Brooklyn Law School

National security poses an existential threat to the WTO and trade multilateralism. The accommodation reached between trade and security under the GATT is no longer sufficient, and the United States has taken the WTO hostage until a new accommodation is reached. This article explores whether plurilateral agreements between a subset of WTO members can help resolve the crisis. It begins by explaining why national security poses such a challenge to multilateral trade. It analyzes how the prevailing interpretation of the existing GATT security exception addresses some but not all dimensions of the challenge. And it proposes how plurilateral agreements may do so instead, including by supporting a multilateral agreement to broaden the current GATT security exception or by creating a parallel dispute settlement mechanism for disputes not involving national security. It suggests that such agreements should be encouraged within the WTO to preserve the institution’s relevance in this new geopolitical era.

Abolitionist theory combines both ideas and struggle into a vision for a better world. This review of Tommie Shelby’s book “The Idea of Prison Abolition” argues that Shelby’s critique of prison abolition separates out philosophical ideas from those born of struggle, and by doing so, necessarily sells the idea of prison abolition short. Using two examples of abolitionist on-the-ground practices connected to the work of Angela Davis--community bail funds and collective defense campaigns--this review argues that the collective work of experimenting with and prefiguring a world without prisons is part of what gives prison abolition its moral and empirical content.

Exposure to early life adversity is linked to detrimental fitness outcomes across taxa. Owing to the challenges of collecting longitudinal data, direct evidence for long-term fitness effects of early life adversity from long-lived species remains relatively scarce. Here, we test the effects of early life adversity on male and female longevity in a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. We leveraged six decades of data to quantify the relative importance of 10 forms of early life adversity for 6599 macaques. Individuals that experienced more early life adversity died earlier than those that experienced less adversity. Mortality risk was highest during early life, defined as birth to 4 years old, but heightened mortality risk was also present in macaques that survived to adulthood. Females and males were affected differently by some forms of adversity, and these differences might be driven by varying energetic demands and dispersal patterns. Our results show that the fitness consequences of early life adversity are not uniform across individuals but vary as a function of the type of adversity, timing and social context, and thus contribute to our limited but growing understanding of the evolution of early life sensitivities. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Understanding age and society using natural populations’

The Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has not heard an appeal since 2019. This article explores how adjudicators and member states have navigated WTO dispute settlement in this post-AB world. It begins by providing an overview of dispute settlement practice from 2020 to 2022, including by cataloguing appeals into the void, appeals to arbitration, and appeals forewent. It explains the incentives created by the lack of a functioning appeals mechanism and provides background on the alternative appeals procedure agreed to among a subset of WTO members: the Multi-Party Interim Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA). Moreover, it closely examines five WTO disputes: Colombia – Frozen Fries , Turkey – Pharmaceutical Products, EU – Steel Safeguards, Thailand – Cigarettes , and Costa Rica – Avocados . Through these five disputes, the article examines the circumstances in which members have agreed to binding appeals arbitration even absent formally committing to the MPIA, the circumstances in which members have appealed to arbitration or foregone such appeals, and whether facilitated negotiations present a workable alternative to an effective appeals mechanism. Finally, this article closely analyzes the reasoning of two appeals arbitration awards issued to date – Colombia – Frozen Fries and Turkey – Pharmaceutical Products – with a special focus on how those awards depart from AB precedent and what those departures can tell us about the current crisis.

New data sources and AI methods for extracting information are increasingly abundant and relevant to decision-making across societal applications. A notable example is street view imagery, available in over 100 countries, and purported to inform built environment interventions (e.g., adding sidewalks) for community health outcomes. However, biases can arise when decision-making does not account for data robustness or relies on spurious correlations. To investigate this risk, we analyzed 2.02 million Google Street View (GSV) images alongside health, demographic, and socioeconomic data from New York City. Findings demonstrate robustness challenges; built environment characteristics inferred from GSV labels at the intracity level often do not align with ground truth. Moreover, as average individual-level behavior of physical inactivity significantly mediates the impact of built environment features by census tract, intervention on features measured by GSV would be misestimated without proper model specification and consideration of this mediation mechanism. Using a causal framework accounting for these mediators, we determined that intervening by improving 10% of samples in the two lowest tertiles of physical inactivity would lead to a 4.17 (95% CI 3.84–4.55) or 17.2 (95% CI 14.4–21.3) times greater decrease in the prevalence of obesity or diabetes, respectively, compared to the same proportional intervention on the number of crosswalks by census tract. This study highlights critical issues of robustness and model specification in using emergent data sources, showing the data may not measure what is intended, and ignoring mediators can result in biased intervention effect estimates.

Women engaged in sex work (WESW) who use drugs are a key population in Kazakhstan’s HIV epidemic. Global research suggests susceptibility to HIV varies by sex work environment. This study aims to identify evidence-based typologies of WESW and examine their associations with HIV risk. We surveyed 400 WESW who use drugs in two Kazakhstani cities, including questions on sociodemographic characteristics, social, physical, and economic risk environments, and sexual risk behaviors. Latent class analysis identified four distinct typologies of sex work practice: occasional sex work (n = 61, 15%), professional sex work for money (n = 187, 47%), sex work in exchange for drugs, goods, or other services (n = 117, 29%), and managed sex work under a boss/pimp/madam (n = 35, 9%). We then used logistic regression to examine associations between typologies and risk behaviors. Compared to professional sex work, occasional sex work was associated with lower odds of multiple sexual partners (aOR:0.46[95%CI:0.24,0.90]), of multiple paid clients (aOR:0.25[0.13,0.49]), and of > 1 instance of unprotected sex with a paying partner (aOR:0.33[0.17,0.63]). Compared to professional sex work, sex work for nonmonetary items was associated with higher odds of multiple sexual partners (aOR:1.85[0.96,3.67]) and of > 1 instance of unprotected sex with a paying partner (aOR:1.71[1.01,2.93]). Results suggest heterogeneity among WESW who use drugs in Kazakhstan, and that typologies of sex work are associated with varying HIV risk environment factors and risk behaviors. Effective HIV prevention efforts must be tailored to address these varying risk environments and the resulting variety of needs.

Though provided for in several treaties, including three universal human rights treaties, resort to interstate conciliation has been sparse. In 2018, however, the first three human rights interstate conciliations were initiated under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ( cerd ). While two of these have been suspended by mutual agreement, the third, Palestine v. Israel , is ongoing after the cerd Committee has concluded that it has jurisdiction to establish a conciliation commission. This article examines how suited conciliation is to advance the goals of interstate communications in human rights treaties, as well as conciliation more broadly. It also tries to identify critical factors that may determine the success or failure of such conciliations, particularly by drawing on lessons learned from the recent conciliation between Timor Leste and Australia under the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea, which successfully concluded with a delimitation treaty.

Accurate estimation of the ultimate axial load bearing capacity of piles is necessary to ensure the safety of the supported structures and to prevent cost overruns. Traditional mechanics-based design methods do not always predict pile capacity accurately, or precisely, leaving room for improvement. This study focuses on the potential of machine learning (ML) in estimating pile capacity. A dataset of 546 load tests was compiled from three databases. The baseline performance of traditional design methods was first established by comparing the capacities computed using four traditional approaches, against the capacities interpreted from load tests using Davisson’s criterion. Sixteen different ML techniques were explored. First, the optimal feature selection technique for model training was investigated. Second, hyperparameters of each technique were optimized. The process involved the training of 32,000 different models and tuning their hyperparameters. Next the dataset was randomly split into training (70%) and testing (30%) for comparing the 16 different ML regression models. Each of the optimized models was then trained using six feature sets. The performance of each of the 16 ML models with the best performing feature subset was compared with the baseline performance from traditional methods. Evaluation criteria included measured versus predicted capacities, influence of soil type on accuracy, as well as the absence of pile diameter, or length effects on accuracy and precision. In general, the ML methods performed significantly better than the best traditional method. The current research demonstrated that ML may offer advantages in geotechnical design when large datasets are available.

Introduction: Adopting healthy eating habits can improve cardiovascular health. However, following dietary guidelines can be challenging, partly due to neural pathways that influence cravings and appetite. While medications exist to reduce appetite and cravings, behavioral interventions targeting cravings are less common. The innovative Food Trainer mobile application, FoodT, employs a go no-go paradigm, where participants learn to respond to healthy foods presented in green circles (go-trials) and withhold their response to unhealthy foods presented in red circles (no-go trials). Growing evidence suggests that this training can reduce food cravings and energy intake. Nonetheless, its feasibility in clinical and at-home settings and among diverse populations remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the feasibility of the FoodT application for a diverse patient population with obesity. Hypothesis: Food response training is feasible to decrease food cravings (scores: 15-75) and energy intake (kcal). Methods: The Retrain Your Brain for Healthy Eating trial is a single-group feasibility study of participants with obesity from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants engage in a food response training intervention, with a video-conference introduction session, followed by a self-guided training regimen of three or more sessions weekly for 12 weeks. Study staff conduct weekly meetings to monitor adherence and offer support. Assessments include weekly food craving reports via a validated survey (Food Craving Questionnaire - State) and energy intake (kcal) via weekly self-guided ASA-24 dietary recalls. We averaged reports in cravings and kcal for Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3 and used linear mixed-effect models. Results: Of 17 participants, 87% self-identified as female, 42% as non-Hispanic Black, and 23% as Hispanic (age: 50.0±13.4, BMI: 36.53±4.59). On average, participants used FoodT 4.22±2.91 times per week. We observed significant reductions in cravings (Month 1: 37.59±10.42, Month 2: 32.43±10.22, Month 3: 31.36±9.80), P = .001, and kcal (Month 1: 1872.54 ±740.22, Month 2: 1818.05 ±724.43, Month 3: 1563.14 ±682.78), P = .046. Conclusion: Preliminary findings from this feasibility study suggest that FoodT has the potential to decrease food cravings and energy intake among a diverse population with obesity. However, this study is limited by a small sample size, gender imbalance, and reliance on self-reported data. This mobile app offers a low-cost scalable tool to support patients with obesity in adopting healthier diets, and improve cardiovascular health, needing further research to confirm these findings and assess its long-term sustainability and clinical implications.

This chapter takes stock of the European law of third sector organizations described in this volume, using US law as a point of departure. Its comparison focuses on one particularly striking distinction between the two sets of jurisdictions. European nations have begun experimenting with distribution-constrained forms and designations for social enterprise, while the US has not. None of the many specialized forms for social enterprise developed by US states, nor B Corp certification, provides for any constraints on distribution of their profits or assets. This failure to contemplate distribution-constrained options contributes to the lack of inclusion of social enterprises within a broad third sector legal category in the US, and its comparative lack of tax and other financial supports for social enterprises thus far.

Article 103 of the United Nations Charter establishes the primacy of states’ obligations under the Charter over their other international obligations. The effect of Article 103 on states’ obligations has been discussed in the jurisprudence and literature but only in the context of obligations conflicting with binding Security Council decisions. Those discussions fail to shed light on its legal significance in a variety of other situations. This writing explores the application of Article 103 in other contexts. It explores the legal ramifications of Article 103 applied to states’ obligations that conflict with the Charter itself, with obligations contained in certain General Assembly resolutions, and with International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) judgments. The importance of filling this gap can be seen when applying the rule in Article 103 to the conflict in Ukraine, including to the Ukraine v. Russia case under the Genocide Convention before the ICJ, as a case study.

OBJECTIVES Treatments that prevent sepsis complications are needed. Circulating lipid and protein assemblies—lipoproteins play critical roles in clearing pathogens from the bloodstream. We investigated whether early inhibition of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) may accelerate bloodstream clearance of immunogenic bacterial lipids and improve sepsis outcomes. DESIGN Genetic and clinical epidemiology, and experimental models. SETTING Human genetics cohorts, secondary analysis of a phase 3 randomized clinical trial enrolling patients with cardiovascular disease (Evaluation of Cardiovascular Outcomes After an Acute Coronary Syndrome During Treatment With Alirocumab [ODYSSEY OUTCOMES]; NCT01663402), and experimental murine models of sepsis. PATIENTS OR SUBJECTS Nine human cohorts with sepsis (total n = 12,514) were assessed for an association between sepsis mortality and PCSK9 loss-of-function (LOF) variants. Incident or fatal sepsis rates were evaluated among 18,884 participants in a post hoc analysis of ODYSSEY OUTCOMES. C57BI/6J mice were used in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia sepsis models, and in lipopolysaccharide-induced animal models. INTERVENTIONS Observational human cohort studies used genetic PCSK9 LOF variants as instrumental variables. ODYSSEY OUTCOMES participants were randomized to alirocumab or placebo. Mice were administered alirocumab, a PCSK9 inhibitor, at 5 mg/kg or 25 mg/kg subcutaneously, or isotype-matched control, 48 hours prior to the induction of bacterial sepsis. Mice did not receive other treatments for sepsis. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Across human cohort studies, the effect estimate for 28-day mortality after sepsis diagnosis associated with genetic PCSK9 LOF was odds ratio = 0.86 (95% CI, 0.67–1.10; p = 0.24). A significant association was present in antibiotic-treated patients. In ODYSSEY OUTCOMES, sepsis frequency and mortality were infrequent and did not significantly differ by group, although both were numerically lower with alirocumab vs. placebo (relative risk of death from sepsis for alirocumab vs. placebo, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.32–1.20; p = 0.15). Mice treated with alirocumab had lower endotoxin levels and improved survival. CONCLUSIONS PCSK9 inhibition may improve clinical outcomes in sepsis in preventive, pretreatment settings.

Background We investigated whether there exists an association between dietary acid load and kidney function decline in women living with HIV (WLWH) receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). Setting One thousand six hundred eight WLWH receiving ART in the WIHS cohort with available diet data and a baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥15 mL/minute/1.73 m ² . Methods A brief dietary instrument conducted from 2013 to 2016 under the Food Insecurity Sub-Study was used for assessing fruits and vegetables (FV) and protein intake. A mixed-effects model with random intercept and slope was used to estimate subjects' annual decline rate in eGFR and the association between FV intake and eGFR decline, adjusting for sociodemographics, serum albumin, comorbidities, time on ART, ART drugs, HIV markers, and baseline eGFR. We evaluated whether markers of inflammation mediated the effect of FV intake on decline in eGFR, using causal mediation analysis. Results We found a dose–response relationship for the association of FV intake and eGFR decline, with lesser annual decline in eGFR in the middle and highest tertiles of FV intake. An increase of 5 servings of FV intake per day was associated with a lower annual eGFR decline (−1.18 [−1.43, −0.94]). On average, 39% of the association between higher FV intake and slower eGFR decline was explained by decreased levels of inflammation. Conclusions Plant-rich diet was associated with slower decline in kidney function. Inflammation is a potential path through which diet may affect kidney function. The findings support an emerging body of literature on the potential benefits of plant-rich diets for prevention of chronic kidney disease.