STU Scholarly Works (St. Thomas University)
Not a member yet
1001 research outputs found
Sort by
Arbitrations in Florida: A Tale of Two Courts
No full textThe Federal Arbitration Act ( FAA ) was enacted in 1925 in response to widespread judicial hostility to arbitration agreements. It is evident from a number of decisions issuing out of Florida courts that this judicial hostility endures. A frequently stated goal of arbitration is the fast and efficient resolution of disputes, but decisions that refuse to enforce such agreements undermine predictability and embroil the litigants in court proceedings that delay and drive up the cost of deciding disputes. During the last two years, the arbitration profession has gained five staunch supporters. They also comprise a majority of the United States Supreme Court: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, along with Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito. With the latest trilogy of cases, the Court has emphatically promoted the use of arbitration and undermined attempts to invalidate contractual commitments that obligate the parties to arbitrate their disputes. This article will examine this trilogy of cases, and will contrast how courts in Florida have reacted, ignored, or interpreted federal decisions to spurn the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s efforts to streamline this alternative to courtroom litigation
Front Matter
No full textFront Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Volume 6 (2011)
Benevolent Assistance or Bureaucratic Burden: Promoting Effective Haitian Reconstruction, Self-Governance, and Human Rights under the Right to Development
No full textThis Article examines the capacity of regional organizations to coordinate foreign assistance and development programs in underdeveloped states, and in doing so, to promote the transformation of the Right to Development (RTD) - which stresses the right of nations and their people to progress in a manner that insures their ability to meet basic material, security and social needs -from conceptual template to a binding normative framework under international law. As the poorest state in the western hemisphere, but also the recipient of significant influxes of foreign aid, Haiti exemplifies the underdevelopment dilemma. For despite the large sums of aid allocated toward her reconstruction, there is mounting evidence that the current foreign assistance architecture as structured cannot ensure either long-term sustainable development nor promote the growth of democratic institutions in Haiti. Ironically, the reasons behind this failure - donor/stakeholder bias, donor fatigue and recipient government incapacity - also explain the failure of the RTD, at least as it stands thus far, to facilitate the reconstruction and development of post-earthquake Haiti. In this sense, Haiti represents an important test case for states, and international and regional organizations, an opportunity to articulate precise, unambiguous doctrinal guidelines under the RTD, and to back up doctrine with solid, consistent practice. Because of their geographic proximity to Haiti and joint membership in the organization, the OAS member states enjoy a shared interest in the former\u27s reconstruction especially as it relates to broader regional security and economic integration issues, the very hallmarks of the OAS\u27 existence. The OAS itself possesses the institutional means to overcome the donor/stakeholder bias and donor fatigue problems through its ability to coordinate the actions of its member states in support of the RTD in Haiti (called integral development under the OAS Charter). What the organization has lacked is the imagination and institutional will to fulfill this mandate. Drawing from the growing normative recognition of the important coordinative role regional organizations can play in responding to global crises, this Article sketches a human rightsbased model of foreign assistance coordination centered on the activities of the Organization of American States to ensure long-term sustainable development and democratic consolidation in postearthquake Haiti
Investing in the Business against Human Trafficking: Embracing the Fourth P - Partnerships
No full textThis article recognizes that the fight against human trafficking is a global one, with the business of human trafficking intersecting many legal and social constructs, and as such, it should be tackled with all available mechanisms - legal, social, moral, community, and religious. More importantly, the integration, communication, and involvement of government, non-government, private, faith-based, social, and civil sectors are critical elements to successfully combat this scourge against human dignity. Part I of this article will discuss the legal construct of partnerships and the dynamic of private-public partnerships. Part II will focus on the laws and provisions in domestic, international, and regional spheres advocating for collaborative efforts, and the use of partnerships in the fight to end human trafficking. Part III of the article addresses the missions and methodologies involved in implementing workable public-private partnerships to invest in the business of human trafficking. Part IV showcases several examples of working private-public relationships in the anti-trafficking field. Part V will make appraisals and recommendations to start the wheels of justice turning to end human trafficking. By the conclusion, I hope to show that putting more emphasis on the fourth P of the anti-trafficking paradigm is the next step to ensure that efforts to end human trafficking are successful in our lifetime
Excerpts of Speech by Robert A. Butterworth
No full textThis speech was presented on November 12, 2010, at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Gardens, Florida
Rethinking the Cuban Adjustment Act and the U.S. National Interest
No full textThis article argues that it is time for the United States to reconsider the continuing relevance of the Cuban Adjustment Act ( CAA ) of 1966, and to either modify or repeal it. The CAA allows Cuban migrants to circumvent the usual methods used to determine refugee status, and grants the Attorney General discretion to adjust the status of a Cuban citizen admitted or paroled into that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence as long as the Cuban individual has been physically present in the United States for one uninterrupted year. That is, under the terms of the CAA, Cubans are neither required to qualify for a visa under the categories established for immigrants, nor are they required to establish refugee status, which is generally a prerequisite for obtaining asylum. This article takes the position that there is no longer any legitimate reason for granting Cubans special immigration privileges in light of the changes the world has undergone since the passage of the CAA in 1966. Moreover, this article argues that a change in immigration policy towards Cuba is a necessary response to the espionage threat that Cuba\u27s intelligence services pose to U.S. national security, as the policy of paroling nearly all Cubans touching U.S. soil provides a mechanism by which the Cuban government may infiltrate its spies into the United States. Although this article does not analyze the complex intricacies of U.S.- Cuba relations, an analysis of any U.S. immigration policy towards Cuba would be incomplete without any mention of the political context in which U.S.-Cuba relations have developed. Indeed, one cannot attain a minimum understanding of U.S. immigration policy towards Cuba unless one also understands this policy as a means by which the United States has attempted to undermine the legitimacy of Fidel Castro\u27s government. Accordingly, Part II briefly chronicles the events leading to Fidel Castro\u27s rise to power, and highlights the major events that have caused Cuba\u27s strained relationship with the United States. Part III addresses the initial justifications for the passage of the CAA. Part IV explores the different ways the CAA has been applied since its passage. Part V describes critics\u27 arguments against the CAA, and evaluates the validity of these arguments. Finally, Part VI concludes that whatever utility the CAA may have served, it is time for U.S. law to accord Cubans the same legal treatment that others wishing to immigrate to the United States receive because doing so is in the national security interest of the United States
The Top Ten Law & Literature Texts You Haven’t Read
No full textBook: Teaching Law and Literature
This volume provides a resource for teachers interested in learning about the field of law and literature and shows how to bring its insights to bear in their classrooms, both in the liberal arts and in law schools. Essays in the first section, Theory and History of the Movement, provide a retrospective of the field and look forward to new developments. The second section, Model Courses, offers readers an array of possibilities for structuring courses that integrate legal issues with the study of literature, from The Canterbury Tales to current prison literature. In Texts, the third section, guidance is provided for teaching not only written documents (novels, plays, trial reports) but also cultural objects: digital media, Native American ceremonies, documentary theater, hip-hop. The volume\u27s forty-one contributors investigate what constitutes law and literature and how each informs the other.https://scholarship.stu.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1012/thumbnail.jp
The President\u27s Welcome Address (2010 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Symposium)
No full textRev. Monsignor Franklyn M. Casale\u27s welcome address for the 2011 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Annual Symposium
Foreword - The Legacy of Bush v. Gore in Public Opinion and American Law
No full textVery few Supreme Court decisions achieve a level of salience with the mass public comparable to that achieved by Bush v. Gore on the day it was delivered. Because the 2000 presidential election seemed to turn on the Court\u27s decision, even the large majority of people who never pay attention to the work of the Supreme Court decided to tune in. Given the perceived stakes and the decision\u27s unusually high salience, the fact that Bush v. Gore polarized Americans along racial and partisan lines should have come as no surprise. Where you stood on the decision depended on whether your candidate won or lost as a result
Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the States of Latin America
No full textThe protection of language rights of speakers of indigenous languages has experienced important developments in the Latin American sphere, which has served as a framework for the whole process of recognition of cultural and ethnical identity of Indigenous Peoples. This reflects a rejection of assimilation, and an assertion of multicultural and multilingual aspects in Latin American societies. On the one hand, the author focuses on the role that international law instruments related to human rights, those for the general protection of minorities and those specific for the indigenous peoples, may perform in the recognition of linguistic rights when granting legal protection of minimum standards and, at the same time, insisting on changes in internal law. On the other hand, the author analyzes the treatment of indigenous languages by the new Latin American constitutions and their legal developments. This treatment fluctuates between providing the language with an official status or with articles to safeguard the language as an integral part of the state\u27s cultural heritage, by including some positive linguistic rights