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.

Religious freedom and the Oregon v. Smith and Hialeah cases

Abstract: In a Christian church, the sacrament of communion is an in tegral rite of the faith. Similarly, in Judaism, eating kosher food is for many followers a required part of their faith. And in Santeria, a four thousand-year-old African religion now prac ticed in the United States, an essential aspect of worship is animal sacrifice. Though the practice of animal sacrifice to many people in the United States may seem strange or primi tive, to the followers of Santeria it is a necessary part of their relationship with their gods. In response to the opening of a Santeria church, a city in Florida placed an outright ban on the ritual sacrifice of animals.1 The Santeria church and its priest took the city to court, claim ing a violation of their First Amendment free exercise rights.2 The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and on 4 No vember 1992 the Court heard oral arguments. The parties now await the Court's decision on whether the First Amendment

3 Critical Challenges for Global Health Security

Abstract: International institutions are poised to make one of the most momentous decisions about the futureof global health security since the formation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. By the end of this year, 5 global commissions will have published major critiques of global health preparedness, all spurred by the Ebola epidemic, which exposed deep flaws in the international system. These commiss ions inc lude the WHO’s independent Ebola Interim Assessment Panel, which reported in July that senior leaders failed to respond effectively during the crisis in West Africa, calling for “significant transformation” of the agency (http://bit.ly/1JS5lQe); the WHO Review Committee on the International Health Regulations (IHR), which held its first meeting in Geneva late August (http://bit .ly/1E5thKN); the Harvard/London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on Ebola; the Global Health Risk Framework Commission of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine); and the United Nations (UN) secretary-general formed a High-Level Panel, which includes sitting heads of state to provide political support for major reforms of the global health system (http://bit.ly/1PgRHIk). All the reports will feed into the January meeting of the WHO executive board, with the final decisions taken by the World HealthAssembly inMay2016.Thereareconcerns that 5 commissions will prove to be costly andduplicative.Moreover, there isno assurance that their recommendations will leadtothemeaningfulandenduringchanges now so badly needed in the global health landscape.

Risk, Uncertainty, and 'Super-Risk'

Abstract: Our goal in this symposium article is to introduce the general idea of super-risk and to explain its features and sources. Risk is a pervasive feature of law and public policy. Decision-making in these domains often takes place in the absence of certainty and with awareness that errors may be made and predictions may fail. Within law — as within the social and physical sciences, medicine, economics, finance, and countless other domains — a primary focus of practical and scholarly inquiries is the extent to which risks can be measured and managed. In each of these domains, risk analysis typically employs the basic tools of decision theory (probability and utility) to measure the likelihood as well as the costs and benefits associated with possible outcomes. Risk analysis also often makes use of the familiar (but confusing) distinction between decisions made in conditions of “risk” (roughly, the relevant likelihoods and costs are quantifiable) and decisions made in conditions of “uncertainty” (roughly, the possibilities are either unknown or not amenable to quantification).Beginning with the risk-uncertainty distinction, but altering its terminology, we argue that there is a fundamentally important type of risk that has been systematically ignored. We call it “super-risk.” Super-risk occurs when, at the time of decision, decision-makers believe they are in conditions of risk (what we call “actuarial decision-making”), but they do not know whether they are in an actuarial or an uncertain environment. Super-risk gives rise to a particular type of inferential problem, with significant practical consequences, when decision-makers proceed under the assumption that they are in an actuarial environment but they are in fact in an uncertain one. Super-risk has the potential to arise in any decision-making domain with uncertain outcomes, but it is more prone to arise with decision-making in domains such as law, public policy, economics, finance, and the social sciences rather than in domains such as the physical sciences, medicine, and insurance.

Is the United States Prepared for Ebola

Abstract: The West African Ebola epidemic is a humanitarian crisis and a threat to international security. It is not surprising that isolated cases have emerged in Europe and North America, but a large outbreak in the United States, with its advanced health system, is unlikely. Yet the handling of the first domestically diagnosed Ebola case in Dallas, Texas, raised concerns about national public health preparedness. What were the critical health system vulnerabilities revealed in Dallas, and how can the country respond more effectively to novel diseases in a globalized world?

Health Care Reform in Transition: Incremental Insurance Reform Without an Individual Mandate

Abstract: Massachusetts Senate seat held by EdwardKennedy for 46 years, ending the Democrats’filibuster-proofsupermajorityandstallinghealthcare reform. Lawmakers in both parties called for bipartisanhealth insurance protections to supplant the more compre-hensivepackages,whichcurrentlyincludeanindividualpur-chasemandate.Piecemealreformcouldimposeataxonhigh-cost plans, prohibit health status underwriting, requirecontinuationcoverageforindividualsyoungerthan25years,andfundstatehealthinsuranceexchanges.