STU Scholarly Works (St. Thomas University)
Not a member yet
1001 research outputs found
Sort by
Colombia\u27s Herbidice Spraying in the Crucible between Indigenous Rights, Environmental Law and State Security
No full textFor many years Colombia has struggled with eradicating illicit narcotic crops. Spraying coca and poppy crops aerially with chemical herbicides has been one of Colombia\u27s strategies. However, this practice has resulted in serious violations of human and environmental rights. Because the herbicides were aerially sprayed at locations near, at and across the border with Ecuador, it has caused transboundary damage not only to people, animals and crops but also to bordering Ecuador\u27s natural environment. It has also caused damage to the Colombian environment, population, and Indigenous groups. In 2008, Ecuador submitted an application instituting proceedings to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Colombia for international wrongful acts and compensation for its losses. Although, on September 13 of 2013, Ecuador removed the case from the ICJ, after reaching an Agreement with Colombia that resolved all of its claims, this article will discuss the various international human and environmental rights violations that were raised by Ecuador\u27s application and remain unresolved. Part II starts by providing background information on the Colombian armed conflict and the factors that led to the creation of Plan Colombia so that the nature of the existing problems and violations of international law are better understood. It also delimits the nature of the problems. Part III identifies the different claimants, and their respective arguments and perspectives. Part IV addresses the past trends in decision and conditioning factors in international and domestic law. Part V provides the possible future occurrences in light of changed and changing conditioning factors. And Part VI concludes by setting forth possible solutions to the various issues that arise from the aerial herbicide spraying by recommending the formulation of new policies that include social, economic, and environmental dimensions, starting with Colombia\u27s most affected group, i.e. the peasants
Designing and Constructing Commercial Agreements in the 21st Century
No full textIn the 21s century, commercial agreements crafted by attorneys structure relationships in which the administration and execution of those relationships is largely, if not exclusively, governed through the use of digital technologies. These technologies communicate information, record and report activities taken by the parties in furtherance of their relationship, make payments of monies and other compensation, and provide the evidence with which disputes among the parties will be resolved. All of these functions are designed and executed through technology systems that monitor and record activities that are the basis for determining compliance with the requirements of those agreements at a level of granularity and detail that is simply amazing
Pedagogically Sound Cuts, Tighter (Not Looser) Accreditation Standards, And a Well-Oiled Doomsday Machine: The Responsible Way Out of The Crisis In Legal Education
No full textThis Article outlines the actual causes of exorbitant tuition and graduate unemployment, the pedagogical problems posed by the proposed solutions urged upon the ABA as the accrediting body for law schools, and the solutions that will preserve legal education as both a public and a private good. Part I traces the underlying causes of the crisis: too many law schools flooding a contracting job market with graduates, new schools popping up all the time as revenue centers for cash-strapped universities and predatory entrepreneurs, and tuition reflexively raised each year according to what the heretofore-endless traffic-propped up by student loans-would bear. Part II explains how the current proposals for fixing legal education are blind to the needs of most law students at the vast majority of law schools, to their future clients, and to the need for an independent, scholarly critique of law and the legal system. It is argued that, with the underdeveloped critical-thinking and writing skills of today\u27s college graduates and with LSATs in free fall, a faculty of predominantly full-time educators is essential to the development of analytical skills and professional competency in students. The proposed deregulation of legal education, this Article argues, is no more the solution to what ails law schools than the deregulation of banking and finance would have been with the housing and derivatives bubbles. I assert that taking legal education out of the academy and dropping it into the world of trade schools is not the answer. Part III outlines solutions that address the crisis on both its fronts: first, by cutting tuition and graduate debt as much or more than the standard proposals, but in a way that preserves the pedagogical advances of the past 140 years; and second, by facilitating a market correction in the oversupply of law schools exacerbating lawyer unemployment even now. The first goal, it is posited, will be achieved through: (1) the adoption of a new ABA accreditation standard severely restricting the central university\u27s diversion of law school revenues and thus disincentivizing the run-up in tuition; (2) wage concessions on the part of faculty and administrators; and (3) increased teaching loads that will lead to smaller faculties and significantly leaner operations. Progress toward the second goal, it is explained, will require the ABA and the states to enforce the current regulatory mechanisms-which constitute a doomsday machine for lower-end law schools-as LSAT scores and then bar passage rates fall. And finally, this Article urges the adoption of an additional ABA standard requiring start-up schools to prove a need for their services in order to stem the tsunami of new schools
Introduction to the Fourth Amendment AAMPLE
No full texthttps://scholarship.stu.edu/faculty_books/1003/thumbnail.jp
Women Helping Women: The Italian Experience of Women Religious in Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery
No full textI am grateful to Mr. Mathias Nebel for the invitation to take part in this Parallel Event organized by the Fondation Caritas in Veritate, addressing the topic of The Role for Religions in the Fight against Contemporary Forms of Slavery. I also thank H.E. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi for moderating today\u27s event, and Ms. Urmila Bhoola for offering what I\u27m certain will be thoughtprovoking concluding remarks. As the National Counter-Trafficking Coordinator for the Italian Conference of Women Religious (Union of Women Major Superiors of Italy, or USMI), I have come from Rome to share with you some strategies carried out by hundreds of nuns to effectively combat modem-day slavery. At present, 250 sisters-belonging to 80 congregations-work in more than 100 convents-turned-safe-houses for trafficking victims throughout Italy, often in collaboration with Caritas, other public or private groups, volunteers and associations, but always maintaining their identity motivated by the Gospel imperative: [w]hatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me. At this very moment, several hundred trafficking victims, from different countries, are sheltered in these homes, being lovingly assisted in rebuilding their broken lives. I am grateful for the opportunity I have today to talk about our experience, because though such strategies are carried out mainly by women religious, there are aspects that could be carried out equally effectively by faith-based organizations
Redressing Politicized Spending
No full textThis article is about politicized spending in the federal discretionary budget. As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy initiatives. Any expressions of opinion are those of the author. The Federalist Society seeks to further discussion about discretionary spending, standards of review for agency decisions, and the constitutional issues surrounding politicized decision making
The Development of Insurance Bad Faith in Washington
No full textThe passage of the Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) marks a further chapter in the development of remedies for insurance bad faith in Washington. The purpose of this article is to trace the development of this body of law in Washington and compare Washington law to the law of bad faith in other jurisdictions. In addition, the law of insurance bad faith claims illustrates a continuing dilemma in the application of tort law to relationships that originate in a contractual relationship
The Judicial Vision of Contract - The Constructed Circle of Assent and Printed Terms
No full textThe perennial dilemma of modern contract law is the effect to be accorded standardized terms, the printed boilerplate terms that appear in the overwhelming majority of contracts and are typically ignored. The dilemma has been exacerbated by recent decisions addressing the operative effect of standardized terms that appear after the contract has been formed. The confusion emanating from such terms-later cases has made even the chronology of contract-making uncertain
Comparative and Normative Analysis of Damages under the SGA and the CESL
No full textThis article strives to analyze the rules concerning monetary damages under two different legal regimes for the sale of goods: the Sale of Goods Act of 1979 ( SGA ) and the Proposal for a Common European Sales Law in 2011 ( CESL ). It is not the purpose of this article to provide an exhaustive exposition of the doctrines of either regime. Instead, the focus will be on the central aspects of monetary damages, such as the aim of damages and general rules governing the measure of damages. It should be noted that inevitably there will be some references to the commentaries on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980 ( CISG ), as there is only a limited (though growing) body of literature concerning the CESL. Moreover, the CESL has textual uniformity with the CISG; this fact can particularly be seen on the rules governing damages. As Loss and Schelhaas have stated: [t]he right to means that CESL does not provide commercial contracts with any better opportunities than does CISG in this regard. \u27 This might be seen a rational reason for applying the CISG to cases where the parties have chosen the CESL as the governing legal regime. Damages are examined in the context of international sales of manufactured goods. Manufactured goods can be broadly classified in two groups: first, similar manufactured goods produced in large volumes; second, manufactured goods conforming to the special orders of buyers (reflected in contract terms), i.e. unique or bespoke goods. The former group constitutes the larger part of manufactured goods, and this will be taken into account in this article. Manufactured goods produced in large volumes are strictly neither fungible goods nor unique goods. These goods are something between these two categories of goods. In other words, they have characteristics of both fungible and unique goods, but in nature they are different. Their difference arises from the fact that they have been manufactured on the basis of the special orders and that their equivalent could also be found in the market. They are similar to unique goods, as they have been produced on the basis of special orders reflected in the contract terms. They are similar to fungible goods, as their equivalents can be found in the market. They can therefore be called innominate goods. A helpful example of these sorts of goods are cars. Additionally, this article will attempt to explore those aspects of the law of damages that shed light on the degree to which the criteria of an evaluative framework are satisfied. This novel evaluative framework consists of tests of certainty, performance interest, efficiency, and the norms of relational theory of contract. These criteria will be explained later. The existing differences between the rules governing damages under these two legal regimes are compared on the basis of this evaluative framework in order to identify which system has adopted the better approach for compensating buyers of innominate goods. In the following section, the law of damages under the SGA and the CESL will be outlined, with the central aspects being identified and explained in the context of those two legal regimes. In the second substantive part of this article, the major differences between the laws of damages under these two legal regimes will be compared and evaluated
Emergence on Contract Standards and Its Future Impact on Legal Education
No full textLet me start with a story. It was almost thirty years ago that I graduated from Harvard Law School and joined my first law firm. I distinctly remember my first assignment, which was to draft a credit agreement. Despite my education, I had no clue how to perform the assignment. I had to do it the same way as everyone else, which was to go around the corridors, bang on some doors, get some examples, sit down and start to read them. I have no doubt that my first few attempts and, in all likelihood, years\u27 worth of drafts, were sub-standard. This is what, in part, motivated me to focus my career on technology and law