Discretion is examined as a feature of the design of rule-guided systems. That is, given that rules have to be administered by some group of persons, called adjudicators, and given that their goals may be different from society’s (or a relevant organization’s), when is it socially desirable to allocate discretionary authority to the adjudicators and, if so, to what extent? The answer reflects a...

Looked at from a general science of law, the effective individualizing agency in the administration of justice is discretion .... Discretion is an authority conferred by law to act in certain conditions or situations in accordance with an official's or an official agency's own considered judgment and conscience .'

AIM To investigate whether the effect of socioeconomic position on risk of myocardial infarction (MI) is mediated by differential exposure or differential susceptibility to psychosocial work environment. METHODS Data were used from three prospective population studies conducted in Copenhagen. A total of 16 214 employees, 44% women, aged 20-75 years, with initial examination between 1974 and 1...

The use of knowledge discovery from database (KDD) techniques such as neural networks in the legal domain can alter the practice of law by introducing a non-expert mechanism for predicting and analyzing Court outcomes. Legal domains that are well suited to KDD are those in which a high level of judicial discretion exists particularly where the source of the discretion stems from a principle sta...

Some patients have no chance of surviving if not treated, but very little chance if treated. A number of medical ethicists and physicians have argued that treatment in such cases is medically futile and a matter of physician discretion. This paper critically examines that position. According to Howard Brody and others, a judgment of medical futility is a purely technical matter, which physician...

When John Adams crafted wording that the state shall establish "a government of laws and not of men" into the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1780, he did not specify precisely where, in the real world, the boundaries of law should end and where officials should begin to exercise discretion in interpreting and enforcing the laws. The founding fathers gave us organizing prin...