Law Commons^™

Canning Spam: Consumer Protection Or A Lid On Free Speech?, Grant C. Yang

Duke Law & Technology Review

The United States Congress recently passed the first federal legislation to curb the influx of spam. However, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act ("CAN-SPAM Act") left some measures to be enacted by the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), and some consumers are calling for the Act to have a broader reach and for the creation of a Do-Not-E-Mail registry. Conversely, the FTC decided to delay the creation of a registry and opted to assist in the development of a new technological authentication system. This iBrief looks at the current state of spam and explains that it is …

The Function Of The Supreme People’S Court Of Regulating Economy——Re-Evaluation Of The Zhongfu Industry Guarantee Case(最高法院规制经济的功能──再评“中福实业公司担保案”), Meng Hou

Hou Meng

No abstract provided.

How The Supreme Court Regulates Economy: Review On Exterior Coordination Cost（最高人民法院如何规制经济──外部协调成本的考察）, Meng Hou

Hou Meng

No abstract provided.

1984 Is Still Fiction: Electronic Monitoring In The Workplace And U.S. Privacy Law, Christopher Pearson Fazekas

Duke Law & Technology Review

Electronic monitoring in the workplace has been the subject of relentless public criticism. Privacy advocates argue that technological advancements have given overbearing employers powerful tools to abuse employee dignity in the name of productivity and that new legislation should bolster workplace privacy rights. This iBrief contends that current U.S. legal doctrine governing electronic monitoring in the workplace is fair given the nature and purpose of the workplace, and potential employer liability for employee misconduct.

Recognition And Enforcement Of International Commercial Arbitration Awards, Shouhua Yu

LLM Theses and Essays

Arbitration is an effective way to solve disputes, through which parties from different countries can be partially free from anyone’s local jurisdiction. However, the recognition and enforcement of international arbitration awards still rely on the national court system. Since China opened its door to the world, more and more commercial disputes have been settled through arbitration. However, many foreign investors and writers have complained about the defects in the recognition and enforcement of arbitration awards in China. This paper will look into the causes of these defects in, and try to find ways to resolve the defects.

Strict Liability For Gatekeepers: A Reply To Professor Coffee, Frank Partnoy

University of San Diego Law and Economics Research Paper Series

This article responds to a proposal by Professor John C. Coffee, Jr. for a modified form of strict liability for gatekeepers. Professor Coffee’s proposal would convert gatekeepers into insurers, but cap their insurance obligations based on a multiple of the highest annual revenues the gatekeepers recently had received from their wrongdoing clients. My proposal, advanced in 2001, would allow gatekeepers to contract for a percentage of issuer damages, after settlement or judgment, subject to a legislatively-imposed floor. This article compares the proposals and concludes that a contractual system based on a percentage of the issuer’s liability would be preferable to …

Section 7: Business Law, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Privacy, Free Speech & The Garden Grove Cyber Café Experiment, Brett Stohs

Duke Law & Technology Review

In response to gang violence at local "cyber cafés," the City Council of Garden Grove, California, passed an ordinance requiring cyber cafés to install video surveillance systems. The constitutionality of the provision was subsequently challenged, and a California Court of Appeal determined that the video surveillance requirement did not violate free speech or privacy protections under either the federal or California Constitutions. This decision was immediately challenged, by commentators and a dissenting judge, as opening the door to Orwellian-type, government intrusions into individuals' personal lives. This iBrief analyzes the appellate court's decision and concludes that not only did the majority …

Property And Contract: Toward A Clearer Understanding Of The Hague Convention On The Law Applicable To Certain Rights In Respect Of Securities, James S. Rogers

James S. Rogers

No abstract provided.

Public Nuisance Claims Against Gun Sellers: New Insights And Challenges, Jean Macchiaroli Eggen, John G. Culhane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Gun violence continues unabated. Regulation of these deadly instruments is woefully inadequate, and legislatures are compounding the problem by barring or restricting access to the courts for the death and injuries that guns cause. In short, Congress and state legislators have repeatedly acquiesced to the demands of the gun lobby.

During the past several years, cities have struck back by filing public nuisance claims against those gun sellers whose practices pose a risk to the public's health and safety. After a slow start, public nuisance claims have recently gained traction in state appellate courts, which are increasingly coming to realize …

The "Corporate Watch Dogs" That Can't Bark: How The New Aba Ethics Rules Protect Corporate Fraud, Monroe H. Freedman

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Broken Trust And Divided Loyalties: The Paradox Of Confidentiality In Corporate Representation, Laurie A. Morin

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Should a lawyer protect her client's confidences when she knows that client is about to perpetrate a fraud that will cause substantial financial harm to third parties? For decades, the response of the organized bar has been a resounding "yes." 1 Until August 2003, the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) provided that a lawyer owes her client a duty of loyalty to preserve the client's confidences, even if that client is about to commit a criminal fraud.2 The recent wave of corporate scandals that led to record-breaking bankruptcies and investor losses prompted the ABA …

Small Business And The False Dichotomies Of Contract Law, Larry Garvin

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

The article explores the classic consumer- merchant dichotomy from the vantage of small businesses. Using empirical data and the psychology, economics, and management literature, it shows that small businesses, treated like large businesses throughout most of contract and commercial law, in fact behave more like consumers. Small businesses lack the financial strength of large businesses. They generally lack the information gathering ability of large businesses. Finally, they generally are more prey to cognitive errors than are large businesses. As a result, small businesses lose in two ways. When they deal with consumers, they are presumed to have the power, information, …

Virtual Shareholder Meetings, Elizabeth Boros

Duke Law & Technology Review

Electronic communication impacts how widely-held corporations conduct shareholder meetings. For example, technology has facilitated such options as electronic proxy voting, remote electronic voting, and "virtual meetings." This iBrief examines the idea of "virtual meetings" and argues that they should not entirely replace physical meetings unless an electronic solution can be devised which replicates the face-to-face accountability of management to retail shareholders.

Good Faith In The Cisg: Interpretation Problems In Article 7, Benedict C. Sheehy

ExpressO

ABSTRACT: This article examines the dispute concerning the meaning of Good Faith in the CISG. Although there are good reasons for arguing a more limited interpretation or more limited application of Good Faith, there are also good reasons for a broader approach. Regardless of the correct interpretation, however, practitioners and academics need to have a sense of where the actual jurisprudence is going. This article reviews every published case on Article 7 since its inception and concludes that while there is little to suggest a strong pattern is developing, a guided pattern while incorrect doctrinally is preferable to the current …

Do Patents Facilitate Financing In The Software Industry?, Ronald J. Mann

ExpressO

This paper is the first part of a wide-ranging study of the role of intellectual property in the software industry. Unlike previous papers, which focus primarily on software patents – which generally are held by firms that are not software firms – this paper provides a thorough and contextually grounded description of the role that patents actually play in the software industry itself.

The bulk of the paper considers the pros and cons of patents in the software industry. On the positive side, the paper starts by emphasizing the difficulties that pre-revenue startups face in obtaining any value from patents. …

El Fondo Empresarial: ¿Un Concepto Por Descubrir?, Daniel Echaiz Moreno

Daniel Echaiz Moreno

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Work: Enforcing Occupational Safety And Health Standards In The United States, Canada And Sweden, Daniel B. Klaff

ExpressO

The United States’ occupational safety and health enforcement system is breaking down. Klaff argues that much of this breakdown has to do with a fundamental lack of worker participation in the United States’ safety and health system. Klaff makes his case by comparing and contrasting the history and enforcement schemes of the United States, Canada, and Sweden. After arguing for economic rights as human rights, Klaff concludes by offering a set of recommendations for the United States’ occupational safety and health system based upon his value-centered analysis.

The End Of Notice: Secrets And Liens In Commercial Finance Law, Jonathan C. Lipson

ExpressO

This article explores important recent changes in the way that we treat personal property in commercial finance transactions. Among other things, these changes reduce or eliminate the obligation to give notice of interests in personal property when it is used in commercial finance transactions (as, e.g., collateral for a loan).

A principal purpose of notice-filing has been to deter the creation of secret liens, interests in property that are neither recorded nor otherwise readily observable. Secret liens are universally castigated as abhorrent.

Yet, two recent sets of legislative developments suggest that we may care much less about the problem of …

Knowledge Constnlction And Academic Transformation On Sociology Of Law Studies In China(中国法律社会学的知识建构和学术转型), Meng Hou

Hou Meng

No abstract provided.

Textual Harassment: A New Historicist Reappraisal, Hila Keren

ExpressO

This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the Parol Evidence Rule, the rule that dictates that the interpretation of a written contract should be determined solely according to its text and not influenced by prior contradictory external information. This article uses the occasion to offer a fresh interdisciplinary view of the Rule. The analysis presents a unique contribution to the heated debate regarding the desired levels of formalism and textualism in present-day contract law, by using New-Historicist tools.

Unexplored aspects of the roots of the Rule are illuminated through an in-depth investigation of the first case of the contractual …

La Reprogramación De Los Depósitos Y El Proceso De Exclusión De Activos Y Pasivos De Entidades Financieras. Un Fallo En Defensa Del Instituto De Exclusión, Gaston Mirkin

Gaston Mirkin

No abstract provided.

La Tutela Del Consumidor Desde La Óptica Concursal En El Régimen Argentino, Carlos Molina Sandoval

Carlos Molina Sandoval

Debido a que la verificación de créditos, en cualquiera de sus variantes (tempestiva, tardía, pronto pago, etc.) o aun la continuación del proceso de conocimiento, es el modo normal y natural de reconocimiento del pasivo concursal, deben respetarse las pautas procesales y sustanciales tendientes a una adecuada tutela de los derechos del consumidor. Por ello, muchos institutos previstos en la ley de defensa del consumidor resultan plenamente aplicables, debiendo producirse una correcta y necesaria adaptación procesal (v.gr., la participación del Ministerio Público, arbitraje. etc.). Aun cuando los plazos de prescripción en ambos regímenes normativos parecen ser diferentes (dos años para …

La Sociedad De Un Solo Socio, Daniel Echaiz Moreno

Daniel Echaiz Moreno

No abstract provided.

La Política A Partir De Kennedy, Daniel Echaiz Moreno

Daniel Echaiz Moreno

No abstract provided.

Restoring A Public Interest Vision Of Law In The Age Of The Internet, Marc Rotenberg

Duke Law & Technology Review

In November 2003, Mr. Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, lectured at Duke Law School on the importance of protecting individual privacy. In his remarks, Mr. Rotenberg recounted the successful campaign against the government's Clipper Chip proposal. He argued that successful public interest advocacy in the Internet age requires the participation of experts from many fields, public engagement, and a willingness to avoid a simple "balancing" analysis. He further concluded that privacy may be one of the defining issues of a free society in the twenty-first century.

La Exclusion De Activos Y Pasivos. Sus Criticas Y Beneficios, Gaston Mirkin

Gaston Mirkin

No abstract provided.

Digital Age Standard Form Contracts Under Austalian Law: "Wrap" Agreements, Exclusive Jurisdiction, And Binding Arbitration Clauses, John Adams

Washington International Law Journal

Despite the widespread use of end user agreements ("EULAs") within international e-commerce, their enforceability under Australian law has yet to be adjudicated. Legislative reform and judicial clarification of contract standards may be required for Australian courts to validate the methods of standard form contracting used in the digital age. While existing Anglo-Australian nules regarding contract formation may be adequate to enforce EULAs, the doctrine of privity presents an unnecessary and outdated barrier to the enforcement. Accordingly, the Australian legislature should abolish the doctrine of privity. In addition, Australian courts must clarify what type of notice is required for onerous contractual …

Reconsidering The Prohibition Against General Solicitation During Section 3(C)(7) Offerings, Daniel P. Taub

ExpressO

This paper examines the seventy year history of the general solicitation prohibition during private offerings and then analyzes its continuing relevance as applied to Section 3(c)(7) offerings. The S.E.C. Staff recently issued a report questioning the continuing value of prohibiting general solicitation during private offerings made pursuant to Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act. If the S.E.C. were to follow the recommendation in the S.E.C. Staff Report, this would have tremendous implications for a growing number of hedge funds, and other investment companies utilizing the Section 3(c)(7) exemption. By allowing general solicitation, the S.E.C. would be reversing a policy …

Extraterritoriality Of The Sherman Act And Deterrence Of Private International Cartels, John M. Connor

ExpressO

This paper argues that the facts in the vitamins cartel support decisions in the 2nd and DC circuits to permit wholly foreign direct buyers of globally cartelized products standing to sue in U.S. courts. Such an interpretation of the Sherman Act is justified by conduct that is essentially linked to the management of successful international cartels, namely, the prevention of geographic arbitrage. This paper shows that the degree of injuries imposed on U.S. consumers could not have occurred were it not for coordinated price increases in countries with weak or nonexistent anticartel laws. Moreover, this paper endeavors to demonstrate that, …