Anglo-American conceptions of professional responsibility and the reform of Japanese legal education: creating a virtuous circle?

Author's draftIn this article I describe how ethics and the professional responsibilities of lawyers have become increasingly prominent in debates on the future of mainstream legal education in Anglo-American and other common law jurisdictions. How are these debates in the West impacting on the current reform of Japanese legal education and, vice versa, could these reforms influence developments here

2002: a justice odyssey

Public lecture delivered at the New Zealand Centre for Public Law, Victoria University of Wellington, on 19 April 2002Professor Economides, 2002 Chapman Tripp visiting fellow, overviews research on the supply side of the access to justice equation. Economides argues that the justice equation is based on the nature of supply and demand for legal services and the nature of the claim that clients wish to bring to a legal forum. However, the access to justice theme is moved beyond the supply side and into questions regarding the quality of the access provided suggesting that there is a need to explore the understandings of justice held by members of the legal profession and legal ethics, and the role that law schools and legal education have in formulating these

Centre-periphery tensions in legal theory and practice: can law and lawyers resist urban imperialism?

This paper questions some basic assumptions of legal theory, education and practice from the perspective of rural, remote and regional (RRR) legal communities beyond the metropolis. Legal ideologies and values fundamental to the legitimacy of the modern state, such as the Rule of Law, are embedded in most law curricula and reinforced at every stage of the educational continuum, and commonly assert that law, legal rights and access to courts of law apply equally regardless of physical location or social status. Despite this, indigenous and other excluded groups living in peripheral communities frequently experience law differently from their urban counterparts, as do legal professionals living and working outside the city. The key issue examined concerns how centre-periphery tension should best be managed in the future regulation of law and lawyers. What kind of policies and strategies may genuinely assist social inclusion and to what extent should law and legal practice accommodate diversity? How and to what extent should lawyers and para-legals represent the interests of communities rather than private individuals in RRR areas of Australia? What kind of training and technological support do they require? The paper aims to set out some choices that confront policymakers while drawing upon international experience that may offer some guidance

2002: A Justice Odyssey

Professor Economides, 2002 Chapman Tripp visiting fellow, overviews research on the supply side of the access to justice equation. Economides argues that the justice equation is based on the nature of supply and demand for legal services and the nature of the claim that clients wish to bring to a legal forum. However, the access to justice theme is moved beyond the supply side and into questions regarding the quality of the access provided suggesting that there is a need to explore the understandings of justice held by members of the legal profession and legal ethics, and the role that law schools and legal education have in formulating these

Strategies for Meeting Rural Legal Needs: Lessons from Local, Regional and International Experience

This paper considers policy options for future planning of legal services in rural and remote areas and assesses the relative merits of the public and private sectors in identifying and meeting legal needs in such areas. Drawing on previous research and a range of national and international experience I focus on the future development of proactive services in legal service delivery: first, through examining the idea of ‘rural law (community) centres’ employing salaried lawyers and 'paralegals' working in the public sector; second, through speculating on the implications of emerging alternative business structures and new technology currently evolving in the private sector. The paper evaluates various delivery models (and their likely impact) and considers whether strategic approaches are possible when rural communities are so often dispersed, isolated and politically marginal. It examines the concept and practice of ‘rural proofing’, as developed by policymakers in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, in order to see whether legal services policy can be better attuned to the needs and expectations of rural communities

Preparatory ethics training for future solicitors

Research reportThis project examines the place of ethical training in modern legal education and practice and raises concerns about the potential impact of inadequate training on practice standards across the full range of work carried out by solicitors. The report refers to press reports of unprofessional conduct and notes that other jurisdictions within and beyond the United Kingdom and Europe increasingly require more specific training on professional ethics. Other professions are consciously preparing future lawyers for their ethical responsibilities. The Legal Services Act 2007, meeting consumer needs and striving to make solicitors truly virtuous professionals aware of their wider public duties, as well those owed to their immediate client, all militate in favour of the reform of ethical training

HOXB13 is co-localized with androgen receptor to suppress androgen-stimulated prostate-specific antigen expression

During the prostate cancer (PCa) development and its progression into hormone independency, androgen receptor (AR) signals play a central role by triggering the regulation of target genes, including prostate-specific antigen. However, the regulation of these AR-mediated target genes is not fully understood. We have previously demonstrated a unique role of HOXB13 homeodomain protein as an AR repressor. Expression of HOXB13 was highly restricted to the prostate and its suppression dramatically increased hormone-activated AR transactivation, suggesting that prostate-specific HOXB13 was a highly potent transcriptional regulator. In this report, we demonstrated the action mechanism of HOXB13 as an AR repressor. HOXB13 suppressed androgen-stimulated AR activity by interacting with AR. HOXB13 did neither bind to AR responsive elements nor disturb nuclear translocation of AR in response to androgen. In PCa specimen, we also observed mutual expression pattern of HOXB13 and AR. These results suggest that HOXB13 not only serve as a DNA-bound transcription factor but play an important role as an AR-interacting repressor to modulate hormone-activated androgen receptor signals. Further extensive studies will uncover a novel mechanism for regulating AR-signaling pathway to lead to expose new role of HOXB13 as a non-DNA-binding transcriptional repressor

Optimal compatibility in systems markets

We investigate private and social incentives for standardization to ensure market-wide system compatibility in a two-dimensional spatial competition model. We develop a new methodology to analyze competition on a torus and show that there is a fundamental conflict of interests between consumers and producers over the standardization decision. Consumers prefer standardization with full compatibility because it offers more variety that confers a better match with their ideal specifications. However, firms are likely to choose the minimal compatibility to maximize product differentiation and soften competition. This is in sharp contrast to the previous literature that shows the alignment of private and social incentives for compatibility