Cultivated Compendium

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which was established in "April 2012 with a mandate to assess the state of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems," is going to intergrate the knowledge of indigenous peoples into eco-policy, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation report. Unlike other international fora, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, do not engage indigenous communities in order to shape their work, the foundation report also says.

The Fifth Circuit has upheld the multibillion settlement of the claims of the residents and businesses impacted by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, The Washington Post reports. BP had objected to the approval of the settlement by arguing "that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau have misinterpreted settlement terms in ways that would force the London-based oil giant to pay for billions of dollars in inflated or bogus claims by businesses," The Post further reports. BP argued that the class of claimants could have included people who didn't actually suffer any injury due to the oil spill.

The Texas Supreme Court took up two cases this week on whether injunctions in defamation cases are constitutional: "Treading the gray area between freedom of speech and permissible government censorship, the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases Thursday that could determine whether state judges may permanently ban people from repeating information found to be false and defamatory," the Austin American-Statesman reports.

I reviewed the oral arguments, and one issue that came up is whether there is a constitutional right to defamatory speech under the Texas Constitution. One of the proponents for the constitutionality of post-judgment injunctions banning someone from repeating false and defamatory statements said that defamatory speech has no constitutional protection. But his opponent argued the Texas Constitution provides more protection than the U.S. Constitution for freedom of speech and that defamatory speech does have constitutional protection in Texas. If there is constitutional protection under state constitutional law , then a post-judgment injunction would be illegal and damages would be the only remedy for the parties who were defamed.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take up a case that could reshape the contours of copyright law: whether Aereo's streaming service violates the copyrights of broadcasters. It appears that an evenly divided court may hear the case since Justice Alito did not participate in the decision to grant certiorari: 011014zr_bp24.pdf

Leo Strine, current chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, has been nominated to lead the Delaware Supreme Court, Delaware Law Weekly's Jeff Mordock writes in a more indepth report on this week's development: "'Strine heads the most important business court in the world,' said Thomas J. Reed, a professor at Widener University School of Law, after the chancellor had submitted his application. 'He's been there for a long time and the Delaware Supreme Court's docket is driven by filings and decisions from the Chancery Court. He knows business law inside and out and that gives him a tremendous edge,'" Mordock reports.

Whether history and what the Founding Fathers thought about things controls how we interpret the American Constitution is going to get another ride in the U.S. Supreme Court in the upcoming term. USA Today reports on the historical issues implicated in the case in which the justices will decide the constitutionality of the president making appointments during Congressional recesses: "For two centuries, presidents have found ways to get around Congress in order to fill important positions in their administrations. Now the Supreme Court is set to decide if what's common is constitutional. Sound backwards? Perhaps. When it comes to the law, however, history isn't always the best guide. Take prayer: When the justices in November debated the practice of opening government meetings with an invocation, which dates back to the framers of the Constitution, they were forced to consider whether that tradition trumps the separation of church and state. Or marriage: Presented last year with a modern interpretation of a male-female institution that Chief Justice John Roberts noted 'has been around since time immemorial,' the justices had a tough time justifying the exclusion of gays and lesbians. Now comes an epic balance-of-powers battle between the executive and legislative branches that only the judicial branch can resolve. On Monday, what's been billed as the marquee case of the high court's 2013 term will give the justices a chance to decide if George Washington and many of his successors violated the Constitution they swore to uphold."

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted a new code of judicial conduct, including a rule against nepotism in judicial hiring decisions, The Legal Intelligencer's P.J. D'Annunzio reports. Abraham C. Reich of Fox Rothschild, co-chair of the PBA Task Force on the Code of Judicial Conduct, told The Legal "that the nepotism provision represented a cultural shift in the judiciary. 'I thought that was a very bold move by the court and one that I think is very positive,' Reich said. He added that the shift, via the anti-nepotism rule, is one that will have a positive impact on the way the public views the courts over time."

The epicenter of corporate law has a new leader. The Wall Street Journal reports that Leo Strine, the colorful and outspoken head of the Court of Chancery, is going to be nominated to lead the Delaware Supreme Court.

Wall Street banks are being investigated by federal authorities on whether they "deliberately mispricing a type of mortgage bond that was central to the economic turmoil," The Wall Street Journal reports. Its the first "known wide-ranging examination of mortgage-bond sales by banks in the years that followed," The Journal reports. The investigation could upset the financial recovery those institutions have made, but it also could bring some accountability regarding the mortgage-sparked 2008 financial crisis.

In another financial development, JPMorgan has agreed to settle for $2 billion criminal charges that it failed to alert the government about Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, The Washington Post reports.