Suchergebnisse

Revised in 1959 and co-authored by Irving Seidman and Lester Horwitz. ; Mode of access: Internet.

The article discusses the implementation of legislation concerning "dangerous drugs" in Australia from the 1930s. Although these laws and regulations clearly prohibited their consumption for non-medical purposes and their prescription "merely for the purposes of addiction," a system developed which nevertheless allowed the continued maintenance of addicts under medical supervision and remained in place until the 1960s. Contrasts are drawn between the image of evil drug use, which was addressed by legislation and condemned by politicians, and the reality of addiction in Australia, which was in practice tolerated and treated as an illness rather than as a vice. The existence of this double standard is used to highlight the fact that the reality of drug use and drug enforcement cannot simply be gleaned by interpreting laws: their administration and the social practices with which they must interact often change and modify their effect in a complex manner.

Amici curiae are persons interested in a trial but not party to it that submit an unsolicited written brief or make an oral statement before the bench. The widespread possibility to submit amicus curiae briefs in international courts and tribunals is a recent phenomenon. Traditionally international procedures did not allow this kind of intervention. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of this evolution and assess the functioning of the new procedures. It does this by looking comparatively at several courts and tribunals, in order to get a picture of the commonalities and common problems surrounding this general development. Two sets of questions are considered, the first centered on issues of transparency and public participation, the second on the rights of the parties. Among the elements that deal with public participation, the paper examines the clarity of the procedures, the equality of the treatment of all the interested entities, the conditions and reasons for accepting or refusing the proposed amici, and the inclusion of the amici submissions in the text of the final decision. The other set of questions, concerning the rights and interests of the parties to the dispute, includes their role in the submission phase and their interest in efficient proceedings. In answering these questions, serious issues of transparency, publicity, and the political role of states acting as amici emerge. The paper concludes that further reflection is necessary on the origins of these problems, but that a first, important step can be achieved by addressing these procedural issues.

John Rawls and Alasdair Macintyre are usually portrayed as opponents in the liberal-communitarian debate. However, Stanley Cavell's critique of Rawls' early paper "Two Concepts of Rules", helps us recognize a similarity between their accounts of rules, games and practices and the role that these play in moral life. This paper shows that both authors pay insufficient attention to personal relationships, the flexibility of our moral life, and the need to take responsibility for our moral positions. A scene from Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" is used to show how this presents a serious problem for Macintyre's model of tradition-based moral reasoning.

To be good citizens or statespersons, we need practical wisdom-the moral skill and will to know how to do the right thing in particular situations. Institutions work best when they cultivate practitioners who have the wisdom and judgment to choose the right aims and pursue them in the best way possible. Practical wisdom can be destroyed, however, when institutions rely too heavily on rules and incentives that encourage people to compete for extrinsic rewards or to avoid punishments. This text focuses on the ethical implications of institutional failures and identifies competitive utility-maximizing as a frequent source of such failures.

Instead of seeing the family as a 'monolithic' entity, as though separate from its surroundings, this new approach draws attention to assemblages of various types that in different constellations and through different transactions relate people to each other as families and kin