Defining The Challenge In Implementing Climate Change Policy,
2010
Columbia Law School
Defining The Challenge In Implementing Climate Change Policy, Michael B. Gerrard
Faculty Scholarship
When Jonathan Cannon, Michael Vandenbergh, and I started planning this conference last summer, we planned to call it “Implementing Climate Change Legislation.” We assumed that by today a new law aimed at addressing climate change would be in place, or at least would be in the final polishing stage, in the United States. We even imagined that the federal agencies would be rolling up their sleeves to implement not only the new U.S. climate law but also our part of the comprehensive climate pact that the nations of the world had agreed to in Copenhagen.
Climate Change And The Wto: Legal Issues Concerning Border Tax Adjustments,
2010
Institute of Industrial Research
Climate Change And The Wto: Legal Issues Concerning Border Tax Adjustments, Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis
Faculty Scholarship
Climate change is a multi-faceted discussion: for the trading community, one of many contentious issues in the policy debate over how to deal with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the appropriate role of Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs)/Border Tax Adjustments (BTAs). The role of BCAs has been analyzed in a very large policy discussion literature, as well as in a significant number of academic writings in both law and economics. One can safely summarize the state of each of these literatures as bewildering: in the legal literature there is still no consensus as to whether such measures are legal under the …
A Personal Note,
2010
Columbia Law School
A Personal Note, Debra A. Livingston
Faculty Scholarship
It's a pleasure to introduce this issue honoring Columbia's most lovable curmudgeon. What can I say about the Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Law? I should acknowledge, at the start, Henry's profound intellectual contribution to Columbia and to the law. There are not many of us who can say, with justification, that we've written the Greatest Hits of Public Law Scholarship over the course of our careers. And few of us have made individual contributions that equal "Constitutional Common Law," "Marbury and the Administrative State," "We the People[s]," "Stare Decisis," or "The Constitution Goes to Harvard." Henry is unusual among …
Withdrawing From International Custom,
2010
Duke Law School
Withdrawing From International Custom, Curtis A. Bradley, Mitu Gulati
Faculty Scholarship
Treaties are negotiated, usually written down, and often subject to cumbersome domestic ratification processes. Nonetheless, nations often have the right to withdraw unilaterally from them. By contrast, the conventional wisdom is that nations never have the legal right to withdraw unilaterally from the unwritten rules of customary international law (CIL), a proposition that we refer to as the “Mandatory View.” It is not obvious, however, why it should be easier to exit from treaties than from CIL, especially given the significant overlap that exists today between the regulatory coverage of treaties and CIL, as well as the frequent use of …
Explanation Interpretation In Functionalist Comparative Law — A Response To Julie De Coninck,
2010
Duke Law School
Explanation Interpretation In Functionalist Comparative Law — A Response To Julie De Coninck, Ralf Michaels
Faculty Scholarship
Response to Julie de Coninck, The Functional Method of Comparative Law: Quo Vadis?, 74 Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht 318–350 (2010) in which De Coninck criticizes existing functionalist comparative law for what she perceives as lack of interest in empirical foundations.
Robinson Everett: The Citizen Lawyer Ideal Lives On,
2010
Duke Law School
Robinson Everett: The Citizen Lawyer Ideal Lives On, David F. Levi
Faculty Scholarship
In this tribute to Professor Robinson O. Everett, Dean David Levi questions the view that the citizen-lawyer or lawyer-statesmen models are in decline. Tracing Professor Everett’s varied career, accomplishments, and commitments to individuals and institutions; Levi contends that Everett combined the lawyer's traditional focus on the individual with an overall dedication to the larger community. Everett was not just a model citizen; he was a lawyer-citizen. Levi contends that the survival of the lawyer-citizen and lawyer-statesmen models is a matter of choice and character. Nothing in the current structure of the legal economy places these models out of reach for …
Evaluating Judges And Judicial Institutions: Reorienting The Perspective,
2010
Duke Law School
Evaluating Judges And Judicial Institutions: Reorienting The Perspective, Mitu Gulati, David E. Klein, David F. Levi
Faculty Scholarship
Empirical scholarship on judges, judging, and judicial institutions, a staple in political science, is becoming increasingly popular in law schools. We propose that this scholarship can be improved and enhanced by greater collaboration between empirical scholars, legal theorists, and the primary subjects of the research, the judges. We recently hosted a workshop that attempted to move away from the conventional mode of involving judges and theorists in empirical research, where they serve as commentators on empirical studies that they often see as reductionist and mis-focused. Instead, we had the judges and theorists set the discussion agenda for the empiricists by …
The Consequences Of Congress’S Choice Of Delegate: Judicial And Agency Interpretations Of Title Vii,
2010
Duke Law School
The Consequences Of Congress’S Choice Of Delegate: Judicial And Agency Interpretations Of Title Vii, Margaret H. Lemos
Faculty Scholarship
Although Congress delegates lawmaking authority to both courts and agencies, we know remarkably little about the determinants-and even less about the consequences-of the choice between judicial and administrative process. The few scholars who have sought to understand the choice of delegate have used formal modeling to illuminate various aspects of the decision from the perspective of the enacting Congress. That approach yields useful insight into the likely preferences of rational legislators, but tells us nothing about how (or whether) those preferences play out in the behavior of courts and agencies. Without such knowledge, we have no way of testing the …
Response: Anti-Discrimination Law In Peril?,
2010
Duke Law School
Response: Anti-Discrimination Law In Peril?, Trina Jones
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Applied Legal History: Demystifying The Doctrine Of Odious Debts,
2010
Duke Law School
Applied Legal History: Demystifying The Doctrine Of Odious Debts, Sarah Ludington, Mitu Gulati, Alfred L. Brophy
Faculty Scholarship
"Odious debts" have been the subject of debate in academic, activist, and policymaking circles in recent years. The term refers to the debts of a nation that a despotic leader incurs against the interests of the populace. When the despot is overthrown, the new government — understandably — does not wish to repay creditors who helped prop up the despot. One argument has focused on whether customary international law supports a "doctrine" of odious debts that justifies the nonpayment of sovereign debts when three conditions are met: (1) the debts were incurred by a despotic ruler (without the consent of …
