Resettled and unsettled: Syrian refugees and the intersection of race and legal status in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine how the intersection of legal status and racialization shapes immigrant’s sense of security; or of legal and interpersonal safety. I draw on an ethnography of Syrian refugees who hold a permanent legal status, and who entered the United States in 2015, as Donald Trump was launching his campaign, amplifying anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment. Following refugee experiences from their arrival, through the issuance of the first executive order banning travel in January 2017, I show how this group, racialized as Muslim and Arab, was categorized as a threat to national security. I also capture the uneven way they came to recognize their racialization. While a permanent legal status is likely a necessary condition for feeling a sense of security in the United States, I argue that it is an insufficient one. I show that Syrian refugees’ racialization attenuated their sense of security despite their legal status.     

公立医院社会责任与法律保障关系探讨

随着公立医院改革试点的指导意见确立,公立医院发展面临前所未有的挑战。围绕公立医院社会责任以及运用法律保障公立医院更好地履行社会责任等方面进行分析,具有探讨性地提出一些观点。同时对如何保障公立医院的合法权益,如何为公立医院、医务人员提供良性的执业环境等方面从法律角度,结合我国目前新医改方案出台、公立医院面临新一轮改革的形势,提出一些建议与意见。深化医药卫生体制改革是确保公立医院履行社会责任的有效途径之一,目的是建立中国特色的基本医疗卫生制度,保证城乡居民公平,享有安全、有效、方便、价廉的基本医疗卫生服务。这不仅是解决当前医患矛盾也是确保公立医院履行职责的治本之策、久安之道。     

From Village Land to “Native Reserve”: Changes in Property Rights in Sabah, Malaysia, 1950–1996

In this paper I explore the interactions between colonial law and native customary law in the formation of contemporary property regimes in a rural village in Sabah, Malaysia, that I call Govuton. Govuton was one of the few known villages in Sabah that rejected colonial policies of land settlement that focused on settling private, individual property claims. Instead, village leaders negotiated with colonial officials for their village lands to be legally designated as corporately-held village property under the title of Native Reserve. While the Native Reserve served to protect village access to jointly-held property in the colonial period, in the contemporary period new land disputes are arising as different images of community and tradition are strategically deployed by villagers in order to win struggles over rights of ownership and access to resources in the current political economy. By adopting such an historical and site-specific view of the transformation of property rights several broader themes regarding the relationship between state and society and natural resource management emerge. First, this case study challenges the idea the colonial governments were a monolithic force imposing laws on an unresisting native population. Second, the notion that the community is an appropriate unit for natural resource management is questioned. And finally, this case study raises the possibility that the current trend toward strengthening or reinvigorating native customary law is not always in the interests of native peoples with diverse interests in natural resource management.     

Afterword to "Anthropology and Human Rights in a New Key": The Social Life of Human Rights

In this article, I argue for an ethnographic approach to human rights that recognizes the plural and fragmentary nature of the international rights regime and the ideological promiscuity of rights talk. Instead of determining in advance the social or political character of rights, anthropologists could profitably draw from the insights of early-20th-century "legal realists" and look closely at the underlying assumptions and hidden practices of political and legal processes. Studying the "social life of human rights" would involve focusing on, inter alia, the performative dimensions of human rights, the dynamics of social mobilization, and the attitudinal changes of elite and nonelite social actors towards formulations of "rights" and "justice," both inside and outside the legal process. I conclude with a review of recent anthropological research on human rights epistemology and evaluate its implications for human rights policy.     

《医院财务制度（征求意见稿）》中公立医院国有资产管理的优化分析

国有资产管理是医院财务管理的重要内容,但我国公立医院国有资产管理存在着管理目标不当、范围界定不清、权责不明确、信息披露不全面等问题,无法适应新医改的要求。分析了这些不足并探讨了《医院财务制度（征求意见稿）》中公立医院国有资产管理在管理目标和管理范围方面的变化,提出落实医院独立法人地位、完善内部控制制度等改革方向。     

论法律视野中医患关系的性质

医患关系法律性质的准确界定是医患纠纷妥善解决的基本前提。目前,我国关于医患关系法律性质的四种主流观点往往把医患关系归属于某种法律关系,这样的做法都显得会以偏概全或牵强附会。医患关系的基本法律属性是民事法律关系,但具有区别于一般法律关系的特征,是特殊的民事法律关系,在医患纠纷阶段,是民事侵权关系。     

Factors contributing to false‐negative and potential false‐negative cytology reports in SurePath™ liquid‐based cervical cytology

N. Gupta, D. John, N. Dudding, J. Crossley and J. H. F. Smith
Factors contributing to false‐negative and potential false‐negative cytology reports in SurePath ? liquid‐based cervical cytology Objectives: The characteristics of false‐negative conventional cervical cytology smears have been well documented, but there is limited literature available for liquid‐based cytology (LBC), especially SurePath? samples. We aimed to assess the characteristics of false‐negative SurePath LBC samples. Methods: Over a period of 5 years, an audit of false‐negative reports in SurePath cervical cytology was undertaken. In a workload of 183, 112 samples, 481 (0.3%) false negatives were identified using two routes: those detected by routine laboratory internal quality control (rapid pre‐screening) (n = 463) and those reported as normal (true false negatives) with concurrent high‐grade cervical histology (n = 18). Ninety‐five false‐negative cases with a subsequent biopsy reported as at least cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 (CIN2+) were reviewed for a number of different cytomorphological features. Results: Of 95 samples with subsequent CIN2+, 30.5% predominately contained microbiopsies/hyperchromatic crowded cell groups (HCGs), 27.3% sparse dyskarytotic cells, 4.2% pale cell dyskaryosis, 6.3% small dyskaryotic cells; 3.2% were misinterpreted cells, 8.4% contained other distracting cells, 7.4% were low contrast, 5.3% were unexplained and 7.4% were true negatives. The mean number of microbiopsies/HCGs in that category was 4.6. The mean number of abnormal cells in the sparse dyskaryotic cell category was 13.8. Conclusions: Microbiopsies/HCGs were the commonest reason for false negatives. They were usually present in sufficient numbers to be detected but interpretation could be problematic. Dispersed single abnormal cells were usually not identified because of their scarcity or the presence of distracters.     

United States patent prior art rules and the neem controversy: a case of subject-matter imperialism?

A recent United States patent covering an improvement to the naturally-occurring pesticide in neem tree seed oil might have been rejected as 'obvious' if United States patent law recognized certain forms of prior inventive activity on a par with similar activity occurring within the United States' borders. But the US only recognizes prior 'knowledge, use or invention' as blocking a claim to a patent when those activities take place within US borders, or are evidenced by publications accessible in the US, or, more commonly, by foreign patents. Neither of these last forms of tangible 'prior art' is likely to be available to block patents on biodiversity inventions – most notably because of the fact that most developing nations do not allow patents on pharmaceutical or agricultural inventions, categories subsuming most biodiversity-related advances. Although the United States patent only has direct force within the United States, it is nonetheless highly significant to this global dispute, since the United States and other developed nations stand to be the major markets for the end-products of neem. This paper argues that the border-drawing distinctions in US patent law are archaic, counter to stated policy directives and are disproportionately influencing the developing world's stance towards GATT and its intellectual property rights provisions.     

“Capacity”, “best interests”, “will and preferences” and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the most up‐to‐date international legal instrument concerning the rights of persons with disabilities. Such persons are taken to include those with serious mental disorders. According to an authoritative interpretation of a crucial Article (Article 12 ‐ Equal recognition before the law) by the UN CRPD Committee, involuntary detention and treatment of people with mental health disabilities are prohibited under the Convention. Both conventional mental health law and “capacity‐based” law are deemed to violate the Convention. However, some other UN bodies are not in full agreement (for example, the UN Human Rights Committee and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), while others are less explicitly absolutist (for example, the Human Rights Council). Furthermore, strong criticisms of the position of the CRPD Committee have been mounted from a number of academic quarters. These criticisms center on whether the role of a person's ability to make a decision can be ignored, no matter the circumstances. Much of the above debate turns on the concept of “legal capacity” and the now often‐repeated precept that one must always respect the “will and preferences” of the person with a disability. However, “will and preferences” remains undefined. In this paper, I offer an analysis of “will and preferences” that can clarify interventions that may be acceptable or non‐acceptable under the terms of the UN Convention.