Law Commons^™

The Dmca Rulemaking Mechanism: Fail Or Safe?, Maryna Koberidze

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This Article analyzes seventeen years under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) rulemaking mechanism and suggests changes to reinforce its successes while remedying its failures. Part I briefly discusses the legislative history of the rulemaking mechanism and policy justifications for its adoption within the DMCA scheme. Part II reviews legal and evidentiary standards of the rulemaking and recent changes to its administrative procedure. Part III provides an overview of the prior rulemakings and their impact on non-infringing uses, with a particular focus on the “e-book” and “cellphone unlocking” exemptions. Part IV applauds the Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation Act of …

Lessons From The Lost History Of Seminole Rock, Sanne H. Knudsen, Amy J. Wildermuth

Articles

This Article informs the current debate over Auer v. Robbins (519 U.S. 452 (1997)) deference by exploring the roots of the Bowles v. Seminole Rock decision (325 U.S. 410 (1945)) and its subsequent reinterpretation through a creative approach. To do so, this Article offers a series of hypothetical opinions applying the various historical interpretations of Seminole Rock to a single set of facts.

Part I places Seminole Rock in the constellation of deference doctrines in administrative law so that one can easily understand what the doctrine is and when it applies. Part II examines the transformation of Seminole Rock through …

Unearthing The Lost History Of Seminole Rock, Sanne H. Knudsen, Amy J. Wildermuth

Articles

This Article documents the untethering of Bowles v. Seminole Rock [325 U.S. 410 (1945)]. It shows how, in the 1960s and 1970s, alongside an expanding administrative state, the doctrine transformed into a more mechanical and highly deferential form of agency deference. It further shows that this transformation is marked by a consistent lack of scholarly or judicial reflection on its underpinnings.

In doing so, this Article provides new depth to the emerging critiques of Seminole Rock deference and lends critical support for reexamination of the doctrine.

Rulemaking As Legislating, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

The central premise of the nondelegation doctrine prohibits Congress from delegating its Article I legislative powers. Yet Congress routinely delegates to agencies the power to promulgate legislative rules—rules that carry the force and effect of law just as statutes do. Given this tension between the nondelegation doctrine and the modern regulatory state, some scholars have attacked the nondelegation doctrine as fictional.

Little scholarly attention, however, has been given to considering how the central premise of the nondelegation doctrine coheres with—or fails to cohere with—administrative law as a whole. This Article takes up that task, exploring what might happen to administrative …