John Austins Theory of Sovereignty free essay sample

The concept of sovereignty is one of the most complex in political science, with many definitions, some totally contradictory. Usually, sovereignty is defined in one of two ways. The first definition applies to supreme public power, which has the right and, in theory, the capacity to impose its authority in the last instance. The second definition refers to the holder of legitimate power, who is recognized to have authority. When national sovereignty is discussed, the first definition applies, and it refers in particular to independence, understood as the freedom of a collective entity to act. When popular sovereignty is discussed, the second definition applies, and sovereignty is associated with power and legitimacy. Sovereignty and Political Authority On the international level, sovereignty means independence, i. e. , noninterference by external powers in the internal affairs of another state. International norms are based on the principle of the sovereign equality of independent states; international law excludes interference and establishes universally-accepted rules. We will write a custom essay sample on John Austins Theory of Sovereignty or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Thus, sovereignty is eminently rational, if not dialectical, since the sovereignty of a state depends not only on the autonomous will of its sovereign, but also on its standing vis-a-vis other sovereign states. From this perspective, one can say that the sovereignty of any single state is the logical consequence of the existence of several sovereign states. It is thus a serious mistake to assume that sovereignty is possible only within the framework of the classic type of state, i. e. , a nation-state, as do representatives of the â€Å"realist† school, such as Alan James and F. H. Hinsley, or neo-Marxist theoreticians like Justin Rosenberg. One should not confuse the concepts of nation and state, which do not necessarily belong together, or assume that the concept of sovereignty was formulated clearly only in terms of the theory of the state. Closer to the truth is John Hoffman’s assertion that â€Å"sovereignty has been an insoluble problem ever since it became associated with the state. Even though a concept of sovereignty did not exist before the 16th century, it does not follow that the phenomenon did not exist in political reality, and that it could not have been conceptualized differently. For example, Aristotle does not mention sovereignty, but the fact that he insists on the necessity for a supreme power shows that he was familiar with the idea, since any supreme power — kuphian aphen with the Greeks; summum imperium with the Romans — is sovereign by definition. Sovereignty is not related to any particular form of government or to any particular political organization; on the contrary, it is inherent in any form of political authority. The problem with sovereignty appeared at the end of the Middle Ages, when the question posed was no longer only about the best form of government or the limits of political authority, but about the relation between the government and the people, i. e. , the relation between ruler and ruled in a political community. What is sovereignty? Alain de Benoist 1. 2 John Austin Austins basic approach was to ascertain what can be said generally, but still with interest, about all laws. Austins analysis can be seen as either a paradigm of, or a caricature of, analytical philosophy, in that his discussions are dryly full of distinctions, but are thin in argument. The modern reader is forced to fill in much of the meta-theoretical, justificatory work, as it cannot be found in the text. Where Austin does articulate his methodology and objective, it is a fairly traditional one: he â€Å"endeavored to resolve a  law  (taken with the largest signification which can be given to that term  properly) into the necessary and essential elements of which it is composed† As to what is the core nature of law, Austins answer is that laws (â€Å"properly so called†) are commands of a sovereign. He clarifies the concept of positive law (that is, man-made law) by analyzing the constituent concepts of his definition, and by distinguishing law from other concepts that are similar: * â€Å"Commands† involve an expressed wish that something be done, combined with a willingness and ability to impose â€Å"an evil† if that wish is not complied with. Rules are general commands (applying generally to a class), as contrasted with specific or individual commands (â€Å"drink wine today† or â€Å"John Major must drink wine†). Positive law consists of those commands laid down by a sovereign (or its agents), to be contrasted to other law-givers, like Gods general commands, and the general commands of an employer to an employee. * The â€Å"sovereign† is defined as a person (or determinate body of persons) who receives habitual obedience from the bulk of the population, but who does not habitually obey any other (earthly) person or institution. Austin thought that all independent political societies, by their nature, have a sovereign. * Positive law should also be contrasted with â€Å"laws by a close analogy† (which includes positive morality, laws of honor, international law, customary law, and constitutional law) and â€Å"laws by remote analogy† (e. g. , the laws of physics). Austin also wanted to include within â€Å"the province of jurisprudence† certain â€Å"exceptions,† items which did not fit his criteria but which should nonetheless be studied with other â€Å"laws properly so called†: repealing laws, declarative laws, and â€Å"imperfect laws†Ã¢â‚¬â€laws prescribing action but without sanctions (a concept Austin ascribes to â€Å"Roman [law] jurists In the criteria set out above, Austin succeeded in delimiting law and legal rules from religion, morality, convention, and custom. However, also excluded from â€Å"the province of jurisprudence† were customary law (except to the extent that the sovereign had, directly or indirectly, adopted such customs as law), public international law, and parts of constitutional law. Within Austins approach, whether something is or is not â€Å"law† depends on which people have done what: the question turns on an empirical investigation, and it is a matter mostly of power, not of morality. Of course, Austin is not arguing that law should not be moral, nor is he implying that it rarely is. Austin is not playing the nihilist or the skeptic. He is merely pointing out that there is much that is law that is not moral, and what makes something law does nothing to guarantee its moral value. â€Å"The most pernicious laws, and therefore those which are most opposed to the will of God, have been and are continually enforced as laws by judicial tribunals† In contrast to his mentor Bentham, Austin, in his early lectures, accepted judicial lawmaking as â€Å"highly beneficial and even absolutely necessary†). Nor did Austin find any difficulty incorporating judicial lawmaking into his command theory: he characterized that form of lawmaking, along with the occasional legal/judicial recognition of customs by judges, as the â€Å"tacit commands† of the sovereign, the sovereigns affirming the â€Å"orders† by its acquiescence. It should be noted, however, that one of Austins later lectures listed the many problems that can come with judicial legislation, and recommended codification of the law instead.

Health Issues of a Developed Country (The US) The WritePass Journal

Health Issues of a Developed Country (The US)   Abstract Health Issues of a Developed Country (The US) prescription charges are at 7.65  (Politics .co.uk, 2012).   Widespread protests against the prescription charges have contributed to several exceptions in the prescription drug charges including for children under 16, pregnant women, elderly people above 60, etc. More recently people with chronic conditions such as cancer have been included into those under the exempted category. While in Wales and Northern Ireland prescription charges have been completely abolished, the English government has, however, indicated that no further free prescription programs would be introduced but that the new policies would focus on brining more fairness into the prescription charging system (Politics.co.uk, 2012). Transition to a Market System Chronic underfunding and gaps in services and the pressures to improve the overall operating efficiency have gradually led to the NHS from being a total public ownership entity towards a market based system. In fact this shift towards a market based system could be traced way back to the Thatcher administration that introduced the policies of ‘general management’ and ‘outsourcing’ which bought about a fundamental shift.   General managers were people who were specialized in hospital management and provided a neat layer of interfacing between the health policy makers and the doctors and nurses who implement the policies. Outsourcing of non medical services such as hospital cleaning, catering saw for the first time the entry of the private sector into the NHS system (DH, 2005). Since then private sector participation in the NHS has improved significantly. By the late 1990’s, for instance, long term care by NHS was already taken over to a large extent and managed by private for profit service providers. Long term elderly care is no longer free of cost. Increasing private participation could be inferred from the statistics that from over 137,200 residential care homes in 1985 the numbers had dropped to 64,100 by 1998 (BBC, 1999).   Elderly care in these settings is not free and is totally means based with those earning more than  £16,000 per annum having to bear the entire expenses while the state provides maximum assistance for those under  £10,000 categories. NHS Spendings review points out that between 1998 and 2010 there was an average 5.75%   increase in health expenditure while the NHS is slated to receive .4% real terms growth between 2010 and 2014. This indicates the degree of financial pressure under which the NHS is operating. As (Appleby et al, 2009) points out, the pressure on NHS will continue to increase with growing challenges due to a mixture of factors including an aging demography, high cost pressure of new medical technologies, and the expectation for higher quality standards.   It is estimated that the NHS has to make considerable cost cuttings by way of improved operational efficiency to the tune of    £15 to  £20 billion in order for it to be able to continue providing equitable access to healthcare services to all the citizens(Nicholson, 2009). It is under these dire circumstances that the UK government proposed some fundamental structural and functional reforms to the NHS that are listed in the white paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’. One of the fundamental changes to the organization of the NHS as listed out in the White paper is the devolution of the ‘Primary care Trusts’ (PCTs) (Nuffield Trust, 2010). The PCTs which were instituted in 2002 to supervise primary care provision is no longer a valid entity. Its function has been taken over by Clinical commissioning groups (CCG) comprising mainly of local GPs. The idea behind such a reform is to increase local empowerment. Furthermore the PCTs were in the past struggling with frequent restructuring. One of the underlying motives behind such a transformation is to place greater responsibility with the local GPs as they are directly involved in service referrals. Also since GPs are directly involved in both commissioning and care provision they are better positioned to make effective assessments and to prevent unnecessary hospitalization and other services. In other words, the establishment of the GP consortia which is one of the highlights of the ‘ Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ white paper, is expected to increase the integration between the GP’s , specialists and other service providers paving way for an integrated care delivery mechanism that is both cost effective and efficient. Furthermore, the white paper also refers to the formation of a NHS commissioning board that supervises the overall equitable access to NHS services, commissioning, and the proper allotment of resources. This would ensure that micromanagement is not an issue at the NHS. The new policy framework also dissolves several quangos thereby resulting in greater operational savings. By these means the new reforms are slated to save up to 20 billion in terms of efficiency of operations by 2014.   Projections indicate that up to 45% savings could be realized in the form of management related cost savings (DH, 2010, pg 5). One of the distinctive factors of the current NHS reforms compared to the original NHS policies is the shift from a purely public system towards a more market centric healthcare system. The focus on increasing the participation of the patient and providing them the choice as to their service providers and the treatment that they want are particularly prominent aspects of the new healthcare bill. . The inclusion of the ‘choice of any willing provider’ in the ‘Health and Social Care Bill’ lays stress on the increased freedom for the health consumer (DH, 2010, pg 17). It also emphasizes the increasing competition among contracted health service providers which is ultimately good for improving the overall quality of health care delivery. Reduction in bureaucratic control and empowerment of the care providers imply that the primary care providers’ could function independently and effectively to meet the needs of the patients. Effective monitoring is the key to any functional system. For a huge organization such as the NHS monitoring the functioning of the various agencies and systems is very vital for achieving streamlining of operations, process efficiency and achieving high quality of care. One of the key aspects of the new reforms is entrusting local health watch organizations with the responsibility of managing and addressing the feedbacks from the health consumers. These organizations also support the patients in making their decisions about service providers. These organizations will directly report the performance measures of service providers and patient feedbacks to local as well as national authorities helping to address any consumer grievances and quality concerns at the earliest(DH, 2010, pg 19). While there are proponents for this new system there are also concerns expressed by politicians, professionals and general public who are worried that the competition between medical service providers would engender compromise on quality of services contrary to improving the same. This is particularly so when these decisions are made on the bidding approach and when lower cost of service provision is the main criteria. One particular instance is the drug and alcohol support services that are vastly privatized in the UK. These private organizations are paid  £3000 if the addicts are rehabilitated and remain free of drugs for 3 months and a further  £5000 if they remained drug free for a whole year. There are complaints that under these circumstances, in these private organizations, the focus is not entirely on rehabilitation and saving the patient is not the primary concern. As a case in point, an extreme heroin addict was just discharged from the clinic without any alternative in tervention. Methadone prescription for detoxification was not even tried as the private company would not be remunerated for such an intervention (Pemberton, 2013). . Furthermore since the entire drug and alcohol services is taken up by the private organizations there was no further referral or intervention possible for such cases. These are instances that point out the risks in adapting a privatized and highly fragmented setup.   Furthermore there are concerns that under the concept of ‘payment by results’ that is advocated under the new NHS policies, there is even more risk that the private agencies would just focus on achieving end points of care. While this approach would be okay for acute clinical conditions it leaves a lot to be desired in the management of chronic conditions where there is no visible endpoint. Conclusion From the time of its institution in 1948 to the current period, the NHS has undergone significant changes in its mode of operation. Presently, there is a distinct shift in healthcare focus as witnessed by a change from the fully public model of care delivery towards increasing private participation in the NHS system.   Growing elderly population and increasing strain on its health services have forced the NHS to adopt these new and novel approaches. These include a fundamental change in its mode of care delivery with the increasing private sector participation in care delivery. Though maintaining free point of access care delivery is one of the main mottos of the original 1948 NHS manifesto, the increasing health care consumption and cost pressures have, to an extent, compromised on this objective. Today many services such as prescription drugs, long-term care are no longer free and there is increasing private sector participation as contracted service providers. The purely fragmen ted approach of private sector service providers who are driven by a contractual obligation and cost centered focus, would definitely compromise the quality of services and the original advantages that the NHS offered.   While the growing needs and the changing demands have necessitated such drastic transformation of the NHS system, care should be taken in the form of having enough performance monitoring and quality checkpoints in place that ensure that private participation does not erode some of the fundamental strengths and qualities of the NHS, the most basic of which is to enable equity of access to quality healthcare. Bibliography Appleby J, Crawford R and Emmerson C (2009) How Cold Will it Be? Prospects for NHS Funding 2011–2017. The King’s Fund. Audrey Leathard, (2000), Health Care provision: Past, present and into the 21st century, Second Edition, Published by Nelson Thornes Ltd. UK. BBC (1999), What is Long-Term care? Viewed June 25th 2013, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/395760.stm CDC (2012), Overweight and Obesity : Adult Obesity Facts, viewed June 25th 2013, cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html CDC (2012), Alcohol and Public Health : Fact Sheets Binge Drinking, viewed June 25th 2013, cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm Dinesh C Sharma (2010), India’s No 1 Killer: Heart Disease, viewed June 25th 2013, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Indias+no.1+killer:+Heart+disease/1/92422.html DH (2005), The NHS Plan: a plan for investment and reform, CM 4818-I, The Stationery Office, Annual Report 2005, p. 55 DH (2010), Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, viewed June 25th 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/135875/dh_117794.pdf.pdf ISRO (2005), Telemedicine: Enabling specialty healthcare to the rural and remote population of India, viewed June 25th 2013, isro.org/publications/pdf/Telemedicine.pdf Katherine A Webb (2002), From County Hospital to NHS Trust: Volume 1: History, University of York. Max Pemberton (2013), NHS reforms: From today the coalition has put the NHS up for grabs, viewed June 25th 2013, telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9962195/NHS-reforms-From-today-the-Coalition-has-put-the-NHS-up-for-grabs.html Politics.co.uk (2012), NHS Prescription charges, viewed June 25th 2013, politics.co.uk/reference/nhs-prescription-charges NHS (2011), NHS History, viewed June 25th 2013, nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/NHShistory1948.aspx NHS (2013), The NHS in England, viewed June 27th 2013, nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx Nicholson D (2009) The Year 2008/09. Department of Health, viewed June 25th 2013, www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_099689 Nuffield Trust (2010), NHS resources and reform: Response to the White paper equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, and the 2010 Spending Review, viewed June 25th 2013, nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/files/nuffield/publication/NHS_resources_and_reform_Oct2010.pdf Tony White (2010), A Guide to the NHS, Radcliffe Publishing Ltd. The Economic Times (2013), India probably world’s third largest economy: OECD,   viewed june 25th 2013, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-05-30/news/39603030_1_gdp-growth-third-largest-economy-economic-growth-projection Victoria Barbary (2007), Primary Care Trusts: Tailoring Commissioning,   NLGN White Paper, Viewed June 25th 2013, nlgn.org.uk/public/wp-content/uploads/pcts_white-paper.pdf

Investigating Cold Cases Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Investigating Cold Cases - Term Paper Example There are a lot of problems which arise while trying to resume a cold case. One is the non availability of bandwidth to continue the investigation on the case. The other problem is the lack of funds to support the investigation. Also, the people following up on a cold case might get transferred or retired, and the successor might not be able to solve the case, either because of loss of interest or lack of experience in solving such cases (Karen M. Hess). Cold cases may prove to be very dangerous at times, where the criminal, if not arrested because of lack of evidence, might keep committing the same crime again and again. This could have results as bad as loss of several lives. It is advisable to have a cold case squad at all times in the organization. This is because the regular police staff might not be able to follow up on the cold cases because of the increasing crime rates. Such squads should have the right proportion of people who can manage and ones who can investigate. In such squads, the essential requirement is to have an anchor at all points of time. An anchor is a person who has the information and context of the case being investigated. So, having one such person in the squad at all points of time ensures that the team is not low on context even when the old people leave the squad and new people join. A cold case squad is either part time of full time depending on the need. Mostly, a lieutenant is hired to manage the squad (John Douglas). He is the interface of the squad to the outer world ( i.e. the community, press, police department, and the law enforcement agencies). The next person as part of the squad is the supervisor. A supervisor is responsible for managing the daily operations of the squad. Other members of the squads are detectives. The detectives can range from the ones who are a part of the squad full time to the ones who deliver only a part of their time to the case. The detectives are responsible for analyzing