Mediation in the Law Curriculum

Cited by Lord Neuberger in ‘Educating Future Mediators’ at the 4th Civil Mediation Council National Conference, May 201

Invasive mosquito surveillance in the United Kingdom 2020 to 2024: First detection of Aedes aegypti eggs in the UK and further detection of Aedes albopictus

Here, we provide an update on invasive mosquito surveillance activities coordinated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) between May 2020 and November 2024. Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti are invasive mosquitoes and not currently established in the UK. Both are vectors of various arboviruses including emerging pathogens such as dengue. Therefore, their introduction into the UK poses a threat to public health. In 2024, vector surveillance to detect and limit the establishment of invasive mosquito species involved 1070 ovitraps at 117 localities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, expanding from 58 in 2019. Ovitraps at seaports, airports, and highway transport hubs were examined every two weeks, between May and October, each year. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, no Ae. albopictus specimens were detected. In September 2023, Aedes aegypti eggs were detected in a freight storage facility near Heathrow Airport. Identification of these eggs was confirmed morphologically and molecularly. Targeted enhanced surveillance yielded no further detections, suggesting an isolated incursion. In August 2024, Ae. albopictus was detected for the first time since 2019. Four eggs were found in an ovitrap at a service station along the M20 motorway in Kent, in South East England. In accordance with existing national contingency planning, the local authority collaborated with the landowner and UKHSA to conduct larval source reduction, and UKHSA conducted enhanced surveillance. There were no further detections of eggs or adult Ae. albopictus mosquitoes during the enhanced surveillance period. This project is complemented by UKHSA’s broader mosquito surveillance efforts, including deploying adult mosquito traps in 307 localities across England and Wales, and a mosquito recording scheme that accepts submissions from the public. Combined, our findings suggest that future incursions of invasive mosquitoes in the UK are likely and undertaking enhanced surveillance is key to identifying and reducing the likelihood of their establishment

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and a Post September 11 Morality; Community Rights versus Individual Rights

Within this article I seek to exam the place of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBRA) in the changing world of human rights protection post September 11, 2001. I will argue that the non-entrenched NZBRA, while traditionally subject to significant criticism, may now present a favourable world model for the effective democratic protection of substantive human rights. The anti-terror actions taken by the United States (U.S) and the United Kingdom (U.K.) following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 appear to give rise to a swing in human rights ideology. These acts represent a different form of human rights derogation from that which has traditionally been accepted. Apart from a small number of fundamental or core rights human rights are most often subject to some form of compromise within domestic systems of right protection. Notwithstanding this observation, the actions of the U.S. and the U.K., post September 11, appear to usher in a new form of compromise based upon state or community necessity. This new form of compromise has the potential to significantly modify the nature of traditional human rights ideology from the inviolable supremacy of an individual’s rights to the supremacy of broader democratic, structural or societal rights. Consequently, if such a shift were to solidify to the extent that derogations from the protection of an individual’s fundamental rights were held to be legitimate where society is faced with any type of amorphous threat, then a corresponding shift in appreciation of entrenchment versus non-entrenchment would also likely occur. The result would therefore be that right protection systems traditionally seen as weak, such as in operation within New Zealand and the U.K. could be seen as providing greater right protection through their promotion of intra-constitutional activity. Entrenched systems on the other hand, could lose favour as their rigid and concrete procedural protections provide little flexibility and therefore little intra-constitutional encouragement to executive administrations

The Security Council and the ICC: Delineating the Scope of Security Council Referrals and Deferrals

Available online via the EBSCO Publishing site by subscription.Examines the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) referrals and deferrals under the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Reason behind the alleged commitment of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sudanese government; Failure of the United Nations to facilitate a peaceful settlement in the country; Initial action taken by the UNSC before deciding to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC