Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:58:19.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blood Justice: Courts, Conflict, and Compensation in Japan, France, and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Eric A. Feldman
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the mid-1980s, many blood transfusion recipients and close to half of Japanese, American, and French hemophiliacs realized that they had been infected with HIV-contaminated blood. In this article I argue that the legal conflicts over HIV-tainted blood in those three nations defy conventional comparative claims about courts, conflict, and compensation. I first describe the similar policy responses of France, Japan, and the United States as public health officials came to realize that HIV threatened the safety of the blood supply. I then focus on what happened when infected individuals began to demand redress. I argue that the mobilization around law by plaintiffs, the centrality of the courts in handling conflicts over HIV and blood, and bold, innovative responses by the judiciary were not distinctive characteristics of the American conflict. Instead, law and courts in all three nations were central players in the battles over blood. Most strikingly, in comparison to courts in the United States, those in France and Japan have been significantly more responsive to plaintiffs' claims. When one looks beyond the courts to legal and legislative action more broadly, the United States has been the least accepting of the plethora of demands for recompense.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , 2000 , pp. 651 - 701
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Law and Society Association

Footnotes

I am grateful to the following friends and colleagues for their comments on an earlier draft of this article: Charles Epp, Malcolm Feeley, Christine Harrington, David Kirp, Christopher Kutz, Alvin Novick, Marc Rodwin, Frank Upham, four anonymous reviewers for the Law and Society Review, participants in the “Sho Sato Conference on Japanese Law: The Responses to New Challenges,” especially the organizer, Harry Scheiber, and members of the research group on “Pax Americana,” particularly Hiroshi Shibuya. Alexandra Hodges provided extraordinary research assistance on the French case, Anita Sandoval was an invaluable production assistant, and Monika Steffen was a kind and generous colleague during my stay in Paris. My research and writing were supported by an Abe Fellowship from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership/Social Science Research Council. Yale University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (NIMH and NIDA Grant #P01 MH/DA56826-01A1), and New York University's Stephen Charney Vladeck Junior Faculty Fellowship provided additional support.

References

References

Angel, Marcia (1996) Science on Trial. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Bayer, Ronald (1989) Private Acts, Social Consequences: AIDS and the Politics of Public Health. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Bayer, Ronald (1999) “Blood and AIDS in America: Politics and the Making of an Iatrogenic Catastrophe,” in Feldman, E. A. & Bayer, R., eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Boyle, Elizabeth Heger (1998) “Political Frames and Legal Activity: The Case of Nuclear Power in Four Countries,” 32 Law & Society Rev. 141–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busch, Christopher B., Kirp, David L., & Schoenholz, Daniel F. (1999) “Taming Adversarial Legalism: The Port of Oakland's Dredging Saga Revisited,” 2 NYU J. of Legislation & Public Policy 88–118.Google Scholar
Camporesi, Piero (1995) Juice of Life: The Symbolic and Magic Significance of Blood. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1982) “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” 31(27), (hereafter MMWR), 16 July 365–67.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1983) MMWR 32(24), 24 June 309–11.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1984) MMWR 33(42), 26 Oct. 589–91.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1985) MMWR 34(18), 10 May 245–48.Google Scholar
Champagne, Patrick, & Marchetti, Dominique (1994) “L'Information Médicale Sous Contrainte: A Propos du ‘Scandale du Sang Contaminé,‘” Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (March) 40–62.Google Scholar
Cohen-Tanugi, Laurent (1985) Le droit sans l'Etat. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (translated in Gessner, Hoeland, & Varga [1996] European Legal Culture 272).Google Scholar
Dadomo, Christian, & Farran, Susan (1993) The French Legal System. London: Sweet & Maxwell.Google Scholar
DePrince, Elaine (1997) Cry Bloody Murder: A Tale of Tainted Blood. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Dower, John (1986) War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Eckert, Ross D. (1992) “The AIDS Blood-Transfusion Cases: A Legal and Economic Analysis of Liability,” 29 San Diego Law Rev. 269–71, n253-58.Google Scholar
Engel, Laurence (1993) “Vers une Nouvelle Approche de la Responsabilité: Le Droit Français face à la Dérive Américaine,” 6 Esprit 5–31.Google Scholar
Epstein, Steven (1996) Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Feldman, Eric A. (1999) “HIV and Blood in Japan: Transforming Private Conflict into Public Scandal,” pp. 59–64 in E. A. Feldman & R. Bayer, eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Eric A., & Bayer, Ronald, eds. (1999) Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Eric A., & Yonemoto, Shohei (1992) “Japan: AIDS as a Non-Issue,” pp. 339–60 in D. Kirp & R. Bayer, eds., AIDS in the Industrialized Democracies: Passions, Politics, and Policies. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Fontaine, Joseph (1996) “Public Policy Analysis in France: Transformation and Theory,” J. of European Public Policy 481–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garapon, Antoine (1995) “French Legal Culture and the Shock of ‘Globalization’,” 4 Social & Legal Studies 493–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glasgow Lotfi, Kathryn (1991) “Suppliers of AIDS-Contaminated Blood Now Face Liability,” 34 Howard Law J. 183.Google Scholar
Haley, John (1991) Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Sheldon (1994) Factories of Death. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hermitte, Marie-Angèle (1996) Le Sang et le Droit: Essai sur la Transfusion Sanguine. Paris: Éditions de Seuil.Google Scholar
Ikegami, Naoki, & Campbell, John C. (1995) “Medical Care in Japan,” 333 New England J. of Medicine, 9 Nov., p. 297.Google Scholar
Tatsuo, Inoue (1999) “Liberal Democracy and Asian Orientalism,” in Bauer, J. R. & Bell, D. A., eds., The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine (1995) HIV and the Blood Supply: An Analysis of Crisis Decisionmaking. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Jacob, Herbert, Blankenburg, Erhard, Kritzer, Herbert M., Provine, Doris Marie, Sanders, Joseph (1996) Courts, Law, and Politics in Comparative Perspective. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Japan Times (1995) “Rallies Slam Ministry for HIV Stance,” 13 Dec, p. 2.Google Scholar
Japan Times (1996) “HIV Group Tries New Tactics,” 17 Feb., p. 3.Google Scholar
Japan Times (1996) “State Admits HIV Guilt,” 24 Feb., p. 1.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert (1995) “Adversarial Legalism and American Government,” in Landy, M. K. & Levin, M. A., eds., The New Politics of Public Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert (1997) “Adversarial Legalism: An International Perspective,” pp. 146–202 in P. S. Nivola, ed., Comparative Disadvantages? Social Regulations and the Global Economy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Takeyoshi, Kawashima (1967) Nihonjin no Hō Ishiki. Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Kelley, C., & Barber, J. P. (1992) “Legal Issues in Transfusion Medicine: Is Blood Banking a Medical Profession?” 12 Clinics in Laboratory Medicine 819–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kern, J. M., & Croy, B. B. (1994) “A Review of Transfusion-Associated AIDS Litigation, 1984–1993,” 34 Transfusion 484–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kidder, Robert L., & Miyazawa, Setsuo (1993) “Long-Term Strategies in Japanese Environmental Litigation,” 18 Law & Social Inquiry 607–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirp, David (1999) “The Politics of Blood: Hemophilia Activism in the AIDS Crisis,” pp. 293–322 in E. A. Feldman & R. Bayer, eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasser, Mitchel de S.-O.-l'E. (1995) “Judicial (Self-)Portraits: Judicial Discourse in the French Legal System,” 134 Yale Law J 1325–1410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marmor, Theodore (1999) “The Comparative Politics of Contaminated Blood: From Hesitancy to Scandal,” pp. 349–66 in E. A. Feldman & R. Bayer, eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Morelle, Aquilino (1996) La Défaite de la Santé Publique. Paris: Éditions Flammarion.Google Scholar
Muller, Pierre, & Surel, Yves (1998) L'Analyse des Politiques Publiques. Paris: Montchrestien.Google Scholar
Nelkin, Dorothy (1999) “Cultural Perspectives on Blood,” pp. 273–92 in E. A. Feldman & R. Bayer, eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Margaret, & Anesaki, Masahiro, eds. (1990) Health Care in Japan. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Provine, Doris Marie (1996) “Courts in the Political Process in France,” pp. 177–248 in H.Jacob, E. Blankenburg, H. M. Kritzer, D. M. Provine, J. Sanders, eds., Courts, Law and Politics in Comparative Perspective. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Resnick, Susan (1999) Blood Saga: Hemophilia, AIDS, and the Survival of a Community. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald (1991) The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Russo, Daniel L. Jr. (1992) “Blood Bank Liability to Recipients of HIV Contaminated Blood,” 18 Univ. of Dayton Law Rev. 87.Google Scholar
Sapolsky, Harvey (1989) “AIDS, Blood Banking, and the Bonds of Community,” 118 Daedalus 145–63.Google ScholarPubMed
Sellers, Jefferey M. (1995) “Litigation as a Local Political Resource: Courts in Controversies over Land Use in France, Germany, and the United States,” 29 Law & Society Rev. 475–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Martin (1995) “Of Interests and Values: The New Politics and the New Political Science,” pp. 3–20 in M. K. Landy & M. A. Levin, eds., The New Politics of Public Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Andy (1997) “Developments in the Academic Study of Public Administration in France.” Presented to the British Political Science Association's specialist group on Public Administration, London, 17 Jan.Google Scholar
Starr, Douglas (1998) Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce. New York: Alfred Knopf.Google Scholar
Steffen, Monika (1997) “The Nation's Blood and HIV: Medicine, Justice and the State in France.” Presented in Bellagio, Italy, June, p. 23.Google Scholar
Steffen, Monika (1999) “The Nation's Blood: Medicine, Justice, and the State in France,” pp. 95–126 in E. A. Feldman & R. Bayer, eds., Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takayanagi, Kenzō (1963) “A Century of Innovation: The Development of Japanese Law, 1868–1961,” p. 423 in A. T. von Mehren, ed., Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tate, C. Neal, & Vallinder, Torbjorn (1995) Global Expansion of Judicial Power. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Titmuss, Richard M. (1971) The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Upham, Frank K. (1987) Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Van Wolferen, Karel (1989) The Enigma of Japanese Power. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Westfall, Pamela T. (1989) “Hepatitis, AIDS and the Blood Product Exemption from Strict Products Liability in California: A Reassessment,” 37 Hastings Law J. 1001.Google Scholar
Wilsford, David (1991) Doctors and the State: The Politics of Health Care in France, and the United States. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Yomiuri Shimbun (1996) “Matte-inai, Kaiketsu Mou,” 14 Feb., p. 26.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Chris and Suzie Quintana v. United Blood Services, Dist. Ct. of the City and County of Denver. No. 86CV11750.Google Scholar
Community Blood Bank of the Kansas City Area, Inc. v. FTC, 405 F.2d 1011 (1969).Google Scholar
Quintana v. United Blood Services, Court of Appeals of Colo., Division 2, 811 P.2d 424; 1991.Google Scholar
Kansas City Area, Inc. v. FTC, 405 F.2d 1011 (1969).Google Scholar
Perlmutter v. Beth David Hospital, 308 N.Y. 100, 123 N.E.2d 792, 795 (1954).Google Scholar
In the matter of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., et al., 51 F. 3d 1293 (7th Cir. 1995).Google Scholar
Wadleigh v. Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., 157 F.R.D. 410 U.S. Dist. Ct. (1994).Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Law No. 91-1406 of 4 Jan. 1992, J.O..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act, 42 U.S.C.S. 300–22, 1998..Google Scholar