Georgetown University Law Center

About: Georgetown University Law Center is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supreme court & Public health. The organization has 585 authors who have published 2488 publications receiving 36650 citations. The organization is also known as: Georgetown Law & GULC.

What would it take to describe the global diversity of parasites

Abstract: How many parasites are there on Earth? Here, we use helminth parasites to highlight how little is known about parasite diversity, and how insufficient our current approach will be to describe the full scope of life on Earth. Using the largest database of host-parasite associations and one of the world’s largest parasite collections, we estimate a global total of roughly 100,000 to 350,000 species of helminth endoparasites of vertebrates, of which 85% to 95% are unknown to science. The parasites of amphibians and reptiles remain the most poorly described, but the majority of undescribed species are likely parasites of birds and bony fish. Missing species are disproportionately likely to be smaller parasites of smaller hosts in undersampled countries–species that have mostly been understudied over the last century. At current rates, it would take centuries to comprehensively sample, collect, and name vertebrate helminths. While some have suggested that macroecology can work around existing data limitations, we argue that patterns described from a small, biased sample of diversity aren’t necessarily reliable, especially as host-parasite networks are increasingly altered by global change. In the spirit of moonshots like the Human Genome Project and the Global Virome Project, we propose a global effort to transform parasitology and describe as much of global parasite diversity as possible. Significance Statement Roughly one in ten parasitic worms has been described by taxonomists, while the majority of species remain unknown to science. Data deficiencies are especially severe for some major groups (reptiles and amphibians) and regions (Africa and Southeast Asia). Decades of work have resulted in much larger datasets on host-parasite interactions, but their utility is limited by major data gaps. At current rates, those gaps could take hundreds of years to be filled. We propose that a globally-coordinated project could dramatically speed up this process, playing a critical role in tracking the disease impacts of global change. If successful, it could be a transformative opportunity for multilateral capacity building, and a path towards more equitable research benefit sharing.

"Tobacco and Water": Testing the Health Halo Effect of Natural American Spirit Cigarette Ads and Its Relationship with Perceived Absolute Harm and Use Intentions.

Abstract: In 2015, the FDA formally warned Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company that their "natural" and "additive-free" claims for its Natural American Spirit cigarettes conveyed reduced harm to consumers. In a settlement, Santa Fe was allowed to continue using the word "natural" in the brand name and the phrase "tobacco and water". The company also uses eco-friendly language and plant imagery and these tactics have also been shown to communicate reduced product harm. In this study, we propose the health halo effect as an overarching framework for explaining how these ad tactics mislead consumers in an effort to provide more comprehensive guidance for regulatory action. In a between-subjects experiment, 1,577 US young adults, ages 18-24, were randomly assigned to view one of five Natural American Spirit cigarette ads featuring either: 1) eco-friendly language; 2) plant imagery; 3) the phrase "tobacco and water"; 4) all of these tactics; or 5) a control condition featuring none of these tactics. In line with past research, ads with the phrase "tobacco and water" or with all the tactics together (vs. control) created a health halo effect, increasing perceptions that Natural American Spirit cigarettes were healthier and had less potential to cause disease; these tactics also had an indirect positive effect on smoking intentions through reduced perceptions of the brand's potential to cause disease and perceived absolute harm. Inconsistent with prior work, the eco-friendly language and plant imagery (vs. control) reduced healthfulness perceptions, increased perceptions of absolute harm, and had an indirect negative effect on smoking intentions. We contribute to past research showing that Natural American Spirit cigarette ad tactics mislead consumers. Inconsistent findings are explained in terms of stimuli design and processing of message features, indices of relative message persuasiveness, and multiple versus single-message designs.

International Law in a Kaleidoscopic World

Abstract: International law is developed and implemented today in a complicated, diverse, and changing context. Globalization and integration, fragmentation and decentralization, and bottom-up empowerment are arising simultaneously among highly diverse peoples and civilizations. Most importantly, this period is characterized by rapid and often unforeseen changes with widespread effects. Advances in information technology make possible ever shifting ad hoc coalitions and informal groups and a myriad of individual initiatives.The resulting kaleidoscopic world faces global problems that affect everyone: climate change, financial crises, health threats, communication disruptions and cyber attacks, ethnic and other conflicts, among many others. These cannot be managed solely by one state or a handful of states, or solely by non-state actors. Some of these problems erupt quickly and are not easily contained. Others, like climate change, have inherently long time-horizons and affect the welfare of future generations. One of the most pressing problems is poverty, with more than 1.4 billion people existing on less than US$1.25 per day in 2008 and another 1.2 billion people on less than US$2.00 per day.This kaleidoscopic world both offers opportunities for international law to become more relevant and central and poses significant dangers for its relevance and effectiveness. This article provides an initial analysis of the significance of the kaleidoscopic world for international law.

Narratives of the European Crisis and the Future of (Social) Europe

Abstract: This article examines two distinct types of narratives prevalent in academic writing and popular press regarding the causes of the crisis in Europe. The first type, a morality tale, attributes the crisis to profligate southern states that refused to abide by the strictures of the Stability and Growth Pact. The second type is focused on the structural reasons for the crisis, emphasizing the nature of the European Union as a non-optimal currency area, and the euro as a factor in the creation of trade imbalances and competitiveness problems within the euro zone. Each type of narrative suggests a different type of solution. The morality tale tends to see austerity measures and stricter fiscal discipline as the solution, while the structural narratives suggest anything from banking, to fiscal, to full political union or, by contrast, breakup as the potential ways out. The article argues that European politicians have focused on the morality tale and this in turn makes the structural solutions required for the survival of the euro politically unworkable. The article further argues that the European Commission has used the crisis as evidence of the dire consequences following from lack of reforms. Instead of profligate citizens the Commission sees inefficient states that are potentially creating impediments to growth. Notably, the Commission’s vision of desirable reforms for the purposes of growth reach well into the basic structures of European welfare state, on social policy, pensions, and health care, but this time under the guise of a fiscally mandated adjustment that should be binding on Member State through the process of economic policy coordination.

Self-Defense and Subjectivity

Abstract: The law of self-defense has rarely produced as much academic or popular heat as it has in the past two decades. Widely publicized trials, such as the Goetz and Menendez cases, have generated deep-seated fears of a law unmoored from principle. Those fears have generated a standard public critique--that the criminal law has become too soft and subjective, too wedded to syndrome science and prone to weak-kneed affection for defendants. The criminal law has lost its "objectivity," so the argument goes. The poster child, and even the alleged cause of this development, is the battered woman.In this article, the author presents evidence that much of this public debate is misdirected: the charge of subjectivity and abuse, if not a deception, is a diversion. The problem with the law of self-defense is neither new nor limited to the battered woman; it is as old and as persistent as the law's search for an objective meaning for necessity. Based on a survey of twenty years of self-defense cases, the author sought to "test" claims of objectivity by focusing on what purports to be one of the most objective of self-defense rules: the requirement that the threat must have been "imminent" for the defendant's response to have been permissible. Time is not something legal scholars generally study. The author chose to study imminence, however, because it seems the quintessential definition of "objectivity," the hard case. Perhaps more importantly, there is no more controversial element in the law of self-defense. As George Fletcher has put it: "The central debate in the theory of self-defense for the last decade has been whether we should maintain a strict requirement of imminence."Part I of this article explains the legal issues of imminence and the law of self-defense as well as the construction of the legal debate as a question of subjectivity. Part II presents the results of the author’s survey and its method. Part III argues that the so-called objectivity of contemporary doctrine is belied by its content; that doctrine we call "objective" leaves open many questions and risks the embrace of contradictions. This Part traces these failures to a basic theoretical disagreement about the meaning of necessity in the law of self-defense. Part IV argues that "subjectivity" cannot resolve these questions. It argues that even the apparently most subjective aspects of self-defense law -- such as battered woman syndrome -- may rest on objective legal propositions. Finally, Part V questions whether a discourse of objectivity and subjectivity really helps us understand the criminal law, in self-defense or the many other places it may be found. The author argues that if there is a problem with the law of criminal defenses today, it is not with syndromes or subjectivity, but with a criminal law that purports to be neutral and precise but remains full of contested meanings.