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Panel Discussion: Balancing Scholarship, Teaching and Service to Succeed on the Tenure Track – A Workshop for Pretenure Colleagues and Faculty Aspirants
Get PDFIn imagining the National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, the planning committee brainstormed about the theme of the conference and the scope of panels and opportunities that would capture the breadth and vibrancy of scholarship by faculty of color. An antecedent, however, to that scholarship is the entry, success, and thriving of faculty of color in the academy
Book Review: John Paul Stevens, The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years, New York, Little, Brown and Co., 2019, pp. 549, $35.00 (hardback)
Get PDFThe autobiography of Justice John Paul Stevens, published just a few months before he died, is an enticing travelogue for Supreme Court nerds. Other travelers may want to pick a different landscape
[quote] Black Leadership at Head Coach, QB to be More Visible Than Ever During NFL Playoffs
No full textAs huge an organization as IBM is, or any other Fortune 500 company, people aren’t watching IBM,” said Duru, who is Black. “They aren’t tuning into IBM on Sundays. And so for us to be able to observe the battling of inequity when everybody’s watching and observe successes of people of color when everybody’s watching, I think that inures to the benefit of the movement for greater equity in society.
Do NDCs Submitted by the Parties Under the Paris Agreement Imply Binding Commitments? A Legal Analysis
Get PDFNDCs submitted by State Parties under the PA genuinely do not represent commitments and intentions from the author State to be legally bound by the pledges they’ve communicated within their submitted NDCs. While NDCs reflect the political will and aspirations of nations, tied to their socio-economic realities, they lack concrete, enforceable domestic mitigation standards. This dilemma poses pressing questions: If NDCs are primarily political declarations and domestic courts don’t hold states accountable for their submitted mitigation targets, how can we ensure states fulfill their pledges for mitigation? Can NDCs genuinely drive state behavioral change for energy transition? Furthermore, there is a double-edged challenge: (1) NDCs often lack ambition, and (2) nations frequently fail to meet modest targets, exacerbated by vague NDCs. As they presently stand, submitted NDCs are woefully inadequate to drive the transformative energy transitions required to meet the ambitious goals set forth in the PA. Comparing NDCs to a charitable fundraising effort, where everyone pledges what they can afford, raises a valid question: Why should we expect these promises to add up to the necessary level of action? With the current NDC mechanisms, all we can do is hope that when countries observe each other’s efforts and recognize how far we are from our target, they will step up their efforts next time. To address these limitations, leveraging global climate governance and negotiations is essential. Vulnerable nations can pressure major economies for compliance. Strengthening NDC governance through transparency, robust stocktaking, and stringent reporting obligations, supported by expert-based reviews, can enhance compliance efforts. Creating urgency and ambition can be achieved through rigorous stocktaking and emission reduction report cards. Fostering coordination and understanding among nations, especially major emitters, is crucial. Governments should include explanations with their NDC submissions to enhance mutual understanding and transparency. In conclusion, NDCs face hurdles in driving meaningful energy transition. The NDC process may require revisions, including specific features, expert feasibility checks upon submission, and improved monitoring and reporting standards. These were rejected in 2015, but eight years have shown that the current system falls short
TAC Meeting Statements
Get PDFThe Technology Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on January 8, 2024. At this meeting, the TAC will continue its discussion of issues relating to digital assets and blockchain technology, cybersecurity, and emerging and evolving technologies, here
Foreclosure Sales as Fraudulent Transfers
Get PDFThe Supreme Court has declared that noncollusive, regularly conducted foreclosure sales are not “constructive” fraudulent transfers voidable by a bankruptcy trustee. Uniform state legislation ratifies this instinct for private creditor enforcements. But collusive or irregular foreclosure sales or sales that are intended to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors are subject to creditor attack, even though unsecured creditors are not proper parties to the foreclosure process. In such cases, unsecured creditors can cloud the title obtained from foreclosure in the cases of collusion, irregularity or fraudulent intent. This article examines precisely when foreclosure sales can be avoided by unsecured creditors of a debtor who has granted a mortgage or security interest in real or personal property
Human Rights Lawyering in the 21st Century
Get PDFOn Friday, March 8, 2024, the Human Rights Brief at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) held its annual symposium entitled Human Rights Lawyering in the 21st Century. It was organized by the Symposium and Education Editor Gemma Muirhead and the Junior Staff Symposium team including Adrian Niedermann, Ailsa Ferland, Gloria Nuñez, Kate Beckham, and Leena Alsayab. Together, the team curated a day full of empowering lectures, inspiring panels, and insightful attendee questions posed to the panelists. The following article is intended to be a resource documenting the event
Forging Ahead: Protecting Against Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains and the Evolving Landscape of Labor Rights
Get PDFHistorically, trade agreements primarily focused on facilitating economic exchange between nations, with little direct consideration given to the treatment of individuals within those countries. Issues of human rights were often addressed through separate channels such as boycotts, NGO campaigns, international pressure, and United Nations interventions, but were not inherently linked to trade agreements themselves. Over time, the adoption of sanctions and other unilateral trade measures aimed at enhancing transparency concerning human rights abuses in foreign supply chains has gained traction, particularly in the United States and the European Union. These jurisdictions frequently apply sanctions for diverse purposes, including fostering democratic ideals, penalizing oppressive regimes, and ensuring that domestic corporations adhere to universal standards in their global supply networks.
Labor rights in particular have become a focal point of U.S. trade policy. As globalization progressed a stark realization emerged: labor rights, especially in the manufacturing sector, were not just peripheral concerns but critical inputs in the production and trade of goods
Criminalizing Ecocide
Get PDFAmid widespread acknowledgment that we live on a planet in peril, the term “ecocide” packs a powerful rhetorical punch. Extant regulatory approaches to environmental protection feel insufficient in the face of the triple threat of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. International criminal prosecution for ecocide, by contrast, promises to meet the moment, and a recent proposal to introduce ecocide into the canon of core international crimes is gaining traction. Assuming the push to criminalize ecocide continues to gain momentum, this Article argues that the primary (and perhaps, sole) benefit that international criminal law can offer in this context is its expressive power and, that being the case, it is vital to clarify exactly what the expressive message of ecocide should be. The recent burst of scholarly attention to the proposed ecocide definition has largely bypassed this normative groundwork. This Article calls for time to be invested in grappling with hard questions about what exactly the harm is that ecocide seeks to vindicate which, in turn, requires determining how best to conceptualize the relationship that humans have with the natural environment. The Article contends that if the proposed legal definition of ecocide is codified as an international crime, it risks being used to prosecute those who are already marginalized, while reinforcing the artificial (and damaging) conceptual separation of humans from nature that is already entrenched in international law. Nonetheless, there is a window of opportunity, currently open, to embed within the ecocide definition a position that understands humans as inseparable from nature, which would align ecocide’s expressive message with long-standing Indigenous epistemologies, emerging human rights jurisprudence, and cutting-edge earth science. Time spent now on re-imagining the normative justification for ecocide’s criminalization could put international criminal law in the rare position of being at the vanguard of a progressive movement to build a greener international law
Amnesty Laws in Modern Peace Agreements: An Analysis of the Northern Ireland Legacy Act Under International Law
Get PDFIn September 2023, the United Kingdom passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act (“Legacy Act”), which grants amnesty to anyone who discloses information regarding murders, disappearances, or other unsolved crimes during the period known as “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. The Legacy Act’s amnesty provision is expected to hinder the peace process in Northern Ireland and in turn, avert accountability for serious international crimes. This Comment considers to what extent the Legacy Act’s amnesty provision violates the Good Friday Agreement, the peace accord ending decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention Against Torture, and the Geneva Convention’s humanitarian law provisions. Further, this Comment analyzes an emerging international human rights custom prohibiting amnesty laws in peace agreements and the Legacy Act’s position within that paradigm. Finally, this Comment contemplates how the European Court of Human Rights may rule in the case lodged by the Republic of Ireland against the United Kingdom. It also considers the possibility of an individual complaint against the United Kingdom to ensure that accountability is enshrined in the peace process. Alternatively, the United Kingdom should consider drafting a new law or amend the Legacy Act to exclude the existing amnesty provision