In The News

Project Syndicate: IP for the 21st Century Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev October 17, 2017
Intellectual property laws can be an obstacle when emerging economies are enduring a health crisis. Writing for Project Syndicate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev describe South Africa’s battle against the global pharmaceutical industry as HIV/AIDS swept through the continent. Today South Africa’s leaders are working to develop intellectual property policies to expand access to...

Financial Times: AI’s Rapid Advance Sparks Call for Code for Robots

John Thornhill September 22, 2017
The artificial intelligence, or AI, field has experienced great advances, with recent innovations enabling robots to become increasingly autonomous. Many AI inventions, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, are benefiting society and quickly become routine for users. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the potential for robot-induced destruction is emerging. In August, two Chinese chat bots...

Wired: The Hard Consequences of Google’s Soft Power

Nitasha Tiku September 4, 2017
Google and parent company Alphabet resist being perceived as a global monopoly in need of additional regulation. Regulators around the globe struggle to keep up with the many high-tech firms that both provide an array of information and collect data on user behavior. The European Union fined Google €2.5 billion for prioritizing its comparison-shopping service in search engine results and expects...

Southern Poverty Law Center: Guide to Countering “Alt-Right”

August 17, 2017
Right-wing extremist groups are descending on US college campuses, trying to recruit followers, attract publicity and incite outrage with various causes including white nationalism. Such appearances in diverse college towns like Berkeley, California, and Charlottesville, Virginia, have triggered protests, violence and fierce debates over the constitutional right to free speech. “College campuses...

Financial Times: America’s Looming Constitutional Crisis

Edward Luce July 28, 2017
Investigations into interference in the 2016 US presidential election continue, with reports suggesting that the special counsel is examining the Trump Organization’s financial dealings with Russia. Leaders around the globe follow every detail to assess the resilience of US law. Donald Trump has called the investigations a witch hunt, expressing anger after the attorney general, an early...

Deutsche Welle: EU Urges Poland to Halt Judicial Reforms or Face Sanctions

July 20, 2017
Judicial reforms initiated by Poland’s governing party Law and Justice, of which the President Andrzej Duda is a close ally, are coming closer to fruition, but with substantial criticism in both Poland and abroad. Proposed legislation would “trigger the immediate dismissal of current judges in the Supreme Court” and then allow the justice minister to appoint both Supreme Court replacements and...

Reuters: Closer Hong Kong, China Ties Create Corporate Governance Challenges

Michelle Price July 4, 2017
The long-term sustainability of “two systems” for one country – China and Hong Kong – was always in question, especially as the two markets have increasingly integrated. A rout in small-cap stocks may signal concerns about financial regulatoin, explains Michelle Price for Reuters. “The sell-off has raised questions over Hong Kong's ability to enforce its rules, as the territory's...