Digital Commons Network^™

Investment In Latin America Will Limit Migration North, Ryan J. O'Riordan, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

The refugee crisis at the US Southern Border is due to multiple compounding factors: Latin America’s over-reliance on commodities, failure to economically diversify to innovation, and a lack of coherent US strategic engagement with the region. The situation is hemispheric; imploding states and a serious humanitarian calamity loom ever larger on the southern horizon. Since this represents a long-term problem requiring strategic and sustainable development initiatives, a new Alliance for Progress for the 21st Century is proposed which will build partnerships to advance innovation-driven development across the region.

Data Scams, Roger Allan Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

Targeting platforms like Google and Facebook are usually seen as presenting tradeoffs between utility and privacy. This Article identifies and describes a different, non-privacy cost of targeting platforms: they make it easier for malicious actors to scam others. They do this by making it easier for scammers to reach the most promising victims, hide from law-enforcement authorities and others, and develop better scams. Technology offers potential solutions, since the same data and targeting tools that enable scams could help detect and prevent them, though neither platforms nor law-enforcement officials have both the incentives and expertise needed to develop and deploy …

Review Of Ian Kerr And Jane Bailey, The Implications Of Digital Rights Management For Privacy And Freedom Of Expression, 2 Journal Of Information, Communication & Ethics In Society 87 (2004), Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Ian Kerr, who passed away far too young in 2019, was an incisive scholar and a much treasured colleague. The wit that sparkled in his papers was matched only by his warmth toward his friends, of whom there were many. He and his many co-authors wrote with deep insight and an equally deep humanity about copyright, artificial intelligence, privacy, torts, and much much more.

Ian was also a valued contributor to the Jotwell Technology Law section. His reviews here display the same playful generosity that characterized everything else he did. In tribute to his memory, we are publishing a memorial …

Uncertainty In Employee Status Across Federal Law, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Numerous federal statutes rely on a distinction between employees and independent contractors. Based on a series of Supreme Court decisions from 1968 through 2003, courts and administrative agencies have used a common law multifactor test to draw this distinction. In an effort to enhance predictability and certainty within and across legislation, these cases have rejected a purposive approach in applying the test. But the Supreme Court has never said which, if any, of the factors are the most important in the analysis, nor has anyone determined whether the underlying purpose—enhancing predictability and certainty—has been attained.

This empirical Study uses content …

Ok, Google, Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Lawyering?, Amy Vorenberg, Julie A. Oseid, Melissa Love Koenig

Law Faculty Scholarship

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human lawyering? The answer is no. Despite worries that AI is getting so sophisticated that it could take over the profession, there is little cause for concern. Indeed, the surge of AI in the legal field has crystalized the real essence of effective lawyering. The lawyer’s craft goes beyond what AI can do because we listen with empathy to clients’ stories, strategize to find that story that might not be obvious, thoughtfully use our imagination and judgment to decide which story will appeal to an audience, and creatively tell those winning stories.

This article reviews …

Do Female Investors Support Female Entrepreneurs? An Empirical Analysis Of Angel Investor Behavior, Seth C. Oranburg, Mark Geiger

Law Faculty Scholarship

There is an ongoing debate on why female entrepreneurs face greater challenges than their male counterparts do in raising capital for their companies. Rooted in homophily – theory supporting the notion that women support women – is the argument that there are not enough female investors to support female-led firms. In the context of accredited investor-investee exchanges, we explored whether the gender of investor and the gender of investee’s CEO are related. Using a United States sample of 529 investments from fiscal year 2018, we found a significant association between the gender of the investor and the gender of the …

Barbie In Bondage: What Orly Lobel's Book "You Don't Own Me: How Mattel V. Mga Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side" Tells Us About The Commoditization Of The Female Body, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] "This review essay reflects upon two of the central claims of [Orly Lobel's book] You Don't Own Me: first, that when companies put their energy and resources into intellectual property litigation rather than innovation, it is a strategy that is likely to fail; and second, that Barbie is a 'lead icon' in the disconnect between women pushing for general equality and those who prefer traditional gender roles for women."

One Rule Of Law Project In Post-Soviet Russia, Albert E. Scherr

Law Faculty Scholarship

"One Rule of Law Project in Post-Soviet Russia" is published as Chapter 9 of the book At Home Abroad: Friendship First - A Look at Rule of Law Projects and Other International Insights, (ed. Joseph Nadeau, New York: Austin Macauley Publishers LLC, 2019). This book provides personal insights into an international cooperative effort to promote the rule of law in emerging democracies around the world. Professor Scherr's chapter examines the cultural context within a study of the rule-of-law project that was conducted between 1999 and 2004 in Vologda, Russia.

Legal Education Unbundled (And Rebundled), Megan Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay calls for an unbundling of legal education, much like the kind of unbundling we have seen in the cable, music, and print news media. It suggests that the standard legal education "bundle"-the generalized JD-is just one of many forms of legal education that can be packaged appropriately for today's legal education market needs.

Introductions, Tonya M. Evans, Julia Spivak

Law Faculty Scholarship

An introduction to the Symposium and an introduction to Blockchain technology in preparation for the topics of the rest of the symposium.

Panel 2: Art Law And Blockchain, Tonya M. Evans, Derek Fincham, Katya Fisher, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Law Faculty Scholarship

Panel presentation on Art Law and Blockchain at 2019 AELJ Spring Symposium: Digital Art & Blockchain.

The Role Of International Rules In Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes, Tonya M. Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain's distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate "superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings …

Establishing Appropriate Best Practices In Intellectual Property Management And Technology Transfer In The United Arab Emirates: Building Human Capital, Global Networks And Institutional Infrastructure To Drive Sustainable Knowledge-Based, Innovation-Driven Development, Stanley Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Best practices (BP) are integral to national and international IP law, practice, and management. For the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build, foster, and sustain globally-networked knowledge-based, innovation-driven, economic development in the 21st century, a suite of internationally-standardized BP in intellectual property (IP) management, technology transfer and information analysis will be necessary. For the UAE, and the other GCC states, appropriate and applicable BP will be critical to diversify from commodity over-dependence (petroleum) towards nationally, regionally and globally interconnected innovation ecosystems. Therefore, strategically building human capital, institutions, institutional infrastructure and global networks which will be required for UAE to leapfrog …

3d Printing And U.S. Copyright Law, Ryan G. Vacca, Peter S. Menell

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article explores how 3D printing fits within US copyright law. US copyright law provides a well-developed general framework for the protection of creative designs, whether fixed in CAD files or 3D objects. Enforcement of copyright protection in this industry faces some of the same challenges encountered by other content industries whose works were disrupted by the digital revolution. Nonetheless, 3D printing brings distinctive issues. Although grounded in statute, US copyright law has a rich common law tradition that affords courts significant leeway in adapting doctrines to new and unforeseen technological developments. This capacity is reinforced by the range of …

The Federal Circuit As An Institution, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a unique institution. Unlike other circuit courts, the Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction is bound by subject area rather than geography, and it was created to address a unique set of problems specific to patent law. These characteristics have affected its institutional development and made the court one of the most frequently studied appellate courts. This chapter examines this development and describes the evolving qualities that have helped the Federal Circuit distinguish itself, for better or worse, as an institution.

This chapter begins with an overview of the concerns existing before creation of …