We open the book by discussing the rise of constitutional courts and judicial review, emphasizing their stated responsibility as guardians of the constitutional system. We discuss existing theories of judicial power and independence, highlighting the concept of judicial efficacy: the ability of courts to create political penalties for elites who fail to abide by the constitutional limits on their authority. We discuss different types of penalties courts might levy and explain why attitudinal costs – particularly a loss of public support – represent the cornerstone of judicial efficacy. We then provide a summary of our argument, contrasting our theory of judicial efficacy with existing accounts of judicial power and impact. The chapter concludes with a roadmap for the rest of the book and a summary of our key findings.

Chapter 8 draws on sociological literature in debating whether law – however drafted – is capable of solving the complex problem of discrimination against people who look different. It argues that, although we should not expect too much of law in tackling the complex social problem of appearance bias, strategically targeted laws can sometimes play a part in changing attitudes, norms and behaviours. While prohibitions on discrimination are important for remedial purposes, other types of legal and social reform may be better placed to create the conditions for greater inclusion of people with visible differences.

This chapter covers the core concepts in respiratory physiology for the FRCA exam. We explore the basic principles of respiratory physiology and ventilation, and go into detail on ventilation-perfusion matching, lung compliance, shunt, dead-space and the alveolar gas equation.

Some propose that states tie hands by signing alliance treaties. The presence of an alliance treaty increases the audience costs of violating a commitment to defend another state, having the effect of tying hands. This chapter argues that states prefer to keep their hands untied to make it easier to avoid getting drawn into the wrong wars. Accordingly, when states design alliance treaties, they routinely include flexibility language in the treaties that enable them to stay out of conflicts involving embattled allies without violating the treaty, thereby reducing or avoiding the audience costs of abandoning an ally. The chapter demonstrates that all alliances since 1945 include such flexibility language, including alliances signed by the US and Soviet Union/Russia. Further, the chapter demonstrates that in every single post-1945 case when a state allegedly abandoned an embattled ally, the flexibility language of the treaty means that the decision to stay out of the conflict did not technically violate the treaty. On the rare occasions when states want to tie hands more tightly to bolster deterrence, they make verbal statements that de facto reduce the flexibility of the alliance treaty, though such verbal statements are crafted to tie hands minimally.

The director of an observation unit needs to provide service to more than just the patients that pass through the unit. Hospital executive leadership is a key constituency with a vested interested in the successful operation of an observation unit. This chapter discusses key expectations frequently held by health care executives, and offers potential solutions and suggestions for keeping the observation unit in the good graces of the administration.

General Medicare observation reimbursement guidelines for hospital (facility) services are reviewed. Tables on the Medicare observation Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) private payer observation codes, Typical Medicare facility reimbursement rates, Medicare observation composite Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs) and reimbursement are included. This chapter contains a walk-through of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) requirements related to registration, documentation, charging, coding, and billing of facility observation services. Facility observation reimbursement, compliance oversight for observation services and condition code 44 are discussed. The scrutiny by Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) focusing on one-day inpatient and observation stays is discussed.

This chapter considers questions of immigration institutional design in light of lessons learned from how Caribbean home-care aides currently work and travel. The growth in paid home care has been largely staffed by migrant labor – with some care workers operating outside of the scope of their visas. While these workers may technically be noncompliant, the author argues that most of these workers are in fact “good types,” who would have been favorably screened ex-ante for elder-care visas. The chapter proposes that we urgently devise a system that permits temporary entry of elder-care workers. If migrant care workers are permitted long-term temporary visas in which they can work in the US for a few months per year over several years, they have every incentive to comply.

Eight months after adoption, less than 60 per cent of the country-specific recommendations are partially or fully implemented, and the performance has worsened after the introduction of the European Semester (ES). This chapter employs political economy theories of reform to explain differences in implementation, analyzing the full set of recommendations released between 2002 and 2019. A combination of economic and electoral pressures as well as the costs of noncompliance are associated with these patterns. Proximity to electoral contests lowers the rates of implementation, even though this effect weakens under the ES. In 2002–2010, inflationary pressures acted as drivers of compliance in euro area countries and as obstacles to compliance in non-euro area countries. After the introduction of the ES, the sovereign debt crisis triggered fuller implementation. Moreover, governments adopted especially those actions that were associated with a more established supranational system for sanctioning noncompliance. Raw country power has had different implications. Countries with higher voting power were initially less compliant. Later on, economically larger countries complied more.

The second part of the book investigates the implementation of the policy. As far as preventive surveillance is concerned, at its core lay the country-specific recommendations on the macroeconomic policies of the member states. These recommendations are the object of intense negotiations between the Commission and the Council. Why are they a matter of bargaining? What shapes the Council’s propensity to modify the Commission’s proposals and what affects their strengthening or weakening? This chapter employs bargaining and compliance theories to address these questions. Analyzing the recommendations issued between 1999 and 2019, it shows that the Council is rather active in modifying the Commission’s assessments and strengthens four-fifths of the recommending provisions that it decides to modify. Economic and supranational factors dominate this process. Governments balance the pressures originating from the bargaining dynamic within the Council with the need to preserve policy credibility and effectiveness in the face of noncompliance and worsening economic conditions.

This part explores the principles and mechanisms for the reparation of human rights violations and the enforcement of decisions rendered by international human rights bodies. It discusses the obligation of states to provide full reparation for harm suffered as a result of human rights violations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of nonrepetition. The sections examine the legal standards for determining and quantifying reparation, the procedural aspects of reparation processes, and the role of international and national bodies in monitoring and enforcing reparation awards. Additionally, this part focuses on the enforcement mechanisms and challenges in implementing international human rights decisions. It discusses various models of enforcement, including judicial review, hybrid monitoring, and political and diplomatic control. The part highlights the importance of effective enforcement in ensuring the realization of human rights and the accountability of states for human rights violations. By providing insights into the reparation and enforcement processes, this part emphasizes the critical role of comprehensive and effective mechanisms in achieving justice and reconciliation for victims of human rights violations.

Health care comprises a major segment of the US economy and is a critical influence upon citizens’ quality of life. The quality of health care and access to it are negatively affected by corruption. So too is citizen compliance with public health policies, a fact that became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay-at-home orders, for example, were significantly less effective in states with more extensive corruption. Low levels of trust in government contributed to those disparities. Such effects are more pronounced in poorer areas and Black communities. Racial contrasts in vaccine equity – access to vaccinations and related services – were pronounced and, again, reflected levels of corruption. Particularly intractable problems of collective action posed by structural corruption and structural racism must be addressed if disparities in the quality of health care are to be reduced.

Executives, managers, and employees use legal knowledge with varying levels of sophistication which I term "pathways of legal strategy." There are five discrete pathways of legal strategy that firms use in their legal environment of business. The avoidance pathway focuses on circumvention of legal rules. Firms practicing conformance seek minimum compliance with legal obligations. Prevention firms apply business knowledge to avert legal wrongdoing. Value firms leverage legal knowledge to create and capture value. Firms pursuing a transformation strategy use legal knowledge to redefine the organization or an industry. Each of these pathways is analyzed for its distinct traits regarding the manager’s perception of the law, the level of legal knowledge in the organization, and the role of legal experts, and the pathway’s reinforcement of organizational goals. The pathways can help organizations identify strategic uses of legal knowledge, highlight any mismatches, and develop a clear trajectory in order to shift from one pathway to another. The first three pathways (avoidance, conformance, and prevention) will be addressed in this chapter.

There are many important principles related to ventilators, alarms, and safety features in the operating room and intensive care unit that are relevant to preparation for the American Board of Anesthesiology BASIX exam and anesthesiology training in general. The first part of this chapter is focused on ventilator management and begins with an overview of phase variables (trigger, limit, cycle). An introduction to non-invasive, controlled mechanical, and assisted mechanical modes of ventilation follows, along with relevant high-yield principles. The final section of the chapter provides an overview of alarm design and commonly tested safety features.