Ouellette, Brescia published by Oxford University Press

President and Dean Alicia Ouellette ‘94 and The Hon. Harold R. Tyler Chair in Law and Technology Professor Ray Brescia recently had scholarly work published by Oxford University Press.

Ouellette’s article, People with Disabilities in Human Subjects Research: A History of Exploitation, a Problem of Exclusion, was published in Oxford Handbooks Online, one of the most prestigious and successful strands of Oxford’s scholarly publishing. The Handbook series publishes in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field.

Ouellette explores the exclusions faced by people with disabilities in mainstream health research and the issues such exclusion may create in the work. She also analyzes the possible causes for these exclusions and offers a multifaceted approach to create more inclusive research.

“Equal and just representation for persons with disabilities is necessary to improve health outcomes and to demonstrate respect for individuals who live with impairment,” Ouellette wrote in the abstract. “If adopted, these suggestions would create the opportunity for researchers to conduct more inclusive research with more reliably generalizable results without compromising research integrity.”

“It is an honor to see this research included by the esteemed Oxford Handbooks Online. Sharing scholarly work and research is a crucial piece of using the law to advance access to resources for the underserved, underrepresented, and excluded,” Ouellette said.

Brescia’s piece, Crisis Lawyering: Transnational Ethics for Global Emergencies, was published in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, a highly regarded source for hundreds of incisive articles on both fundamental and innovative topics. The encyclopedia is designed to present various perspectives on important approaches, issues, and topics, reflective of the tensions and debates in political science.

Brescia has explored the idea of crisis lawyering through his recent book Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations and continues the ideas in the article as he explores the idea of a new sets of ethical rules for the never-before-seen crises of our time—such as a global pandemic, and natural disasters brought about by a changing climate—as a way to assist lawyers in their response to addressing these issues for their clients beyond the traditional scope of practice.

“Not every client crisis is a crisis for the lawyer because that lawyer is prepared to handle it and knows just what to do and when to do it to pursue the client’s interests. But some of the crises that have emerged in recent years are novel, pervasive, and unprecedented in many ways, meaning that the legal profession, when its members are asked to address them, cannot rely on traditional approaches to their practice, and may need to take into account the interests of a wider range of stakeholders that is typical in the practice of law, where the interests of the clients are supposed to be paramount,” Brescia wrote in the abstract. “Accordingly, since traditional lawyering approaches may not be appropriate for novel, pervasive crises, are new sets of ethical rules appropriate for just such crises to help lawyers navigate them effectively, competently, and ethically?”

“Thank you to The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics for their inclusion of my crisis lawyering research. As the world continues to respond to crises of today and inevitably the crises of tomorrow, lawyers will play an enormous role,” Brescia said.