Digital Commons Network^™

Hope Over Experience?, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Writing about US human rights policy from the outside is always a disconcerting experience. All bets are off, and all assumptions are turned on their head. Assumptions from the South looking North are that, rhetoric aside, US interests rarely if ever feature human rights protection and promotion in first place. What’s more, they have very frequently featured the opposite: dirty tricks, torture and rendition were sadly familiar to students of Latin American history long before Guantanamo. The Clinton years went some way towards reining in the more blatant contradictions of the 1980s, but they also set in train the easy …

Vol. 1 No. 1, Fall 2009; Current Trends In Inequitable Conduct Are Adverse To Patent Policy As Seen Through The Exemplary Case Of Big Pharma, Joshua M. Austin

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

This Comment explores the rather difficult and rapidly changing field of patent law, discussing specifically the doctrine of inequitable conduct, a defense raised by the infringing party by which a patent can be rendered unenforceable. Recent trends in inequitable conduct, as it has been used by the Federal Circuit, have made this confusing area of law even more so. This comment identifies these confusions and the Federal Circuit's failure to maintain clear cut precedent. This Comment further discusses the impacts of these current trends, postulating that these trends go so far as to undercut the principal policy purposes behind patent …

Change We Can Believe In?, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

We were warned to temper our high hopes for a bold new Obama era of human rights. After all, President Obama would have “a lot on his plate”: a serious economic crisis, high unemployment, over forty million people without health insurance, “two wars,” global volatility. But it’s very hard not to be dismayed by some of the continuities from the Bush to the Obama administration, as well as by some Janus-faced policy decisions with damning human rights implications. When it comes to US-Latin America relations, such decisions include: professing support for progressive immigration reform while expanding regressive anti-immigration measures; claiming …

From Inspiring Hope To Taking Action: Obama And Human Rights, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

While President George H. Bush spoke of a new world order, and his “misunderestimated” son mangled the English language at countless press conferences, with Barack Obama the USA now has a talented orator as a president. There is a new word order. But does the new and skillful rhetoric match the reality when it comes to human rights?

December Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly (September, 2009).

and

Does Obama believe in human rights? By Bret Stephens. The Wall Street Journal. October 19, 2009.

The Statesman's Dilemma: Peace Or Justice? Or Neither?, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as I sat down to comment on President Obama and human rights, I glanced today's (November 19, 2009) The New York Times and found several opinion essays-careful in fact, thoughtful in tone, reasonable in argument-critical of Obama's approach during his recent visit to China toward Chinese human rights violations (mainly concerning Tibet but including also imprisoned lawyers, internet censorship, and persecution of Falun Gong.) The essayists considered various tactics for exerting American pressure on China regarding human rights. Common to all of them was a tone of rueful admiration for the political and diplomatic skill with which China fended …

Solar Energy Policy In Canada: An Overview Of Recent Legislative And Community-Based Trends Towards A Coherent Renewable Energy Sustainability Framework, Kamaal Zaidi

Kamaal Zaidi

This paper outlines solar energy policy in Canada, in the hopes of advancing renewable energy policy. More specifically, the most recent advances in public policy relating to renewable energy are examined in selected provinces to show how solar energy is on the rise in Canada. The technology behind solar energy is briefly analyzed, while the legal aspects of solar energy are covered to build upon the discussion in various provinces. Since much of Canadian solar energy policy draws from Germany, Japan, and the United States, these three jurisdictions are mentioned to show their solar energy policies. The paper ends with …

Flexible Work Arrangements: Improving Job Quality And Workforce Stability For Low-Wage Workers And Their Employers, Jessica Glenn, Liz Watson

Published Reports

In 2009, workers and their families across the country felt the impact of serious economic downturn, with unemployment reaching a 26-year high. While recent news suggests things may be improving, we cannot forget that for many low-wage and hourly workers -- who now represent over a quarter of the U.S. workforce -- the recession only exacerbated their ongoing struggle to hold down quality jobs while caring for their families.

Low-wage workers face many of the same challenges that the rest of us face in reconciling our work, family and personal lives, but for many of these workers, it's simply a …

Slides: Groundwater Law And Administration: From Conflict To Reform, Michael A. Gheleta

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Michael A. Gheleta, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, Denver, CO

14 slides

Slides: Climate Change And The Death Of Stationarity: A New Era For Western Water?, Stephen T. Gray

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Steven T. Gray, Wyoming State Climatologist, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY

48 slides

Flexible Work Arrangements (Fwas): Possible Public Policy Approaches, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

There is a range of ways in which public policy can help workplace flexibility become a norm in the American workplace. Indeed, the various bills introduced in the 110th Congress to increase access to FWAs, one component of workplace flexibility, represent a wide range of public policy approaches.

This document categorizes and characterizes these public policy approaches to help clarify the options that might be pursued to increase access to FWAs.

The U.S. Economic Crisis: Another "Lost Decade"?, Paula Chungsathaporn

Honors College Theses

America is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression originating with problems from mortgage backed securities and seeping into every major sector in the economy. We have witnessed the downfall or government takeover of some of the most powerful companies in the country, contributing to the highest unemployment rate America has seen in decades. During the 1990s, Japan experienced what is commonly referred to as “the lost decade,” a period of prolonged stagnant growth. Many similarities can be drawn between the current U.S. crisis and the Japanese crisis of the late 90s. The macroeconomic conditions that caused the …

Health Insurance Exchanges: Legal Issues, Timothy S. Jost

O'Neill Institute Papers

Health insurance exchanges (HIE) are entities that organize the market for health insurance by connecting small businesses and individuals into larger pools that spread the risk for insurance companies, while facilitating the availability, choice and purchase of private health insurance for the uninsured. While there are legal issues that warrant consideration under a federal, state, or private exchange framework, those issues are not insurmountable barriers to implementation.

Legal And Policy Choices In The Aftermath Of The Subprime And Mortgage Financing Crisis, Gerald Korngold

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Linking International Markets And Global Justice, Jeffrey L. Dunoff

Michigan Law Review

The U.S. government is the planet's largest purchaser of goods and services; worldwide, states spend trillions of dollars on procurement each year. Yet legal scholarship has devoted relatively limited attention to the conceptual and normative issues that arise when states enter the market. Should states as purchasers be permitted to "discriminate" to advance social objectives - say, racial justice - in ways that would be unlawful when they act as regulators? Is each country free to strike its own balance between the pursuit of economic and social objectives through procurement, or do international trade norms limit state discretion in the …

Webster Plus One: Solving The "Impossible" Apportionment Debate, Mark M. Bell

Mark M Bell

Apportionment issues inevitably arise decennially. Consistent with historical trends, the debates concerning the upcoming 2010 apportionment have already begun to intensify. Deciding which apportionment method to use has generated intense debates among some of the most prominent figures in the Nation’s history. Most scholars believe that there is constitutional tension between two fundamental apportionment constraints: apportioning proportionally and representatively. It has been universally accepted that it is “impossible to satisfy both criteria.” In order to satisfy both criteria, an apportionment method must both, maintain quota, and avoid paradoxes. I postulate a new method, the “Webster Plus One” approach, that stands …

Prevention Or Pretext: The Designation Of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Syed Ali M. Jafri

Syed Ali M. Jafri

This paper examines whether the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” & “Specially Designated Foreign Terrorists” designations are applied in a consistent manner. The author concludes that the designations are applied inconsistently and are used in the post September 11th era as a tool not only against legitimate terrorist targets, but also against the ideological opponents of United States foreign policy. Specifically the designations are used against Islamic based political movements. The pre-textual use of terrorist designations against ideological opponents weakens the United States position in the battle against terrorism, and undermines their legitimate security concerns. The current application of the designation schemes …

Untapped Inventive Potential In U.S. Communities, Michael Meehan

Michael Meehan PhD

This paper combines the 2000 U.S. Census data and the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Patent Citation Data File in order to analyze how certain community-level population and community factors correlate with overall patenting and relative rates of assigned and unassigned patenting. Among the interesting findings discussed are that, in addition to the fact that overall patenting increased with higher populations of employed people, higher populations of people with either terminal undergraduate or master’s degrees, and higher median income, the overall rates of patenting decreased, and did not merely remain the level, as the other sectors of a communities’ …

Webster Plus One: Solving The "Impossible" Apportionment Debate, Mark M. Bell

Mark M Bell

Apportionment issues inevitably arise decennially. Consistent with historical trends, the debates concerning the upcoming 2010 apportionment have already begun to intensify. Deciding which apportionment method to use has generated intense debates among some of the most prominent figures in the Nation’s history. Most scholars believe that there is constitutional tension between two fundamental apportionment constraints: apportioning proportionally and representatively. It has been universally accepted that it is “impossible to satisfy both criteria.” In order to satisfy both criteria, an apportionment method must both, maintain quota, and avoid paradoxes. I postulate a new method, the “Webster Plus One” approach, that stands …

Race In The War On Drugs: The Social Consequences Of Presidential Rhetoric, Jeff L. Yates, Andrew Whitford

Jeff L Yates

One of the president’s main leadership tools for influencing the direction of American legal policy is public rhetoric. Numerous studies have examined the president’s use of the “bully pulpit” to lead policy by influencing Congress or public opinion, or by changing the behavior of public agencies. We argue that the president can use rhetoric to change the behavior of public agencies and that this can have important social consequences. We focus on the disproportionate impact of presidential rhetoric on different “target populations” in the context of the War on Drugs. Specifically, we observe that presidential rhetoric had a greater impact …

Eric K. Leonard On The Future Of Human Rights: Us Policy For A New Era Edited By William F. Schulz. Philadelphia, Pa: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 314pp., Eric K. Leonard

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Future of Human Rights: US Policy for a New Era edited by William F. Schulz. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 314pp.

The Future Relationship Between A New Adminstration And The International Court Of Justice, Thomas M. Franck

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

If the democrats recapture the White House and win half a dozen more seats in the Senate, it will be time to rethink and redevelop the U.S. relationship with international law.

A Miscarriage Of Juvenile Justice: A Modern-Day Parable Of The Unintended Results Of Bad Lawmaking, Amy Vorenberg

Amy Vorenberg

Sensationalized cases increasingly create the context for public policy discussion. Stories about violent crime are a common feature of the local evening news and their emotional nature can often create the hook politicians need to showcase their “tough on crime” agendas. Often anecdotal and lurid, stories of criminal misdeeds are widely used to convince the public of a need to create or change laws. This article demonstrates the perils of making law by extrapolating from a few random, albeit attention-grabbing, events. Specifically, the article examines the impact of a 1995 change in New Hampshire state law that lowered the age …

The Discovery Immunity Exception In Indian Country – Promoting American Indian Sovereignty By Fostering The Rule Of Law, Jay Kanassatega

Jay Kanassatega

The purpose of this article is to encourage federal courts (and Indian tribes) to re-think reliance on tribal sovereign immunity as a basis to quash or modify process directed to Indian tribes and their elected and appointed officials and employees as non-parties to any underlying litigation. In such third-party actions, federal courts should not apply tribal immunity to quash or modify otherwise valid federal process served on an Indian tribe pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 45. Instead, the federal court should approach the issue with an eye toward implementing Congressional policies aimed at supporting the development …

Forty Years Of Welfare Policy Experimentation: No Acres, No Mule, No Politics, No Rights, Julie A. Nice

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This introductory essay questions putting nearly all effort into social policywhich has failed to reduce povertyand calls instead for reinvigorating other tactics and re-imagining the unfinished dream of economic justice. Indeed, what Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned was an actual war on poverty, not merely the abbreviated, under-funded, and ultimately unsuccessful effort of the 1960s, nor the imposter war on welfare that has dominated our social policy effort since. But our social policy has not only failed to reduce poverty, it failed to focus long-needed attention on poverty and inequality. Nor has social policy facilitated the political mobilization of poor …

Microfinance Managers Consider Online Funding: Is It Finance, Marketing, Or Something Else?, Deborah Burand

Articles

Online platforms are changing the way we engage with the world. Facebook links, eBay auctions, ePal chats, even Second Life avatars—these are all online platforms that connect people, ideas, products, and markets. These platforms shape who we connect with as well as how we connect. This concept extends to philanthropy: Online philanthropy is changing the nature of how and where people give.1 An outgrowth of online philanthropy is online social investing. Kiva.org is one of the best known online lending and investment platforms. Since its launch in 2005, Kiva has grabbed the attention (and wallets) of over 350,000 online lenders, …

Concepts Of Maritime Security: A Strategic Perspective On Alternative Visions For Good Order And Security At Sea, With Policy Implications For New Zealand, Christopher Rahman

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

This project originated as a research report conducted for the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Centre – Australia. Its intent is not to reprise well‐worn ideas of sea power or maritime strategy, but to address conceptually what is meant by the term “maritime security” in the context of contemporary ideas of the meaning of “security” itself. In doing so, I have purposefully delved into some of the often quite dense and sometimes arcane literature and ideas regarding conceptual treatments of security. This is important, because the ideas inherent in different perspectives on maritime security often have an intellectual or political …

Some Suggestions For The Uafa: A Bill For Same-Sex Binational Couples, Timothy R. Carraher

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Water Excise Tax: Preserving A Necessary Resource, Thomas Lee

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Comment will first examine the history and current state of laws regulating water use in the United States, and the commercial uses that are the target of the proposed Water Excise Tax. The next step will be to discuss the tax itself from several perspectives: First, its constitutionality, structure, and application in the framework of existing water law; second, its advantages and disadvantages based on its regulatory nature and scope; and finally, the normative benefits of indirect regulation. The theses underlying all of these sections are that public drinking water will become scarce in the very near future, that …

Revisiting Beccaria's Vision: The Enlightenment, America's Death Penalty, And The Abolition Movement, John D. Bessler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1764, Cesare Beccaria, a 26-year-old Italian, penned . The treatise argued that state-sanctioned executions and torture violate natural law. As we near the 250th anniversary of its publication, author John D. Bessler provides a comprehensive review of the abolition movement, from before Beccaria's time to the present. Bessler reviews Beccaria's influence on Enlightenment thinkers and more importantly, on America's Founding Fathers. The Article also provides an extensive review of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence and then contrasts it with the trend in International Law towards the abolition of the death penalty. It then discusses the current state of the death penalty …