Intellectual Property Law

The New EU Mandatory Organic Label

Posted on July 05, 2010
As of July 1, new regulations came into effect that require the use of the European organic logo on pre-packaged organic food and beverage products. The European Commission states that the new logo is designed to provide a consumer with ?complete confidence? that the goods they purchase are produced in line with EU organic farming regulations...

Climate Change & Human Health

Posted on April 27, 2010
Biolaw readers may find the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recent publication, A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change, noteworthy. It provides an accessible discussion of existing knowledge and research needs pertaining the strikingly wide array of health impacts related to climate change, organized into 11 broad topics...

Exotic game, lethal invaders

Posted on March 11, 2010
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has declared special hunting season on reptilian species of environmental concern: Burmese python, Indian python, reticulated python, northern and southern African rock python, amethystine or scrub python, green anaconda, and Nile monitor lizard...

Top 50 biotech blogs

Posted on March 07, 2010
The Jurisdynamics Network is pleased that the Medicareer blog has listed both Agricultural Law and Biolaw among the top 50 biotech blogs.

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Asian Carp

Posted on February 21, 2010
Asian carp in the Illinois River and other waters west of the Great Lakes are becoming an infamous invasive species and threatening to wreak havoc on the Great Leaks ecosystems if they cross an electric barrier meant to block them from Lake Michigan...

Biodiversity Law 2010 - Virgin Islands National Park

Posted on January 17, 2010
Today was downhill all the way. The class hiked Saint John from mountaintop to seashore. Here is how the University of Kansas School of Law Biodiversity Law class describes the highs and lows:Today we went to St. John by ferryboat. Our mission: to hike reef bay trail...

Biodiversity Law 2010 - Over the Sea to Britain

Posted on January 16, 2010
Our third day took us to Jost van Dyke and Sandy Cay in the British Virgin Islands. Here is the University of Kansas School of Law Biodiversity Law class' account:We went to Jost Van Dyke, a small island in the British Virgin Islands. After braving the sea and a small squall with our fearless Captain Ron, we arrived safely...

Biodiversity Law 2010 - Legislative Hearing

Posted on January 16, 2010
Today, the University of Kansas School of Law Biodiversity Law class was invited to Legislative hearings at the Virgin Islands Legislature. Here is the students' account of what they experienced and learned: The US Virgin Islands have recently been consumed by a project that proposes to take combustible waste and petroleum coke (pet coke) and burn it to produce energy...

Biodiversity Law 2010 - Mermaid's Chair

Posted on January 16, 2010
For the 10th year in a row, Biodiversity Law is being taught in the Virgin Islands. Here is the University of Kansas School of Law Biodiversity Law class' report from Day 1:Today we went to Mermaid?s chair, located in Botany Bay on St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands...

Video: Environmental Summit

Posted on January 14, 2010
Full video of the 11th Annual Northeast Florida Environmental Summit is now available online (this link will take you to the agenda, which links to each panel individually).This interdisciplinary Summit, hosted by Florida Coastal School of Law and co-sponsored by Jacksonville University, featured eight panels and three plenary speakers addressing various issue areas under the broad theme of sustainability...

New Study Shows Serious Emotional Disturbances in Children Post Katrina

Posted on January 08, 2010
Mental health professionals have shown that there are serious emotional disturbances (SED) among children as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The Category 3 storm ravaged the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Characteristics of SED include inappropriate behavior, depression, hyperactivity, eating disorders, fears and phobias, and learning difficulties...

Join me for a book discussion

Posted on January 05, 2010
A few months ago, Oxford published When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods, an interesting new book by Gregory Shaffer and Mark Pollack. Today, Opinio Juris is hosting a one-day book discussion about the book, with yours truly as a guest blogger...

Heat In Our Time

Posted on December 21, 2009
They came, they jawed, they Accorded. The 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference ("COP15") is now history. When I was in Copenhagen recently, both the pride of the Danish in hosting COP15 and their high hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough to tackle climate change were tangible...

REDD Financing

Posted on December 14, 2009
AP reports that talks over REDD are faltering because developed countries are not willing to finance developing country readiness for the program. This is not surprising since financing disputes have repeatedly limited the development of international environmental law...

U.S. Food Safety System In Serious Disrepair

Posted on December 12, 2009
More than 50% of food manufacturers are unaware of their legal obligation to provide the FDA with updated contact information that the FDA relies on to deal with emergencies, such as Salmonella or other forms of food contamination. According to a Report released yesterday by The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, federal auditors found that approximately 48% of surveyed manufacturers failed to provide the FDA with accurate contact information and approximately 25% provided no emergency contact information at all...

Biodiversity Loss Can Increase Infectious Diseases in Humans

Posted on December 08, 2009
Fifty years ago, improved public health measures, the development of antibiotics, better vaccines, insecticides and advancements in surveillance resulted in a decline of infectious disease. However, an upturn in infectious diseases around the world, both emergence and reemergence, has been apparent since the late twentieth century...

IUCN Red List Update

Posted on November 04, 2009
IUCN has released its annual update to the Red List. Of the nearly 50,000 species surveyed, close to 20,000 are threatened. In other words, more than 1/3 of the species evaluated by IUCN are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.It is high time that biodiversity loss receive at least the level of international attention that has recently been paid to climate change...

A Broad Challenge to the FDA's Regulations: Botox Manufacturer Sues Asserting First Amendment Protection for Off Label Drug Claims

Posted on October 10, 2009
In a move that could undermine the FDA's premarket approval process for all health care products, the maker of Botox has filed a legal action against the government claiming first amendment protection for the distribution of ?truthful, relevant information? to doctors regarding off-label uses of its drugs...

Part Three: The Relationship Between the Level of Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 28, 2009
An Introduction to the History of Quack Medicine In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a remarkable growth in the marketing of sham products to treat and cure disease. At that time, the rate at which quack medicines were being introduced into the market far outpaced the development of the science necessary to establish the efficacy and identify the risks associated with each new product...

Advancing Biodiversity Protection in International Negotiations

Posted on September 21, 2009
What is the most important opportunity for advancing biodiversity protection in the near term? Given the uneven distribution of species throughout the globe, and the rapid destruction of habitat in many developing countries, the appropriate scale is global with local and regional implimentation...

Post Two of a Series: The Relationship Between the Level of Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 21, 2009
The first post of this series began an examination of the relationship between the health status of a product?s targeted population and the level of regulation under the FDCA. The question was asked whether functional foods should be regulated as drugs if they claim to treat abnormal health conditions...

Post 1 in Series: The Relationship Between the Level of Government Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 15, 2009
Cheerios -- a Drug?This past May, the FDA issued a warning letter to General Mills stating that the claim on Cheerios cereal that ?you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks? turned the Cheerios from a food into an illegally marketed drug. When bloggers heard the news, posts ran from scolding the FDA to ?grow-up,? to those which lauded the FDA?s action...

The rhetorical orgin of Sarah Palin's "death panel"

Posted on August 10, 2009
Despite her July 26, 2009, resignation as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin remains a formidable political force. She has shifted her primary written platform from Twitter to Facebook.Sarah Palin's Facebook page has had an immediate and profound impact on national politics...

In other logging news . . .

Posted on July 19, 2009
After my post on the WOPR withdrawal, I came across this much less publicized news item on administration logging decisions. On the same day as the WOPR withdrawal, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak approved a 381 acre clear-cut of primary forest (the Orion North timber sale) in a roadless area of the Tongass National Forest in Thorn Arm, near Ketchikan...

Assiting Migration of Trees in the Northwest

Posted on July 19, 2009
Associated Press reports on a large-scale Canadian project to plant 16 tree species in areas that may be more suitable to them as climate change. The project involves several planting sites in British Columbia and the Northwestern United States. Geneticist Gregg O'Neill, who heads the project, notes the need to plant trees that can thrive over the next 80 years while the climate changes...

Withdrawing the WOPR

Posted on July 16, 2009
Interior Secretary Salazar withdrew the Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) today. The Department of Interior news release begins: "Because the previous Administration failed to follow established administrative procedure before leaving office, its plan to intensify logging in western Oregon ? known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) ? is legally indefensible and must be withdrawn...

Law And Neuroscience In Italy

Posted on July 07, 2009
The European Science Foundation will be holding a fascinating research conference on law and neuroscience this fall. The conference is entitled "LAW AND NEUROSCIENCE: OUR GROWING UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN BRAIN AND ITS IMPACT ON OUR LEGAL SYSTEM", and its aim isto establish a dialogue between neuroscientists, legal practitioners, researchers in sociolegal studies and social scientists, to further mutual understanding and make some realistic evaluations of the potential developments at the intersection of neuroscience and law...

Interesting New Book on the Transatlantic GMO Divide

Posted on May 27, 2009
Oxford University Press just published an interesting new book: When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods by Gregory Schaffer and Mark Pollack. I will review the book after I have read it. For now, I will just whet your appetite with OUP's description of the book: The transatlantic dispute over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has brought into conflict the United States and the European Union, two long-time allies and economically interdependent democracies with a long record of successful cooperation...

Mighty Sweet

Posted on May 14, 2009
There are many things that make life worth living, but two of the greatest have to be time outdoors working with nature (such as gardening) and time with one's children. The two of these intersect for me everytime my kids help me plant, maintain or harvest a garden -- a great way to build their familiarity and comfort with the outdoors, and to teach them about where food comes from...

Continued Life for the ESA

Posted on May 14, 2009
I share Andrew Torrence's concern that climate change may be taking priority over biodiversity conservation. (However, as I've expressed previously, I think the attention garnered by climate change can be harnessed to more effectively address some of the most challenging and critical issues of biodiversity conservation)...

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