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Politics And Personalities In The Federal Appointments Process, Christopher L. Eisgruber

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Michael Gerhardt's latest book, The Federal Appointments Process, examines historically both the politics and procedures employed by the president and Congress in selecting, and ultimately appointing, judicial nominees. In this book review, Professor Christopher Eisgruber focuses on some of Gerhardt's most salient observations and illustrates the degree to which the historical trends Gerhardt describes impact current appointment practices.

U.S. Humanitarian Demining In The Middle East, Stacy L. Smith

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The United States seeks to relieve human suffering caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) while promoting U.S. foreign policy interests. U.S. objectives are to reduce civilian casualties, create conditions for the safe return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes and reinforce an affected country’s stability. The U.S. seeks to accomplish these objectives by helping to establish and support sustainable indigenous mine action capabilities in mine-affected nations where appropriate. Since fiscal year 1993, the United States has committed almost $500 million (U.S.) to global mine action initiatives, including research and development and survivor assistance. Nearly $90 million (U.S.) …

The United States, The West And The Rest Of The World, Johan Galtung

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The world will never be the same again after the terrible attack on the economic U.S., the military U.S., the foreign policy U.S., and on human beings like all of us. We embrace the victims of the violence, of all violence, in deep grief, and express our hope that perpetrators will be brought to justice. Violence at this level can only be explained by a very high level of dehumanisation of the victims in the minds of the aggressors, often due to a very deep level of unresolved, basic conflict. The word “terrorism” may describe the tactics, but like …

Volume 8, Number 2 (November 2001), Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

The Admissibility Of Differential Diagnosis Testimony To Prove Causation In Toxic Tort Cases: The Interplay Of Adjective And Substantive Law, Joseph Sanders, Julie Machal-Fulks

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article uses the differential diagnosis opinions to explore a pair of interrelationships. The basic causal framework employed by most courts in toxic tort cases is presented. A key to understanding the developing case law in this area is to appreciate the degree to which the courts have adopted the interpretive conventions of science in assessing admissibility.

Too Many Probabilities: Statistical Evidence Of Tort Causation, David W. Barnes

Law and Contemporary Problems

Medical scientific testimony is often expressed in terms of two different probabilities: 1. The increased probability of harm if a person is exposed, for example, to a toxin. 2. The observed relationship is an artifact of the experimental method. This article demonstrates that neither probability, taken alone or together, measures whether the "preponderance of the evidence" test is met.

Scientific Models Of Human Health Risk Analysis In Legal And Policy Decisions, Douglas Crawford-Brown

Law and Contemporary Problems

The quality of scientific predictions of risk in the courtroom and policy arena rests in large measure on how the two differences between normal practice and the legal/policy practice of science are reconciled. This article considers a variety of issues that arise in reconciling these differences, and the problems that remain with scientific estimates of risk when these are used in decisions.

Assessing Causation In Breast Implant Litigation: The Role Of Science Panels, Laural L. Hooper, Joe S. Cecil, Thomas E. Willging

Law and Contemporary Problems

In two recent cases, federal judges appointed panels of scientific experts to help assess conflicting scientific testimony regarding causation of systemic injuries by silicone gel breast implants. This article will describe the circumstances that gave rise to the appointments, the procedures followed in making the appointments and reporting to the courts, and the reactions of the participants in the proceedings.

The Swine Flu Vaccine And Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Study In Relative Risk And Specific Causation, David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article discusses the role of epidemiologic evidence in toxic tort cases, focusing on relative risk. Whether specific causation can be inferred if a relative risk is above 2.0 is discussed. The object is to explore the scientific logic behind intuitions of relative risk.

Scientific Ignorance And Reliable Patterns Of Evidence In Toxic Tort Causation: Is There A Need For Liability Reform?, Carl F. Cranor, David A. Eastmond

Law and Contemporary Problems

As a first step to preserving the central aims of tort law, courts will need to recognize the wide variety of respectable, reliable patterns of evidence on which scientists themselves rely for drawing inferences about the toxicity of substances. Courts may also need to take further steps to address the woeful ignorance about the chemical universe. This may necessitate changes in the liability rules.

Causation And The Law: Preemption, Lawful Sufficiency, And Causal Sufficiency, Richard Fumerton, Ken Kress

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article briefly describes the normative/nonnormative distinction, and how one might invoke this distinction to locate a nonnormative dimension of actual causation. After briefly introducing Richard Wright's concept of a necessary element in a set of conditions for an effect, the article notes ambiguities in the critical concepts of necessity and sufficiency that he deploys. The article suggests the most plausible interpretation of Wright's use of different modal concepts.

Rationalism And Empiricism In Modern Medicine, Warren Newton

Law and Contemporary Problems

The roots of rationalism and empiricism in the Hippocratic tradition are explored. The triumph of the rationalists in the founding of modern medicine is emphasized. The development of clinical epidemiology and the evidence-based medicine over the last 30 years is described. The tension illuminates fundamental clinical and policy questions that doctors, the health care system, and the legal system confront today.

Causation, Contribution, And Legal Liability: An Empirical Study, Lawrence M. Solan, John M. Darley

Law and Contemporary Problems

This article presents empirical evidence of the ways people compare judgments of liability with judgments of causation and contribution. Specifically, the article reports the results of experiments designed to show whether people regard causation and enablement as necessary elements of liability.

Of Cherries, Fudge, And Onions: Science And Its Courtroom Perversion, David W. Peterson, John M. Conley

Law and Contemporary Problems

The thesis of this article is that the Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s focus on the scientific method, however rigorously applied, invites certain classes of abuses. There are instances in which evidence can be made to look more scientific by a process that in fact and substance makes is utterly unscientific.

Postcards From The Past: Depaul University

Vincentian Heritage Journal

A brief history of DePaul University is accompanied by nine images.

The Decline And Fall Of Saint Mary's Of The Barrens: A Case Study In Contraction Of An American Catholic Religious Order - Part One, Richard J. Janet Ph.D.

Vincentian Heritage Journal

The closing of Saint Mary’s of the Barrens Seminary offers an example of the reaction of religious orders to the Second Vatican Council. In the United States especially, there was conflict between orders’ missions and their members’ individual identity as tied to specific works. Saint Mary’s Seminary formed hundreds of churchmen and provided a “unifying spirit” to apostolates. It closed due to declining enrollment and changes in the American church’s culture. When it did, Vincentians disagreed on what to do with apostolates. Details on the decision to close Saint Mary’s and the apostolates’ fate are provided from surveys and reports.

The United States’ Indispensability In Indian Land Claims: The Proper Application Of Provident Tradesmens, Aaron L. Pawlitz

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trends. The Psychology Of Military Readiness, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The IBPP editor discusses military readiness and national security.

Gerald P. O'Driscoll, Jr.: Bank Failures: The Deposit Insurance Connection Contemporary Policy Issues Vol. Vi, No. 2, April 1988., J.E.L. Sagbamah

Economic and Financial Review

The author articulated the views of Friedman and Schwartz who are unfavourably disposed to general regulation of the banking system but accepts the existence of deposit insurance; which in their view "was the most important structural change in the banking system to result from the 1933 panic". In a historical analysis into the problems that led to banking failure in the United States, and the resultant establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), with other binding regulations on commercial banks, the author agrees with Friedman and Schwartz submission that annual bank failure declined from triple-digit to doubledigit to single-digit.

Trends. Of Missile Defense And Defense By Metaphor, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the use of metaphor in public discourse, using the ABM Treaty and missile defense issues between Russian and the United States as context.

Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology (Book Review), Fred Van Geest

Pro Rege

Reviewed Title: A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, by John Bolt (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2001). 502 pp.

Trends. The United States, People's Republic Of China, And Apologies: Not Only Mind Games, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the meaningufulness of an official apology in the context of the United States - China(PRC) diplomatic relations.

The Death Penalty, Mandatory Prison Sentences, And The Eighth Amendment's Rule Against Cruel And Unusual Punishments, Jamie Cameron

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The text of section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibit cruel and unusual punishment in language that is similar but not identical. Still, in considering constitutional restrictions on punishment, the deviations of the Supreme Court both focus on the concept of gross disproportionality between the offence committed and the state’s response. Despite the appearance of similarity, this article maintains that differences in the American law of sentencing explain why Canada ought not follow or adopt the United States approach to minimum sentences.

Southeast Asia Air Combat Data, Tom Smith

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency's Tom Smith details the United State's efforts to create an informational and relational database for mine/UXO identification in Southeast Asia and its importance in targeting landmines.

Sentencing In The States: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Julie Stewart

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Mandatory sentencing laws are responsible for the booming prison population in the United States. They are applied most frequently to crimes involving drugs and mandate harsh penalties of five, ten, twenty years or more behind bars for crimes involving no violence. Julie Stewart, President of the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM) and the sister of a marijuana user who spent five years in a federal prison, describes the unfairness of America’s sentencing policies, with a particular emphasis on the application of mandatory minimum sentences to drug-related convictions. These laws have led to a marked increase in the number of …

Testing The Limits: Alcohol & Drug Testing For Offshore Employees, Brian Johnston, Tara Erskine

Dalhousie Law Journal

The legal limits of drug and alcohol testing by employers in the Atlantic Canada offshore are not yet entirely clear. To shed light on where these limits may lie, the authors examine the relevant law in the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the law on testing in Canada generally and the applicable provisions of the Accord Acts.

A Brief Overview Of The Enforceability Of Forum Selection, Choice Of Law, And Arbitration Clauses And The Doctrine Of Forum Non Conveniens Under The Admiralty Law Of The United States, Donald R. Abaunza

Dalhousie Law Journal

Forum selection, choice of law and arbitration clauses are of great significance in offshore contracts, where disputes may arise in locations far removed from the fora identified in those contracts. In this article, the author provides an examination of the enforceability of these clauses in the United States, together with an explanation of the operation of the doctrine of forum non conveniens in that country.

Missionaries Extraordinaire: The Vincentians From Saint Mary's Of The Barrens Seminary, Patrick Foley Ph.D.

Vincentian Heritage Journal

The history of Saint Mary of the Barrens Seminary is discussed. It was essential to the evangelization of the trans-Mississippi and Southwest. Its importance is exemplified in the life of Jean-Marie Odin. Along with John Timon, he was one of America’s “most renowned Catholic frontier missionaries.” Odin served many roles at the seminary, including as professor, as the college’s president, and as secretary and successor to Joseph Rosati when the latter was the rector. As Saint Mary’s sole priest, Odin went on many mission trips in the area. In 1840, when he became Vice Prefect Apostolic of Texas, there were …

The Vincentian Higher Education Apostolate In The United States, Dennis H. Holtschneider C.M., Ed.D., Edward R. Udovic C.M., Ph.D.

Vincentian Heritage Journal

Dennis Holtschneider and Edward Udovic note that “in the United States, a college degree is the single most effective way to lift a person out of poverty.” Due to the rising costs of higher education, persons who are poor are much less likely to go to college, and those who do are less likely to graduate. Vincentian universities in the US educate poor persons to “break the cycle of poverty,” encourage all students to serve those in need, research causes of and solutions to poverty, and serve the poor in other ways. A brief history of American Vincentian educational institutions …

Postcards From The Past: Mount Saint Vincent

Vincentian Heritage Journal

The history of Mount Saint Vincent, the Sisters of Charity of New York’s motherhouse and academy (later a college), is accompanied by six images.