New Horizons or Business as Usual? New Zealand's Medico-Legal Response to Digital Harm

A socio-legal commentary, this article examines the emerging issue of digital harm in New Zealand's health settings. There are recent cases, and an increasing number of them, demonstrating the medico-legal response to various forms of digital harm. Of these, several representative cases are considered in order to identify features of digital harm within the health context. The article questions whether this is a new type of harm, enabled by the creation of new technologies, or simply a different manifestation of conventional unprofessional or unethical behaviour. The article considers whether the existing medico-legal framework can appropriately respond to this harm and whether new legal or policy tools are required. The cases suggest that the rights and disciplinary systems in place can adequately deal with digital harm within their existing scopes, particularly when individuals have been harmed. However, gaps in the legal framework are identified, with particular reference to the actions of unregistered providers and harm to professions. Further, a future challenge for the system may be the response to COVID-19 vaccine denial and misinformation. As the legal response to digital harm in the health context is a relatively unexamined area of research, this work may guide future research.

The most diverse, tech-savvy, anxious, and socially conscious generation to date is entering the legal profession

GENERATIONAL THEORY Researchers William Strauss and Neil Howe pioneered the study of what they deemed "peer personalities" and how each generation's experiences of certain major events affect their values and behavior.3 Generally speaking, a generation is defined as the entire body of people born and living at about the same time and spans between 14 and 20 years.4 According to Strauss and Howe, as well as others who have studied the phenomenon, generational differences naturally develop based on the unique historical and cultural events that occur and the age of the individuals experiencing them.5 Although some of the dates vary slightly depending on the source, American researchers have identified the following generations since 1901: * The "Greatest Generation," born 1901-1924 * The "Silent Generation," born 1925-1945 * "Baby Boomers," born 1946-1964 * "Generation X," born 1965-1980 * "Millennials," born 1981-1994 * "Generation Z" or "Zoomers," born 1995-20126 Each of these eras produced what researchers refer to as "cohort identity" for the individuals of that generation.7 For example, members of the Silent Generation were book-marked between the Great Depression and World War II, while members of Generation X came of age during a resurgent consumer economy and the dawn of the digital age. Having these unique experiences at roughly the same age affects how one generation parents the next, which in turn produces another unique set of individuals with shared experiences.8 The Zoomer generation is smart, technologically savvy, and determined to change the world.9 In court, as in life, judges will be better able to communicate with this newest crop of young adults by understanding what motivates them and how they are different from older participants in the judicial process. Simply placing an entire group of people in a bucket based on a generational stereotype does a disservice to any industry attempting to prepare for or adapt to demographic change.14 Thus, labeling Millennials as lazy and entitled is just as erroneous as assuming every member of Gen Z is an ardent liberal.15 A trial judge should always be wary of such "generational hype. Generation Z has been called "a worried generation," reporting high rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.17 From 1991 to 2015, the percentage of youths reporting being "very happy" declined sharply18 We have yet to experience the full aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which already isolated young people became even more separated from each other as well as from society as a whole.

A Will and a Way: Making Displaced Children's Right to Education Enforceable

All children have the right to education without discrimination, but half of refugee children are out of school, far worse than global averages. Obstacles to education for refugee and migrant children include poverty and overstretched resources in host countries, and humanitarian donors and agencies have important roles and should ensure the right to education. However, policy barriers to education are key drivers of the education crisis facing displaced children. These policy barriers are internationally unlawful, but the children affected often lack standing under domestic law to demand a remedy. Countries with laws enshrining migrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee children's rights to education and the European Union's response to Ukrainian refugee learners provide examples that advocates can use to help raise the global floor for displaced children's right to education. Advocates should press all countries to grant all children, including migrants and refugees, the enforceable right to education in domestic law.

Direct Digital Services Taxes in Africa and the Canons of Taxation

The unprecedented expansion of the digital economy has increased the intricacy of mobilising tax revenues from both domestic and international transactions. Tax evasion and avoidance are perpetuated by the invisible nature of digital transactions. To minimise the untapped revenues, countries all over the world are mapping policy strategies on how to collect revenue from this sector. African countries are not an exception. They have constructed digital tax policies to levy both direct and indirect taxes on digital transactions. This paper focuses on direct digital service taxes (DSTs). Direct digital service taxes have been an issue of debate among governments, policy makers, academics, tax bodies, and development organisations. Disagreements coalesce around their structure, their adherence to the canons of taxation, opportunities, and challenges as well as consequences of implementing them. Through a literature review, this paper assesses the legislative structure and administration of digital service taxes in relation to the canons of taxation. The findings of the review were conflicting. While certain aspects, motives, and possible outcomes of the taxes upheld the principles of taxation, some of these were conflicting with the principles. This could possibly be linked to variations in the economic, political, and social contexts in African countries and between developed and developing countries. The study recommends that while digital service taxes are an irrefutable necessity to tap tax revenues from the digital economy, African countries should ensure that equity, neutrality, economy, and efficiency among other principles are considered and balanced with the fundamental roles of tax policy.

Don’t Read the Comments: Examining Social Media Discourse on Trans Athletes

How are transgender athletes understood in popular discourse? This paper adapts and merges Glaser and Strauss’ 1967 Grounded Theory Method with computerized Automated Text Analysis to provide clarity on large-n datasets comprised of social media posts made about transgender athletes. After outlining the procedures of this new approach to social media data, I present findings from a study conducted on comments made in response to YouTube videos reporting transgender athletes. A total of 60,000 comments made on three YouTube videos were scraped for the analysis, which proceeded in two steps. The first was an iterative, grounded analysis of the top 500 “liked” comments to gain insight into the trends that emerged. Automated Text Analysis was then used to explore latent connections amongst the 60,000 comments. This descriptive analysis of thousands of datapoints revealed three dominant ways that people talk about transgender athletes: an attachment to biology as determinative of athletic abilities, a racialized understanding of who constitutes a proper “girl”, and perceptions of sex-segregated sports as the sole way to ensure fairness in athletic opportunities. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of this research for how scholars understand the obstacles facing transgender political mobilizations, presents strategies for addressing these roadblocks, and underscores the importance of descriptive studies of discourse in political science research concerned with marginalization and inequality.

JUDICIAL HONORS

The Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) honored Judge MARY JANE TRAPP of Florida's 11th District Court of Appeals with the Ohio Bar Medal. U.S. District Court Judge J. MICHELLE CHILDS of the District of South Carolina received the South Carolina Association for Justice's Outstanding Contribution to Justice Award. Retired Judge LESLIE E. STEIN of the New York Court of Appeals was selected to receive the Ruth G. Schapiro Memorial Award from the New York State Bar Association's Women in Law Section.

One of the most rewarding things I've done as a judge

Thanks to Jim and his bold idea - and the resulting national civics initiative for young people that the FBA created - federal judges across the United States have had the opportunity to personally meet with thousands of young people, in courtrooms and classrooms, to talk about the rule of law, separation of powers, the federal courts, justice, and due process, among many other topics. By the FBA's calculation, about 10,000 students met with a federal judge in school year 2016-2017, a number that increased by thousands in the following years.5 During my year as FBA president, in addition to encouraging judges to personally meet with students, the FBA also engaged in other efforts to increase exposure to the Third Branch: 1. During these visits, students met with one or more district judges and magistrate judges, as well as representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Federal Public Defender's Office, Probation/ Pretrial Services, the Clerk's Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The websites provide constitutional and other educational materials to teachers and students;the civics committees ensure that civics education remains an important part of the court's work.9 Magistrate Judge Training All newly appointed magistrate judges attend two weeks of training sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center (FJC).

Do remote hearings help - or hurt - access to justice?

In the spring of 2021, Rulo Strategies, in collaboration with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and Wayne State University, initiated a large-scale, national examination of remote court hearings practices in treatment court settings. ADDRESSING ACCESS TO JUSTICE A common critique of treatment court and other diversion programs is that they are not accessible to everyone who is eligible to participate. Virtual service delivery has the potential to increase the number of individuals eligible to participate in such programs because it may mitigate obstacles that have historically been barriers to participation, such as lack of transportation to court or competing work or family obligations. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS Additional research is needed to determine how litigants in other matters, including civil and criminal cases, prefer to attend court;how virtual hearings impact perceptions of procedural justice;and how to appropriately expand the use of remote technology while addressing key constitutional and legal issues.

Oral argument at the Supreme Court before, during, and after the pandemic

[...]beginning this past fall, the justices returned to the courtroom, assuming a "hybrid" model that retains both pre-pandemic and telephonic elements: [...]in what proved to be one of his last exchanges with some of his colleagues, the late WALTER DELLINGER, a former acting solicitor general of the United States and a much beloved Duke Law professor who had himself argued 24 cases before the Supreme Court, moderated. [...]the Court builds in quite a bit of time to read and distill those documents - along, of course, with the amicus briefs - before oral argument. [...]I think there are the difficult cases where the Court actually may come out one way or the other based on how oral argument goes, either because the question is just exceptionally close and vexing, or because it's an area of law where the justices may not have as much familiarity - for example, when they deal with a new statute or an arcane area of law. In those cases, the justices are learning more at argument about either the law or the real world as it applies to that legal issue. When representing institutional clients like the federal government, it often matters a lot more what the Court says by way of reasoning than whether a particular conviction is upheld, a particular individual recovers damages, or even whether or not a particular law is upheld.

Pandemic Spurs Technology Revolution in State Civil Courts

In particular, online tools have the potential to help a core group of litigants - those without attorneys. Because civil courts do not provide lawyers for those who cannot afford one, roughly 30 million Americans each year must navigate potentially life-altering legal matters, including eviction, debt collection, and child support, on their own. Before the pandemic, 37 states and D.C. allowed people without lawyers to electronically file court documents in at least some civil cases. Since March 2020, 10 additional states have created e-filing processes, according to Pew's review of state court pandemic emergency orders. ERIKA RICKARD is the director and QUDSIYA NAQUI is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts' civil legal system modernization project. Since March 2020, 10 additional states have created e-filing processes, and 11 states and D.C. have made pandemic-driven changes to their policies on e-notarization.

Some Implications of the Development of E-Commerce on EU Tax Regulations

E-commerce has progressed within Europe before, on the basis of the pre-pandemic raise, with COVID-19 determining an explosion of its evolution. The European e-commerce market is very important, linking together more than 500 million consumers. This paper presents the results of assessing the guidelines and trends observed in the European regulatory process in the current period, when e-commerce is developing appreciably, studying the applicable legal norms and their effects on facilitating the control of remote payments. Compliance with the VAT (value-added tax) regime is addressed in the context described by the two important categories of active legal rules: the rules for consumer protection and the rules related to ensuring data protection. The investigation of the legal framework in this regard started from the presupposition that the necessary changes in regulation for facilitating e-commerce are capable to determine indirect changes in many aspects of financial rules and taxation. While analyzing the regulation of online trade, the various measures undertaken recently in respect to European sources of law and their implications for national legal framework opened additional directions of investigation. This paper points out the indirect effect of e-commerce development on the regulatory framework, both in the area of consumer protection and in line with the difficult balance between the right to information and protection of data. The fiscal effects of e-commerce payments and the challenges for the value-added tax regime are also addressed, both from a theoretical point of view and with input from the Court of Justice of the European Union’s jurisprudence. The analyzed documents show that, in this respect, the legal reform will go deeper and will continue with the rhythm of the development of the online activities.

The Challenges of Political Corruption in Australia, the Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill (2020) and the Application of the APUNCAC

Political corruption affects each nation-state differently, but the outcomes are nominally the same: a deficit of public trust, weakened government institutions and undermined political systems. This article analyzes issues of political corruption in Australia by framing them within a national integrity ecosystem (NIE) and addressing them against the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) 2020 bill. It also discusses prevalent ‘grey’ areas of Australian politically-corrupt behavior where they interact with the private sector: the revolving door, political donations, and lobbying;and the state of Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. This article argues for their inclusion within the mandated scope of the proposed CIC. There is a need for strong legislation, both domestic and international, to fight corruption. This article then discusses the application of the provisions of the draft Anticorruption Protocol to the UN Convention Against Corruption (APUNCAC) that may apply with respect to these ‘grey’ issues, and how an International Anti-Corruption Court may provide another institutional model for Australia to follow. Finally, this article links these proposals to the 2021 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Corruption and the 9th Conference of States Parties on the UNCAC (COSP9). These events illustrate multilateral momentum and progress on anti-corruption. As a country that has historically supported the UN multilateral framework and its institutions, this article recommends a proactive approach for Australia so that the passing of a strong domestic anticorruption initiative will contribute to the adoption, and eventual ratification, of the APUNCAC.

Medical Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Legal Aspects and Future Prospects)

Background: Cutting-edge digital technologies are being actively introduced into healthcare. The recent successful efforts of artificial intelligence in diagnosing, predicting and studying diseases, as well as in surgical assisting demonstrate its high efficiency. The AI’s ability to promptly take decisions and learn independently has motivated large corporations to focus on its development and gradual introduction into everyday life. Legal aspects of medical activities are of particular importance, yet the legal regulation of AI’s performance in healthcare is still in its infancy. The state is to a considerable extent responsible for the formation of a legal regime that would meet the needs of modern society (digital society). Objective: This study aims to determine the possible modes of AI’s functioning, to identify the participants in medical-legal relations, to define the legal personality of AI and circumscribe the scope of its competencies. Of importance is the issue of determining the grounds for imposing legal liability on persons responsible for the performance of an AI system. Results: The present study identifies the prospects for a legal assessment of AI applications in medicine. The article reviews the sources of legal regulation of AI, including the unique sources of law sanctioned by the state. Particular focus is placed on medical-legal customs and medical practices. Conclusions: The presented analysis has allowed formulating the approaches to the legal regulation of AI in healthcare.

Privacy, Porn, and Gay Sex Parties: The Carceral Governance of Homosexuality in Indonesia

This article examines how the recent Indonesian Pornography Law renders homosexuality and/or homosexual acts intelligible to the Indonesia state and society by institutionalising them as criminal offences. By drawing on insights from queer studies and exploring the cases of gay arrests in the country, I demonstrate that certain same-sex sexual acts are more susceptible to criminalisation, especially when those acts blur the distinction between public and private. The deployment of the Pornography Law against gay people, together with the anti-LGBT media environment in the country, has carried consequences for LGBT individuals, particularly gay people, by making them visible, legible, and thus subject to state surveillance and control.

Restorative Practice in the Criminal Justice System: Examining a Restorative Reasoning Programme in a Women’s Prison

This paper is an analysis of a six-week Restorative Reasoning Programme that took place with 13 women in a UK women’s prison. It is an exploratory evaluation based on an adapted version of the QUALIPREV scheme. This two-stage evaluation examines both the processes of the programme, in terms of how well it ran, as well as the outcomes of the programme, in terms of how effective it was in supporting the women to address problem behaviours. Data comprise interviews with the two programme designers and facilitators and with two Prison staff responsible for activities and training;the programme materials used during the scheme;session evaluation forms;and post-programme self-completion reflections from the women engaged in the programme. Overall, the scheme had a range of positive impacts for the women: many expressed a change in attitude, including being more open for discourse and discussion around the harm they may have caused, being more willing to consider the repair needed in their personal relationships, and in some cases seeking subsequent referrals for further restorative work.

The Regulation of Media and Communications in the Borderless Networked Society

[...]these environments are a materialization of the specific spatio-temporal relationships afforded by each complex of media forms. Harold Innis, McLuhan’s intellectual precursor at the University of Toronto, produced an eclectic set of historical analyses that considered how different media shaped social, economic, juridical, epistemic relations in time and space, producing the “habits of mind” that linked, and often coordinated, individual behavior and social structures (i.e., legal systems). [...]the technological mediation of information, and, as a consequence, knowledge itself, are core to the media-theoretical perspective identified by Innis and McLuhan. In an era where borders are central mediating points in the global economy, a vast array of disciplines can benefit from thinking about borders in “media-theoretical” terms—emphasizing circulation, movement and temporality as core factors in considering regulatory stakes for future media technologies.