Other Law Commons^™

Private Prisons And The Need For Greater Transparency: Private Prison Information Act, Libbi L. Vilher

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Private prisons are not subject to the same regulations as government prisons. Particularly, private prisons are exempt from the requirements set forth in the Freedom of Information Act and its state equivalents, which provide that the public has an enforceable right to request certain records from government agencies. Numerous efforts made by members of Congress to enact the Private Prison Information Act, a bill that would subject private prisons to disclosure laws found in the Freedom of Information Act, have been unsuccessful. Such efforts to strip the veil of secrecy that shades private prisons from public scrutiny are especially important …

Exploiting Latin American Microfinance Deregulation: One Borrower At A Time, Karlamaria Cabral

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Microfinance seeks to eradicate poverty through the economic growth and development that results when seed capital is given to microenterprises. In 2015, Latin America’s microfinance loan portfolio totaled $40 billion USD and included more than twenty-two million borrowers. Due to the current state of microfinance in the region—abusive lending practices and betraying the original goal and purpose of eradicating poverty—this Note advocates for a regional regulatory body, such as the Latin American Microfinance Association, that would develop and assist Latin American countries to implement model legal frameworks that increase client protection, create licensing requirements, establish interest rate caps, and recognize …

Our Courts, Ourselves: How The Alternative Dispute Resolution Movement Is Re-Shaping Our Legal System, Deborah R. Hensler

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Twenty-seven years ago, Professor Frank Sander urged American lawyers and judges to re-imagine the civil courts as a collection of dispute resolution procedures tailored to fit the variety of disputes that parties bring to the justice system. Professor Sander’s vision of the justice system encompassed traditional litigation leading to trial, but his speech at the 1976 Roscoe Pound Conference drew attention to alternatives to traditional dispute resolution that he argued would better serve disputants and society than traditional adversarial processes.

Today, interest in dispute resolution is high. This interest cuts across many domains, ranging from the family, to the schoolyard, …

Recognizing Challenges And Opportunities In The Quest To End Hunger, Jennifer Williams Zwagerman

Texas A&M Law Review

As an attorney and professor that does not focus on intellectual property law, I was a bit apprehensive about providing a keynote address for a Symposium focusing on “Agriculture, Intellectual Property, and Feeding the World in the 21st Century.” As I thought about this topic, knowing that there were other speakers who would focus more on the IP issues and technical aspects of various topics, I kept coming back to the importance of technology as we worktowards the goal of feeding the world, and the many ways in which innovation plays a role in meeting that goal. It also brought …

Poverty, The Great Unequalizer: Improving The Delivery System For Civil Legal Aid, Latonia Haney Keith

Catholic University Law Review

When individuals in the United States face civil justice issues, they are not entitled to legal counsel and therefore must secure paid counsel, proceed pro se or qualify for free legal assistance. As a result of the economic downturn, the number of Americans who are unable to afford legal counsel is now at an all-time high. In response to this ever-widening justice gap, the public interest community has launched multiple initiatives to supplement the underfunded legal aid system. Though valiant, this article argues that this approach has unfortunately created a complex, fragmented and overlapping delivery system for legal aid. This …