Legislation

About: Legislation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 62664 publications have been published within this topic receiving 585188 citations. The topic is also known as: law & act.

Prostitution on Demand

Abstract: Research, programs, and legislation related to sex trafficking are often premised on the invisibility of the male buyer and the failure to address men’s role in buying and abusing women in prostitution. Governments, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and others act as if the male demand for sexual exploitation is insignificant, or that prostitution is so entrenched because, after all, “men will be men.” Little research on trafficking has focused on the so-called customer as a root cause of trafficking and sexual exploitation. And even less legislation has penalized the male customer whose right to buy women and children for prostitution activities remains unquestioned. This article looks at the demand—its meaning, the myths that rationalize why men buy women in prostitution, qualitative information on the buyers in two studies conducted by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)—as well as best practices that address the gender of demand.

Characteristics of private medical practice in India: a provider perspective.

Abstract: Supply factors, depicted by input market conditions and government regulations, and demand factors, depicted by financing mechanisms and utilization patterns, are likely to determine the shape and character of private medical practice. The interaction of this complex set of factors will have considerable implications for the cost access and quality of services offered by this sector. Understanding these characteristics from a provider perspective is imperative to influence the behaviour of providers in this sector. This paper describes some of the important characteristics of private medical practice using a case study of an urban district in India, Ahmedabad, and analyzes their implications. Using survey data of 130 private doctors in the allopathic system, the paper describes broad characteristics of private medical practice using parameters such as growth of private practice, patient load and referrals within the sector, payment methods and determinants, patient concerns, and risks associated with private practice. The paper presents views on the prevalence of various undesirable practices in the private medical sector. It also discusses the awareness of providers about selected important regulations. The findings suggest that growing capital intensity due to cost of location, medical equipment and technology, and financial sources of capital investments are some unfavourable environmental factors experienced by private providers. The findings also indicate a high prevalence of various undesirable practices and low awareness of the objectives of important legislation among practicing doctors. Lack of awareness of important and relevant legislation raises serious questions about the implementation of these laws. The paper identifies the strong need for instituting and implementing an effective continuing medical education programme for practicing doctors, and linking it with their registration and continuation of their license to practice. The paper also suggests that cost of health care, access and quality problems will worsen with the growth of the private sector. The public policy response to check some of the undesirable consequences of this growth is critical and should focus on strengthening the existing institutional mechanisms to protect patients, developing and implementing an appropriate regulatory framework and strengthening the public health care delivery system. The study also discusses various other policy implications arising.

Normative Hierarchy in International Law

Abstract: Systems of law usually establish a hierarchy of norms based on the particular source from which the norms derive. In national legal systems, it is commonplace for the fundamental values of society to be given constitutional status and afforded precedence in the event of a conflict with norms enacted by legislation or adopted by administrative regulation; administrative rules themselves must conform to legislative mandates, while written law usually takes precedence over unwritten law and legal norms prevail over nonlegal (political or moral) rules. Norms of equal status must be balanced and reconciled to the extent possible. The mode of legal reasoning applied in practice is thus naturally hierarchical, establishing relationships and order between normative statements and levels of authority.

Issue Unbundling via Citizens' initiatives

Abstract: The role of citizens' intitiatives figures prominantly in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This Paper offers one answer to this question. In a representative democracy, the bundling of issues, together with the fact that citizens have only one vote, means that policy outcomes on specific issues may diverge far from what the majority of citizens want. In such circumstances, allowing citizens to put legislation directly on the ballot permits the 'unbundling' of these issues, which forces a closer relationship between policy outcomes and popular preferences. To the extent that it is condsidered socially undesirable for outcomes on specific issues to stray too far from what the majority wants, this creates a role for citizens initiatives.