FORTHCOMING ARTICLES

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: THE ALIEN AND THE STATE

Christoph Bezemek, Public Law and Political Science, University of Graz, Austria

The relationship of the stranger and the political community has traditionally been at the very core of various theoretical, historical and mythical accounts; in defining membership, in answering who is to be included, accepted and (thus) protected, in safeguarding a group’s position and its coherence. The essay argues that many of these accounts still prove to be of great value in a legal and political perspective: None of the questions raised today when it comes to the phenomenon of migration and inclusion are particulary new; rather they have been addressed frequently in sociology and political philosophy over the last centuries. We would be well-advised to rely on a broader perspective, on the teachings of history, and the insights of political philosophy when facing the intellectual and political challenges of our time.
Keywords: alien, foreigner, stranger, shibboleth, hospitailty, human rights

HEARTBURN AND THE CONSTITUTION: THE CASE FOR A COMPENSATORY SCHEME IN THE HATCH–WAXMAN AMENDMENTS

Claudiu Handaric, Nova Southeastern University - Shepard Broad College of Law

Although the decision of the Supreme Court in Pliva, Inc. v. Mensing preempted and thus, invalidated common law claims against generic drug manufacturers, the lower courts and the FDA proposed several solutions to compensate the victims affected by the side-effects caused by generic drugs. This paper uses competing public policies to evaluate the efficiency and the justness of the solutions proposed. An in-depth analysis of the litigation surrounding the generic drug metoclopramide reveals that the current scheme left thousands of victims with no adequate remedy to compensate for their injuries. It thus appears that the federal statutes and most notably, the Hatch-Waxman Amendments, turned out to deprive the consumers of generic drugs of any judicial redress for their grievances. This paper concludes with an appeal to Congress to amend the Hatch-Waxman Amendments with a compensatory scheme providing restitution to the victims of generic drugs.  Such a reform is the only option that can preserve the benefits of the Hatch-Waxman Amendments while restoring justice amid the regulations controlling the pharmaceutical drugs.

THE MODELS OF DISABILITIES IN SAUDI ARABIA

Hashem N. Alsharif, The American University Washington College of Law, Washington D.C.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an international treaty that addresses matters related to persons with disabilities, prohibits all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities. Saudi Arabia signed the Convention in 2008, but has not yet ratified the Convention based on societal views of disability in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, Article 12 of the Convention raises concern for Saudi society as it advocates recognizing all persons with intellectual disabilities as full persons before the law, which is incompatible with the legal framework and social system in Saudi Arabia. However, disability can be viewed under different paradigms, called the models of disability. Over time, disability advocacy has called on people and society to change perceptions on disability using these different models of disability. Disability rights in Saudi Arabia are complex because how disability is viewed consists of a host of factors that shape societal views. Although different models of disability are examined in this article, the social model of disability provides the most nuanced framework to align societal views and legal reformation to improve the situation for people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. After examining these models from a Saudi Arabian perspective, this article calls on Saudi Arabia to adopt the social model of disability in order to amend its laws and ratify the Convention.