Law Commons^™

Planning For Adaptation To Climate Change: Lessons From The Us National Wildlife Refuge System, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky, Alexei Babko, Michael Kennedy, Lei Liu, Michelle Robinson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

US national wildlife refuges have recent, detailed management plans illustrating the state of planning for climate-change adaptation in protected areas. Discussion of and prescriptions for addressing climate change increased in refuge plans between 2005 and 2010 but decreased in 2011. The plans respond to some climate-change impacts on biodiversity and call for monitoring but with little clarity regarding how to act on monitoring results and scant attention to future changes in phenology and community composition. The threats posed by sea-level rise generated the best-developed plan prescriptions. Examples of excellent prescriptions provide models for future planning. Some decision-support tools, such as …

The 2014 Leadership Academy: Six Months Out - How Are Participants Using What They Learned?, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

These wise words were one of many lessons that the attendees of the 2014 AALL Leadership Academy took home with them following two full days of hands-on learning this past April. Now, a little more than six months later, Spectrum catches up with a few of the Academy attendees to find out how they are using what they learned and the ways that the Academy has affected their professional (and personal) lives.

Learning From Conservation Planning For The U.S. National Wildlife Refuges, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System has nearly completed its first round of unit-level, comprehensive conservation plans (CCPs) and will soon begin required revisions. Laws and policies governing refuge planning emphasize ecological integrity, landscape-scale conservation, and adaptive management. We evaluated 185 CCPs completed during 2005–2011, which cover 324 of 555 national wildlife refuges. We reviewed CCP prescriptions addressing 5 common conservation issues (habitat and game, nongame, imperiled, and invasive species) and 3 specialized topics (landscape-scale conservation, climate change, and environmental quality). Common conservation issues received prescriptions in >90% of CCPs. Specialized topics received more variable treatment. Prescriptions for aquatic connectivity, …

From Disability To Usability In Online Instruction, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article is a primer on the work needed to ensure accessibility in online instruction. It discusses different disabilities, reviews relevant laws and standards, and explores the relationship between accessibility and the principles of universal design. The article introduces a number of best practices for creating accessibility in online instruction.

Learning From Lin: Lessons And Cautions From The Natural Commons For The Knowledge Commons, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Somin, Ilya, Democracy And Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter, Steve Sanders

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Learning Leadership, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

It is hard to talk about leadership without sounding clichéd, but it truly was “a dark and stormy night” that began my recent tr ip to the American Association of Law Libraries’ 2014 Leadership Academy. Fortunately, although the rainy drive to Chicago seemed an ill omen, the Leadership Academy turned out to be engaging, instructive, and replete with networking opportunities.

Mini-Domas As Political Process Failures: The Case For Heightened Scrutiny Of State Anti-Gay Marriage Amendments, Steve Sanders

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel E. Charles

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of The Finality Of Criminal Sentences On Collateral Review, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. The Undignified Part Of Constitutional Analysis, Timothy W. Waters

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Online Privacy And The First Amendment: An Opt-In Approach To Data Processing, Joseph A. Tomain

Articles by Maurer Faculty

An individual has little to no ability to prevent online commercial actors from collecting, using, or disclosing data about her. This lack of individual choice is problematic in the Big Data era because individual privacy interests are threatened by the ever increasing number of actors processing data, as well as the ever increasing amount and types of data being processed. This Article argues that online commercial actors should be required to receive an individual’s opt-in consent prior to data processing as a way of protecting individual privacy. I analyze whether an opt-in requirement is constitutionally permissible under the First Amendment …

The Limits Of Legality: Assessing Recent International Interventions In Civil Conflicts In The Middle-East, Feisal Amin Istrabadi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Why The Affordable Care Act Authorizes Tax Credits On The Federal Exchanges, David Gamage, Darien Shanske

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Essay refutes Adler’s and Cannon’s argument that the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) does not authorize premium tax credits for insurance policies purchased from the federal healthcare Exchanges. Adler’s and Cannon’s argument is the basis of challenges in a number of ongoing lawsuits, including Oklahoma ex rel. Pruitt v. Sebelius and Halbig v. Sebelius. This Essay conducts a textual analysis of the Affordable Care Act and concludes that the text clearly authorizes premium tax credits for insurance policies purchased from the federal healthcare Exchanges.

On November 7th, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of the King …

Book Review. Deficits, Debt, And The New Politics Of Tax Policy By Dennis S. Ippolito, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Grappling At The Grassroots: Access To Justice In India's Lower Tier, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Shirish N. Kavadi, Azima Girach, Dhanaji Khupkar, Kilindi Kokal, Satyajeet Mazumdar, Nupar, Gayatri Panday, Aatreyee Sen, Aqseer Sodhi, Bharati Takale Shukla

Articles by Maurer Faculty

From 2010 to 2012, a team of academic and civil society researchers conducted extensive ethnographies of litigants, judges, lawyers, and courtroom personnel within multiple districts in three states: Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh. This Article provides an in-depth account of the everyday struggles these actors face in the pursuit of their respective objectives. The findings illustrate a complex matrix of variables-including infrastructure, staffing, judicial training and legal awareness, costs and continuances, gender and caste discrimination, power imbalances, intimidation and corruption, miscellaneous delays, and challenges with specialized forums-impact access to justice in the lower tier. The results of this study offer …

Charles A. Beard & The Columbia School Of Political Economy: Revisiting The Intellectual Roots Of The Beardian Thesis, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A century after it was first published, Charles A. Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution remains a significant and controversial part of constitutional scholarship and history. Just as Beard sought to historicize the Founders as they drafted and adopted the Constitution, this article attempts to historicize Beard as he researched and wrote his classic text on the Constitution. Because Beard was both a graduate student and professor at Columbia University before and while he researched and wrote his book, this article explores the particular influence that Columbia University’s institutional and intellectual climate may have had on Beard and the …

When Two Worlds Collide: The Interface Between Competition Law And Data Protection, Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Christopher Millard, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Orla Lynskey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

State's Rights, Last Rites, And Voting Rights, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel Charles

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There are two ways to read the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County Alabama v. Holder: as a minimalist decision or as a decision that undermines the basic infrastructure of voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. In this Article, we present the case for reading Shelby County as deeply destabilizing. We argue that Shelby County has undermined three assumptions that are foundational to voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. First, the Court has generally granted primacy of the federal government over the states. Second, the Court has deferred to Congress particularly where Congress is regulating at the intersection of race …

Regulating Cryptocurrencies In The United States: Current Issues And Future Directions, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article explores the state of virtual currencies and their regulation in and by the United States and the States. It offers thoughts on which models of regulation might suit virtual currencies best. It also surveys recent enforcement actions brought by the Departments of Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security against providers of virtual currencies or comparable electronic stored value. It concludes that issuers and users of virtual currencies are not being realistic if they think that the United States will not regulate virtual currencies for some purposes.

Alumni Services: Strategies For Keeping The Law Library's Doors Open After Graduation, Michelle M. Trumbo

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Access To Counsel: Psychological Science Can Improve The Promise Of Civil Rights Enforcement, Victor D. Quintanilla, Cheryl R. Kaiser

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Employment discrimination claimants in general, and racial minority claimants in particular, disproportionately lack access to legal counsel. When employment discrimination claimants lack counsel, they typically abandon their claims, or if they pursue their claims, they do so pro se (without counsel), a strategy that is seldom successful in court. Access to counsel is, hence, a decisive component in whether employment discrimination victims realize the potential of civil rights enforcement. Psychological science analyzes access to counsel by identifying psychological barriers—such as threatened social identity, mistrust in legal authorities, and fear of repercussions—that prevent employment discrimination victims from pursuing counsel. The analysis …

How Should Governments Promote Distributive Justice?: A Framework For Analyzing The Optimal Choice Of Tax Instruments, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A particular methodology derived from public finance economics has become very influential in the legal literature on taxation and related topics. Sometimes called the “double-distortion” approach, this methodology forms the heart of Louis Kaplow’s book “The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics” and is also the foundation of prominent work by other leading tax legal scholars such as David Weisbach and James Hines.

This Article develops an extended critique of how the double-distortion approach has been used to make legal policy arguments. In doing so, this Article constructs a framework for analyzing how governments can optimally raise revenues and promote …

Big Business, Big Government And Big Legal Questions, Michael Mattioli, Todd Vare

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Not Just For Scouting Anymore: Digital Badges For Legal Research Skills, Alcasid Hannah, Susan David Demaine, Catherine A. Lemmer, Benjamin J. Keele

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Use Of Eu Institutions Outside The Eu Legal Framework: Foundations, Procedure And Substance, Paul Craig

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The decision in Case Pringle was primarily concerned with whether the European Stability Mechanism (TFEU) was compatible with various substantive provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, most notably the prohibition on bailouts in Article 125 TFEU. The judgment is nonetheless important for other reasons, including the legitimacy of the use of EU institutions outside the EU legal framework. It will be seen that the CJEU endorsed their use and reaffirmed earlier case law. These conclusions were analysed by Steve Peers in a helpful article in a previous issue of the European Constitutional Law Review, in …

Hazardous Hedging: The (Unacknowledged) Risks Of Hedging With Credit Derivatives, Gina-Gail S. Fletcher

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Is hedging with credit derivatives always beneficial? The benefit of hedging with credit derivatives, such as credit default swaps, is presumed by the Dodd-Frank Act, which excludes hedge transactions from much of the new financial regulation. Yet, new, significant risks can arise when credit derivatives are used to manage risks. Hedging, therefore, should be defined not only in relation to whether a transaction offsets risks, but also whether, on balance, the risks that are mitigated, as well as any new risks that arise, are outweighed by the potential benefits.

Firms using credit derivatives to hedge often fail to account for …

Identifying Congressional Overrides Should Not Be This Hard, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This paper is an invited response to Professor William N. Eskridge, Jr., and Mr. Matthew R. Christiansen’s recently-published study (92 Texas L. Rev. 1317 (2014)) identifying and analyzing Congressional overrides of Supreme Court statutory interpretation decisions since 1967. Christiansen and Eskridge provide a new taxonomy for overrides that distinguishes between "restorative" overrides, which denounce a judicial interpretation as misrepresenting prior Congressional intent, and overrides that simply update or clarify policy. Although political science and legal scholarship has focused on the interbranch struggle implicit in restorative overrides, Christiansen and Eskridge classify only about 20% of the overrides in their total dataset …

Undermining Or Promoting Democratic Government?: An Economic And Empirical Analysis Of The Two Views Of Public Sector Collective Bargaining In American Law, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Mohammad Khan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Power And Governance In Patent Pools, Michael Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The recent influx of patent pools, research consortia, and similar cooperative groups led by companies at the vanguard of American innovation has raised a pressing question: How does collective action influence the incentive to innovate? This question hinges on how patent pools are internally governed — a topic that has not been deeply examined by legal scholars. Through an original study of fifty-two private agreements, this Article pulls back the veil on patent licensing collectives to examine whether such organizations are designed to encourage long-term innovation.

This study draws on collective patent license agreements spanning the years 1856 to 2013 …