Law Commons^™

A Review Of Sierra Leone’S Mines And Minerals Act, Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye, Perrine Toledano, Sophie Thomashausen

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

With the support of Oxfam, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment reviewed select provisions in the Mines and Minerals Act 2009 and corresponding policy statements from the Minerals Policy 2018 to provide recommendations for how to best align the anticipated new mining law with international best practice. The 2009 law was reviewed with a focus on the following topics:

• Fiscal regime;
• Climate change;
• Access to and use of land;
• Community consultations and participation;
• Human rights; and
• Community development agreements.

The policy brief aims to support the Government of Sierra Leone in the ongoing law reform process.

Silver And Old: How Emtala's Outdated Appropriate Medical Screening Standard Impacts The Aging Population, Madisyn Uekawa

Seattle University Law Review

With the U.S. elder population on the brink of booming, attention to the ramifications of legal standards that affect them is a must. In 2018, the Sixth Circuit split from its sister circuits and solidified an interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s (EMTALA) “appropriate medical screening” standard that will adversely affect aging individuals. Since older adults are the most likely demographic to use emergency care services, laws that impact emergency care will inevitably trickle down to this group of people. To protect already vulnerable older adults, EMTALA should be modified in such a way that (1) it …

2011 Inamori Ethics Prize Speech: Democracy And Freedom Under Law: The Obligations Of Lawyers, Beatrice Mtetwa

The International Journal of Ethical Leadership

transcript

The Characterization Of Pre-Insolvency Proceedings In Private International Law, Adrian Walters, Irit Mevorach

All Faculty Scholarship

The decade since the fnancial crisis has witnessed a proliferation of various ‘light touch’ fnancial restructuring techniques in the form of so-called pre-insolvency proceedings. These proceedings inhabit a space on the spectrum of insolvency and restructuring law, somewhere between a pure contractual workout, the domain of contract law, and a formal insolvency or rehabilitation proceeding, the domain of insolvency law. While, to date, international insolvency instruments have tended to defne insolvency proceedings quite expansively, discussion of the cross-border implications of pre-insolvency proceedings has barely begun. The question is whether pre-insolvency proceedings should qualify as proceedings related to insolvency for the …

Age, Equality, And Vulnerability, Alexander Boni-Saenz

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article uses age as an entry point for examining how temporal and methodological issues in egalitarianism make substantive equality an unattractive goal for vulnerability theory. Instead, vulnerabilitytheory should adopt a continuous doctrine of sufficiency, which is a better fit with vulnerability theory’s underlying aims and rhetoric. Instead of evaluating what individuals have in relation to others, sufficiency refocuses the inquiry on whether we have enough throughout the lifecourse. In the context of vulnerability theory, enough should be defined as the capability to be resilient as guaranteed by the responsive state.

February 26, 2020: The Crisis Over Recusal, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Crisis Over Recusal“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Criminal Justice Bias: Fact Or Fiction, Hiba Mobarak

Quest

Objective Analysis

Research in progress for CRIJ 1301: Introduction to Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor: Stefanie LeMaire

The following paper represents work produced by a student in an Introduction to Criminal Justice course at Collin College. The paper is an objective analysis of prominent research regarding potential police biases and how officers’ decisions may be influenced by a suspect’s race. The topic of racial bias within policing is quite controversial, as evidenced by the community protests, media coverage, and destruction that has ensued after officer-involved shootings. This assignment asks students to objectively review scholarly research on police bias and constructively criticize …

Preparing Legal Frameworks For Environmental Disasters: Practical Considerations For Host States, Brooke Guven, Perrine Toledano, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Projects in the extractives sector carry risks of lasting, and sometimes irreversible, damage to the environment. Nonetheless, these projects are important for accelerating the economic development of host countries. Governments seeking to mitigate the adverse effects of foreign investment often face pushback from investors that are unwilling to change their practices in order to avert environmental disaster. This report sets forth certain steps that host-governments can take during the pre-investment, operation, and enforcement phases of extractives projects to provide financial and other protection in the context of environmental disasters associated with private sector investments.

Upon comparative review of five Case …

Electric Utility Alignment With The Sdgs & The Paris Climate Agreement, Perrine Toledano, Aniket Shah, Nicolas Maennling, Ryan J. Lasnick

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda poses a unique and critical challenge to the energy sector: how to scale access to clean energy to power sustainable, economic development for a growing population, while simultaneously decarbonizing global energy supply. Expanding access to clean energy will play a crucial role in achieving nearly every one of the Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to agricultural production, health outcomes, educational performance, water systems, access to infrastructure, and reducing inequalities. However, practices by some actors in the energy sector, and continued over-reliance on greenhouse gas-intensive fossil fuels also undermine global efforts to mitigate climate change …

Describing Law, Raff Donelson

Journal Articles

Legal philosophers make a number of bold, contentious claims about the nature of law. For instance, some claim that law necessarily involves coercion, while others disagree. Some claim that all law enjoys presumptive moral validity, while others disagree. We can see these claims in at least three, mutually exclusive ways: (1) We can see them as descriptions of law's nature (descriptivism), (2) we can see them as expressing non-descriptive attitudes of the legal philosophers in question (expressivism), or (3) we can see them as practical claims about how we should view law or order our society (pragmatism). This paper argues …

Testing The First Amendment Validity Of Laws Banning Sexual Orientation Change Efforts On Minors: What Level Of Scrutiny Applies After Becerra And Does A Proportionality Approach Provide A Solution?, Clay Calvert

Pepperdine Law Review

This Article examines the standard of scrutiny courts should apply when testing the validity of laws banning speech-based sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) against First Amendment challenges. Justice Clarence Thomas’s 2018 opinion for a five-justice conservative majority of the United States Supreme Court in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra casts considerable doubt on whether a level of inquiry less stringent than strict scrutiny applies. The article analyzes how lower courts after Becerra that have reviewed anti-SOCE laws disagree on the issue. And yet, as the Article explains, the Supreme Court refuses to clarify the muddle. First, …

Why Trump’S Lawyers Should Talk Like Lawyers, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

The Constitution says that what’s happening in the Senate right now is a trial. But it’s no ordinary trial: As we’re all now well aware, a Senate trial is a hybrid affair, part law and part politics.

Empowered Women Empower Women, Anne S. Douds

Public Policy Faculty Publications

Good afternoon and thank you for your determination to hold this important event today regardless of the weather. When Jenny said that we would go forward rain, sleet, or snow, I did not anticipate that we would have all three in the same day!

Maybe your determination derives from the residual spirit of a group of women who gathered here 100 years ago, also determined, but that time they were determined to ensure that their community acknowledged their right to vote. They were empowered, excited, and ready to act because, five years prior, in 1915, Katherine Wentworth of the Pennsylvania …

Liability Of The Structural Engineer: Establishing, Quantifying, And Managing Risks, Justin Thomas Ittmann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Liability is an important topic to all practicing professionals—including practicing engineers. However, the topic of liability does not receive the necessary attention required relative to other professions. Further, engineers that desire to learn more about liability in relation to their practice do not have many university options within an engineering curriculum or from outside materials available to a non-legally trained engineer. The goal of the study is to provide a comprehensive overview of liability directed towards an intelligent practicing engineer, while avoiding unnecessary over-simplification of the material. This study initially provides an in depth survey of the legal standard of …

Saving Judicial Independence From The Nihilism Of Court-Packing, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Democracy, Federalism, And The Guarantee Clause, Carolyn Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

The Guarantee Clause of the Constitution promises that “[t]he United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government . . . .” The Supreme Court has long held this Clause to be nonjusticiable, and as a result, many see the Clause as purely vestigial. But nonjusticiable does not mean toothless, and this view fails to recognize the Clause’s grant of power to Congress. The Guarantee Clause provides Congress with the authority to ensure that each state’s internal governance meets a minimum standard of republicanism. The Framers included this promise because they feared that some …

Docket Control, Mandatory Jurisdiction, And The Supreme Court's Failure In Rucho V. Common Cause, Carolyn Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper, part of a Symposium on Andrew Coan's book, Rationing the Constitution: How Judicial Capacity Shapes Supreme Court Decision-Making, traces congressional changes to Supreme Court jurisdiction over more than a century, noting that those changes were regularly made in response to concerns about the Court's caseload. To the extent that Coan, and the Court, turn to doctrinal methods of controlling caseloads, such as deferential standards of review, they are overlooking the important congressional role in setting the Court's jurisdiction. The paper concludes by criticizing the recent decision of Rucho v. Common Cause in which the Court held that extreme …

The Complicated Relationship Of Patent Examination And Invalidation, Gregory Reilly

All Faculty Scholarship

The conventional view is that the Patent Office examines patent applications before issuance to assure compliance with the statutory criteria of patentability. Ex post invalidation in district court litigation or Patent Office cancellation proceedings then reviews the Patent Office’s work to correct errors that result from the Patent Office’s shortcomings, bias, or “rational ignorance” that limits resources spent on examination because of the irrelevance of most patents. Scholars, the Federal Circuit, and the Supreme Court have all endorsed this conventional view. However, it is wrong—or at least overly simplistic. The American patent system is only partially a system of ex …

School Of Law Annual Report 2019, Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

It is my pleasure to present you the SMU School of Law’s Annual Report for 2019. This Report highlights all the exciting things that the School has done and the achievements of our faculty members, students and alumni in the past year. As a Law School, our mission is to produce meaningful and impactful research, provide relevant legal training to our students, and apply our expertise to serve the community

Uneasy Lies The Head That Owns Property, Gregory M. Stein

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Ethical Considerations: Corporate Social Responsibility And The 21st Century, Joan Macleod Heminway, Irma S. Russell

Book Chapters

This chapter provides perspectives on the balance of professional and personal ethical considerations that lawyers must achieve to deal effectively and ethically with the conundrums they face in their representation of business clients. This task requires consideration of both issues that some might regard as isolated (or at least mundane and local) and, at the same time, issues that are global and existential—critical to the survival of our species. Although the focus is on the role of lawyers, the challenges con- fronted by lawyers and the rules governing their conduct also inform the ethical responsibilities and role of nonlawyers.

The …

Digitalisation And Its Impact On Innovation, Maurice E. Stucke, Ariel Ezrachi

Scholarly Works

Innovation is generally seen as good. Promoting innovation especially in the digital economy is often deemed vital. Increasing the level of innovation, after all, can promote sustainable development, economic growth, prosperity, and citizens’ overall welfare. So how can policy makers spur innovation in the digital economy? While there is no simple recipe, this study explores the interplay between innovation and the digital economy from the following seven angles: 1. Theoretical economic literature; 2. Macro view of current innovation levels; 3. Emerging trends in the digital economy; 4. Implications of sub-optimal innovation levels; 5. Variables that affect the supply of innovation; …

Fundamental Labour Standards And Corporate Sustainability: An Analysis Of The Regulatory Framework Of Core Workers' Rights And Its Integration In Contemporary International Business, S J. Rombouts, A J.F Lafarre

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

The core of international protection of workers' rights is made up of the Fundamental Labour Standards that were developed in the framework of the International Labour Organization (ILO). These standards, included in the eight fundamental conventions of the ILO are part of public international law, but are also incorporated into a large number of other - public, private, binding and voluntary - instruments that regulate international corporate behavior and form the basis for worker protection in international corporate social responsibility mechanisms. Fundamental Labour Standards (FLS) aim to secure respect for the prohibition of child labour, the prohibition of forced labour, …

Beyond Culture: Reimagining The Adjudication Of Indigenous Peoples' Rights In International Law, Beatriz Garcia, Lucas Lixinski

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

This article argues that the current model of Indigenous rights adjudication foregrounds essentialized notions of culture, backgrounding interests of Indigenous peoples (IPs) that are not necessarily related to culture. Culture imposes a burden that limits the possibilities of human rights for Indigenous peoples, which is at least in part attributable to the current model's lack of precision. We show that the jurisprudence on IP rights by international adjudicatory bodies focuses on culture without meaningful attempts to explain and define it, is imprecise on how culture affects the reading of the human right for which it serves as the basis, as …

Arresting The Nigerian Herders-Farmers Conflict: The Unconstitutionality Of The Ruga Policy, Jude Ezeanokwasa

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

The Ruga policy which the Federal Government claims to be aimed at ending the herders-farmers conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and rendered thousands internally displaced is perceived in most segments of the Nigeria society as a policy that would exacerbate rather than end the conflict. It seeks to establish in the States of the Federation settlements for Fulani herders who are usually illegally armed with guns as against unarmed local farmers. Due to stiff opposition from mostly non-Fulani ethnic nationalities Government suspended the policy. Since the policy is only suspended and not jettisoned, it is possible that government …

The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based On Historical Usnwr Data, Brad Areheart

Scholarly Works

The best proxy for how other law professors react and respond to publishing in main, or flagship, law reviews is the US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This paper utilizes historical USNWR data to rank the top 100 law reviews. The USNWR rankings are important in shaping many – if not most – law professors’ perceptions about the relative strength of a law school (and derivatively, the home law review). This document contains a chart that is sorted by the 10-year rolling average for each school, but it also contains the 5-year and 15-year rolling averages. This paper also …

The Impact Of Ban-The-Box Measures, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

An Analysis On Biometric Privacy Data Regulation: A Pivot Towards Legislation Which Supports The Individual Consumer's Privacy Rights In Spite Of Corporate Protections, Carla Llaneza

St. Thomas Law Review

This Comment will address the different ways in which biometric data has become an integral part of everyday American life, whether it be through the use of facial recognition for national security or the use of fingerprinting to access an individual’s smartphone. Part II will further discuss how biometric data privacy legislation, specifically as set out in the Biometric Illinois Privacy Act (“BIPA”), has become prominent and will analyze its effects on the legal rights of consumers to bring suit against private entities. Part III will discuss the present solutions available to consumers who fall victim to companies who distribute …

Pandemic, Protests, And Prison Reform? Why 2020 Is A Catalyst To Rethink Drug Policy, Keelia Lee

St. Thomas Law Review

This Article will argue for the abandonment of the current criminal justice system as it relates to drug offenses and for its replacement with a medical model to address the healthcare problem of addiction. The medical model approach calls for complete decriminalization of all controlled substances coupled with better rehabilitation and reintegration policies. This Article argues the criminalization of drugs has targeted minorities under the guise of keeping communities safe. It will look at the differences between the United States and Portugal, a country that has implemented the medical model, while also analyzing recent legislation in the United States addressing …

The Birth Of A Monster: An Open Discussion On Anti-Blackness Segregation To Present, Nichelle Womble

St. Thomas Law Review

Racism and discrimination remain topics of focus that continue to shape the lives, experiences, and results of the American people. These aspects continue creating privileges, systematically and socially, for Whites while disadvantaging Blacks. Today’s White person claims to not see color, but is that the truth? Perhaps they do not see color, but maybe a more honest statement is that they do not see blackness. Where did it all begin? To answer these questions, this paper explores “The Birth of a Monster,” better known as “whiteness,” by encompassing white privilege and supremacy. It will paint a picture from segregation to …