Law Commons^™

Natural Resource Contracts As A Tool For Managing The Mining Sector, David Kienzler, Perrine Toledano, Sophie Thomashausen, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In this report commissioned by the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CCSI examined the different types of legal regimes governing mining projects in 18 countries to gain a better understanding of mining deals granted and negotiated under different minerals regimes. CCSI compared the provisions of 30 mining contracts from 13 countries, analyzed a selection of mining-related legislative texts from 18 countries, and surveyed the experiences of mining contract negotiations through dozens of interviews with experts, government officials, company representatives, and members of civil society organizations.

The report …

Wrong Direction On Climate, Trade And Development, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In pushing for Trade Promotion Authority, the Obama administration argues that the agreements it is negotiating (including TPP and TTIP) are true 21st century agreements that correct the failings of past agreements and will promote trade and investment that can both re-launch America as the key economic player and promote broad-based sustainable development at home and abroad.

A Baby Step: The Status Of Surrogacy Law In Wisconsin Following Rosecky V. Schissel, Joshua J. Bryant

Marquette Law Review

Surrogacy is an ancient and rapidly expanding industry in the United States and abroad. Despite this, the legal landscape governing surrogacy contracts remains tenuous in a majority of states—including Wisconsin. In 2013, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took the first step in developing surrogacy contract law in Wisconsin. Absent legislative guidance, the court fashioned a reasonable foundation for surrogacy contracts. However, its decision does little to ensure that intending parents and surrogate mothers who enter into such agreements fully understand their responsibilities and have assurances that their expectations will be met. This Comment does not seek to argue, as many others …

Legal And Ethical Considerations For Social Media Hiring Practices In The Workplace, Andrew S. Hazelton, Ashley Terhorst

The Hilltop Review

Social media has certainly evolved and continues to do so with each new day. Social media in its infancy was not as widespread in the personal lives of people, let alone in the workplace. In the following years since its inception, social media has captured a significant amount of time of individuals in every aspect of their lives. However, with this advancement also comes possible conflict in how companies and departments within a university or college setting conduct background checks. Social media makes public profiles an easy click away and many potential job seekers may not see the problems that …

Recent Case Decisions, Jordan D. Volino, John C. Curtis Iii, Jarrod H. Gamble, Patrick J. Hoog, Taylor C. Venus, Daniel Franklin

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Globalization Of Crime Control: The Use Of Non-Criminal Justice Responses For Countering Organized Crime, Bjarni Halldor Sigursteinsson

LLM Theses

This thesis examines domestic authorities’ use of non-criminal justice responses to counter organized crime. Examples of responses used to counter outlaw motorcycle gangs in Canada, Germany, and Iceland are provided. These responses are significantly different from most international efforts focusing on criminal norms and cooperation in criminal matters.

As harmonization of legislation, policies and practices in this field become an international focus, I examine the role currently played by the European Union in promoting these non-criminal justice 'alternative' enforcement strategies for the purpose of furthering the development of international and domestic efforts to counter organized crime.

This study concludes that …

Autism Charter Schools: Legally Vulnerable Or Viable?, Janet R. Decker, Keshia Seitz, Bruce Kulwicki

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Perhaps due to the dramatic increase in children diagnosed with autism, a new type of charter school has emerged that is designed to specifically serve students with autism. If these autism charter schools illegally segregate students with autism from typically developing peers, they are vulnerable to legal challenges. In this Article, we identified many constitutional and statutory violations that could exist at autism charter schools; however, our review of the litigation found that autism charter schools have not been challenged for these legal violations. Instead, we found only one charter school case alleging segregation based on ability level and eight …

Legal Education In Disruption: The Headwinds And Tailwinds Of Technology, Jon M. Garon

Faculty Scholarship

By harnessing improvements on communications and computational systems, law firms are producing a revolution in the practice of law. Self-help legal manuals have transformed into sophisticated interactive software; predictive coding can empower clients to receive sophisticated legal advice from a machine; socially mediated portals select among potential lawyers and assess the quality of the advice given; and virtual law firms threaten to distintermediate the grand edifices of twentieth century Big Law. These changes may profoundly restructure the legal practice, undermining the business model for many solo and small firm practices.

This paper focuses on the implications of these profound disruptive …

Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Public Interest And U.S. Domestic Law, Lise Johnson, Lisa E. Sachs, Jeffrey D. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

As negotiations are ongoing in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP), CCSI staff and Jeffrey Sachs discuss the implications of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) for domestic law and policy, focusing on effects within the US. The paper concludes that the risks ISDS poses for domestic law are significant and unjustified, and that there are preferable policy alternatives to pursue as a means of protecting the rights of investors operating overseas.

Smu Consolidates Intellectual Property (Ip) Expertise, Launches New Centre For Ip Research, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The creation, management and protection of intellectual assets and related rights (IPRs) have moved to the top of national, regional and global agendas over the last 20 years. Today, IP has become a key driver of global economic growth. The Singapore Government has also identified IP as a new growth area for Singapore and is on a mission to develop the country as an IP hub with vibrant IP industries. It is against this backdrop that SMU today launches the new Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA). The launch event was graced by Guest-of-honour …

Impact Of The “Nirbhaya” Rape Case: Isolated Phenomenon Or Social Change?, Tina P. Lapsia

Honors Scholar Theses

In December 2012, a twenty-three year old college student, who was given the pseudonym “Nirbhaya” (“fearless”), was fatally gang-raped on a private bus in Delhi, India, galvanizing the country to swiftly adopt new legislative measures and catapulting the issue of violence against women in India into the international spotlight. Although assault and rape cases have made India infamous for its high volume of crimes against women, the reaction to this particular incident was much different from before. This paper investigates whether the governmental and societal responses represent social change, as indicated by changing attitudes towards violence against women in India. …

Resource Resilience: How To Break The Commodities Cycle, Lisa E. Sachs, Nicolas Maennling

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The past year has seen dramatic declines in the prices of global commodities. Between June 2014 and the beginning of this year, crude oil prices fell by 50 percent to around $50 a barrel. Similarly, mineral prices have seen a drastic fall since the peak of the “commodity supercycle” in early 2011. Between then and April of this year, iron ore prices fell by 70 percent, coal prices by 54 percent and copper prices by 40 percent.

Why Fast Track Is A Dangerous Gift To Corporate Lobbies, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Obama Administration is now on track to get "fast track" legislation through the Senate, heading towards a close vote in the House. The end goal is to conclude two major business treaties: the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The House Democrats are right to withhold their support until key treaty positions favored by the White House are dropped.

Not So Fast, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

President Barack Obama and the Republican leadership in Congress are trying to pass "fast track" legislation in order to push through major economic agreements with eleven countries of the Pacific region (the Trans-Pacific Partnership) and Europe (the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) without the possibility for Congressional amendments. Both are being sold generally as "trade agreements," yet they involve key areas of business law and regulation far beyond trade. Before Congress approves fast track, these agreements need to be made public and exposed to thorough public scrutiny.

Dedication To Dean Timothy L. Coggins, W. Clark Williams Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribute To Gail F. Zwirner, Paul M. Birch

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Courtroom To Classroom: Judicial Policymaking And Affirmative Action, Dylan Britton Saul

Political Science Honors Projects

The judicial branch, by exercising judicial review, can replace public policies with ones of their own creation. To test the hypothesis that judicial policymaking is desirable only when courts possess high capacity and necessity, I propose an original model incorporating six variables: generalism, bi-polarity, minimalism, legitimization, structural impediments, and public support. Applying the model to a comparative case study of court-sanctioned affirmative action policies in higher education and K-12 public schools, I find that a lack of structural impediments and bi-polarity limits the desirability of judicial race-based remedies in education. Courts must restrain themselves when engaging in such policymaking.

April 20, 2015: Campaign Finance Becomes An Issue, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Campaign Finance Becomes an Issue“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Tracking Queer Kinships: Assisted Reproduction, Family Law And The Infertility Trap, Stewart Donnell Marvel

PhD Dissertations

The global advent of assisted human reproduction has brought with it an upheaval in social, cultural and legal norms of the family. The centrality of biological reproduction to the traditional heterosexual family has been challenged by reproductive intervention, further destabilizing nuclear family norms already unmoored by same-sex marriage, single mothers, unwed fathers, and increased access to divorce, contraceptives and abortion. As these challenges have shifted EuroAmerican social norms of family, the law has increasingly been called upon to preside over the re-organization of intimate life, operating as a central vehicle to reframe the relationship of the family to the state. …

Defeating The Super Pacs That Distort Our Political Process, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

April 3, 2015: Making The Worst Of Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Making the Worst of Religion“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Registering Trade And Service Marks In Tennessee: A Brief How-To Guide, Brian Krumm, Zackarij R. Gardner

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

North Dakota Law, Rob Carolin

North Dakota Law

Alumni Magazine of the University of North Dakota School of Law

The Third Amendment In The 21st Century, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

If It Ain't Broke, Break It - How The Tennessee General Assembly Dismantled And Destroyed Tennessee's Uniquely Excellent Judicial System, Penny White

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

"All Writs" In Bankruptcy And District Courts: A Story Of Differing Scope, George Kuney

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Ripe For Refinement: The State’S Role In Interpretation Of Fet, Mfn, And Shareholder Rights, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Over recent years, many states have taken steps to refine and modernize their investment treaties. These reforms, however, are typically only included in newer treaties or model agreements. States continue to be exposed to claims, litigation, and potential damages under older “old-style” agreements. These risks are particularly acute given that tribunals have often permitted investors to “treaty shop” to obtain more favorable protections, and have also permitted investors to use the most-favored nation (MFN) provision to “import” more investor-friendly (or at least less clear) provisions from other treaties.

This working paper discusses one strategy states can use to try to …

The Role Of Athlete-Agents And The Law: A Conflict Of Interest?, Justin Park

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

No abstract provided.

Eyes Wide Shut On Isds, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Recent agreement among congressional leaders on a “fast-track” bill may have been a victory for the Obama administration’s trade agenda. However, members of congress should take a look at the recent Bilcon case, decided by a NAFTA tribunal, to understand what they are signing up for.

Lawyered Up: Local Communities, Courts, And Urban Renewal, Madeline Spolin

Sociology Honors Projects

What is the role of the judicial system in solving issues of urban renewal? I propose that communities use courts as a redress to become part of the decision making process on urban renewal issues, because courts provide procedural issues that are easily open to challenge in federal statute. I analyze public statements made throughout the construction of the Green Line in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, a federally funded urban renewal project. In spite of built in public consultation processes, changes to transit design do not occur when concerns are raised at public consultation meetings; instead, they come from …