In The News

Illegal Migration in the 21st Century

Bertil Lintner January 10, 2003
Globalization is often described in terms of increased 'flows' or 'movements' of money, ideas, or goods. But the movement of people across national borders remains highly regulated and a point of major contention between many countries. Governments of rich industrialized nations spend billions of dollars each year to control inflows of poorer people seeking greater economic...

American Congress Can Affect Global Warming

James Gustave Speth December 27, 2002
We live in a world where air and oceans know no national boundaries, and where political choices made in one area have direct repercussions for others. Carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles and electricity plants in the US must be reduced today to avoid heating up our globe even more in coming decades. But American leaders in Congress, and President Bush in the White House, seem determined...

Strict International Patent Laws Hurt Developing Countries

Amy Kapczynski December 16, 2002
In 1998, 39 pharmaceutical companies filed a lawsuit against South Africa. They hoped to stop the government from producing the generic drugs that would have made treatment affordable for the country's AIDS victims. A public outcry ensued, and critics accused pharmaceutical companies of valuing profit over human life. Although these same companies were eventually pressured into dropping...

Patent Your Heritage

Tina Rosenberg December 15, 2002
Online libraries in the making will soon document and patent the traditional and biological heritage that is being exploited by pharmaceutical companies in the industrialized world. India is leading the crusade against the misappropriation of their medicinal patrimony by shielding it instead of trying to take it back from foreigners who patented it. This online library will provide a translation...

A Jurisdictional Tangle

December 10, 2002
A high-court ruling in Australia may make it possible to sue a publication for libel from halfway around the world. An Australian businessman sued the Dow Jones Company using the libel laws in his home state of Victoria, claiming that because he could access the Wall Street Journal website from Victoria, any libelous material on that website could be prosecuted under Victoria’s jurisdiction....

When Nike Speaks

December 10, 2002
The debate over sweatshops and corporate responsibility for factory working conditions has again made its way to American courts. When Nike issued misleading statements about its third-world labor policies, consumer groups took the company to court, charging Nike with false advertising. In May 2002, the California Supreme Court sided against Nike, allowing lawsuits against the company and...

What a Howler

December 9, 2002
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said recently that he favors preemptive strikes against terrorists in Asian nations, unleashing a flood of criticism from within Australia and without. This commentary in Singapore's Straits Times argues that the notion of preemption must be examined by the international community. The United Nations must be consulted before preemptive strikes occur...