Agriculture Law Commons^™

“Food Of Their Own Choosing”: Improving Access To Locally Grown, Sustainable, And Real Food, Alexia M. Kulwiec, Tom Starck

Maine Law Review

The State of Maine is leading the nation in efforts not only to promote production of locally and sustainably grown food, but the right of consumers to grow, produce, and consume the food of their choosing. This includes creation of a constitutional right to food, a right recognized in the global community but not throughout the United States. Many advocates in the United States emphasize the right to food as a human right, advocating for the same attention and protection as other human rights such as the right to life, liberty, freedom from slavery, and freedom from discrimination. The right …

Corn War: A Trade Fight Between The United States And Mexico, Ernesto Hernández-López

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

An international fight grows over corn. The United States claims that México’s ban on genetically modified (GMO) corn violates the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). México prohibits GMO corn for human consumption. American arguments focus on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, covered in Chapter 9 of the USMCA. A trade panel will review these.

This Essay first describes SPS arguments and relevant trade rules. The United States’ complaints emphasize that México’s ban is excessive, is not consistent with international standards, and mishandles risks. Second, the Essay identifies the obstacles American positions face: weak mandates and deference to México. Chapter 9 of …

Land Use Conflicts Between Wind And Solar Renewable Energy And Agriculture Uses, Peggy Kirk Hall, Whitney Morgan, Jesse Richardson

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond Data Ownership, Ignacio Cofone

Cardozo Law Review

Proposals for data ownership are widely misunderstood, aim at the wrong goal, and would be self-defeating if implemented. This Article, first, shows that data ownership proposals do not argue for the bundle of ownership rights that exists over property at common law. Instead, these proposals focus on transferring rights over personal information solely through consent.

Second, this Article shows the flaws of a property approach to personal information. Such an approach magnifies well-known problems of consent in privacy law: asymmetric information, asymmetric bargaining power, and leaving out inferred data. It also creates a fatal problem: moral hazard where corporations lack …

The Life Of Administrative Democracy, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Imagine if Congress, the President, and the industries they hoped to regulate all decided that neither politically isolated bureaucrats nor a popularly sanctioned President should wield the power to administer Congress’ laws, to make legislative-type policy, to enforce that policy, and to adjudicate disputes under it. Imagine if there were another experiment, one that has persisted, but few have noticed.

Imagine no longer. Overlooked by most, there is a model for federal administration that does not rely on isolated administrators or Presidential control, but instead on elected bureaucrats. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture houses over 7,500 elected farmer-bureaucrats …

Justifying India's Patent Position To The United States International Trade Commission And Office Of The United States Trade Representative, Sean Flynn, Srividhya Ragavan, Brook Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Dangerous Right To Food Choice, Samuel R. Wiseman

Seattle University Law Review

Scholars, advocates, and interest groups have grown increasingly concerned with the ways in which government regulations—from agricultural subsidies to food safety regulations to licensing restrictions on food trucks—affect access to local food. One argument emerging from the interest in recent years is that choosing what foods to eat, what I have previously called “liberty of palate,” is a fundamental right. The attraction is obvious: infringements of fundamental rights trigger strict scrutiny, which few statutes survive. As argued elsewhere, the doctrinal case for the existence of such a right is very weak. This Essay does not revisit those arguments, but instead …

Ag Gag Past, Present, And Future, Justin F. Marceau

Seattle University Law Review

While the animal rights and food justice movements are relatively young, their political unpopularity has generated a steady onslaught of legislation designed to curtail their effectiveness. At each stage of their nascent development, these movements have confronted a new wave of criminal or civil sanctions carefully tailored to combat the previous successes the movements had achieved.

Opening The Barnyard Door: Transparency And The Resurgence Of Ag-Gag & Veggie Libel Laws, Nicole E. Negowetti

Seattle University Law Review

Over the past several decades, as the agricultural system became increasingly industrialized and the steps from farm to plate multiplied, consumers became farther removed from the sources of their food. Until recently, most consumers in America were content to eat their processed, cheap, and filling foods without giving a second thought to how these foods were produced. The tides are changing. Increasingly, consumers are calling for more transparency in the food system. Repulsed by images of animal cruelty and shocked by unsavory food production practices, consumers want the food industry’s veil lifted and are demanding changes in food production. The …

The Food Safety Modernization Act’S True Implications For Sustainable Agriculture, Emily Walters

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

Innovation In China: Fragmentation, Structured Uncertainty, And Technology Standards, Michael Murphree, Dan Breznitz

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Article discusses the history of China’s attempts to develop indigenous technology standards. A case study is presented on China’s attempts to develop digital optical storage media standards, the failure of which we attribute to fragmentation of production and structured uncertainty in China’s economy. Despite the market failures of China’s domestic standards development efforts, we conclude by highlighting some of the appurtenant benefits they produce for Chinese manufacturers.

Tribal Rituals Of The Mdl: A Comment On Williams, Lee, And Borden, Repeat Players In Multidistrict Litigation, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Using Ethanol As A Fuel To Reenergize Free Trade Area Of The Americas Negotiations, Marcel De Armas

ExpressO

Currently the United States imposes a 2.5 percent ad valorem tax along with a 14.27 cents per liter tax on imported ethanol from countries with normal trade relations under the harmonized tariff schedule. However, the United States exempts many countries from this tariff or reduces the tariff under various free trade agreements or initiatives. The issues that resulted in Doha’s failure also caused FTAA negotiations to temporarily stall since both Brazil and the United States wanted certain FTAA issues negotiated at the WTO level. The United States could initiate this process with a discussion of reducing or eliminating its ethanol …

Hemp ... Why Not?, Jared B. Kahn

ExpressO

Hemp ... Why Not?

By: Jared Kahn

(Abstract)

Industrial hemp has been utilized as a commodity crop for centuries in the United States, and for millennia throughout the world. Today, the crop is cultivated for industrial uses in thirty countries, but not the United States. United States citizens may import hemp, eat hemp, wear hemp, and do whatever they please with a manufactured hemp product, but nobody grows the valuable crop in the U.S. Several states have legalized industrial hemp cultivation, however, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) interprets the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to prohibit the growing of hemp …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

The Death Of The Doha Round. What Next For Services Trade?, Rafael Leal-Arcas

ExpressO

With the indefinite suspension of the WTO multilateral trade negotiations in July 2006 by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, the world trading system must now find ways and means to unblock what is perceived as a danger to the world order. This article analyzes the legal and policy implications of the currently fatal Doha Round for the two main developed WTO Members, i.e., the U.S. and the EC, and the most relevant developing countries of the WTO. The specific focus of attention will be mainly on services trade. Thoughts on alternative ways to move forward in the multilateral trading system are …

Un-Fair Trade As Friendly Fire: The Australia-Usa Free Trade Agreement, Benedict Sheehy

ExpressO

Trade, economists and trade theorists advise, is a mutually beneficial exercise. Among this group, a particular set of advocates, claim that “Free Trade” is in the interest of all parties. As will be demonstrated, Free Trade is not truly “free” but an exercise of foreign policy and the implementation of policies favouring wealthy corporate interest groups. Free Trade is controlled by wealthy nations who have stacked the rules in favour of themselves, and in particular their corporate interests, and against the poor producers in poor nations. This control is used contrary to fairness, economic and ecological logic. Fair trade, by …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

A Modern Disaster: Agricultural Land, Urban Growth, And The Need For A Federally Organized Comprehensive Land Use Planning Model, Jess M. Krannich

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Using Capture Theory And Chronology In Eminent Domain Proceedings, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

Capture theory--in which private purpose is substituted for government purpose--sheds light on a technique which is coming into greater use post-Kelo v. New London. That case affirmed that eminent domain use need only be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. Capture theory focuses litigators' attention on "government purpose." That is a question of fact for the trier of fact. This article shows how to use civil discovery in order to show the Court that private purpose has been substituted for government purpose. If it has, the eminent domain use fails, because the use does not meet minimum scrutiny. This …

Agricultural Biotechnology: Legal Liability From Comparative And International Law Perspectives, Drew L. Kershen, Stuart J. Smyth

ExpressO

Agricultural biotechnology has generated much discussion about possible legal liability for growing transgenic crops. In this article, the authors discuss how the legal regimes of four nations (Canada, Denmark, Germany, and the United States) would resolve various scenarios likely to raised liabilility issues. Building on this comparative discussion, the authors then discuss these likely scenarios as addressed in the on-going negotiations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Article 27 (Liability and Redress). The authors end the article with recommendations about an appropriate legal liabilty regime at the international level.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Duties And Obligations Of The International Legal Community To The Eradication Of Poverty And Growth Of Sustainable Development In Light Of The Jus Cogens Nature Of The Declaration Of The Right To Development, Freda R. Murray-Bruce

ExpressO

This paper examines the copious problem of world poverty affecting half of the world’s population in the South and assesses the international legal obligations of the international legal community, viz., developed states, transnational corporations and the international financial institutions of the IMF, World Bank and WTO to the eradication of poverty and the growth of sustainable development, in view of the inviolability and peremptory nature of the Charter of the UN, and the international human rights provisions arising therefrom. To this extent, we examine the 1986 General Assembly Declaration on the Right to Development, along with the other International Bill …

Intellectual Property Protection In Philippine Agriculture: A Developmental Perspective, Salvador B. Belaro Jr.

Cornell Law School J.D. Student Research Papers

This paper is premised on the debate on whether intellectual property protection furthers economic development in developing countries. One view is that more is better, arguing that intellectual property rights trigger research and technological advancement. The other view is that more means not better, but worse. Advocates of this view claim that developing countries, being "second comers" in a world where developed countries got a head start in development are confronted with rules imposed by the "first comers", intellectual property rules included, which are of course, designed by the latter to serve their interests

This note suggests two general approaches …

Mandatory Recall Authority: A Sensible And Minimalist Approach To Improving Food Safety, Michael T. Roberts

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Developing Internationally Uniform Liability Principles For Harms From Genetically Modified Organisms , Ryan C. Hansen

ExpressO

This paper analyzes the current legal principles regarding liabillity for harms from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the U.S. and E.U., as well as the various international policies and mechanisms affecting GMOs

Cutting Science, Ecology, And Transparency Out Of National Forest Management: How The Bush Administration Uses The Judicial System To Weaken Environmental Laws, William Snape Iii

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Protection For The Creative Chef, Or How To Copyright A Cake: A Modest Proposal, Malla Pollack

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.