What are the Policy Implications of Use of Epidemiological Evidence in Mass Torts and Public Health Litigation?
By Christopher Ogolla -Courts sometimes deal with public health problems where the cause of harm to one individual or a group of individuals cannot be established. In such cases, epidemiology is used to help define a relationship which links the harm and the cause. In mass tort cases, epidemiologic studies are used either to refute or to support
read more »Facilitating Stakeholder-Interest Maximization: Accommodating Beneficial Corporations in the Model Business Corporation Act
By Rakhi I. Patel -There is a growing acceptance among investors that a for-profit corporation can both generate a financial return for shareholders while also pursuing social, environmental, or community agendas. But there currently does not exist in U.S. corporate law a widely accepted corporate form to accommodate those social businesses that seek to adhere to a stakeholder based agenda while
read more »The United States and the U.N. Human Rights Council: An Early Assessment
By Rosa Freedman - Queen Mary, University of LondonThe United States’ election to the U.N. Human Rights Council (“Council”) in 2009 displays a shift in foreign policy under President Barack Obama. The Obama administration’s decision to engage with the Council by seeking membership, for the first time since the Council’s creation, reverses the approach taken under George W. Bush. During General Assembly discussions
read more »Poison Pens, Intimidating Icons, and Worrisome Websites: Off-Campus Student Speech that Challenges both Campus Safety and First Amendment Jurisprudence
By Kathy Luttrell Garcia - University of La Verne College of LawAs the line between off-campus and on-campus student speech is increasingly blurred by the internet, educators and courts alike are struggling to determine the limits of school authority to restrict student speech that originates off-campus but is directed toward an on-campus audience. Although students retain their First-Amendment-protected rights of free speech and expression on school campuses
read more »Legal Fictions and Juristic Truth
By Nancy J. Knauer - James E. Beasley School of Law, Temple UniversityThe classic legal fiction is a curious artifice of legal reasoning. In a discipline primarily concerned with issues of fact and responsibility, the notion of a legal fiction should seem an anathema or, at the very least, an ill-suited means to promote a just result. However, the deployment of a patently false statement as a
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