Finally, a way to diversify Cal universities?

Jesse Choper quoted in California Magazine, March 10, 2014

Beyond that, says UC Berkeley Law professor Jesse Choper, even if the state’s affirmative action ban were to be repealed, times have changed since 1996—and so has the Supreme Court of the United States. “There’s a big hurdle now,” he says. Unlike previous courts, which granted institutions a bit more leeway in crafting diversity-boosting programs, the philosophy of this court is clear: “Race-based programs are a bad thing and we can only use them in extremis.”

Climate change threatens energy infrastructure

Steven Weissman quoted in Climate Central, March 10, 2014

The GAO report does not question scientific findings on global warming, and it shows that many energy companies recognize the risk they face from climate change, said Steven Weissman….“This nonpartisan report should shift the burden of proof for any firms or agencies that are dragging their feet,” Weissman said, adding that the report could focus the attention of the public and policymakers on the need to strengthen all public infrastructure to better stand up to climate change.

 

Time to shine a light on litigation funding

Carol Langford writes for The Recorder, March 6, 2014 (subscription required)

Litigation funding is booming. It is also completely unexamined and unregulated, with even hedge funds getting in on the action. Surprisingly, there is little to no real guidance to lawyers on the ethical issues that arise from working with ALFs in California. Even most legal malpractice policies do not address the liability of a lawyer for issues involved in litigation funding.

 

Saratoga teen’s suicide spurs ‘Audrie’s Law’ on cyberbullying

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Jose Mercury News, March 6, 2014

The proposed legislation is “moderate and reasonable…. What we see here are some necessary fixes to the current law,” Krisberg said Thursday. Some past legislation, proposed after sensational crimes “went overboard and ended up being a Trojan horse for what I would call extremely conservative reforms.” But in the case of the proposed “Audrie’s Law,” he said, “this law is very targeted on specific problems.”

 

Proposition: EU Regulation with US Penalties

Kenneth Bamberger and Deirdre Mulligan’s work cited in The Privacy Advisor, March 5, 2014

The scholarship of Bamberger and Mulligan … portends a watershed moment for privacy professionals. It argues that two emergent best practices—the rise of chief privacy officers who are integrated into the C-suite and privacy professionals embedded throughout an organization, from compliance to marketing and beyond—are a huge part of the solution, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Can LA kick its driving habit?

Ethan Elkind quoted in Politico Magazine, March 5, 2014

But money alone cannot ensure success, notes Ethan Elkind, the author of Railtown, a history of Los Angeles’s troubled transit past. “Despite the multibillion-dollar investment, it took specific policies to make development happen,” Elkind says. “You can’t just build the line and assume people will come.”

Is New York a model for fixing California prisons?

Jonathan Simon quoted in San Francisco Business Times, March 5, 2014

Law professor Jonathan Simon … pointed to prison reforms in the Empire State as a model that should be followed here in the Golden State. Simon, who teaches an undergraduate course on prisons, wrote on UC Berkeley’s official blog that although New York has a long history of “bad penal policy choices,” it also tends to fix those bad choices more quickly than other states, particularly California.

The US–EU privacy debate: conventional wisdom is wrong

Kenneth Bamberger and Deidre Mulligan quoted in Privacy Perspectives, March 4, 2014

Indeed, one fascinating lesson from the Bamberger and Mulligan scholarship is that the development of privacy in the U.S. “has been positively shaped by the incomplete, and comparatively late, institutionalization of privacy governance, in that it has allowed dynamism and adaptability in the face of rapid changes in the use and treatment of personal data.”

How to level the playing field for women in science

Mary Ann Mason writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3, 2014

Having children is a career advantage for men; for women, it is a career killer. And women who do advance through the faculty ranks do so at a high personal price. They are far less likely to be married with children. We see more women than we used to in visible positions, like presidents of Ivy League colleges, but we also see many more women than men who are married with children working in the adjunct-faculty ranks, the “second tier,” and one of the fastest-growing sectors of academe.