Law Commons^™

Cyber Plungers: Colonial Pipeline And The Case For An Omnibus Cybersecurity Legislation, Asaf Lubin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline was a wake-up call for a federal administration slow to realize the dangers that cybersecurity threats pose to our critical national infrastructure. The attack forced hundreds of thousands of Americans along the east coast to stand in endless lines for gas, spiking both prices and public fears. These stressors on our economy and supply chains triggered emergency proclamations in four states, including Georgia. That a single cyberattack could lead to a national emergency of this magnitude was seen by many as proof of even more crippling threats to come. Executive Director of …

Syringe Service Programs In Indiana: Moving Past The “Moral” Concerns Of Harm Reduction Towards Effective Legislation, Steven Nisi

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Ordinary Causation: A Study In Experimental Statutory Interpretation, James Macleod

Indiana Law Journal

In a series of recent split decisions interpreting criminal and tort-like legislation, the Supreme Court has purported to give statutory causation requirements their ordinary, plain meaning. Armed with dictionaries, examples from everyday speech, and commonsense intuitions, the Court’s majority has explained that statutory phrases like “because of” and “results from” entail but-for causation as a matter of ordinary usage. There’s just one problem: The Court’s majority (and the many state and federal courts following its lead) is wrong on the facts—specifically, the facts about how people ordinarily interpret, understand, and use causal language.

This Article considers a novel approach to …

Money That Costs Too Much: Regulating Financial Incentives, Kristen Underhill

Indiana Law Journal

Money may not corrupt. But should we worry if it corrodes? Legal scholars in a range of fields have expressed concern about “motivational crowding-out,” a process by which offering financial rewards for good behavior may undermine laudable social motivations, like professionalism or civic duty. Disquiet about the motivational impacts of incentives has now extended to health law, employment law, tax, torts, contracts, criminal law, property, and beyond. In some cases, the fear of crowding-out has inspired concrete opposition to innovative policies that marshal incentives to change individual behavior. But to date, our fears about crowding-out have been unfocused and amorphous; …

The Games They Will Play: Tax Games, Roadblocks, And Glitches Under The 2017 Tax Legislation, David Gamage, David Kamin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The 2017 tax legislation brought sweeping changes to the rules for taxing individuals and business, the deductibility of state and local taxes, and the international tax regime. The complex legislation was drafted and passed through a rushed and secretive process intended to limit public comment on one of the most consequential pieces of domestic policy enacted in recent history. This Article is an effort to supply the analysis and deliberation that should have accompanied the bill’s consideration and passage and describes key problem areas in the new legislation. Many of the new changes fundamentally undermine the integrity of the tax …

The Death Of Rules And Standards, Anthony J. Casey, Anthony Niblett

Indiana Law Journal

Scholars have examined the lawmakers’ choice between rules and standards for decades. This Article, however, explores the possibility of a new form of law that renders that choice unnecessary. Advances in technology (such as big data and artificial intelligence) will give rise to this new form—the microdirective—which will provide the benefits of both rules and standards without the costs of either. Lawmakers will be able to use predictive and communication technologies to enact complex legislative goals that are translated by machines into a vast catalog of simple commands for all possible scenarios. When an individual citizen faces a legal choice, …

Legislating Safety Nets: Comparing Recent Social Protection Laws In Asia, Surabhi Chopra Prof.

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In recent years, several Asian countries have begun moving away from patchwork welfare programs toward providing more comprehensive social protection. This is a significant shift in a region where social welfare has not been politically popular, and the family has traditionally absorbed the burden of supporting the young, the old, and the ailing. Two of these states-India and Indonesia-have put new social protection initiatives into law rather than simply formulating executive policy. In this article, I examine recent social protection laws in both countries. I look in particular at India's National Food Security Law, passed in 2013, and Indonesia's laws …

I Did My Time: The Transformation Of Indiana’S Expungement Law, Joseph C. Dugan

Indiana Law Journal

This Note evaluates the transformation of Indiana’s expungement law. Part I addresses the socioeconomic impacts of a criminal record. Part II presents normative arguments both for and against expungement, concluding that the balance tips in favor of forgiveness. Parts III–IV discuss Indiana’s original expungement provisions, the 2013 statute, and the 2014 amendments. Part V explores the reaction to the new law. Finally, Part VI offers recommendations to improve the statute so that its second-chance promise is equitable, accessible, and robust.

Making Sausage: What, Why And How To Teach About Legislative Process In A Legislation Or Leg-Reg Course, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Although a rapidly growing number of law schools require students to take a course on legislation, many of these courses teach very little about how laws are actually enacted. This essay, written for a special issue of the Journal of Legal Education, argues that study of the legislative process helps students interpret and apply statutory language.

The essay surveys existing text books and supplemental resources that could be easily integrated into a Leg-Reg or Legislation class to explain modern Congressional procedure. The focus is the multiple distinct paths that bills may take through a legislative body and the written …

A Trail To Modernity: Observations On The New Developments Of China's Evidence Legislation Movement In A Global Context, Jia Li, Zhuhao Wang

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

China, like most other civil law countries, does not have a discrete evidence code. Rather, Chinese evidence rules are currently scattered among various procedural codes. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Chinese scholars and practitioners have advocated for specialized evidence legislation. As part of this movement, China issued numerous judicial interpretations of evidence law, amendments to existing procedural law, and experimental drafts of evidence statutes. For example, new amendments to the Civil Procedure Law and to the Criminal Procedure Law became effective on January 1, 2013. More recently, the Supreme People's Court led the efforts to create two experimental …

Rethinking Judicial Deference To Legislation Fact-Finding, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Indiana Law Journal

It is traditionally assumed that the role of ascertaining and evaluating the social facts underlying a statute belongs to the legislatures. The courts in turn are tasked with deciding the law and must defer to legislative fact-finding on relevant issues of social fact. This simplistic formula, however, does not accurately describe the courts' confused approach to legislative fact-finding. Although the courts often speak in terms of deference, they follow no consistent or predictable pattern in deciding whether to defer in a given case. Moreover, blanket judicial deference to legislative fact-finding would not be a wise general rule. Because social fact-finding …

Database Protection In The United States Is Alive And Well: Comments On Davison, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Patent Abolitionism, Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this Article, Professor Janis argues that modem enthusiasm for large-scale legislative reforms in patent law should be received with caution in view of the history of patent law reform. That history suggests that patent law is more resilient--or perhaps more impervious to change-than modem reformers recognize. To explore these propositions, Professor Janis analyzes the history of the mid-Victorian era British patent abolitionism movement. He demonstrates that much of the reform dialogue of that era, from the elucidation of major problems in the patent system, to the formulation of legislative solutions, mirrors quite closely the modem U.S. patent reform debate. …

The Dynamic Judicial Opinion, William D. Popkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Eskridge's article on Dynamic Statutory Interpretation advances an aggressively pragmatic theory of interpretation but has had more influence among academics than judges because of a failure to attend to the problems of writing a candid, pragmatic and dynamic judicial opinion. This article argues that, although not free from doubt, a candid judicial opinion is preferable, and discusses how to write such an opinion - suggesting that judges rely on the "intent of the statute," not legislative intent; and adopt a personal/exploratory style in presenting their views.

Inter Partes Patent Reexamination, Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Independent Audits And Self-Regulation-Not Legislation-Is Best Answer To Tv Violence, Paul Simon

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

United States V. Mcgoff: Can Lawyers Be Taught How To Read Statutes, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Legislative Courts, Legislative Power, And The Constitution, Daniel J. Meltzer

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Paul Bator: Legislative and Administrative Courts Under Article III

Statutory Interpretation In America: Dipping Into Legislative History, Part Ii, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation In America: Dipping Into Legislative History, Part I, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation: Dipping Into Legislative History, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Clear Legal Drafting: What's Holding Us Back?, F. Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Limiting Conglomerate Mergers: The Need For Legislation, Joseph F. Brodley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Dale, William, Legislative Drafting: A New Approach, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Statutory Interpretation: The Uses And Anatomy Of Context, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Every communication that is generated by a written instrument consists of two elements which must be considered in arriving at the meaning of the communication. Those elements are: (1) the written vehicle itself, and (2) its surrounding context. The surrounding context which thus completes the communication consists only of those underlying cultural aspects which, when considered in relation to the written vehicle, are: (1) relevant to the written vehicle, (2) reliable, (3) shared by the author and the audience, and (4) relied on by both author and audience to complete the communication. The author suggests that those cultural elements which …

Address On Consumer Credit Protection Legislation, William J. Pierce

Addison Harris Lecture

No abstract provided.

One Approach To Teaching Legal Drafting, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Diseases Of Legislative Language, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this article Professor Dickerson examines some of the most basic problems facing the legislative draftsman in his attempt to obtain clarity in statutes. He discusses the "diseases" of ambiguity, over-vagueness, over-precision, over- and under-generality and obesity, and distinguishes them from useful devices with which they are often confused.

Statutory Interpretation: Core Meaning And Marginal Uncertainty, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Difficult Choice Between "And" And "Or", Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.