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The Undergraduate Student’s Guide to Geometric Morphometrics
Get PDFEmbarking on a new research endeavor can be a daunting task. User guides, books, and published articles are written for an audience that already has some background experience in the field. Undergraduate students like you, who are at the very beginning of their research careers, often struggle to make sense of these documents. Furthermore, students like you often attempt to do so while balancing heavy course loads. Thus, I have written this document to help ease the burden so that you have more time to ponder the interesting scientific questions instead of digging through pages upon pages of documentation. I assume that you already have some basic familiarity with R before starting this project. I also assume that you have a well devised plan for your experimental design, including the variables you want to collect, the sampling scheme, and of course the questions of interest. Finally, I assume that you have taken a basic course in statistics and have a research mentor that can assist you with more advanced statistical methods. This is not an exhaustive user manual, but rather a guide to help you get started on your journey with geometric morphometrics
Fish Don\u27t Litter in Your House: Is International Law the Solution to the Plastic Pollution Problem?
Get PDFThis article addresses the complex issue of plastic pollution—focusing on ocean plastics. Specifically, this article examines the ocean plastics problem, critiques current binding and non-binding international environmental law surrounding ocean plastics, hazardous wastes, and pollution, and proposes a more effective solution to the ocean plastics problem. Section I provides a basic history of the creation of plastics and discusses plastics as they are used today. Section II considers the concerns surrounding ocean plastics, focusing on impacts of plastic on marine ecosystems as well as human health effects. Section III, IV, and V discuss the ongoing attempts to address the ocean plastics problem. Sections III and IV provide a brief overview of individualized and domestic attempts at addressing the ocean plastics problem, while Section V discusses attempts at addressing the problem at a global level. Section V specifically discusses the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Basel Convention, and the United Nations resolutions on marine plastics and microplastics in marine environments. Section VI proposes a solution to the issue of ocean plastics: a binding international treaty requiring all parties to take measures to address the ocean plastics problem by mandating the phasing out of all plastics with timetables for compliance; mandating consumption habits; directing countries to focus on alternative renewable resources; and requiring countries to repurpose recycling facilities. Section VI also proposes the treaty include: a clean-up fund; incentives for countries who ratify the treaty, in accordance with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities; the precautionary principle; and strict enforcement mechanisms for noncompliance. Finally, Section VII summarizes the main points of this article regarding the necessity of a plastics treaty
To Cite or Not To Cite: Is That Still a Question
Get PDFSome states still restrict the citation of unpublished opinions, and the rules among the federal circuits vary slightly as well. This article looks at the history of case publication, the controversy over unpublished opinions, and the current rules related to the citation of unpublished cases
The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Push to Target Climate Protesters in the U.S.
Get PDFAt the very moment when the United Nations has called for profound shifts in social and economic systems to avert climate catastrophe, state and non-state actors in the United States (U.S.) are using a series of tactics to target and stifle climate protesters. Although the move to stifle climate protesters is often framed as a government effort, this Article argues it is critical to draw out the role of the fossil fuel industry in initiating, amplifying, and supporting such tactics.
This Article highlights the role the fossil fuel industry has played in supporting the targeting and restricting of climate protesters in the U.S. The strategies for targeting protesters are grouped into three broad categories, with each category relying on distinctive legal tools. The first category is federal and state legislation that heightens penalties for climate protester in myriad ways. The second is the use of violence and surveillance against climate protesters by both state and non-state actors, which is connected to a rhetorical and legal push to label protesters as extremists and terrorists. The third is retaliatory lawsuits filed against climate protesters and organizations that support climate protests. Although such actions often ostensibly target civil disobedience, by imposing immense criminal and financial consequences, they threaten to unconstitutionally chill lawful, protected protest as well.
By examining the tactics in concert, it is much easier to see how both individual protesters and organizations that support protesters might be chilled from participating in lawful climate protest. It is also clear that there are important synergistic effects when these tactics are used together, heightening their respective abilities to undermine and chill climate protest. A third insight is how difficult it is for climate protesters to legally challenge these tactics. Finally, the analysis shows the pivotal role fossil fuel industry trade and lobbying groups play in targeting climate protesters, highlighting the breadth and depth of industry support for such tactics
Basic Bluebooking in Legal Documents
Get PDFThree tip sheets on basic Bluebooking in legal documents presented as tables. The tables include the relevant rules, formulas for the basic citations, and examples for federal and state cases, federal and state statutes, and secondary sources (law review articles, newspaper articles, books and treatises, and other frequently used sources). These were originally developed by Cynthia Pittson for use in the first-year Legal Skills course at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. They have been updated to the 21st Ed. of the Bluebook by Deborah L. Heller
The Language of International Human Rights Law as a Foundation for the Prevention, and Peaceful Resolution of Ethnic, and Political Conflicts in Bolivia
Get PDFSince the Spanish conquest of the New World, the systematic dehumanization of indigenous communities has been part of a culture of economic exploitation and ethnic discrimination against indigenous peoples such as the Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani. In Bolivia, indigenous people successfully resisted the efforts to undermine their cultural identities. As a result, Bolivia is one of the most indigenous countries in the world and its indigenous cultures are one of its greatest assets. Despite this reality, indigenous people have been marginalized and discriminated against in a country that has embraced ethnic stereotypes regarding the supposed “superiority” of people of Spanish descent. This has created conditions of intense ethnic and political conflicts which have been resolved both by peaceful means and by extreme forms of violence
Bolivia has faced increased political and ethnic conflicts since the resignation of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales Ayma. The Bolivian crisis is an example of the fragility of Latin American political systems and leadership. As a result of the mediation efforts of several entities—including the United Nations; the European Union; and the Catholic Church—a peaceful resolution of the Bolivian conflict was reached by an agreement of all parties to organize new presidential elections.
This article analyzes the historical reasoning for Bolivia’s intense ethnic and political conflicts and the potential for more violent struggles. It suggests that it is essential to prevent the escalation of deeply rooted ethnic conflicts that can destabilize the Bolivian society. To accomplish this objective, this article proposes normative solutions, including the use of language from international human rights law in processes for peaceful resolutions and prevention of ethnic and political conflicts. Finally, this writing addresses the functions of international organizations—including the Organization of American States, and other entities—in current and future mediation efforts in Bolivia, while highlighting the importance of implementing human rights norms to prevent future violent ethnic conflicts
Death of Dillon’s Rule: Local Autonomy to Control Land Use
Get PDFIn order for municipal governments to promote sustainable and green development, create safe densities and open spaces in response to the pandemic, protect lives and property in areas vulnerable to natural disasters, and to manage climate change, they must be able to influence the development and preservation of privately owned land. For them to control the negative impacts of oil and gas facilities, they must find power to regulate matters that are typically the prerogative of state agencies. To legalize emerging renewable energy technologies, they must have authority to make them permitted uses in their zoning ordinances, and to innovate by creating solar-ready homes in subdivisions and provide for solar easements.
To all of these, Dillon\u27s Rule is an obstacle. It holds that municipalities are not sovereign entities, but merely instrumentalities of states and that the legal powers delegated to them by state legislatures are to be narrowly construed. This article documents the serious erosion of that principle since 1868 when it was articulated. It discusses how amendments to state constitutions, home rule provisions, state enabling statutes, and case law have diminished the effect of Dillon\u27s Rule as it pertains to the authority of local governments to adopt and enforce land use regulations. It then argues that the resultant broad interpretation of local land use laws should give rise to a presumption that state laws regulating oil and gas production do not preempt local land use laws unless they do so expressly. Finally, it suggests that state and local governments should collaborate to achieve state interests in energy production while preserving traditional local land use control over high-impact land uses such as energy production facilities. Unless Judge Dillon\u27s demise is clearly understood, his ghost may frighten local officials and their attorneys and prevent them from solving the truly scary problems they will confront in the 21st century.
Dillon\u27s Rule provides a defense for property owners who challenge local land use regulations. Using the rule, they claim that the challenged regulation is ultra vires, that is, beyond the power of the locality to act. The ultra vires claim is defeated when the local government can show that it has either express or implied powers to act under state legislation such as zoning and other land use enabling acts, home rule provisions, or under provisions of their state-approved charters. In the century and a half since Judge Dillon handed down his decision from the Iowa bench, the advent of home rule and land use enabling statutes have significantly diluted the ultra vires defense of Dillon\u27s Rule in the overwhelming majority of states
The Right Family
Get PDFThe family plays a starring role in American law. Families, the law tells us, are special. They merit, among others, tax deductions, testimonial privileges, untaxed inheritance, parental presumptions, and, over the course of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court has expanded individual rights stemming from familial relationships. In this Article, we argue that family matters as much for when it is ignored as for when it is featured. We shed light on the use of the family in the law by contrasting policies in which the family is the key unit of analysis with others in which it is not. Looking at four seemingly disparate recent areas of policymaking—the travel ban, family separation at the southern border, agricultural subsidies, and the religious rights of closely held corporations—we explore the interplay between the family, the individual, and the corporation in modern law. We observe that both liberals and conservatives make use of the family to humanize or empower certain people, and both reject the family when seeking to dehumanize or disempower. Where liberals and conservatives differ is over which families to champion. Ultimately, we conclude that the use of family as a mechanism through which to confer rights and benefits becomes a cover to hide policies that entrench and exacerbate existing racial and religious hierarchies. Further, in the context of family businesses, it risks becoming a stepping stone for radical expansion of rights to businesses themselves. To tell this story, we analyze the use and rhetoric of family in politics, in the media, and in recent Supreme Court decisions such as Trump v. Hawaii (2018), Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), Kerry v. Din (2015), and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm’n (2018)
