Archive
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Read Lawfare column by Cort Thompson ’20 about Russia’s recent space activity
Thompson is a military intelligence officer attending VLS through the U.S. Army’s Funded Legal Education Program and as a Thomas Beasley Scholar. His Lawfare blog column, “Russia’s Recent Space Activity Is a Return to Old Form,” is based on his paper “Avoiding Pyrrhic Victories in Orbit: A Need for Anti-Satellite Arms Control in the 21st Century,” forthcoming in the SMU Journal of Air Law and Commerce. Thompson’s paper is the winner of the American Society of International Law’s 2020 Richard Baxter Military Prize. Read MoreApr. 21, 2020
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VLS Pro Bono Spring Break team works at Just City in Memphis with Wesley Dozier ’19
Dozier is working at Just City as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. He supervised a team of students who worked on expungement cases, participating a Court Watch program, and supported other criminal justice advocacy initiatives. Read MoreApr. 21, 2020
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JETLaw paper by Ramon Ryan ’21 prompts legislation aimed at creating NEPA review for satellite launches
Ryan’s paper, “The Fault in Our Stars,” which challenges the FCC’s longstanding policy of excluding commercial satellites from NEPA review, has prompted Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) to ask for a GAO review. Read MoreApr. 21, 2020
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Listen to W. Kip Viscusi interview about the value of reducing risks to life on Top of Mind
Julie Rose interviews W. Kip Viscusi about balancing the economic toll of sheltering in place with the risk of more coronavirus cases if businesses reopen in this April 8 podcast. Read MoreApr. 20, 2020
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Maria Lopez Evangelista ’00 elected to seat on San Francisco Superior Court
Judge Evangelista had worked as a trial lawyer in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office since 2003, most recently as a deputy public defender. Read MoreApr. 20, 2020
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Morgan Ricks and co-author Lev Menand propose “digital money” as a fast, low-cost way to distribute emergency aid in Bloomberg Finance
Their column, "Let's Pay the Stimulus in Digital Dollars," touts the advantages of a "digital dollar" in allowing for faster distribution of stimulus funds, supporting social distancing, reducing the cost of distributing funds to recipients, and eliminating check-cashing costs and other fees for recipients who don't have bank accounts. Read MoreApr. 20, 2020
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W. Kip Viscusi featured on Planet Money podcast addressing “Lives vs. the Economy”
In a discussion with Planet Money hosts Sarah Gonzalez and Kenny Malone, Professor Viscusi applies his research on the value of reducing risks to life to two pressing questions: "Is it worth it to shut down the economy to save lives?" Or "Should we let people die to save the economy?" He talks about how he came up with a value for a human life and how that value could inform decisions about when to reopen the economy. Viscusi co-directs the Ph.D. in Law and Economics program. Read MoreApr. 20, 2020
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VLS Pro Bono Spring Break team works at Mississippi Center for Justice
Students worked in an expungement clinic, investigated policing practices to support impact litigation, researched the criminalization of HIV and supported other legal advocacy initiatives. Read MoreApr. 15, 2020
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Ganesh Sitaraman proposes a “war production board” for coronavirus testing in co-authored Boston Globe opinion piece
Sitaraman and co-authors Julius Krein and E. Glen Weyl propose the formation of a Pandemic Testing Board tasked with scaling up production, coordination and deployment of COVID-19 tests. The board's mission would be to increase the supply of tests and to launch a Pandemic Response Corps of civilians trained to administer them. Read MoreApr. 13, 2020
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Joey Blake ’20
Joey Blake became the first lawyer in his family when he received his J.D. in May 2020. Joey entered law school after working for two years at Oracle America; he included Vanderbilt among the 16 law schools to which he applied because of its strong Intellectual Property Program. “IP was… Read MoreApr. 10, 2020