Zheng Zhihang, Professor at the Law School of Shandong University organized a side event on the occasion of the 51st Session of the Human Rights Council. That side event, entitled "Human Rights Development in the Perspective of Community with Shared Future for Mankind" was hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and organized by Shandong University.  It was held on the morning of 29 September 2022. A number of topics were considered as a function of the concept of "community with shared future for mankind", including global human rights governance, the right of development, environmental policy, and climate change.

Larry Cata Backer speaks to the core normative and ideological structures around which the construction of socialist internationalism and human rights has emerged, and its relationship in the dominate discourse of human rights developed in international institutions with increasing precision since the end of the last World War.

Frank S. Ravitch and Larry Cata Backer published the 4th Edition to our casebook, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (West Academic, 2021; ISBN 978-1-64708-764-7) in the summer of 2021.

The 2021-2022 Term of the Supreme Court produced three important Religion Clause decisions. We have discussed two of them:   Carson v. Makin, 597 U.S. --- (No. 20–1088; June 21, 2022); and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. _ (No. 21-41827 June 2022). For this conversation we focus on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 US  -- (No. 19–1392, June 24, 2022).  

At first blush, the decision might appear to be an odd choice for discussion. The case was argued primarily on the basis of the transformation of federalism principles, on the new approaches to the constitutionalization of so called unenumerated rights in the federal constitution, and on the role and mechanics of stare decisis. Nonetheless the Dobbs decision carries with it consequences that are already connecting it, its jurisprudence, and the principles that may be derived from both, into the heart of emerging Religion Clause jurisprudence. Within weeks of the decision, "Seven clergy members have filed five lawsuits in Florida contending that the state’s abortion restrictions burden their religious beliefs, speech and conduct." (Clergy members contend Florida abortion law violates their religious freedom; 5 suits are filed).

Frank S. Ravitch and I have just published the 4th Edition to our casebook, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (West Academic, 2021; ISBN 978-1-64708-764-7).

To enrich the casebook materials Frank and I have started producing a series of video discussions of key cases from the jurisprudence. We hope students, faculty, and others may find the discussions of some use as they consider the casebook materials or as a springboard to deeper discussion of themes and complications raised in the cases.  These may be used by faculty and students to enrich their consideration of the casebook materials or as a springboard to deeper discussion of themes and complications raised in the cases.

Frank S. Ravitch and I have just published the 4th Edition to our casebook, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials (West Academic, 2021; ISBN 978-1-64708-764-7). The Preface nicely describes our aims for the book:      

This book focuses on Law and Religion. The book covers three general topics: 1) Church/State Law (issues arising under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and statutes such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act); 2) Religious Law (the role and substance of law in various religious traditions); and 3) Comparative Law and Religion (the law relating to religious freedom in other countries). Most books in this field have little or no material on the latter two topics. The bulk of this book is devoted to First Amendment Law, but the book also provides an overview of Jewish Law (Halakha), Islamic Law (Shari’ah), Buddhist conceptions of law, Catholic Canon Law, Protestant conceptions of law, and Hindu law as well as significant background on comparative Law and Religion. The discussion of First Amendment law integrates cases, questions and narrative to provide an in-depth understanding of the Religion Clauses of the United States Constitution.

The Penn State Law Federalist Society sponsored a conversation discuss the constitutionality of vaccine mandates, religious exemptions and their uses, and a variety of other topics with Professor Larry Backer and Mr. Eric Treene.  The object of discussion was generally the emerging framework of exemptions under Constitutional and statutory Free Exercise principles as they might be applied to the authority of the US military to mandate vaccination. The specific discussion centers on Austin v. U.S. Navy Seals (2022) now hovering within the Supreme Court's shadow docket.

"Since June 2019, Hong Kong has seen months of continuous unrest, showing no signs of stopping. Protests began in June when millions came out to oppose a controversial bill that would have allowed extradition from Hong Kong to China."

The focus is on three different approaches to sovereignty. 

The Conference/Roundtable brings together academics, practitioners, and civil society actors from China, the United States, Spain, Germany, Israel, and Italy, each bringing a unique national and regional perspective to the discussion of COVID-19 in its transnational effects. These effects are simultaneously local (manifesting in specifically contextual ways) and global, manifesting in tendencies to convergence in some respects of principles, practices, and outlook. Participants and contributors here engage with their subject in a series of short video interviews. We hope you enjoy them!

Vanisha Sukdeo is a lawyer and PhD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto Canada. Vanisha currently serves as a course instructor at Osgoode Hall and in the Social Science Department at York University teaching Business Associations and Corporate Governance and Business Law. Vanisha has written two books focusing on the intersection between corporate law and labor and employment law and has published journal article s on a wide range of related topics. "Business Ethics and Legal Ethics" explores the intersection between ethics and legal studies.  The book exams both business ethics and legal ethics through the learning too of case studies. The principal focus of the book is the contextually significant difference of the meaning and application of ethics where business and legal ethics meet.

Senior Members of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy interview Carmen Reinhart, who assumed the position of Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group on 15 one 2020. Ranked among the top Economists worldwide based on publications and scholarly citations, Reinhart has been listed among Bloomberg Markets Most Influential 50 in Finance, Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, and Thomson Reuters' The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds.  In 2018 she was awarded the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics and NABE’s Adam Smith Award, among others. Her book (with Kenneth S. Rogoff) entitled This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly has been translated to over 20 languages and won the Paul A. Samuelson Award. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

The President of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy sits down for an interview today in the run up to the first ASCE Virtual Conference 13-15 August 2020. Silvia Pedraza is Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include the sociology of immigration, race and Ethnicity in the U.S., as well as the sociology of Cuba's revolution and exodus. She speaks a little about her experiences growing up that led from her childhood immigration experiences to sociology at the University of Michigan and how that shaped her research. She speaks then to the sociology of Cuban migration, focusing on the five distinct ways of migration out of Cuba, from the group who left at the time of the revolution (whom she calls "those who wait") to those who have been leaving now ("those who walk" literally describing the experiences of Cuban migrants walking from South America to the U.S. border. Lastly, she talks about the parallels and divergences between the experiences of Cuba and of Venezuela and what sociological research has begun to reveal). It was a truly fascinating discussion.