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.

Lobbying and Self-Defense

Abstract: Lobbying consists in the effort to influence the decision of government policy makers. In a liberal society, the use of coercion to obtain one's ends needs ethical justification. Thus, to the extent that one is lobbying the government to exercise coercion on one's behalf, such lobbying needs ethical justification. This essay argues that the desire to obtain a benefit for oneself at the expense of others that one cannot obtain through voluntary exchange can never serve as such a justification. It further argues that the action of engaging in such ethically unjustified lobbying is morally equivalent to an attack on those who will suffer a loss if it is successful. The essay then applies the legal doctrines of self-defense and defense of others to identify an ethically justified form of defensive lobbying, and traces several of its implications.

A Theory of Everything: A Historically Grounded Understanding of Soft Law – and the Bank for International Settlements

Abstract: This essay, written on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Bank for International Settlements, argues that soft law’s origins in financial regulation lay in the particular institutional evolution of the BIS prior to the articulation of bank capital standards. As will be shown, institutional innovations tied with the Bank’s navigation of the politics and economic particularities of World War I reparations would enable the informality and expert-driven systems that would one day characterise today’s modern ‘Basel Process’ of technocratic decision-making. Furthermore, soft law, far from being an entirely radical break with the economic diplomacy of the times, was in fact merely the next step in an evolution of the Bank that in its deployment would not only enhance the credibility of non-binding understandings and accords in international economic diplomacy, but also help to solidify and elevate the very stature of the BIS. It is indeed no coincidence that soft law would be deployed as a governance mechanism at the BIS in particular as the international regulatory community turned to the challenge of prudential supervision – or that the BIS would conceive of soft law specifically to further urgent financial-market reforms in the post-Bretton Woods era.

Smart Barcodes: Planning for RFID and Related Privacy Issues

Abstract: We’re being challenged to think about implementing a new technology once again. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology hit the library scene in 1999, but few law libraries are using it. This seems counter intuitive, since RFID presents libraries with the unique ability to inventory and manage library resources more effectively and efficiently. Given the multi-volume nature of our collections and the annual costs of performing shelf reading tasks and locating and possibly replacing lost or missing materials, it appears at first blush that more law libraries would jump on the RFID bandwagon. However cost and privacy are two reasons many law libraries may never move forward with this new technology.

From Antislavery Lawyer to Chief Justice: The Remarkable But Forgotten Career of Salmon P. Chase

Abstract: The name Salmon P. Chase is barely known and his career is largely forgotten. In this paper, the author seeks to revive his memory by tracing the arc of his career from antislavery lawyer, to antislavery politician, to Chief Justice of the United States. In addition to explaining why this is a career worth both remembering and honoring, the author offers some possible reasons why his remarkable achievements have largely been forgotten.