The New China Syndrome

chinese-flagSince last month China has been on an economic rampage that could have serious long- term effects on the United States and Europe. While Americans have been inundated with a vast and steady diet of “news” focused on personalities (the ongoing deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett and the death-like experiences of Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign, and Governor Sarah Palin, just to name a few) the economic movements in China that will have a much more significant impact on Americans and their futures have gone virtually unreported by both the American major print and electronic reporting media. Unlike American media, foreign news services have given front-page coverage and deep analytical assessments of China’s economic developments.

Examples of these significant developments include: 

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Debate Over the Proposed New Restatement of Employment Law

The Wisconsin Law Journal has an interesting article on the new draft of the Restatement of Employment Law.  As the article discusses, there has been a lot of debate within the employment law community about some aspects of the draft.  Indeed, a group comprised mostly of employment law professors has prepared extensive critical commentary on the draft Restatement.  Our own Paul Secunda co-chaired the working group critiquing the provisions on wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.  The report of his working group is now available on SSRN.

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Confrontation and Criminal Trials: What’s Actually in Play

The long-awaited Supreme Court decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts finally came down on June 25, 2009.  See my prior post here.  Neither the majority opinion nor the dissent yield many clues about what took so long (this was the last case from the Court’s November sitting), and on the surface at least there is little that is portentous.  Yet the case is ultimately about far more than hearsay evidence in criminal trials.  It reveals significant discord about the nature of the modern adversary trial as well as skepticism over the use of science in the courtroom. 

The case addressed whether the government may introduce a crime laboratory report (hearsay) against a defendant without calling as a witness the analyst who performed the test.  The Court held that such reports are manufactured expressly for use at trial against the defendant; hence, they constitute “testimonial hearsay” that cannot be introduced without the declarant (the lab analyst) on the witness stand, available for cross-examination.

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