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Outlines the eligibility criteria within the California Family Rights Act, before considering the rights to which eligible individuals are entitled. Suggests that employers must keep themselves informed regarding eligibility and what constitutes a serious health condition. Concludes that failure to do so could result in an employee seeking civil action with unlimited compensatory damages for emotional injury and punitive damages.

On January 1, 2004 California became the first state to mandate Paid Family Leave for workers who take time off to care for a sick family member. This change is a sub set to the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). This act is based on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which is a federal law. As a foundation to understanding the pending changes in California it is necessary to obtain an overview of the FMLA. Despite their best intentions, employers and human resource professionals find themselves unintentionally violating some portion of the FMLA due to complicated definitions and technical requirements. This article is written from the perspective of an employer in order to highlight dominant features of the FMLA and California’s Paid Family Leave. It is increasingly important for companies to adopt policies and procedures that will ensure compliance with all requirements going forward. Otherwise, the consequences could be costly.

The “traditional” family, one in which the mother and father both reside in the same home and the mother does not work outside of the home, now accounts for less than seven percent of all families in the United States (13, p.56). More than sixty percent of women of childbearing age in the United States are in the work force and forty percent of these women have children under three years of age (1, p.4). Approximately eighty percent of mothers will be in the work force in the year 2000 (8, p.3). Two‐thirds of new workers entering the work force between now and the year 2000 will be women (13, p.57).

Various attempts have been made to understand and resolve the enduring lack of cohesiveness of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), their dysfunctional service delivery and the feelings of distress among some of the professionals who work in them. Distortions in forensic MDTs have sometimes compromised service delivery and effective risk management. Several public inquiries relating to high‐profile incidents in forensic mental health have noted the role of dysfunctional MDTs. This paper describes the philosophy, structure, functions and achievements of a forensic community MDT in Wellington, New Zealand. It explains a model of care that is adaptable, comprehensive, effective and evidence‐based. It highlights the role of the extended MDT and embedded cultural units from which care professionals work together, share a common philosophy of care and tailor their care to the needs of the individuals or populations they serve.

The major federal and state laws that govern the privacy aspects of the use of computer data banks fall into three types of relationships between individuals and institutions: 1) individuals dealing with private institutions such as colleges or universities, 2) individuals interacting with state and local governments; and 3) individuals interacting with the federal government. A separate section is devoted to each of these relationships, containing assessments of the effectiveness of the legal mechanisms that mediate them. The ability of privacy laws that are presently on the books to protect us from abusive information collection, dissemination, and management practices is specifically considered.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

Children in many societies are often seen as immature in issues and therefore should be dependent on adults for provision of basic needs participation. This gives the impression that it is only at adulthood that members of society can make contributions to personal, family and societal development. This is particularly so in African societies. Most African societies consider children as omo kekere (small people/children) and inexperienced people and therefore should be under watch and socialisation of adults who often compromise their rights particularly to participation even when the United Nations’ advocacy guaranteeing the right of children to participate in decision making and other issues concerning them exists. This chapter therefore examines the real experiences of children in a traditional but modernising setting of Ibadan, Nigeria. This is a very relevant research setting since traditional and modern socio-cultural values and forces moderate child rights. Hence, this chapter exposes ways and manners children are treated and, possibly, negotiate cultural systems in the contexts of families to exist within family rules and cultural ethos that define their belongingness and participation in decision making and associated issues. This chapter is placed within the policy framework of implementation of UN Child Rights Charter and Nigerian Child Rights Act which have been found to be largely ineffective in most African societies and Nigeria. This chapter benefits from many years of primary insights and scholarly engagements with children’s experiences and participation in families in Africa. Families with children within the ages of 5–10 in Ibadan were also systematically and extendedly observed. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 children in their family environments after getting informed consent of their parents. Findings show that culture, traditions and institutionalised gerontocracy remain negatively formidable and hold sway in perpetuating systemic child disempowerment and alienation in families. This chapter provides theoretical, professional and policy settings and environments of child rights and childhood in Nigeria with implications for Africa and globally.

In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.

A new database demonstrates that between 1600 and 1830, Parliament passed thousands of acts restructuring rights to real and equitable estates. These estate acts enabled individuals and families to sell, mortgage, lease, exchange, and improve land previously bound by landholding and inheritance laws. This essay provides a factual foundation for research on this important topic: the law and economics of property rights during the period preceding the Industrial Revolution. Tables present time-series, cross-sectional, and panel data that should serve as a foundation for empirical analysis. Preliminary analysis indicates ways in which this new evidence may shape our understanding of British economic and social history. The data demonstrate that Parliament facilitated the reallocation of resources to new and more productive uses by adapting property rights to modern economic conditions. Reallocation surged in the decades following the Glorious Revolution and was concentrated in areas undergoing urbanization and industrialization. The process was open to landowners of all classes, not just the privileged groups who sat in the Houses of Lords and Commons. Parliament's rhetoric about improving the realm appears to have been consistent with its actions concerning rights to land and resources.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.