The gap between what you learn in law school and what you do in the actual practice of law is still problematic. Sure, a gap will always exist. Experience cannot be taught. The type and size of the gap is the problem. This gap is unique to the law. Doctors and nurses go through extensive [...]
Professional Commentary
Justice H.R. Khanna from the Supreme Court of India once observed ‘Judges should not silence criticism with threat of Contempt of Court but should remove the weakness and drawback that crept into the judicial system.’ Administration of justice and upholding the majesty of law is undoubtedly a herculean task but not a cloistered virtue. Recently, [...]
On 14th July, 2020, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected a joint appeal of Bahrain, UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia concerning the jurisdiction of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council to entertain the application submitted to it by Qatar on 30th October, 2017. The application was submitted to the ICAO Council pursuant to [...]
As an immunocompromised individual, I was initially grateful when the PA bar exam moved online. Now, I wouldn’t have to worry about Covid-19 affecting my health during this crucial exam. This morning, though, that feeling was more-than-slightly altered when I saw a message from the PA Board of Law Examiners with health implications that were [...]
Dictators, autocrats, and strongmen thrive on chaos in the beginning of their rise to power. At first they come to that power legally, within domestic law. Once in power the autocrat takes the law and uses it and bends it, eventually shaping it to his will. This is not an easy process and history shows [...]
The Philippines recognizes the need to calibrate its regulatory policies to encourage the entry of new and emerging technology and to foster an innovative mindset among key stakeholders in the technology sector. To incentivize innovation in the financial sphere, Philippine authorities have adopted regulatory sandboxes that aim to provide businesses in the financial sector with [...]
Besides the fact that the legal system is an abstract entity incapable of possessing such anthropomorphic qualities, it has demonstrated a particularly bad track record for integrity. Some individual lawyers possess integrity; the law itself is a tool to be used for good or ill. But historically speaking, the mechanics of the American legal system [...]
On August 3, New Jersey’s Supreme Court publicly responded to a letter from more than 100 New Jersey law school faculty and administrators rejecting their call for a one-time issuance of “diploma privilege” for 2020 law school graduates and other first-time bar applicants in lieu of a remotely proctored bar examination in October provided by [...]
An August 5, 2020 webinar organized by the University of Miami received a great deal of attention for remarks made by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) president Judith Gunderson suggesting that NCBE critics might encounter difficulties with their character and fitness evaluations. I was equally struck, though, by a remark made later in [...]
Voter suppression, which represents the dark underbelly of the American experiment, has reared its head throughout our history, particularly beginning at the cession of the Civil War. After the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, former slaves got an all-too-fleeting taste of emancipation when they not only came out to vote in droves, but [...]