Child Poverty in Rural America

This report explores the well-being of the 14 million children who live in rural America. Rural families represent a significant share of our total population and they are disproportionately poor, less educated, and underemployed. Yet poor children and the unique challenges they face are often overlooked by policymakers. Poor children living in rural America face significant educational, social, and economic challenges just as their urban counterparts do, but many of these problems are exacerbated by the isolation and limited access to support services common in rural areas

The Hierarchy That Wasn’t There: Elevating “Usage” to its Rightful Position For Contracts Governed by the CISG

Under domestic U.S. sales law, usage of trade is relevant in ascertaining the meaning of an agreement, and it can be used to supplement, qualify, or explain an agreement. However, usage of trade may not be used under domestic U.S. sales law to contradict a written agreement. Moreover, any course of performance or course of dealing between the parties will prevail over inconsistent usage of trade. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, or CISG, similarly provides for consideration of usage to establish the terms of the agreement between the parties, as well as to determine party intent. When applying the CISG, U.S. courts have assumed that the same hierarchy they are accustomed to under domestic U.S. sales law that automatically relegates usage to a subsidiary role must exist under the CISG as well. But the CISG does not establish a hierarchy that requires usage to defer automatically to party conduct or to established party practice. Usage can be important for determining the terms of the agreement between the parties, especially when a commercial arrangement is consummated without a robust written agreement. Therefore, proper analysis of the role of usage is essential. This Article analyzes this issue and proposes a better understanding of the role of usage in the sale of goods contracts governed by the CISG

The Hierarchy That Wasn’t There: Elevating “Usage” to its Rightful Position For Contracts Governed by the CISG

Under domestic U.S. sales law, usage of trade is relevant in ascertaining the meaning of an agreement, and it can be used to supplement, qualify, or explain an agreement. However, usage of trade may not be used under domestic U.S. sales law to contradict a written agreement. Moreover, any course of performance or course of dealing between the parties will prevail over inconsistent usage of trade. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, or CISG, similarly provides for consideration of usage to establish the terms of the agreement between the parties, as well as to determine party intent. When applying the CISG, U.S. courts have assumed that the same hierarchy they are accustomed to under domestic U.S. sales law that automatically relegates usage to a subsidiary role must exist under the CISG as well. But the CISG does not establish a hierarchy that requires usage to defer automatically to party conduct or to established party practice. Usage can be important for determining the terms of the agreement between the parties, especially when a commercial arrangement is consummated without a robust written agreement. Therefore, proper analysis of the role of usage is essential. This Article analyzes this issue and proposes a better understanding of the role of usage in the sale of goods contracts governed by the CISG

The Hierarchy That Wasn’t There: Elevating “Usage” to its Rightful Position For Contracts Governed by the CISG

Under domestic U.S. sales law, usage of trade is relevant in ascertaining the meaning of an agreement, and it can be used to supplement, qualify, or explain an agreement. However, usage of trade may not be used under domestic U.S. sales law to contradict a written agreement. Moreover, any course of performance or course of dealing between the parties will prevail over inconsistent usage of trade. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, or CISG, similarly provides for consideration of usage to establish the terms of the agreement between the parties, as well as to determine party intent. When applying the CISG, U.S. courts have assumed that the same hierarchy they are accustomed to under domestic U.S. sales law that automatically relegates usage to a subsidiary role must exist under the CISG as well. But the CISG does not establish a hierarchy that requires usage to defer automatically to party conduct or to established party practice. Usage can be important for determining the terms of the agreement between the parties, especially when a commercial arrangement is consummated without a robust written agreement. Therefore, proper analysis of the role of usage is essential. This Article analyzes this issue and proposes a better understanding of the role of usage in the sale of goods contracts governed by the CISG

Analysis of Incoterms as Usage Under Article 9 of the CISG

This Article defines usage, as that term is used in the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), in order to consider whether the ICC’s definitions for common delivery terms set forth in the ICC publication Incoterms should be characterized as usage for purposes of the CISG. This Article then describes the misguided approach that to date has been taken by U.S. courts when analyzing the role of Incoterms as usage for contracts governed by the CISG. Finally, this Article proposes a method for proper analysis of Incoterms under the CISG, including the role that Article 9 of the CISG should play in the analysis

Understanding Exclusion of The CISG: A New Paradigm of Determining Party Intent

The village market of old has become a global market today. The products we use or consume on a daily basis are produced all over the world. Asparagus grown in Peru, coffee beans harvested in Guatemala, shoes made in Italy, and Japanese automobiles are all readily available to consumers throughout the United States. Moreover, U.S. companies—even small U.S. companies—have their products manufactured in foreign jurisdictions where labor is cheap and the necessary raw materials are plentiful. And those U.S. companies who do manufacture their products in the United States nevertheless often obtain their parts, components, raw materials, and supplies from sources located outside the United States. In 2009 alone, the total value of imports into the United States of all merchandise— from computers, mobile phones, and Malbec wine to capital equipment, heavy machinery, and oil and gas—was a staggering $1,559,624,813,477.00, more than one and a half trillion dollars.

Slow Atomic Motion in Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni-Be Metallic Glasses Studied by NMR

Nuclear magnetic resonance is used for the first time to detect slow atomic motion in metallic glasses, specifically, Be motion in Zr-Ti-Cu-Ni-Be bulk metallic glasses. The observations are not consistent with the vacancy-assisted and interstitial diffusion mechanisms and favor the spread-out free volume fluctuation mechanism for Be diffusion. Comparison with the results of Be diffusion measured by elastic backscattering the NMR results also indicates that the energy barriers for short- and long-range Be motion are the same

A Cu\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3eS Model for the Nitrous Oxide Reductase Active Sites Supported Only by Nitrogen Ligands

To model the (His)7Cu4Sn (n = 1 or 2) active sites of nitrous oxide reductase, the first Cu4(μ4-S) cluster supported only by nitrogen donors has been prepared using amidinate supporting ligands. Structural, magnetic, spectroscopic, and computational characterization is reported. Electrochemical data indicates that the 2-hole model complex can be reduced reversibly to the 1-hole state and irreversibly to the fully reduced state

Persecution in the Fog of War: The House of Lords\u27 Decision in Adan

International law requires that a person have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group in order to be recognized as a refugee. That is, under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, there must be a nexus between the danger faced by the refugee and one of the five Convention-recognized reasons for persecution. However, in a 1998 decision of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, the House of Lords concluded that a man fleeing clan warfare in Somalia could not meet the nexus test because the claimant, who indisputably faced danger for reasons of his clan membership, faced no greater danger than the dangers faced by members of other clans. This conclusion was incorrect, however, because differential impact is not required by the Refugee Convention. In addition, the House of Lords improperly applied a different standard in the case of the claimant as a result of the state of civil war in Somalia, reasoning that the Refugee Convention does not apply to those caught up in civil war where law and order have broken down and every group seems to be fighting some other group. But review of the language of the Refugee Convention and its drafting history shows that the House of Lords was mistaken in concluding that fighting between clans engaged in civil war cannot constitute persecution for reasons of a Convention ground. Fleeing from civil war is not enough by itself to satisfy the requirements of the Refugee Convention, but in some circumstances war-related danger can give rise to a valid claim to refugee status. And there is no requirement that an applicant for refugee status be more at risk than other persons or groups in his or her country of origin. The relevant question is whether the Convention ground is causally connected to the applicant\u27s predicament