Culpability

Rose, N. (2000), The biology of culpability pathological identity and crime control in a biological culture , Theoretical Criminology, 4, 5-43-... 

The HSA states, however, that "covered countermeasures" apply only to smallpox vaccines at this time, and although HSA protects manufacturers and others against liability, it does not directly set forth compensation procedures for vaccine recipients. Under Part C of the HSA, compensation for death benefits is capped at 262,100. If a case does end up in court, the plaintiff must "prove culpability equal to or rising above the level of negligence." It seems assured that the history of vaccine regulations and litigations will continue to change for some hme to come. The swine flu and other vaccine-related ADRs are discussed further in Section 28.4.4.1. 

The central purpose of CERCLA is to provide a response mechanism for cleanup of any hazardous substance released, such as an accidental spill, or of a threatened release of a hazardous substance (Nordin et al., 1995). Section 102 of CERCLA is a catchall provision because it requires regulations to establish that quantity of any hazardous substance the release of which shall be reported pursuant to Section 103 of CERCLA. Thus, under CERCLA, the list of potentially responsible parties (PRPs) can include all direct and indirect culpable parties who have either released a hazardous substance or violated any statutory provision. In addition, responsible private parties are liable for cleanup actions and/or costs as... 

In practice, if a manufacturer is the target, the government will likely attempt to develop evidence by subpoena of persons and materials which will help prove culpability. It is likely the subpoenas will ask for correspondence, notes, and memos during a particular time period and involving a particular subject matter. 

As noticed in a review of P [2]t, an important early reference had been overlooked, namely the two notes of Jouguet [3], Observations sur les principes et les theoremes generaux de la statique chimique (pp. 61-180) and Sur les lois de la dynamique chimique relatives aux sens des reactions irreversibles (pp. 181-194). In these papers (of which I was culpably unaware when writing P) Jouguet carefully establishes the notion of independence of reactions and the invariants of a system of reactions and considers the ramifications of the phase rule. In particular he is quite clear as to the way in which stoicheiometry lays a foundation for thermodynamics and in going on to discuss the nature of equilibrium he shows that its uniqueness is a consequence of its stability. Thus much of the content of 2-4 of P is to be found in Jouguet. His second note, however, is concerned with the direction... 

The culpability of the accused is even greater when one takes note of the high criminal energy with which the crime was committed. The accused acted on the basis of a calculated and highly refined strategy carried out in a hidden manner that was chosen beforehand with great deliberation, involved numerous deceits and manipulations and was therefore very difficult to penetrate. (decision p. 237)... 

What role is the Chemical Weapons Convention portrayed as playing in the ongoing wrangling over chemical weapons destruction Public policy experts seem to focus on the international treaty as a motivational force driving chemical weapons disposal. " In the media, there is an underlying effort to impute culpability for the need to destroy the US chemical weapons stockpile to international treaties, often without recognizing that the weapons were declared obsolete by the US Department of Defense 10 years before the CWC was signed and 15 years before it came... 

Third, additional dispersion modeling was performed to identify source-receptor relationships and define culpable sources (those sources that have the largest contributions to the total impact) for the receptor points identified. These results are illustrated in Fig. 14. For example, at the point of highest concentration... 

Fig. 14. (a) Source culpability in York River, (b) at fence line on land, and (c) at closest residence. 

Although such slovenly goods were ultimately the responsibility of the unnamed unit surgeon, some grossly incompetent steward was probably the most directly culpable party. 

Part of the reason why these regulations did not work well is that it proved much more expensive than anticipated. Many environmental activists claimed that the costs were negligible, that new technology would both abate emissions and lower production costs, or that cleanup costs would be born by some unspecified group of managers who were morally culpable for the polluted environment. In fact, pollution control costs are substantial. 

Courts that apply the rule only to fact probabilities essentially seek a yes-or-no belief in a >50% fact probability. By contrast, traditional courts that apply the rule only to belief probabilities seek a >50% belief in a yes-or-no fact. In toxic tort/occupational disease claims where both fact probability and belief probability are issues, there are at least two other approaches. Courts could apply the more-likely than-not standard jointly, reducing alleged fact probability by a factor reflecting the jury s doubt about its truth. By contrast, the rule could be applied sequentially to require only a > 50% belief in a fact probability which itself may barely exceed the >50% threshold. It is important to see that joint application stiffens the causation burden-of-produc-tion/burden-of-persuasion, while sequential application substantially lessens the causation production/ persuasion requirements. The point here is that, regardless of approach, a court that deals with causal indeterminacy characteristic of toxic tort/occupational disease claims should be explicit about what it is doing, especially if defendant s culpability of conduct or duty to prevent risk is factored into determination of the causation issue. 

Defendants in toxic tort litigation can and do assert a host of defenses in order to avoid liability. Some of these defenses substantively negate a specific cause of action, some limit claims against particular defendants, some arise in the law of procedure, some derive from the plaintiff s culpable conduct, and some arise because public law obligations can preempt the operation of common law. This chapter will conclude with brief descriptions of some of the important defenses that have been asserted in toxic tort cases. 

Sonic of the Indian defendants have had their charges reduced to lesser charges of criminal negligence in the intervening years. However, the charges against Union Carbide and former CEO Warren Anderson remain as culpable homicide. 

Drug-induced exfoliative dermatitis usually begins a few weeks or longer following the administration of a culpable drug. Beginning as erythematous, edematous patches, often on the face, it spreads to involve the entire integument. The skin becomes swollen and scarlet and may ooze a straw-colored fluid this is followed in a few days by desquamation. 

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