The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal

This paper describes the course of the litigation following the Bhopal disaster. It begins with a brief description of the various failures in risk assessment and management that gave rise to the hazardous conditions in Bhopal, and then describes in more detail the resulting legal proceedings. Specifying a number of modest criteria against which the success of the litigation can be measured, the paper examines why traditional tort processes are unlikely to succeed in the case of mass hazards. The paper describes and analyzes a number of significant reforms forged by the Indian courts in response to the Bhopal disaster, and seeks to articulate some of the lessons to be learned from these efforts

The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal

This paper describes the course of the litigation following the Bhopal disaster. It begins with a brief description of the various failures in risk assessment and management that gave rise to the hazardous conditions in Bhopal, and then describes in more detail the resulting legal proceedings. Specifying a number of modest criteria against which the success of the litigation can be measured, the paper examines why traditional tort processes are unlikely to succeed in the case of mass hazards. The paper describes and analyzes a number of significant reforms forged by the Indian courts in response to the Bhopal disaster, and seeks to articulate some of the lessons to be learned from these efforts

The Revival of Tort Theory in Canada

Tort scholarship in Canada has not traditionally been preoccupied with theory. Apart from several fine (doctrinally oriented) texts, by far the greatest amount of tort writing found in the journals is ad hoc and responsive to current is sues. It consists for the most part of case comments or \u27recent development\u27 articles inspired by important decisions from higher courts. Beyond this, a number of substantive topics and problem areas have recently been dealt with in some detail. There is alarge amount of literature, for example, on the liability of public authorities and professionals, sporting injuries, asbestos and environmental liability, and associated problems of proving causation. Certain doctrinal problems are also Canadian favourites, perhaps most obviously, the interrelation of contract and tort and associated problems of negligent misstatement, liability for economic loss, and products liability. In recent years certain theoretical orientations (especially feminist theories and economic analysis) have begun to inform the treatment of substantive tort issues. But what is missing is any strong tradition of theoretical inquiry into the fundamental structure and function of the law of tort

The Revival of Tort Theory in Canada

Tort scholarship in Canada has not traditionally been preoccupied with theory. Apart from several fine (doctrinally oriented) texts, by far the greatest amount of tort writing found in the journals is ad hoc and responsive to current is sues. It consists for the most part of case comments or \u27recent development\u27 articles inspired by important decisions from higher courts. Beyond this, a number of substantive topics and problem areas have recently been dealt with in some detail. There is alarge amount of literature, for example, on the liability of public authorities and professionals, sporting injuries, asbestos and environmental liability, and associated problems of proving causation. Certain doctrinal problems are also Canadian favourites, perhaps most obviously, the interrelation of contract and tort and associated problems of negligent misstatement, liability for economic loss, and products liability. In recent years certain theoretical orientations (especially feminist theories and economic analysis) have begun to inform the treatment of substantive tort issues. But what is missing is any strong tradition of theoretical inquiry into the fundamental structure and function of the law of tort

mTORC1-selective activation of translation elongation promotes disease progression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Targeted deletion of Raptor, a component of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), reveals an essential role for mTORC1 in initiation/maintenance of leukemia in a CLL model, resulting from a failure for haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) to commit to the B cell lineage. Induction of Raptor-deficiency in NSG mice transplanted with Mx1-Raptor CLL progenitor cells (PKCα-KR-transduced HSPCs) after disease establishment revealed a reduction in CLL-like disease load and a significant increase in survival in the mice. Interestingly in an aggressive CLL-like disease model, rapamycin treatment reduced disease burden more effectively than AZD2014 (dual mTORC1/2 inhibitor), indicating a skew towards mTORC1 sensitivity with more aggressive disease. Rapamycin, but not ibrutinib, efficiently targeted the eEF2/eEF2K translation elongation regulatory axis, downstream of mTORC1, resulting in eEF2 inactivation through induction of eEF2T56 phosphorylation. mTOR inhibitor treatment of primary patient CLL cells halted proliferation, at least in part through modulation of eEF2K/eEF2 phosphorylation and expression, reduced protein synthesis and inhibited expression of MCL1, Cyclin A and Cyclin D2. Our studies highlight the importance of translation elongation as a driver of disease progression and identify inactivation of eEF2 activity as a novel therapeutic target for blocking CLL progression

PKCβ Facilitates Leukemogenesis in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia by Promoting Constitutive BCR-Mediated Signalling

B cell antigen receptor (BCR) signalling competence is critical for the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Defining key proteins that facilitate these networks aid in the identification of targets for therapeutic exploitation. We previously demonstrated that reduced PKCα function in mouse hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HPSCs) resulted in PKCβII upregulation and generation of a poor-prognostic CLL-like disease. Here, prkcb knockdown in HSPCs leads to reduced survival of PKCα-KR-expressing CLL-like cells, concurrent with reduced expression of the leukemic markers CD5 and CD23. SP1 promotes elevated expression of prkcb in PKCα-KR expressing cells enabling leukemogenesis. Global gene analysis revealed an upregulation of genes associated with B cell activation in PKCα-KR expressing cells, coincident with upregulation of PKCβII: supported by activation of key signalling hubs proximal to the BCR and elevated proliferation. Ibrutinib (BTK inhibitor) or enzastaurin (PKCβII inhibitor) treatment of PKCα-KR expressing cells and primary CLL cells showed similar patterns of Akt/mTOR pathway inhibition, supporting the role for PKCβII in maintaining proliferative signals in our CLL mouse model. Ibrutinib or enzastaurin treatment also reduced PKCα-KR-CLL cell migration towards CXCL12. Overall, we demonstrate that PKCβ expression facilitates leukemogenesis and identify that BCR-mediated signalling is a key driver of CLL development in the PKCα-KR model.</jats:p

The question concerning human rights and human rightlessness: disposability and struggle in the Bhopal gas disaster

In the midst of concerns about diminishing political support for human rights, individuals and groups across the globe continue to invoke them in their diverse struggles against oppression and injustice. Yet both those concerned with the future of human rights and those who champion rights activism as essential to resistance, assume that human rights – as law, discourse and practices of rights claiming – can ameliorate rightlessness. In questioning this assumption, this article seeks also to reconceptualise rightlessness by engaging with contemporary discussions of disposability and social abandonment in an attempt to be attentive to forms of rightlessness co-emergent with the operations of global capital. Developing a heuristic analytics of rightlessness, it evaluates the relatively recent attempts to mobilise human rights as a frame for analysis and action in the campaigns for justice following the 3 December 1984 gas leak from Union Carbide Corporation’s (UCC) pesticide manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India. Informed by the complex effects of human rights in the amelioration of rightlessness, the article calls for reconstituting human rights as an optics of rightlessness