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.

A Mistreated Epidemic: State and Federal Failure to Adequately Regulate Psychotropic Medications Prescribed to Children in Foster Care

Abstract: Foster children are prescribed psychotropic medications at alarmingly high rates. Some studies indicate that up to fifty percent of all children in foster care are prescribed one or more psychotropic medications at a given time. These rates indicate that epidemic numbers of children in state care are on mind- or mood-altering medications. Given that available mental health care for children in state custody is woefully inadequate, these rates also suggest that psychotropic medications are being used to manage — not treat — children in care. Yet, many states and the federal government have been exceedingly slow to implement policies that meaningfully regulate how psychotropic medications are prescribed to children in foster care. The result is a serious risk of harm to children from the medications’ side effects, and a high likelihood that the child's underlying mental health, behavioral, or emotional issues will not be treated beyond the “quick fix” that psychotropics offer. This Article explores the psychotropic medication epidemic in the child welfare system and how broad failures by states to attend to the mental health needs of dependent children, along with existing child welfare policies, have contributed to this epidemic. The Article reviews the role federal legislation has had on the psychotropic epidemic and what role the Fostering Connections Act may have on how psychotropics are prescribed. It concludes by reviewing specific action states have taken to regulate psychotropic medications, and offers best practices to help ensure that psychotropics are legally prescribed in therapeutically appropriate ways.

Post-Enron Reflections on Comparative Corporate Governance:

Abstract: In the heated debate of the last fifteen years over which of the world’s many different corporate governance systems are best, the shareholder primacy advocates thought they had won at the turn of ...

Tapping the Power of Soda Taxes: A Call for Multidisciplinary Research and Broad-Based Advocacy Coalitions - A Response to the Recent Commentaries.

Abstract: In comments on our recent editorial, Le Bodo and De Wals and Baker et al provide compelling reflections on the need for further research into the policy processes and societal conditions conducive to sustainable soda taxes. This response is a call to action for increased multidisciplinary research and broad-based advocacy coalitions to expand the use and the effectiveness of soda taxes to promote the public’s health. In particular, we highlight the need for research relevant to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and emerging efforts to incorporate the voices and experiences of people living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) into the development of policy responses.

Middle-Class Black Suburbs and the State of Integration: A Post-Integrationist Vision for Metropolitan America

Abstract: This article reflects broadly on the state of residential integration, and hence race relations, in the United States. It surveys social science research on racial segregation, integration, and the emerging phenomenon of all-black, middle-class suburban enclaves and offers some surprising insights. Despite the illusion of integration, even affluent blacks are largely segregated in the United States. In those metropolitan regions where the majority of African-Americans live, the majority of middle-class blacks live in predominately black communities. And African-Americans, including affluent ones, are significantly more segregated than other racial and economic groups. While racial segregation has declined modestly since the 1960s, the pace of integration of black people has been glacial. The article concludes that full integration of African-Americans is unlikely to be achieved because, at least for blacks and whites, an "integrated neighborhood" is one in which their own group is in the majority. The article also examines the normative debate about the merits, vel non, of voluntary black separation and about the modern relevance of residential integration in American society. While middle-class black suburbs are premised upon a confident separatism, residents of these communities are enduring significant costs for their separatist choice. Specifically, middle-class black communities tend to be characterized by more poverty, higher crime, worse schools, and fewer resources than predominately white middle-class communities. They also tend to be 180 degrees from the areas of highest economic growth. Thus, that article concludes that affluent and middle-class blacks, like poor blacks, are better off in integrated settings in terms of government services, local taxes and access to educational and economic opportunities. Finally, the article offers an alternative, post-integrationist vision for the American metropolis. Accepting that full residential integration is unlikely, the article argues for a two-pronged strategy that is premised upon attacking the root causes of inequality, rather than achieving integration. First, it argues that law makers and law enforcers must be vigilant in attacking any form of discrimination that limits choice in housing, particularly for African-Americans. Second, it argues for a system of local governance that allows citizens to form localities based upon desired identities and preferences but that also offers strong regional entities that can mitigate the inequities that flow from the seemingly inevitable atomization of the metropolitan polity. A few metropolitan regions, most notably the Twin Cities, Minnesota, region, have pursued such a course, enacting regional tax base sharing and fair-share affordable housing, for example. But such a regionalist vision requires a majority of citizens of the metropolis to form broad coalitions that transcend local boundaries of race and class. While such coalitions currently are rare in the United States, the few examples that exist show that they are not impossible.