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Abstract:
Over the last several years asylum cases relating to activities of criminal gangs have greatly increased in frequency. Cases involving Central American gangs, the so-called maras, have attracted the most attention but similar cases have arisen out of South Eastern and Eastern Europe as well. Applicants in such cases face a number of difficulties as their cases do not fit into paradigm categories for asylum claims. These cases almost always involve non-state actors, for example, acting for reasons that are not, at least at first glance, clearly political. Additionally, the reasons why gangs target particular individuals often do not obviously fit into one of the traditional protected grounds. If applicants fleeing gang activity are to successfully apply for asylum they will have to overcome these apparent difficulties. In this paper, a contribution to the University of Memphis Law Review Spring Symposium on immigration reform, I break down gang-related asylum claims into three main categories and show how at least some cases in each category fit within the area set out for protection by asylum and refugee law. I briefly discuss a conceptual framework which explains how some gang-related cases should be seen as falling in the area that asylum law seeks to protect (thereby providing a concrete example of the sort of protection that I claim in my dissertation refugee law is meant to provide) and give advice to practitioners about how to formulate meritorious claims.

asylum, refugees, refugee law, immigration, maras, gangs, social group

Abstract:
In this paper I argue that anyone who accepts a Rawlsian account of justice should favor granting family-based immigration benefit to same-sex couples.

I first provide a brief over-view of the most relevant aspects of Rawls's position, Justice as Fairness. I then explain why family-based immigration benefits are an important topic and one that everyone interested in immigration and justice must consider. I then show how same-sex couples are currently systematically excluded from the benefits that flow from family-based immigration rights. Next I argue that people in the constitutional and legislative stages of Rawls's original position would act to protect family-based immigration rights for themselves and show how these rights are rights of the current citizens of a state to bring in certain outsiders and not rights of outsiders seeking to enter. Importantly, this argument takes place entirely within the bounds of Rawls's domestic theory of justice and does not make reference to his more controversial views found in his account of international justice. I then show that there is no acceptable reason to restrict these rights to opposite-sex couples and good reason to extend them to same-sex couples.

Finally I consider two objections to my account and show why they do not threaten my conclusion.

Immigration, Rawls, Justice as Fairness, homosexual rights, family-based immigration, political philosophy, legal philosophy

Abstract:
The proponents of competing views about the safety and usefulness of GM crops often talk past each other. One major reason for this is the lack of a shared framework in which to evaluate their competing claims. In this paper I shall make use of Philip Kitcher's idea of a well-ordered science to see if it may offer us any guidance here. In doing so I shall first lay out the idea of a well-ordered science, as developed by Kitcher. Next I will see how it might deal with at least some of the controversies surrounding GM crops. In doing so I have two main goals. First, to show that work on the development and application of GM crops is distinctly un-well ordered at this time. Secondly, I seek to show that only by applying the ideals of something like a well-ordered science can we properly asses the potential harms and benefits of GM crops. Once I have done this, I tentatively suggest that the role of GM crops in solving the problems noted above is likely to be much smaller than their proponents might have thought.

GM Crops, Genetic Modification, Well-Ordered Science, Kitcher, Agricultural policy, Agricultural ethics, Bio-ethics