论违约行为的惩罚性赔偿

随着中国<民法典>起草工作不断深入,人们加深了对违约责任的惩罚性赔偿的关注.本文旨在通过对英美法系惩罚性赔偿制度的借鉴,探讨中国建立违约行为惩罚性赔偿的可能性和可行性.     

Preventing punitive damages from employment liability claims

In general, employers do not have a good grasp of the liability they confront in dealing with personnel in terms of hiring, discipline, and firing. Medical practices frequently are quite oblivious to the problem. This article discusses recent judicial decisions and the ways practices may deal with prevention of litigation with special emphasis on management training.     

无人身损害药品惩罚性赔偿的必要性探析

近年来我国无人身损害的药害案件频发,《药品管理法》及其相关法律缺乏对这类新情况的规定.为了保障药品消费者的合法权益,我国有必要将惩罚性赔偿制度引入无人身损害的药害案件中,并在新修订的《药品管理法》中予以明确.惩罚性赔偿金额应当以药品价款为基础,并施以一定浮动比例和上限,同时也应采用递减的模式.     

试论药品侵权事件惩罚性赔偿责任的成立

惩罚性赔偿制度因其独特的功能弥补了现行药品侵权救济的不足,为药品责任体系所用,意义重大。但是药品侵权事件因侵权对象的双重性、侵害状态的复杂性及侵权关系的不易确定,惩罚性赔偿责任认定的构成要件需要特别规定。本文对此展开分析,探讨药品侵权事件惩罚性赔偿责任的具体主观、客观构成要件。     

Workshops are not enough: making Right-to-Know training lead to workplace change.

The underlying intent of Right-to-Know laws and regulations is to improve workplace conditions through worker empowerment. These regulations require employers to educate their employees about the nature and hazards of toxic substances found in the workplace, and methods to reduce exposure. This paper describes a Right-to-Know training program for over 4,000 local government employees which involved workers, their union, and management in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the program. A combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation determined the program was successful at individual, group, and structural levels. The evaluation results suggest that Right-to-Know training programs can make an important contribution to improving workplace health and safety when they are a well-integrated component of a comprehensive safety and health program: they use participatory training methods, they are tailored to address specific conditions faced by the participants, and there is active labor-management collaboration.     

Sharing health data: good intentions are not enough

Epidemiologists and public health researchers are moving very slowly in the data sharing revolution, and agencies that maintain global health databases are reluctant to share data too. Once investments in infrastructure have been made, recycling and combining data provide access to maximum knowledge for minimal additional cost. By refusing to share data, researchers are slowing progress towards reducing illness and death and are denying a public good to taxpayers who support most of the research.Funders of public health research are beginning to call for change and developing data sharing policies. However they are not yet adequately addressing the obstacles that underpin the failure to share data. These include professional structures that reward publication of analysis but not of data, and funding streams and career paths that continue to undervalue critical data management work. Practical issues need to be sorted out too: how and where should data be stored for the long term, who will control access, and who will pay for those services? Existing metadata standards need to be extended to cope with health data.These obstacles have been known for some time; most can be overcome in the field of public health just as they have been overcome in other fields. However no institution has taken the lead in defining a work plan and carving up the tasks and the bill. In this round table paper, we suggest goals for data sharing and a work plan for reaching them, and challenge respondents to move beyond well intentioned but largely aspirational data sharing plans.     

今夏,你"足"够美丽吗

人类一生平均要走112000公里的路,如此极度的负累,脚一不小心就要透露出你体态肌肤的负面讯息,要不好好地照料它们,你可真要没“脚”见人了。     

Contact tracing to control infectious disease: when enough is enough

Contact tracing (also known as partner notification) is a primary means of controlling infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). However, little work has been done to determine the optimal level of investment in contact tracing. In this paper, we present a methodology for evaluating the appropriate level of investment in contact tracing. We develop and apply a simulation model of contact tracing and the spread of an infectious disease among a network of individuals in order to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of different levels of contact tracing. We show that contact tracing is likely to have diminishing returns to scale in investment: incremental investments in contact tracing yield diminishing reductions in disease prevalence. In conjunction with a cost-effectiveness threshold, we then determine the optimal amount that should be invested in contact tracing. We first assume that the only incremental disease control is contact tracing. We then extend the analysis to consider the optimal allocation of a budget between contact tracing and screening for exogenous infection, and between contact tracing and screening for endogenous infection. We discuss how a simulation model of this type, appropriately tailored, could be used as a policy tool for determining the appropriate level of investment in contact tracing for a specific disease in a specific population. We present an example application to contact tracing for chlamydia control.