New research claims that the U.S. public doesn’t care about protecting enemy civilians. It is wrong—and dangerous.

Charli Carpenter, recently wrote for Foreign Policy to describe her recent research whose work challenges a recent study which purported to show widespread American support for strikes against civilian targets in North Korea and Iran, by demonstrating that Americans want leaders to follow international prohibitions against targeting civilians. (Foreign Policy, 6/27)

Over 25 years ago, when the public first gained access to the Internet, UMASS Amherst Legal Studies Distinguished Professor Emeritus Ethan Katsh envisioned the growth of online conflicts and, therefore, the possibilities for online dispute resolution (ODR). He not only pioneered a new subfield of law and society, his vision impacted e-commerce and eventually the slow moving court system. While a few other countries have already been effectively integrating ODR into courts, the U.S. has finally joined in as New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Nakamura states in announcing the first ODR court project.
Congratulations, Ethan, on helping increase access to justice in the U.S.!

A column about the aftermath of the election of President Donald Trump quotes from a paper by Matthew C. McWilliams and Tatishe Nteta, political science, and former colleague Brian Schaffner. The 2018 paper showed that Trump made racism more explicit, leading to sharper divisions on attitudes toward race.

Throughout the Cold War, nuclear weapons were the main existential threat to the planet. But they were also considered vital to powerful nations. With no chance of getting those players to give them up, possession and use of the weapons was simply regulated at the margins. But thanks to the concerted work of a coalition of activists, nuclear weapons were banned outright in a 2017 treaty that has been signed by 70 countries and ratified by 23…Read the rest of the article here.