Law Commons^™

The Law Of Black Mirror - Syllabus, Yafit Lev-Aretz, Nizan Packin

Open Educational Resources

Using episodes from the show Black Mirror as a study tool - a show that features tales that explore techno-paranoia - the course analyzes legal and policy considerations of futuristic or hypothetical case studies. The case studies tap into the collective unease about the modern world and bring up a variety of fascinating key philosophical, legal, and economic-based questions.

Terms Of Service: The Use And Protection Of Genomic Information By Companies, Databases, And Law Enforcement, Sophia Kallas

Honors Theses

Private genomic companies have become a popular trend in the last two decades by providing customers with information regarding their ancestry and health risks. However, the profiles received from these companies can also be uploaded to public databases for various purposes, including locating other family members. Both testing companies and public databases have private interests, and both are at risk of law enforcement intervention for the purpose of forensic familial searching. There is little federal legislation protecting the privacy of an individual’s genetic profile. Consequently, it has been up to federal agencies, state laws, and judicial precedents to prevent the …

Developing A Method For Fluorescent Antibody Tagging For Identification Of Female Cells In Mixed Forensic Samples, Reilly Price

Student Writing

In the subject of forensic science and crime scene investigation, DNA has become more valuable than ever in providing crucial information for investigators. As the number of wrongful convictions decreases and the number of exonerations increases, DNA testing is the answer to accurately solving crimes. The purpose of this experiment was to study whether or not fluorescent tagging would be an effective method of identifying and separating male and female cells. It sought to determine if immunofluorescence can be applied to forensic science and technology. Rather than spending time sorting through the victim’s DNA in order to get to the …

The Technologies Of Race: Big Data, Privacy And The New Racial Bioethics, Christian Sundquist

Articles

Advancements in genetic technology have resurrected long discarded conceptualizations of “race” as a biological reality. The rise of modern biological race thinking – as evidenced in health disparity research, personal genomics, DNA criminal forensics, and bio-databanking - not only is scientifically unsound but portends the future normalization of racial inequality. This Article articulates a constitutional theory of shared humanity, rooted in the substantive due process doctrine and Ninth Amendment, to counter the socio-legal acceptance of modern genetic racial differentiation. It argues that state actions that rely on biological racial distinctions undermine the essential personhood of individuals subjected to such taxonomies, …

Molecular Measurement Of Toxicity In Fish; Case Examples And Policy Implications, Jessica A. Freedman

Senior Honors Projects

Stormwater and oil are common urban contaminants that can be harmful to fish species. One way of recognizing exposed and impaired fish is by monitoring gene expression and gene induction. This study focused on the identification and validation of reference genes for measuring contaminant-induced changes in gene expression due to urban influence. In this study, reference genes (which are genes used to normalize data and remain consistent in varying exposures regardless of organism and tissue type) were established. Six genes were identified as reference genes (ef1a, wdtc1, mtm1, spop, rxrba and tuba1) from a longer list of potential …

Heredity In The Epigenetic Era: Are We Facing A Politics Of Reproductive Obligations?, Michael J. Crawford

Biological Sciences Publications

Recent research in the emerging field of epigenetics has implications with the potential to re-ignite acrimony in the discourse of reproductive rights, medical ethics, and the role of the state in our homes and in our lives. For scientists, epigenetics has profoundly realigned our understanding of heredity: epigenetics provides a mechanism through which the environmental challenges met in one generation can be inscribed and transmitted to future offspring. Although both genetic parents have the potential to transmit heritable epigenetic changes to their offspring, mothers have a particularly potent effect because nutrition in the uterine environment can exert a supplemental effect …

Brief For Professor Albert E. Scherr As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Albert E. Scherr

Law Faculty Scholarship

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT Professor Scherr agrees with petitioner that review is warranted because the Maryland Court of Appeals decision is erroneous. The Fourth Amendment does not sanction police harvesting of DNA without probable cause and a warrant and without the subject’s knowledge or consent, to be used however the authorities deem appropriate and without restriction. The Maryland Court of Appeals’ decision is contrary to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence as articulated in the Riley v. California – Maryland v. King – United States v. Jones trilogy. This case fits squarely in the center of the triangle formed by that …

Finding Fault?: Exploring Legal Duties To Return Incidental Findings In Genomic Research, Elizabeth R. Pike, Karen H. Rothenberg, Benjamin E. Berkman

Faculty Scholarship

The use of whole genome sequencing in biomedical research is expected to produce dramatic advances in human health. The increasing use of this powerful, data-rich new technology in research, however, will inevitably give rise to incidental findings (IFs), findings with individual health or reproductive significance that are beyond the aims of the particular research, and the related questions of whether and to what extent researchers have an ethical obligation to return IFs. Many have concluded that researchers have an ethical obligation to return some findings in some circumstances, but have provided vague or context-dependent approaches to determining which IFs must …

Redefining Genomic Privacy: Trust And Empowerment, Yaniv Erlich, James B. Williams, David Glazer, Kenneth Yocum, Nita A. Farahany, Maynard Olson, Arvind Narayanan, Lincoln D. Stein, Jan A. Witkowski, Robert C. Kain

Faculty Scholarship

Fulfilling the promise of the genetic revolution requires the analysis of large datasets containing information from thousands to millions of participants. However, sharing human genomic data requires protecting subjects from potential harm. Current models rely on de-identification techniques in which privacy versus data utility becomes a zero-sum game. Instead, we propose the use of trust-enabling techniques to create a solution in which researchers and participants both win. To do so we introduce three principles that facilitate trust in genetic research and outline one possible framework built upon those principles. Our hope is that such trust-centric frameworks provide a sustainable solution …

Reflections On The Cost Of "Low-Cost" Whole Genome Sequencing: Framing The Health Policy Debate, Timothy Caulfield, Jim Evans, Amy Mcguire, Christopher Mccabe, Tania Bubela, Robert Cook-Deegan, Jennifer Fishman, Stuart Hogarth, Fiona A. Miller, Vardit Ravitsky, Barbara Biesecker, Pascal Borry, Mildred K. Cho, June C. Carroll, Holly Etchegary, Yann Joly, Kazuto Kato, Sandra Soo-Jim Lee, Karen H. Rothenberg, Pamela Sankar, Michael J. Szego, Pilar Ossorio, Daryl Pullman, Francois Rousseau, Wendy J. Ungar, Brenda Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

The cost of whole genome sequencing is dropping rapidly. There has been a great deal of enthusiasm about the potential for this technological advance to transform clinical care. Given the interest and significant investment in genomics, this seems an ideal time to consider what the evidence tells us about potential benefits and harms, particularly in the context of health care policy. The scale and pace of adoption of this powerful new technology should be driven by clinical need, clinical evidence, and a commitment to put patients at the centre of health care policy.

Genetic Privacy And The Fourth Amendment: Unregulated Surreptitious Dna Harvesting, Albert E. Scherr

Law Faculty Scholarship

Genetic privacy and police practices have come to the fore in the criminal justice system. Case law and stories in the media document that police are surreptitiously harvesting the DNA of putative suspects. Some sources even indicate that surreptitious data banking may also be in its infancy. Surreptitious harvesting of out-of-body DNA by the police is currently unregulated by the Fourth Amendment. The few courts that have addressed the issue find that the police are free to harvest DNA abandoned by a putative suspect in a public place. Little in the nascent surreptitious harvesting case law suggests that surreptitious data …

Health Insurance, Employment, And The Human Genome: Genetic Discrimination And Biobanks In The United States, Eric A. Feldman, Chelsea Darnell

All Faculty Scholarship

Does genetic information warrant special legal protection, and if so how should it be protected? This essay examines the most recent (and indeed only) significant effort by the US government to prohibit genetic discrimination, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). We argue that the legislation is unlikely to have the positive impact sought by advocates of genetic privacy and proponents of biobanks. In part, GINA disappoints because it does too little. Hailed by its promoters as “the first civil rights act of the 21^st century,” GINA’s reach is in fact quite modest and its grasp even more so. But …

Politicizing Patents - Patenting Biotechnology In The Wake Of Section 33, Prometheus, And Cls Bank, Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Tucked into the America Invents Act is the first statutory exemption for any patentable subject matter. Section 33 renders unpatentable all claims “encompassing a human being.” By recognizing a vague subject matter – exception for human beings despite the fact that internal policies had long militated against such patent claims, Congress has politicized the patent law to an unheard-of degree. While textually consistent with internal USPTO policy, the passage of § 33 should not be seen as an invitation to litigators to expand § 101 unpatentable-subject-matter challenges to validity by including arguments that medical methods, genetic tests, biological chimeras, or …

Genetics And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

Some believe that genetics threatens privacy and autonomy and will eviscerate the concept of human nature. Despite the astonishing research advances, however, none of these dire predictions and no radical transformation of the law have occurred.

Gene-Environment Interactions, Criminal Responsibility, And Sentencing, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter in, Gene-Environment Interactions in Developmental Psychopathology (K. Dodge & M. Rutter, eds. 2011), considers the relevance of GxE to criminal responsibility and sentencing. It begins with a number of preliminary assumptions that will inform the analysis. It then turns to the law’s view of the person, including the law’s implicit psychology, and the criteria for criminal responsibility. A few false starts or distractions about responsibility are disposed of briefly. With this necessary background in place, the chapter then turns specifically to the relation between GxE and criminal responsibility. It suggests that GxE causes of criminal behavior have no …

Institutional Design And Governance In Microbial Research Commons, Charlotte Hess

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

Presentation slides on institutional design and governance to facilitate a global research commons for microbiology delivered at the International Symposium on Designing the Microbial Research Commons, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 8-9 October 2009.

A Discourse On The Public Nature Of Research In Contemporary Life Science: A Law-Policy Proposal To Promote The Public Nature Of Science In An Era Of Academia-Industry Integration, Michael J. Malinowski

Journal Articles

This article addresses the impact of integration of academia, industry, and government on the public nature of research. The article concludes that, while the integration has benefited science immensely, regulatory measures should be taken to restore the public nature of research in an age of integration.

On Race Theory And Norms, Christian Sundquist

Articles

This article has been adapted from an address given at the Albany Law Review Symposium in Spring 2009. This article discusses the judicial acceptance of DNA random match estimates, which uses DNA analysis to estimate the likelihood that a criminal defendant is the source of genetic material that is found at a crime scene. Relying on race, these tests demonstrate how such a re-inscription of race as a biological entity threatens the modern conception of race as a social construction, and how those estimates should be rejected as inadmissible on a doctrinal level under the Federal Rules of Evidence.

United States Regulation Of Stem Cell Research: Recasting Government's Role And Questions To Be Resolved, Owen C. B. Hughes, Alan L. Jakimo, Michael J. Malinowski

Journal Articles

This article directly addresses the stem cell controversy, but also the broader history and norms regarding the roles of federal and state government in U.S. science research funding.

The Meaning Of Race In The Dna Era: Science, History And The Law, Christian Sundquist

Articles

The meaning of “race” has changed dramatically over time. Early theories of race assigned social, intellectual, moral and physical values to perceived physical differences among groups of people. The perception that race should be defined in terms of genetic and biologic difference fueled the “race science” of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, during which time geneticists, physiognomists, eugenicists, anthropologists and others purported to find scientific justification for denying equal treatment to non-white persons. Nazi Germany applied these understandings of race in a manner which shocked the world, and following World War II the concept of race increasingly came to be …

Judging Genes: Implications Of The Second Generation Of Genetic Tests In The Courtroom, Diane E. Hoffmann, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The use of DNA tests for identification has revolutionized court proceedings in criminal and paternity cases. Now, requests by litigants to admit or compel a second generation of genetic tests – tests to confirm or predict genetic diseases and conditions – threaten to affect judicial decision-making in many more contexts. Unlike DNA tests for identification, these second generation tests may provide highly personal health and behavioral information about individuals and their relatives and will pose new challenges for trial court judges. This article reports on an original empirical study of how judges analyze these requests and uses the study results …

The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, And Racial And Ethnic Stigma, Karen H. Rothenberg, Alice Wang

Faculty Scholarship

Imagine that a scientist from the state university asks you and your family to participate in a study on a particular gene variant associated with alcoholism. The project focuses on your ethnic group, the Tracy Islanders, who have a higher incidence of alcoholism, as well as a higher incidence of the gene variant, than the general population. You will not be informed whether you have the gene variant, but your participation in the study might help scientists develop drugs to help individuals control their addiction to alcohol. You have a family history of alcoholism, and you are concerned that your …

Addiction, Genetics, And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When Should Judges Admit Or Compel Genetic Tests?, Diane E. Hoffmann, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Brief History Of Bioperl, Colin Crossman, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

Large-scale open-source projects face a litany of pitfalls and difficulties. Problems of contribution quality, credit for contributions, project coordination, funding, and mission-creep are ever-present. Of these, long-term funding and project coordination can interact to form a particularly difficult problem for open-source projects in an academic environment.

BioPerl was chosen as an example of a successful academic open-source project. Several of the roadblocks and hurdles encountered and overcome in the development of BioPerl are examined through the telling of the history of the project. Along the way, key points of open-source law are explained, such as license choice and copyright.

The …

Human Rights And Genetic Discrimination: Protecting Genomics' Promise For Public Health, Anita Silvers, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Unblazed Trail: Bioinformatics And The Protection Of Genetic Knowledge, Lawrence M. Sung

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Equity Paradigm For Preventing Genetic Discrimination, Anita Silvers, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cases And Guidelines In Genetics, Roger B. Dworkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Consent To The Use Of Stored Dna For Genetics Research: A Survey Of Attitudes In The Jewish Population, Marc D. Schwartz, Karen H. Rothenberg, Linda Joseph, Judith Benkendorf, Caryn Lerman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.