English for Polish Students of Law

Legal English for Polish Students

Conscience Clause for Pharmacists

May 14, 2012 by · 1 Comment · conscience clause, ethics

Polish Catholic Pharmacists Association demands to introduce Conscience Clause for pharmacists. And what should it embrace? Opinions are divided on this question, but people who put their signatures under the project want free choice for pharmacists – we can read on wyborcza.pl in the article “Contraceptives, please. I can’t sell, my conscience forbids me.”

Catholic Pharmacists Association unites up to 800 people; however about 12 thousand people put their signatures under their petition that concerns introducing conscience clause for pharmacists. The initiator of this project was a chemist from Starogard Gdanski, Malgorzata Prusak, who got support of politicians from many political groupings.

The problem for some pharmacists was an obligation to sell every medicine, which patient needs, regardless of pharmacist’s belief. This question involves mainly contraceptives such as: condoms, spirals and hormonal pills. Pharmacists argue that doctors also have a right to refuse to perform surgery, when it contradicts their
consciences. They fight for perceiving them not only as pills sellers, but as people who practise the profession of public trust.

Members of the Association are not unanimous on what exactly should this clause involve, but they think, that it is not crucial. The main point is a possibility of refusing to sell a medicine, taking of which is not consistent with pharmacist’s conscience. Lots of them deny selling hormonal pills and do not care that apart from being contraceptives, they are also a medicine, but pharmacist can not ask their customer why she needs this type of pills.  Catholic Pharmacists Association does not agree with charges, that introducing this clause will hinder access to contraceptives – it argues, that adherents of this project are only a little part of all pharmacists in Poland.

Do you agree that representatives of some professions can refuse to offer their services to their clients and customers on the basis of the conscience clause? Have your say! And read the article in Polish on http://zdrowie.wieszjak.pl/wiadomosci/ciekawostki/306018,Klauzula-sumienia-dla-farmaceutow-czyli-o-co-tyle-krzyku.html

The text has been translated into English by Patrycja Fedor, a student of Kozminski University.

Krakow: a student fell out of bed and requires PLN 100,000 from the Pedagogical University

May 3, 2012 by · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

A student who fell during sleep from a bunk bed in a student dormitory “Akropol” in Cracow demands from the Pedagogical University PLN 100,000 damages for health injury. The girl suffered serious head injuries and in the lawsuit she contends that the rector of the PU has not taken due care of her safety.  The trial in this case has just started.

The accident took place at the night of 8 to 9 December 2009. A student fell onto the floor from a meter and a half high bed. She was not under the influence of  alcohol or drugs. She lost consciousness. After she recovered, she went to the hospital because her head ached and blood flowed from her nose. It turned out that she had a few facial bones broken. The bones were assembled by a titanium plate.

The student argues that all bunk beds on the 14th floor of this dorm did not have safety barriers. They were installed only after the tragic accident.

Do you think the student will be successful with her claim? Can the rector/university be held liable for such accident and harm the student suffered?

Have your say! 

This information was published on http://krakow.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/1366495,krakow-studentka-spadla-z-lozka-zada-100-tys-zl-od,id,t.html and translated into English by Katarzyna Mietlińska from Kozminski University.

Anderson Copper Giggles at Dyngus Day on American TV

April 12, 2012 by · 2 Comments · USA

Here is another story in which an American journalist and TV personality Anderson Copper laughs at Poles cultivating Dyngus Day.
Have you ever wondered how bizzare the custom of pouring water at people on Easter Monday may seem to foreigners?

Watch the video and have your say!

Coca Cola’s Stereotypical Ad in Spain

March 26, 2012 by · 2 Comments · discrimination

Coca Cola has just released an advertisement in which you can win a trip to Poland to watch EURO 2012 if you send a text from your mobile.

In the advertisement a Polish immigrant – Jacek who works as a builder in Spain and has not been able to afford to ticket to Poland to see his son for the last 5 years -dicovers that Cocal Cola competition is a chance for him. He sends a text and Spaniards sitting in the same bar offer him their bottles of Coke to send more texts to increase his chances of winnig the trip.

Polish immigrants in Spain condemn Cocal Cola for releasing a stereotypical advertisement that offends their feelings by visualising a Pole as a poor man and appeal to Coca Cola to withdraw the controversial ad.

You can watch the ad here

Do you think such streotypical advertisements are harmless, funny or offensive. Do they strenghten the stereotypes or should be meant as a joke only?

Have your say!

Problems with Poles? Report them to us, says new Dutch website

March 19, 2012 by · 2 Comments · discrimination, European Union, immigration law

Source: DutchNew.nl

Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV party has launched a new website where people can report complaints about central and eastern European immigrants in the Netherlands.

‘Do you have problems with people from central and eastern Europe? Have you lost your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other eastern European? We want to know,’ the website states.

The website is illustrated by newspaper headlines such as ‘Wouldn’t it be better if you went back?’ and ‘Eastern Europeans, increasingly criminal’.

Insight

PVV parliamentarian Ino van de Besselaar told the AD the aim of the site is to develop proper insight into the ‘problems caused by central and eastern
Europeans in terms of crime, alcoholism, drugs use, dumping household waste and prostitution’.

The results will be delivered to social affairs minister Henk Kamp. Questioned by Nos television, Kamp refused to condemn the PVV’s campaign, saying
it is up to individual parties to decide what they do.

Discrimination

According to media reports, the Polish embassy in the Netherlands is ‘not pleased’ with the initiative. ‘Insulting party initiatives do not contribute to
calm discussion,’ a spokesman is quoted as saying in the AD.

Last year, the Polish ambassador to the Netherlands Janusz Stanczyk said the attitude to people from eastern Europe ‘borders on discrimination’.

Over the past year or so, local and national politicians have called for action to curb the ‘tsunami’ of Polish and other Eastern European workers in the
Netherlands. Social affairs minister Henk Kamp even called for jobless Poles to be deported, even though this is impossible under EU rules.

What do you think of such initiatives? Do you think there are any grounds for such moves? Under what circumstances might they be justified? How come they happen in the EU, in the era of political correctness?

Have your say?

Sleeplessness for Success

March 5, 2012 by · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

This post has been prepared by Iwo Franaszczyk from Kozminski University.

Is sleeplessness really necessary for success? I have recently read an article about the most sleep-deprived jobs in the world. Believe me or not but one of those was a lawyer who suppose you want to be someday.

In order to succeed as a lawyer you need to study hard. I don’t doubt law faculty requires spending hours on studying (doing research on several opinions – legal doctrine is highly diversified). The whole “studying” thing will give you some experience how to stay up to date about all time changing statues and that might give you a ticket to your career. But don’t get too excited about that. First of all, if you want to be a good lawyer you have to understand that it is connected with learning all the time and knowing the latest news from law world. It requires energy.

Legal studies (after-work) oblige you to think. Thinking is very exhausting (sometimes much more than doing exercises). You must REST.

And here we are. Have you ever thought how much you sleep? A human can’t work effectively if he/she is not well rested. Research shows that to work properly all day you have to sleep around 7-8 hours per day. While sleeping your mind is processing all information it gained during the day and basically puts it into long term memory.

You would probably say you don’t have time to sleep so long. Many things to do, more to learn, there is no time to sleep. It is an absurd! You will never remember anything if you don’t concentrate on what you do and it is impossible when you are sleepy. Furthermore, you should avoid any pills or energy drinks which are supposed to give you energy. From biological point of view it is true; however it only gives your physical body power to operate not your mind – it is still tired, you just don’t feel it. By the way using those is very harmful.

And here I have a solution for you. Your mind needs refreshing from time to time. It is called “a nap”. Taking a nap for 20-30 minutes gives your mind energy to work for the next few hours as efficient as if you would have slept whole night. Take a nap after you return from university, before you are going to learn, when you finish learning. Even if you sleep 5 hours at night and you take regularly naps you can function even better than while sleeping 10 hours only during the night.

Do/will you live a healthy life for success? Is it possible in the fast moving era of career oriented young professionals?

Have your say!

Can Gauck Be Germany’s President ‘While Living in Sin?’

February 26, 2012 by · 3 Comments · Uncategorized

Source: www.thelocal.de

Germans generally agree that  Joachim Gauck is a good choice for president. But can the ex-pastor be the nation’s moral authority while staying married to one woman yet living with another set to become First Lady? Have your say.

In Germany the president’s role is mainly a ceremonial one, but from time to time he’s expected to step in and provide the country with some direction.

Former President Christian Wulff used his soapbox (pol. mównica) to promote integration of Germany’s Muslims. Others have expounded on (pol. rozprawiać) various aspects of German society.

But some conservative politicians – particularly in the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) – have said Gauck’s personal situation makes him an odd choice to be a moral authority figure.

In fact, Gauck has been separated from his legal wife for years, but has been living with his partner Daniela Schadt since 2000.

The arrangement raised the hackles (pol. doprowadzić do szału) of prominent CSU Bundestag member Norbert Geis who called on Gauck to “arrange his personal affairs as quickly as possible.”

Others, including Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, have defended the likely president’s personal life, saying they’re nobody’s business. So far, Gauck has refused to comment on the matter.

Does the country’s conscience need to get properly married in order to be effective?

Have your say below.

Pizza is Now a Veggie in the US

January 4, 2012 by · 18 Comments · legislation, USA

This post has been prepared by Katarzyna Mietlińska, Kozminski University.

Is pizza a vegetable? What warp/curve of a cucumber is appropriate? Is carrot a fruit? With such extraordinary reflections we had to deal with. However, if someone thought that this was the end-was wrong. Now the time has come for the pizza!

In November, this year, the US Congress determined that the pizza is a vegetable. This resulted from the fact that politicians did not agree to implement the provisions of the new law that would make children struggling with obesity eat healthy food.

Congressional guidelines provide that the pizza is the recommended portion of vegetables in a meal with just two tablespoons of tomato sauce. Sounds unreal?
It’s not at all! Moreover, this is incompatible with previous guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], whose voice, as you can see, no longer counts.

As it has been nicely said by USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe: Unfortunately, some members of the Congress put the interests of certain groups over the health of American children.

Let us hope that this type of thinking will not come to us and the position of the people against the huge businesses will not get worse.

Have your say!

Record High Financial Compensation for Polish Doctor in UK

December 22, 2011 by · 9 Comments · discrimination, Employment Law

Source: www.thenews.pl

A Polish doctor, who worked as an obstetrician (pol. położnik) in Leeds, England, has been awarded almost 4.5 million pounds in compensation for discrimination by her employers.

 Doctor Ewa Michalak, now 53 year-old, won claimed for sex and race discrimination and unfair dismissal (pol. niezgodne z prawem zwolnienie z pracy).

She lost her job after a five-year campaign against her, which started when she was pregnant. The tribunal in Leeds heard that Dr Michalak had been left unable to accomplish the simplest of tasks due to the stress and that senior staff members at Pontefract General Infirmary began a plan to get rid of her at a secret meeting in March 2003, when she was seven months pregnant.

She began to receive complaints and criticism, being accused of bullying (pol. zastraszanie) junior doctors.

In 2006 she was subjected to a lengthy and unauthorised period of suspension.

In May 2007 disciplinary proceedings (pol. postępowanie dyscyplinarne) began against her, leading to her dismissal in July 2008.

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and three senior staff members have been ordered to pay Dr Michalak 4,452,206.60 pounds for the sex and race discrimination. Of this sum, the doctor was awarded £30,000 for injury to feelings and £56,000 for psychiatric damage.

In their judgment, the tribunal panel wrote: “As a consequence of that dismissal the claimant has lost her role and status as a hospital consultant, as we will ultimately find, she is never going to return to work as a doctor, a profession which she, in common with both of her parents, cherished together with all the status that that brings with it.”

Medical experts had told the tribunal that Dr Michalak had suffered chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, which had led to an “enduring personality change”.

In a statement for the press following the tribunal’s preliminary verdict, Doctor Michalak said that she had been psychologically tortured for years.

“They destroyed my life, health and career because I had a child,” she said.

Her husband, who is also a physician, turned down a job opportunity in Singapore in order to take care of his wife and child.

 

Many women fear to become pregnant because very often they may lose their job as a result.

Such cases as the above one bring hope that sex descrimination should be penalized and fought with.

Have your say!

 

Britain to Introduce a Ban on Smoking in Cars

November 23, 2011 by · 21 Comments · Uncategorized

Britain is about to introduce a new law which will ban smoking in cars. There are many opponents as well as proponents of this law.

Like mobile phones used for talkin and texting while driving, cigarettes distract from the primary task of driving and are a safety hazard.

The second reason is the toxicity the smoke, and the doctor’s concern is particularly for children’s health and the risks of being exposed to the fumes.

But we shouldn’t be interfering in peoples private lives, should we?

Have your say!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2062267/Car-smoking-ban-Freedom-license-behave-way-like.html#ixzz1eXO8NRc8