A New Paradigm for the Teaching of Business Law and Legal Environment Classes

There is a need to develop curriculum and materials on law-related topics better designed for business students planning a career in business. Except incidentally, business school legal faculty are not teaching future lawyers or paralegals. The world of the business practitioner is very different from that of the lawyer. For most business people the law and lawyers are a necessary nuisance. Furthermore, the legal world is changing. For example, methods of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) have become mainstream. Opportunities for "self-help law" have proliferated. These trends, and other opportunities considered in this article, offer substantial benefits to the business community. To meet the needs of today's business person, college business law and legal environment courses must stress economical, intelligent prevention of legal problems and resolution of conflict . This article is about empowering future business managers by utilizing their class time to educate them to more directly meet these goals. Topical coverage and pedagogical approaches for implementing a new paradigm in a business school introductory law course are detailed. Faculty members should not allow fear of change to deter a needed overhauling of the curriculum, as such procrastination could harm the profession's future standing.     

Privacy Act of 1974: amendment of existing system of records--HHS. Notice of intent to amend a Privacy Act system of record for purposes of the Debt Collection Act of 1982

The Department of Health and Human Services is amending system of records 09-90-0024 to add new routine uses for the purpose of collecting debts owed the Federal Government, and to add a disclosure to consumer reporting agencies as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) (12) as added by the Debt Collection Act of 1982 (Pub. L. 97-365). A number of other amendments have been made to reflect changes of organization and titles. We invite public comment on these routine uses.     

An Assessment of Juvenile Drug Courts’ Knowledge of Evidence‐Based Practices,Data Collection,and the Use of AA/NA

The use of evidence‐based practices (EBPs) has become a core component of juvenile drug courts (JDCs). This research, using a sample of JDCs listed with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, tests two current assumptions in the field: 1) many JDCs do not use or are unaware of their use of EBPs and 2) JDCs tend to overuse sober support groups (e.g., AA/NA), which are thought to be inappropriate for youth. Results suggest that nearly all JDCs, in the sample, reported using EBPs; however, only about a quarter of them collected treatment data and knew the outcomes of the data. Also, only about half of the JDCs use sober support groups (predominantly AA/NA), and nearly all of the sober support groups were tailored toward youth. Overall, these findings suggest that the current assumptions in the field do not accurately reflect the practices reported by these JDCs. Implications are discussed.     

坚持以科学发展观指导法制宣传教育 为构建社会主义和谐社会营造良好法治环境

这次会议的主要任务是:以邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想为指导,全面贯彻落实科学发展观,深入贯彻党的十六大和十六届六中全会精神,深入贯彻全国“两会”精神,深入贯彻党中央、国务院批转的“五五”普法规划和全国人大常委会决议,总结第六次全国法制宣传教育工作会议以来的工作,研究部署法制宣传教育工作,进一步提高认识,强化措施,加大工作力度,全面推进“五五”普法规划贯彻落实,为构建社会主义和谐社会作出新的贡献。去年以来,各地各部门认真贯彻落实党中央、国务院批转的“五五”普法规划和全国人大常委会决议,贯彻落实第六次全国法制…     

把司法行政队伍建设成为社会主义法治理念的捍卫者践行者弘扬者

开展社会主义法治理念教育,是党中央加强政法队伍思想政治建设的一项重大战略举措,是当前和今后一个时期司法行政工作的一项重大政治任务。贯彻中央要求,抓好司法行政队伍建设,可以归结为一句话,就是要努力把司法行政队伍建设成为社会主义法治理念的捍卫者践行者弘扬者。一司法     

From a Pluralism of Grounds to Proto‐Legal Relations: Accounting for the Grounds of Obligations of Justice

In this paper I discuss critically Mathias Risse's paper “Responsibility and Global Justice.” First, I argue that for Risse's pluralist account of the grounds of justice to hold together, there is need to presuppose a monist standpoint which ultimately contributes to grounding principles of justice. Second, I point out that Risse's understanding of obligations of accountability and justification is rather narrow in that it functions as an addendum to obligations of justice. Conversely, I will suggest that the obligation of accountability plays a deeper role: The conditions that ground it feature at the same time among the grounds of obligations of justice. Accordingly, the kind of relation that gives rise to a duty among agents to account for their actions must be in place when obligations of justice obtain. Following on from these remarks I will adumbrate an alternative account of the relation which grounds (enforceable) obligations of justice.     

Enticing Business to Create a Healthier American Diet: Performance‐Based Regulation of Food and Beverage Retailers

The American public could enjoy a much healthier diet if we enticed food and beverage retailers (stores and restaurants) to substantially reduce the calories, added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat that pass through their cash registers—say, a 25 percent reduction in sugar, salt, and fat and a 10 percent reduction in calories. Rather than ordering firms to make specific changes in what they sell, this strategy—called performance‐based regulation—leaves industry to figure out what is the best way to transform the American diet in a positive way. Because it calls for real changes in outcomes, this regulatory strategy could be far more effective than information disclosure policies that rely on consumer choices, and because it does not require adding extra cost to the price of food and beverages, it could be politically far more attractive than taxing unhealthy foods. Appealing to both conservative and liberal values, instead of relying on the professional expertise of public health regulators, performance‐based regulation enlists America's large food retailers to serve the public good—or suffer substantial financial penalties for failing to do so.     

Making Sense of the Numbers: The Shift from Non‐consensual to Consensual Debt Relief and the Construction of the Consumer Debtor

This article analyses trends in the number of individual insolvency proceedings in England and Wales, particularly a shift from non‐consensual debt relief to consensual Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and, connected to that, an increased privatization of the process. Seeking to conceptualize IVA users, it builds on American scholarship linking the development of bankruptcy rates to the construction of the consumer debtor. Based on this theory and empirical evidence, its findings broadly indicate that a majority of IVA users do not match the image of a strategic actor. Rather, they belong to the most vulnerable groups, whose decision in favour of IVAs is the result of external constraints and irrational biases, which commercial providers tend to exploit. Building on this characterization of IVA users, the article contributes to the critical discussion of aforementioned trends, arguing that reforms should be contemplated to partially reverse them.     

The Transparency Trap: Non‐Financial Disclosure and the Responsibility of Business to Respect Human Rights

This article examines the potential for transparency programs to improve corporations’ human rights performance. The primary focus is on “general” transparency programs such as the inclusion of human rights issues in sustainability reports. Regulators increasingly rely on such programs, one of which is the EU Directive on the Disclosure of Non‐financial Information, which many commentators view as a model for legislation in other countries and for a business and human rights treaty. This article identifies several problems with this approach. The human rights metrics used in current sustainability reporting standards often lack validity or are based upon data that is most easily collected, rather than most important. Moreover, the empirical evidence on sustainability reporting shows continued problems of selective disclosure, impression management, incomparable disclosures, and the use of disclosure as an end in itself (as opposed to a process that leads to organizational change). To move forward, regulators should shift focus to a model grounded in regulatory pluralism. Under this approach, regulators would combine a selection of targeted transparency mechanisms to create a more complete regulatory system that corrects for one disclosure mechanism's weaknesses by including others that have complementary strengths.