The New Republic on Leib's New Book

The New Republic has published a review of Ethan Leib's new Oxford University Press book, Friend v. Friend. Here's an excerpt from the review:

"Leib's book ... [is] successful as a reflection on the complex relationship between law and friendship, and it will offer rewards to people interested in the sociology of friendship. A particularly fine chapter discusses the relationship between friendship and contract law, and the surprising degree of overlap between the two."

The entire review is available here: http://www.tnr.com/book/review/friendship-and-the-law-response

Leib on Letting Voters Decide the California Budget

Ethan Leib and Chris Elmendorf have published an op-ed in the February 11 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, called "Let Californians Vote on 2 Budgets -- 1 Red, 1 Blue." Here's the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2011/02/10/EDRR1HKUNU.DTL

Seelinger on the Complexities of HIV Control in Uganda

Kim Thuy Seelinger of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies has published an article titled, "Violence Against Women and HIV Control in Uganda: A Paradox of Protection?," 33 Hastings Int'l and Comp. L. Rev. 345 (Summer 2010). Her prescriptions are mixed, and somewhat surprising. She concludes that, "if enforced meaningfully," legislation aimed at gender-based violence may serve to prevent HIV infection. On the other hand, the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, "in its current form," may actually be counter-productive.

Seelinger on Forced Marriage and Asylum

Kim Thuy Seelinger of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies has published an article called, "Forced Marriage and Asylum: Perceiving the Invisible Harm," 42 Colum. Human Rts. L. Rev. 55 (Fall 2010). In it, Kim notes that forced marriage as persecution has largely gone unaddressed. In reality, however, she says "such marriages deprive countless women of the fundamental right to freely consent to marriage, and are frequently accompanied by myriad forms of physical and non-physical abuse. As such, forced marriage should be considered a form of persecution under international and domestic refugee law."

Bryant on Faigman's "Constitutional Fictions"

A. Christopher Bryant has written a review of David Faigman's book, Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts, at 25 Constitutional Commentary 467 (2009).

Faigman on Apples and Oranges in Scientific Evidence

David Faigman has published "Evidentiary Incommensurability: A Preliminary Exploration of the Problem of Reasoning from General Scientific Data to Individualized Legal Decision Making," 75 Brooklyn L. Rev. 1115 (2010). The article may be viewed within a downloadable PDF of the law review.

Bloch on Learning Pathways and Legal Education

Kate Bloch has published an article, "Cognition and Star Trek: Learning and Legal Education," 42 John Marshall L. Rev. 959 (2009), in which she applies insights from cognitive science research to legal education. The four cognitive science insights she uses are: (1) "active learning"; (2) the value of stories; (3) the pivotal role of the visual pathway; and (4) personalizing presentation style to increase learning. The article is available from HeinOnline.

Bloch on the Models of Restorative Justice

Kate Bloch has published an article titled, "Reconceptualizing Restorative Justice," 7 Hastings Race & Poverty L. J. 201 (Winter 2010)(available from HeinOnline). This article sets forth two models of restorative justice, a "classic" version and a "hybrid" version. The "classic" version serves as a substitute for or part of an offender's court sentence, whereas that is not true of the "hybrid" version. The "hybrid" version contains a heavy dose of educational and rehabilitative programming, which may not be required in a "classic" version of restorative justice. Kate ultimately concludes that some combination of these approaches can, at least in some circumstances, "reduce recidivism and leave those involved with a greater sense of satisfaction with the justice process."

Bloch on Neuroscience and Sentencing

Kate Bloch has published an article titled, "Changing the Topography of Sentencing," 7 Hastings Race & Poverty L. J. 185 (Winter 2010)(available from HeinOnline). Kate argues that "neuroscientific approaches to addressing the underlying motivating factors that incline offenders to commit crime, and return them again and again into the correctional system, merit our sustained attention."

Lee on Judicial Restraint

Evan Lee has published a book titled, Judicial Restraint in America: How the Ageless Wisdom of the Federal Courts Was Invented (Oxford University Press). Here is the blurb written by the noted legal historian, Edward A. Purcell, Jr.:

Highlighting the importance of changing social contexts and judicial values, this thoughtful and illuminating study traces the complex shifts that marked the evolutino of standing doctrines in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence and identifies some of the unexpected consequences that those new formulations brought. Demonstrating that modern Article III standing doctrine was a product not of the Constitution or the Marshall Court but of Justice Louis D. Brandeis and the early twentieth-century, it demonstrates the essential irrelevance of originalist theories to a clear understanding of this important area of American constitutional law.

Dodge on Withdrawing from Customary International Law

Bill Dodge has published an article called "Withdrawing from Customary International Law: Some Lessons From History," 120 Yale L. J. Online 169 (2010), http://yalelawjournal.org/2010/12/17/dodge.html. In this article, Bill argues that the "default view" of customary international law -- which permitted nations to withdraw unilaterally from some international law rules upon proper notice -- was never the dominant understanding, and furthermore, it ought to have no part in the future of international law.

Bonorris on Cap and Trade

Steven Bonorris has published an op-ed in the December 2, 2010, issue of The Recorder, making the case for cap-and-trade.

Musalo on the History of Gender Asylum in the U.S.

Karen Musalo has published an article called, "A Short History of Gender Asylum in the U.S.: Resistance and Ambivalence May Very Slowly Be Inching Towards Recognition of Women's Claims," in a special issue of the Refugee Survey Quarterly on Gender Equality and Refugee Women.

Here is the abstract:

This article provides an overview and analysis of protection for gender-related claims to refugee status, with a focus on the United States. It defines the term “ gender-related” and explains the historical interpretive barriers to such claims. The article examines the earliest United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees pronouncements on the issue – beginning with Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme Conclusion No. 39 in 1985, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ first Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women in 1991, and continues through its Social Group and Gender Guidelines, issued in 2002. Within this context (and the context of other developments – such as the 1993 issuance of Canadian Guidelines), the article discusses developments in the United States, beginning with the release of “Gender Considerations” in 1995. It reviews the subsequent development of the United States jurisprudence, from Matter of Kasinga in 1996, to the recent resolution of Matter of R-A- (the case of Rody Alvarado) in 2009. It explains the current position of the Obama Administration, as set forth in a brief in the case of L.R. Through the discussion of this jurisprudence, the article highlights the ambivalence among United States adjudicators, and examines the advances and setbacks in the recognition of gender-related claims to protection. It concludes that the United States appears to be adopting a position more consistent with international guidance, but that until there is binding precedent, adjudicators remain free to retreat from the small advances that have been made.

Wang on Insider Trading

Bill Wang and Marc Steinberg have published the Third Edition of their Insider Trading (Oxford Univ. Press). Here is a brief description of the treatise:

This treatise analyzes the application of various laws to stock market insider trading and tipping. Among the federal laws are Exchange Act Section 10(b), SEC Rule 10b-5, mail/wire fraud, SEC Rule 14e-3, Exchange Act Section 16, and Securities Act Section 17(a). The state law discussed is both state common law and a state law claim by the issuer.

Another chapter addresses government enforcement of the insider trading/tipping prohibitions. A chapter on compliance programs deals with how firms can try to prevent illegal insider trading and tipping. Two chapters compare the harmful and allegedly beneficial effects of stock market insider trading and discuss the harm to individual investors from each specific insider trade.

Bill has summarized the book in an article called, "The United States Law on Stock Market Insider Trading and Tipping," 26 Nihon University Comparative Law Review 107 (2009).

Wagman on Living and Teaching Animal Law

Bruce Wagman has published an article called "Growing Up With Animal Law: From Courtrooms to Casebooks," 60 J. Leg. Ed. 193 (Nov. 2010). Here is the intro:

Over the past eighteen years I have had the rare privilege of riding on the waves of intellectual, legal and academic development of the field of animal law. I started by incorporating isolated bits of pro bono work into a civil litigation practice and in 1996 I began teaching animal law. Since late 2005 my work has consistently been more than 90 percent animal law. I have had the honor of teaching full semester animal law classes more than twenty times at four Bay Area law schools, guest lecturing and speaking at conferences and classes in other schools across the nation, and co-authoring Animal Law: Cases and Materials, originally published in 2000 and now in its fourth edition.2 Each day I am grateful for the gift of this practice, the result of a truly providential mix of coincidence and circumstance. My path as a lawyer for the animals, and as an animal law professor and lecturer, has paralleled the incredible growth in the field. During my tenure in animal law’s thrall it has become a rapidly growing, vital social justice movement. It has developed much like environmental law, its natural older cousin, which attracted so many in the 1960s and 1970s. Given that animal law and I have grown up together, I have been asked to write this article, which will discuss our mutual path in practice and academia.