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 & Global health. The organization has 585 authors who have published 2488 publications receiving 36650 citations. The organization is also known as: Georgetown Law & GULC.

The Art of Legislative Lawyering and the Six Circles Theory of Advocacy

Abstract: A "legislative lawyer" is a person who exists in Washington, D.C., and in almost every city and state in this country where legislation and administrative regulations are developed. But most people do not know who that person is or what that person does. In fact, most advocacy organizations that should be hiring legislative lawyers have no idea who a legislative lawyer is. The author coined the term "legislative lawyer" when she created a Federal Legislation Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. over a decade ago. The author needed to explain to her faculty colleagues what type of law she intended to teach her students in the Clinic and why such learning deserved six (now ten) law school credits.The author explained at the time, "legislative lawyers" are individuals who practice law in a political, advocacy context. Good legislative lawyers are: (1) good at comprehending, analyzing, and manipulating legal text and, at the same time, good at understanding the political dynamics of legislative and administrative systems; (2) able to gain the trust and respect of both legal players and political players in an advocacy effort because of their joint competency in law and politics; and (3) able, because of such trust and respect, to be effective and creative translators and negotiators between the often disparate worlds of law, policy, and politics.The author’s primary goal in this article is to describe the skills and talents of a good legislative lawyer. The legislative lawyer is a key component of the author’s Six Circles Theory of Effective Advocacy. She developed this theory mostly (although not exclusively) out of her experience working on the Americans with Disabilities Act from 1988 to 1990. An additional goal of this article, therefore, is to set forth the Six Circles Theory of Effective Advocacy and to highlight its potential contribution towards structuring an effective legislative or regulatory effort.The author’s final goal of this article is to provide an overview of how she teaches "legislative lawyering" in a law school clinical setting. The author hopes this section of the article, together with its appendices, will be useful to anyone who wishes to establish a similar clinic focusing on legislation and administrative regulations.

The ‘Public Policy’ Exception to the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in the Theory and Jurisprudence of the Central and East European States and Russia

Abstract: ### (a) Purpose THE PURPOSE of this article is to provide an overview of the current theory and judicial practice in Central and East European states (hereinafter ‘CEE states’1) and Russia in applying the ‘public policy’ exception to the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards.2 The fundamental reform of the societies in the former socialist countries calls for a reassessment of the concept of ‘public policy’ as used in arbitration practice. The scholarly and judicial interpretation of public policy in the jurisprudence of most other jurisdictions appears to be determined by the ‘pro-enforcement bias’ towards arbitral awards. In view of the ongoing changes in the arbitration process in the CEE states and Russia, this article attempts to determine what approach national courts will adopt towards enforcement of the foreign arbitral awards, in particular through the interpretation of the public policy exception. Will the narrow approach towards the public policy exception be adopted, as recognized by Western European and US courts? Or will a tendency to use public policy so as to ‘protect’ the nationals or certain interests of these states develop? ### (b) Structure In order to identify the special features of the public policy theory in the CEE states and Russia, the first part of this article outlines the prevailing concepts of the doctrine of public policy as developed by legal scholars and practitioners in the rest of the world. The second part tries to present the ‘socialist doctrine’ on public policy in arbitration. On one hand, the retrospective analysis is necessary to explain the existence of a ‘common arbitration culture’ in the region developed in the post-World War II period.3 On the other, the understanding of the institutions and practice inherited by the CEE states from the ‘socialist period’ also explains the problems that national courts are facing in enforcing foreign …

Making Peace and Making Money: Economic Analysis of the Market for Mediators in Private Practice

Abstract: Mediation has grown tremendously in the last three decades, yet only a small number of mediators have been able to benefit financially from its growth. The supply of willing mediators by far exceeds the demand for their services. Mediator trainee overoptimism and the lack of formal barriers to entry result in excess entry in the market for mediators. However, the lack of a formal barrier, but the existence of de facto barriers to entry, such as mediator selection practices and specialization, combined with excessive individual optimism, creates inefficiently high levels of entry. This is socially suboptimal: many aspirant mediators spend money pursuing what is likely an illusory career and forego other career options, even though they were never going to be able to make money as mediators. The article presents data that income distribution in the market for private mediation in uneven, and suggests that the market is a winner-take-all market, where a few mediators at the top of the pyramid are busy and well-paid, while the vast majority of aspiring mediators is constantly looking for work, yet makes little or no money. The article proposes economic reasons that contribute to this phenomenon: non-homogeneity of the product (i.e., mediation services), de facto barriers to entry, including mediator selection preferences and specialization, organizational structures, and inelastic demand for mediator services. Since mediation consumers often compare the cost of mediation to the cost of litigation instead of comparing costs of different mediators, new mediators are unable to compete for work on price. Information problems, in particular the lack of objective measures of mediator quality, other than settlement rates, and attorneys' control of access to clients, have made reputation the most important factor for mediator selection, making it difficult for new entrants to gain a foothold in the private mediation market. Small firm size further reduces the number of opportunities for new mediators to learn skills and acquire the necessary reputation to be able to practice on their own. Since experience and reputation are essential for success, only celebrity mediators, mediators with authority - such as former judges - and those with sufficient resources and stamina are able to survive in the market long enough to make a living as mediators. As a result, mediation is a second or third career for virtually all full-time mediators in private practice. This has important implications for aspirant mediators and for design of mediation training programs. Aspirant mediators would be well-advised to specialize in a particular field, such as environmental issues or construction, and gain a solid reputation among lawyers and/or business people in that field before starting a mediation career. In addition, mediation training programs ought to be redesigned to convey to aspirant mediators the realities of mediation practice.

The Next Generation: Creating New Peace Processes in the Middle East

Abstract: This essay describes how Israeli students in a course on mediation and consensus building taught in an Israeli university law department by an American law professor and an Israeli instructor analyzed and studied the conflict in the Middle East. It describes the suggestions they made for process design for the next stages of whatever peace process might emerge for the region. In light of the students' suggestions, the authors present some ideas as to how different approaches to reconciliation and peace might be used, managed, and coordinated.