Learning from Sports Law

Some problems that seem to demand coordinated international solutions, like global warming and biopiracy, languish for years without effective responses by the international community.  Yet, when the international community set out to address the problem of doping in sports in the late 1990’s, a robust international regulatory system was set up in relatively short order.  Does the anti-doping experience have broader lessons for global law-making?  Matt Mitten and Hayden Opie think it might.

In a new paper on SSRN, Matt and Hayden argue that “the evolving law of sports is having and will continue to have a significant influence on, and implications for, the development of broader international and national laws.”  They examine the anti-doping movement and other sports-law case studies that they believe should be better appreciated by scholars outside the sports-law field for their broader relevance. 

Entitled “‘Sports Law’: Implications for the Development of International, Comparative, and National Law and Global Dispute Resolution,” the paper will appear in the Tulane Law Review.  The abstract appears after the jump. 

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Marquette Takes a Different Path on Grades

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, the Marquette University Law School adopted a new grading system. A more conventional set of “plus” and “minus” grades replaced the previous A, AB, B, BC, C, D, F system that appears to be unique to Marquette University. Also, for larger classes, the Law School adopted a rule requiring a mandatory mean grade point average of 3.0, in lieu of the previous requirement of a median grade of B.

The new system has had the effect of lowering the overall GPA of the student body, although the experience of the first year has shown that the effect may not be as great as some (including this writer) anticipated.

In tightening up its grading system, Marquette is moving in a quite different direction than many American law schools.

According to Monday’s New York Times, at least ten ABA-accredited law schools, including Georgetown, NYU, and Tulane, have raised their overall grades to make their students appear more competitive on the job market.

Loyola of Los Angeles has gone farther than anyone, raising every grade awarded over the last several years by 0.333 points. For most Loyola students, this means a retroactive GPA jump of a third of a grade point. In other words, a student with a 3.2 GPA before the new policy took effect now has a GPA of 3.533, without having had to do anything to obtain the improvement. (In Loyola’s defense, its previous mean first-year GPA of 2.67 was one of the lowest in the United States.)

Whether or not employers will be fooled by such grade manipulations is open to question.

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Super Mujer: Justice Sonia Sotomayor as a Role Model

When President Barack Obama nominated Justice Sonia Sotomayor a year ago, the debate surrounding her confirmation included a wide array of scrutiny.  Some of the items of discussion were more relevant and more substantive than others.

As the US Supreme Court’s first Latina, third female, and first Type 1 Diabetic to serve on the bench, the greatest amount of focus seemed to fall upon her non-legal, personal history.  Particularly, as this blog has noted, the confirmation hearings concentrated on whether that personal history and her self-identified “Wise Latina”-ness would enhance or detract from her ability to effectively and fairly “say what the law is.”

Nearly a year after her confirmation, the evaluation of the Wise Latina’s first session as a Justice has already begun.  But what if, a year later, we approached the discussion concerning her role on the Court from another direction?  Instead of a debate centered only on Justice Sotomayor’s specific job performance, the discussion might also include the value that comes from choosing a role model that can inspire the underrepresented within the legal community.

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