Bucklew v. Precythe: The Power of Assumptions and Lethal Injection

Once again, the Supreme Court of the United States has an opportunity to determine the extent to which death-row inmates can bring as-applied challenges to the states’ method of execution and prevent possible botched executions. In Bucklew v. Precythe, the Court will confront the assumptions that the execution team is equipped to handle any execution and that the procedure will go as planned. Additionally, the Court will determine whether the standard articulated in Glossip v. Gross, which requires inmates asserting facial challenges to the states’ method of execution to plead a readily available alternative method of execution, further extends to inmates asserting as-applied challenges. This commentary argues that inmates launching an as-applied challenge to the state’s method of execution should be given relevant discovery regarding the execution teams’ qualifications, that inmates should not have to provide a detailed alternative method of execution, and that summary judgment decisions should be made after considering the record as a whole. Only then will inmates be afforded complete and fair access to the protections of the Eighth Amendment in the interest of avoiding more botched executions. The Supreme Court should remand to the lower court for a further evidentiary hearing in Bucklew’s case to determine whether execution by lethal gas significantly reduces a substantial risk of severe pain compared to lethal injection

Taking Shots at Private Military Firms: International Law Misses its Mark (Again)

Part I of this Article takes a brief tour through military history on the consistent use of mercenaries through the ages, which Peter Singer illuminates masterfully in Corporate Warriors. Next, a brief overview on the binding nature (or not) of international custom and treaty is explored in Part II and then the codifications of international law are taken up in Part III, beginning with the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Several United Nations (“U.N.”) instruments are analyzed for their efficacy in changing the long-standing customary international law on the use of mercenaries and whether or not each is applicable to PMF contractors. Part IV closes out the Article by discussing alternative bodies of domestic law that provide criminal accountability, including the recent case of Alaa Mohammad Ali, a civilian contractor working in Iraq who was convicted on June 23, 2008 by court martial under the recent changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ”)

Nigeria’s Federal Legislators’ Bloated Remuneration and Implications for Public Policy and Good Governance

This paper is a descriptive type. The study employs secondary data that was sourced from journal articles, online materials, government documentaries, and dailies to examine the huge salaries and other allowances “earned” by members of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The study is against the background of the controversies that enormous salaries and allowances of legislators have generated in the country since the return of democratic rule in 29th May; 1999. Despite the biting economic situation, poverty, unemployment and collapsed public infrastructures, members of the National Assembly continue to receive controversial salaries and allowances, and still often clamor for more. This study examines this issue and its implications for the country. The study concludes by proffering policy options which include but are not limited to giving serious thought to the need for part-time legislators who would only be entitled to sitting allowance, a significant reduction in the payments of all political office holders, and reduction of the two chambers of the National Assembly in Nigeria to one house-unicameral legislature, or at worst; reduction in the number of national lawmakers to maintain a cost-effective legislature.

Anti-Corruption’s Next Great Migration?: Strengthening U.S. Refugee And Asylum Law Under Existing U.S. Anti-Corruption Commitments

First, this paper will describe the U.S.’s anticorruption commitments under international law. Next, it will present the general features of current U.S. refugee and asylum law, pertaining to particular social group (PSG) and political opinion claims. Last, this paper will discuss how the Biden Anti-Corruption Memo provides fertile ground for DHS to initiate an informal rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to engage civil society on how U.S. refugee and asylum laws can better support a pathway to citizenship for anti-corruption activists in pursuit of key U.S. foreign policy interests abroad and who find themselves unable to seek protection in their home countries

Case Studies ofEmerging Ethnocentric Charter Schools in Hawai'i

The fast growing charter school movement may be impeded if charter schools are perceived as a vehicle for stratifying, segregating, and balkanizing an already ethnically, socio-economically divided population. This article defines ethnocentric schools and describes three Native Hawai'ian charter schools. While they are very different in curricula and in emphasis on the Hawai'ian language and other features, they all have strong community support and a high degree of parental involvement and have access to funds available only for Native Hawai'ian programs. It may be easy to support the expenditure of public funds for ethnocentric charter schools in areas like Hawai'i where ethnic minorities have traditionally been underserved. The issues raised in this study may have broader implications for the evolution of American public education. The question is not what criteria to apply to distinguish schools of "good" choice from schools of "bad" choice. In final analysis we must ask, are schools of choice truly schools of choice, or not