Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
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African Origins of International Law: Myth or Reality?
Get PDFThis Article reconsiders the prevalent ahistorical assumption that international law began with the Treaty of Westphalia. It gathers together considerable historical evidence to conclude that the ancient world, particularly the New Kingdom period in Egypt or Kemet from 1570-1070 BCE, deployed all three of what today we would call sources of international law. African states predating the modern European nation state by nearly 6000 years engaged in treaty relations (the Treaty of Kadesh), and applied rules of custom (the MA \u27AT) and general principles of law (as enumerated in the Egyptian Bill of Rights). While Egyptologists and a few international lawyers have acknowledged these facts, scholarly attention to the ancient origins of contemporary international law has been sporadic and at times openly hostile to the proposition that international law may have originated in Africa and not in Europe. Challenging the Eurocentric mythology of international law\u27s origins upends traditional verities and forces us to reconsider whether contemporary international law owes as much to Africa as it does to far more recent developments, including the colonial encounter
Advancing Climate Justice in International Law: An Evaluation of the United Nations Human Rights-Based Approach
Get PDFThe term “climate justice” has been traditionally deployed by scholars to emphasize the need for international law to provide legal solutions for direct and disproportionate impacts of climate change on human life and survival, particularly in vulnerable communities. However, with emerging patterns of human rights violations, massive land grabs, forced displacements, marginalization, exclusions, and governmental repressions resulting from climate change response measures and projects (particularly clean development mechanism (CDM), and REDD+ projects), climate justice has increasingly gained a more expansive connotation. Human rights violations and climate injustices resulting from climate change projects have resulted in calls for an international approach that ensures that countries mitigate sources of climate change and adapt to its effects in a manner that respects human rights. The United Nations Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) has gained rapid ascendancy and mention in literatures as providing a normative framework for addressing these concerns. This paper evaluates the value, potentials, and paradoxes of the HRBA as a legal framework for mainstreaming human rights norms into the design, approval, finance, and implementation of climate change projects to avoid human rights impacts. The paper identifies and analyses three key paradoxes and questions that must be addressed to enhance the radical promise of this approach: (1) theoretical core question, (2) operationalization question, and (3) practical implementation question
Is General Negligence the New Exception to the Florida Impact Rule?
Get PDFThe impact rule is an ancient torts doctrine that precludes recovery for emotional distress unless the victim has been physically impacted by the tortfeasor and the emotional distress grew out of that physical impact. American courts widely adopted the impact rule and it persists in a handful of states to this day. Courts give several reasons for denying these negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) claims and these reasons fall into three broad categories: judicial efficiency, evidence concerns, and foreseeability. This paper proposes that Florida abrogate the impact rule and switch to using a general negligence approach for NIED claims. First, this paper gives an overview of the current state of the Florida impact rule, its exceptions, and why the rule exists. This overview shows that the policy benefits that justify the impact rule do not flow from the rule itself. Next, this paper discusses the impact rules as they stand in the four other states that still cling to them. Comparison of these jurisdictions with Florida reveals that Florida’s impact rule is the least restrictive, appearing more like a general negligence analysis. With this background in mind, discussion of Kentucky’s recent abrogation of the impact rule and Tennessee’s overruling of the physical manifestation rule shows that foreseeability is the true core of the impact rule. Lastly, analysis of impact rule cases under a general negligence approach shows Florida already functionally uses general negligence principles in NIED claims. Thus, there is no loss in abrogating the impact rule because Florida is functionally already there
FAMU College of Law, Orlando, Florida
No full textThe re-established FAMU College of Law admitted its first class in 2002 in downtown Orlando, relocating to its current, state-of-the-art, building in 2006.https://commons.law.famu.edu/homepage-images/1001/thumbnail.jp
2015 Environmental Law Writing Competition
No full textFlorida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) College of Law third-year students Amy Judkins and Felicia Thomas earned first and second places, respectively, in the annual Dean Frank Maloney Environmental Law Writing Competition, sponsored by the Environmental and Land Use Law Section (ELULS) of the Florida Bar. Judkins winning paper is titled, “Taking it to the Bank: Creating a New Constitutional Standard and Using Blue Carbon Banking to Compensate the Miccosukee Tribe for the Federal ‘Taking’ of Their Tribal Lands, while Thomas\u27 paper is titled, “Of Life and Limb: The Failure of Florida’s Water Quality Criteria to Test for Vibrio Vulnificus in Coastal Waters and the Need for Enhanced Criteria, Regulation, and Notification to Protect Public Health.”https://commons.law.famu.edu/student-photos/1001/thumbnail.jp
Eyes on Bangladesh\u27s Disappearing Coasts: Proposed Constitutional Protections for Coastal Communities Particularly Vulnerable to Climate Change
Get PDFClimate change, a phenomenon caused by global warming, has impacted just about every part of the earth. As polar ice caps continue to melt, people across the world are experiencing record-breaking heat waves and warmer winters. These erratic weather patterns are just one of the many impacts of climate change. Changes in temperature have altered ecosystems and habitats for terrestrial and marine wildlife, and caused human health to deteriorate. Larger, more industrialized countries are the major contributors to climate change; however, smaller countries, such as Bangladesh, suffer the consequences. This article analyses the negative effects that climate change has had on Bangladesh, particularly the vulnerable coastal communities of Bangladesh. Warmer temperatures lead to warmer waters, a breeding ground for tropical cyclones and spells disaster for those living along Bangladesh’s coasts. This article proceeds to suggest possible domestic and international legal solutions to the problem and examines the law that supports these proposals
Equitable Estoppel & Workers\u27 Compensation Immunity: Why Litigants and the Courts Are Getting Ahead of Themselves
Get PDFEvery U.S. jurisdiction has created a separate body of law to address workplace injuries - the workers’ compensation scheme. These no-fault systems provide employees injured on the job lost wages and medical benefits. It also immunizes employers from negligence claims arising out of most workplace accidents. This article discusses a growing phenomenon in Florida’s workers’ compensation scheme, the use of estoppel to negate employer immunity. This article lays out the various theories of estoppel—primarily judicial and equitable—that may be asserted in the context of on-thejob injury litigation. This article goes on to explain why Florida courts should refrain from application of equitable estoppel in employee tort actions. Instead, workers’ compensation litigation should be allowed to take its course and judicial estoppel applied when injuries are held to be non-compensable
Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements and Actions
Get PDFFrom Compton to Cairo, Bahia to Brixton, black women have been disproportionally affected by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, discrimination and violence. Despite being one of the largest and geographically dispersed groups in the world, they are rarely referenced or considered as a subject of analysis in international law literature. Thus, it is vital that scholars refashion global discourse by re-conceptualizing international law and relations from their unique experiences and perspectives. This collection covers a broad range of topics and issues that examine the complex interactions - as subjects and objects - between black women and international law. The book critically explores the manifold relationship between them with a view toward highlighting the historic and contemporary ways in which they have influenced and been influenced by transnational law, doctrine, norms, jurisprudence, public policy, public discourse and global governance. It purports to unearth old law and fashion new paradigms born out of the experiences of black women.https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1008/thumbnail.jp
LeRoy Pernell, Dean 2008-2015; Interim Dean, May 2017-Present
No full textLeRoy Pernell served as dean of the FAMU College of Law from January 2008 to June 2015, leaving a legacy of academic and student service achievements. He helped the law school to receive full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2009 and to continue that status in 2014. Dean Pernell’s focus on student needs led to the opening of the bookstore, café and plaza. Under his leadership, the law school’s bar passage rate improved steadily. This portrait was presented in order to ensure that Dean Pernell’s dedicated service is remembered by future generations of legal professionals and community leaders.https://commons.law.famu.edu/col-deans-portraits/1001/thumbnail.jp