Freeing Trade with Colombia—For Whom?

Caitlin Gunther discusses the proposed Colombia Free Trade Agreement and some issues that Congress must consider before ratifying the agreement.

Mad, Maaad Men

Sarah Hack discusses the NFL lockout after the expiration of the NFLPA, and opines on the antitrust suit Brady v. NFL.

The Drilling Conclusion

By Natasha Bhushan

Recent democratic protests in the Middle East have had the inconvenient effect of raising the price Americans pay at the pump. Gas prices across the country are near or at record levels. Predictably, this has prompted a flurry of speechmaking and proposals from both sides of the aisle.

In a speech last Wednesday, President Obama reiterated the general policy goals he has been touting since he was Obama-the-candidate: cut oil imports, increase domestic fuel production, and increase the use of alternative energy sources. While Obama’s general policy goals have remained constant, the BP oil spill has altered his specific policies regarding domestic fuel production.

Prior to the BP oil spill, the expansion of offshore drilling played a key part in Obama’s plan to increase domestic fuel production. The spill has set back expansion in two key ways. First, the administration has made it more difficult to obtain offshore drilling permits because oil companies must now comply with new safeguards and regulations. (There were of course safety rules in place before the disaster, but they were under-enforced.) Second, the administration issued a six-month moratorium on all new deep-water drilling projects. Facing pressure from the oil industry and federal courts, the administration prematurely lifted the moratorium last October. Two months later, once scientists and other experts had begun to fully understand the horrific nature of the BP oil spill, the administration issued a revised moratorium on new offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Bristol Bay, and along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. The administration has expressed intent to keep this moratorium in place through 2017.

Last Tuesday, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) introduced three bills to expand offshore drilling. One bill, entitled “Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act,” would allow new drilling in those areas currently under moratorium. This bill raises three main issues.

The Price is Wrong

The price is wrong! Bob Barker, you know it! The price—the dollars and cents we pay when we buy animal products—is really wrong.  Meat, eggs, milk, cheese, and all other sorts of animal foods that so many Americans buy so regularly are, in general, shockingly less expensive than market trends would predict. The sorcery of

Law and Blog: An Unhappy Marriage (In its own way)

Law and Blog meet.

Law and Blog meet online, of course. So as you might expect, they are coy and are not particularly forthcoming with the details of their courtship. But once together, their relationship builds quickly — they share snark, irreverence and a proclivity for communicating and organizing bite-sized pieces of life.

Time passes, and Law and Blog find that their pairing has filled a deep expressional void. Law can finally cast off its Bluebook shackles and emote the way it deserves. And Blog cherishes the credence, utility and stability that Law provides.

Then one day, Law and Blog become bLawg.

The same love ditty that begat one bLawg, begat many. Law professors in particular, but practitioners, law students and interested others flock to the medium. From Above the Law to Dorf on Law —bLawgs are the antidote to and evidence of what is a true malady. Some of us crave escape from the strictures of formal legal writing.

The incumbent board of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy inherited a, well, a barely blog. It is a space carved out of the Internet terrain that has become our project to activate. “Kill it!” one of my law professors told me. And, no, we won’t yet, but a legal journal and a blog are not easy bedfellows.

Welcome to the All-new Cornell JLPP Blog

Welcome to the all-new blog of Cornell Law School’s Journal of Law & Public Policy! Our goals are to provide a forum for publicizing and discussing the work published in the journal, for Cornell Law students and faculty to blog about law and policy issues that interest them, and for more casual, expressive, and timely writing on law

The End of the “War”? Sentencing in Drug Cases in the Wake of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 by Monica Harris

For decades the Federal Sentencing Guidelines have subjected defendants in drug cases to drastically different sentences depending on whether their offenses involved crack or powder cocaine.  Any cursory study of the “War on Drugs” reveals that crack cocaine is much more likely to be used by minority populations, or in low-income areas.  Conversely, powder cocaine

Restoring Congressional Oversight of International Trade Agreements: The Trade Act of 2009 by Matthew Bohenek

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act of 2009, filed by Representative Michael Michaud and Senator Sherrod Brown, proposes to add extra Congressional oversight to trade agreements that are currently negotiated with little such oversight by agents of the executive branch, in particular the United States Trade Representative.  Some of these trade agreements,

Technology and the Fourth Amendment: Striking a Balance between Efficient Law Enforcement and the Right to Privacy by Gabriel de Corral

I. Introduction The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. …”[i] The development of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has continuously dealt with emerging technology and how it should be used to

Not in My Borders: An Analysis of Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act by Natanya DeWeese

Introduction In 2009, there were approximately 11.1 million illegal immigrants in the United States.[1]  In an attempt to address the rampant illegal immigration in Arizona,[2] the Arizona State Legislature passed the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, known as Senate Bill 1070 (S.B. 1070).[3]  The bill requires Arizona law enforcement officials to verify

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