The Conduct of Public Inquiries


Book Description

This book is the first comprehensive, integrated, and thorough exposition of the public inquiry as a governmental, legal and social institution. It examines the legal framework, the role of the commissioner and legal counsel, the rights and obligations of individuals who may be affected and its relationship to government, the media and the public.




Public Inquiries


Book Description

Public Inquiries is written and edited by expert practitioners who have appeared in some of the most significant public inquiry cases over the last decade. Bringing together their wealth of practical experience, this new work functions as a complete handbook for all practitioners in this field.




The Oxford Handbook of Administrative Justice


Book Description

"The core animating feature of administrative justice scholarship is the desire to understand how justice is achieved through the delivery of public services and the actions, inactions, and decision-making of administrative bodies. The study of administrative justice also encompasses the redress systems by which people can challenge administrative bodies to seek the correction of injustices. For a long time now, scholars have been interested in administrative justice, but without necessarily framing their work as such. Rather than existing under the rubric of administrative justice, much of the research undertaken has existed within sub-categories of disciplines, such as law, sociology, public policy, politics, and public administration. Consequently, although aspects of the topic have attracted rich contributions across such disciplines, administrative justice has rarely been studied or taught in a manner that integrates these areas of research more systematically. This Handbook signals a major change of approach. Drawing together a group of world-leading scholars of administrative justice from a range of disciplines, The Oxford Handbook of Administrative Justice shows how administrative justice is a vibrant, complex, and contested field that is best understood as an area of inquiry in its own right, rather than through traditional disciplinary silos"--




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.




The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations


Book Description

This volume ws the winner of The International Studies Association Theory Section Book Award 2013, presented by the International Studies Association and The Yale H. Ferguson Award 2012, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast. There are many different scientifically valid ways to produce knowledge. The field of International Relations should pay closer attention to these methodological differences, and to their implications for concrete research on world politics. The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations provides an introduction to the philosophy of science issues and their implications for the study of global politics. The author draws attention to the problems caused by the misleading notion of a single unified scientific method, and proposes a framework that clarifies the variety of ways that IR scholars establish the authority and validity of their empirical claims. Jackson connects philosophical considerations with concrete issues of research design within neopositivist, critical realist, analyticist, and reflexive approaches to the study of world politics. Envisioning a pluralist science for a global IR field, this volume organizes the significant differences between methodological stances so as to promote internal consistency, public discussion, and worldly insight as the hallmarks of any scientific study of world politics. This important volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of International Relations, Political Science and Philosophy of Science.




Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia


Book Description

While there have been many different studies on public inquiries, Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of public inquiries in Australia. It is based on rigorous and in-depth analysis spanning several decades, and has required patient and painstaking work in defining and identifying different federal public inquiries and monitoring their performance over the last 100 years. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA will be of interest to all who seek to better understand the particular role of public inquiries and what their continued appointment tells us about trends in Australian government generally.' From the Foreword by Professor John Wanna, The Sir John Bunting Professor of Public Administration, Australian National University. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA provides the first comprehensive overview of the extent, use and impact of Commonwealth public inquiries appointed since 1901. Specifically, this new book:* defines 'public inquiries,' and delineates them from other advisory bodies;* details trends in public inquiry numbers since Federation and compares these to overseas jurisdictions;* classifies the different types and forms of public inquiries;* explains public inquiry procedures, powers and associated legislation;* analyses why public inquiries are appointed and their roles in the political system;* assesses their impact on public policy; and,* explores the continuing and future roles of public inquiries. Covering public inquiries appointed by the Commonwealth government since Federation, particular attention is given to those public inquiries appointed during the last thirty years, when inquiry numbers increased markedly. References to numerous inquiries throughout the book are supplemented by detailed case studies of key public inquiries, including royal commissions and appointed by different governments. This authoritative book has been written by an expert in the field. Lecturer Dr Scott Prasser has worked in federal and state governments in senior policy and research advisory positions. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA will be a valuable reference for those interested in a widely used, but often neglected, advisory instrument of modern government that continues to influence many areas of public policy.




Ethics and Public Policy


Book Description

Ethics and Public Policy:€A Philosophical Inquiry€is the first book to subject important and controversial areas of public policy, such as drugs, health and€gambling€to philosophical scrutiny.




Public Inquiries, Policy Learning, and the Threat of Future Crises


Book Description

In the aftermath of major crises governments turn to public inquiries to learn lessons. Inquiries often challenge established authority, frame heroes and villains in the public spotlight and deliver courtroom-like drama to hungry journalists. As such, they can become high-profile political stories in their own right. Inquiries also have a policy learning mandate with big implications because they are ultimately responsible for identifying policy lessons which, if implemented, should keep us safe from the next big event. However, despite their high-profile nature and their position as the pre-eminent means of learning about crises, we still know very little about what inquiries produce in terms of learning and what factors influence their effectiveness in this regard. In light of this, the question that animates this book is as important as it is simple. Can post-crisis inquiries deliver effective lesson-learning which will reduce our vulnerability to future threats? Conventional wisdom suggests that the answer to this question should be an emphatic no. Outside of the academy, for example, inquiries are regularly vilified as costly wastes of time that illuminate very little while inside social scientists echo similar concerns, regularly describing inquiries as unhelpful. These commentaries, however, lack robust, generalizable evidence to support their claims. This volume provides evidence from the first international comparison of post-crisis inquiries in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, which shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the post-crisis inquiry is an effective means of policy learning after crises and that they consistently encourage policy reforms that enhance our resilience to future threats.




The Practical Guide to Public Inquiries


Book Description

This practical guide provides legal practitioners, participants, witnesses and all those with an interest in public inquiries, with stage-by-stage 'hands on' guidance on the process of public inquiries into matters of public concern. With its user-friendly format of summaries, checklists, 'top tips' and flow charts, this book looks at the setting up of a public inquiry through to its close. It includes information on: - the appointment of the chair and inquiry team; - the choice and significance of the venue; - the drawing up of inquiry procedures, protocols and rulings; - the appointment and role of core participants; - evidence taking; - conducting and attending hearings; - the role of experts; - the writing and publication of the inquiry report. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience as public inquiry lawyers, working on inquiries such as the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry, Leveson Inquiry and Grenfell Tower Inquiry, together with contributions from a number of other eminent practitioners in the field, this book provides valuable, comprehensive guidance on the public inquiry process.




Public Inquiries


Book Description

Throughout the twentieth century, administrations have wrestled with allaying public concern over national disasters and social scandals. This book seeks to describe historically the use of public inquiries, and demonstrates why their methods continued to deploy until 1998 the ingrained habits of lawyers, particularly by issuing warning letters in order to safeguard witnesses who might be to blame. Under the influence of Lord Justice Salmon, the vital concern about systems and services allotted to social problems was relegated to the identification of individual blameworthiness. The book explains why the last inquiry under that system, into the events of 'Bloody Sunday' under Lord Saville's chairmanship, cost £200 million and took twelve and a half years (instead of two years). 'Never again', was the Government's muted cry as the method of investigating the public concern was eventually replaced by the Inquiries Act 2005, by common consent a good piece of legislation. The overriding principle of fairness to witnesses was confirmed by Parliament to those who are 'core participants' to the event, but with limited rights to participate. The public inquiry, the author asserts, is now publicly administered as a Commission of Inquiry, and is correctly regarded as a branch of public administration that focuses on the systemic question of what went wrong, as opposed to which individuals were to blame.