Truth and Reconciliation, Stories from the Diaspora

TRC_Report_coverSeveral months ago I blogged about the situation of Liberians who fled their country for the United States (but who did not receive official status as refugees) and who have lived here for years in a “temporary” status, while it remained unsafe to return to Liberia. As I explained in those posts, these US residents face yearly the prospect of deportation to Liberia, unless Congress acts to pass legislation allowing them to stay permanently.  Last year the crisis was once again temporarily resolved by President Obama’s one-year extension of protection. It’s unclear whether any permanent status for this group is on the horizon, as legislation on the issue seems to be, at this time, stalled in committee in both the Senate and theHouse, so I may be posting about this again next spring.

Anyway, if you followed those posts with any interest, or if you are generally interested in the experience of refugees, then you may want to review the recently-released report from The Advocates for Human Rights, entitled A House with Two Rooms: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia Diaspora Project.  (Confession: as previously disclosed, I worked for the Advocates during and after law school, and I think it’s a terrific organization.)

Continue ReadingTruth and Reconciliation, Stories from the Diaspora

Writing Competition Success

I am pleased to announce that 3L Douglas Hoffer just won third place in the James E. Beckley National Writing Competition, which is sponsored by the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association.  Doug received a cash prize, and his paper, “A Square Peg in a Round Hole:  Why the Investment Company Act is a Poor Regulatory Fit for Hedge Funds,” will be published in the PIABA Law Journal later this year or early next year.

I encourage students to follow in Doug’s footsteps and enter national writing competitions.  Many competitions award cash prizes and give students publication opportunities.  A link that contains information about student writing competitions is here.

Congratulations, Doug!

Continue ReadingWriting Competition Success

Does the Ayres Study Work in Istanbul?

istanbulAs I wrote about last week, I was at a negotiation conference in Istanbul in which participants were given assignments to negotiate in the Spice Market.  Melissa Manwaring, who used to work with the Program on Negotiation and is now a professor at Babson College, came up with the great idea of each person from her group of five going into a shop and asking for the price of the same item to see if there were significant differences.  Think of this as the Ayres study on car dealerships done in Turkey over jewelry boxes. 

In Ian Ayres’ famous study of car dealerships in Chicago, it appeared that white men got the best (lowest) opening price for their cars, while black women got the worst opening bids.  In Melissa’s group, there was a wonderful mix of an older white male American (Howard Gadlin), Melissa herself (white female younger American), a young ethnic Chinese man (Andrew Lee), and two native Turkish speakers, so this was a great gender and ethnic mix to test.  

It turns out that this group found exactly the opposite of what Ayres found. 

Continue ReadingDoes the Ayres Study Work in Istanbul?