Distracted Driving

Distracted while driving for your employer? Distracted by work for your employer while driving? You are endangering yourself, others, and your employer! Companies need to have policies in place prohibiting texting, phoning, or using a computer while driving to avoid liability in the event of a crash. Estimates are that such behavior makes an accident 4-8 times more likely (even with hands-free phones). See this report for more information. Studies also show that this in-car productivity does not make employees any more productive. Think you're not a distracted driver? Test yourself: http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html.

FCC Rules!

Beginning Decemeber 1st, bloggers must disclose any payment by companies endorsed in the blog (or on Facebook or Twitter or other similar media). We assume store sites profit the store, but blogs and other media carrying recommendations may look neutral, but be receiving payments for the endorsements. This will apply to small businesses using blogs to promote related products that may offer payments - for example, if I recommend a fitness product on my gym blog, I need to disclose anything I receive in return for the endorsement - free merchandise or discounts, etc. See the New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html.

Welcome to my office!

Another Tanker Spill

This sinking compared to that of the Prestige, which we examine in class:

Article from Nov 12, 2007

Support Pakistani Lawyers

As lawyers in Pakistan demand a return to constitutional rule, lawyers around the world offer support. The American Bar Association (ABA) has issued a statement of support, and the National Lawyers Guild's Minnesota members held a rally in Minneapolis to demand a return to the rule of law. If you are a US lawyer, please consider joining the ABA or NLG or other professional organizations dedicated to the rule of law.

An action each day by US lawyers until constitutional law is restored:
Mondays:
Send letters to newspapers asking them to continue to publish stories covering the detained lawyers in Pakistan. You may mark such requests "Not for Publication" so the editor knows it is a request of the paper and not just an address to the readers. In the U.S., it is especially important to request this of our paper of record, the New York Times.
Contact: PUBLIC EDITOR
To reach Clark Hoyt, who represents the readers, e-mail public@nytimes.com or call (212) 556-7652.

Tuesdays:
Amnesty International urges US constituents to contact President Bush and elected representatives to urge them to ensure that no U.S. funds are used against the demonstrators in Pakistan. With over $10 billion in aid to the Pakistani military since 2001, that may be difficult to monitor, but difficult is not impossible, and a message must be sent.

See http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20071105001#

Wednesdays:
Address Pakistan's government with your concerns:
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Asma

Thursdays:
Ask your bar associations to issue statements or otherwise support Pakistani lawyers seeking the return to constitutional government.

Fridays:
Write a letter to the editor of your local papers supporting the Pakistani lawyers and demonstrators.

Rights in Space

Some students have asked about recent news items about buying the moon. Here is the NPR program on MoonEstates, a company purporting to sell lunar real estate. Alas for would-be moonsteaders, I agree with the author in this blog comment that the nature of the moon as a common trust for mankid has passed into customary law even if a treaty silence permits a contrary construction.

Genocide

The ICJ will issue a decision next week on whether Serbia is guilty of violating the Convention Against Genocide in Bosnia in the '92-95 conflict.

Labeling killings as genocide is quite politically charged. Many students have read or are reading a book by Samantha Powers that details this struggle to recognize genocide. Atlantic Monthly also offered an article by Samantha Powers.

U.S. Asserts Rights in Space

Jurist exposes a statement, signed last summer, declaring the U.S. has rights to exclude hostile states from access to space. The conservative Heritage Foundation also commented on developments, especially in light of China's recent shooting down of a weather satellite. Read a nice summary of space law in this article on space law and commercial interests. Last June, the U.N. completed a review of peaceful uses of space. We will talk more about space law and the idea of a common heritage of mankind. (Photo NASA, 1972)

Chinese Exclusion Case

The Chinese Exclusion Case, was referenced in our text examination of the last-in-time rule. Here we see the mischief of Justice Grey's Paquete Habana dictum about the executive power.

World Trade and Davos Meeting

The key issues identified for this year's meeting in Davos, Switzerland are part of the "shifting" theme: global climate change (AKA global warming) is expected to cause shifts, and emerging markets are also expected to cause shifts in trade practices. See the meeting.