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Informational Regulation, the Environment, and the Public
Get PDFInformational Regulation, the Environment, and the Public generates a typology to analyze how public disclosure functions in informational regulation. In the environmental context, informational regulation compels the public disclosure of environmental information without mandating substantive environmental outcomes in the expectation that disclosure itself will prompt beneficial change in the environmental context. Application of the Article\u27s typology reveals that the emperor has no clothes: Communication of environmental information to the public is considered central to policies employing informational regulation, but the information produced pursuant to these measures largely fails to reach or be understood by lay individuals. For example, empirical data shows that corporations required to publicly report releases under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) do change their conduct to reduce those releases despite being under no legal obligation to do so. Most people, however, are wholly unaware of the information disclosed under the TRI and, even if made aware of it, unable to comprehend its significance. This insight calls into question oft-cited normative bases for environmental information regulation, including that it supports individual autonomy (by informing choice about exposure to risk) and enriches civic perspective (by enhancing participation in administrative process and other civic behaviors). Critical examination of how informational regulation works and the effects it produces is timely and important. Environmental law increasingly embraces policies that employ informational regulation--it is, for example, central to current proposals to require greater disclosure of climate change risk under securities laws and constitutes a core element of many Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) protocols. Yet, close analysis suggests that the success of public disclosure at prompting upstream effects (changing the behavior of regulated entities) masks its general failure to speak to the lay public. Improving informational regulation requires a clear-eyed assessment of its limitations and a recognition that information cannot simply be pumped into the public domain and expected to enlighten individuals
The Ecosystem of Racial Inequalities in Discipline in Early Childhood Education
Get PDFPreschool children are suspended and expelled at a rate greater than school-aged youth, and exclusionary discipline practices are further inequitable across racial and ethnic groups. Denied the documented benefits of early childhood education, Black students are disproportionately excluded from US educational institutions beginning in early childhood, effectively preserving and reproducing racial inequities. Black students, especially boys, are the most likely to lose access to schooling due to exclusionary discipline. The disparities are dehumanizing and detrimental to students’ opportunities to learn, as early educational experiences greatly influence development and future outcomes. Although there is a plethora of evidence concerning the significant role of space, place, and relationships in early childhood education, less is understood about how these act independently and interact to create racial and ethnic disparities in discipline within preschools. In this conceptual paper, we argue that decolonizing early childhood education requires a novel approach in how we think about racial inequalities in discipline that centers the conversation on context and incorporates the interrelated frameworks of geography of opportunity, ecological systems theory, and the youth control complex. Children’s interactions with adults in school are situated in a particular space and place and within a complex nexus between the school, home, and neighborhood contexts. It is imperative to decolonize geographically stratified classroom management, manifested through exclusionary school discipline of young children, for the possibility of more equitable educational opportunity
The Racial Pandemic: Positive Behavior Intervention Support as an Asymptomatic Carrier of Racism
Get PDFIn an attempt to close the discipline gap, school systems have replaced traditional exclusionary practices with alternative interventions such as Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS). PBIS, as an alternative to exclusionary discipline practices, does little to help historically oppressed youth, specifically, because it denies the presence and value of race. This attempt to be race-neutral results in racist discipline outcomes. PBIS presents harmful outcomes for early childhood and elementary-aged children, as it normalizes children to the disciplinary structures that result in high school dropouts and other negative outcomes for older youth. Exploring this program aids in understanding the limitations of color-evasive policies in education and society at large. In this article, the authors explore failings of PBIS and argue for the adoption of color-conscious approaches that engage in co-construction of pedagogy, curriculum, accountability norms, and expectations (Milner et al., 2018)
Working Through Menopause
Get PDFThere are over thirty million people ages 44 to 55 in the civilian labor force in the United States, but the law and legal scholarship are largely silent about a health condition that approximately half of those workers inevitably will experience. Both in the United States and elsewhere, menopause remains mostly a taboo topic, because of cultural stigmas and attitudes about aging and gender. Yet menopause raises critical issues at the intersections of gender equity, disability, aging, transgender rights, and reproductive justice. This Article imagines how the law would change if it accounted for menopause and the associated unequal burdens imposed.
This Article makes four contributions to legal scholarship. First, it identifies the intersections of menopause and the law in a way that counters the larger culture of silence, stigma, and shame. Second, it analyzes the uneasy fit between menopause and existing U.S. anti-discrimination doctrines. Third, the Article uses a comparative lens to explore how and why menopause is becoming a priority issue for the government, private employers, and workers in the United Kingdom. Finally, the Article situates menopause in U.S. equality jurisprudence broadly and suggests a place for menopause in employment law in particular. It sets out a normative vision for menopause equity in the workplace and suggests possible pathways for achieving it
Pandemics and Housing Insecurity: A Blueprint for Land Use Law Reform
Get PDFCOVID-19, racial inequity, housing insecurity, and climate change have come together to create widespread, large-scale crises. This Article introduces these four pandemics and describes in detail what local governments are doing to combat one of them: housing insecurity. It reviews recent progress with traditional inclusionary zoning requirements, discusses the move toward greater density in single-family zoning, lists strategies being used to remediate distressed housing, and notes the importance of affordable housing as a necessary strategy for preventing lower-income household displacement caused by gentrification. The reciprocal impacts of these four pandemics are clear; local land use leaders should examine how mitigating one issue can ameliorate the others. The critical public health threat of these four pandemics is a central concern for local leaders—they are called upon to react quickly to issues that move slowly through the state and federal policy reform processes. Local engagement with these problems and local need for technical and financial support put positive pressure on officials at higher governmental levels to respond more quickly to these pressing concerns
Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Law for Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies
Get PDFBattling against climate change, “a common concern of humankind,” is the most prominent global challenge of this century, and Environmentally Sound Technologies (“ESTs”) are the main tools to fight this battle. This article examines the juxtaposed role of Intellectual Property Rights (“IPRs”) and competition laws in facilitating wide-scale innovation and transfer of ESTs in developing and least developed countries. This article covers diverse IPRs, including patents and trade secrets. The discussion and analysis of the IPRs are based on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”). And the discussion on competition law mainly focuses on competition related regulation of the European Union (EU). The article concludes with an examination of whether the current state of relevant national IPRs and competition laws can facilitate the transfer of ESTs in Bangladesh, which is considered to be one of the most climate change affected countries in the world. The article finds that the adoption of a suitable IPR regime can facilitate innovation and transfer of ESTs to developing and least developed countries. However, some countries can facilitate innovation and transfer of ESTs by using TRIPS’ flexibilities like compulsory licensing. Competition laws can also facilitate innovation and transfer of ESTs through expanding EST markets by preventing abuse of IPRs, for which countries’ competition laws should include guidelines. Finally, the article finds that the current relevant IPRs and competition related laws of Bangladesh are not suitable enough for creating a favorable environment for innovation and transfer of ESTs. Hence, this paper recommends amending these domestic laws in light of TRIPS and on the basis of national interests of Bangladesh
World War I and the Armenian Genocide: Laying the Groundwork for Crimes Against Humanity
Get PDFFor all of its advancements in international law, including delivering justice to the war criminals of the Second World War, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg has long been tainted with accusations of victors’ justice and criticized for violating the principle of nullem crimen sine lege. Such is the case for crimes against humanity, a crime that did not exist in positive international law until the 1945-46 legal proceedings in Nuremberg. But the historiography of the First World War—an era where punishment for war crimes is generally viewed as a wholesale failure—provides an additional, indeed novel, basis for understanding the Tribunal’s 1946 convictions for crimes against humanity as legitimate and not marred by accusations of victors’ justice. In particular, the 1915 declaration issued by the Allied powers in response to the Armenian genocide and the 1919 peace process, including the post-war report on war crimes, reveal that the convictions in Nuremberg for crimes against humanity were not the hollow farce that some suggest they were. Although the manner in which war crimes were dealt with following World War I is most commonly viewed as a failed effort, “crimes against humanity” was first coined as a term in international law during this period, and this essential linguistic thread not only connects the world wars but provides critical support for the International Military Tribunal’s later convictions
Social Media Harms and the Common Law
Get PDFThis article finds fault with the judiciaries\u27 failure to create a set of common law norms for social media wrongs. In cases concerning social media harms, the Supreme Court and lower courts have consistently adhered to traditional pre-social media principles, failing to use the power of the common law to create a kind of Internet Justice.
Part I of this article reviews social media history and explores how judicial decisions created a fertile bed for social media harm to blossom. Part II illustrates social media harms across several doctrinal disciplines and highlights judicial reluctance to embrace the realities of social media harms between citizens, choosing instead to bury these harms within the reasoning of pre-social media precedent. Part III explores the powers and limitations of decision-making bodies, specifically the precedential constraints on the judiciary and the power of courts to shape social norms through the common law. Finally, Part IV details the judicial shortsightedness of court decisions that refuse to acknowledge social media harms. Society relies on common laws to shape normative human behavior. The courts\u27 oversight of social media\u27s uniqueness compared to the media that gave rise to existing precedent, fails to signal the boundaries of acceptable behavior and comes at a significant cost to society