Aircraft noise versus respect for home and private life

Abstrac

Freedom, solidarity and healthcare in the European Union

Freedom, solidarity and healthcare in the European Unio

Animal welfare in the reformed Common Agricultural Policy: wherefore art thou?

Against the backdrop of the recently reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), this article considers the potential for improved standards of farm animal welfare within the Treaty objectives of the European Union. CAP Reform presents the first real opportunity to assess the impact of the animal welfare Treaty provision emanating from the Lisbon amendments and the extent to which animal welfare has been integrated into the CAP. By linking the projected added value of enhanced farm animal welfare practices with the CAP’s broader priorities, its greening initiative and, essentially, the Europe 2020 strategy, an evaluation is undertaken of the potential of raised animal welfare standards in agriculture to contribute towards attaining the CAP instruments’ specified objectives in the period 2014–2020. The reformed CAP instruments are disappointing in that they do not aim explicitly and directly to improve farm animal welfare. Acknowledging that the CAP reform process will continue, the improvement of farm animal welfare should be stated expressly to be a priority of the CAP beyond 2020. ‘In effect, a new social contract is needed between farmers and society which sees the delivery of public goods as part of a modern approach to agriculture where food, fibre and fuel are supplied in ways that are resource efficient, help address climate change and deliver high levels of biodiversity and farm animal welfare, within the context of diverse and vibrant rural areas.’

The proposed directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross border healthcare: postponed or suppressed?

The European Commission, after engaging in an open Consultation on the need for Community action on health services, proposed to adopt a draft Directive with an internal market legal basis on the Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Health Care. This draft Directive would provide some clarity about the rules to be applied for the reimbursement of health care provided in other Member States and how the rights of the patients would be implemented; reflecting principles applicable to non-hospital and hospital care respectively, respecting domestic practice of general practitioner referral. It would also clarify the criteria for procedures to be followed for cross border health care. Such procedures must be objectively justified, necessary and proportionate. The draft Directive would also require the establishment of mechanisms to provide information and assistance to patients through national contact points. It would be the responsibility of the Member State on whose territory the health services are provided to ensure that such provision accords to clear standards of quality and safety defined by that Member State in advance. Furthermore, patients would have to have a means of making complaints and obtaining redress should they suffer harm as a result of the health care they received. The adoption of the draft Directive which was scheduled for 19 December 2007 was postponed until early 2008 because of ‘a series of open and controversial questions needing further discussion’. Since 7 February 2008, the proposed draft Directive has been withdrawn pending ‘further analysis’. It is the intention of this paper to examine the provisions of a leaked copy of the draft Directive, to pose some questions and to draw some conclusions

Cats and the law: aspects of the co-authored research undertaken for International CatCare

This research was initially commissioned by the Feline Advisory Bureau, now International CatCare, and has resulted in both a Research Report and Plain English Guide on Cats and the Law, co-author Dr Angus Nurse, Middlesex University

European Union citizenship: freedom of movement and family reunification. Reconciling competences and restricting abuse?

European Union Citizenship: Freedom of Movement and Family Reunification. Reconciling Competences and Restricting Abuse

Design of instrumentation for metabolic monitoring of the Adélie penguin : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Physics at Massey University

The motivating question for the work described in this thesis was "How does the Adélie penguin cope with cold?" It was reasoned that the time-scale of temperature changes in Antarctica precluded all but metabolic and physiological responses. To determine these, a system capable of measuring and recording these biological variables in the penguins natural environment, was designed. A device, based on the principles of near infrared spectroscopy, was developed that could measure the relative oxygen saturation of haemoglobin and the reduction state of cytochrome oxidase as well as heart rate and blood volume. The completed device was housed in a black, waterproof, plastic container, measuring 65mm x 92mm x 25mm and weighing 132.7g. Co-ordination of measurements was achieved with operating system-like control software implemented in Motorola HC11 assembly code. Synchronous detection was used for signal acquisition and a pulse algorithm, implemented in assembly code, allowed real time pulse measurement from the input signals. Programs were written in Matlab and C++ to investigate the characteristics and limits of these techniques. Preliminary testing of the device on human subjects successfully showed changes in metabolic state as a result of physical activity. The results of field testing on Adélie penguins were unable to answer the original question due to a number of physical factors. However, the success of human trials suggests that, with modification and improvement, the device has potential as a valuable research instrument, applicable to a variety of other species

Cats and the law: a report for International Cat Care (iCatCare) (formerly the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB))

This research examines the legal status of cats, within the UK’s legal system (primarily in England and Wales) but also in an international context. It considers a range of different areas of law and conflicting perspectives within the UK’s animal welfare, contract, criminal and environmental law and also addresses issues of ownership and liability. In particular, the research examines how both domestic and wild cats are subject to different protection under the law and the manner in which ambiguities concerning the status of wild and domestic cats impose liability on humans for their actions in dealing with cats. The research was commissioned by the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB) (now International Cat Care (iCatCare)) on behalf of the Cat Group1who identified that a number of legal questions could arise for cat owners for which there does not currently seem to be a definitive answer. While the legal status of cats is, in principle, well established under common law as they are personal property, problems can occur because cats exist in a range of states e.g. feral, semi-feral, domesticated and stray. Some grey areas exist in relation to animal welfare legislation and in respect of the liabilities of cat owners. There has been little or no attention paid by legal researchers to addressing the legal status of cats except within the context of animal welfare offences, some prior research into offences involving wild cats2 and research into whether animals (including cats) can be said to have legal rights.3The research considers this issue in the context of not just the enforcement of animal welfare law but also within the context of other aspects of the law, which includes policy and ethical considerations relating to animal ownership and welfare. The research deals primarily with domestic cats in England and Wales. The primary legislation imposing responsibilities on cat owners is the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which consolidates much earlier legislation and both promotes animal welfare and provides an enforcement mechanism through which punishment may be pursued where there is a breach of animal welfare standards. The UK Animal Welfare Acts4 are part of the criminal law and impose a duty to ensure welfare (although this research is not confined to evaluating welfare considerations) and an important part of the Acts is the requirement for a ‘responsible person’ to ensure that a cat’s needs are met. However, the question of what constitutes ownership or being a responsible person and whether a cat is domestic is not always straightforward. Our research also deals with offences under wildlife legislation where these may impact on cats living in a wild state or on recognised species of wild cat. Separate from the provisions of keeping and care of a cat, the research also considers issues relating to the sale or theft of cats noting that under the common law cats are regarded as property or objects, albeit animate, in terms of being owned and possessed. Damage to a cat by a third party can be akin to (certain) property damage giving cat owners the right to take action for redress to damage to ‘their’ animal. The issue of liability is also dealt with by this research and the courts have clarified a number of issues relating to the harm caused by cats and liability in respect of that harm, which we discuss in this research, treating aspects of the common law and the imposition of strict liability under the Animals Act 1971. The question of liability is not always a straightforward issue; while there are specific provisions for example in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 concerning nuisance caused by animals, they have been strictly interpreted so that the natural behaviour of a cat is generally not considered to be a nuisance even where damage is caused. However, cases where an excessive number of cats is kept such that their noise or odour cause harm to the health of neighbours or constitute a nuisance have also been decided such that the cat’s owner is responsible and can be required to take action to abate the 4 There is country-specific legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland; the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 and the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. The three animal welfare acts have similar aims of preventing harm and promoting animal welfare although there are some differences in the respective Acts. Lincoln Law School, Middlesex School of Law - A Report for International Cat Care 7 nuisance.5 In addition, the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Code of Practice on the Welfare of Cats contains provisions on keeping cats in a suitable environment. While the Code holds ‘advisory’ status rather than itself being enforceable, we argue that the Code’s guidance combined with the Animal Welfare Act’s provisions changes the dynamics of liability such that action might be taken under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, allowing the court to consider a failure to provide the necessary catfriendly environment required by the Act (in accordance with the Code),as opposed to considering the specific nuisance requirements of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This widens the scope of the action that might be taken against cat owners, and is significant in the fact that the focus for the imposition of liability has shifted from the harm caused to other humans to the degradation of the health and welfare of the cat. We explicitly consider this issue in the research. This research investigates different aspects of the law as it applies to cats and conducts an analysis of the requirements placed on cat owners under the law. It also considers how the law can be interpreted on issues of liability, responsibility, and the care of cats, as well as the ambiguities in the status of cats that give rise to confusion under the law. This report thus attempts to provide not only an overview of the law but our analysis of some of the main areas of confusion raised by iCatCare as causing problems for cat owners and, where applicable, for re-homing institutions.6 Some of these questions inevitably touch on compensation and recompense issues where complaints or claims for loss or damage arise. While dealing with the substantive issues of liability, responsibility and legal protection in answering questions, we only briefly deal with compensation issues as the specifics of cat, business, and even home, insurance relevant to such claims are outside the scope of this research

Conversion of SPU-Universal disk file to JSC-Universal tape storage: CONVRT user's guide

The CONVRT, program which runs on a DEC PDP 11/70 computer, reads data files on disk in the SPU-Universal format and reformats the data to JSC Universal and output on tape