Assignment
You are a lawyer working in a fictional country called Nambia. It has a constitutional structure which
incorporates rights which are the same as those of the ECHR
https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf
You are consulted by a client, Mr Jones, who, as a result of a conviction for theft was ordered to serve
three years in prison. He was detained in a prison which was owned and operated by private company
called the Big Freedom Prison (BFP). Located next to the prison is a Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operation (CAFO) which was owned by the Government of Nambia (GON). As part of his sentence he was
also required to work in the CAFO. A CAFO is a particular type of intensive animal agriculture which you
will be required to research as part of the background to your answer.
While working in the CAFO he contracted a number of diseases at different times, these include:
•
brain damage, dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throats, sinusitis, burning eyes as a result of
inhaling hydrogen sulphide from the Manure (urine, faeces, blood etc) pits/lagoons at the CAFO
which was always present in the air but aggravated when sprayed onto surrounding fields.
•
An infection in the intestines by E. coli O157:H7 which caused severe diarrhea and abdominal
cramps as a result of evolved bacteria at the CAFO. He contracted this whilst drinking water near
one of the lagoons which had become contaminated by seepage from the manure pits/lagoons;
•
An infection by Methicillin-resistant Styphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which caused a high
temperature of 38C (100.4F), chills, aches and pains, dizziness and confusion. This is a result of
the normal operating procedures at CAFOS where it used a continual treatment of all livestock
with antibiotics.
•
An infection by Campylobacter and Salmonella which caused diarrhea, nausea, fever, and
abdominal pain.
•
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of the trauma of large scale brutal killing and
abuse of animals
•
He also lost an arm in an industrial accident while forcing a new-born calf into a slaughter pen
which is also a normal part of the dairy industry.
In addition to this, for most of his incarceration your client was housed in E-section of the maximum
security prison, a cell designed for occupation by one person but which he shared with two other inmates.
At one stage, inmates at E-Section, including the applicant, were moved to the Medium B prison where
they were detained in a communal cell with about 25 inmates for a period of time. He was then again
moved back to E-Section he was held in a communal cell until he was placed in a single cell again.
Your client does not believe that he was infected with TB or any other disease when he arrived at the
prison; the responsible authorities were “pertinently aware of the risk” of inmates contracting
Tuberculosis (TB); TB is an airborne communicable disease which spreads easily especially in confined,
poorly ventilated and overcrowded environments; The prison your client was detained in is notoriously
congested and inmates were confined to close contact for as much as 23 hours every day; on occasion,
the lock-up total was as much as 3052 inmates and single cells regularly housed three inmates; communal
cells were filled with double and sometimes triple bunks; the responsible authorities relied on a system
of inmates self-reporting their symptoms during incarceration; and the control of TB at the prison depends
upon effective screening of incoming inmates, the isolation of infectious patients and the proper
administration of the necessary medication over the prescribed period of time.
During his incarceration the applicant regularly underwent sputum tests, the results of which were lost by
the authorities. He was diagnosed with TB immediately after he was released from prison.
As a matter of course, all prisoners are screened for TB when they arrive at the prison. If someone is
found to have TB they are normally sent to the medical wing of the prison where they are kept in isolation
for a period of one week and only then released into the general prison population.
He often had visitors from outside and sometimes went to court and he also went to parole hearings. At
all of these meetings he mixed with members of the public.
Your Client wishes to know whether he has an action against anyone as a result of the diseases that he
contracted, and, if so, then against whom.
This question is to be answered in IRAC form.
Please support your answers, in the rule section, with reference to applicable and relevant case law.
Deal with each “issue” separately in the issue section, in the rule section and the application sections
but wind them up together neatly in the conclusion section.
In order to fully understand the issues please look at the helpful link section which is separate form this.
Please clearly identify each issue and number it. Keep that number throughout. Eg Issue 1
These will be as follows:
F
Facts
By this is meant that your “introduction” will be a summary of the
facts of the case.
(LEGAL) ISSUE
You are to identify the legal problem(s) that are being raised in the
question.
I
½ page
1 -1 ½
Pages
Here, you name the legal issue raised by the facts of the problem
question. You should identify each issue separately and explain
why you have identified it with very brief reference to the relevant
facts. Please number each issue clearly – ie issue 1, issue 2, issue 3
etc
R
Rule(s)
Please address the relevant laws or rules with reference to each
issue.
Some issues may require you only to address one aspect of
negligence eg duty of care or causation.
If this is the case then you should say that in respect of that issue
you will address that aspect of negligence. For example in issue 1
the main question may be duty of care and in issue 2 it may only
be causation. You need only address the legal rules in respect of
the law relating to that issue.
You may also address other torts other than those based in
negligence which have their own rules.
Thus, issue 1 – what is the relevant law, issue 2- what is the
relevant law, issue 3- relevant law etc.
This is a re-statement of the law as you learned from your
textbook and other sources.
This will involve a detailed study of the law
Here you will also be required to look at similar cases and explain
what the court decided in those cases. He a short summary may
be necessary to explain the case and/or even excerpts from the
judgment.
2½-3
pages
Give a case citation for each element.
Example:
Issue 1 :
The elements of the tort of negligence are:
Duty of Care
The elements of the duty of care are….. (here you identify the
elements using Donoghue v Stevenson and Caparo v Dickman and
all other relevant cases. You must state the elements in full and if
necessary include a short summary of the cases that you are
relying upon.
You are to cite the cases properly.
Issue 2:
Breach of the Duty
Set out the law plus the relevant cases as stated above
Causation
Set out the law plus the relevant cases as stated above
Damages
You need not cover this since this is assumed for each issue.
Other issues that you may identify should also be canvassed.
You will be required to look at cases from United Kingdom (see
your book) and one south African case viz |Lee v minister of
Correctional Services CC. (see helpful links)
You may also look to case law or articles from other jurisdictions
such as European Court of European Rights or USA.
European Court of Human Rights cases can be found at
A
Application
http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home
Again address each issue separately.
This is the argument section where you apply the rules to the facts
ie you link the facts to the rule and explain your conclusion in
respect of each issue separately.
2 pages
C
Conclusion
Simply state the issue, state the facts & rules that give rise to the
issue, and tell explain how those facts do or do not meet the
requirements laid down by the rules.
The conclusion is a statement that explains what the result of your
argument is, or what it should be.
½ page
But, as with all good writing, the conclusion should be redundant.
All of your application sections should have already clearly stated
the conclusion for each individual issue.
Thus, you are here “wrapping up” using the conclusions that you
arrived at in the application section.
This is an INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT and will be assessed as such. There is to be no copying or plagiarism.
It counts for 25% of the semester mark.
Linked to this will be a group presentation which will count for 10% of the semester mark. A Group
presentation format is being employed because of the number of students in the class and because team
work is a core competency of the university. In this presentation each student in the group will present a
section of their research. There are to be no more than TWO members per group. This is the guideline. If
you stray outside of this guideline you will be penalized. This section operates as an oral test of your
research. A poor performance here will lead to a revision of your research result.
You can use APA style
I reserve the right to make amendments if required.
Helpful Links to assist you with the assignment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448520/
https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/why-are-cafos-bad
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-016-0123-2
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf
https://safewater.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/214282698-4-What-are-the-health-effects-of-E-coliO157-H7http://theweek.com/articles/457135/5-modern-diseases-grown-by-factory-farming
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mrsa/
https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2157&context=honr_theses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwHapgrF99A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZW8-LQftnY
http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2012/30.html
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