctors evaluate, almost daily, decision capacity issues. Taking into account the work of Schon, we hypothesize that physicians have expert knowledge of these matters, even if it is unconscious. Issues on ability to consent represent a challenge to every physician on a clinical ward, since all healthcare professionals are engaged in what should be an informed consent procedure with their patients.

The legal status of trade unions has been the subject of judicial comment and legislation in both Britain and Australia in recent years. This paper examines the significance of this issue. An outline of the current law in both countries is prefaced by a summary of the status established under the original Trade Union Acts. The present legal position is discussed against the background of proposals for changes in the law in the last decade and the policy behind the changes that have in fact occurred. In conclusion it is suggested that providing the most appropriate legal status is not a simple technical matter; the status provided is indicative of wider judicial and legislative policy towards trade unions in particular and collective labour relations in general.

This article analyzes the social, economic, and legal position of Parisian widows in the second half of the sixteenth century. Three principal aspects of widowhood are discussed: the position of the widow in the break-up of the family's economic community that occurred with the death of the head of the household, the continuing role of the widow in the management of family properties, and the situation of the widow who remarried. The author argues that sixteenth-century notions of feminine frailty and the legal incapacity of married women in sixteenth- century Paris must be understood within the context of a traditional concern for the protection of the family line and property, and that there is an ironic contrast between the presumed frailty of the female sex and the important responsibilities for the management of family affairs and property with which widows were in fact entrusted.

Although in many states the clergy enjoy certain legal protection of privileged communications that psychotherapists do not, their legal position may have many limitations. Pastoral counselors need to join with other mental health professionals in securing a broadly defined psychotherapist-patient privilege for therapeutic communications.

by Laso Enrique SayaguesA concise analysis of the legal position of Uruguayan « entes autonomos », i.e. the public agencies, most of them with economic objectives, similar to what is known in France as « public establishments » and elsewhere as « self-governing agencies » or « public corporations ».They first made their appearance in the middle of the XIXth century, and are mainly of two types. Some have banking prerogatives, e.g. the National Bank which also deals with currency; « Banco de Seguros », holding a monopoly of almost all insurance; the Postal Savings Bank; the « Banco Hipotecario », granting mortgage loans. Other « entes autonomos » are industrial or commercial in character, such as the monopoly for production of electric power and for telecommunications; that of alcohol and intoxicating beverages, the sale of fuel by-products of mineral oil and of cement used in public works; the National Ports Authority; the railways; the Sanitary Works, which control the supply of water; the control of imp...