Word: legalism
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...Such external appointments are daily business in the public sector. They are not inherently bad—indeed, few would doubt that Sunstein, the most frequently cited legal scholar in America, is not qualified for his post. However, these indirect career paths do discourage bright, ambitious students from signing on for a career in public service...
...National Security Agency (NSA), which collects the vast bulk of chatter for this country, has no shortage of sophisticated equipment and no legal obstacles when it listens to chatter abroad. What it does have a problem with is making sense of the sea of chatter it sucks out of the air and the world's fiber-optic cables. The risk of misinterpretation or missing a vital piece of information is enormous. (See the top 10 Secret Service code names...
...only question now is, How do we codify the collection of chatter? The NSA already has the legal authority to listen to chatter overseas - communications among foreigners. But what do you do when an American pops up calling a suspect telephone number or trying to e-mail al-Qaeda to volunteer his services? How long can the NSA sit on a line, figuring out whether it is of real interest, before applying for a warrant? I'll leave that one up to the constitutional lawyers, but I'll be eagerly listening for their answer...
Enforcing global justice has to be the legal challenge of all time. The International Criminal Court has worldwide authority, but its executive power is limited to a few buildings in the Hague and its budget to $125 million, one-thirtieth the size of the New York Police Department's. It has wide agreement on what constitute the worst offenses, but its mandate to prosecute them is rejected by the governments of more than half the world's people...
...Part of the problem is the unevenness of enforcement. While China boasts many practical and well-considered regulations, its legal system still struggles with corruption and a willingness of some local authorities to prioritize growth over health and safety. "I do consider the new law a good thing, but it will take time to implement it," says Hu Xiaosong, a professor at the China Agricultural University Food Safety Technological Center. "For example, we have had a traffic law for years, but to this day, there are still people jaywalking at every street corner. Don't expect the law will bring...