Month: December 2011

More on “Distrust”

I posted a few days ago about declining public trust in societal institutions (including the courts, the presidency, big business, the military, the church, etc.)  By coincidence, Nate Silver has a post today that touches on the same subject.  He reports that Democrats tend to have more trust institutions these days than Republicans.  Moreover, Republican …

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Jon Van Dyke (1943-2011)

  Professor Jon Van Dyke of the University of Hawaii’s Richardson Law School died unexpectedly earlier this week.   His work extended across many fields, but most relevantly to this blog, he worked extensively on oceans issues and international environmental law.  He edited five books on these subjects: Consensus and Confrontation: The United States and the …

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Youth Involvement at COP 17

Special blog post by Lauren Bernadett, UCLA School of Law 2L A striking feature of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) is the extensive youth involvement.  The International Convention Centre in Durban is constantly abuzz with young interns and volunteers from various delegations, including some delegations exclusively comprised of young people.  The youth network is …

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Democracy and Distrust

“Democracy and Distrust” is the title of a well-known book constitutional theory, which argues that courts should step in to correct dysfunctions in the democratic process.  But that’s not what I want to talk about right now.  Instead, I want to talk about public trust in the institutions that make democracy work: the media that …

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Jonathan Pershing on climate change

Special post by Nina Jarass, UCLA School of Law LLM student, from Durban So far the US has kept pretty quiet in Durban – at least during the official meetings. Against this background, environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council have urged the Obama administration to show more flexibility on key …

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Fossil of the Day: Canada takes a commanding lead

Canada has taken a commanding lead here in Durban in the Fossil of the Day awards. The award is given daily at the climate change negotiations for the country doing its best to impede, stall or otherwise oppose progress in climate negotiations. The award is judged by 700+ member organizations of Climate Action Network. In …

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