Law Commons^™

The Shared Ethical Framework To Allocate Scarce Medical Resources: A Lesson From Covid-19, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to clarify the fair and equitable allocation of scarce medical resources, both within and among countries. The ethical allocation of such resources entails a three-step process: (1) elucidating the fundamental ethical values for allocation, (2) using these values to delineate priority tiers for scarce resources, and (3) implementing the prioritisation to faithfully realise the fundamental values. Myriad reports and assessments have elucidated five core substantive values for ethical allocation: maximising benefits and minimising harms, mitigating unfair disadvantage, equal moral concern, reciprocity, and instrumental value. These values are universal. None of the values are sufficient alone, …

Considering Vaccination Status, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

"This Article examines whether policies—sometimes termed “vaccine mandates” or “vaccine requirements”— that consider vaccination status as a condition of employment, receipt of goods and services, or educational or other activity for participation are legally permitted, and whether such policies may even sometimes be legally required. It does so with particular reference to COVID-19 vaccines.

Part I explains the legality of private actors, such as employers or private universities, considering vaccination status, and concludes that such consideration is almost always legally permissible unless foreclosed by specific state legislation. Part II examines the consideration of vaccination status by state or federal policy. …

Race-Specific, State-Specific Covid-19 Vaccination Rates Adjusted For Age, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Kaitlyn M. Berry, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The authors provide the first age-standardized race/ethnicity-specific, state-specific vaccination rates for the United States. Data encompass all states reporting race/ethnicity-specific vaccinations and reflect vaccinations through mid-October 2021, just before eligibility expanded below age 12. Using indirect age standardization, the authors compare racial/ethnic state vaccination rates with national rates. The results show that white and Black state median vaccination rates are, respectively, 89 percent and 76 percent of what would be predicted on the basis of age; Hispanic and Native rates are almost identical to what would be predicted; and Asian American/Pacific Islander rates are 110 percent of what would be …

Setting Priorities Fairly In Response To Covid-19: Identifying Overlapping Consensus And Reasonable Disagreement, David Wasserman, Govind C. Persad, Joseph Millum

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Proposals for allocating scarce lifesaving resources in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic have aligned in some ways and conflicted in others. This paper attempts a kind of priority setting in addressing these conflicts. In the first part, we identify points on which we do not believe that reasonable people should differ—even if they do. These are (i) the inadequacy of traditional clinical ethics to address priority-setting in a pandemic; (ii) the relevance of saving lives; (iii) the flaws of first-come, first-served allocation; (iv) the relevance of post-episode survival; (v) the difference between age and other factors that affect life-expectancy; …

Leadership Lapse: Laundering Systemic Bias Through Student Evaluations, Debra S. Austin

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses how law schools' use of student evaluation of teaching (SET) for high-stakes faculty employment decisions amounts to a lapse in leadership because using biased evaluations allows colleges and universities to discriminate against faculty whose identities deviate from white male heteronormativity.

Drink Like A Lawyer: The Neuroscience Of Substance Use And Its Impact On Cognitive Wellness, Debra S. Austin

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers suffer from higher levels of anxiety and depression than the rest of the population, but most do not enter law school with these mental health issues. Disciplinary actions against attorneys involve substance abuse 50 to 75 percent of the time. However, neuroscience research has shown that both the brain and the genes enjoy the power of plasticity, which means that personal choices and environments shape the development of lawyers throughout their lives. Legal educators need a better understanding of what aspects or characteristics of legal education contribute to the decline in mental health of law students, lawyers, and judges, …

Library Anxiety Of Law Students: A Study Utilizing The Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale, Stacey L. Bowers

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to determine whether law students experienced library anxiety and, if so, which components contributed to that anxiety. The Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale (mlas) developed by Dr. Doris Van Kampen was used to assess library anxiety levels of law students. The mlas is a 53 question Likert scale instrument that measures the construct of library anxiety. Participants in the study were law students enrolled in a private midwestern university during the 2009-2010 academic year who completed the survey instrument. Law students are a unique graduate school population who undergo an extremely rigorous and competitive course …