The Red Dawn of Geoengineering: First Step Toward an Effective Governance for Stratospheric Injections

A landmark report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued in 2015 is the latest in a series of scientific studies to assess the feasibility of geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols to offset anthropogenic global warming and to conclude that they offer a possibly viable supplement or back-up alternative to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The known past effect of major explosive volcanic eruptions temporarily moderating average worldwide temperatures provides evidence in support of this once taboo form of climate intervention. In the most extensive study to date, an elite NAS committee now suggests that such processes for adjusting global temperature, while still uncertain, merit further research and field testing. Every study stresses the need for transparent international governance of stratospheric injections, especially given that the benefits of such interventions are certain to be unevenly distributed and the risks are not fully known. After examining the roadblocks to such governance, this paper explores the statutory and common law frameworks that could provide some stop-gap approaches until the needed regulatory regime emerges

The Red Dawn of Geoengineering: First Step Toward an Effective Governance for Stratospheric Injections

A landmark report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued in 2015 is the latest in a series of scientific studies to assess the feasibility of geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols to offset anthropogenic global warming and to conclude that they offer a possibly viable supplement or back-up alternative to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The known past effect of major explosive volcanic eruptions temporarily moderating average worldwide temperatures provides evidence in support of this once taboo form of climate intervention. In the most extensive study to date, an elite NAS committee now suggests that such processes for adjusting global temperature, while still uncertain, merit further research and field testing. Every study stresses the need for transparent international governance of stratospheric injections, especially given that the benefits of such interventions are certain to be unevenly distributed and the risks are not fully known. After examining the roadblocks to such governance, this paper explores the statutory and common law frameworks that could provide some stop-gap approaches until the needed regulatory regime emerges

The History of a Legislative Proposal

Mostly through the efforts of local school administrators mobilized by AASA legislators became familiar and comfortable with LEAD during the Spring and Summer of 1984. (Development and Implementation of LEAD

Euthanasia in America - Past, Present, and Future: A Review of \u3cem\u3eA Merciful End\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eForced Exit\u3c/em\u3e

Nearly 170 years ago, in the classic first volume of his Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville observed, Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question. De Tocqueville viewed this as a peculiarly U.S. development. He attributed it to the authority of the judiciary in the United States to review governmental enactments and establish individual rights based on judicial interpretation of the federal and state constitution. Whenever a law that the judge holds to be unconstitutional is invoked in a tribunal of the United States, he may refuse to admit it as a rule; this power is the only one peculiar to the U.S. magistrate, but it give rise to immense political influence, de Tocqueville explained. He then commented, But as soon as a judge has refused to apply any given law in a case, that law immediately loses a portion of its moral force. The same can be said of individual rights: those decreed by the Supreme Court carry added moral force, those denied by that Court carry less moral force. To some extent, Americans conflate morality with constitutionality. The relevance of this observation in a review of two books about efforts to legalize physician-assisted death, Ian Dowbiggin\u27s A Merciful End and Wesley J. Smith\u27s Forced Exit, should become apparent later - but for now, permit me to elaborate on the general observation

Human Gene Therapy and the Law: An Introduction to the Literature

This essay will review introductory selections on the law of human gene therapy in the context of four common starting points: the discovery of DNA structure, past efforts to regulate genetic engineering, America\u27s experience with eugenics, and historical, constitutional, or cultural values

Seeking Compassion in Dying: The Washington State Law Against Assisted Suicide

From a constitutional standpoint, the decision by Judge Rothstein is more significant than the Oregon initiative because her reasoning calls into question statutes against assisted suicide that are currently in effect in most American states and are part of traditional Anglo-American law. Her ruling goes far beyond the Oregon initiative (now the Death With Dignity Act), which created a narrow statutory exception in the law against assisted suicide. It establishes a broad, new constitutional right that will restrict legislative efforts to address this controversial social issue. The decision was unprecedented; no prior court had limited a state\u27s authority to outlaw assisted suicide. And it is unfortunate: By failing to properly balance the relevant issues at stake, the decision in Compassion in Dying threatens to make a mockery of its name by increasing the vulnerability of elderly and infirm patients without demonstrably aiding those who might independently choose death. Relying heavily on this point and raising several other serious concerns, the Ninth Circuit federal court of appeals reversed Judge Rothstein\u27s holding in a split decision issued after this Article was written and initially edited

A Constitutional Afterthought: The Origins of the Vice Presidency, 1787 to 1804

At the origins of the office, even though the Vice President was, as its first occupant John Adams declared, “only one breath” away from the presidency, the Office of the Vice President was an afterthought of the Constitutional Convention. Never discussed during the first three months of the four-month long Convention, the Committee of Eleven introduced the vice presidency as a byproduct of how it resolved to fix the presidential selection process. Under this process, the Electoral College emerged, with each state assigned the same number of electors as its members in the House of Representatives and Senate. Each elector would cast equal, undesignated votes for two candidates, only one of whom could be from the elector’s home state. Having a vice president gave an apparent (though sham) reason for each elector’s second vote. Many Convention delegates viewed the vice presidency as unnecessary, some seeing the office as dangerous because the Vice President would be President of the Senate as well, thus mixing Legislative and Executive functions. By 1804, most observers believed that electors were implementing the system of choosing the Vice President in a manner both different from what the framers intended and in a potentially antirepublican fashion. Change was crucial. Proponents introduced, passed, and ratified the Twelfth Amendment so that the majority party would choose both the President and the Vice President. As a result, except for retaining its limited role in the Senate, the Office of the Vice President effectively moved from the Legislative to the Executive Branch, resulting in the modern political structure