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Information Technology and Learning On-the-Job
Get PDFEconomists disagree how much technology raises demand for workers with pre-existing skills. But technology might affect wages another way: through skills learned on the job. Using instrumental variables on 9 panels of workers from 1989 to 2013, this paper estimates that workers who use information technology (IT) have wage growth that is about 2% greater than non-IT workers, all else equal, implying substantial learning. This effect persists over time, implying sustained productivity growth from IT. Also, it benefits workers both with and without college degrees. Because many more college-educated workers use IT, college wages grow faster, contributing to economic inequality
The Obama War Powers Legacy and the Internal Forces that Entrench Executive Power
Get PDFIn exploring the Obama war powers legacy, this essay examines the systemic forces inside the executive branch that influence modern presidential decision-making and, barring a total reimagining of the executive branch, will operate on administrations to come. These mechanisms and norms fall broadly within two categories: (1) features that favor continuity and hinder presidents from effecting change, including both novel assertions of executive power and attempts to dial back that power; and (2) features that incrementally aggrandize such power claims. Together, these two sets of forces operate as a one-way ratchet, slowly expanding and ultimately entrenching executive branch power
Owning Inventions (Chapter from \u3cem\u3eOwning Ideas: The Intellectual Origins of American Intellectual Property 1790-1909\u3c/em\u3e)
No full texthttps://scholarship.law.bu.edu/clark_speakers/1085/thumbnail.jp
Regulating Off-Label Promotion — A Critical Test
Get PDFIn 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed down a landmark decision in the case of pharmaceutical sales representative Alfred Caronia. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved sodium oxybate (Xyrem) for treating narcolepsy, but Caronia promoted it for a wide range of nonapproved (off-label) indications, including insomnia, Parkinson’s disease, and fibromyalgia. Off-label use is common, especially in specialties such as oncology, in which it may even be considered the standard of care. However, surveys have revealed that supporting evidence is lacking for a majority of off-label uses of medical products.1 The uses Caronia proposed were not based on high-quality data and were likely to cause patients substantial harm (sodium oxybate, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is also known as the “date-rape drug” in nonclinical use).
Nonetheless, because prosecutors relied on Caronia’s own words to show that he intended the drug to be used for nonapproved purposes, in violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the appeals court reversed the conviction, holding that Caronia’s sales pitches were protected commercial speech under the First Amendment
A New Social Contract for Governing Industrial Risk in the Community
Get PDFDespite extensive regulation of hazardous industrial activities, residents of many communities that host these activities fear risks to their health and safety and suffer impacts that degrade the local environment. The concept of a New Social Contract (NSC) is presented as a supplement to regulation. It would involve company-community negotiation of an agreement, either enforceable or trust based, that provides company commitments to address the local risks and impacts. The concept is then examined with reference to experience with the negotiation of good neighbor agreements and the corporate social responsibility movement, and followed by discussion of the negotiation process for securing company commitments and implementation issues. Recommendations based on best practices and lessons learned from relevant experience are then presented for optimal use of the NSC concept
Cases and Materials on Employment Discrimination and Employment Law: The Field as Practiced, 5th ed.
No full textCoauthored by two reporters from the recently released Restatement on Employment Law and Professor Tippett from the University of Oregon, this casebook provides considerable flexibility for an instructor teaching employment discrimination law, employment law, or a combination of both topics. It includes an in-depth treatment of Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA, as well as a new chapter on discrimination against sexual minorities. It introduces the concept of employment-at-will, and contractual and tort-based exceptions. This casebook also provides an overview of laws relating to workplace injuries and employee benefits, as well as chapters on wage and hour law and employee classification or misclassification. It also includes a chapter on employee duties to the employer. A chapter on privacy reflects recent legislative initiatives at the state level, and an analysis of electronic intrusions by the employer.Interspersed throughout are excerpts from the Restatement of Employment Law and “Practitioner Perspectives,” in which leading practitioners describe their day-to-day work and area of specialization. Cases are accompanied by notes that test a student’s basic understanding of the material (labeled “Test Your Understanding of the Material”), as well as informative notes providing context.https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/books/1099/thumbnail.jp
Increasing Awareness on Health Care Access in Florida: A Community-Based Medical-Legal Practicum Project
No full textProblem: Service learning and experiential coursework has become a requirement for medical students and law students. Advocacy for the underinsured and uninsured is of ethical importance to both the practice of law and medicine, however engaging professional students in meaningful advocacy work with community partners can be challenging.
Purpose: The article describes a partnership between medical and law students in a community-based service learning project to promote health care access.
Key Points: Law and medical students at Florida International University partnered with community members and Florida Legal Services to collect patient narratives, disseminate information on Medicaid expansion to community members, and present patient stories to state lawmakers.
Conclusions: The medical and law students learned about each other’s professional roles and gained skills in interviewing, and legislative and policy advocacy through this service learning project by providing legislative testimony to key stakeholders and community education on Medicaid expansion
La novel natura brevium
No full textAnthony Fitzherbert was England’s leading legal writer and compiler of legal information in the 16th century. He was born about 1470 in Norbury, Derbyshire, the youngest of seven sons. His mother left him an income on condition that he pursue legal learning. He did so, and by 1507 was acting as counsel in one of the King’s courts. In 1508 he became a bencher of Gray’s Inn, a serjeant in 1510, and a King’s serjeant in 1516. In 1522 he became a Justice of Common Pleas and remained on the bench through the most turbulent years of Henry VIII’s reign. Clues in the historical record suggest that Fitzherbert opposed Henry VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragon in 1533 and dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, but Fitzherbert wisely kept private his preference for Roman Catholicism, and thereby managed to keep his head when others, including the Chancellor Thomas More, were losing theirs. Fitzherbert signed articles of impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey and was commissioned to take part in the trials of Thomas More and of Bishop John Fisher. Fitzherbert’s descendants were adherents to Roman Catholicism under Elizabeth I and suffered for this. Fitzherbert himself died in office in 1538 and was buried at Norbury
Big Legal History and the Hundred Year Test
Get PDFThe generation of legal historians working in the opening decades of the twenty-first century have an opportunity to use digital technology to bring the sources of legal history to a wider audience of scholars and to facilitate the research of future scholars for many generations to come. I say this because, commencing in 1999, I compiled a searchable database of identifying information about and content of the 22,318 reports in the Year Books, cases decided in England\u27s courts of common law between 1268 and 1535. With the generous support and sponsorship of the Ames Foundation, my database has become an online scholarly resource used frequently by researchers and students of English legal history and other disciplines. This has been the most rewarding experience of my scholarly career. Projects such as the one I undertook, and which I call big legal history, can require a number of years to complete, as in my case, or else a team of scholars whose contributions all need to be closely coordinated. Because the compilation of large digital resources does not fit the typical career path of most legal historians, I offer here an account of the origins of my project, some of the choices that I had to make at its outset, the progress that I made, and the rewards that I have received along the way
Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law
No full textWhat information should jurors have during court proceedings to render a just decision? Should politicians know who is donating money to their campaigns? Will scientists draw biased conclusions about drug efficacy when they know more about the patient or study population? The potential for bias in decision-making by physicians, lawyers, politicians, and scientists has been recognized for hundreds of years and drawn attention from media and scholars seeking to understand the role that conflicts of interests and other psychological processes play. However, commonly proposed solutions to biased decision-making, such as transparency (disclosing conflicts) or exclusion (avoiding conflicts) do not directly solve the underlying problem of bias and may have unintended consequences. Robertson and Kesselheim bring together a renowned group of interdisciplinary scholars to consider another way to reduce the risk of biased decision-making: blinding. What are the advantages and limitations of blinding? How can we quantify the biases in unblinded research? Can we develop new ways to blind decision-makers? What are the ethical problems with withholding information from decision-makers in the course of blinding? How can blinding be adapted to legal and scientific procedures and in institutions not previously open to this approach? Fundamentally, these sorts of questions—about who needs to know what—open new doors of inquiry for the design of scientific research studies, regulatory institutions, and courts. The volume surveys the theory, practice, and future of blinding, drawing upon leading authors with a diverse range of methodologies and areas of expertise, including forensic sciences, medicine, law, philosophy, economics, psychology, sociology, and statistics.https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/books/1251/thumbnail.jp