Law Commons^™

Socio-Economic Considerations Of Living Modified Organisms And Impacts On Trade: Evolution Of Environmental Disputes At The World Trade Organization, Leonardo Munhoz

Dissertations & Theses

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the most important international treaty concerning the conservation of biodiversity and the Cartagena Protocol is a specific instrument to regulate biosafety measures for Living Modified Organisms ("LMOs"). In this Protocol, apart from mandatory environmental and health risk assessments, the Parties can also voluntarily adopt socio and economic considerations ("SECs") arising from LMOs, as stated in article 26.

However, the definition of SECs is still under negotiation, therefore it does not currently have a definite concept and meaning. Also, the last Conference of the Parties proposed to expand SECs by adding extra cultural, traditional, …

Confronting State Violence: Lessons From India's Farmer Protests, Smita Narula

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In December 2021, following a year of sustained mass protests, farmers in India forced the repeal of three controversial Farm Laws that attempted to deregulate India’s agricultural sector in service of corporate interests. Farmers feared that the laws would dismantle price supports for key crops, jeopardize their livelihoods, and facilitate a corporate takeover of India’s agrarian economy. This Article situates India’s historic farmer protests in the context of the country’s longstanding agrarian crisis and the corporate capture of agriculture worldwide. I argue that the protests arose in response not only to the Farm Laws, but also to decades of state-sponsored …

Stagflation In American Jurisprudence, Chad G. Marzen, Michael Conklin

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Rezoning For Social Equity, Affordability And Resilience, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this Article, I will show how the legacies of the institutional barriers to housing still persist to deprive many of the predicates for economic thriving and personal flourishing and how existing zoning philosophy cannot be justified by the need to protect health and safety. Righting the inequities of the past and of the present will require dismantling some of the institutions, apparently legitimate and well-meaning, but operating devilishly to create and perpetuate hardship and exclusion. This will require laying bare the institutions to reveal their ignoble essence. We need a radical overhaul of the historic zoning regime from one …

Overhaul Of The Sdt Provisions In The Wto: Separating The Eligible From The Ineligible, Md. Rizwanul Islam

Pace International Law Review

The special and differential treatment (“SDT”) provisions have been a recurring feature in the agreements of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) treaties. However, most analysts would probably agree that the many SDT provisions have been more aspirational than operational. Hence, there is little surprise that even a selective review of the WTO jurisprudence would demonstrate that the SDT provisions have, in most cases, not done enough for their intended beneficiaries. This paper will analyze the limitations of the SDT provisions with reference to the relevant WTO jurisprudence. It will seek to explore two potential avenues of endeavoring to make the …

Tax Benefits, Higher Education And Race: A Gift Tax Proposal For Direct Tuition Payments, Bridget J. Crawford, Wendy C. Gerzog

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article combines three topics--taxes, higher education, and race--to evaluate the tax system's role in exacerbating racial inequalities. Part II frames the discussion with a brief overview of the economics of higher education: how much it costs, how much debt the average student incurs to afford it, and how that debt burden varies by race. Part III describes the major income and wealth transfer tax benefits for higher education, including I.R.C. § 2503(e)'s exclusion of direct tuition payments from gift tax. Part IV demonstrates how this gift tax exclusion disproportionately benefits white families already more likely to avail themselves …

The Problem Of Modern Monetization Of Memes: How Copyright Law Can Give Protection To Meme Creators, Mark Marciszewski

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Some legal questions answered in this article on the horizon for the courts and lawyers is how should courts apply copyright law to popular media made by small scale creators and shared on the internet, otherwise known as "memes."

Part II of this article will focus on validity of potential copyright protection in internet memes. It will start by describing the increased monetization surrounding memes and how this monetization calls for greater interest for meme creators to protect their work. It will then describe the merits of individual copyright interests in internet memes.

Part III of this article will focus …

From Public Health To Public Wealth: The Case For Economic Justice, Barbara L. Atwell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines how we can overlay the principle of serving the common good, which undergirds public health law, onto financial well-being. It suggests that we apply public health law principles to corporate law and culture. In matters of public health, we view quite broadly states' police power to protect the public good. Government is also empowered to protect the general welfare in matters of financial well-being. Using the “general welfare” as a guidepost, this Article challenges the conventional wisdom that corporations exist solely to maximize profit and shareholder value to the exclusion of virtually everything else. It proposes two …

Explaining China's Legal Flexibility: History And The Institutional Imperative, Justin W. Evans

Pace International Law Review

China’s legal system appears to harbor a major tension, or even a paradox. Certainty in law facilitates economic progress, which most observers agree the Communist Party requires to maintain its power—yet the Party has opted for a flexible legal system that often impedes predictability. Prior studies explain China’s legal system as a product of certain constraints and as an expedient that allows for policy adjustments. These factors undoubtedly are at work but do not fully explain the rationale for a legal design seemingly at odds with the Party’s economic goals. To obtain a fuller view, it is necessary to consult …

Accurate Economics To Protect Endangered Species And Their Critical Habitats, Jacob P. Byl

Pace Environmental Law Review

Federal agencies currently use a methodology that finds negligible benefits of protecting critical habitat for endangered species, despite the prime real estate that is often involved. The Endangered Species Act already calls for economic analysis, but agencies currently treat it as a meaningless hoop to jump through. Agencies justify this hollow exercise by pointing to the difficulty in quantifying the increment of added protection that comes with critical habitat designation. However, the increment of added protection for critical habitat can be measured using methods already employed by agencies in other environmental analyses. Although the central benefits of critical habitat are …

Life Cycle Costing And Food Systems: Concepts, Trends, And Challenges Of Impact Valuation, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Our global food systems create pervasive environmental, social, and health impacts. Impact valuation is an emerging concept that aims to quantify all environmental, social, and health costs of food systems in an attempt to make the true cost of food more transparent. It also is designed to facilitate the transformation of global food systems. The concept of impact valuation is emerging at the same time as, and partly as a response to, calls for the development of legal mechanisms to address environmental, social, and health concerns. Information has long been understood both as a necessary precursor for regulation and as …

Between Power Politics And International Economic Law: Asian Regionalism, The Trans-Pacific Partnership And U.S.-China Trade Relations, Jiangyu Wang

Pace International Law Review

This Article examines the interactions of power politics and international economic law in the development of regionalism in Asia, particularly in the context of United States-China trade relations. It argues that the process of regional economic integration in Asia has been slow-moving because of the politicization of regionalism by power rivalries. China’s initial regional integration initiatives apparently ignored the United States, a superpower which has always been a major player in Asia and an indispensable part of the region’s economic process. The United States-led Trans-Pacific Partnership was allegedly designed to exclude China, Asia’s largest economy. On the other hand, the …

Crafting Next Generation Eco-Label Policy, Jason J. Czarnezki, Katrina F. Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Eco-labels present a promising policy tool in the effort to achieve sustainable consumption. Many questions remain, however, about the extent to which eco-labels can contribute to sustainability efforts and how to maximize their effectiveness. This Article deploys research from evolutionary psychology, behavioral law and economics, and norm theory to offer specific insights for the design and implementation of eco-labels to enhance their influence on sustainable consumer choice. Notably, this research suggests possibilities for eco-labels to shape or expand consumer preferences for green goods, and thereby enhance eco-label influence on consumer behavior by extending it beyond eco-minded consumers. We suggest that …

The Missing Element Of Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis: Compensation For The Loss Of Regulatory Benefits, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Despite its critics, cost-benefit analysis remains a fixture of the environmental regulation calculus. Most criticisms of cost-benefit analysis focus on the impossibility of monetizing environmental and health amenities protected by regulations. Less attention has been paid to the regressive wealth-transfer effects of regulations foregone based on cost-benefit analysis. This regressive effect occurs as long as downwind communities that suffer health and harms from environmental contamination are generally less wealthy than the owners of pollution sources that avoid regulatory-compliance costs. The availability of compensation to pollution-victims has the potential to ameliorate this regressive effect. This Article recommends that the availability of …

The Untold Story Of The Justice Gap: Integrating Poverty Law Into The Law School Curriculum, Vanita S. Snow

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Leading On Climate: A Policy Platform To Address Rising Inequality And Rising Sea Levels In New York State, J. Mijin Cha

Pace Environmental Law Review

With the renewed need for state action, this paper presents a case study of a labor-led initiative in New York State that seeks to address both economic inequality and the climate crisis. It discusses how organized labor, which has historically represented fossil fuel workers and has not been seen as a traditional climate ally, put forth a comprehensive climate jobs plan that could meaningfully reduce carbon emissions while also creating good, family-sustaining jobs to reduce income inequality. As the need for a broader coalition to advocate for sensible climate policy increases, this case study provides a road map for states …

Transition Support Mechanisms For Communities Facing Full Or Partial Coal Power Plant Retirement In New York, Lisa Anne Hamilton, Radina Valova, Karl R. Rábago

Environmental Law Program Publications @ Haub Law

New York State is undergoing a rapid and unprecedented energy transformation, particularly in the electricity sector. As new resources and technologies emerge to meet the demands of 21st century life, regulators must balance the need for cost effective and equitable participation in wholesale power markets while maintaining reliability on the grid. Furthermore, it is critical that all New Yorkers participate fully in the promise of a revitalized and equitable energy future. Such a transformation requires that the needs of all communities are factored into the polices and regulations that move New York toward the bold goals set forth under its …

Why Law Now Needs To Control Rather Than Follow Neo-Classical Economics, John William Draper

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article argues that neo-classical economics places an emphasis on short-term gain over precaution, and in doing so, places the lives of a myriad of individual humans—and even the species itself—at risk. Given the foreseeable risks, if humanity wants to survive longer, we need to rethink our economic principles and priorities and the relationship between economics and law.

I begin with a most brief overview of the various sources of risk to the human species and its life support system. Then I will move on to look at how neo-classical economics interacts with significant risk.

Fossil Fuel Abolition: Legal And Social Issues, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will examine the practical, ethical, legal, and socio-political implications of fossil fuel abolition. First, the Article will consider the practical, ethical, and legal arguments in favor of fossil fuel abolition. Then, the Article will examine possible legal means and authorities to implement abolition in the United States, as well as potential legal objections to fossil fuel abolition. Finally, the Article will consider legal abolition’s capacity to effect the far-reaching changes in our socioeconomic system that a ban on fossil fuels will entail. The Article also will compare the climate reform movement to other social law reform movements in …

Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article calls for a fundamental reorientation of international environmental law to bridge the North-South divide and respond to the ecological crises of the Anthropocene. Such a reconceptualization of international environmental law must be normatively grounded in respect for nature and in the quest for environmental justice within, as well as between, countries.

International environmental law must directly challenge the relentless drive toward economic expansion and unbridled exploitation of people and nature rather than merely attempt to mitigate its excesses. An essential step toward such a reconceptualization is to examine the ways in which international law has historically engaged with …

Balancing National Public Policy And Free Trade, Diane A. Desierto

Pace International Law Review

In the wake of the impasse between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and India regarding the ratification of the Protocol to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) that concluded during the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia on December of 2013, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo admitted that while the WTO succeeds in resolving trade disputes and monitoring trade practices, it “has failed to deliver new multilateral results since its creation.” This systemic failure in the trade negotiations pillar of the WTO is evident to all of its 160 Members. It is evident from thirteen years of stalled negotiations under the …

It’S Not That Difficult: The Shared Economic Growth Solution To Tax Reform, Matthew Lykken

Pace Law Review

In this article, I outline the latest version of the Shared Economic Growth package proposal and explain how it accomplishes all of its goals, with reference to some of the recent scholarly works that support it. I then walk through the derivation of the numbers to show that it really works, based on conservative assumptions and without any reliance on economic growth or voodoo, and that it would provide a substantial addition to revenue in the coming years. These numbers are based on 2010 data, the most recent comprehensive data available, and thus prove that the proposal works in the …

Uk’S Ratification Of The Cisg – An Old Debate Or A New Hope For The Economy Of The Uk On Its Way Out Of The Recession: The Potential Impact Of The Cisg On The Uk’S Sme, Silvia E. Nikolova

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The main hypothesis of this article is that the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods has the potential to act as a catalyst for the economy of the UK on its way out of the recession and, therefore, should be ratified, as it will strongly affect the development of the SME sector. This hypothesis will be questioned and evaluated throughout the article.

In Part II of the article, the importance of the SMEs for the current economy of the UK will be assessed. Together with Part I, Part II will form the prism through which the remainder of …

Race To The Finish Line: Legal Education, Jobs, And The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is true that the recession of 2008–2009 seriously undermined the job market for both new and experienced lawyers. It is also true that legal education is expensive, and many students pay for it through loans that have to be repaid after graduation. And it is well documented that some law schools misstated employment and other statistics in the tight, competitive job market of recent years. But connecting the dots in this case does not lead to a conclusion that our system of legal education is bankrupt or that law school is not an excellent career choice for many students. …

Re-Appraising The Appraisers: Expanding Liability To Buyers And Borrowers In The Story Of The 2008 Financing Industry Crisis, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On the surface, suing in negligence seems the most promising avenue for recovery against appraisers, because liability depends on an examination of defendant's conduct alone and does not require an examination or defendant's mental state to show intent or agreement. But historically insuperable hurdles have operated to prevent recovery under this seemingly simple cause of action. One hurdle is lack of privity. The appraiser's legal relationship is with the hiring party--the lender--to assess the risks of the loan transaction and not with the purchaser, who may rely on the appraisal in making the decision to purchase. Because of the lack …

Land Use For Economic Development In Tough Financial Times, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The recession hit cities hard. Basic municipal staffs and services are being cut, debt is being restructured, capital projects delayed, and other cost cutting measures reported. The Congressional Budget Office reports that by November of last year there were 241,000 fewer municipal employees than there were three years earlier when the recession began. In its most recent report from city finance officers, the National League of Cities states that city spending cutbacks since 2009 are the largest since the survey was first taken, over twenty-five years ago. Despite this serious trend, municipalities have not defaulted in debt payment and there …

Providing Legal Certainty In South America: Can Mercosur Help?, Camilo A. Rodriguez Yong

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

The presence of legal certainty within a country’s legal system is a very relevant factor in the foreign investor’s decision to invest in a particular country. It is therefore necessary for countries to develop mechanisms for avoiding or reducing the uncertainty over the law in their legal systems. This article studies the Southern Common Market’s (“MERCOSUR”) structure and function with the purpose of assessing it as a mechanism to offer legal certainty to foreign investors in the region. The analysis is carried out by examining three basic elements of this regional integrationist experience: a) its body of law, b) its …

The Currency Of White Women's Hair In A Down Economy, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This short essay is a reflection on the relationship between the economy and women’s hair. I suggest that examining women’s spending on hair care products during uncertain financial conditions provides insight into the gendered aspects of the economy. As the economy has declined, sales of home hair-care products targeted toward white women have increased. Major news outlets report on salon customers trying to stretch out the time between their regular $250 hair salon treatments. Certain women turn to home hair dyes to maintain conforming appearances. In popular culture, to have white skin and gray hair is to be old (unemployable …

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vise versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Real Property, Mortgages, And The Economy: A Call For Ethics And Reforms, Shelby D. Green

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.