St. John's University Law Faculty Blog

On May 27th, Professor Rosemary Salomone presented a paper on “Heritage Languages and Educational Equality in the Global Knowledge Economy” at an international symposium on “Politiques Linguistiques Familiales et Processus de Transmissions Intergénérationnelles en Contexte Migratoire” hosted by the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France. The following is an abstract:

This paper examines the wavering history of language rights in the United States for students whose home language is other than English. It gives particular attention to the Supreme Court’s decision in Lau v. Nichols (1974) and related federal laws and regulations. It looks specifically at students from immigrant or refugee families who are English dominant but have limited conversational skills in their “heritage” language. It maintains that while families with sufficient economic means and/or community support preserve their language and culture by enrolling their children in after-school and weekend language and culture classes or through dual language immersion programs in the public schools, the same advantages are not available to many less privileged students whose potential for bilingualism and biculturalism remains unrealized. It presents data on the increasing demand for multilingual skills in the job market as well as empirical findings on the cognitive and social benefits of bilingualism, which further underscore the resulting inequities. For these students developing academic proficiency and literacy in their “mother” tongue is not a mere enrichment activity that schools can set aside in the face of competing demands for accountability as measured by standardized test scores in English. It is rather critical in the global knowledge economy to providing a “meaningful,” “effective,” and “appropriate” education as guaranteed in federal law. The paper closes with a brief discussion of current developments, including state “Seals of Biliteracy” and a congressionally supported Commission on Language Learning, that suggest national recognition of the country’s language deficit and a hopeful commitment to addressing the rights of heritage language learners.

Professor Lazaro was quoted in the On Wall Street article, “New FINRA CEO will face thorny issues and rising criticism,” about FINRA’s newly named CEO, Robert Cook, and the issues he can expect to face when he takes over the brokerage industry regulator:

Christine Lazaro, director of the Securities Arbitration Clinic at St. John’s University School of Law, says preventing elder financial abuse has become an ever more important issue as more baby boomers enter retirement.

Under Ketchum, FINRA has made moves to buttress protections for older clients. Last year, the regulator launched a helpline that it says received more than 4,600 calls so far .

Lazaro also points to growing concerns about cybersecurity. In recent years, there have been high profile data breaches at firms like J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

“There is a tremendous amount of confidential customer information at the firms,” she says.

There’s also a question as to what role does FINRA have in the ongoing debate over an industrywide fiduciary standard. The Department of Labor’s contentious rule, finalized in April, faces several lawsuits launched by industry trade groups. Meanwhile, the SEC, which is charged with creating a fiduciary rule under the Dodd-Frank Act, says it won’t finalize its own rule-making before Obama leaves office.

Lazaro says FINRA has an opportunity to set expectations for firms.

“The place for FINRA to act is really in terms of how it expects its member firms to manage conflicts of interest, in other words acting in the best interest of customers,” she says. “FINRA has long said it expects firms to act in the best interest of customers, but the question is how do you define best interest?”

On May 16th, Professor John Q. Barrett delivered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the 11th annual Sol & Florence Kanee Distinguished Speaker Series lecture, hosted by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. The previous Kanee Lecturers include Sir Martin Gilbert, Professor Deborah Lipstadt, Professor Shlomo Avineri, Ambassador Dore Gold, and Justice Albie Sachs. Professor Barrett’s lecture was entitled “Seventy Years Since Nuremberg: Proof of Nazi Crimes, The Birth of Modern Human Rights Law.” For a local press report, click here

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