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As part of an ongoing review of Australia's Competition and Consumer Act (CCA) by Treasury, consideration is being given to removing the exemption from that law for conduct related to the labour market. This article considers whether there is sufficient justification to do so and, if so, how such conduct should be assessed under the CCA. No‐poach agreements are cartel conduct and other restrictive agreements may substantially lessen competition in labour markets. Nevertheless, in some circumstances there are legitimate reasons for some of these arrangements. Some suggestions are made as to how restrictive labour arrangements could be addressed by competition law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 303 Creative , the US Supreme Court examined the conflict between state laws designed to protect gay persons from stigmatic and material harm in the public marketplace and the First Amendment freedoms of business owners who objected to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Writing for the majority, Justice Gorsuch concluded, "When a state public accommodations law and the Constitution collide, there can be no question which must prevail." In this essay, I use two elements of late philosopher John Rawls's Political Liberalism (2005)—the "criterion of reciprocity" and "liberty and integrity of the person"—to better understand the broad implications of the court's ruling. My analysis reveals that the majority opinion in 303 Creative fails to acknowledge the need for achieving a coherent scheme of liberty within a liberal democracy and, in so doing, it undermines, rather than furthers, pluralism. Additionally, the logic of the court's ruling produces incoherent and inconsistent results—results that simultaneously expand and contract religious freedom and unjustifiably treat sexual-orientation discrimination differently from other types of odious discrimination. However, supplanting the court's approach with Rawls's "criterion of reciprocity" provides a coherent and consistent adjudicatory method for balancing religious freedom and the demands of equal citizenship. Furthermore, the argument I offer comports with legal analyses that focus on religious exemptions and third-party harm and the value of equal citizenship in religious liberty debates. Thus, my work supplements existing arguments against religious exemptions to antidiscrimination law and provides another substantive rejoinder to those seeking to scale back civil rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews prominent definitions of global competency, explores the available (though limited) current evidence for its potential benefits, and offers recommendations for framing an understanding of the salience of global affairs education within theories of national security and related practice. The article identifies three potential pathways through which global competency benefits security. First, global competency—especially through phased primary, secondary and tertiary educational models—may contribute to a stronger and more competitive workforce in direct and indirect ways, in turn enhancing a country's innovative capacities and economic and military power and resilience to shocks. Second, global competency can serve as a form of public diplomacy, in turn supporting a country's soft power and global influence. Third, global competency can strengthen domestic institutions, combatting dis/misinformation about global issues and reducing vulnerability to malign actors who aim to leverage inaccurate and fear-based messages about the world to influence and destabilize foreign electorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Majalat Monazaat Al-Aamal is the property of Majalat Monazaat Al-Aamal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A two-Judge Bench of Honourable Supreme Court (SC) of India in Bar of Indian Lawyers Through its President Jasbir Singh Malik v. D. K. Gandhi PS National Institute of Communicable Diseases and Anr (2024).1 held that professional services rendered by advocates fall under "contract of personal service" as opposed to a "contract for service" and accordingly, advocates are exempt from liability for deficiency in services under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019. The judgement brings the contentious issue of advocate's liability as 'service providers' under the Act back to focus. The case arose out of challenge to a ruling by National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in D.K. Gandhi PS v. M. Mathias (2007) 2. The NCDRC made advocates liable as service providers under CPA. The apex court, in fact, also went on to opine that the landmark SC ruling by three-judge bench in Indian Medical Association v. V P Shantha (1995)3 delivered almost 3 decades ago needs reconsideration and referred it to the Chief Justice for determination by a larger bench. This article seeks to uncover the liability of advocates as service providers in light of landmark supreme court judgements and the implications of recent judgement on other professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Super League case has been widely discussed by EU regulators, football associations, clubs, players, supporters and legal practitioners. This article intends to explore the legal reasoning of the Court of Justice regarding the intervention of EU competition law in football governance in this case. This article accordingly analyses the interpretation of the rules and exemptions stipulated in Articles 101 (1) and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and gives comments on the antitrust assessment by the Court of Justice regarding the common rules of prior approval and sanctions. It follows that the Court of Justice stressed the importance of transparent, objective and non-discriminatory procedures in the rule-making of football associations and saw this as a significant condition for the enforcement of EU competition law and antitrust exemption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several U.S. court cases which include Estate of Welch v. Gipson, Arkansas Department of Education v. Jackson, and Jenkins v. Payne. Topics include the constitutionality of Arkansas's homestead interest statute, the legality of the emergency clause in the LEARNS Act, and the validity of parole eligibility criteria under Arkansas law.

Copyright of Belügyi Szemle / Academic Journal of Internal Affairs is the property of Ministry of Interior of Hungary and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the court case M.A. v. Rockland County Department of Health in which the Second Circuit determined that a New York county's vaccine mandate may have violated the precedent set by the Supreme Court case Employment Division v. Smith. It describes the plaintiffs' free exercise claims against the county's refusal to permit religious exemptions to a mandate prohibiting students unvaccinated against measles from entering two public schools for 21 days during an outbreak.

The article focuses on the religious exemption of the Copyright Act and its implications for copyright protection, particularly in cases involving performances of creative works by religious institutions. It examines a specific instance where a church's production of the musical "Hamilton" raised questions about copyright infringement and the applicability of the religious exemption.

The right to religious liberty as for instance set out in the European Convention of Human Rights protects acts of religious observance. Such protection can clash with other considerations, including laws aimed at protecting other state interests. Religious freedom therefore requires an account of when the right should lead to exemptions from other laws and when the right can legitimately be limited. Alan Patten has proposed a Fair Opportunity view of the normative logic of religious liberty. But Patten's view faces several problems. The normative work in his view is mainly done by added accounts of reasonable claims and of justifiability. So, the Fair Opportunity view in itself does not provide a normative criterion. Defenses of the Fair Opportunity view must therefore turn on the theoretical preferability of its structural features. But the Fair Opportunity view has the wrong form to capture the right to freedom of religion. The form of the right to freedom of religion is due to how its point is to address how states limit the liberty of citizens. Given a practice dependent approach, which assigns importance to the point and purpose of the right to freedom of religion, Patten's theory is thus problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarises how the Spanish foreign-direct-investment framework has changed, specifically, the screening mechanisms for specific investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a guide for financial professionals considering equity crowdfunding (ECF) as an avenue of capital formation. This innovative financing method is relatively new in the United States and requires specialized knowledge of the ECF process and the governing laws for existing exemptions: Regulation A+, Regulation D Rule 506(c), Rule 147A Intrastate Offerings, and Title III of the JOBS Act, Regulation Crowdfunding. A list of the largest, most active U.S. funding intermediaries is included in the paper; a good fit between companies seeking capital and the listing intermediary may increase the odds of funding success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1993, Congress nearly unanimously passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"). That bill aimed to make it easier, at least in some instances, for people to receive exemptions from laws that infringed upon their religious beliefs, even when those exemptions were not required by the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. Several states followed suit, passing their own RFRAs. But RFRA is uncontroversial no more. Congress and the states recently began attempting to narrow their respective RFRAs. For example, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would make RFRA inapplicable to certain antidiscrimination laws designed to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from discrimination. And although the Oklahoma Supreme Court has since ruled that it restricted abortions in too many cases, Oklahoma enacted a law seeking to exempt its abortion laws from the state RFRA. In short, legislative bodies are now attempting to exempt certain categories of their laws from RFRA. At the same time, the Supreme Court has pulled back on its decision in Employment Division v. Smith, thereby strengthening protections for people seeking religious exemptions pursuant to the First Amendment. In doing so, it opens a path to those seeking to challenge Congress's and states' attempts to narrow RFRA. Those challengers may argue that the narrowing of RFRA itself violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, as interpreted in Smith. In other words, those challengers may argue that once a government creates broader protections for religious liberty than required by the First Amendment, it cannot undo those protections. This Article considers several arguments regarding whether Congress and state legislatures have the ability to limit RFRA's applicability under the Supreme Court's Free Exercise jurisprudence. This Article also argues that courts should look to the legislative history for evidence of neutrality or lack thereof (key to the Free Exercise analysis). The Article goes on to examine the legislative history of the Equality Act, a bill that limits RFRA and has passed one body of Congress, and an overturned Oklahoma statute that removed abortion law from the realm of the Oklahoma version of RFRA. This Article finds that, while some of the statements in the legislative history of the Equality Act are similar to the statements the Supreme Court deemed non-neutral in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Court should hold that, while inquiry into legislative history is appropriate, it takes more to find non-neutrality in statements by legislators than in statements by adjudicators. This Article concludes that there are no statements in the legislative history of that RFRA-limiting legislation enacted by the Oklahoma legislature evidencing non-neutrality. Finally, this Article argues that regardless of the Free Exercise Clause analysis, legislative entrenchment doctrine and theory require that a limitation of RFRA be deemed unproblematic under the First Amendment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When generally applicable rules clash with one's cultural, religious or moral commitments, should exemptions be granted? The debate on exemptions raises the question both of what it means to treat people equally and of what it means to protect diversity adequately. The objective of this paper is to defend the no-exemption argument and to make it a more attractive position for liberals. I first argue that exemptions violate the principle of equal treatment because they rely on distinctions that cannot be neutrally justified. I then argue that diversity can be adequately accommodated if we use a more demanding interpretation of the justification of generally applicable rules. There should be no exemption to fully justified rules, but rules are only fully justified when the particular demands that they impose on individuals are justified, i.e. when they are either neutral or pass both a Necessity Test and a Sufficiency Test. When rules are not fully justified, they should be repealed or modified. Based on this focus on the demands of rules, equality can be reconciled with an adequate accommodation of diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-depth interviews with 26 journalists from large mainstream news outlets who covered the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission U.S. Supreme Court case indicate that LGBTQ+ advocacy organization efforts to influence journalists' decision-making processes related to story angle and sourcing were unsuccessful. Instead, journalists relied on official court documents as sources, avoiding press advisories from social movement organizations in an effort to maintain neutrality and impartiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's recent adoption of the most-favored-nation theory of religious exemptions. It examining its implications in the context of recent cases involving free exercise and religious liberty; include the emergence of the most-favored-nation doctrine; its two-step test for evaluating religious exemptions; and the varying interpretations of this doctrine among federal courts of appeals.

Often the bodily injuries caused in the practice of soccer involve weeks of recovery, when it comes to serious injuries, they can require long medical treatments and surgical interventions that even mean the withdrawal of the athlete from the professional practice. These injuries are not normally reported to the competent authority, perhaps because it is often mistakenly understood that all of them have no criminal relevance. The truth is that, in the doctrine, the authors have dealt with injuries in the practice of sports, with different positions regarding the cases that deserve criminal sanction and those that are exempt from it. Thus, some affirm that said behaviors are atypical because they are caused under the consent of the athlete and the risk allowed; that they are exempt from punishment because sport is an activity that is carried out in the legitimate exercise of a trade or the exercise of a right; or that they do not fall within the scope of protection of the standard; or that they are not punishable by social adequacy. The objective is to establish when said injuries constitute an intentional or negligent crime and in which cases they are exempt from criminal sanctions in application of the crime theory; For this, the ideas and arguments of various authors will be analyzed and confronted, to establish that these cases must be analyzed case by case, since, a priori, it cannot be affirmed that these injuries are intentional or negligent or that they are exempt from punishment by this or that legal institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines paid sick leave employee benefit plans as a payroll practice and the preemption of state laws regulating paid sick leave under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Topics discussed are ERISA-exempt payroll practice by the U.S. Department of Labor and its application to paid sick leave plans, U.S. Supreme Court cases about ERISA preemption, and effect of payroll practice exemption on uniform plan administration.

Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) or the Chinese Language Proficiency Test is an international standardized test in Chinese language proficiency. It is used to assess non-native Chinese speakers' ability in using the Chinese language in their daily, academic, and professional lives. The purpose of administering training activities for the HSK Mandarin competency test is to help Mandarin language learners know the importance and benefits of the Mandarin language proficiency test (HSK) and where the certificate is used as one of the requirements to continue to a higher education level. It is also used to assess Mandarin language proficiency when applying to better job opportunities. The participants of this research are the teachers and students of SMA Bina Widya Solo where their learning system is at the HSK 4 level. The results showed that the students and the teachers of SMA Bina Widya Solo are more open to perspectives about the benefits of the HSK competency test as an instrument of measuring language skills that are internationally certified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a court case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that bankruptcy courts have jurisdiction in the determination of the property of bankruptcy estate and state law exemptions. In the case The Alabama Creditors v. Dorand, the court claimed that a bankruptcy court is the ultimate arbiter of a judgment debtor's claim of exemption and not a state trial court.

Drowning has been the cause of over 2.5 million preventable deaths in the past decade. Despite the fact that the majority of drownings occur in open water, assessment of water safety competency typically occurs in swimming pools. The assessment of water safety competency in open water environments brings with it a few difficulties, but also promises tremendous benefits. The aim of this position paper is to discuss the benefits and caveats of conducting assessments in open water environments as opposed to closed and controlled environments, and to provide recommendations for evidence based practice. The first theoretical section discusses the effects of the environment and key variables (such as temperature and water movement) on various factors of assessment. These discussions are linked to the two perspectives of representative learning design (based on ecological dynamics) and information processing theory. The second section presents two pilot studies of relevance and provides practical implications for assessment of water safety competency. It seems that a combination of pool-based practice and open water education may be ideal in assessing aquatic skills competency. Assessment in open water presents clear benefits regarding validity, but often poses seemingly unsurmountable barriers, which providers may have reservations about in the absence of clear evidence. Hence this article provides a robust discussion about competency assessment and signals the practical importance of faithfully reproducing the environment in which skilled behavior is most relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Europarecht (05312485) is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court restored order to the church plan community by holding that an employee benefit plan sponsored by a church affiliate does not have to be established by a church in order for that plan to qualify for the church plan exemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, as long as the plan is maintained by a principal-purpose organization. However, this decision will not end the litigation brought by church plan participants. There are other elements of the church plan definition that have to be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the German Bundesfinanzhof court case dealing with no reliance on Union law for performance in the field of sport. The court held that Article 132 para. 1 letter m Value Added Tax Directive has no direct effect, so that a non-profit organization cannot invoke tax exemptions provision before the national courts.

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) governs arbitration agreements in the United States. Section 1 of the FAA provides an exemption from arbitration for “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” In a 2001 decision, Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the residual phrase “any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” includes transportation workers. But, such language is ambiguous, and the Supreme Court did not expound upon what it means to be a transportation worker or to be engaged in interstate commerce for purposes of the exemption. Since the FAA’s enactment in 1925, modes of employment have evolved drastically and now include the recent platformor mobile-based gig economy—one subsect of which includes delivery drivers working for companies like Amazon Flex, Grubhub, Lyft, and Uber. Mandatory arbitration agreements in their employment contracts compel these drivers to arbitrate, rather than litigate, disputes against these companies. A circuit split has emerged regarding whether modern gig economy drivers fall within the “transportation worker” exemption, with courts divided primarily on whether these drivers are “engaged in interstate commerce.” Without a blueprint to follow, lower courts have created their own tests and applied their own standards to these drivers, leading to inconsistent results. Some courts have held that the driver does not need to cross state lines to be exempt from arbitration; instead, these courts look to the companies that these drivers work for to determine if the company is engaged in interstate commerce. If so, they find that the company’s workers are engaged in interstate commerce. Other courts emphasize that the driver must be a member of a “class of workers” that is engaged in interstate commerce, thereby requiring the driver to actually cross state lines to obtain the exemption. This circuit split highlights the difficulty of applying a near century-old statute to a modern worker context. This Note argues that, in the absence of a Supreme Court ruling or congressional amendment on the matter, lower courts should not exempt gig economy delivery drivers from arbitrating employment disputes against their platform companies because the drivers are not transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India affords special laws and exemptions to minors under the criminal, marriage, labour and administrative laws. Many perpetrators claim to be a minor in the hope of a lenient trial and verdict. The authorities often rely upon forensic experts to provide evidence-based reports. The third molar can be relied upon in the assessment of legal age as it continues developing into the early twenties. The method established by Cameriere et al in 2008 provides an objective method for the accurate evaluation of legal age. Our study was designed to analyze and validate the efficacy of Third Molar Maturity index (I3M) in an Indian Goan population and compare it to published literature. 542 panoramic radiographs of subjects aged between 14 and 24 years were evaluated. The chronologic age increased as I3M reduced. There was no evidence of sexual dimorphism in third molar development across various I3M classes (p>0.05). Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve was plotted for males and females which showed an Area Under Curve of 0.95 (95% CI, 0.92-0.97) and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.90-0.96) respectively. 2x2 contingency tables were used to test the performance of various I3M cut-off values ranging from I3M=0.02 to 0.14. I3M = 0.08 showed the most promising results for the assessment of legal age. Our study achieved a high degree of accurate classification of 0.90 and 0.88 for males and females respectively. Results demonstrate a sensitivity of 0.899 and 0.854 and specificity of 0.90 and 0.93 for males and females respectively. The positive likelihood ratios were 9.88 and 12.44 while negative likelihood ratio was 0.11 and 0.15 for males and females respectively. A favourable Bayes Post Test Probability of 0.95 was noted for both males and females. These results allow us to strongly recommend the use of I3M for the assessment of legal age in an Indian Goan population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society is challenged by a virus that threatens humanity, calling for intervention in private spheres that belongs to different policyareas. Asa result, the regulation becomes like a patchwork guilt without normative consistency. The regulation is ad hoc. Sweden has initially relied on influencing people's behavior through norm creation and not legislation, partly being forced tosince the constitution does not leave room for exemption laws in the same way as other countries. When it comes to formulating policy, the expertauthority, Public Health Agency, hasa central role. Democracy is replaced by meritocracy. Legality presupposes legitimacy in order to function. This is a balancing act between formal and substantive legal certainty. As a general conclusion, legal regulation is most effective when legalityand legitimacy flow together. However, wherethese meeting points can be found in practice varies with the nature of the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with tax rules for alternative investment companies. The main aim of the contribution is approximation of the specifics of income taxation and also the answer to the question whether companies of this type can be used more widely outside Poland for the purposes of international tax planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trump administration introduced 25% tariffs on steel imports in March 2018. To minimize the adverse effects of these tariffs on downstream US producers who import steel products, the administration simultaneously introduced exclusion requests for tariff exemptions. In this paper, we investigate whether companies from states where Trump won the 2016 presidential election were more likely to receive tariff exemptions than were firms that applied for exemptions in non-Trump states. Our estimation result suggests that firms located in Trump states were more likely to be granted exemptions. In addition, firms with lower sales-to-employment ratios, a signal of lower efficiency, were more likely to have exclusion requests approved if they were from states where Trump won the election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer-related pain is highly prevalent and is commonly treated with prescription opioids. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now encourages conservative opioid prescribing in recognition of potential opioid-related risks. However, CDC guidelines have been misapplied to patients with cancer. Recent laws at the state level reflect the CDC's guidance by limiting opioid prescribing. It is unclear whether states exempt cancer-related pain, which may affect cancer pain management. Thus, the objective of this study was to summarize current state-level opioid prescribing laws and exemptions for patients with cancer.Methods: Two study authors reviewed publicly available state records to identify the most recent opioid prescribing laws and cancer-related exemptions. Documents were required to have the force of law and be enacted at the time of the search (November 2020).Results: Results indicated that 36 states had enacted formal legislation limiting the duration and/or dosage of opioid prescriptions, and this was largely focused on acute pain and/or initial prescriptions. Of these states, 32 (89%) explicitly exempted patients with cancer-related pain from opioid prescribing laws. Exemptions were broadly applied, with few states providing specific guidance for cancer-related pain prescribing.Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that most states recognize the importance of prescription opioids in cancer-related pain management. However, drafting nuanced and clinically relevant opioid legislation is challenging for a heterogenous population. Additionally, current attempts to regulate opioid prescribing by state law may unintentionally undermine patient-centered approaches to pain management. Additional resources are needed to facilitate clarity at the intersection of opioid-related legislation and clinical management for cancer-related pain.Lay Summary: In this review of state-level legislation, current limitations on opioid prescribing are summarized and detailed information is provided on exemptions for patients with cancer. The majority of states have enacted specific dosage and/or duration limitations on opioid prescribing while including broad exemptions for cancer-related pain. Cancer-related pain exemptions are important to include, as is consistent with national and professional guidelines (eg, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). However, these exemptions may also unintentionally undermine patient-centered approaches to pain management. Additional resources, including specific guidance for patients with cancer, are needed to facilitate clarity at the intersection of opioid-related legislation and clinical pain management. ​. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the basic exemptions that are applicable to the asset protection industry in Florida and how they can be lost or voided. Other topics include the constitutional, common, and statutory law exemptions in Florida, the life insurance exemption, the Supremacy Clause under the U.S. Constitution, and the federal Bankruptcy Code.

To ensure bridge safety under vehicular traffic, the owners must systematically verify the adequacy of bridge live load-carrying capacity. Bridges are evaluated for design, legal, and permit loading. The legal load rating uses AASHTO legal trucks, which meet the Federal Bridge Formula requirements. However, each state has a federal law exemption for truck weight and size. The state-specific grandfather provisions allow the operation of legally overloaded vehicles. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine whether the current live load factors provide adequate safety for exempted vehicles because there are no provisions for overloaded vehicles under grandfather provisions. This study presents a reliability-based analysis to determine state-specific live load factor for bridge rating on an example of Montana's 20% overload allowance for agricultural vehicles. This approach does not require a reanalysis of the state bridge inventory. Linear scaling of existing rating results from bridge records can be used to determine ratings for agricultural vehicles. The study provides a calibration method to maintain the required minimum safety level with the minimum cost and effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Syringe services programs provide sterile injection supplies and a range of health services (e.g., HIV and HEP-C testing, overdose prevention education, provision of naloxone) to a hard-to-reach population, including people who use drugs, aiming to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases. Methods: We performed a qualitative needs assessment of existing syringe services programs in the state of Colorado in 2018–2019 to describe—their activities, needs, and barriers. Using a phenomenological approach, we performed semi-structured interviews with key program staff of syringe services programs (n = 11). All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and validated. A data-driven iterative approach was used by researchers to develop a coding scheme to organize the data into major themes found across interviews. Memos were written to synthesize main themes. Results: Nearly all the syringe program staff discussed their relationships with law enforcement at length. All syringe program staff viewed having a positive relationship with law enforcement as critical to the success of their program. Main factors that influence the quality of relationships between syringe services programs and law enforcement included: (1) alignment in agency culture, (2) support from law enforcement leadership, (3) police officers' participation and compliance with the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which provides intensive case management for low-level drug offenders, and (4) implementation of the "Needle-Stick Prevention Law" and Drug Paraphernalia Law Exemption. All syringe program staff expressed a strong desire to have positive relationships with law enforcement and described how a collaborative working relationship was critical to the success of their programs. Conclusions: Our findings reveal effective strategies to foster relationships between syringe services programs and law enforcement as well as key barriers to address. The need exists for both syringe services programs and law enforcement to devote time and resources to build a strong, positive partnership. Having such positive relationships with law enforcement has positive implications for syringe services program clients, including law enforcement being less likely to ticket persons for having used syringes, and encourage people who use drugs to seek services from syringe services programs, which can then lead them to other resources, such as housing, wound care, and substance use treatment programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]