Iran must do more to protect its lawyers, advocacy groups and international organizations said Wednesday, as they marked the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer. Each year on Jan. 24, the international legal community honors lawyers around the world who work to advance human rights and the rule of law, even when doing so entails [...]
Search Results for: ABA
Women Outnumber Men in US Law School Classrooms, but Statistics Don’t Tell the Full Story
According to the most recent data from the American Bar Association, women outnumbered men in law school classrooms across the country for the eighth year in a row in 2023. At the outset of the 20th century, women comprised less than five percent of all law students. However, a gradual but significant shift commenced in [...]
New York City Council members urge city to increase legal services funding
A majority of New York City Council members on Monday sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams urging him to drastically increase funding for legal aid services in the city. 26 of the 51 councillors signed the letter requesting $195 million as a “first step in addressing the economic crisis facing these critical programs.” The [...]
Civil society groups urge UN not to adopt working definition of antisemitism citing misuse
60 civil society groups Monday implored the UN and world leaders to step up efforts to combat antisemitism. In an open letter to the UN, the advocacy groups emphasized the need for practical anti-antisemitism measures. The civil societies discouraged the UN from adopting the “working definition of antisemitism,” as posed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [...]
ChatGPT and Other AI Programs Aid and Muddle Access to Justice as Non-Lawyers Seek Their Advice
Can access to justice be enhanced via the advent of generative AI such as the widely and wildly popular ChatGPT app? I get asked this pointed question quite frequently. The straightforward answer is that generative AI provides a mixed bag, namely that in some respects this type of AI will indeed enable greater access to [...]
American Bar Association: high plea bargain rate hurts criminal justice system integrity
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Plea Bargain Task Force Wednesday released its 2023 report, which found that 98 percent of criminal proceedings end in a plea bargain instead of a jury trial. According to the report, the emphasis on resolving criminal proceedings through plea bargains negatively impacts the integrity of the process by creating “perverse [...]
Australia court dismisses challenge to horse culling in Victoria parks
Justice Stephen O’Meara of the Supreme Court of Victoria Wednesday dismissed a case brought by the Australian Brumby Alliance (ABA) against Parks Victoria (PV) to stop the “inhumane killing” of brumby horses. PV is the government agency responsible for “managing a diverse estate of more than 4 million hectares including 3,000 land and marine parks [...]
Corruption was endemic throughout the Trump administration. Throughout the entire length of his administration, corruption and high turnover was a daily occurrence, threatening the strength and integrity of government institutions and, in some cases, indirectly resulting in the deaths of Americans. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was in no way immune to allegations of [...]
JURIST Deputy Features Editor Jaimee Francis talked with Professor Jordana Goodman of Boston University School of Law about her research on gender and race equity issues in intellectual property. Below is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for clarity. JURIST: Can you please give a brief overview of the patent system? A [...]
Dangerous and Discriminatory: Mental Health Questions on Bar Applications
I am tired of watching my students suffer. Every year I have law students tell me they are afraid to seek counseling because they think it will hurt their chances of being admitted to the bar. Their fears derive from two questions on the bar application that ask about mental health and substance abuse. All [...]