Digital Commons Network^™

Crashing Into The Unknown: An Examination Of Crash Optimization Algorithms Through The Two Lanes Of Ethics And Law, Jeffrey K. Gurney

Jeffrey K Gurney

Autonomous vehicles will encounter situations where an accident is truly unavoidable, requiring the vehicle to decide whom or what to hit. In such situations, the vehicle will make difficult ethical decisions based upon its programming — more specifically, how its crash-optimization algorithm is programmed.This Article examines crash-optimization algorithms from an ethical and legal standpoint through the lenses of six moral dilemmas. Ethically, the Article focuses specifically on utilitarian and Kantian ethics. Legally, the Article considers the tort and criminal law implications of crash-optimization algorithms.In addition, the Article discusses whether autonomous vehicles should even make ethical decisions. Concluding that they should …

Virtuous Billing, Nancy B. Rapoport, Randy D. Gordon

Nancy B. Rapoport

Aristotle tells us, in his Nicomachean Ethics, that we become ethical by building good habits and we become unethical by building bad habits: “excellence of character results from habit, whence it has acquired its name (êthikê) by a slight modification of the word ethos (habit).” Excellence of character comes from following the right habits. Thinking of ethics as habit-forming may sound unusual to the modern mind, but not to Aristotle or the medieval thinkers who grew up in his long shadow. “Habit” in Greek is “ethos,” from which we get our modern word, “ethical.” In Latin, habits are moralis, which …

En Torno A La Relevancia Jurídica De Una Estrategia Empresarial Consolidada Y Subyacente: La Obsolescencia Programada (About The Juridical Relevance Of An Underlying And Consolidated Business Strategy: The Planned Obsolescence), Jesús A. Soto

Jesús Alfonso Soto Pineda

El artículo presenta la obsolescencia programada, como estrategia empresarial, basada en el diseño, planificación, proyección y control de la vida útil de los productos, con el objetivo de dinamizar la demanda y estimular el consumo; impulsando a los particulares a adquirir tras la pérdida de funcionalidad de sus bienes o su caducidad. Exponiendo igualmente los casos de mayor trascendencia que han llevado tal estrategia hasta nuestros días, haciendo hincapié en el sector tecnológico y en uno de sus exponentes de más notoriedad, la empresa multinacional norteamericana Apple. Deslindando a su vez, los caracteres que le otorgan relevancia ética a la …

Religious Freedom & Closely Held Corporations: The Hobby Lobby Case & Its Ethical Implications, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

Hobby Lobby and its quest for religious freedom captured the attention of a nation for a few moments in late June 2014. The country homed in on the Supreme Court as the justices weighed the rights of an incorporated, profit-making entity run by devout individuals that objected to particular entitlements granted to women under the Affordable Care Act. The case raised important legal issues such as whether the law allows for-profit corporations to exercise religion (yes!) and whether protection for religious freedom trumps the rights of third parties to cost free preventive care (sort of!). The Supreme Court’s decision also …

Is Food Marketing Making Us Fat? Fat Cats Vs Dogmatists., Stephen S. Holden

Stephen S Holden

For many, it seems obvious that food marketing is making us fat. The anger and outrage that was once evoked by tobacco companies is now being repackaged and aimed at ‘Big Food’ (Hennessy, 2014). But is it justified, is food marketing the cause of obesity? And in any case, does outrage and dogmatism help solve the problem? This paper suggests that blaming the marketers, both Big Food and "lazy leisure", is a disputable claim, and dangerously shifts responsibility from individuals to external agents.

Corporate Boardroom Diversity: Why Are We Still Talking About This?, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

What exactly is board diversity and why does it matter? How does diversity fit in an attempt to build the best board for any organization? What attributes and skills are required by law and what mix of experiences and talents provide the best corporate governance? Even though most companies say they are looking for diversity, why has there been such little progress? Are required director attributes, which are a must for all boards, consistent with future diversity gains and aligned with achieving high performance and optimal board composition? My goal is to provide answers to these questions, and to discuss …

A Free Lunch In Chicago, Curtis E.A. Karnow

Curtis E.A. Karnow

A discussion of the ethical issues implicated by judges’ acceptance of travel and related expenses when attending privately sponsored judicial education, including seminars offered by educational institutions.

Social Dynamics Of Research Collaboration: Norms, Practices, And Ethical Issues In Determining Co-Authorship Rights., Jan Youtie, Barry Bozeman

Jan Youtie

Co-authorship has become common practice in most science and engineering disciplines and, with the growth of co-authoring, has come a fragmentation of norms and practices, some of them discipline-based, some institution-based. It becomes increasingly important to understand these practices, in part to reduce the likelihood of misunderstanding in collaborations among authors from different disciplines and fields. Moreover, there is also evidence of widespread satisfaction with collaborative and co-authoring experiences. In some cases the dissatisfactions are more in the realm of bruised feelings and miscommunication but in others there is clear exploitation and even legal disputes about, for example, intellectual property. …

The Eye-Patch Of The Beholder. Introduction To Entrepreneurship And Piracy, Steffen Roth Dr.

Dr. Steffen Roth

This introduction to entrepreneurship and piracy presents a collection of articles that responds to an identified need to light the darker sides of entrepreneurship, which appear clearer in the mirror of piracy. It first makes a claim for a dismoralised view of piracy. It then presents the cases the individual members of our expedition make for an explorative research program in entrepreneurship and piracy, which is finally outlined in the lookout of this article.

The Use Of Technology For The Alzheimer's Patient: A Literature Review, Mary Willis

Mary Willis

Technology has long been used to assist in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD); but not until recently has it been used in the treatment of symptoms of this debilitating disease. The current focus of technology use is assistance with activities of daily living (ADL’s) and patient safety. Research and experimentation have been conducted with devices to assist with memory loss in the Alzheimer’s patient. To better understand the need for technological assistance, it is necessary to first take a look at the current technology used and its effectiveness, the ethical issues involved with any medical technology, and to examine …

Ebola And Bioterrorism, Joshua P. Monroe

Joshua P Monroe

This paper will be a comparison of the United States government’s reaction to the recent outbreak of Ebola and will compare this response with the potential response by the United States government toward an act of biological or chemical warfare. The paper will analyze these responses from a cultural, political, legal, and policy standpoint

Ethical Frameworks, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

This article discusses the three prominent business ethics theories of Utilitarianism, Deontology and Virtue Ethics. This is a short primer on these theories.

Location Data, Purpose Binding And Contextual Integrity: What's The Message, Mireille Hildebrandt

Mireille Hildebrandt

This chapter investigates the issue of the proliferation of location data in the light of the ethical concept of contextual integrity and the legal concept of purpose binding. This involves an investigation of both concepts as side constraints on the free flow of information, entailing a balancing act between the civil liberties of individual citizens and the free flow of information. To tackle the issue the chapter starts from Floridi’s proposition that ‘communication means exchanging messages. So even the most elementary act of communication involves four elements: a sender, a receiver, a message, and a referent of the message’ and …

The Aesthetics Of Ethics, Raam P. Gokhale

Raam P Gokhale

The Aesthetics of Ethics

People For The Ethical Treatment Of Ethics, Raam P. Gokhale

Raam P Gokhale

A Dialogue on the Nature and Basis of Ethical Discourse

Teaching U.S. V. Windsor: The Defense Of Marriage Act And Its Constitutional Implications, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

Students are captivated by contemporary, high-profile Supreme Court cases. They recognize the litigants featured on the news, they debate the public policy, sociological and other real world implications of the arguments in school and their peers and parents prod them to discuss their opinions outside of class. I incorporate very recent and noteworthy Supreme Court cases in my legal studies courses with great success. My students are more engaged and prepared than when I assign a textbook chapter (students would rather track the law as it develops in real time). They tend to recall the arguments and legal theories well …

Tricky Business: A Decision-Making Framework For Legally Sound, Ethically Suspect Business Tactics, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

TRICK: “a crafty or underhanded device, maneuver, stratagem, or the like, intended to deceive or cheat.” Tricks are designed to outwit others in a cunning and skillful manner. Despite well-written, philosophically sound codes of ethics and core values, businesses are not above employing tricky tactics to suit their pecuniary interests. These strategies often involve the legal system as the outwitted ask courts to vindicate their rights. However, the most successful tricks are skillfully crafted to survive legal scrutiny. This article evaluates three tricky business tactics found lawful by United States Supreme Court during its most recent term. The story begins …

Student, Esquire?: The Practice Of Law In The Collaborative Classroom, Nantiya Ruan

Nantiya Ruan

Law faculty and non-profit lawyers are working together in a variety of partnerships to offer students exposure to “real life” clients in the first year of law school, as well as in advanced courses in substantive areas. Teachers engaged in client-centered advocacy through experiential frameworks have broken out of their isolated silos in the law school (e.g., legal writing, clinical, externship, and doctrinal) and begun to work together. To help students develop a sense of professional identity, cultivate professional values, and tap into key intrinsic motivations for lawyering, such as serving the public good, collaborative classrooms have an important role …

Prison Through A Philosophic Prism, Raam P. Gokhale

Raam P Gokhale

A Dialogue Between Prisoners Past, Present and Future

Why Civility Matters, Gregory T. Holtz

Gregory T. Holtz

An essay on professionalism "Why Civility Matters" considers why civility is a key and fundamental component of sound and effective lawyering. The essay suggests and creates a civility framework as a means and strategy of incorporating civility into one's daily practice.

Teaching Ethics In Criminal Justice To First Year Law Students: Or Efforts To Dislodge The Csi Effect, Susan Rutberg

Susan Rutberg

Teaching Ethics in Criminal Justice to First Year Law Students:

Or Efforts to Dislodge the CSI Effect[1]

Susan Rutberg[2]

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the implementation of an innovative first year course at Golden Gate University School of Law entitled “Lawyering Skills: Ethics in Criminal Justice.” The course, offered for the first time in the spring of 2011, was the product of curricular reform set in motion by the 2007 Carnegie Foundation Report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law. Golden Gate University has had a longtime focus both on practical legal education and ethical training. We devote a substantial …

Ethical Dilemma Of Foreign Aid And China's One-Child Policy, Kip Klingman

Kip Klingman

Discussion: whether to or not to provide funds for a group in China, which provides family health clinics in the most poverty-stricken regions in China.

Could You Repeat That Please? Forty-Five Years Of Pesticide Experiments On People, Barbara R. Leiterman Esq.

Barbara R. Leiterman Esq.

Little has been published in the literature about pesticide experiments conducted on human subjects. Yet there were at least twenty-two tests between 1967 and 2011 in which people were intentionally exposed to specific doses of pesticides. Almost all of these experiments violated scientific ethics and human rights. This article aims to describe those tests and their shortcomings, and explore the laws and regulations that incentivize such human experimentation. Ironically, as the public desire for pesticide safety increases, so does the industry’s motivation to test pesticides on people. Bringing these pesticide experiments to light, expanding the public discourse on the subject …

The Constitutional Right Not To Kill, Mark L. Rienzi

Mark L Rienzi

Federal and state governments participate in and/or permit a variety of different types of killings. These include military operations, capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion and self-defense or defense of others. In a pluralistic society, it is no surprise that there will be some members of the population who refuse to participate in some or all of these types of killings.

The question of how governments should treat such refusals is older than the Republic itself. Since colonial times, the answer to this question has been driven largely by statutory protections, with the Constitution playing a smaller role, particularly since the …

Pragmatism And Compromise In Conservation, Peter D. Verheyen

Peter D Verheyen

I write this from the perspective of an apprentice-trained bookbinder and conservator who has spent most of his career working in academic research libraries in the US, work that has included working primarily with special collections, but also heavily used circulating collections and digitization. During this time I have also worked with many other conservators, interns from conservation/preservation programs and students of museum studies and librarianship. While the mission ensuring the long-term health of and continued access to the Library’s collections has not changed, how we do that work and prioritize activities has. This has been a result of changes …

Neoclassical Professionalism In Law And Business, Robert E. Atkinson Jr.

Robert E. Atkinson Jr.

This paper offers a neo-classical approach to corporate reform: Remodeling the private practice of corporate law and the management of for-profit business to make both occupations better serve, together, their proper public functions. Without dismissing the recent focus of reform on external regulation of corporations or internal restructuring of corporate governance, this paper seeks the foundation for a different approach, encouraging corporate managers and lawyers as professionals to serve their occupation’s correlate values: prosperity and justice. This focus on the primary agents of modern capitalism, corporate managers and lawyers, responds both to early management reformers like Brandeis in the U.S. …

Ethics In Intellectual Property Negotiations: Issues And Illustrations, Lisa A. Dolak

Lisa A Dolak

Negotiating – formally or informally – is a characteristic aspect of law practice. The requisite skills are acquired “on the job” and, for some, via the formal study of negotiation processes and attributes. The negotiator has much to consider, including the client’s goals and interests, likely litigation outcomes should negotiations fail or any ultimate agreement be breached, and what the counterparty is likely seeking to accomplish.

The challenges include negotiating within the limits imposed by the ethics rules. This paper identifies key authorities relevant to negotiation ethics and illustrates their operation in the context of hypotheticals based on intellectual property …

Navigating The Uncharted Waters Of Teaching Law With Online Simulations, Ira Steven Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

The Internet is more than a place where the Millennial Generation communicates, plays, and shops. It is also a medium that raises issues central to nearly every existing field of legal doctrine, whether basic (such as Torts, Property, or Contracts) or advanced (such as Intellectual Property, Criminal Procedure, or Securities Regulation). This creates tremendous opportunities for legal educators interested in using the live Internet for experiential education. This Article examines how live websites can be used to create engaging and holistic simulations that tie together doctrine, theory, skills, and values in ways impossible to achieve with the case method. In …

Best Practices For The Law Of The Horse: Teaching Cyberlaw And Illuminating Law Through Online Simulations, Ira Steven Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

In an influential 1996 article entitled "Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse," Judge Frank Easterbrook mocked cyberlaw as a subject lacking in cohesion and therefore unworthy of inclusion in the law school curriculum. Responses to Easterbrook, most notably that of Lawrence Lessig in his 1999 article "The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach," have taken a theoretical approach. However, this Article—also appropriating the “Law of the Horse” moniker—concludes that Easterbrook’s challenge is primarily pedagogical, requiring a response keyed to whether cyberlaw ought to be taught in law schools. The Article concludes that despite Easterbrook’s concerns, cyberlaw presents …

False Beliefs, Partial Truths: Personal Myths And Ethical Blind Spots, Crina Archer, Laura Hartman

Laura Hartman

While unethical actions may arise from conscious, deliberate and reflective choices to do ‘wrong,’ many unethical decisions emerge instead from an absence of awareness of ethical responsibility. The metaphor of ‘blind spots’ has been deployed productively to describe mental obstacles that impede ethical responsibility at the individual level, but do not rise to the level of conscious awareness. Blind spots prevent us from attending to relevant data, different points of view, alternative solutions, and foreseeable consequences crucial to forging an ethical response. We identify three common myths that tend to foster ethical blind spots at the individual level by rendering …