Gun Makers Shun Responsibility for Sales, Suits Show - NYTimes.com

George W. Bush signing the 2005 law that granted immunity to gunmakers

I have long argued for a theory of product liability called product stewardship.  It holds that manufacturers have a duty to follow their products, see how they are actually being used, the adverse and beneficial effects, and make safety changes as warranted by the evidence.  It was developed in response to the Vioxx cases which demonstrated the pharmaceutical industry's cavalier experimentation with the health of the consumers of their drugs.  
The idea is apt for gun makers who spun safety locks and the like.  Unfortunately those who call the shots in Congress have virtually closed the door on such actions via the 2005  Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act.  John Culhane and Jean Eggen have been sounding the alarm on that for years. - GWC: Gun Makers Shun Responsibility for Sales, Suits Show - NYTimes.com:

"The Glock executive testified that he would keep doing business with a gun dealer who had been indicted on a charge of violating firearms laws because “This is still America” and “You’re still innocent until proven guilty.”"
The president of Sturm, Ruger was not interested in knowing how often the police traced guns back to the company’s distributors, saying it “wouldn’t show us anything.”
And a top executive for Taurus International said his company made no attempt to learn if dealers who sell its products were involved in gun trafficking on the black market. “I don’t even know what a gun trafficker is,” he said.

The world’s firearms manufacturers have been largely silent in the debate over gun violence. But their voices emerge from thousands of pages of depositions in a series of liability lawsuits a decade ago, before Congress passed a law shielding them from such suits in 2005, and the only time many of them were forced to answer such questions.

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Full Text: Progress in China's Human Rights in 2012 (5) - CHINA - Globaltimes.cn

Everything said in this new official report is true.  But the infrastructure - the agencies and institutions - charged with enforcing and realizing the commitments lag far behind the laws, which remain skeletal, enforced by institutionally weak, under-financed, and inexperienced courts. - GWC
Full Text: Progress in China's Human Rights in 2012 (5) - CHINA - Globaltimes.cn:

China continues to improve its legal system that protects human rights. Establishing a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and protecting human rights in accordance with the law are the important foundation for China's human rights development. Thanks to unremitting efforts over the years, by the end of 2010 a multi-level socialist legal system with specific Chinese characteristics had been established. This system is based on the realities of China, adapts to the needs of reform and opening up and the socialist modernization drive, epitomizes the will of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people, centers around the Constitution, takes as its mainstay the Constitution-related laws, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal laws, and litigation and non-litigation procedural laws of different categories, and comprises administrative and local regulations. By the end of 2012 China had enacted 243 active laws, including the current Constitution, 721 administrative regulations and 9,200 local regulations, which are complete in range and cover all relations in the society. Basic and major laws of each category have been formulated and supported with corresponding administrative regulations and local regulations, forming a legal system that is internally scientific, well-coordinated and unified.

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OTHERWISE: Oyez Project Supreme Court Archive finishes job begun by Peter Irons

OTHERWISE: Oyez Project Supreme Court Archive finishes job begun by Peter Irons:

NPR reports that Chicago Kent's Oyez project has provided the great service of completing its archives of Supreme Court oral arguments going back to 1955.

As of just a few weeks ago, all of the archived historical audio — which dates back to 1955 — has been digitized, and almost all of those cases can now be heard and explored at an online archive called the Oyez Project.

Oyez Project founder and director Jerry Goldman tells NPR the digital recordings archive began in the early 1990s from a simple idea: to give the public access to unabridged Supreme Court recordings.

Peter Irons

But the account leaves out the groundbreaking work of historian and lawyer Peter Irons whose 1993 May It Please the Court presented the audio tapes of arguments before the court in twenty two landmark cases.  Irons had permission to listen to the tapes but not to copy them, reportedly annoying Justice William Rehnquist.  It was a tiny act of civil disobedience for Irons who was a draft resister who had spent time in federal prison for his defiance of the draft....

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OTHERWISE: A step forward for immigrants facing deportation

OTHERWISE: A step forward for immigrants facing deportation:

We deport hundreds of thousands each year -  a consequence that for many is far more severe than that provided by our criminal laws.  Fifty years ago the Supreme Court in Gideon v. Wainwright mandated counsel for those who are charged with a crime and cannot afford a lawyer.  Today there is wide recognition that there is a crisis of representation due to the unavailability of counsel for huge numbers of aliens facing removal from the country.

A step forward has now been crafted in an important ruling by a federal judge in California’s Central District - a place where the pastures of plenty are often harvested by immigrants.  Though the numbers affected are small, the remedial innovation  is important.  

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Oil Spill Compensation - U.S. and China

These are the powerpoint slides  prepared for my May 2013 trip to China.  The focus is on on the frustrations of Chinese aquaculturists who were stymied by the courts there and so resorted to suing Conoco Phillips in Houston where its world headquarters are located.  The reference point is, of course, the BP Gulf Oil Spill comepsnaiton scheme.  Developed under the Oil Pollutions Act, the matter was largely resolved through a class action settlement managed by Judge Carl Barbier, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. -  GWC
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Bohai Bay oil exploration supervision to be boosted|Society|chinadaily.com.cn

Bohai Bay oil exploration supervision to be boosted|Society|chinadaily.com.cn:

China will strengthen supervision of offshore oil exploration in Bohai Bay through various measures including radar, satellite and marine patrols to detect environmental problems quickly, according to Wang Fei, deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration.

Wang said marine pollution in the bay has worsened in recent years due to booming energy and resources development. The administration needs to improve supervision of the bay, improve the emergency plan for oil spills, and increase public transparency, Wang said.

Earlier this month, fishermen in Shandong province noticed oil slicks in the bay, but an investigation by the North China Sea Branch under the administration detected no oil spill, after offshore patrols, use of satellite images and sample tests.

Wang Zhongguo, a Shandong fisherman, applied to the administration for oil samples he took on April 16 to be retested.

The administration asked for the sample to be retested, with a key laboratory receiving it on Friday and saying the result will be released soon.

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What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

An agonizing 87 days passed before the BP oil spill was finally sealed off. According to US government estimates, 210 million gallons of Louisiana sweet crude had escaped into the Gulf, making this disaster the largest unintentional oil leak in world history. (Benjamin Lowy/Getty)

What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill - Newsweek and The Daily Beast:
by Mark Hertzgaard

What has not been revealed until now is how BP hid that massive amount of oil from TV cameras and the price that this “disappearing act” imposed on cleanup workers, coastal residents, and the ecosystem of the gulf. That story can now be told because an anonymous whistleblower has provided evidence that BP was warned in advance about the safety risks of attempting to cover up its leaking oil. Nevertheless, BP proceeded. Furthermore, BP appears to have withheld these safety warnings, as well as protective measures, both from the thousands of workers hired for the cleanup and from the millions of Gulf Coast residents who stood to be affected.The financial implications are enormous. The trial now under way in New Orleans is wrestling with whether BP was guilty of “negligence” or “gross negligence” for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. If found guilty of “negligence,” BP would be fined, under the Clean Water Act, $1,100 for each barrel of oil that leaked. But if found guilty of “gross negligence”—which a cover-up would seem to imply—BP would be fined $4,300 per barrel, almost four times as much, for a total of $17.5 billion. That large a fine, combined with an additional $34 billion that the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida are seeking, could have a powerful effect on BP’s economic health.Yet the most astonishing thing about BP’s cover-up? It was carried out in plain sight, right in front of the world’s uncomprehending news media (including, I regret to say, this reporter).

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Analysis: BP's legal gamble may trim spill bill by billions | Reuters

Analysis: BP's legal gamble may trim spill bill by billions | Reuters:

(Reuters) - BP Plc's attempt to get a U.S. federal court to pin at least a sizeable amount of the blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster on other companies may have saved it billions of dollars.

After failing to settle claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill through negotiations, the British oil company opted in February to go to trial with plaintiffs ranging from small businesses to the U.S. government over the damages it will face.

The decision rests with U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier, who could issue findings on blame and the level of negligence as early as July.

Legal experts say BP appeared to succeed in shifting some of the blame for the disaster to rig owner Transocean Ltd and cement provider Halliburton Co. In doing so, it may have shaved a slice off a liability that could stretch into the tens of billions of dollars.

BP "put their faith in the hands of the court," said Blaine LeCesne, a tort law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who has followed the trial closely. "It looks like that might have paid off."

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Phase 1 trial ends in U.S. v. BP case - Bloomberg

BP Still Uncertain Over Spill Cost at Third Anniversary - Bloomberg:

Trial Ends

Barbier will decide fault for the incident and whether BP or its contractors were grossly negligent, which could trigger higher damages or fines. As BP presented its last witness April 17 at the nonjury trial over liability for the accident, Barbier said he wouldn’t issue an immediate decision.

The judge said he would probably give lawyers for BP, its co-defendants, private party plaintiffs and the U.S. 60 days to submit their arguments and proposed findings to him. He said he would also provide 20 days for replies. Nothing will happen before the filings and the decision may linger beyond this summer.

Barbier has said that he may not issue a judgment on fault and gross negligence before a scheduled second phase of the trial set for Sept. 16. That phase will concern the size of thespill and the efforts to contain it. Barbier said he’s considering a third phase to determine penalties. Damages trials would follow.

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V.A. Aims to Reduce Its Backlog of Claims - NYTimes.com

V.A. Aims to Reduce Its Backlog of Claims - NYTimes.com:

Under pressure to reduce its immense inventory of disability claims for injured and sick veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Friday its plans to process 250,000 claims that are one year or older within the next six months.

The plan calls for regional offices of the Veterans Benefits Administration to issue so-called provisional rulings on all claims that are one year or older, provided a minimum level of evidence has been submitted to support those claims.

If claims are given provisional approval, veterans will start receiving benefits immediately, said Allison A. Hickey, the under secretary for benefits. Those benefits are based on ratings that quantify the severity of a disability. If veterans believe that their ratings are too low, they will have a year to submit additional information.

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