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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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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.
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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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Roy Balleste et al., As the Grapefruit Turns Sixty, It’s Time to Get Serious About Clean Up in Outer Space, 83 J. Air L. & Com. 45 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
THE EARLY MORNING HOURS of St. Patrick’s Day 1958, a nervous satellite team waited, “like expectant fathers,” for the continuation of a countdown that had already been thrice canceled. A short hold for electronic problems was followed by a “stretch-out.” Incredibly, the United States’s second satellite (and only the fourth satellite to ever be launched from Earth) was on a traffic hold. Kurt Stehling, head of the launch vehicle division of Project Vanguard at the Naval Research Laboratory, marveled at the “unprecedented event.” He admitted, “that never in [his] earlier life did [he] expect to see the day when one would have to wait until satellite traffic in the sky was cleared for the launching of another orbiter.” Lift off was achieved at 07:15:41, and Vanguard 1, or the “Grapefruit Satellite ”as it was dismissively nicknamed by Nikita Khrushchev, reached its appointed orbit where it remains today as the “oldest manmade satellite still in orbit about the Earth.”
Though the satellite stopped communicating with Earth in 1964, it continues to be tracked visually and is expected to remain in its orbit for another 180 years. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Vanguard 1 launch, space analyst James Oberg suggested that space and robotic technology had advanced enough to contemplate a mission to retrieve the satellite that has outlived “almost all of the human beings who created it.” The launch, operations span, lifespan, and proposed retrieval of the Grapefruit Satellite palpably frames our relatively brief interaction with outer space. On one hand, it underscores the tremendous advancement made in space technologies during the nearly sixty years Vanguard 1 has been on-orbit. On the other hand, it reveals a troubling trend where a spacecraft’s lifespan vastly outlasts its operational capability, leaving inert and inoperative satellites—often much larger than grapefruits—to crowd our precious orbit without providing any benefit.
The ability to physically interact with an on-orbit object has been stymied by its formidable cost, yet the potential rewards are incalculable. Autonomous on-orbit servicing (OOS) vehicles could potentially repair or salvage an ailing satellite or remove it from orbit. The former could help recoup the considerable resources invested in the development and construction of a satellite, and the latter would reduce space debris. In short, the development of OOS should be promoted rather than budgeted out. This article will explore the legal ramifications and complications of unmanned OOS missions. After reviewing the international framework and the current state of affairs, this article suggests that States have an obligation to repair, salvage, or remove from orbit defunct space objects and proposes an organizational framework that will promote compliance with efforts to clean up the junkyard surrounding our planet.
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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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Royal C. Gardner et al., Global Wetland Outlook: Technical Note to Introduction, (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The Introduction section of the Global Wetland Outlook (GWO) provides the overall context for the report, explaining the Ramsar Convention’s role in promoting wetland conservation and wise use. The technical notes are complementary to the GWO, consisting of supplemental details and references. They also may provide technical information to explain the analysis or methodology supporting findings published in the GWO.
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Roy Balleste et al., Space Station Asgardia 2117: From Theoretical Science to a New Nation in Outer Space, 16 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 37 (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The newly proposed nation-state known as Asgardia is a concept with one purpose. The proponents aim at gaining full recognition of the United Nations. While this may be equated with a chimera originating in science fiction stories, the idea is being seriously developed with fascinating repercussions to the future of international space law. Asgardia is expected to be a space station and a city-state. The space kingdom of Asgardia offers citizenship to all human beings willing to assent to its Declaration, and to abide by its Constitution. While this article addresses the background of this project, it also addresses two main international law issues applicable to this novel concept. Asgardia will have two significant challenges to overcome. The first one will be technological. The second one will be legal. This legal challenge will depend on two additional considerations: space activities and state recognition.
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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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Grant Christensen et al., Tribal Court Litigation, in Recent Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation (American Bar Association, Business Law Section, 2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Royal C. Gardner et al., Global Wetland Outlook: Technical Note on Responses, (2018)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The Responses section of the Global Wetland Outlook (GWO) examines different actions that contribute to the Ramsar Strategic Plan 2016-2020’s goals of: addressing wetland loss and degradation; conserving and effectively managing Ramsar Sites; using wetlands wisely; and enhancing implementation of the Convention. The technical notes are complementary to the GWO. They consist of technical information to explain the methodology or analysis supporting findings published in the GWO. They also provide supplemental details and references.