PHRGE Hosts Irish Scholars

PHOTO: DAVID LEIFER

In February, the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) brought two leading members of the Irish Human Rights Commission — Professor Gerard Quinn of the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Professor William Binchy of Trinity College, Dublin — to the law school for a dynamic seminar, “Judicial Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights in Ireland — Lochner Crosses the Atlantic.”

“Exchanges like this, with colleagues from around the world, are critical to our efforts to promote enforcement of economic and social rights,” said Professor Martha Davis, PHRGE codirector. “We are delighted that these leading thinkers shared in this dialogue with students and faculty of Northeastern.”

The two experts took a hard look at several recent Irish cases limiting the justiciability of economic and social rights, underscoring contrasts with more expansive jurisprudence from other nations as well as European case law. After offering their critiques, Quinn and Binchy mapped out the Irish Human Rights Commission’s long-term plan for reversing this trend and expanding the recognition of economic and social rights in Ireland. A lively exchange between the Irish visitors and members of the law school community followed, including discussion of comparative approaches from South Africa as well as strategic thinking about how to advance enforcement on issues of economic and social rights.

Summer 2007 | News Briefs: Co-op Coup

On the Cutting Edge

The Internet is like a 21st-century Wild West. Over the past decade, businesses have flocked to the brand-new territory, excited at the prospect of new markets and increased profits. Consumers have followed along, drawn by the promise of increased choice and convenience. But the uncharted terrain has uncovered new concerns for both groups: businesses want to protect their proprietary intellectual property that fuels e-commerce, while consumers increasingly worry about safeguarding their personal information.

The emerging area makes fertile ground for some interesting co-ops: just ask Brady Kriss ’07 and Caitriona Fitzgerald ’08, who recently co-oped on the Internet frontier: Kriss at a software company and Fitzgerald at an Internet watchdog group.

POWERING THE E-MARKETPLACE

Cambridge-based ATG makes the software that gives retail giants like Target, Best Buy and J Crew an online presence — complete with shopping carts and credit card transactions. Brady Kriss spent her third co-op “working with in-house counsel at ATG on everything from licensing to SEC filings and intellectual property,” she explains.

“I’ve always been interested in law surrounding cutting-edge technology,” says Kriss, describing what drew her to ATG. “The most interesting piece for me is intellectual property. Software doesn’t fit well into either the copyright or patent scheme. It’s like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.”

“It doesn’t make sense to copyright software because of the requirements,” she continues. “To copyright software, you’re supposed to send in the first 20 pages of code. But code has no beginning and no end. And patents are for mechanical things; with software, there are no actual parts.”

Kriss calls the co-op “very academically interesting” and one that also produced an “ah-ha” moment for her. “I always thought I’d work for a firm that did a lot of technology IP. It didn’t occur to me that I could do this kind of work in-house,” she says. “Long term, this is exactly what I hope to be doing.”

ON THE PRIVACY BEAT

Caitriona Fitzgerald started her co-op at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC, on a Monday. “By Friday, I was sitting in on a congressional hearing, listening to testimony I helped to draft,” she notes.

EPIC is a civil liberties watchdog group that keeps an eye on Internet-related privacy issues. “They’re great about getting co-op students out there,” says Fitzgerald. In addition to testifying at the hearing, Fitzgerald’s name was listed on an FTC complaint she helped draft, protesting Google’s acquisition of digital advertising company DoubleClick. She also attended a summit at FBI headquarters with the FBI’s general counsel and other privacy groups “to talk about our concerns,” she notes. “I’ve worked on a wide range of things like phone record security, the Real ID Act — basically focusing on what’s going on in Congress,” she says. “They keep us busy enough.”

“It’s been very exciting and a great challenge,” notes Fitzgerald. “I love the energy of being in Washington. I thought I wanted to go into policy work, and this co-op sealed the deal,” she concludes, noting she hopes to spend her next co-op on Capitol Hill.

—Maura King Scully

PHOTOS: DENNIS DRENNER (Fitzgerald); WIQAN ANG (Kriss)