Overlawyered » free trade http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Dodd-Frank and conflict minerals: the law’s wide reach http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/dodd-frank-and-conflict-minerals-the-laws-wide-reach/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/dodd-frank-and-conflict-minerals-the-laws-wide-reach/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:07:30 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26604 Some expected that the big new SEC regulations on industrial users of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold would mostly affect electronics and jewelry makers, but the actual net being cast is far wider. Manufacturers in general must investigate the supply chains of their products in order to comply with the disclosure requirements, no small matter at a firm like Kraft with 40,000 products and 100,000 suppliers. (Kraft found that the minerals may turn up in pouch packaging of juice products.) No wonder the SEC’s absurd initial estimates of a mere $70 million economy-wide compliance cost have given way to estimates a hundred times higher or more. In an echo of the infamous CPSIA statute, “the rule provides no de minimis exemption for trace amounts.” [Melissa Maleske, Inside Counsel, earlier here, here, and here] (& Bainbridge)

More: the Dodd-Frank conflict minerals provision and the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Marcia Narine, Conglomerate via Bainbridge]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/dodd-frank-and-conflict-minerals-the-laws-wide-reach/feed/ 2 Kim Strassel: “Stringing Up Gibson Guitar” http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/gibson-raid/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/gibson-raid/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 21:04:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25899 Kim Strassel has a must-read piece at the Wall Street Journal exposing the politics of the Lacey Act’s extension to importation of plant products, by no means fueled just by inflexible environmentalist sentiment: crucially, wood-products industry and union forces recognized that the law could serve as a way to eliminate competition from imports.

Trees are ubiquitous, are transformed into thousands of byproducts, and pass through dozens of countries. Whereas even a small U.S. importer would know not to import a tiger skin, tracking a sliver of wood (now transformed into a toy, or an umbrella) through this maze of countries and manufacturing laws back to the tree it came from, would be impossible.

Furniture maker Ikea noted that even if it could comply with the change, the “administrative costs and record-keeping requirements” would cause furniture prices to “skyrocket.” The wood chips that go into its particleboard alone could require tracking back and reporting on more than 100 different tree species.

Which is exactly what the Lacey expanders wanted.

The WSJ also recently interviewed Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz [related, Reuters; earlier] while Pat Nolan points out how the feds’ raid on the facility points up many evils of unbridled prosecution power [NRO] Musicians and others held a “We stand with Gibson” rally and concert [Mark Perry, rally pics] As for press coverage, Andrew Revkin at the NYT notes that outrage over the raid is energizing those horrid “anti-regulatory campaigners” ["DotEarth"] while an op-ed contributor at the paper explains that (not to sound like those same awful campaigners!) the operation of the Lacey Act does indeed menace innocent artisans who make musical instruments [Kathryn Marie Dudley] Tim Cavanaugh finds the L.A.Times strumming a derivative ideological tune, while Radley Balko notes, in a police-restraint-for-me-but-not-for-thee vein, that a reporter arrested at Occupy Nashville had mocked concern over the gun-toting Gibson raid. More: ABA Journal.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/gibson-raid/feed/ 6 Bargain cruises between American ports http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/bargain-cruises-between-american-ports/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/bargain-cruises-between-american-ports/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:48:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24218 You’ll probably never see them unless Congress chooses to repeal or amend the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, which bars most cruise operators from coastwise routes. [Matt Welch]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/bargain-cruises-between-american-ports/feed/ 1 Dodd-Frank “conflicts minerals” provision devastates Congolese http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/dodd-frank-conflicts-minerals-provision-devastates-congolese/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/dodd-frank-conflicts-minerals-provision-devastates-congolese/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:03:23 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24197 David Aronson, New York Times:

The “Loi Obama” or Obama Law — as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act of 2010 has become known in the [central African] region — includes an obscure provision that requires public companies to indicate what measures they are taking to ensure that minerals in their supply chain don’t benefit warlords in conflict-ravaged Congo. The provision came about in no small part because of the work of high-profile advocacy groups like the Enough Project and Global Witness, which have been working for an end to what they call “conflict minerals.”

Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank law has had unintended and devastating consequences, as I saw firsthand on a trip to eastern Congo this summer. …

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/dodd-frank-conflicts-minerals-provision-devastates-congolese/feed/ 6 “Lugar Targets Federal Sugar Racket” http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/lugar-targets-federal-sugar-racket/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/lugar-targets-federal-sugar-racket/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 05:42:48 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22414 The Indiana senator intends to go after a government program long notorious for its costs to consumers and food processors alike. [Tad DeHaven, Cato at Liberty]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/lugar-targets-federal-sugar-racket/feed/ 10 April 2 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/#comments Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:12:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22334
  • Schumer: ban gun ownership by persons arrested but not convicted of drug offenses [Jeff Winkler, Daily Caller]
  • Urban-farming pioneer in Oakland may come a cropper for selling produce without license [SFGate via Perry]
  • Harvard-trained Obamanauts’ revenge? Feds investigate Yale for alleged sexually harassive environment [Zincavage] Related: strings attached to federal money for university “sexual assault prevention” include mandatory student sensitivity-training attendance [TBD, more]
  • Trade dumping law as competitive shakedown mechanism [Tabarrok]
  • “Forwarding a Sentence-Long Message from a Listserv = Copyright Infringement?” [Volokh]
  • “Product Defect Case Over Ear Candle Cleared for Trial” [OnPoint News, McConnell/D&D, Abnormal Use]
  • Oh, Title IX, couldn’t you at least leave our booster club alone? [Saving Sports] Wrestling team axe is just the start for men’s sports cuts at Liberty U. [same]
  • “Wal-Mart v. Dukes [Lawyers] Ask Courts To Fix The World” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Liptak/NYT on use of “social framework” evidence in case [Mass Tort Prof] Rhetoric about “day in court” tends to obscure actual stakes [Daniel Schwartz] More: Hans Bader, and Jon Hyman with many links.
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/feed/ 8     Trade protectionism, the UPL way http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/trade-protectionism-the-upl-way/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/trade-protectionism-the-upl-way/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:36:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21192 Connecticut state representative Patricia Dillon, seeking to protect the job market for U.S. lawyers’ services, has introduced a bill that would ban as “unauthorized practice of law” various types of outsourced legal work (such as document review, which some law firms now farm out to workers in India). Some don’t think the idea will fly: Westport-based law firm consultant Peter Giuliani “said the doc review-type tasks being done overseas is more like paralegal work. ‘You don’t need a license anywhere in the U.S. to do what they’re doing,’ he said.” [Connecticut Law Tribune via ABA Journal]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/trade-protectionism-the-upl-way/feed/ 0     Kinder Surprise chocolate-covered toys http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/kinder-surprise-chocolate-covered-toys/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/kinder-surprise-chocolate-covered-toys/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:37:11 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20933 We’ve reported before (related) on the federal government’s ban on Kinder Surprise chocolate-wrapped toys, considered innocuous in many other countries but deemed an illicit choking hazard here. They’re back in the news [Lenore Skenazy, Katherine Mangu-Ward] with the key paragraph in the CBC’s report indicating how very frequently the candies are seized from bewildered travelers:

    The U.S. takes catching illegal Kinder candy seriously, judging by the number of them they’ve confiscated in the last year. Officials said they’ve seized more than 25,000 of the treats in 2,000 separate seizures.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/kinder-surprise-chocolate-covered-toys/feed/ 4     “Dumping” law and the absent consumer interest http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/dumping-law-and-the-absent-consumer-interest/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/dumping-law-and-the-absent-consumer-interest/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:08:06 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20837 When the federal International Trade Commission takes up an anti-dumping complaint, the law curiously allows, indeed requires, it to disregard the interests of businesses that purchase the commodity involved. A dispute over magnesium imports also illustrates how different parts of the government can act at jarring cross purposes with each other: even as one branch of the federal government was penalizing Chinese magnesium exports, another was launching a complaint against China for undue reluctance to export (among other materials) magnesium. [Daniel Ikenson, Cato at Liberty]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/dumping-law-and-the-absent-consumer-interest/feed/ 1     Counting our blessings dept.: bills Congress didn’t pass http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/counting-our-blessings-dept-bills-congress-didnt-pass/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/counting-our-blessings-dept-bills-congress-didnt-pass/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:00:30 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19610 Carter at Point of Law compiles a list of mostly-bad bills Congress left town without passing [parts one and two] One very worrisome law of this sort, the we-sue-the-world Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act (FMLAA), is the subject of a new policy analysis by my Cato Institute colleagues Daniel Griswold and Sallie James (it’s the sort of aggressive trade restriction that could touch off major retaliation, not to mention its possible CPSIA-like effects on vintage dirtbike collectors; more background here, here, and here).

    Unfortunately, two troublesome enactments — the food safety bill and the misnamed Paycheck Fairness Act — were teed up by Majority Leader Harry Reid for possible expedited passage in the lame duck session.

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