Legal gaps under deregulatory broadband policies and the resurgent rise of corporate power

This paper considers the likely combinatorial effects of U.S. deregulatory broadband policies and the evolution of law as applied to corporations as a general matter. It explains how legal developments in both areas have dismantled bodies of law or doctrines that had developed to address corporate power in both commercial and political spheres and to protect consumers from vulnerability in commercial activities. Moreover, the coexistence of these developments enables an unprecedented transfer of corporate power between economic and policymaking institutions. With the decline in regulatory constraints, as well as the rise in constitutional rights to block attempts to impose regulatory constraints, there is a resurgent rise of corporate power. The result may be a phase transition undermining the rule of law so critical to sustainable democracies. --Antitrust,broadband,common carriers,constitutional rights,consumer protection,corporations,telecommunications

Research-Practice-Policy Partnerships for Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Child Welfare and Child Mental Health

Partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers represent a promising avenue for improving outcomes for young people and families.In a new report, Lawrence Palinkas, Cherry Short, and Marleen Wong of the University of Southern California's School of Social Work suggest that research-practice-policy partnerships may help narrow the gap between the development of evidence-based services for young people in the child welfare and mental health systems and the routine delivery of these services.Describing the structure and operations of partnerships, and the potential challenges to making them work, Palinkas and colleagues present three models of successful partnerships in the child welfare and mental health systems. Case studies for each model provide rich examples of the common elements and central themes that characterize the value of partnerships as a strategy for delivering high quality services in high demand settings

Examining the Role of Fairness in High Stakes Allocation Decisions

Recent experimental evidence has led to a debate about the nature of utility functions in which people are concerned about the amount others earn, and what factors heighten or diminish social preference. We explore fairness by examining behavior across three variants of the dictator game. Using data from nearly 200 dictators allocating as much as $100 each, we observe that fairness considerations are very powerful—when subjects could reasonably believe that disproportionately low offers are “fair”, only 8-12 percent of dictators make positive offers. Examining the comparative static results from these allocation decisions, we find that recent theoretical models of inequality do a respectable job of explaining the data patterns.

Microvascular endothelial cells of the bovine corpus luteum: A comparative study of the estrous cycle and pregnancy

Endothelial cells derived from the corpus luteum (CLENDOs) exhibit a diverse array of characteristics that seemingly complement their wide-ranging properties in luteal function and fate. Reproductive status of the animal (i.e., non-pregnant vs. pregnant) may contribute to the phenotypic/physiologic diversity of microvascular endothelial cells, but information in this regard is limited. Here, structural and functional attributes of CLENDOs derived from the estrous cycle (Days 9-12) were compared with those of pregnancy (Day 60). Initially, lectin binding properties were examined in the cells. Using fluorescent-tagged lectins for Bandeiraea simplicifolia I or concanavalin A, flow cytometric analysis indicated that lectin-binding on CLENDOs of the estrous cycle did not differ from those of pregnancy (P \u3e 0.05). Next, the CLENDOs were exposed to tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF; 50 ng/ml) and/or interferon gamma (IFNG; 30 ng/ml) to assess cytokine-induced intracellular signaling [inhibitor kappa B alpha (IkappaBalpha) degradation and induction of interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1)], production of cytokines [TNF and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (CCL2)], and cell death. These results indicate that several attributes of CLENDOs from the estrous cycle are retained by those of early pregnancy, including lectin binding properties, activation of specific cytokine-initiated intracellular signals, and the instigation of cytokine-induced inflammatory events. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Cases): Gender Stereotypes and Sexual Harassment Since the Passage of Title Vii

This Article, which is part of a symposium on the 40th Anniversary of Title VII appearing in the Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, evaluates the progress of women in the workforce by critically analyzing the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Written in the early 1960s and made into a 1967 movie, How to Succeed follows the adventures of J. Pierrepont Finch, a window washer who, with the aid of a sarcastic self-help book, schemes his way up the corporate ladder. It also includes the sexual exploits of the exclusively male executive corps among the female secretarial pool. As How to Succeed was written and first performed contemporaneously with the passage of Title VII, the musical offers an opportunity to examine, from both a law and literature and law and popular culture perspective, how the view of women in the workforce has either progressed or remained stagnant during the past forty years. Although progress has been made toward gender equality, many issues highlighted in the musical are still problems today: sexual harassment; sex segregation of the workforce and pink collar ghettos; and the glass ceiling. This Article discusses these issues seriatim

A Satire of Law Firm Employment Practices (Book Review of Anonymous Lawyer, by Jeremy Blachman)

My essay is a review of Jeremy Blachman’s new book, Anonymous Lawyer. The book is a black-humorous stab at the hearts and souls of large elite law firms everywhere (if firms had such things as hearts and souls). In this review essay, I discuss why the blog struck a chord with so many readers, and why the novel Anonymous Lawyer contains a serious message about employment at law firms. First, I place Anonymous Lawyer within the tradition of satire surrounding the legal profession. Specifically, I compare Blachman’s novel to John Jay Osborne Jr.’s earlier novel The Associates, which also takes large law firm life as its subject. Second, I want to examine how this novel fits into the literature that describes working life at a large elite law firm. Anonymous Lawyer highlights the issues of associate turnover, work-life imbalance, and workplace hierarchies that seem to characterize employment at large law firms. Ultimately, I conclude that Anonymous Lawyer adds to the formal academic discourse on law firm culture and, through its humor, challenges and goads the system toward change