SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Pop/Life: Integrating Pop Culture in Courses on Professional Responsibility and Other Courses
No full textKellyn McGee observes that there are a number of ways to integrate pop culture examples into various courses. In her essay Pop/ Life: Integrating Pop Culture in Courses on Professional Responsibility and Other Courses, she demonstrates how professors can use scripted television and film and real cases “ripped from the headlines” to teach legal principles in both civil procedure and professional responsibility, two foundational law school courses
Endrew F.\u27s Journey to a Free Appropriate Public Education: What Can We Learn from Love?
No full textAt least four entities played a role in the education that has formed Drew: the Douglas County School District, the Firefly Autism House, the federal court system, and Drew\u27s family. The mission of the first, the Douglas County School District, is to educate more than 67,000 students. To pursue this awesome responsibility, the District has been entrusted with a total district budget of close to $700 million
Introduction, Children in the Courts: A Developed or Developing System?
No full textThe role of the children in the courts has been debated and discussed for much of this country\u27s history. Children have come into the court system in the more passive role as subjects of abuse, neglect, and dependency matters, and into juvenile courts in the more active role as perpetrators. There has been little consensus about the best way to treat children in the legal system, but there is agreement that children occupy a unique place.In March 2018, Widener Commonwealth Law School hosted a panel of national experts to discuss the treatment of children by the legal system. The symposium, titled Children in the Courts: A Developed or Developing System? , fostered an in-depth examination of challenges and opportunities in the treatment of children by the courts
The Mueller Investigation and Beyond
No full textThe Mueller Investigation and issues emanating from that investigation are at the heart of this book, providing a contextual setting for learning and reviewing materials across the law school curriculum. The book includes cases, essays, and other materials that allow it to be used as a capstone course for classroom discussion in areas of administrative law, civil procedure, counterintelligence and congressional investigative activity, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, election law, evidence, and professional responsibility
A Legal Playbook for Deep Cuts in Greenhouse Gases
No full textThis Debate in Print concentrates on the U.S. energy system and asks, How should public policy move forward to promote the decarbonization of the American economy? And what blend of law, economics, science, and technology will get the job done
How Lawyers Can Help Save the Planet
No full textWe are making a legal toolkit available with more than 1,000 specific recommendations for actions at the federal, state and local levels and in the private sector that could help advance the technical tools already available. Many lawyers are needed to help these recommendations become reality
Prince Rogers Nelson: Spiritual Band Leader
No full textI attempted to convey how Prince’s music permeated my teen years and continued to be an important part of my growth even through adulthood, that I used his music as my own spirituals when I needed uplifting. Prince’s legacy for me was saying it was okay to find God outside of traditional Christian or Gospel music
Applying the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment Meaningfully to Climate Disruption
No full textThe Pennsylvania Constitution contains a unique Environmental Rights Amendment (“ERA”) creating an individual right to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” The ERA also includes a public trust element that makes “Pennsylvania\u27s public natural resources . . .the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.” It makes the Commonwealth the “trustee of these resources,” requiring it to “conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” Recent decisions by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Robinson Township v. Commonwealth and Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation v. Commonwealth provide significant support for Pennsylvania regulation to address the threat of climate disruption posed by greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the second half of the 21st century. In light of the threats that climate disruption poses to Pennsylvania’s public natural resources, the text of the ERA and the principles articulated in those cases, we argue that a stable climate (a climate that has not been disrupted by anthropogenic emissions of GHGs) should be considered protected by the rights provided by the ERA, and the public trust and trustee duties it creates. We argue that this duty requires Pennsylvania to undertake measures to limit GHG emissions employing all regulatory measures up to the social cost of carbon, and that there are judicially recognizable standards to compel the Commonwealth to exercise its existing legislative authority to do. In light of existing legislative authority, the obligations imposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and the federal Clean Air Act, we make the case that this regulatory program should take the form of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program providing for the auction of allowances with a reserve price based on the social cost of carbon and additional measures to prevent leakage
The Dozen Types of Legal Tools in the Deep Decarbonization Toolbox
No full textThis Article provides a description and analysis of the types of legal tools that are available to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. The “80 by 50” target and similarly aggressive carbon abatement goals are often referred to as “deep decarbonization,” a term that signals the need for systemic changes to the energy economy. This Article builds on, but is different from, Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach eds. forthcoming 2019), which is a comprehensive description and explanation of more than 1,000 federal, state, local, and private law pathways that decision makers can employ. Using the compilation of instruments in Legal Pathways, this Article develops a list of twelve types of legal instruments that can be employed by federal, state, local, and private actors. It is the first typology of legal instruments for deep decarbonization, and the only one drawn from such a comprehensive compilation. Many of the categories of legal tools—additional regulation, tradable permits or allowances, market-leveraging instruments, property rights, and insurance—have been recognized in prior climate change and environmental law typologies. The Article also confirms a conclusion drawn by other authors—that private governance can play a significant role in reducing U.S. emissions. Many of the types of legal tools in this Article, however, have not previously been recognized, at least in this form. These are reduction or removal of regulatory barriers, removal of incentives for fossil fuel use, facilities and operations, infrastructure development, research and development, and social equity. This Article also provides numerous examples of deep decarbonization legal tools that can be employed for each of the twelve categories. The typology in this Article shows the many different kinds of instruments that are available for deep decarbonization, and thus provides a structure for thinking about what types of instrument choices may be most likely to succeed under different circumstances. This typology also provides a structure for lawyers to design and advocate additional types of legal tools