ABSTRACTS OF SELECTED PAPERS

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

On Dollars and Deference: Agencies, Spending, and Economic Rights

Agencies can change society not just by prescribing conduct, but also by spending money. The Obama administration gave us two powerful examples of this phenomenon. To secure widespread access to affordable health insurance and affordable higher education, the administration took actions that were not required by statutory text. These entitlements are built upon a scaffolding of aggressive agency statutory interpretations, not upon clear legislative commands. This Article uses these two examples as case studies for evaluating the institutional competence of the executive branch to underwrite large-scale positive economic entitlements on the basis of ambiguous statutory authority. Such agency-initiated schemes may help improve the economic wellbeing and enhance the economic opportunity of millions of Americans. But, as these case studies reflect, the risks of such agency action are considerable. First, when the executive branch gives money away, Article III standing requirements will weaken the check of judicial review on administrative action. Second, agency creation of schemes for protecting economic entitlements may result in political and even legal entrenchment that could complicate or obstruct future lawmakers’ ability to undo those agency decisions. Third, the initiation of broad-scale government spending programs entails society-wide redistributive trade-offs that neither individual agencies, nor the executive branch as a whole, can properly make. In sum, this form of executive-branch action may advance important interests—interests in health, education, and economic equality and opportunity. But it may also corrode values that are at least equally important—most notably, the power of Congress to control the current and future financial obligations of the United States

The Unsung Virtues of Global Forum Shopping

Forum shopping gets a bad name. This is even more true in the context of transnational litigation. The term is associated with unprincipled gamesmanship and undeserved victories. Courts therefore often seek to thwart the practice. But in recent years, exaggerated perceptions of the “evils” of forum shopping among courts in different countries have led U.S. courts to impose high barriers to global forum shopping. These extreme measures prevent global forum shopping from serving three unappreciated functions: protecting access to justice, promoting private regulatory enforcement, and fostering legal reform. This Article challenges common perceptions about global forum shopping that have supported recent doctrinal developments. It traces the history of concerns about global forum shopping and distinguishes between domestic and global forum shopping to discern the core objections to the practice. It then identifies these unappreciated virtues of global forum shopping and suggests balanced ways for courts to protect them

Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Community Based Rural Tourism (CBRT) Development: the case of East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Malaysia

The launch of sustainable community based rural tourism (CBRT) programs in 1996 by the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia (MOTOUR) indicated the government's commitment to incorporate sustainable development principles into the national tourism planning and development framework. Since then, the programs have been widely promoted by the government through various agencies and strongly embraced by the rural communities. Although the programs promise much potential such as job creations, provide an alternative of income for the rural household while promoting culture preservation and environment protection, recent studies showed that there was an issue of lack of monitoring of performance and progress of the programs due to the absence of criteria and indicators. From this research point of view, the absence of monitoring tools such as indicators could create obstacles and challenges, especially for the government and other donor agencies, in assessing the return on their investment in the programs and other impacts on the communities involved. Through extensive review of literature, a sufficient number of a preliminary list of criteria and indicators were identified. Each criteria and indicators were assigned into different category of sustainable CBRT namely economic, socio-cultural, environment and institutional. 64 preliminary indicators covered by eight criteria were identified by brought forward for the next stage: formulation of survey questionnaire. The identification and selection of a set of indicators using questionnaire survey was carried out using a Delphi exercise with experts and survey of local stakeholders. For the Delphi exercise, 20 experts were identified (academics, government officials, NGOs and tourism consultants) and consulted during the Stage One of Delphi consultation (selection of importa!lt indicators). However, due to the unavoidable issue of experts' dropout, a smaller number of 11 experts were maintained for Stage Two (ranking of indicators). The surveys of local stakeholders were carried out during the Stage Two involving 85 respondents from three selected villages as case studies (Le. Kuala Medang, Teluk Ketapang and Seterpa) located in the East Coast Economic Region (BCER). As a result, out of 64 indicators initially listed in the survey questionnaire, 47 indicators were selected both by the experts and by local stakeholders and included in the final list of indicators. The fieldwork results indicate that both the experts and local stakeholders are interested to support the idea of indicators formulation for monitoring the CBRT progress. At the final stage of the research, the proposed list of 47 indicators was put to test to assess the applicability and measurability of indicators for monitoring CBRT performances in the three villages i.e. Kuala Medang, Teluk Ketapang and Seterpa where 50 respondents participated in the survey. The field test intended to measure the uptake of sustainable economic, socio-cultural, environment and institution practices of CBRT program in all three villages. The outcomes for the analysis on uptake of CBRT economic and institution practices has shown a moderate success level with both 54% and 76% of an overall achievement while the analysis on uptake of CBRT socio-cultural and environment practices has shown a high success level with both 72% and 52% of an overall achievement. The field test revealed that the proposed indicators have been shown to be useful for measuring CBRT performance in the three case study villages. Furthermore, the achievement of CBR T practices could be determined as either low, or moderate or highly sustainable using index score approach. The results from quantitative and qualitative data collection processes could provide vital information to researchers, local hosts and other stakeholders about the current performance in the CBR T program from all major categories of indicators: economic, social-cultural, and environment and institution. In conclusion, the results from field test of indicators could inform decision makers and the CBRT participants in general about "where they are", i.e. based on the current level of sustainability practices, and "where they want to go", i.e. the local hosts' go~l or target setting for development of CBRT program. More importantly, indicators could also reveal to local hosts and other stakeholders "how far they are from achieving their goal/target"

The Port of Boston: Perspective on a Maritime Dilemma

Few in Massachusetts, or even in the metropolitan Boston area, however, understand their Port\u27s past, and few still appreciate its present contributions and sympathize with its struggles and problematic future. Whatever its past fame or present indignities, the excitement of a vibrant, profitable waterfront does not enter into the advocacy and implementation of harbor recreational and residential development plans, with or without commercial activities. This near dismissal of the Seaport\u27s present and potential value in certain circles, only presents another dilemma to those attempting to cope with this veritable maritime bag of worms. But despite all these obstacles, the Port may possibly for the first time in many years, face the opportunity of resusitation

New World Drugs in England's Early Empire

How were New World drugs received and understood in early modern England? In the seventeenth century, England’s first empire was being established and an increasing abundance of medicinal plants arrived in London from across the Atlantic. In this thesis, I argue that commercial and political imperatives drove the production, trade and consumption of New World medicines. I explore trends in the drug trade across the early modern period to identify how the scale and diversity of American medicines fluctuated in the English market. I recognise a critical juncture in the 1650s with a change in political institutions and the collapse of the colonial tobacco economy. In the case of Virginia, merchants and colonial statesmen advised the Parliamentarian government on new forms of plantation governance and economic development. Their recommendations included investment in perceived lucrative new commodities, such as sassafras, sarsaparilla and other medicinal plants. As the supply of American drugs expanded in the English market from the 1650s to the 1680s, medical writers became more engaged in the recommendation of New World medicaments for the treatment of diseases, including scurvy and venereal diseases. I consider the process of knowledge negotiation and commercial policymaking in issues surrounding the trade, propagation and transplantation of American medicinal plants into England during the late seventeenth century. The availability and consumption of New World drugs became commonplace by the early eighteenth century, and they could even be accessed by schoolboys and pensioners at charitable institutions. To formulate this narrative, I employ an integrated historical approach, drawing from economic, colonial, intellectual and medical history. I examine customs records, first-hand colonial accounts, printed books and pamphlets, manuscript commonplace books, letters, prescription lists and medical journals. This study contributes to research programmes on English colonial development, global commodities, the Columbian exchange and the early modern medical marketplace.This thesis was supported by the Wellcome Trust through a medical humanities doctoral studentship

Defense contracting

Thesis (M.B.A.)—Boston University