Business & Entrepreneurship

Reconciliation is a “fast-track” legislative process that bypasses potential Senate gridlock and permits the passage of budget-related legislation by majority vote. It’s a hot-button issue now as the Senate grapples with health-care legislation. “The passage this term of health-care legislation, and perhaps the future of health care reform more generally now may turn on rulings of the current parliamentarian,” says Cheryl Block, JD, professor of law. 

Top international criminal law experts will unveil and discuss a draft of a multilateral treaty condemning and prohibiting crimes against humanity during a conference March 11 and 12 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. The treaty is the culmination of a two-year Crimes Against Humanity Initiative at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. UPDATE: View the Declaration on the Need for a Comprehensive Convention on Crimes Against Humanity (including a list of supporters).  

The School of Law is hosting a screening and panel discussion of the award-winning documentary “Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 15. Operation Babylift airlifted more than 2,500 Vietnamese orphans out of a war-torn country in 1975 to protect them from the impending threat of the Communist regime. Called one of the “most humanitarian efforts in history,” it was plagued by lawsuits and political turmoil. The event is free, but registration is required. 

“What goes down, must come up,” says Olin Business School’s Sam Chun. He will share tips on how businesses can prepare for economic recovery at the next “Thought Leadership Series” discussion in Kansas City, Mo.

The small increase in take-home pay that began in April 2009 through the Making Work Pay Credit (MWPC) could mean an unexpected bump in your tax bill says Cheryl Block, tax law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. The problem, according to Block, is that the Treasury Department’s new withholding tables do not take several individual employment circumstances into account. Some joint filers, college students and retirees, among others, may end up repaying all or part of the credit this tax season.

OUTlaw, the student- run LGBT awareness, advocacy, support, and social group at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, will host “Queer in the Midwest,” the annual Midwest LGBT law conference Feb. 25-27

The intricately intertwined relationship between the global economy and politics will be the focus of a public forum titled “Politics and the Global Recession” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the Knight Center. The program is being sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Washington University in St. Louis has more than 12,000 students, 4,500-plus faculty and staff and only 5,168 parking spaces on its Danforth Campus.Students at the Olin Business School saw this problem as a real world business case and decided to tackle it head-on with a competition to inspire innovative solutions to the campus parking challenge with an emphasis on keeping it green. 

The Center for Social Development at the Brown School is advising and helping to test innovations in asset building — strategies that increase financial and tangible assets for families and businesses — in several countries in East and Southeast Asia.

Top experts in Chinese law will gather at School of Law Thursday, Feb. 25, for a panel discussion and open public forum. The event, co-sponsored by the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. A live webcast also will be available through the program.