The Endangered Species Act and Habitat Conservation Plans

Abstract

The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is over 40 years old. During those years, the landscape of endangered species issues and the tools we have to address them have changed considerably. Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP) under the ESA have been used throughout the country for 30 years and have significantly changed the way federal agencies address impacts to endangered species. The ever‐changing needs of endangered species, and the laws in place to protect them, affect all aspects of project planning. The history of these laws and the current issues today are key to understanding when an HCP may benefit your project or plan.     

The Process Is the Punishment: Thirty Years Later

This essay reviews the arguments and impacts of the classic work, The Process Is the Punishment by Malcolm Feeley, originally published in 1979 and republished with a new foreword and preface in 1992. This essay examines how the book has been used in sociolegal research since 1979 by empirically tracing its citation in published work. I also examine missed opportunities where The Process Is the Punishment could still expand its impact in the literature, as well as reviewing the major arguments and criticisms of the book.     

The Committee on the DESNA: Six Years Later

And suddenly, in the same quiet voice with which he had just set forth the long-range, interesting plans of the ministry, the department head said to me.     

Five Years Later: Reconsidering the Original ABA Report on MDP

Reconsidering the original report issued in 1999 by the ABA Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice, this essay suggests that that report properly attempted to deal with questions of legal ethics that might arise if the practice of law by lawyers were integrated into an enterprise in which nonlawyers had a significant degree of ultimate control, but that the commission, perhaps because of undue time pressure, neglected to pursue these questions deeply enough. This essay suggests that more was needed than a proposed mechanism for self-certification of compliance with rules of legal ethics, coupled with possible review of compliance. The "more" that was needed, this essay further suggests, was a proposal for the licensing of an enterprise in which lawyers do not have exclusive ultimate control, as a precondition to permitting lawyers in the enterprise to offer legal services to the general public. Thus, before it could offer legal services to the general public, such an enterprise would need to comply with requirements for obtaining a license, and noncompliance with rules of legal ethics could bring into play traditional disciplinary measures including, where appropriate, suspension or revocation of the license.     

隐文本视角下的心灵真相——论晚年丁玲文艺思想的二重悖反

"文革"后丁玲复出文坛,其公开表达的文艺思想呈现出鲜明的悖反特征:一方面丁玲反复鼓吹文艺为政治服务,另一方面又有与上述论断截然相反的言论和实践.这种悖反一方面源于长期政治压迫下的心理困扰,也与现实中的宗派纠葛有直接关系,更深层的原因则是丁玲所汲取文化资源的内在悖反.<讲话>的政治文艺思想与"五四"文艺思想纠结在丁玲思想的深处,决定了其文艺思想的对立和冲突.     

Tippins and Wittman Revisited: Law,Social Science,and the Role of the Child Custody Expert 14 Years Later

It has been 14 years since Tippins and Wittmann ( 2005 ) voiced concern for the overreaching role the expert may play in matters of family law. This article sets their levels of inference within the context of the culture of both law and social science. We examine how inferences are impacted by the relative emphasis child custody experts give to the five stakeholders involved in child custody evaluations (CCEs): courts, lawyers, parents, children, and professional governing bodies. Acculturation of the assessor to law contributes to more egregious inferences, versus the more modest ones Tippins and Wittmann advocated. How evaluators prioritize stakeholders shapes their opinion and methodology. We offer an expanded perspective that views how their levels of inference are manifest in reports, methodology, and recommendations and the influence of the culture of law and the mindset of the clinician. We hope to encourage clinicians to find ways to operationalize clinical humility, assume their proper role, and remain true to their master identity as licensed mental health professionals and their proper sphere of authority.     

Flexibility and Authority: Resolving Labor Disputes in A County Government in Western China

Existing literature regards flexibility and authority as key characteristics of informal justice. We further contend that the combination of the two is crucial for informal justice to be effective. We investigate the process of dispute resolution by a Chinese labor agency. Following the life cycles of a sample of 810 labor disputes, we find that this informal justice forum was efficient and effective, made possible by the combination of flexibility and authority. Flexibility means that the agency attracts certain types of cases that are usually screened out of the formal legal system and that agency officials use “informal,” hence flexible, techniques. Authority means that the administrative agency possesses additional powers over the disputants; hence, the disputants are under pressure to follow its suggestions and decisions. A comparative analysis of various cases of informal justice reinforces the importance of combining flexibility and authority. We further demonstrate that flexibility without authority is insufficient and that some informal justice forums are effective because they enjoy both.     

The value of life in death: Multiple regression and event history analyses of homicide clearance in Los Angeles County

While clearance rates of homicides have declined over the last three decades, there still remains limited research on the topic. In recent studies, scholars had argued that legal factors best explained homicide clearance. They stated that extralegal variables that had proven to be important and significant for explaining other processes in the criminal justice system were not as helpful in explaining homicide clearance. This article challenges those findings. Utilizing multiple regression and event history analysis techniques, this article shows that extralegal variables such as the gender and race or ethnicity of the victim affect the likelihood of clearance and time needed for solving the murder. The research examined all homicides committed in Los Angeles County from 1990 through 1994. Findings demonstrated that some victims “received more law,” as Donald Black argued, and that not all victims' lives were equally valued.     

European Empires in Conflict: The Brexit Years

Law and Critique - On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom (UK) Government notified the European Council (EC) of its intention to withdraw from the European Union (EU) legal order. On 31 January 2020,...     

The Global Trade in Live Cetaceans: Implications for Conservation

Cetaceans—small whales, dolphins and porpoises—have long been popular performers in oceanaria. Captive cetaceans have also been used for research and employed in military operations. In some jurisdictions cetacean display facilities have been phased out or prohibited, and in the US and Hong Kong a high proportion of the whales and dolphins now in captivity have been captive-bred. A large, growing and increasingly opportunistic trade in dolphins and small toothed whales nevertheless exists, its centres of supply having shifted away from North America, Japan, and Iceland to the Russian Federation and developing nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Demand for live captures is being driven by: a new wave of traditional-type oceanaria and dolphin display facilities, as well as travelling shows, in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; increasingly popular programs that offer physical contact with cetaceans, including the opportunity to feed, pet, and swim with them; and the proliferation of facilities that offer ‘dolphin assisted therapy’ to treat human illness or disability. Rigorous assessment of source populations is often lacking, and in some instances live capture is adding to the pressure on stocks already at risk from hunting, fishery bycatch, habitat degradation, and other factors. All too often, entrepreneurs appear to be taking advantage of lax (or non-existent) regulations in small island states or less developed or politically unstable countries to supply the growing global demand for dolphins and small whales. The regulation of trade in live cetaceans under CITES is fraught with problems, not least the poor quality of reporting and the lack of a rigorous mechanism for preparation, review, and evaluation of non-detriment findings.     

协议管辖:问题、原因及其改革设想

我国《民事诉讼法》有关协议管辖的规定,在立法体例、适用范围,以及协议成立条件的规定上都存在诸多缺陷。基于当事人的诉权保障和我国当今社会对于民事司法救济权利保护的现实要求,比较、借鉴国外多数国家的有关立法例,可以发现,对于协议管辖的现行规定,有必要进行适当的修改与完善。