Suchergebnisse

In a remarkably frank paper, Professor Andrew Burrows has shed some light on the process by which awards for non-pecuniary loss in personal injury cases were uplifted in Heil v Rankin, a process in which he played a leading role as a Law Commissioner. In apparent disregard of the criticisms to which this process has been subjected, Burrows regards it as an example of a valuable 'methodology' of common law law reform. These criticisms are reviewed in this paper and to them is added a criticism of the concept of 'normal decision-making' by the courts that is the basis of Burrows' views. Heil v Rankin was far from normal decision-making, but in this it was merely of a piece with all awards of damages for non-pecuniary loss, for such damages have no grounding in the common law adjudication of awards of compensation. The further development in Simmons v Castle of the judicial legislation effected in Heil v Rankin is also considered.

In the major industrialised nations of the Northern Hemisphere, it is now being recognised that the problem of work-related illness is one of considerable dimensions. Despite the advantage New Zealand enjoys with its Accident Compensation legislation, in such matters, we lag behind the best of overseas practice. The article examines the part that recognition of such illnesses for compensation purposes plays in highlighting the need for preventive measures and suggests that, unless more effort is put into research into causation and allied problems, the work connection will not be established. Thus, not only will compensation not be paid but also, preventive measures will not be instituted.

Archbishop James Ussher's manuscript notebooks allow us to observe the making of a Calvinist absolutist and to orientate the archbishop's beliefs about royal power within European Reformed thought as a whole. By 1643, Ussher was preaching a polished and complete theory of absolute royal power, and it is possible to track the development of this political theory forward from his undergraduate days in the 1590s. Throughout his life Ussher engaged anxiously with Reformed theologians abroad, who generally favored limited rather than absolute monarchy. Nevertheless, Ussher shared with these Reformed colleagues both an antipathy to aspects of Aristotelian politics and a commitment to the divine institution of royal power. Finally, despite Ussher's hostility to Laudian innovations in the Irish Church, his heartfelt political beliefs made him a firm supporter of Stuart absolutism throughout the Three Kingdoms.