Academic

Around the Blogosphere

By Kim Krawiec

It seems everyone is talking about Michael Lewis?s new Vanity Fair article, The Man Who Crashed the World.  From the lead-in:

Almost a year after A.I.G.?s collapse, despite a tidal wave of outrage, there still has been no clear explanation of what toppled the insurance giant. The author decides to ask the people involved?the silent, shell-shocked traders of the A.I.G. Financial Products unit?and finds that the story may have a villain, whose reign of terror over 400 employees brought the company, the U.S. economy, and the global financial system to their knees.

Larry Ribstein has a nice discussion of the piece here.

Jennifer Collins, Ethan Leib, and Dan Markel are guest blogging at Freakonomics, discussing their new book, Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties.  Some of the comments they?ve gotten so far are . . . well, interesting. 

Ann Bartow discusses the failed attempt to include women?s ski jumping in next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver (do watch the video).  I couldn?t find a copy of the opinion but, according to Reuters, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled that, "There will be little solace to the plaintiffs in my finding that they have been discriminated against; there is no remedy available to them in this court."  Fenlon held that only the IOC, which is not directly bound by Canadian civil rights laws, and not the Vancouver Organizing Committee, has the authority to decide which sports are included in Olympic competitions.

And Steve Bainbridge and Paul Caron, prompted by Katherine Mangan?s Chronicle of Higher Education article, Law Schools Mull Whether They Are Churning Out Too Many Lawyers, (subscription or web pass required for access) discuss whether law is a ?mature industry? that is producing too many lawyers for the market to absorb.  

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 12, 2009 (boomark / email).