New Article For The Journal of the James WIlson Law Society

Playing God: The Constitutionality of Genetic Enhancement 

By Scott Lee

            
The rise of gene therapy technologies and the human genome project has made the idea of playing God feasible. The ability to manipulate an organism’s genes using biotechnology has opened up countless doors for medical science, such as using gene therapy to treat existing diseases. But when it comes to making genetic enhancements beyond what is ‘natural’ to the human body, a host of ethical and constitutional issues come to the fore. Suppose two parents opt to genetically enhance their child before birth to affect her physical traits like beauty, personality characteristics like charisma, or mental capabilities such as creativity and memory. Generally, the law has tried to preserve parents’ reproductive rights, but this may change in the near future as society continues to chart new and murky legal territories. Would the US Constitution presumptively protect parents’ right to genetic enhancement?

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How Constitutional Romanticism hurts Progress and Debate

By Sam Murray

The American Constitution is and remains one of the great legal achievements of human history. It paved the way for the conception of constitutionally entrenched rights, and the idea of system of government being embodied in a universally accessible document. However, in American public debate over controversial public policy issues, discourse becomes bogged down not in normative issues of what is best for the American people but rather “Is this constitutional?”

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Corruption 101 with Phil Nichols

Today the James Wilson Law Society hosted a conversation with Professor Phil Nichols of Wharton's Legal Studies Department on Corruption 101 - Corruption From a Global Perspective. We would like to thank the Penn Government and Politics Association for co-hosting this event.

Professor Nichols is a renowned expert on corruption, having engaged in field studies in Mongolia, France, Singapore, Guatemala, and various other countries across the globe.

At the outset of our discussion, Nichols defined corruption as 'a misuse of a position of power or trust for self-interest (instead of the public interest, or the purpose for which the position was endowed)'. Going from there, Nichols elaborated on the domestic and global anti-corruption regime, the latter being spearheaded by institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and lately the World Trade Organization. 

Professor Nichols went on to discuss corruption in various countries, such as Burma (Myanmar), Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. Unsurprisingly, Western, democratic countries fall prey to corruption as much as non-Western, authoritarian nations do, even though corruption takes manifold forms and different polities. In the United States, Nichols argued, corruption was especially an issue with Congress on the federal level (earmarking), but even more prevalent on the state and city level. 

However, Nichols was careful to point out that corruption is highly specific to a country and its history, as well as its political and economic system. Accordingly, anti-corruption measures must be tailored to the specific economic and political circumstances in order to heed success. 

Professor Nichols' research and talk showed the importance of tackling issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. To understand a complex phenomenon such as corruption, it is imperative to integrate political, economic and legal thinking into a more holistic approach. This is one of the key lessons participants could take away from this fascinating discussion. 

Afternoon Tea with Kermit Roosevelt

Our Afternoon Tea Chat with Penn Law's Kermit Roosevelt III on Drones today was a great success - a big thank you to all of you who came, and to the ladies and gentlemen of the Philomathean Society for co-hosting and planning this event with us! We are looking forward to more talks with faculty in the future!

Our next faculty talk will take place on Wednesday, April 17th, at 7 pm in Huntsman Hall (F 36) - Professor Phil Nichols of the Wharton Legal Studies Department will talk to us on Corruption From a Legal (And Global) Perspective.