The Shifting Landscape for American Not-for-Profit Organizations

Letter from the Editor

The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 10, Issue 1, December 2007

As The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law begins its tenth year, we devote our special section to The Shifting Landscape for American Not-for-Profit Organizations. Kay Guinane, Director of Nonprofit Speech Rights for OMB Watch, provides an overview of counterterrorism tactics that have affected American charities. Thomas Silk, senior counsel at the San Francisco law firm of Silk, Adler & Colvin, discusses proposed changes to IRS Form 990, which would encourage not-for-profit organizations to adopt good governance practices. In a sidebar, Grant Williams summarizes an October meeting on the topic between an IRS official and charity leaders. Josh D. Friedman, a former International Center for Not-for-Profit Law intern, proposes that not-for-profit organizations accused of being linked to terrorism be given the same due process rights as accused drug kingpins. IJNL student editor Sarah R. Eremus summarizes USAID’s proposed Partner Vetting System and the NGO community’s response to it.

This issue features three other articles as well. The protection that international treaties provide not-for-profit organizations is evaluated by Luke Eric Peterson, editor of Investment Treaty News, and Nick Gallus, a lecturer in international trade and investment law at Queen’s University in Canada. Marc Makary, a member of the Beirut Bar and former Senior Research Fellow at ICNL, assesses the rules for incorporating associations in Lebanon and Jordan. Finally, Benny D. Setianto, a researcher and senior lecturer at Catholic University of Soegijapranata, Indonesia, considers civil society at the conceptual level, as a sector lying between the economy and the state.

We gratefully acknowledge our authors for sharing their expertise; student editor Sarah R. Eremus and faculty adviser Raquel Aldana of the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for their assistance on this issue; and Rebecca See of ICNL for posting the issue online.

Stephen Bates
Editor
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
sbates@icnl.org