Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 177

Full-Text Articles in Law

Pursuing The Exemption: The Makah's White Whale, Sarah Van Voorhis Mar 2024

Pursuing The Exemption: The Makah's White Whale, Sarah Van Voorhis

Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice

No abstract provided.


The Consumer Bundle, Shelly Kreiczer-Levy Mar 2024

The Consumer Bundle, Shelly Kreiczer-Levy

Washington Law Review

Can property law have a consumer protection purpose? One of the most important consumer law concerns today is the limited control consumers have over the digital assets and software-embedded products they purchase. Current proposals for reform focus on classifying the transaction as either license or sale and rely mostly on contract law and consumer protection regulation with a few calls for restoring ownership rights. This Article argues that property law can protect consumers by establishing a minimum bundle of rights for consumers: the “consumer’s bundle.” Working with property theory and an analysis of property values, this Article explains the importance …


Wrong Or (Fundamental) Right?: Substantive Due Process And The Right To Exclude, Jack May Dec 2023

Wrong Or (Fundamental) Right?: Substantive Due Process And The Right To Exclude, Jack May

Washington Law Review

Substantive due process provides heightened protection from government interference with enumerated constitutional rights and unenumerated—but nevertheless “fundamental”—rights. To date, the United States Supreme Court has never recognized any property right as a fundamental right for substantive due process purposes. But in Yim v. City of Seattle, a case recently decided by the Ninth Circuit, landlords and tenant screening companies argued that the right to exclude from one’s property should be a fundamental right. Yim involved a challenge to Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which, among other things, prohibits landlords and tenant screening companies from inquiring about or considering a …


Wrongful Improvers As A Guiding Principle For Application Of The Ftc’S Ip Deletion Requirement, Emma Elder Dec 2022

Wrongful Improvers As A Guiding Principle For Application Of The Ftc’S Ip Deletion Requirement, Emma Elder

Washington Law Review

The 2021 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into cloud storage app developer Everalbum resulted in a consent decree that required Everalbum to delete not only unlawfully collected data, but also algorithms created using that data. The FTC had imposed this kind of penalty only once before. Questions remain about how the FTC will apply this so-called intellectual property (IP) deletion requirement in the future. This Comment argues that situations where companies develop intellectual property from misappropriated consumer data are analogous to cases where courts seek to apply the property law rule of the wrongful improver, i.e., where one party knowingly …


Off-Reservation Treaty Hunting Rights, The Restatement, And The Stevens Treaties, Ann E. Tweedy Oct 2022

Off-Reservation Treaty Hunting Rights, The Restatement, And The Stevens Treaties, Ann E. Tweedy

Washington Law Review

The underdevelopment of the law of off-reservation treaty hunting and gathering poses challenges for treatises like the groundbreaking Restatement of the Law of American Indians (“Restatement”). With particular attention to sections 83 and 6 of the Restatement, this Article explores those challenges and offers some solutions for dealing with them in subsequent editions of the Restatement. Specifically, this Article explores the potential usefulness of historical law in interpreting treaties, the need to tie treaty interpretation to the language of the treaty when an explicit right is at issue, the proper application of the reserved rights doctrine and the Indian canons, …


Copyright’S Deprivations, Anne-Marie Carstens Dec 2021

Copyright’S Deprivations, Anne-Marie Carstens

Washington Law Review

This Article challenges the constitutionality of a copyright infringement remedy provided in federal copyright law: courts can order the destruction or other permanent deprivation of personal property based on its mere capacity to serve as a vehicle for infringement. This deprivation remedy requires no showing of actual nexus to the litigated infringement, no finding of willfulness, and no showing that the property’s infringing uses comprise the significant or predominant uses. These striking deficits stem from a historical fiction that viewed a tool of infringement, such as a printing plate, as the functional equivalent of an infringing copy itself. Today, though, …


The Euclid Proviso, Ezra Rosser Oct 2021

The Euclid Proviso, Ezra Rosser

Washington Law Review

This Article argues that the Euclid Proviso, which allows regional concerns to trump local zoning when required by the general welfare, should play a larger role in zoning’s second century. Traditional zoning operates to severely limit the construction of additional housing. This locks in the advantages of homeowners but at tremendous cost, primarily in the form of unaffordable housing, to those who would like to join the community. State preemption of local zoning defies traditional categorization; it is at once both radically destabilizing and market responsive. But, given the ways in which zoning is a foundational part of the racial …


Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow Oct 2021

Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow

Washington Law Review

Civil asset forfeiture laws permit police officers to seize property they suspect is connected to criminal activity and sell or retain the property for the police department’s use. In many states, including Washington, civil forfeiture occurs independent of any criminal case—many property owners are never charged with the offense police allege occurred. Because the government is not required to file criminal charges, property owners facing civil forfeiture lack the constitutional safeguards normally guaranteed to defendants in the criminal justice system: the right to an attorney, the presumption of innocence, the government’s burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, …


Reframing Church Property Disputes In Washington State, Theodore G. Lee Mar 2021

Reframing Church Property Disputes In Washington State, Theodore G. Lee

Washington Law Review

Real property disputes between units or members of the same church are common in the United States. To resolve such disputes, the Supreme Court has endorsed two doctrines: the hierarchical deference approach and the neutral-principles of law approach. The Court has justified both doctrines on the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, but this justification is problematic. Specifically, under the hierarchical deference approach courts must always give preferential treatment to one religious group over others—effectively endorsing a particular religion. On the other hand, courts can enforce their own interpretations of religious issues under the neutral-principles approach, thereby infringing free …


Getting Past Possession: Subsurface Property Disputes As Nuisances, Joseph A. Schremmer Mar 2020

Getting Past Possession: Subsurface Property Disputes As Nuisances, Joseph A. Schremmer

Washington Law Review

Property rights in the subsurface of land are adapting to accommodate modern activities like massive hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Property rights will need to continue adapting if they are going to accommodate other developing activities like large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). Courts and commentators rarely approach the nature of subsurface property directly. They tend instead to discuss appropriate standards for tort liability when disputes arise—for example when artificial fissures from a frac treatment extend into and drain oil or gas from a neighbor’s land. The case law and literature generally approach unauthorized subterranean invasions as trespasses. Because the tort of …


The Liberty Impact Of Gender, Kingsly Alec Mcconnell Mar 2020

The Liberty Impact Of Gender, Kingsly Alec Mcconnell

Washington Law Review

Can the federal government unilaterally change your gender? In October of 2018, the New York Times revealed that the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services was considering a new federal definition of “gender.” The policy would redefine gender as a “biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” This policy places transsex people at a substantial risk of deprivation of property and speech rights, as gender implicates both property and expression. It also impedes the exercise of substantive due process rights and privileges and immunities. For example, inaccurate gender designations can hinder a transsex parent’s ability to raise …


Community Consequences Of Airbnb, Allyson E. Gold Dec 2019

Community Consequences Of Airbnb, Allyson E. Gold

Washington Law Review

Short-term rental accommodations account for more than 20% of the United States lodging market, with annual sales now greater than those of nearly all legacy hotel brands. The rise of companies like Airbnb has created a booming market that provides affordable short-term rentals for travelers and new income for those with an extra couch, spare room, or even an unused home. However, while individual hosts and guests may benefit economically, the use of short-term rentals produces significant consequences for the surrounding community. Airbnb proliferation causes fewer affordable housing options, higher average asking rents, and erosion of neighborhood social capital. Due …


Making Land Titles In India Marketable: Using Title Insurance As A Viable Alternative To Conclusive Titling, Anirudh Burman Jan 2019

Making Land Titles In India Marketable: Using Title Insurance As A Viable Alternative To Conclusive Titling, Anirudh Burman

Washington International Law Journal

Though land comprises a significant component of the total asset portfolio of Indian households, the quality of land titles is poor. So far, policies have been directed at improving government records, with the objective of being able to issue titles that are “conclusive” in nature, and an indemnity system run by the state that compensates those who suffer from errors or omissions of government agencies maintaining such records. This paper explores an alternative method of reaching the same objective—title insurance. Recently, the 2016 Real Estate Regulation Act has allowed state governments to require title insurance for real estate projects. There …


Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould Jan 2018

Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould

Washington Law Review Online

A neighbor digs a ditch on his side of a property line, exposing root systems from two of the adjoining landowner’s trees. The neighbor then cuts off the exposed roots, leaving the trees unsupported and in danger of falling onto the house of their owner. Is the root cutter liable to the owner of the tree? The Washington Court of Appeals recently answered this question in Mustoe v. Ma. The Mustoe Court held that when a root-cutting neighbor removed encroaching tree roots, he owed no duty to the tree owner “to act in good faith and to act reasonably so …


Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould Jan 2018

Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould

Washington Law Review Online

A neighbor digs a ditch on his side of a property line, exposing root systems from two of the adjoining landowner’s trees. The neighbor then cuts off the exposed roots, leaving the trees unsupported and in danger of falling onto the house of their owner. Is the root cutter liable to the owner of the tree? The Washington Court of Appeals recently answered this question in Mustoe v. Ma. The Mustoe Court held that when a root-cutting neighbor removed encroaching tree roots, he owed no duty to the tree owner “to act in good faith and to act reasonably so …


Can Siri 10.0 Buy Your Home? The Legal And Policy Based Implications Of Artificial Intelligent Robots Owning Real Property, David Marc Rothenberg Apr 2016

Can Siri 10.0 Buy Your Home? The Legal And Policy Based Implications Of Artificial Intelligent Robots Owning Real Property, David Marc Rothenberg

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This Article addresses whether strong artificial intelligent robots (“AI”) should receive real property rights. More than a resource, real property promotes self-respect to natural persons such as human beings. Because of this distinction, this Article argues for limited real property rights for AIs. In developing this proposition, it examines three hypotheticals of a strong AI robot in various forms of real property ownership. The first hypothetical determines whether an AI could work as an agent in real property transactions. As robots currently act as agents in various capacities, the groundwork exists for an AI to enter this role. The second …


Large-Scale Land Acquisitions And Applying A Gender Lens To Supply Chain Reform, Mina Manuchehri Apr 2016

Large-Scale Land Acquisitions And Applying A Gender Lens To Supply Chain Reform, Mina Manuchehri

Washington International Law Journal

In recent years, multinational corporations, in particular food and beverage companies, have committed to “zero tolerance for land grabs” throughout their supply chains. To achieve this end, companies have also committed to international legal norms, including Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Although these commitments were unprecedented, no company explicitly requires the consideration of women’s use of and rights to land when remedying land grabs or acquiring land. To guarantee that women are included and consulted throughout land acquisition processes, companies should explicitly require the application of a …


Zombie Subdivisions In The United States And Ghost Developments In Europe: Lessons For Local Governments, Jan G. Laitos, Rachel Martin Jan 2015

Zombie Subdivisions In The United States And Ghost Developments In Europe: Lessons For Local Governments, Jan G. Laitos, Rachel Martin

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This article addresses the phenomenon of abandoned or failed commercial or residential developments, sometimes referred to as “zombie subdivisions” in America, and “ghost developments” in Europe. Both arose as a result of the real estate market disintegration after 2008. Around the world, but particularly in America and in certain European countries, developers ran out of funds and were unable to finish their projects, resulting in non-completed or largely vacant “zombie” or ghost properties. Such abandoned properties can be found throughout America and Europe, but they are more common in particular Intermountain states in the United States, and in Ireland, Spain …


Forced Turnovers: Using Eminent Domain To Build Professional Sports Venues, Peter Montine Apr 2014

Forced Turnovers: Using Eminent Domain To Build Professional Sports Venues, Peter Montine

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

If a city wants to keep a professional sports team within its borders, can that city use the power of eminent domain to do so? Although cities have not been able to successfully condemn the actual sports franchises within their respective cities, they have been successful in condemning land for the development of new sports venues intended to entice their teams to stay. In 2005, the City of Arlington, Texas invoked the power of eminent domain to condemn and destroy houses to make room for the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. In 2006, New York City used eminent domain on land …


The Parcel As A Whole: Defining The Relevant Parcel In Temporary Regulatory Takings Cases, Laura J. Powell Mar 2014

The Parcel As A Whole: Defining The Relevant Parcel In Temporary Regulatory Takings Cases, Laura J. Powell

Washington Law Review

In regulatory takings cases, courts must look at the “parcel as a whole” rather than individual property interests to determine whether a taking has occurred. The Supreme Court, however, has not clarified how exactly the relevant parcel should be defined. The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in CCA Associates v. United States highlights the confusion surrounding the parcel as a whole. It also highlights the continuing need to clarify how the relevant parcel should be defined in temporary regulatory takings cases. This Comment analyzes the parcel as a whole in temporary regulatory takings cases, specifically those involving lost income. It argues …


More Market-Oriented Than The United States And More Socialist Than China: A Comparative Public Property Story Of Singapore, Jianlin Chen, Jiongzhe Cui Jan 2014

More Market-Oriented Than The United States And More Socialist Than China: A Comparative Public Property Story Of Singapore, Jianlin Chen, Jiongzhe Cui

Washington International Law Journal

Compared to the more illustrious conceptualization of private property, the conceptualization of public property remains at a surprisingly infantile stage. The very definition of public property is ambiguous. This article utilizes a comparative case study of traffic congestion policies in the United States, China, and Singapore to highlight the conceptual pitfalls posed by the current confusion on public property. This article proposes a refined public property framework that offers greater conceptual clarity on the real issues at stake. In particular, this article argues that “property” in public property should include regulatory permits while “public” in public property should not be …


Making Room: Why Inclusionary Zoning Is Permissible Under Washington's Tax Preemption Statute And Takings Framework, Josephine L. Ennis Jun 2013

Making Room: Why Inclusionary Zoning Is Permissible Under Washington's Tax Preemption Statute And Takings Framework, Josephine L. Ennis

Washington Law Review

Inclusionary zoning ordinances, which typically require developers to set aside a percentage of new residential units for low and moderate income households, are a popular mechanism for ensuring the development of affordable housing in many communities. Washington State jurisdictions have been slow to introduce inclusionary zoning—particularly mandatory set-asides—perhaps because of the legal battles they would face. The Washington State Supreme Court previously relied on RCW 82.02.020 (the “tax preemption statute”) to invalidate a low-income housing ordinance in San Telmo Associates v. City of Seattle and in R/L Associates, Inc. v. City of Seattle. Washington courts have also relied on …


Foreclosing Modifications: How Servicer Incentives Discourage Loan Modifications, Diane E. Thompson Dec 2011

Foreclosing Modifications: How Servicer Incentives Discourage Loan Modifications, Diane E. Thompson

Washington Law Review

Despite record losses to investors, homeowners, and surrounding communities, the foreclosure crisis continues to swell. Many commentators have urged an increase in the number of loan modifications as a solution to the foreclosure crisis. The Obama Administration created a program specifically designed to encourage modifications. Yet, the number of foreclosures continues to outpace modifications. One reason foreclosures outpace modifications is that the mortgage-modification decision maker’s incentives generally favor a foreclosure over a modification. The decision maker is not the investor or the lender, but a separate entity, the servicer. The servicer’s main function is to collect and process payments from …


The Path Out Of Washington's Takings Quagmire: The Case For Adopting The Federal Takings Analysis, Roger D. Wynne Feb 2011

The Path Out Of Washington's Takings Quagmire: The Case For Adopting The Federal Takings Analysis, Roger D. Wynne

Washington Law Review

A quagmire awaits anyone attempting to understand the analysis Washington courts employ to determine whether government action constitutes a “taking” of property for which compensation is due under the U.S. Constitution. The Washington takings analysis is complex and confounding, especially when compared to the relatively straightforward takings analysis established by the U.S. Supreme Court. This Article argues that the Washington State Supreme Court should reject the Washington takings analysis and adopt the federal analysis. Comparing the federal and Washington analyses underscores how, as a matter of form, the Washington analysis easily stymies those who must work with it. Substantively, the …


The Path Out Of Washington's Takings Quagmire: The Case For Adopting The Federal Takings Analysis, Roger D. Wynne Feb 2011

The Path Out Of Washington's Takings Quagmire: The Case For Adopting The Federal Takings Analysis, Roger D. Wynne

Washington Law Review

A quagmire awaits anyone attempting to understand the analysis Washington courts employ to determine whether government action constitutes a “taking” of property for which compensation is due under the U.S. Constitution. The Washington takings analysis is complex and confounding, especially when compared to the relatively straightforward takings analysis established by the U.S. Supreme Court. This Article argues that the Washington State Supreme Court should reject the Washington takings analysis and adopt the federal analysis. Comparing the federal and Washington analyses underscores how, as a matter of form, the Washington analysis easily stymies those who must work with it. Substantively, the …


Transformation Of Land Rights In Indonesia: A Mixed Private And Public Law Model, Daryono Jul 2010

Transformation Of Land Rights In Indonesia: A Mixed Private And Public Law Model, Daryono

Washington International Law Journal

Transformation of land rights from colonial to post-colonial systems in many developing countries was primarily undertaken by two different models: firstly, it was entirely governed by private law to allow voluntary transformation, and secondly, it was under public law where the state placed a tight administrative control during the transformation process. Both models had benefits and limitations, but they generally failed to develop modern property rights systems. A third regime of a mixed private and public law model has been promoted to create balance between private and public orders experienced within Indonesia. The mixed private and public law transformation creates …


Curbing Rent-Seeking And Inefficiency With Broad Takings Powers And Undercompensation: The Case Of Singapore From A Givings Perspective, Jianlin Chen Jan 2010

Curbing Rent-Seeking And Inefficiency With Broad Takings Powers And Undercompensation: The Case Of Singapore From A Givings Perspective, Jianlin Chen

Washington International Law Journal

Conventional discourses on the perils of weak property rights vis-à-vis government takings have failed to account for and respond to the rent-seeking and inefficiency problems of government actions. Singapore, with its broad takings powers, coupled with express undercompensation, has not suffered from the predicted widespread rent-seeking and inefficiency. This case study of Singapore from a givings perspective demonstrates the importance of imposing a fair charge on the various kinds of givings in curbing rent-seeking and inefficiency. There are also additional benefits of having a healthy fiscal budget and more equitable taxation arising from Singapore’s givings regime. The key normative implication …


Getting Property Right: "Informal" Mortgages In The Japanese Courts, Frank G. Bennette Jr. Aug 2009

Getting Property Right: "Informal" Mortgages In The Japanese Courts, Frank G. Bennette Jr.

Washington International Law Journal

In Japan’s civil law property system, courts recognize a form of extra-statutory security, the jōto tanpo or “title-transfer security interest,” that is created by conveying legal title to the creditor, with a promise to restore it to the debtor upon repayment. Although best known today as a means to providing security in movables, jōto tanpo was originally an alternative means of mortgaging real estate, and this latter use of the interest is the subject of this Article. The two early attractions of the jōto tanpo interest to creditors were 1) the ability to avoid inefficient procedures for the enforcement of …


Reaching Back To Move Forward: Using Adverse Possession To Resolve Land Conflicts In Timor-Leste, Charlotte C. Williams Aug 2009

Reaching Back To Move Forward: Using Adverse Possession To Resolve Land Conflicts In Timor-Leste, Charlotte C. Williams

Washington International Law Journal

Like many post-conflict countries, Timor-Leste grapples with land conflicts that resulted from successive waves of property dispossession. Colonized by the Portuguese, invaded and occupied by the Indonesians, and briefly administered by the United Nations, Timor-Leste’s history has produced disjointed patterns of land tenure. These land tenure systems have given rise to five separate categories of land claimants, each of whom often have conflicting interests in property. While the newly independent country has taken steps to resolve conflicting land claims through legislation, existing law does not address the longstanding tensions underlying these conflicts, making it difficult for the courts to reach …


Women's Land Rights In Rural China: Transforming Existing Laws Into A Source Of Property Rights, H. Ray Liaw Jan 2008

Women's Land Rights In Rural China: Transforming Existing Laws Into A Source Of Property Rights, H. Ray Liaw

Washington International Law Journal

In the aftermath of legal reforms designed to secure land tenure for farmers, women in rural China lost rights to land at marriage, divorce, and widowhood. Despite a central legal framework that facially protects women’s property interests, ambiguity in the property and marriage laws have allowed village leaders to reassert traditional social norms and deny constitutional equal rights guarantees for women. Recent attempts to ameliorate landlessness for women, specifically in the Rural Contract Law and the Property Law, offer little promise of providing a significant solution for rural women. New proposals to mitigate rural women’s loss of land rights must …