March 24, 2016

Investor state dispute settlement and the $50 billion case

On July 18, 2014, an arbitral tribunal sitting in The Hague ordered the Russian Federation to pay shareholders of the defunct oil company Yukos an unprecedented sum of damages — $50 billion, plus $60 million in legal fees and costs. One year later, after Russia had made no move…

February 23, 2016

Attorney Tad Bartlett provides legal perspective to The Louisiana Record

From The Louisiana Record: A white paper by Emory University Law Professor Joanna M. Shepherd examines the costs and consequences of the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (LUTPA), but not everyone agrees with her assessment. The 26-page report published by Shepherd and the American Tort Reform Foundation,…

February 18, 2016

Why did Louisiana spend nearly $700 million last year on prisons?

Louisiana imprisons more of its own citizens, per-capita, than any other state in the country. But are the people of Louisiana so much more dangerous than people who live in all the states along its borders — more than in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama? Should its per-capita incarceration…

February 18, 2016

These towns are about to disappear: Isle de Jean Charles and Kivalina both have to move somewhere else

Two U.S. coastal communities — Isle de Jean Charles, here in Louisiana, and Kivalina, 4,000 miles away in Alaska — are both preparing to move their entire populations to new locations. Kivalina has lost nearly all its land to floods and erosion, as the Arctic climate has changed. Meanwhile, on the…