Posted on by roncolombo · 2 Comments

Benefit Corporations

Earlier this year, New York became the seventh state to recognize an interesting new category of business: the “benefit corporation.”

Unlike the typical for-profit corporation, which must be run to maximize shareholder profits, the benefit corporation is explicitly enabled to balance its profit-maximization objective with some other “public benefit” of its choosing.  The statute sets forth a list of qualifying “public benefits,” which includes a variety of worthwhile causes.  Conspiciously absent from this list is anything having to do with religion.

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Posted on by roncolombo

NYC Health Dept. & Circumcision

Straight from the NY Daily News:

“The city Health Department on Wednesday “strongly” urged against an ultra-Orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual that uses oral-genital suction to remove the blood.

In September, a Brooklyn infant died after the procedure because he contracted herpes from the rabbi, or mohel , who performed it.

“There is no safe way to perform oral suction on any open wound in a newborn,” city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said in a statement.

The ritual leaves infants at risk of contracting herpes simplex virus type 1.”

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Posted on by roncolombo

FDR’s D-Day Speech

Yesterday (June 6th) was the 68th Anniversary of the historic allied D-Day invasion of Normandy.

For a fascinating glimpse into how much has changed in the United States since that time (the course of but one lifetime), one can review FDR’s speech to the Nation given on June 6, 1944.

I have reprinted the speech in its entirety below.

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Posted on by roncolombo · 1 Comment

Cristiada / For Greater Glory – Impressions

As promised, I’m reporting back with my impressions of “For Greater Glory,” a film depicting the Mexican Cristeros War of 1926-29, which opened this past weekend.

The film is not an American production – and its director makes his debut with it.  I fear that this shows.  Despite some genuine stars (Andy Garcia, Peter O’Toole, Eva Longoria), and beautiful visuals, the film lacks a certain polish.  It is at times too fast and choppy, and at times too slow and drawn out.  That said, the film has its moments – there are several excellent scenes.  And overall, it is certainly watchable.

And given its subject matter and content, I suggest that it is certainly worth watching.

The Cristeros War was sparked by widespread popular resistance to Read more

Posted on by Michael Helfand

Signing Off

Thanks so much to both Mark Movsesian and Marc DeGirolami for inviting me here to guest blog this month.  It’s been such a great opportunity to discuss some law & religion issues I’ve been thinking through, especially some of the back-and-forth on my Litigating Religion draft.  Looking forward to having future law & religion conversations somewhere in the blogosphere!

Posted on by roncolombo

Cristiada / For Greater Glory

This is the opening weekend of a fascinating new film “For Greater Glory” (originally entitled “Cristiada”).  It concerns Mexico’s Cristeros War of 1926-29, in which that nation’s Catholic populace rebelled against government efforts to secularize the country.  You can view a preview / trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pu4gst3FmI

I intend to catch the film tomorrow, and will certainly report back with my impressions.

The film’s timing is quite fortuitous, as many are drawing parallels between its subject matter and the ongoing battles between the Catholic Church and the U.S. government today.  Although I would certainly not equate the massacres and executions of the Cristeros War with what’s happening now, at their cores both situations certainly implicate a very real contest between Church and State.  And more than a few serious clergymen I know foresee a period of “dry martyrdom” ahead – where lives are not taken, but where jobs are lost, careers are ruined, fines are levied, and prisons filled. 

I am interested in seeing whether the film lends itself to such comparisons.

Posted on by roncolombo

Salvete!

Thank you to Mark and Marc for inviting me to join them on the CLR Forum this month!

Although my private practice experience has been in the field of corporate and securities litigation, I have long maintained an amateur’s interest in the First Amendment’s religion clauses (ever since my 1998 law school Note on the priest-penitent privilege). Since entering academia in 2006, I have wed the two areas to some extent, writing on the intersection of business law and virtue, and have attempted to apply natural law reasoning to issues of economic regulation.

I have looked forward to this opportunity for some time, and hope that the Forum’s readership finds my participation worthwhile.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Thanks to Mike Helfand and Welcome to Ron Colombo

Thanks very much to Michael Helfand for his excellent posting in May.  Mike may stay on for a short bit to finish up some last posts, and we hope he’ll come back and blog with us again soon.

And welcome to our next guest blogger, Ronald Colombo, who will be posting with us in June.  Ron joins us from Hofstra, where he is Associate Professor of Law. He writes primarily in corporate law and law and regulation.   He has published widely, and I am hoping that he will talk a little with us about a couple of his recent pieces — Toward a Nexus of Virtue, forthcoming in the Washington & Lee Law Review, and his work in progress, The Corporation as a Tocquevillian Association.  Welcome, Ron!

Posted on by Michael Helfand

Greetings from Chicago

I have the pleasure of being hosted this week at the DePaul College of Law by the Center for Jewish Law and Judaic Studies, which is holding a two-day Jewish Law Symposium.  The format for the symposium has been fantastic.  The first day was dedicated to CLE presentations on contemporary issues in Jewish law (I presented on practical issues that arise when trying to enforce rabbinical court judgments in U.S. courts).  The second day will include works in progress by some fantastic Jewish Law scholars, including Chaim Saiman (Villanova), who is presenting his paper “Talmudic Analysis and Ethical Thought,” David Flatto (Penn State), who is presenting his paper “Justice Retold,” and Roberta Kwall (DePaul), who is presenting her paper “The Cultural Analysis Paradigm: Women and Synagogue Ritual as a Case Study,” with all papers receiving comments from Keith Sharfman (St. Johns).  I’ve got to say the combination of both discussions of practical Jewish law issues and scholarly presentations of Jewish Law papers has been a great format.  Many thanks to the Center and to its co-directors Roberta Kwall and  Steven Resnicoff for putting together such a wonderful program.

Posted on by Michael Helfand

“Religious Arbitration and the New Multiculturalism” on The Legal Workshop

The Legal Workshop – one of my favorite websites – posted the short essay version of my recent article “Religious Arbitration and the New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting Legal Orders.”   I have to say that I really enjoyed the process of distilling the core points of the full version of the article (available here) into the shorter format, which is what I think makes The Legal Workshop such a useful venue for reading up on recent scholarship.