Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Brexit Becomes Bruncertainty

The United Kingdom ("U.K.") Supreme Court has ruled that the U.K. government needs the approval of Parliament before it can trigger divorce proceedings from the European Union ("E.U.) by invoking Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union.  On June 23, 2016, a majority of voters in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum voted yes to the question
Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

 Subsequently, the U.K. government has been preparing to inform the E.U. of its intention to "Brexit" under Article 50(2).  The January 24, 2017, Supreme Court decision found the government lacked the prerogative power to effect Brexit without Parliament's formal consent, stating that
121.  Where, as in this case, implementation of a referendum result requires a change in the law of the land, and statute has not provided for that change, the change in the law must be made in the only way in which the UK constitution permits, namely through Parliamentary legislation.
The disarray caused by the Brexit referendum vote has now been compounded by the question of how, of even if, Parliament will actually achieve Brexit.  After all, Parliament could decline to invoke Article 50(2), or, it could decide to vote against Brexit.  Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Brexit has become Bruncertainty.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Great Grouper Groups

The Caribbean Sea once teemed with Nassau groupers (Epinephelus striatus), orangey-brown white-striped fish that can reach 25 kgs in size.  For most of the year, these fish are elusive, tending to hide amongst the coral and rocks of reefs to avoid becoming meals for sharks.  However, during full moons in the Northern hemisphere winter, they gather in great numbers in mating aggregations by the ocean bottom to reproduce.  Savvy fishers learned where and when to drop their nets for rich catches, and, over time, Nassau grouper populations plummeted.  Based in large part on remarkable research by brave biologists, who actually dive to the bottom of the ocean, far offshore, in the middle of the night, to observe these mating aggregations and tag their participants, conservation rules now ban the fishing of reproducing Nassau groupers.  As a consequence, populations of these fish have recently risen substantially.  My friend, Dr. Richard Nemeth, who is a Research Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands ("UVI"), has been at the forefront of this research, which was featured in Scientific American on January 5, 2017.  One of the highlights of the Biodiversity Law class I teach in the Virgin Islands will be meeting with Rick next week at UVI to discuss his research and its conservation applications.  In appreciation for the hospitality UVI always shows my students, I will reciprocate by giving a lecture there on the biology, policy, and law of deextinction.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Setting Innovation Free

I was honoured and delighted when the Centre for International Governance Innovation ("CIGI") invited me last year to become a Senior Fellow.  It is a pleasure to work with this talented group of thinkers, including Deputy Director Dr. Bassem Awad, a wonderful scholar who shares my interests in intellectual property and innovation.  As my first project for CIGI, I have written Set Innovation Free, an essay discussing the emerging power of user, open, collaborative, and free innovation (sensu von Hippel).  Here is my essay.  Here is a cool video CIGI produced to accompany my essay:

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Biolawpalooza


Courtesy of Hank Greely:

Law and the Biosciences Conference Announcement:
The Bio Lawlapalooza!

Advances in the biological sciences from such fields as genetics, neuroscience, reproductive biology, and ecology are increasingly challenging society and the laws that attempt to order, regulate, and protect it.  These advances are crystalizing a new area of work: Law and the Biosciences.  We take a very broad view of Law and the Biosciences and see it encompassing the intersections of both fields. It ranges from CRISPR’d babies and head transplants to patent law in the biosciences with intermediate stops at FDA, health plan coverage decisions, torts, property, and more.  It also includes ways in which biology and its models and approaches may help us understand better that living and evolving organism that is “the law.”

The four of us, in conjunction with the open access, Oxford University Press published Journal of Lawand the Biosciences, and the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences, will host the first annual Bio Lawlapalooza Conference at Stanford Law School on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday, April 20 and 21.  We hope this will provide a forum for people interested in Law and the Biosciences to gather, talk, and share insights, following the precedent of Patent Con, among other conferences.  Registration is free but participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses; much meals will be included.

We welcome scholars who are interested in presenting at the conference as well as those who just want to attend, listen, talk, and schmooze. But we encourage all scholars interested in Law and the Biosciences to apply to present at the Conference.  Titles and abstracts of proposed presentations are due on January 30, 2017; the organizers will make decisions about presentations by February 10.  The peer-reviewed Journal of Law and the Biosciences will welcome submissions coming out of the conference.

Please contact Hank at hgreely@stanford.edu with any questions. We hope to see you all at Stanford in late April 2017!