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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
Mississippi River Stories: Lessons From A Century Of Unnatural Disasters, Christine A. Klein, Sandra B. Zellmer
Mississippi River Stories: Lessons From A Century Of Unnatural Disasters, Christine A. Klein, Sandra B. Zellmer
Christine A. Klein
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the nation pondered how a relatively weak Category 3 storm could have destroyed an entire region. Few appreciated the extent to which a flawed federal water development policy transformed this apparently natural disaster into a "manmade" disaster; fewer still appreciated how the disaster was the predictable, and indeed predicted, sequel to almost a century of similar disasters. This Article focuses upon three such stories: the Great Flood of 1927, the Midwest Flood of 1993, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. Taken together, the stories reveal important lessons, including the inadequacy of engineered flood …
Managing The ‘Republic Of Ngos’: Accountability And Legitimation Problems Facing The U.N. Cluster System, J.Benton Heath
Managing The ‘Republic Of Ngos’: Accountability And Legitimation Problems Facing The U.N. Cluster System, J.Benton Heath
J.Benton Heath
This Article identifies and critically assesses the crucial but troubled system for the coordination of international humanitarian assistance (the U.N. “Cluster Approach”). Regardless of whether the Cluster Approach actually helps in disaster response, it exercises substantial power over affected populations by assigning competences and leadership roles. The built-in mechanisms for controlling this power are unworkable, as they ultimately fail to resolve the tension between humanitarian organizations’ autonomy and the need for coordination. This Article identifies the emergence of an alternative model of accountability, based on mutual monitoring and “peer review.” Drawing on theories of network governance and experimentalism, this Article …
Participation And Disintermediation In A Risk Society, Robert J. Rhee
Participation And Disintermediation In A Risk Society, Robert J. Rhee
Robert Rhee
The chapter argues that financing extreme catastrophic loss will become more problematic as catastrophes become more frequent and severe. An effective strategy must increase the level of participation in the spreading of risk and loss. Currently, risk spreading is done largely through insurers and government as they are the default aggregators of private and public capital. An enlargement of participation may mean the disintermediation of the traditional insurance and public compensation functions, thus allowing more direct and efficient participation between those are exposed to risk and those who are willing to bear it. This chapter also argues that tax policy …