Immigration and Asylum Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Immigration and Asylum Law - Essay Example In the House of Lords decision in Islam (A.P.) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department and Regina v. Immigration Appeal Tribunal and Another Ex Parte Shah (A.P.) [1999] 2 W.L.R. 1015 (Conjoined Appeals), Lord Steyn set out a four point criteria that one claiming refugee or asylum status must meet. He opined that under Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention, an asylum seeker must be able to prove that, firstly he/she has a well founded fear of persecution; secondly, that the reason for persecution is as a result of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion; thirdly, that he/she is not within the country of his/her nationality; and fourthly, that he/she is either unable or unwilling to lay claim to protection from his/her country of nationality due to the fear of persecution. Consequently, having a well founded fea... Another decided case that buttresses the argument set out in Lord Steyn opinion is Januzi v. Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2006] UKHL 5. In Januzi Lord Bingham held that the use of the provision "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted " in Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention constitutes a causative condition upon which all the other conditions for claiming a refugee status hinge on. Thus a person claiming refugee status can claim to be persecuted because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, but if this fear is not a well-founded one, the claim to refugee status would be denied. In the Islam and Regina cases (cited above) for instance, two Pakistani women - Islam and Shah - had left their native country of Pakistan to the UK and were seeking asylum due to fear of persecution because of being part of a particular social group. Both of them had been physically abused by their husbands and had been accused of infidelity, a crime that carried the penalty of being flogged publicly or being stoned to death under Shariah Law. The two women had also received threats from neighbours after they fled from their husbands' homes and sort refuge with family members. In establishing whether the Islam and Shah had a claim to asylum due to a well founded fear of persecution, Lord Steyn quoted from an Amnesty International Report on the human rights abuses of women in Pakistan. The report stated inter alia that: ". . . several Pakistani laws explicitly discriminate against women. In some cases they allow only the evidence of men to be heard, not of women. In particular, the Evidence

Consent and capacity to treatment in medical law of an adult Essay

Consent and capacity to treatment in medical law of an adult - Essay Example 41, 2008). When the law talks about the capacity, it involves the maturity level and understanding and despite that a patient cannot be considered as having lack of capacity only because he made an unwise decision which does not fulfill his own best interests. According to the law, capacity cannot be the regarded as the decision which is reasonable and sensible to another person, perceptions may vary (Coyne, p. 64, 2005). People who have capacity can make their own decisions unless it is proven that they lack capacity. Disability is not a factor which indicates the lack of capacity; in fact a disable person can well take his own decisions without the assistance of anyone else. But in some cases, a person with a disability may require assistance to clarify the issues and understand the choices to ensure and enable autonomous decision making, but the other people may not always find other people’s decisions rights (Jackson, p. 601, 2002). For this, the law says that it cannot be assessed that the person is making a right decision or not, but what should be determined is that the decision is not ‘bad’ and whether it shows the lack of capacity in the person to make decisions or not. ... 171, 2004). Clinical incapacity is not permanent. The people who are severely depressed, intoxicated, comatose, agitated or impaired otherwise lack the capacity to make their medical decisions but for the time being. Later, they may retrieve their capacity. Where a patient has the ability to make a decision, the doctors should assess it (Herring, p. 202, 2012). People with dementia require the evaluation of the person’s level of judgment and memory before proceeding with the medical care. The law says that if the doctors find the person lacking capacity, they may turn to a close relative or friend or anyone appointed by the person to make decisions on his behalf (Wong, p. 445, 1999). However, these kinds of cases where the decisions are made by substitutes for the people who cannot make decisions for themselves are rarely brought into the court. But, if the patient himself objects to the medical decision taken or to the determination of him clinically lacking capacity, it can be brought to the court. The doctors are ordered not to go against the person’s will unless it is declared that he is legally incapacitated (Sturman, p. 963, 2005). Once the capacity is determined, the patient’s consent is equally important. Adults are more commonly categorized in this group and they make their own health decisions. Every adult has the right to accept or refuse medical treatment (Pozgar, p. 320, 2011). In general situations, a doctor asks for the consent of the patient before treating them. This suggests that the patient should be legally able to give his consent. If the patient is under guardianship, his decision will not be made by himself (Appelbaum, p. 1838, 2007). The patient must be mentally able to permit the medical