Applying Chevron

Arti Rai (Duke Law), moderator ; Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia (Pennsylvania State Law School), Christopher Walker (Ohio State Moritz College of Law), Jonathan Masur (University of Chicago Law School), Matthew Lawrence (Emory University School of Law), and Jonathan Choi (University of Minnesota Law School), panelists

Sovereign intimacies: The lives of documents within US state‐noncitizen relationships

In the United States, the doctrine of plenary power grants the federal government considerable discretion in formulating US immigration policies. With only limited court review, the executive and legislative branches of government can create or abrogate immigration policies quite suddenly. This produces extreme uncertainty in the lives of noncitizens, who must collect check stubs, bills, medical records, and other documents in hopes of eventually being able to submit them as part of a legalization case. Such record-keeping practices enable noncitizens to speak back to the state in its own language, thus exploiting opportunities to challenge illegalization. The discretion that has been deemed key to US sovereignty therefore makes not only immigrants but also the state vulnerable as it endows documents with transformative potential. [immigration, sovereignty, documents, vulnerability, intimacy, law, United States]

Application of a plant bioassay for the evaluation of ecotoxicological risks of heavy metals in sediments affected by mining activities

Purpose. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of a plant bioassay (Phytotoxkit®) for screening ecotoxicological risks in sediments affected by mining activities. Materials and methods A total of 42 sediment samples affected by mining activities were studied, including 39 sediment samples fromthe Sierra Minera, Spain, an area affected by old extraction procedures, and three sediments from an area affected by opencast mining. These three samples were then mixed with limestone filler at 10, 20 and 30 %, providing nine stabilised samples. The total and soluble metal(loid) content (As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn) was determined in all samples, and the Phytotoxkit® bioassay was applied to determine the ecotoxicological effect of this procedure. Results and discussion The stabilised material had a neutral pH and low soluble metal(loid) concentration, similar to that of samples in which a natural attenuation process had taken place because of mixing with surrounding carbonate-rich materials. An ecotoxicological survey identified the low toxicity levels of the stabilised samples