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Biomedical subjects

Ian Freckelton

Publications and source records attributed to Ian Freckelton.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Gynaecological cytopathology and the search for perfection: civil liability and regulatory ramifications.

The article analyses the potential for false negative and false positive results from Pap smear testing by gynaecological cytopathology laboratories. It also reviews case law in relation to the liability of general practitioners, gynaecologists, cytoscreeners and pathologists in respect of cervical cancer diagnoses. It argues that the concerns expressed in the 1990s about unfair findings of liability against cervical screeners have not been borne out, liability only having been found by the courts where culpable failure to adhere to the standards to be expected of professional behaviour has been established by probative evidence. It argues that the challenge for the future is for cytology screening to articulate definitively where the distinctions lie between acceptable and unacceptable error and for the medical profession and the legal profession to accommodate to the limitations of gynaecological cytopathology.

Australia↗
PubMed2002

Social science research and experimentation in Australian criminal proceedings: prejudicial pre-trial publicity and psychological research.

Using the decision of Barr J in Attorney-General (NSW) v John Fairfax Publications [1999] NSWSC 318, the authors analyse the need for external validity and relevance in social science evidence adduced in the courts. They argue in favour of the rigour employed within Barr J's judgment and contend that a constructive legacy of the decision should be a greater sensitisation on the part of researchers to the kinds of factors that can distance experimental scenarios from curial contexts to a point where generalisations from the former become strained and even spurious. A number of these considerations have the potential to be addressed to a significant extent by improved methodologies. However, the authors warn against an excess of purist fervour in demanding complete comparability of scenarios, lest the fruits of social science be denied to the courts and decision-making be adversely affected by the absence of expert insights falling short of complete replication of conditions between experiments and forensic reality.

Australia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Applications for release by Australians in Victoria found not guilty of offences of violence by reason of mental impairment.

Much research in relation to mental illness and the law has concentrated upon when accused persons are entitled to avail themselves of the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity or mental impairment. However, the decision as to when persons found not guilty by such pleas should be released step by step back into the community involves difficult analyses of the risk of recidivism by persons who have committed serious acts of violence whilst mentally ill. This article analyses some 70 cases heard by the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia since the jurisdiction to make such decisions has been transferred from the executive arm of government to the judiciary. The jurisprudence generated by the Victorian Supreme Court constitutes Australia's most developed law in relation to prediction of dangerousness. This article evaluates the different and subtle dynamics that have influenced the judges in an increasingly sophisticated way to grapple with the phenomenon of mental illness in deciding when persons who have already killed can safely be released from involuntary detention status within the confines of a forensic psychiatric institution back into the general community.

Australia↗