Category: JOL Online Article

Desmond’s Law: Imprecise Language Makes for Inadequate Advocacy

Nila Bala[*]

 

In 2016, Connecticut was lauded for becoming the first state to pass legislation allowing for an animal advocate to be appointed in animal cruelty cases.^[1] The legislation, called “Desmond’s Law,” was named for a boxer-pit bull mix that was abused and strangled to death by Alex Wullaert in Branford, Connecticut.^[2] Desmond’s body was found in a trash bag in the woods, emaciated, bruised, and starved.[3] Wullaert received accelerated rehabilitation, which meant that his charges were dismissed and his record was wiped clean.^[4] In response to Wullaert’s sentence, animal activists, calling themselves “Desmond’s Army,” rallied for animals to have a voice in court.[5]

News outlets have reported that Connecticut’s new law is similar to laws that appoint attorneys for the children and the infirm.^[6] National Public Radio, for example, expressed that Connecticut is “the first state to provide animals with court-appointed advocates to represent them in abuse and cruelty cases, similar to laws that provide for victims’ or children’s advocates.”^[7] Similarly, The New York Times described the law appointing “advocates for dogs and cats” as part of “a rising movement in the criminal justice system” that “has placed an emphasis on giving more of a voice to and adding support for crime victims,” such as “in cases involving children and the infirm.”^[8]

However, Desmond’s Law differs significantly from the laws that appoint advocates for children and vulnerable victims. Unlike those laws, advocates under Desmond’s Law do not represent the animal.^[9] According to the statute’s text, the advocate, who is a volunteer attorney or supervised law student, may “present information or recommendations to the court pertinent to determinations that relate to the interests of justice.”[10]

This Article examines why lawmakers chose to word the statute to protect the “interests of justice” rather than the animal’s interests and will argue that it was motivated by the historical underpinnings of the animal rights movement. While Desmond’s Law is an important first step in protecting animal welfare, this Article also explores the real drawbacks that the wording will present in animal cruelty cases.

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The Coming Collapse of the Paris Climate Agreement

By Bryan H. Druzin [*]

I. Introduction

Now that the Trump administration has abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement, the question is whether the agreement will collapse. A strong case can be made that it will indeed unravel—perhaps not immediately, but eventually. Although the world’s leaders have been quick to reaffirm their continued resolve to implement the agreement,[1] the problem is that multilateral environmental agreements are uniquely fragile because their value depends directly upon the number of states that are party to it and the collective perceptions that surround this. Environmental agreements have a certain “all or nothing” quality to them. For example, an agreement to reduce carbon emissions between only two states provides little value. The value of the same agreement, however, increases dramatically with twenty, ninety, or 195 governments in hand. They are thus extremely reliant on unanimity of agreement and uniquely sensitive to the loss of it.

This is why it was so vital that the Paris Agreement lock down the participation of all the states in the international system.[2] For all of its flaws, the Paris Agreement had the strength of unanimity. Countries that remain in an environmental agreement while other states pull out understandably grow reluctant to assume the burden of their commitments.[3] Because of this, withdrawal—particularly of a major player such as the U.S.—can create a knock-on effect, causing other states to follow. A slow trickle can become a flood. This dynamic renders multilateral environmental agreements extremely “tippy” and highly susceptible to collapse.[4] For international environmental cooperation to succeed, everyone needs to be onboard and everyone needs to stay onboard.

Many hold hope that the U.S. will ultimately not withdraw from the Paris Agreement, noting that under Article 28(1) the U.S. cannot exit the agreement until three years from the date on which the agreement entered into force for the party, which in the case of the U.S. was November 4, 2016. Article 28(2) mandates that withdrawal will then take effect one year after notification is received, putting the earliest date of actual withdrawal after the next presidential election, which is to be held on November 3, 2020.[5] However, this ignores that, while not yet manifest, the process of collapse has in fact already begun. The issue now is whether further erosion can be prevented. Because the agreement depends so much on international unanimity, the Paris Agreement was dealt a potentially fatal blow the moment the U.S. signaled its intention to withdraw.

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The Mathematics of Constitutional Failure

By Carrie Leonetti [*]

The federal courts were intended as anti-democratic structures.[1] Their interpretations of the federal constitution were supposed to be a counterweight to the excesses of the other two “democratic” branches.[2] The problem with this system is that the other two branches of government are not democratic. No one likes math less than I do, but the anti-democratic nature of our government only becomes apparent if one runs the numbers.

Begin with Congress. The Senate was designed to be less than democratic, as a concession to regional, states’-rights interests.[3] Its seats are decided not in proportion to electoral votes, but rather with an equal number of seats for each state, regardless of population.[4] California, the most populous state, has almost 39 million people. Wyoming, the least populous, has fewer than 600,000. Both get two Senators. So, in the Senate, the vote of each person in Wyoming counts for roughly sixty-seven times as much as the vote of each person in California.

This has ideological consequences. The high-population states, whose votes are diluted, tend to be “liberal” (California, New York, Illinois). The rural states, whose votes are supercharged, tend to be “conservative” (Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska). So, the Senate ends up being not just unrepresentative geographically, but ideologically, as well.

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What’s the Matter with Kansas and the National Voter Registration Form? by Carmen Hicks, TurboVote Research Lead, Democracy Works Federalism allows states to have agency in many aspects of policy creation, implementation, and regulation separate from that created by the federal government. It is this constitutionally managed balance that al…

“The Debt Is Not Payable” by James L. Tatum III, MPA '17, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University “The debt is not payable,” said Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico to the New York Times on June 28th, 2015.[1] In fact, by most independent analysis, the island’s $117 billion in total liab…