{"title":"The Health and Care Act 2022: new legislation – new legacy?","authors":"Jean McHale, Mary Guy","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1136","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction to the special issue on the Health and Care Act 2022.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"79 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140444244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Something in the water: opening the public health law policy window for fluoridation?","authors":"Keith Syrett","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1023","url":null,"abstract":"Alongside the more widely debated provisions relating to the organisation and delivery of healthcare services in the National Health Service in England, the Health and Care Act 2022 contains measures relating to public health. This article offers a critical examination of one of these, that relating to fluoridation of water supplies. The nature of this intervention as a response to problems of poor oral health is considered, and the changes made by the 2022 Act are explained. It is argued that there are clear reasons for altering the statutory framework, but that it is less immediately apparent why this development is taking place at this point in time. In order to answer this question, John Kingdon’s concept of a ‘policy window’ is deployed as a framework for understanding agenda-setting in this context. Additionally, this can facilitate analysis of the future likelihood of use of the powers conferred by the 2022 Act in this controversial area of public health.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"11 9-10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140442927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Choosing home: discharge to assess and the Health and Care Act 2022","authors":"Jean McHale","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74i4.1075","url":null,"abstract":"In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic National Health Service hospitals were instructed to rapidly discharge patients from wards with consequences which, in the case of some care homes, has been claimed to be catastrophic due to lack of effective testing and isolation. These tragic events also highlight a longer-term issue, namely hospital discharge policies and their relationship with obligations placed on local authorities to assess needs of individuals under the Care Act 2014. Concerns have been expressed for some time regarding the delays in getting patients discharged from hospitals – with them being labelled inappropriately as ‘bed blockers’. The Health and Care Act 2022 includes new statutory measures concerning discharge to facilitate rapid discharge of patients from hospitals. This can be seen as a solution to a major resource problem, but could this ultimately undermine choice and respect for individual wellbeing?The article explores the background to the recent controversies concerning hospital discharge decisions and their relationship with the Care Act 2014. It demonstrates that, while the current debates and controversies regarding hospital discharge decisions are nothing new and pre-date the pandemic by decades, hospital discharge processes accelerated during the pandemic and have left a problematic legacy. It interrogates the Health and Care Act 2022 discharge provisions and whether these will be an effective integration of health and social care provision going forward or whether there is a real risk of undermining individual autonomy, the Care Act 2014 obligations concerning promotion of well-being and a person’s choice of their ‘home’.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"121 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140445237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 and compliance with the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages","authors":"Róisín A Costello","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1047","url":null,"abstract":"The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act was passed on 6 December 2022. The contents of the resulting Act are based primarily on draft legislation published alongside the 2020 New Decade New Approach Agreement that was introduced before the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2020 as part of an integrated package of legislation. The 2022 Act represents the first provision that has been made to recognise minority languages in Northern Ireland and offers the first opportunity to reflect critically on the commitment to minority language rights in Northern Ireland – and how those commitments reflect the requirements of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. This article argues that the Act fails to satisfy the minimum criteria of the Charter, but nevertheless represents positive progress towards achieving minimum benchmarks in terms of minority language rights and policy which may be supplemented in coming years.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"9 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139811024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 and compliance with the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages","authors":"Róisín A Costello","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1047","url":null,"abstract":"The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act was passed on 6 December 2022. The contents of the resulting Act are based primarily on draft legislation published alongside the 2020 New Decade New Approach Agreement that was introduced before the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2020 as part of an integrated package of legislation. The 2022 Act represents the first provision that has been made to recognise minority languages in Northern Ireland and offers the first opportunity to reflect critically on the commitment to minority language rights in Northern Ireland – and how those commitments reflect the requirements of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. This article argues that the Act fails to satisfy the minimum criteria of the Charter, but nevertheless represents positive progress towards achieving minimum benchmarks in terms of minority language rights and policy which may be supplemented in coming years.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"3 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139870974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Internal market governance by consensus rather than conflict? Common Frameworks and the potential for positive harmonisation","authors":"Thomas Horsley, Jo Hunt","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.1083","url":null,"abstract":"This article connects theories of positive and negative harmonisation with perspectives on self- and shared rule to examine emerging approaches to managing domestic (ie intra-United Kingdom (UK)) trade post-Brexit. Our particular focus is on a new tool of governance: the Common Frameworks – a consensus-based collaborative intergovernmental approach to policymaking in areas of devolved competence previously falling within the scope of the European Union Treaties. We explore the potential of the Frameworks as instruments of positive harmonisation with reference to emerging practice and consider their relationship with the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. Our analysis unmasks internal market governance post-Brexit as a contested space, reflecting deepening divisions between the UK and devolved governments regarding self- and shared rule under the UK’s territorial constitution. We identify three key drivers of contestation: a lack of consensus on the UK internal market as a regulatory object; changes in political context; and enduring structural and attitudinal imbalances favouring political control from the centre.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"90 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139606281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ciara Hackett, C. O’Kelly, Samantha Hopkins, Clare Patton
{"title":"Covid-19 as a lens to investigate local approaches to business and human rights: the case of Northern Ireland","authors":"Ciara Hackett, C. O’Kelly, Samantha Hopkins, Clare Patton","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v74iad2.901","url":null,"abstract":"The legal and regulatory framework of business and human rights (BHR) tends to prioritise human rights due diligence (HRDD). This has a role to play in protecting and respecting human rights, but we argue that HRDD’s capacity to reflect context showcases BHR’s potential to improve the lived experience of those in the communities where business operates. Here, we consider two contextual phenomena: Northern Ireland and Covid-19. By focusing on a small regional economy, we investigate the impact of size, location, socio-economic and cultural history on how business integrates (or might integrate) in the social life of a community. By addressing Covid-19 and its recovery, we look at how a global event might be experienced differently depending on location, circumstances and levels of community engagement. We conclude that a more holistic approach might facilitate specific local lived interactions between business and human rights.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":"133 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139179215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dependency: an inhibitor to the Irish case for corporate social responsibility","authors":"Ciara Hackett","doi":"10.53386/nilq.v61i2.448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v61i2.448","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the potential resurgence of the post-imperial 'dependency theory' of the 1960s and 1970s. Suggesting that the initial premise of the theory was just, the article proposes the reworking of the theory in order to incorporate globalisation processes, namely the importance of global capital generated by multi national corporations. Considering that capital is now at the 'core', leads to the idea of a much wider catchment of states 'dependent' on global capital. Using Ireland as an example, this article pursues the idea that a dependent state’s ability to implement corporate social responsibility legislation is inhibited by the constraints of capital.","PeriodicalId":509896,"journal":{"name":"Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly","volume":" 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141223759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}