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Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Does “We the People” Include Corporations?, 43 Human Rights Quarterly 16 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Ellen S. Podgor, Disruptive Innovation in Criminal Defense: Demanding Corporate Criminal Trials, 69 Mercer L. Rev. 825 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Perhaps the least sympathetic party in a corporate criminal matter is a corporate entity that has engaged in criminal conduct. If the corporation is large, subject to third party civil actions, and especially in an industry dependent upon a public perception of ethical behavior, a criminal indictment can destroy the entity, and few in society are likely to be concerned. To ameliorate the collateral consequences of an indictment, corporations are quick to cooperate with the government by signing onto non-prosecution, deferred prosecution, or plea agreements. The government secures a hefty fine and obtains from the entity the names and evidence against individuals who allegedly engaged in the corporate misconduct.
But what if companies refused to cooperate? What if corporations demanded speedy trials? What if the power and resources of the entity were used to protect innocent or naïve corporate constituents? What if the corporate fines were directed to third parties who could assist in correcting any wrongdoing?
Proposed here is the idea that corporations need to reevaluate folding to the government and instead present a united front against government attempts to extort money and evidence from them to the detriment of their corporate constituents.
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Royal C. Gardner and Erin Okuno, The Shifting Boundaries of the Clean Water Act Jurisdiction, 35 Wetland Science & Practice 317 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Time Suck: How the Fundraising Treadmill Diminishes Effective Governance, 42 Seton Hall Legis. J. 271 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
There are just not enough hours in the day to get the job done! This type of “time drought” identified by cognitive scientists takes on democratic significance if the person experiencing it is a democratically elected official. Those elected officials may thereby lack the ability to effectively represent the constituents who put them in office. For federal elected officials, one of the causes of the lack of time to craft policy (the job) is caused by political fundraising burdens (the distraction). As one Congressman put it bluntly, campaign fundraising has become an incredible “time suck” for lawmakers.
The election in 2016 was the most expensive federal election to date. The high price tag in 2016 was attributable to Congressional races. Thus my primary focus in this piece will be on the fundraising burdens experienced by incumbent Members of Congress. Participating in the fundraising arms race is rational behavior for most candidates, because typically the candidate with the bigger campaign war chest wins the election. This fundraising treadmill leads to deleterious effects including dependence on lobbyists for fundraising assistance and for policy making, as well as an unhealthy reliance on a small oligarchic subset of American political donors. Without public financing for Congressional candidates, the only way to avoid the burden of fundraising is to be independently wealthy. And yet, the Roberts Supreme Court seems particularly tone deaf to arguments about preserving the ability of a non-wealthy incumbent elected officials to do their official duties under Article I of the Constitution.
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Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Campaign Finance, Free Speech, and Boycotts, 41 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 153 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
I gave a speech at Columbia Law School at the request of the Federalist Society about campaign finance and boycotts. This is the transcript of that speech as annotated by Harvard Law students.
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Rebecca C. Morgan, A View from the Bridge: A Brief Look at the Progression of Cases of Elder Financial Exploitation Prosecutions, 25 Elder L.J. 271 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Elder financial exploitation is a continuing problem in the United States, and the prosecution of elder financial exploitation has failed to keep up with modern problems and laws. In this Article, the Authors explore nearly three decades of appellate decisions from across the United States. In these examples, the Authors show how different courts have treated both victims and defendants through their appellate decisions. The Authors examine the basic elements that make up financial exploitation throughout the country. Cases from many courts, and of differing notoriety are explored, noting the difference in law and discretion across the United States. Finally, the Authors suggest resources for prosecutors and discuss how the United States can catch up with those who are taking advantage of an elderly population.
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Frank E. Muller-Karger et al., Satellite Sensor Requirements for Monitoring Essential Biodiversity Variables of Coastal Ecosystems, 28 Ecological Applications 749 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The biodiversity and high productivity of coastal terrestrial and aquatic habitats are the foundation for important benefits to human societies around the world. These globally distributed habitats need frequent and broad systematic assessments, but field surveys only cover a small fraction of these areas. Satellite-based sensors can repeatedly record the visible and near-infrared reflectance spectra that contain the absorption, scattering, and fluorescence signatures of functional phytoplankton groups, colored dissolved matter, and particulate matter near the surface ocean, and of biologically structured habitats (floating and emergent vegetation, benthic habitats like coral, seagrass, and algae). These measures can be incorporated into Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), including the distribution, abundance, and traits of groups of species populations, and used to evaluate habitat fragmentation. However, current and planned satellites are not designed to observe the EBVs that change rapidly with extreme tides, salinity, temperatures, storms, pollution, or physical habitat destruction over scales relevant to human activity. Making these observations requires a new generation of satellite sensors able to sample with these combined characteristics: (1) spatial resolution on the order of 30 to 100-m pixels or smaller; (2) spectral resolution on the order of 5 nm in the visible and 10 nm in the short-wave infrared spectrum (or at least two or more bands at 1,030, 1,240, 1,630, 2,125, and/or 2,260 nm) for atmospheric correction and aquatic and vegetation assessments; (3) radiometric quality with signal to noise ratios (SNR) above 800 (relative to signal levels typical of the open ocean), 14-bit digitization, absolute radiometric calibration <2%, relative calibration of 0.2%, polarization sensitivity <1%, high radiometric stability and linearity, and operations designed to minimize sunglint; and (4) temporal resolution of hours to days. We refer to these combined specifications as H4 imaging. Enabling H4 imaging is vital for the conservation and management of global biodiversity and ecosystem services, including food provisioning and water security. An agile satellite in a 3-d repeat low-Earth orbit could sample 30-km swath images of several hundred coastal habitats daily. Nine H4 satellites would provide weekly coverage of global coastal zones. Such satellite constellations are now feasible and are used in various applications.
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Lance Long and Ted Hamilton, The Climate Necessity Defense: Proof and Judicial Error in Climate Protest Cases, 38 Stanford Envtl. L. Journal 57 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Can Corporations Be Good Citizens? How Corporate Law, Litigation, Lobbying and Money in Politics Intersect, 47 Stetson L. Rev. 215 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Alicia Jackson, Advising 2.0: Helping Students Achieve Academic Success through Meaningful Academic Advising, Learning Curve (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
It is becoming increasingly clear that current law students are seeking more wraparound support than previously provided by legal education, which begs the question, why? The answer is simple - modern law students are different and come to law school with very different expectations and experiences than students from previous years. To aid our students in achieving academic success, it is essential that we understand the complex needs of our students by first examining their previous educational experiences.
Academic advising is commonplace at institutions that serve undergraduate students. In fact, some would argue that academic advising is the cornerstone of student success. Advising at the undergraduate level is viewed as a collaborative relationship between student and advisor that is designed to provide the meaningful support students need to achieve their academic goals throughout matriculation. Professional academic advisors, academic support and academic resource centers are as common to undergraduate students as hornbooks and supplements (or Westlaw and Lexis) are to law students.
Millennials make up the largest population of students currently in law school. Millennials often come to law school with the expectation they will receive academic advising and support similar to their undergraduate academic experience. However, to students’ surprise, law school generally does not provide the level of advising that Millennials are used to receiving. This often leaves law students feeling as though they are lost in the process of academic planning, and far too often results in students relying on their classmates for academic planning advice. In fact, more law students are noting the lack of academic advising and basic course planning assistance in their graduation exit surveys.
Millennials need as much structured guidance and support as possible to fulfill their goal of academic success and passing the bar exam, and a professional academic advisor can be instrumental in that process. Through this two-way relationship between student and advisor, Millennials will know how and where to access accurate information about resources, policies, procedures and requirements- while receiving invaluable individualized guidance to help them along their educational journey. Each of these components is essential to a successful and meaningful law school experience for Millennials.