Law Commons^™

The Reasonable Robot Standard: How The Federal Government Needs To Regulate Ethical Decision Programming In Highly Autonomous Vehicles, Laura Emmons

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

A steam train is chugging along down a country track. You are a passenger, watching red and orange clustered hills pass by; fall is already here. You start to daydream about the last time you took this trip, how the summer had just begun and how quickly it went. Suddenly, reality hits. You awake from your daydream when you glance up and see five people strapped to the train tracks ahead of you. You know there is not enough time for the train to brake. Luckily, you happen to be sitting right next to the emergency switch, which would …

Compulsory Licensing Of Climate Engineering Patents: How Embracing Technology- And Research-Sharing Strategies Brings Us One Step Closer To Solving Climate Change, Buzz Hardin

Arkansas Law Review

The impact of climate change spans the globe and includes increasingly severe and dangerous climate events, including coastal flooding, extreme heat and wildfires, reduced crop yield, and decreased food security. In the United States, if the proper steps toward mitigating or reversing the effects of climate change are not taken, it is very likely that the United States will experience substantial damage to its economy, the health of its citizens, and the environment. In response to the challenges presented by climate change, the number of inventions in the field of climate engineering, or “geoengineering,” has skyrocketed over the past several …

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, …

Digital Evidence And The Adversarial System, Colton Fehr

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Scholars have observed that the adversarial system tends to provide courts with only a ‘‘small snapshot of the technological whole,” which in turn forms the record upon which broader legal pronouncements occur. As a result, they contend that legislatures should be more proactive in making rules governing complex and rapidly advancing technologies, and that courts must show deference to these rules. Other scholars retort that, in practice, legislatures often fail to update obviously flawed and outdated privacy provisions. Whether due to special interest influence, majoritarian dislike of criminal suspects, or other institutional constraints, legislative responses have been wanting. As such, …

Anaerobic Digestion As A Renewable Energy Source And Waste Management Technology: What Must Be Done For This Technology To Realize Success In The United States?, Blake Anthony Klinkner

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Anaerobic digestion technology uses microorganisms to consume waste and produce methane gas, which serves as a source of clean renewable energy. Although anaerobic digestion is widely used for both purposes throughout the rest of the world, it is rarely applied in the United States. This Article explains the scientific processes of anaerobic digestion. It then discusses how anaerobic digestion has been used throughout history and among societies as a waste management technology and source of renewable energy. The Article continues by addressing the legal aspects of anaerobic digestion, examining the reasons why it is not widely used in the United …

Social Networking And Student Safety: Balancing Student First Amendment Rights And Disciplining Threatening Speech, John L. Hughes Iii

University of Massachusetts Law Review

As the use of social media increases and becomes an integral part of nearly every student's life, problems arise when student expression on these sites turns into threats against the school or other students, implicating both student safety and the speaker's right to free speech. Facing a lack of Supreme Court precedent, school officials need guidance on whether and how to take action when a student makes threats on social network - how to prevent any danger at school while respecting the student's right to free speech. This note develops an approach that combines the Supreme Court's Watts "true threat" …

Intimate Terrorism And Technology: There's An App For That, Justine A. Dunlap

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Technology enhances the ability of the domestic violence prepetrator. It also holds the promise of assisting domestic violence survivors in their quest for safety. This is true in practical, daily ways and is becoming increasingly true in the legal treatment of these cases. Perpetrators can use technology to stalk and find their victims; survivors can use it to access necessary information to get away from their batterers. Laws are being amended to take into account cyber-enhanced domestic violence techniques. Domestic or intimate terrorists are among the class of criminals targeted for use of GPS monitoring. This article discusses the way …

Disincentives To Data Breach: Problems With Notification And Future Legislative Possibilities, Ross Schulman

Legislation and Policy Brief

In the modern digitized and networked world, personal identifying information has quickly become a commodity that can be traded, sold, or given away like any other. The uses and potential abuses of personal identifying information, however, distinguish this commodity from any other. Personal identifying information can be copied infinitely, is often not protected nearly as well as physical commodities, and, most importantly, can have particular importance to the person identified by that information. The producer of a bushel of apples presumably cares very little about where his apples end up, as long as he is paid for them to begin …

Korea's Patent Policy And Its Impact On Economic Development: A Model For Emerging Countries?, Jay A. Erstling, Ryan E. Strom

San Diego International Law Journal

The purpose of this paper will be to examine Korean patent policy as exemplified by its patent legislation and the activities of KIPO. Part II will take a brief look at the rationale underpinning Korea’s confidence in the power of the patent system to stimulate economic growth. Part III of the paper will look at the Korean Patent Act as an example of strong, comprehensive patent legislation that fully complies with international standards and responds well to the perceived needs of patent applicants. Part III will examine one of the highlights of Korean patent legislation, the Korean Invention Promotion Act, …

Opportunistic Evolution: How State Legislation Is Seeking To Redefine Academic Freedom To Permit Intelligent Design In The Classroom, Crystal Canterbury

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Salvaging The Communications Decency Act In The Wake Of Aclu V. Reno And Shea V. Reno, Rebecca J. Dessoffy

Cleveland State Law Review

Hundreds of Worldwide Web site providers blackened their pages for forty-eight hours to protest the enactment of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ("CDA"). The CDA regulates the transmission of sexually explicit material, both obscene and indecent, over the Internet. The CDA protesters claimed the law, designed to protect children, impermissibly infringes on adults' First Amendment rights to send and receive sexually explicit material. This note begins by exploring the challenged provisions of the CDA and the positions of those parties who opposed the CDA in the federal district court declaratory judgment actions. Next, the note examines applicable case precedent …

Chapter Vi: Legal Problems Arising From The Reasonable Uses Of Outer Space, Carl Q. Christol

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.