Gravity FM

Cobalt, Chocolate, Blood and Corporate Impunity Discussion with Terry Collingsworth on forced child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC and his Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) case against American tech companies which knowingly benefit from the cheap cobalt mined by children. We discuss the legal issues in the case as well as the facts on the ground in the DRC, including t...

Expanding the Rights Rubric: Adding Rights and Rights Holders for a Good Society Discussion with Sushma Raman on The Coming Good Society: Why New Realities Demand New Rights, her book with William F. Schulz. We discuss the need for specific rights to redress the needs of LGBTQIA+ communities and why adding new rights reinforces rather than dilutes traditional human rights. We also discuss the risk...

Chevron’s Carious Crusade Against Steven Donziger, SLAPP Suits and the Defense of Climate Necessity Discussion with Lauren Regan on corporate SLAPP suits and in particular the oil and gas industry’s utilization of RICO against grassroots environmental activists. We also discuss the miscarriages of justice in Chevron’s RICO action against attorney Steven Donziger and the criminal contempt case agai...

The Need for a Unified, Holistic Approach to Environmental, Animal and Human Health Discussion with Professor Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson on anthropogenic ecosystem drivers of disease emergence in wildlife and spillover into the human population. We discuss how habitat destruction, including from changing land use patterns and industrial and agricultural intensification and effects of climate ch...

Regulatory Gaps and Conflicts in the Fertility Industry Discussion on regulatory gaps and issues in the fertility industry with Professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone. We discuss the marketing of egg freezing, brokerage of egg donation and surrogacy and issues surrounding informed consent, vulnerability and inequality in the fertility industry. Additionally, we discuss clinic mislabeling mishaps a...

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Little Gitmo and Corporate SLAPP Suits Discussion on the terrorization of activists and the criminalization of dissent with Rachel Meeropol. We discuss the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, how it may operate to violate the First Amendment and its chilling effect on activism. We also discuss corporate SLAPP suits including Energy Transfer Partner’s suit to bring...

Ag-Gag Laws and the First Amendment, Carious CAFOS and the Endangerment of the Endangered Species Act Discussion with Cristina Stella on the advent and continuance of Ag-gag laws that criminalize undercover reporting at animal enterprises and their violation of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. We also discuss the First Amendment violation of “food censorship” laws that prohibit meat and milk...

Democratizing the Colonial Space of International Law Discussion with Rachel López on the colonial development of international law and its continuing hierarchical structure. We also discuss the duty to refrain from assisting states in committing grave crimes and its interrelation with the responsibility to protect people from grave crimes under international law. Additionally, we discuss the conc...

U.S. and European Complicity in the Yemeni Conflict Discussion with Radhya Al-Mutawakel on the war crimes committed in Yemen by all parties, including the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian sites and civilians and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage. We discuss U.S., U.K. and other Western countries’ participation in the conflict through arm sales to the Saudi and Emira...

Incarceration Rates and Sentencing Policies Throughout the United States Discussion with Nazgol Ghandnoosh on the high rates of incarceration and state differentials of incarceration throughout the United States and their causes, including the “war on drugs”. We discuss racial disparity in arrests and sentences, private prisons and legislative and executive encroachment on the judicial function by...

Loss of Biodiversity, Pollution, Climate Change and Human Rights Abuses from Deforestation Discussion with Etelle Higonnet on the state of deforestation around the world with a particular focus on commodity agriculture and soy and palm oil in particular. We discuss the contribution to climate change and the loss of biodiversity from clearing wild forests for monoculture plantations. We also discus...

Family Separation, Mandatory Detention and Denaturalization Discussion with Paromita Shah on the effective criminalization of immigration and the right to asylum through mandatory detention and unlawful entry and unlawful re-entry prosecutions. We discuss family detainment and separation at the border and the deportation of undocumented parents of US citizen minors. Additionally, we discuss the re...

Religious and Racial Discrimination in the American South and the Escalation of Immigration Detention Discussion with Azadeh Shahshahani on the work of Project South, which cultivates strong social movements in the Southern United States and supports social justice movements in the Global South. We discuss religious and racial discrimination as well as police collaboration with ICE and the denial...

The U.S. Visit by the Special Rapporteur for Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Discussion with Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, on the observations and conclusions from his country visit to the United States in December 2017.  We discuss the political nature of poverty, its inextricable link to rising inequality in the United States and the ove...

The Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the United States and the Legal Framework for Bringing Justice to Human Trafficking Survivors. Discussion with Martina Vandenberg on the work of the Human Trafficking Legal Center and the prevalence and characteristics of human trafficking in the United States. We discuss the international and legal framework, whether the United States is meeting its internat...

How Israel Exploits Palestinian Land and Expels the Palestinian Population Discussion with Amit Gilutz on the human rights work of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, including its citizenship journalism project. We discuss the human rights impact of the separation barrier and the demarcation of the Palestinian peoples into separate Occupied Terri...

LGBTI Rights and Freedom of Expression in Serbia Discussion with Goran Miletić on LGBTI rights in Serbia. We discuss the most recent Pride Parade in Serbia, its previous unconstitutional ban by the government and security issues. We also discuss recent anti-discrimination and hate speech legislation and their weak implementation in the context of a homophobic Balkan culture. We additionally discus...

The Roma, Cultural Relativism, Autonomy and Community Empowerment Discussion with Danilo Ćurčić on the discrimination and segregation faced by the Roma in Serbia, in particular with respect to employment and housing, including forced evictions from informal Roma settlements. We discuss the need to move away from the discourse of providing humanitarian assistance to the enforcement of human and con...

Asylum, Criminal Justice and Media Freedom Discussion with Nikola Kovačević on the right of asylum in Serbia, the limited acceptance rate and the “ping-pong” currently being played by European countries with refugees. We also discuss criminal justice issues, including the right to counsel, pre-trial detention, the independence of the judiciary and overcrowding and other problems of prison conditio...

Exonerating the innocent in northern California Discussion with Northern California Innocence Project's (NCIP) Linda Starr and Todd Fries on the causes of wrongful conviction in California, including but not limited to problems with eyewitness testimony, preservation of evidence, coerced confessions, paid informants, ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial and police misconduct and mis...

The Refugee Situation in Serbia Following Border Closures on the Balkan Route, the Work of Refugee Aid Serbia and Disrupting Hostile Discourse on Displaced Persons Discussion with Felix Thomson on the refugee situation in Serbia and how it has changed since border closures along the Balkan route severely restricted access to Northern and Western Europe. We discuss the treatment of refugees in Serb...

The Double Standard in U.S. Labor Laws That Fails to Protect Children Working in Agriculture Discussion with Zama Neff on the double standard in U.S. Federal and State labor laws which allows for children at younger ages to work in agriculture and provides them less protections in their working conditions. We discuss the type of agricultural work children are employed in, the effects of the long a...

Holding the IFC Accountable for Aiding and Abetting Murder and Terrorization of Honduran Farmers and Financing the Pollution of the Kutch Coast in India Discussion with Marco Simons on Doe v. IFC in which the IFC is alleged to have knowingly profited from financing the murder and terrorization of Honduran farmers by Dinant, a land grabbing palm corporation. We also discuss Jam v. IFC and the IFC's...

Selection Bias, Confirmation Bias and the Feedback Loop of Predictive Policing Algorithms, the Black Box Problem of Proprietary Algorithms and Lack of Accountability Discussion with Kristian Lum and William Isaac on how machine learning algorithms work and how seemingly neutral police data can perpetuate systemic and institutional prejudices and produce predictive systems that predict police enfor...

Jailing Children for Failure to Pay Administrative Fees and Costs, Life without Parole, Solitary Confinement, Juvenile Sex Offender Registration, Expungement of Juvenile Records and the "Kids for Cash" Tragedy Discussion with Marsha Levick on the various administrative fees and costs imposed by the juvenile justice system and the practice of incarcerating impecunious youth. We discuss the institut...