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This is a one-year follow-up study to a May 2020 study, conducted May 2021 about perceptions of law students about the transition to online learning as well as government required pandemic public health measures and their effect on returning to face to face classes. The trend in preference for online courses is increasing by 17%, despite the fear that burnout or frustration from the COVID-19 transition to online learning for law schools would create a general dislike for online courses. There are still a significant number of students who have difficulty with online learning of as many as 25%. About 72% of the respondents feel safe returning to class with no pandemic precautions, but accommodations should be considered early in the planning stages for the semester for those 15% who still do not feel safe enough to return to the classroom. In general, the survey dispelled a wide concern that online courses would sour students to online teaching, rather the online experience resulted in a significant increase in interest in online learning in law schools.

The water cycle including its oceans, surface water, wetlands, water vapor, clouds and groundwater has resulted in a patchwork of statutes and regulations that fail to address true protection of water resources. This is not a simple "fix" and requires Congressional positivism rather than decades of relying on the judicial branch to resolve statutes that are ultimately not designed for true water protection. The unintended consequences of this choice of policy resolution has had profound negative effects on water resources and it is increasingly urgent to address this complex problem and avert a water resources disaster.

Law students from Texas Tech University were surveyed about their attitudes concerning online learning due to the COVID-19 transition, at the end of the spring semester 2020. Questions concerned obstacles to learning, experiences and perceptions. Among the most frequently cited obstacles for students were that students had to move (49%) from their physical location, they were impacted financially (60%) and they lacked reliable internet (40%). The impact of the disease itself was relatively small with only 10% reporting they were affected by someone having COVID-19. Concerns that the lack of time to design courses for online learning, may have soured students to the online experience were evident from the responses that 36% of students indicated they were less likely to take online classes in the future. Perhaps more surprisingly, 17% reported they were more likely to take online classes in the future. There was a difference between students who self-selected online courses in the spring semester compared with those experiencing the compulsory transition to all online classes. When students were asked whether they got as much from online learning as face to face courses, 55% of those self-selecting for online courses agreed; whereas 25% all law students disagreed with that statement. More than half of those who self-selected for online courses (55%) reported that their spring semester online course experience helped in the COVID-19 transition.

When viewed across disciplines, the traditional scholarship is not limited to published articles or books, but can also be music concerts, solo performances, design competitions and acting performances. Each discipline has its own categories of scholarship deemed worthy of the academy for the field, and for consideration in tenure and promotion decisions. Is it time that legal scholarship be extended to the media of the new millennia, and look to other fields for setting visual scholarship standards?

In light of the quandaries presented by domestic law, has the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 (“BWC”) also been so outpaced by the technologies that it is no longer effective and meaningful in international law? Part II will examine the continuum of official actions that have attempted to keep pace with the growing biotechnologies that may present threats to global biosecurity through interpreting the BWC. Part III looks at how these definitions may not be sufficient. Finally, Part IV looks at other mechanisms that may provide a better way of controlling biological weapons than redefining the technologies through the current processes.

The recent survey from Wolters Kluwer showed that only 14% of respondents were aggressively planning for online legal education, while 19% did not plan to ever offer online education, with the rest of the responses falling into the proceeding-with-caution category. The authors attribute two major factors to this state of affairs — first, the limited number of hours allowed for online courses by ABA; and second, the technological difficulties and the reluctance of professors to learn the technology necessary to offer online courses. In addition, what the report calls a “greater barrier over time” was the general “wide-scale perception that online education is worth less than on-campus education.”The question of whether online, or e-learning, education is “worth less” than the traditional classroom experience has not been empirically tested, but remains a kind of folk wisdom among legal educators. There does not appear to be any data or empirical research on this question, probably because of the small number of asynchronous law e-learning courses and opportunities to study them. Perhaps the right question is not whether online legal education is better or worse; but simply how specific parts of the course compare to traditional law course experiences. This goal of this article is to help fill the empirical gap and provide an overview of how one law school’s first completely asynchronous doctrinal course compares to “traditional” law courses.

The variety of weapons of mass destruction are intended to create the maximum possible fear, death, destruction, and general terror in the target region or nation, particularly with new and creative ways of using them. An understanding of how these weapons work, the ways they may be used, and the scope of their destruction can contribute to effectively combating their effects. This article examines these weapons—nuclear, electromagnetic pulse, radiological, chemical and biological technologies—as well as policy approaches to defending against them. The development of national programs directed toward the understanding, potential use, and response to weapons of mass destruction by the United States, Japan and the Soviet Union are reviewed and compared, as are the international agreements that have thus far addressed the possible use of such weapons. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The normative approach to defining an ethic of a field, which focuses on one disciplinary field, requires modification in the consideration of a biodefense ethic to include not one discipline, but many. The consideration of an ethic in biodefense must capture issues in a multidisciplinary scope, including the ethical studies in the disciplines of medicine, sciences, technology, law, international relations, public health, environment, and war, each having their unique framework of ethical constructs.An ethic of bioterrorism and biodefense raises issues which can be examined utilizing multidisciplinary ethical considerations. The disciplines of medicine, sciences, technology, law, international relations, public health, environment, and war each have a framework of ethical principles which are essential in the scope of ethics which are incident to bioterrorism and biodefense; the absence of any one of which would create a void in our understanding of the complexity of this subject.

This study finds that the opposite results were found in response to the announcement of a national energy policy. Instead of Presidential approval ratings going up in the subsequent year, they consistently fell during the following year, with one explicable exception. Instead, it was found that gas prices consistently increase after an energy policy is announced, which is probably the true factor explaining the drop in Presidential approval ratings. This is due to the finding that 52% of a president’s approval rating can be attributed to gas prices. Future national energy policies might consider taking actions that would have an immediate effect on dropping gas prices if they would like to have their energy policies seen favorably. Despite this predictive findings for Presidential approval ratings, the development of a National Energy Policy should be considered not only an ethical obligation but a legal one. A national energy policy has become increasingly critical to our national economy and our national security, a constitutional responsibility of the President.

This case study examines the functioning of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) during the 1989–1993 Bush administration and the transition to the subsequent Clinton administration. In addition to the traditional elements discussed in the literature as essential to effective cooperation in complex, multi-participant initiatives, several new elements have been identified. We have found that among the traditional elements the expectation of increased resources and the satisfaction of legal requirements were of greatest importance. Among the new elements are the maintenance of institutional autonomy, peer pressure, empowerment of individual participants, a common analytic measure of success and strong centralized leadership for the overall process.

An introduction to Volume 3 of the Journal for Biosecurity, Biosafety and Biodefense Law which raises new and important legal issues within the field of biosecurity, biosafety, and biodefense law, both from a practical as well as a theoretical perspective. Articles cover topics including: proposed regulatory changes to the biosafety and biosecurity regulations; jurisdiction during an international biosecurity incident; biocriminology; biosafety and biosecurity concerns at the border; unregulated areas of science and medicine which may present an increased risk for biosecurity threats; national and international responses to recent disease outbreaks; and pandemic preparedness.

In the United States a rapidly increasing regulatory burden for life scientists has led to questions of whether the increased burden resulting from the Select Agent Program has had adverse effects on scientific advances. Attention has focussed on the regulatory "fit" of the Program and ways in which its design could be improved. An international framework convention to address common concerns about biosecurity and biosafety is a logical next step.

Small groups provide opportunities for education, information sharing, development of clinical skills and peer support. They have been promoted in general practice in Australia, especially for mental health disease, and often by divisions of general practice.Minutes from a series of small groups supervised by psychiatrists were analysed to observe the content and themes over 5 years. Additionally, focus groups of general practitioner participants were asked to comment on what they found most valuable.Forty-two GPs attended small groups (mean size 2-3) over 3 years, about half for 10-49 sessions. The most discussed diseases were depression (most frequently at 157 times), psychosis (137), personality disorders (79), drug and alcohol abuse (73), anxiety disorders (68) and suicide (42). Discussion of doctor-patient interpersonal and doctor self care issues increased from under 2% of all statements in 1995 to nearly 10% in 2000. Participating GPs found the small groups empowering, confidence increasing, and useful for addressing psychological and interpersonal issues at work.Participating GPs found small groups useful and provided helpful recommendations based on their experiences.