Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Materials For Presentation: Water Banks: Voluntary And Flexible Water Supplies For The Colorado River's Uncertain Future [Outline], Robert Wigington

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

"Robert Wigington, The Nature Conservancy"

Slides: Water Banks: Voluntary And Flexible Water Supplies For The Colorado River's Uncertain Future, Robert Wigington

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Robert Wigington, The Nature Conservancy

7 slides

Slides: Law Of Colorado River: Where We Are, Where We Are Going, Steven M. Fitten

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Steven M. Fitten, Chief Counsel, International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC)

14 slides

Agenda: Navigating The Future Of The Colorado River, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Policy Program

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Competition for scarce Colorado River water resources is nothing new, but the conflicts that prompted the seven basin states to negotiate the 1922 Colorado River Compact have grown considerably fiercer and more complex in recent decades. In 2007, responding to the challenges of increasing demand and sustained drought, the seven basin states and a number of other affected interests agreed to a set of interim guidelines for allocating Colorado River water in the event of shortages. This agreement represents an important evolution in the governance of the Colorado River, suggesting that the many interests in the basin can work together …

Report Surveys Colorado River Basin Leaders: Collaborative Approaches To Dwindling Supplies Are Highlighted, Sarah Bates, University Of Montana Missoula. Center For Natural Resources And Environmental Policy

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

Press release "April 14, 2011"

"Executive Summary April 2011" of report, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders' Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management

Full report available at:

http://www.carpediemwest.org/wp-content/uploads/Thinking_Like_A_River_Basin_8-20-13.pdf

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In France, Part Ii: Compensation Based On National Solidarity, Geneviève Helleringer

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In France, distinctively from the compensation process by insurers of liable professionals, compensation of the victim will in certain cases such as medical hazards, hospital-acquired infections, blood-transfusion infections, result from a compensation scheme similar to that available for victims of terrorism and crimes. It is based on national solidarity and dispensed by the National Fund for Compensation of Medical Accidents (ONIAM). The growing importance of such a compensation scheme may appear to be a double-edged evolution. On one hand, it has improved the status of victims of medical harms; they are increasingly integrally compensated more quickly and under more flexible …

Death Penalty Sentencing In Japan Under The Lay Assessor System: Avoiding The Avoidable Through Unanimity, Elizabeth M. Sher

Washington International Law Journal

The Lay Assessor Act of 2004 mandated the creation of a mixed lay judge system, called the saibanin seido. Under this new system, jurors, or lay judges, sit with professional judges to decide the fate of criminal defendants. The Lay Assessor Act requires lay judges to decide both the verdict and sentencing of defendants in the same sitting. The verdict and sentence require support from a majority of the jurors and must include one professional judge on the panel. For certain crimes in Japan, the death penalty is one possible sentence. Under the saibanin seido system, for the first …

Labor Relations And Labor Law In Japan, Atsushi Tsuneki, Manabu Matsunaka

Washington International Law Journal

This article builds on a rationalistic understanding of Japanese employment customs to argue that, up until the 1990s, Japanese labor law facilitated private bargaining instead of engineering a desired outcome directly through legal regulations. Through this indirect approach toward labor relations, at least part of Japanese labor law made a highly positive contribution to the attainment of economic efficiency. After the 1990s, the merits of Japanese employment customs diminished and needed reform. While such reforms were made in some aspects, Japanese labor law has taken the stance of directly regulating the economy, particularly in the area of employment protection and …

The Problem Of Enforcing Nature's Rights Under Ecuador's Constitution: Why The 2008 Environmental Amendments Have No Bite, Mary Elizabeth Whittenmore

Washington International Law Journal

In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation to give rights to nature when it ratified constitutional amendments (new articles 71-74) that grant the environment the inalienable right to exist, persist, and be respected. Environmentalists hope Ecuador’s amendments will lead to improvement in a country devastated by resource exploitation, and that other countries will follow. Yet, many wonder whether the amendments will be enforced. This comment argues that—all things considered—successful execution of the amendments is unlikely. Ecuador’s President has not demonstrated a sincere intention or ability to implement the amendments. Further, plaintiffs who sue under the amendments face significant legal barriers, …

Legal Compliance And Korea's Financial Services Market: A Strategic Approach, Young-Cheol Jeong

Washington International Law Journal

The purpose of this paper is to improve the compliance level in the Korean financial services market by proposing a more systematic approach to economic crimes. As one of the most important capital markets in Asia, the Korean financial services market has weathered well both the hardship of the Asian financial crisis and the challenges of the Great Recession. Thus, its policy directions and experience are valuable to other burgeoning capital markets around the world. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the compliance system in the Korean financial services market. Based on a literature review, this paper analyzes …

Canadian Medical Malpractice Law In 2011: Missing The Mark On Patient Safety, Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper surveys the current state of medical malpractice law in Canada, along with current evidence on adverse events in Canadian hospitals, medical clinics, and long-term care facilities. Though there is currently no "burning platform" to reform Canadian medical malpractice law, the authors raise concerns about the law's failure to deter medical malpractice, as well as concerns about access to justice issues facing victims of medical malpractice. Federal and provincial governments have tried to promote patient safety through various prevention strategies—for example, through the creation of Health Quality Councils, the dissemination of information on best practices, and tighter regulation of …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In France, Part I: The French Rules Of Medical Liability Since The Patients' Rights Law Of March 4, 2002, Florence G'Sell-Macrez

Chicago-Kent Law Review

While the French Law of medical malpractice had been mainly based on the Civil Code provisions related to contract law, the Patients Rights' Law of March 4, 2002 set forth general principles regarding the responsibility of health professionals and health institutions which are now in the Code of Public Health. The relatively new Law has modified the legal basis for medical liability, which is now regarded as a "legal regime" that is neither contractual nor tortious. The Patients' Rights Law of March 4, 2002 not only has reaffirmed the principle of fault-based liability in medical malpractice cases, but also allows …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In South Africa, L. C. Coetzee, Pieter Carstens

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article gives an overview of current medical malpractice law in South Africa. The following aspects are covered: The overall scheme for preventing and redressing medical errors and adverse events, including regulation, criminal and civil liability, and social and private insurance, and the relationships among these various systems; the details of the applicable liability and compensation systems, including criteria defining qualification for compensation, causation and "loss of chance," liability for failure to obtain informed consent, as well as matters of proof and gathering of evidence. The authors note the difficulty they had in obtaining empirical data on medical errors and …

Medical Malpractice In Austria, Bernhard A. Koch

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article presents the Austrian law governing compensation for medical malpractice in an overview. After a glimpse at the healthcare and social insurance system, the regulatory framework is outlined, with an obvious particular focus on tort and contract law. Apart from the special case where informed consent is lacking, the various elements of a claim that patients may have mirror the general requirements of tort and contract liability in Austria, which is why the brief sketch may also serve to give at least some basic insight into that part of the legal system in general. Furthermore, peculiar approaches in handling …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In Germany, Marc S. Stauch

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper offers an overview of the rules under German law for securing accountability and redress in cases of medical injury. It is divided into three main parts. Part I looks at the various legal consequences that may apply in such circumstances, including criminal and professional liability of the doctor, the bases for a private law claim by the patient, and the existence of pockets of non-fault based liability for injury from medical products. Part II then considers in greater detail the elements to be satisfied in respect to the two key forms of private law malpractice claim, namely faulty …

Medical Malpractice And Compensation In Poland, Kinga Bączyk-Rozwadowska

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Civil liability for medical malpractice in Poland can be either contractual or tortious. In practice, provisions of ex delicto liability are applied. Since June 2010, liability insurance is obligatory for all health care providers that render medical services in Poland. Tortious liability may be attributed to a doctor or a hospital when either's faulty acts or omissions result in the damage. A hospital may also have vicarious liability for injuries caused by its doctors and other medical staff. Fault usually consists of negligence, which is defined as failure to work with due care and diligence while treating a patient. Burden …

Treatment Injury In New Zealand, Stephen Todd

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The New Zealand accident compensation scheme makes provision for the payment of compensation to the victims of personal injury that is caused by medical treatment, but at the same time it bars actions for damages based upon such injury. This article gives a brief overview of the scheme as a whole and its relation- ship with the common law, and then focuses on the particular provisions governing medical injury. It includes discussion of the extent of the statutory cover, problems of causation, the operation of the medical scheme in practice, costs and funding, and issues of accountability. It ends with …

Discussion At Second U.S.-China Rule Of Law Dialogue, Stanley B. Lubman

Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies

Professor Cheng analyzes the foundation and structure of the present configuration of Chinese legal institutions and its desirable future in a very small number of pages--- a brave and suggestive approach. (I am avoiding the term “Chinese legal system” for reasons that will be clear.) She begins by noting NPC Chairman Wu Banguo’s recent statement that China has now created “a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics” (hereafter SSLCC).

Divorce And The Best Interest Of The Child: Disputes Over Visitation And The Japanese Family Courts, Takao Tanase, Matthew J. Mccauley

Washington International Law Journal

The following is a translation of an article written by Professor Takao Tanase for the December 2009 edition of Jiyū to Seigi, a Japanese legal periodical. Divorce and familial breakdown has become a major problem in modern Japanese society, yet the law does not provide any meaningful protection for the noncustodial parent. Professor Tanase analyzes this issue from a comparative and theoretical perspective, looking at the current Japanese visitation laws in place today, while contrasting those with the system in the United States. He also looks at how those laws affect actual families, and how the courts have implemented …

Divorce And The Welfare Of The Child In Japan, Matthew J. Mccauley

Washington International Law Journal

Current Japanese legal institutions are ill-equipped to resolve the complicated issues surrounding visitation, custody, and divorce. Japanese views toward family and society have changed greatly since the post-World War II family law was enacted in the 1950s, but the law has not evolved accordingly. This is especially clear in the methods used to determine custody and visitation, as well as the kyōgi rikon, or divorce by mutual consent system. Policy makers and activists are both working to resolve this problem, but their ongoing struggle has yet to produce any tangible results. This comment argues that the Japanese legal system …