Faculty Commentary

As technology continues to advance, will Indian regulators take user privacy more seriously?  From internet activists to lawmakers, this is a question that is in the vanguard of regulating technologies. This space is also very dynamic; new technologies are so pervasive and capture the public imagination much before the regulator plays catch-up.  Can the core [...]

Last week, the state of Arkansas became the first state in the nation to effectively ban gender-affirming care for transgender and gender diverse youth. The law, H.B. 1570, prohibits youth under the age of 18 from receiving transitional or puberty-blocking hormones and surgery, and allows private insurers to refuse gender-affirming care. The law has no [...]

“Theory is a net. Only those who cast, can catch.” – Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934) During his March 25, 2021 press conference, US President Joe Biden declared “denuclearization” as America’s ultimate strategic goal for North Korea. Though such a declaration might first appear reasonable, it misrepresents what is plausible in [...]

Well, some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crown So I’ve started out for God-knows-where I guess I’ll know when I get there  – Learning to Fly, Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers  I was brought back to the numbers in this article by Dr. Katherine Simpson titled “ International Commercial [...]

Many state governors’ actions related to quelling the COVID-19 in Brazil appear to neglect constitutional provisions. So much so that many states’ Governors of the Brazilian Federation decided to adopt lockdown, despite the fact that the World Health Organization itself has already concluded that lockdown is not the primary measure aimed at combating the terrible [...]

In 2006 as the Human Rights Council was being set up, I wrote an opinion piece on this website in which I shared, among other aspects, my impressions as to how the Council would shape up. Experience thus far produced mixed assessment. The transition from the Commission to the Council took a couple of years, [...]

In a ground-breaking decision, the Islamabad High Court in Pakistan has explicitly recognized that animals have natural legal rights and are entitled to protection under the nation’s Constitution. Non-human animals are still commonly treated as “property” around the world, which places them in a similar legal category as inanimate objects. Although problematic for many reasons [...]

Governor Cuomo is in hot water on three fronts: the COVID-19 limitation of liability for nursing homes order he did, the undercounting/reporting of nursing home deaths, and the sexual harassment in the workplace and otherwise. This note will focus on the hypocrisy with respect to the first of these: the COVID-19 limitation of liability for [...]

Abstract: In principle, especially during a rare historical moment of extra-terrestrial exploration and immunological control, our species ought to render itself capable of managing nuclear threats. Prima facie, after all, the difficulties of transporting complex instrumentation to Mars and simultaneously fashioning effective vaccines against deadly pathogens should exceed even the most complex challenges of international peace. Nonetheless, [...]

Author’s Note: a longer alternative version of this article with footnotes and instructions for use as an education module is available here. Law students should consider the nature of the common law and why it failed to curb the advance of slavery in America. This suggestion follows both recent discussions in higher education about how [...]