Law Commons^™

Uber V. Regulation: “Ride-Sharing” Creates A Legal Gray Area, Yanelys Crespo

University of Miami Business Law Review

Technological innovations are quickly re-shaping our world and even changing the way we travel from place to place. Although the concept of “ride-sharing” only just emerged in 2010, it has rapidly gained popularity and expanded across the globe, offering a new way to get around major cities via a mobile application that instantly links drivers and passengers through the phone’s GPS system. At the forefront of this movement is Uber—the multibillion- dollar company and pioneer of ride-sharing that has experienced unprecedented growth and success in its short existence. However, Uber’s expansion into most major cities across the United States has …

The U.S. Law Regime Of Sovereign Immunity And The Sovereign Wealth Funds, Victorino J. Tejera

University of Miami Business Law Review

This article is concerned with the applicability of sovereign immunity to the so-called sovereign wealth funds (“SWFs”) within the U.S. legal system. While sovereign immunity has existed for at least two centuries, SWFs and the types of investment activities they conduct on behalf of their parent foreign states are a rather recent phenomenon. As a result, the issue of the applicability of the rules on sovereign immunity to the SWFs poses novel legal challenges and difficulties. In a nutshell, this article is intended to answer the following questions: Are SWFs entitled to invoke sovereign immunity before U.S. courts? If so, …

China’S Withdrawal Of Article 96 Of The Cisg: A Roadmap For The United States And China To Reconsider Withdrawing The Article 95 Reservation, Pan Zhen

University of Miami Business Law Review

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) was created for the purpose of providing legal neutrality and certainty, and also for the purpose of avoiding choice of law issues in international sales of goods. However, the United States and China, the two largest trading nations in the world, made the Article 95 reservation at the time they ratified the CISG, therefore restricting CISG’s applicability in certain situations. In 2013, China withdrew its Article 96 reservation, which declares its non-recognition of free form of contract formation, taking one step closer to the vast majority of …

International Reciprocity: If A Drug Is Good Enough For Great Britain, It Should Be Good Enough For The United States, Nicole C. Perez

University of Miami Business Law Review

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest, and most lucrative, industries in the world, worth about one trillion U.S. dollars. Specifically, the United States accounts for more than one-third of the global pharmaceutical market with about 340 million dollars in sales. Not only is the pharmaceutical industry one of the biggest industries profit-wise, but it is also an industry that affects almost every single person in the world. In a nation where healthcare issues are always on the rise, ensuring that American citizens benefit from pharmacology is essential to improving the nation’s healthcare system. The Food and Drug Administration …

No One Statute Should Have Too Much Power: How Electing Not To Amend 42 U.S.C § 1320(A)–7(B) May Frustrate The Purpose Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Amber C. Dawson

University of Miami Business Law Review

The over breadth of the Federal Anti-Kickback statute as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) holds dangerous implications for the future of the health care marketplace. When a statute permits criminal, civil and administrative punishment for an overbroad category of innocuous actions, such a statute must also take into account the specific, rather than general, intent of the actor, or the ensnaring of innocents is ultimately likely to result. Historically, the statute required a finding of specific intent to be found to uphold a violation of the statute. With the passing of Greber v. US and …

Turning Cash Into Votes: The Law And Economics Of Campaign Contributions, Brett Silverberg

University of Miami Business Law Review

As a result of the recent Citizens United decision and its “Super PAC” spawn, individuals, corporations, and unions are allowed to independently spend unlimited amounts to influence elections. The ramifications of the Citizens United ruling have seemingly had a grave impact on the 2016 Presidential Election. In addition to examining the laws—and their loopholes—of political campaign contributions, this Essay will also explore the economics of campaign contributions. Ultimately, there are two reasons as to why corporations provide such large sums of money: one is rent creation, which is the attempt to gain political favors for “special interests;” the second is …

Fsma: The Future Of Food Litigation, Robert Shawn Hogue

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pitfalls Of The Food Safety Modernization Act: Enhanced Regulation, Minimal Consumer Benefit, And Zero Tolerance Levels For Naturally-Occurring Trace Pathogens, Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, Wesley Van Camp

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Congress enacted the Food Safety Modernization Act (“FSMA”), to regulate the fresh produce industry in the United States and increase consumer safety when handling and consuming raw produce. But FSMA risks imposing a zero tolerance policy on raw produce, even where a naturally occurring low-level pathogen, such as listeria, is found in negligible amounts. A zero tolerance policy for all naturally-occurring pathogens does not increase consumer safety, and only serves to increase the cost of raw produce for consumers. This article begins with a summary of the modern history of FSMA, including a brief overview of how the law has …

A Promise Realized? A Critical Review Of Accountable Care Organizations Since The Enactment Of The Affordable Care Act, Jean Phillip Shami

University of Miami Law Review

As the six-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) comes to a close, a critical review of one of the key inventions of the ACA—Accountable Care Organizations (“ACOs”)—is timely as part of the greater narrative around affordable, quality health care in America. This Comment begins with a discussion of the statutory creation, philosophy and vision, and organizational structure of ACOs in the context of the passage of the ACA in 2010. Then, it will critically review ACOs from three perspectives based on the ACO model’s mission to provide better care for more people at a lower …

Bringing Balance To The Force: The Militarization Of America’S Police Force And Its Consequences, Anta Plowden

University of Miami Law Review

The current trend in the militarization of police can be traced back to the earliest times in our country. We are soon approaching a tipping point in which the combination of aggressive military tactics, wrongful deaths and injuries, and a lack of accountability will lead to an increase in civil unrest and animosity towards those who have sworn to uphold the law. In an ironic twist of fate, the military force, which law enforcement is trying to emulate, has made sharp adjustments in the way it operates due to the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has adopted more police-like …

The Heartbreak Of Not Making Automated External Defibrillators Available For Public Use, Samuel D. Hodge Jr., Daria Koscielniak

University of Miami Law Review

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is one of the greatest advancements in defibrillator technology in the past several decades. Its purpose is to treat sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death in this country. An AED checks the heart’s rhythm and will dispatch an electric jolt when needed to reestablish the organ’s normal electrical pattern. The magic of this portable device is that anyone can use it and it is relatively inexpensive to purchase. Studies have shown that access to AEDs can improve the odds of surviving a cardiac arrhythmia outside of the hospital and the American Heart Association …

Legal Paternalism And The Eclipse Of Principle, R. George Wright

University of Miami Law Review

Legal paternalism involves, very roughly, requiring persons to do something for their own good. We often think of debates between legal paternalists and non-paternalists as taking place largely at the level of broad, basic principle. This Article argues, however, that in our culture, disputes over the proper scope of legal paternalism will increasingly focus not on issues of basic principle, but on much more detailed, concrete, particular, contextualized matters. The four major reasons for this eclipse of basic principles bearing upon legal paternalism are herein identified, explored, and illustrated.

The Mapmaker’S Dilemma In Evaluating High-End Inequality, Daniel Shaviro

University of Miami Law Review

The last thirty years have witnessed rising income and wealth concentration among the top 0.1% of the population, leading to intense political debate regarding how, if at all, policymakers should respond. Often, this debate emphasizes the tools of public economics, and in particular optimal income taxation. However, while these tools can help us in evaluating the issues raised by high-end inequality, their extreme reductionism—which, in other settings, often offers significant analytic payoffs—here proves to have serious drawbacks. This Article addresses what we do and don’t learn from the optimal income tax literature regarding high-end inequality, and what other inputs might …

No Quick Fix: The Failure Of Criminal Law And The Promise Of Civil Law Remedies For Domestic Child Sex Trafficking, Charisa Smith

University of Miami Law Review

Pimps and johns who sexually exploit children garner instant public and scholarly outrage for their lust for a destructive “quick fix.” In actuality, many justifiably concerned scholars, policymakers, and members of the public continue to react over-simplistically and reflexively to the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States—also known as commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC)—in a manner intellectually akin to immediate gratification. Further, research reveals that the average john is an employed, married male of any given race or ethnicity, suggesting that over-simplification and knee-jerk thinking on CSEC are conspicuous. This Article raises provocative questions that too …

Exclusive Groove: How Modern Substantial Similarity Law Invites Attenuated Infringement Claims At The Expense Of Innovation And Sustainability In The Music Industry, Mark Kuivila

University of Miami Law Review

As of 2015, the American entertainment market was worth about $600 billion, and it is projected to substantially exceed that figure in coming years. The global entertainment industry is worth about $2 trillion, meaning the U.S. is responsible for over a quarter of total global entertainment revenue. These statistics illustrate the staggering impact of the American entertainment industry on the global markets for film, television, and music. The American music industry is particularly dominant in its global market, earning half of world-wide sync revenues and accounting for nearly a third of all global music revenue. Entertainment is clearly the United …

Anti-Incarcerative Remedies For Illegal Conditions Of Confinement, Margo Schlanger

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

The U.S. Supreme Court And The Nation’S Post-Ferguson Controversies, Christopher E. Smith

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Jacob Dolinger

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The UN Human Rights Commission dedicated over two years to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was approved by the General Assembly in 1948.

The underlying reason for the Declaration was the genocide executed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany against the Jewish people throughout Europe during the Second World War. The fundamental mistake of the Commission was that the persecution by the Nazis was not directed against individual persons, but against an entire people, whereas the Declaration deals exclusively with the rights of the individual human being, no reference whatsoever made in the document to collectivities.

Moreover, …

United States-Cuba Normalized Relations And The Mlb Influence: The Baseball Coalition Committee, Aaron Klein, Jake E. Marcus

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This note explores the past, present, and future of the path for Cuban baseball players into MLB. Specifically, this note will explore the late-2014 agreement between the United States and Cuba to normalize relations and its anticipated impact on MLB. Part I provides an extensive historical context of the relationship between the two countries with a focus on the effect that baseball has had on the relationship. Part II draws attention to MLB’s current policies and the resulting hardships faced by Cuban baseball players embark on the journey from Serie Nacional to MLB. Part III concentrates on the legal issues …

Applying Domestic Statutes To Foreign Conduct: How Much Does Kiobel Touch And Concern The Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application, Jessica Neer Mcdonald

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This paper examines a tumultuous history of applying United States law to foreign conduct in United States federal courts and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions in this area. Despite its inconsistent application, the presumption against extraterritorial application may bridle Article III courts’ authority of applying domestic law to foreign conduct. Notably, a complicated test of displacing the presumption has emerged from the recent Supreme Court case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., which concerned foreign conduct under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). The test states the presumption is overcome if the foreign conduct “touches and concerns” …

That ‘70s Show: Why The 11th Circuit Was Wrong To Rely On Cases From The 1970s To Decide A Cell-Phone Tracking Case, David Oscar Markus, Nathan Freed Wessler

University of Miami Law Review

In light of society's increasing reliance on technology, this article explores a critical question – that of the Fourth Amendment’s protection over privacy in the digital age. Specifically, this article addresses how the law currently fails to protect the privacy of one’s cell phone records and its ramifications. By highlighting the antiquated precedent leading up to the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling in United States v. Davis, this article calls on the judiciary to find a more appropriate balance for protecting the right to privacy in a modern society.

Isis’S Get Rich Quick Scheme: Sell The World’S Cultural Heritage On The Black Market—Purchasers Of Isis-Looted Syrian Artifacts Are Not Criminally Liable Under The Nspa And The Mcclain Doctrine In The Eleventh Circuit, Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman

University of Miami Law Review

This article explores how an individual importing a looted artifact may face prosecution and liability in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. The article begins with a background section that provides additional information about the history of ISIS and ISIS’s current plundering scheme. The background section also provides the legal framework and historical treatment of looted art and stolen artifacts. In particular, this section explains the Eleventh Circuit doctrine on this issue, the McClain doctrine. The McClain doctrine applies the National Stolen Property Act (“NSPA”) to foreign found-in-the-ground claims. Supporters of the doctrine argue that it helps “prevent looting internationally without placing …

Neither Strict Nor Nuanced: The Balanced Standard For False Claims Act Pleading In The Eleventh Circuit, C. Caitlin Giles

University of Miami Law Review

False Claims Act litigation is more hotly contested than ever before. One such controversial issue plaguing federal courts is the proper application of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) to actions arising under the False Claims Act. The explosion of litigation under the FCA caused a circuit split to emerge on the correct standard to use when applying Rule 9(b)’s heightened pleading requirement for more particularity. Specifically, courts are split on the level of specificity required to prove that a false claim was submitted to the government. Some apply a “strict” interpretation and require pleadings to include representative samples of …

Treaty Of Amity, Commerce, And Navigation Between Brazil And The U.S., Prof. Dr. Attila S.L. Andrade Jr.

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This Article deals with the analytical history of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between the U.S. and Brazil. In the first part of the Article, the author analyzed all the provisions of the Treaty entered into between the two countries on December 12, 1828. The second part examined the historical causes for the early termination of the Treaty, 13 years after its execution. It suggests and evidences that the historical cause lies in a political factor, that is, the conflicts between a Republican form of government and the Brazilian Imperial political system. The third and final part of …

Rio’S 2016 Olympic Golf Course: City’S Last Remaining Ecosystems Left “In The Rough”, Charles Vercillo

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The sport of golf returned as an official event at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro following a prolonged absence from the Games. To accommodate golf’s return, the city of Rio endorsed the construction of the Olympic golf course on land adjoining the Marapendi lagoon—land historically known to be ecologically valuable and environmentally protected. With the Games rapidly approaching, the city quickly passed complementary Law 125, stripping this land of its environmental protection, and instead authorizing a golf course as a sustainable use of the land.

Local environmentalists have challenged the legislation and the city’s decision, arguing …

Chasing Democracy: The Development And Acceptance Of Jury Trials In Argentina, Caitlyn Scherr

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Argentina’s 1853 National Constitution and the 1994 amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure both guarantee a right to a trial by jury, yet the Argentine Congress has failed to pass the necessary legislation to establish a national jury system. However, nothing has stopped the individual provinces from creating their own systems for public participation. In the 1990’s, the province of Córdoba implemented mixed juries. The Neuquén province successfully implemented an even more advanced jury system in 2011. In recent years, this has created a snowball effect, with Buenos Aires, Chaco, and at least three other provinces following suit in …

United States V. Esquenazi: Injecting Clarity Or Confusion Into The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Amy Lynn Soto

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was enacted in 1977 to criminalize the bribing of foreign officials in order to obtain or retain business. In recent years, there has been an increase in bribery investigations and prosecutions by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This increase in enforcement coexists with an ambiguity regarding the scope of the FCPA.

The scope of the FCPA hinges on the determination of who is a foreign official. The FCPA defines a foreign official as “any officer or employee of a foreign government or any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, …