The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, a forum for incisive commentary and analysis
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
By Lyan Casamalhuapa
Lyan Casamalhuapa is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Political Science. The U.S. Treasury Department has recently authorized Venezuela, an OPEC member, to produce and export oil for the next six months without limitations. This move comes after a deal reached in Venezuela to begin lifting bans that kept opposition candidates from running in elections next year - a general step towards free and fair elections. When taking a look inside Venezuela’s contradictory oil industry, Venezuela has more proven oil reserves than any other country in the world. They have led globally with over 304 billion barrels of proved reserves, surpassing the U.S’ 69 billion barrels. Given the immense oil reserves at its disposal, Venezuela should have a bolstering and prosperous economy; however, instead, the Venezuelan economy has been marked by hyperinflation, leading to escalating hunger, disease, and one of the largest external displacement crises in the world. This can be accredited to the country's main exportation, oil, plummeting by more than 75% over the past decade. [1] Thus, the question arises: how does a country with so much oil produce so little?
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By Nathan Liu
Nathan Liu is a freshman studying political science in the College of Arts and Sciences. “In Mojave thinking, body and land are the same. The words are separated only by the letters ‘ii and ‘a: ‘iimat for body, ‘amat for land. In conversation, we often use a shortened form for each: mat-. Unless you know the context of a conversation, you might not know if we are speaking about our body or our land. You might not know which has been injured, which is remembering, which is alive, which was dreamed, which needs care. You might not know we mean both” - Natalie Diaz.[1] By Amanda Damayanti
Amanda Vania Damayanti is an exchange student from Indonesia at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently pursuing a law degree in the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia. A patent is an exclusive right, granted for the invention of a product or a process which allows a new or an alternative way to solve a problem. In the healthcare industry, patents are provided to novel pharmaceutical medicine or medical devices. The exclusive right of the patent allows the patent holder to exclude others in making, using, and/or selling their patented product. [1] In order to get a patent for a new medicine or medical device to be sold in the market, one must register through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and then get the FDA’s (Food and Drug Administration) approval. Foreign agents laws: How a WWII-era U.S. law is taking on new forms domestically and abroad5/20/2023 By Ella Sohn
Ella Sohn is a rising sophomore studying English in the College of Arts & Sciences. In early March, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, to protest a proposed law on “transparency and foreign influence.” The turmoil lasted two nights, leading to clashes with riot police and the detainment of over 100 protesters. The government said on Mar. 9 that it would withdraw the legislation. Although the protests calmed soon after the announcement, they highlighted a contentious type of legislation that several other countries have successfully implemented over the past decade. [1] Serena Camici is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying International Relations.
Far from being just an icy tourist destination, the Arctic Circle is ripe ground for renewed geopolitical conflict. After the Cold War it has remained a relatively quiet region – until now. With its strategic position and treasure-trove of natural resources, the Arctic is an increasingly important place of interest for several state actors. [1] The current international order governing the Arctic will need to accommodate economic and political competition, heightened military activity, and climate change that will occur in the Arctic region over the next half of the 21st century. By Gabrielle Cohen
Gaby Cohen is a second-year student at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences studying philosophy, politics and economics. ChatGPT has generated intellectual property and copyright controversies and ignited debate among students, teachers, writers, artists, content creators, and employees of every kind. Released in November 2022, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot powered by a large language model, which prompts it to perceive human language, evaluate and sort through immense collections of data, and produce replies [1]. The chatbot was developed by OpenAI, a startup based in San Francisco funded by prominent investors such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Microsoft. ChatGPT consists of generative AI, using algorithms to generate, summarize, and alter data [ Duty of Vigilance: Holding Companies Responsible for Environmental and Human Rights Abuses3/23/2023 By Ella Sohn
Ella Sohn is a first-year studying English in the College of Arts & Sciences. Three environmental groups are taking Danone, a French yogurt and bottled water company, to court. The NGOs accused Danone in early January of failing to reduce the use of plastic within its supply chain. It is perhaps unsurprising that this particular company—France’s largest dairy group, and the world’s ninth largest plastic polluter—is facing a lawsuit over its environmental impact. Yet the fact that the lawsuit is a possibility at all stems from a groundbreaking duty of vigilance law, enacted by the French government in 2017, that has since spurred a wave of legislation expanding companies’ duty to address social and environmental problems. [1] By: Alicia Augustin
Alicia Augustin is a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences who plans to study Political Science and Urban Education. “How [are] we supposed to become better people if we can’t have any normal friendships, any normal conversations, any control over what happens to us?” Quoted from Mark Salzman, True Notebooks: A Writer’s at Juvenile Hall, a juvenile behind bars questions how he is expected to develop in a system that simply does not allow it. Despite a recent trend of youth incarceration rates declining, 48,000 minors in the United States are labeled as “juveniles,” living their lives within the carceral system [1]. These juveniles of various ages below 18 develop within a system that controls every aspect of their lives, being told when it is appropriate to eat, sleep, and socialize. Losing freedom in the U.S. when committing a crime is seemingly synonymous with losing one’s natural right to life, a right declared by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Although the Declaration of Independence is not law, it serves as the foundation for U.S. law as we know it today. By Sajan Srivastava
Sajan Srivastava is a sophomore from Piedmont, California, studying Economics. The February 2023 derailment of a freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, raises profound questions of who bears the legal, ethical, and practical responsibility for the environmental disaster. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has estimated that the disaster, which released such toxic chemicals as vinyl chloride, has so far killed roughly 43,000 fish within a 5-mile radius of the derailment site. Considering that the city’s streams connect to the nearby Ohio River through five streams, it is abundantly clear that any hazardous chemicals released in the derailment have the potential to affect communities and ecosystems far beyond East Palestine and even Ohio. Nine states border the Ohio River watershed, and the river’s drainage into the Mississippi River poses a threat to the economic state of much of the country [1]. With the dangers of the released chemicals to humans unclear, it remains ambiguous whether government agencies can ethically advise residents to return to their homes and where the liability for potential damages to public health and economic well-being ultimately falls. By Serena Camici
Serena Camici is a sophomore studying International Relations in the College of Arts and Sciences. For decades, commercial and legal professionals have regarded London, England as the top destination for international dispute resolution, in which enterprises headquartered around the world seek quick and easy arbitration from English courts. As opposed to trial, legal arbitration offers a more flexible option to dispute settlement, known for its relative privacy, convenience, and affordability. The Law Quarterly Review has praised the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), a private company offering dispute resolution, as “expeditious where the law is slow, cheap where the law is costly, simple where the law is technical, a peacemaker instead of a stirrer-up of strife” [1]. London is home to nearly half of the world’s leading law firms, as well as smaller specialist firms. 80% of the 17,000 cases handled by the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration in 2014 involved international actors [2], representing 180 countries in total. |
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