Search

There seems to be no consensus among comparatists as to the meaning we should give to the expressions «mixed legal system» or «mixed jurisdictions» (they are frequently used interchangeably) but the issues at stake can be put into sharper focus. Unfortunately the classification schemes of mainstream comparative law afford almost no scope to the mixed systems and hardly venture into this subject. There are nevertheless two rival theories as to what these terms actually mean and how they should be applied. They give us different answers to the questions «What is a mixed jurisdiction and who is a mixed-jurisdiction jurist? On the one hand, scholars influenced by legal pluralism often entertain a wide conception of a mixed system. The sole requirement is the presence or interaction of two or more kinds of laws or legal traditions within a system. According to this viewpoint any interaction of laws of a different type or source - indigenous with exogenous, religious with customary - is sufficient to constitute a mixed legal system. This view revolutionizes the legal map offered by mainstream comparative law and leads to important insights that apply to European systems as well, but it has not yet succeeded in putting the resulting proliferation of mixed legal systems into any useful order for the purposes of comparative law. Other scholars on the other hand, particularly those inside classical mixed jurisdictions such as Scotland and Louisiana, have used a restricted and narrower notion of a mixed legal system. For the purposes of research or comparative law theory they have tended to limit this category to private-law systems based upon a core of common law and civil law elements, and other shared features stemming from this mixture. The paper traces the origins of this narrower approach and discusses the benefits of recent research comparing these kinds of jurisdictions. An attempt is made to reconcile the rival theories and to indicate that the classical mixed jurisdictions are a genus of the mixed species, and that the raison d'être of complex plural systems around the world with various «personal laws» is not that different than the reasons which led to the founding of the classical mixed systems. It is argued that comparative law research in the classic mixed systems is therefore strengthened by plurality consciousness and non-western elements in their legal order should not be ignored, for example in countries such as South Africa and Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of recovery and the role of vulnerability in suffering. It examines our overall discomfort with vulnerability in the context of narratives of violence, disorder, and the everyday. This discomfort is explored through a voyage of three narrative types: testimony, chaos, and restitution narratives (Frank, 1995). The article offers that while loss and narrative despair are the characteristic response of vulnerability storytelling does not always, contrary to dominant perspectives in narrative therapy and practice, result in narrative repair. Narrative despair--the pain, mourning, grief, and loss involved in telling stories--is central to a recovery of vulnerability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let P be a submanifold properly immersed in a rotationally symmetric manifold having a pole and endowed with a weight e h. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, by assuming certain control on the h -mean curvature of P , we establish comparisons for the h -capacity of extrinsic balls in P , from which we deduce criteria ensuring the h -parabolicity or h -hyperbolicity of P. Second, we employ functions with geometric meaning to describe submanifolds of bounded h -mean curvature which are confined into some regions of the ambient manifold. As a consequence, we derive half-space and Bernstein-type theorems generalizing previous ones. Our results apply for some relevant h -minimal submanifolds appearing in the singularity theory of the mean curvature flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The general practitioner's (GP) role in advance care planning is commonly tied to their knowledge of the patient and the family, but with limited attention to the nature of this knowing or the expectations it may give rise to (2012). GPs are often involved in advance care planning with the aim of having the patient complete formal documentation (2012). This paper proposes a broader role for the GP based on findings from a PhD study exploring older people's understandings of decision making in incompetence. Aim To explore patient's understanding of the GP's role in decision making in incompetence. Methods In-depth interviews with 19 people, aged ≥65 years, recruited from five general practices analysed using Giligan's (Gilligan et al., 2006) listening guide. Results Participants distinguished between their GP and other doctors. Participants described their relationship with their GP as grounds for providing the GP with a distinct role in the event of their future incompetence. Participants expected this relationship to inform the way their GP approached advance care planning. Discussion Participants expected the GP to have a richer role reflective than they are commonly provided. Relational ethics and the concept of 'generalism' provide a theoretical basis for expanding the GP's role. Conclusion Current characterisations of the GP's role overlook much of what they can bring to the process of advance care planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]