Should treatments for covid-19 be denied to people who have refused to be vaccinated?

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by John Coggon, Professor, Law School, University of Bristol

Since the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic, urgent attention has been given to expediting the approval and provision of treatments that are shown to prevent or limit the harms that people experience when they contract covid-19. Such treatments have both reduced the burden of disease and lessened rates of mortality. As with any treatments within a healthcare system, these come against considerations of rationing and prioritisation. Any treatment is a finite resource, and in some instances there may be insufficient supply to provide it to all people who might benefit clinically. How, in such instances, may the NHS best, and most fairly, allocate a limited resource?1

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Study Skills Series: SQ3R

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by Robert Craig, University of Bristol Law School

[The introduction to the series can be found here]

One widely recommended way to try to distil complex texts into notes is called “the SQ3R method”. It means “Skim, Question, Read, Recall, Review”. Some of you may find it useful, but – again – don’t force yourself to do things that don’t work for you. In essence, the SQ3R method means you first Skim the whole chapter and make a note of the main section headings, so you have an overview. Then you ask yourself (“Question”) what you are trying to get from the material – try to identify a few main things you want to know after each subsection. Then you Read a small section of the chapter – say 3-4 pages – without taking notes. Then you look away and Recall the main points. Then you Review those points by writing down the main points in your own words and from memory. This is crucial. Don’t write out what the author of the textbook said. And try to use simple, clear sentences. Also consider using the dictation tool on Word – my note taking improved massively when I started using that.

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How does the UK promote migration whilst preserving the hostile environment? Inequality in the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration

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by Kathryn Allinson, University of Bristol, and Clara Della Croce, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Photo: David Mirzoeff/Global Justice Now

Introduction

The UK has adopted the Marrakesh Compact and agreed to implement the objectives which it sets out (see paragraph 41 of the Marrakesh Compact). The UK Government has repeatedly claimed that national policy is not in conflict with the Marrakesh Compact. Alistair Burt’s, Minister for the Middle East, written statement to Parliament on 10 December 2018 acknowledges that the UK is bound by existing human rights obligations, that these rights are owed specifically to migrants and that UK polices are in line with them. More recently, the UK’s 2020 report to the European Regional Review of the Marrakesh Compact, outlined that ‘the GCM is fully integrated into the UK policy architecture… GCM principles are reflected in wider UK migration policy and maintains senior official/ministerial focus on the GCM.’ The UK government consistently claims that UK policy is in line with the obligations in the Marrakesh Compact and that these are in accordance with international legal obligations owed to migrants. (more…)

Study Skill Series: How do I prepare for class?

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by Robert Craig, University of Bristol Law School

[The introduction to the series can be found here]

Preparing properly for synchronous sessions is essential for them to be useful for you and for others in the seminar – please make the effort to engage actively with your peers and academic tutor for both seminars and consolidation sessions. It is impossible to take any meaningful part in seminars without doing a significant amount of prereading and thinking before class. Going to seminars with insufficient preparation tends to be quite stressful for most people because it is quite hard to follow what is going on if you are not on top of the materials. (more…)

Capitalising spousal periodical payments on divorce: Is it time to include investment advice and ongoing costs?

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Professor Emma Hitchings, University of Bristol Law School

from http://401kcalculator.org/

When making financial orders on divorce, the case of Duxbury v Duxbury ([1992] Fam 62n, CA) introduced a calculation which provided a means to achieve a lump sum as an alternative to ongoing periodical payments (maintenance) between ex-spouses. This calculation enables couples to achieve a clean break (i.e. no ongoing financial ties after divorce), so that a lump sum is invested to provide a continuing annual income. In my recent Child and Family Law Quarterly article, on which this blog is based (‘Reconsidering the Duxbury Default’ [2021] CFLQ 275), I explore the Duxbury calculation in greater depth, presenting findings from an analysis of reported cases over the past 10 years and exploring why the courts appear reluctant to move away from it. However, in this blog, I want to focus on a practical concern arising from the continued use of Duxbury – the failure to provide for any allowance for costs incurred in setting up and running the invested funds and why this is important for those individuals who are required to invest a Duxbury lump sum to provide for future income. 

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Study Skills Series: An Introduction

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by Robert Craig, University of Bristol Law School

Picture by Jason Tong

 Welcome to the first in this series of short blogs on how to make the best use of your time as a law student. It aims to cover a number of topics and was originally written for my first year public lawyer students:

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Can collaboration between academics and non-profits help protect citizenship rights?

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Dr Rachel Pougnet, Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol

Building bridges between academia and non-profit organisations through partnerships is a critical tool to protect the ‘right to have rights’. These formal collaborations build on shared expertise and co-produce knowledge which can help to identify risks of statelessness, better inform government policies and hold governments to account. (more…)

Does UK government’s response to Afghan refugees belie its anti-refugee policies?

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by Kathryn Allinson, Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol 

US Marine Corps Photo

Afghans constitute the second largest refugee population in the world with 2.6 million Afghan refugees registered globally. After almost continuous armed conflict since 1978, many of these individuals are in a ‘protracted refugee situation’ having been in refugee camps for over 40 years without access to what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) calls ‘durable solutions’ (resettlement, return or local integration – see UNHCR Global Trends Report 2018 p.22 and 27). However, the recent escalation in the crisis in Afghanistan has seen the numbers of people being displaced reaching over 330,000 since the start of this year, according to UNHCR.  Numbers of newly displaced persons are expected to rise to 500,000 over the coming weeks.  (more…)

Are there any gains to be had from the proposed new provider selection model for NHS commissioning?

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By Prof Albert Sanchez-Graells, Professor of Economic Law (University of Bristol Law School). 

One of the relatively recent developments in the post-Brexit review of UK public procurement law is the February 2021 proposal for the replacement of the current rules on the commissioning of healthcare services for the purposes of the English NHS (for background, you can watch here), with a new provider selection regime (‘the proposal’). This proposal forms part of the broader set of proposed reforms contained in the Health and Care Bill 2021-22 (on which the House of Commons Library has published a useful research briefing). 

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What are Britain’s Plans for Major Reform of Rail Services?

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by Tony Prosser, Professor of Public Law, University of Bristol Law School.

 

The UK Government has proposed major changes to the organisation of its rail services, which were privatised and split between a large number of different companies in the 1990s.  The change will introduce a new ‘guiding mind’ in the form of a public body, Great British Railways, which will be responsible for managing the infrastructure and for commissioning passenger services.  The services, however, will continue to be provided under contract by private companies. (more…)