Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Broad Support for Regional Economic Cooperation Found in New Law School Poll

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:July 28, 2015
Post category:Marquette Law School Marquette Law School Poll Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

A substantial majority of people in the Chicago “megacity” – the region stretching from the Milwaukee area, across metropolitan Chicago, and into northwest Indiana – want to see their political leaders make a priority of action that benefits the region as a whole, and not just actions focused on the needs of their own area.

But what does that mean when you get into details? How does that translate into reality?

That main finding of broad support for regional cooperation and those two questions shaped a groundbreaking conference at Marquette Law School on Tuesday. “Public Attitudes in the Chicago Megacity: Who are we and what are the possibilities?” focused on the results of what is believed to be the first extensive poll of residents of the sections of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana that are part of the “megacity.” The conference was sponsored by the Law School and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Describing the broad conclusions, Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll and the Law School’s professor of law and public policy, said, “What we see is a substantial majority, over 70% in Illinois and Indiana, and 61% in Wisconsin, who say they would rather see cooperation among the governors and the elected officials,” than for political leaders to focus only on their own states’ concerns.

Marquette Students Study Comparative Law in Germany

Post author:Edward A. Fallone
Post published:July 27, 2015
Post category:Constitutional Law International Law & Diplomacy Marquette Law School Public

This is week Two of the Summer Session in International and Comparative Law, taking place in Giessen, Germany. Pictured to the left are my students in the class on Comparative Law. They come from Mexico, Peru, Senegal, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Spain, Moldova, Vietnam, the Slovak Republic and, yes, even Wisconsin. Along with my co-teacher, Thilo Marauhn from Justus Liebig University here in Germany, we have been comparing the constitutional systems of the United States and Germany, and also contrasting the quasi-constitutional structure of the European Union. It may not look like it in the photo, but we are certainly having a great deal of fun.

Other classes this session include International Economic Law & Business Transactions, The Law of Armed Conflict, and International Intellectual Property Law. The faculty come from the United States, Germany, Lithuania, and Great Britain. The faculty are all experts in their fields and, judging from our dinner tonight, we all share an appreciation of German beer.

Julia Taylor on Megacity Cooperation: In Need of “the Big Opportunity”

Post author:Marty Kaiser
Post published:July 21, 2015
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

Julia Taylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, is a leader of the effort to improve our economy through regional cooperation. One way to accomplish this is to understand we live in the Chicago Megacity, which is defined as the 21-county region stretching from the Milwaukee area down through Chicago into northwest Indiana. In 2012 at a conference titled, “Milwaukee’s Future in the Chicago Megacity” at Marquette Law School, she was on a panel of business leaders.

Ahead of the July 28 conference, “Public Attitudes in the Chicago Megacity: Who are we, and what are the possibilities?” once again sponsored by the Marquette Law School and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Taylor talked about what has been accomplished in the last three years and opportunities for regional cooperation in the future.

Taylor has been president of the GMC since 2002. She is on the boards of the Milwaukee Water Council, the Governor’s Council of Workforce Investment, and VISIT Milwaukee.

She talked with former Journal Sentinel editor Marty Kaiser earlier this month.

Q. In 2012 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a global economic think tank based in Paris, issued a 332-page report that advocated closer ties within the Chicago-Milwaukee economy, and declared that the region “is at a tipping point.” The report was not optimistic about the future of the region, but said that if leaders worked together, the region could become more competitive in the global economy. Have you seen signs that the area has begun to work together in the last three years?