Compelling Orthodoxy: Myth and Mystique in the Marketing of Legal Education

[Excerpt] “In many ways, the story of modern legal education reads like a grim fairy tale, whose moral dénouement is no less compelling, and perhaps more consequential, than its fabulist forbearers. In this regard the marketing of legal education may aptly be illustrated by fable, such as that of The Trees and the Bramble Bush, which concerns the folly of electing a king. When some beautiful trees decide to look for a leader, they offer the throne to the olive, the fig and the vine; each in turn refuses, preferring to keep to its own fruitful role. The bramble steps in and accepts, soon making threats of what will happen to those that do not accept him. The result is perhaps the law of unintended consequences at play, but it has implications for both the quality of legal education and the treasured concept of academic freedom. Certainly, the realm of scholarship has been invaded by the image-seekers and image-makers. Legal scholarship is unique in ways that are both interesting and problematic. It has become a phenomenon of epic proportions; the bulk of what we know of such writing emanates from the 190-plus law schools approved by the American Bar Association, which collectively produce more than 680 legal journals.

The Refined Calculus of Inductive Construction: Parametricity and Abstraction

We present a refinement of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions in which one can easily define a notion of relational parametricity. It provides a new way to automate proofs in an interactive theorem prover like Coq

Open geometry Fourier modal method: Modeling nanophotonic structures in infinite domains

We present an open geometry Fourier modal method based on a new combination of open boundary conditions and an efficient $k$-space discretization. The open boundary of the computational domain is obtained using basis functions that expand the whole space, and the integrals subsequently appearing due to the continuous nature of the radiation modes are handled using a discretization based on non-uniform sampling of the $k$-space. We apply the method to a variety of photonic structures and demonstrate that our method leads to significantly improved convergence with respect to the number of degrees of freedom, which may pave the way for more accurate and efficient modeling of open nanophotonic structures

Racism in Great Britain: Drawing the Line on Free Speech

On any given Sunday in Hyde Park, London\u27s huge urban sanctuary of tailored ponds and manicured gardens, one is likely to hear outrageous and provocative public utterances about race and religion. A few of those venting their spleen here are practicing rhetoricians, a few are clearly acting-but others are absolutely sincere in their hatemongering and passionate in their vilification. All of them are focal points for assembled spectators of varying classes, many of whom are professional hecklers. The police, milling about to put down possible disturbances of the peace, are seldom called upon to quell roused rabble. Thus is this weekly theatre, Britain\u27s custom-laden monument to free speech, neatly contained by day, boundary, and protocol. Would that such a basic human right, the simple freedom to express one\u27s thoughts, be always everywhere maintained so easily? Beyond Speaker\u27s Corner in Hyde Park, however, the reality in Great Britain is quite different. Racial tension and the confrontations it engenders have appeared with increasing frequency during the 1980\u27s. The religious warfare that has plagued Ireland for more than two decades has been barely contained. The British authorities, unlike their American counterparts, who are limited by a strictly construed First Amendment, have been much less hesitant to repress provocative speech. It goes almost without saying that in this country we take the freedom of speech to be virtually absolute. An American can parade through a predominantly Jewish community wearing full Nazi regalia, proclaim his allegiance to Hitler, and publicly spout justifications for genocide without fear of government reprisal. Such incitement would be severely restricted if not punished in all other Western democracies. In England, perhaps our closest relative as far as the recognition and protection of basic human rights are concerned, laws against incitement to racial hatred are likewise direct and restrictive, in sharp counterpoint to American notions of what true liberty is all about. This article traces the history and development of the group-libel laws in England, and addresses a fundamental question: have the British truly missed the point about freedom of speech-or is our perception of where the line should be drawn a misplaced preoccupation with blind principles? Given the continued requirement of the Attorney General\u27s consent to prosecution, it seems unlikely that racist speech in Great Britain will be more vigorously controlled under the newest (1987) incitement statute. However, it is too early to access the new law\u27s impact. Similarly, in view of popular misgivings over any restraint on expression, it appears even more unlikely that a group-libel action will soon be available, regardless of how desirable or even necessary its purpose may be. The British are on firm moral ground in seeking to draw a clear line between free speech and racism. But until they become more resolute in suppressing short-sighted political considerations, they are destined to failure in trying to practice the noble principle they preach

Calculation, normalization and perturbation of quasinormal modes in coupled cavity-waveguide systems

We show how one can use a non-local boundary condition, which is compatible with standard frequency domain methods, for numerical calculation of quasinormal modes in optical cavities coupled to waveguides. In addition, we extend the definition of the quasinormal mode norm by use of the theory of divergent series to provide a framework for modeling of optical phenomena in such coupled cavity-waveguide systems. As an example, we apply the framework to study perturbative changes in the resonance frequency and Q value of a photonic crystal cavity coupled to a defect waveguide.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Impact of slow-light enhancement on optical propagation in active semiconductor photonic crystal waveguides

We derive and validate a set of coupled Bloch wave equations for analyzing the reflection and transmission properties of active semiconductor photonic crystal waveguides. In such devices, slow-light propagation can be used to enhance the material gain per unit length, enabling, for example, the realization of short optical amplifiers compatible with photonic integration. The coupled wave analysis is compared to numerical approaches based on the Fourier modal method and a frequency domain finite element technique. The presence of material gain leads to the build-up of a backscattered field, which is interpreted as distributed feedback effects or reflection at passive-active interfaces, depending on the approach taken. For very large material gain values, the band structure of the waveguide is perturbed, and deviations from the simple coupled Bloch wave model are found.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure