For this assumption, you will identify a current and specific policy crisis (criminal justice, environmental, economic, housing, natural disaster, etc

For this assumption, you will identify a current and specific policy crisis (criminal justice, environmental, economic, housing, natural disaster, etc.) and explain a seven to eight-page spaced research paper examining the legal, economic, and policy implications and potential responses to the specific crisis.  There is no shortage of potential crisis topics these days, but if you are interested in narrowing down, one way to identify a possible "crisis" is to look at a reputable newspaper's headlines for a week or two and see if there are op-eds suggesting various actions (often these actions will be urged to respond to something perceived as a crisis). 

For example, the coronavirus or police brutality would both be too broad to allow you to do focus research paper in just 7-8 pages, but the impact of health care costs or unemployment benefit access on people's willingness to get tested could be an example of a narrower crisis.  Similarly, the distribution of military weaponry to local police departments in the past few decades and the policy implications of that distribution on their actions could be a narrower focus.  Other examples of narrow/specific crises might be the impact of the Flint water crisis on food security in the area or the coronavirus's effect on California's agricultural economy or Airbnb's impact on rental prices in New York City.  We will explore potential sources during the library workshop, and you are encouraged to look for the connective tissue linking your topic through law and policy (i.e., you may be researching climate crisis and specifically natural disasters, but as you research you should be connecting your paper to the current climate-based court case being brought by many young people against the government, in connection with natural disasters). 

This paper is for consideration "ONLY"