Domestic Legislation and the Law of the Sea Conference

This presentation and panel discussion are part of the symposium entitled: Mining the Deep Seabed: A Range of Perspectives. It addresses some of the issues facing the United States Congress such as protecting the position of U.S. companies, as well as promoting international agreements with regards to ocean mining

The U.N. Law of the Sea Conference and the U.S. Congress: Will Pending U.S. Unilateral Action on Deep Seabed Mining Destroy Hope for a Treaty?

The eighth session of the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference convened recently in Geneva, Switzerland. A major unresolved issue at the Conference was the question of international regulation of deep seabed mining. In this article, Representative McCloskey and Attorney Losch discuss U.S. interests in achieving a comprehensive Law of the Sea Treaty, the sometimes conflicting objectives of other nations, and the effect that unilateral action by the U.S. Congress to legislate deep seabed mining could have on the successful completion of a treaty

The U.N. Law of the Sea Conference and the U.S. Congress: Will Pending U.S. Unilateral Action on Deep Seabed Mining Destroy Hope for a Treaty?

The eighth session of the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference convened recently in Geneva, Switzerland. A major unresolved issue at the Conference was the question of international regulation of deep seabed mining. In this article, Representative McCloskey and Attorney Losch discuss U.S. interests in achieving a comprehensive Law of the Sea Treaty, the sometimes conflicting objectives of other nations, and the effect that unilateral action by the U.S. Congress to legislate deep seabed mining could have on the successful completion of a treaty

Mining the Deep Seabed: A Range of Perspectives

Introduction to the symposium entitled: Mining the Deep Seabed: A Range of Perspectives. The introduction is written by Roger H. Hull, who introduces the panel, people in attendance, and core issues involving the system of exploration and exploitation for the the deep seabed resource policy, financial arrangements, and the structure of the Authority, which all parties agree will play a major role in the development of the deep seabed

The Stakes in Bayh-Dole: Public Values Beyond the Pace of Innovation

Evaluation studies of the Bayh-Dole Act are generally concerned with the pace of innovation or the transgressions to the independence of research. While these concerns are important, I propose here to expand the range of public values considered in assessing Bayh-Dole and formulating future reforms. To this end, I first examine the changes in the terms of the Bayh-Dole debate and the drift in its design. Neoliberal ideas have had a definitive influence on U.S. innovation policy for the last thirty years, including legislation to strengthen patent protection. Moreover, the neoliberal policy agenda is articulated and justified in the interest of “competitiveness.” Rhetorically, this agenda equates competitiveness with economic growth and this with the public interest. Against that backdrop, I use Public Value Failure criteria to show that values such as political equality, transparency, and fairness in the distribution of the benefits of innovation, are worth considering to counter the “policy drift” of Bayh-Dole

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure