Law Commons^™

The Douban Online Social Media Barometer And The Chinese Reception Of Korean Popular Culture Flows, Brian Yecies, Jie Yang, Ae-Gyung Shim, Kai Ruo Soh, Matthew J. Berryman

Dr Brian Yecies

Since its launch in 2005, the Chinese online social networking site Douban has become a key platform for creating and sharing user-generated content on a rising tide of global popular culture. Such content and its corresponding user data has become so prolific that Western media outlets are now using Douban a key barometer for gauging representative opinions and attitudes towards foreign content in China. However, a full range of tools for harvesting and analyzing Chinese-language datasets has yet to be explored in English. This article attempts to fill this gap by investigating the applicability of an analytical framework that can …

News Media As Mediators, Carol Pauli

Carol Pauli

Journalism thrives on conflict, a classic "news value," which can make a story newsworthy. As a result, the normal routines of reporters and editors tend to emphasize extreme voices and combative themes, triggering the criticism that news coverage of an event is "more likely to escalate a conflict than to pacify it."

Even so, journalism has made some legendary journeys into conflict resolution. In 1977, for example, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite conducted separate interviews with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, which led directly to Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. In 1985, Ted Koppel, in …

Bush, Obama And Beyond: Observations On The Prospect For Fact Checking Executive Department Threat Claims Before The Use Of Force, Leslie Gielow Jacobs

Leslie Gielow Jacobs

This piece looks at the recurring problem of inflated threat claims offered by executive branch actors to persuade the Nation to consent to the use of force. It sets out the experience of the Bush Administration’s use of incorrect threat claims to persuade the country to consent to the use of force in Iraq as a backdrop to evaluating the President Obama’s use of threat claims to support the continuing use of force in Afghanistan. Although comparison of threat advocacy by the Bush and Obama administrations must be imperfect, it allows for some observations about the extent to which the …

News Media As Mediators (Cardozo J. Conflict Resol.), Carol Pauli

Carol Pauli

This paper explores journalism as a potential method of conflict resolution. Part I compares the norms and practices of journalism to those of facilitative mediation. Part II draws additional parallels between some aspects of journalism and two other forms of dispute resolution: transformative mediation and adjudication. Part III suggests some areas for encouragement and some areas for caution as peace journalists import conflict resolution techniques into news reporting and writing.

Cuba: Open For Business, But Media Beware, Jodi Benassi

Jodi Benassi

No abstract provided.

News Media As Mediators, Carol Pauli

Carol Pauli

No abstract provided.

Prying, Spying, And Lying: Intrusive Newsgathering And What The Law Should Do About It, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

The media's use of intrusive newsgathering techniques poses an increasing threat to individual privacy. Courts currently resolve the overwhelming majority of conflicts in favor of the media. This is not because the First Amendment bars the imposition of tort liability on the media for its newsgathering practices. It does not. Rather, tort law has failed to seize the opportunity to create meaninful privacy protection. After surveying the economic, philosophical, and practical obstacles to reform, this Article proposes to rejuvenate the tort of intrusion to tip the balance between privacy and the press back in privacy's direction. Working within the framework …

The Homicide Survivors’ Fairness-For-Victims Manifesto, Lester Jackson

LESTER JACKSON

Murderer advocates place a far greater value on the lives of the most savage murderers than on the lives of their victims. Let them deny it; their words and deeds conclusively give the lie to that denial. The critical question is this: Whose concept of justice is going to prevail? The concept of a small but vocal well-financed minority with influence and power out of all proportion to its numbers, or that of the large but poorly financed and disorganized majority. In recent decades, the former have dominated. Tragically, compared to media-dominant murderer advocates, victims have been virtually voiceless. Yes, …

The Death Penalty’S “Finely Tuned Depravity Calibrators” Fairness Follies Of Fairness Phonies Fixated On Criminals Instead Of Crimes, Lester Jackson

LESTER JACKSON

It has been loudly and repeatedly proclaimed by opponents that capital punishment is “unfair.” In their view, it is unfair because (1) only some murderers receive the ultimate sentence and (2) they are not the most deserving. Underlying this view is the remarkable assumption that fairness is subject to “fine tuning” and “moral accuracy.” It is argued here that this assumption is indefensible both in theory and in practice. As a theoretical matter, it is insupportable to suggest that matters of conscience, right and wrong, are subject to calibration or “accuracy.” Right and wrong are not determined in the same …

Mixed Media: Popular Culture And Race And Their Effect On Jury Selection, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.

Balancing The Scales: Adhuc Sub Judice Li Est Or Trial By Media, Casey J. Cooper

Casey J Cooper

The right to freedom of expression and free press is recognized under almost all major human rights instruments and domestic legal systems—common and civil—in the world. However, what do you do when a fundamental right conflicts with another equally fundamental right, like the right to a fair trial? In the United States, the freedom of speech, encompassing the freedom of the press, goes nearly unfettered: the case is not the same for other common law countries. In light of cultural and historic facts, institutional factors, modern realities, and case-law, this Article contends that current American jurisprudence does not take into …

Picture [Im]Perfect: Photoshop Redefining Beauty In Cosmetic Advertisements, Giving False Advertising A Run For The Money, Ashley R. Brown

Ashley R Brown

This paper discusses the use of Photoshop in the United States and when overly retouched ads cross the threshold into False Advertising. I consider opinions from the NAD and whether or not a "Photoshop Law" would ever be feasible in the United States.

Balancing The Scales: Adhuc Sub Judice Li Est Or "Trial By Media", Casey J. Cooper

Casey J Cooper

The right to freedom of expression and free press is recognized under almost all major human rights instruments and domestic legal systems—common and civil—in the world. However, what do you do when a fundamental right conflicts with another equally fundamental right, like the right to a fair trial? In the United States, the freedom of speech, encompassing the freedom of the press, goes nearly unfettered: the case is not the same for other common law countries. In light of cultural and historic facts, institutional factors, modern realities, and case-law, this Article contends that current American jurisprudence does not take into …

Undermining Parental Authority, Unethical Advertising And The Accountability Of Self-Regulation: Thomascook.Ca As A Fable, Nachshon Goltz, Peter Neufeld

Nachshon Goltz

This paper demonstrates the shortcomings of Advertising Standards Canada, the Canadian self-regulatory body overseeing advertising to children. It uses a case study initiated by a complaint regarding a parental undermining advertisement. Advertising Standards Canada failure to address this complaint illustrate the greater need for Canada to move away from self-regulation in children advertising to a less de-centralized regulatory regime. This move is increasingly important due to the unprecedented rise in electronic marketing and its ability to use stealth advertising and collect information from its child consumers.

The False Narrative, Edward Earl Bell

Dr. Edward E. Bell

The notion of black-on-black crime is widespread. We tend to think that black-on-black crime is reality—not realizing that “86% of whites perpetrate crimes against other whites and 94% of blacks against blacks.” Williams stated, in the April 10, 2012 edition of the Root, the following: “The truth?

Guest View: In Defense Of Student Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Privacy is another American value we rush to sacrifice on the altar of accountability. In Ohio, reporters swarm the yards of liberated kidnapping victims. And in Massachusetts, news trucks besiege the campus at UMass Dartmouth, where I work, and where marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Media want to know everything about Tsarnaev and his college friends. The university, bound by federal privacy law, has refused access to student academic and financial aid records.

Fifteen Minutes Of Infamy: Privileged Reporting And The Problem Of Perpetual Reputational Harm, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

This Article provides an overview of the labyrinth of media tort defenses, specifically the four privileges – fair comment, fair report, neutral reportage, and wire service – that come into play when the media republish defamatory content about criminal suspects and defendants without specific intent to injure. The Article then discusses these privileges in light of a hypothetical case involving a highly publicized crime and an indicted suspect, against whom charges are later dropped, but who suffers perpetual reputational harm from the out-of-context republication online of news related to his indictment. The Article demonstrates how the four privileges would operate …

“Ahead Of The Lawmen”: Law And Morality In Disney Animated Films 1960–1998, Nehal A. Patel

Nehal A. Patel

This article examines the relationship between law and morality in a selection of animated Disney movies released between 1960 and 1998. The authors analyze all of the fully-animated, G-rated movies that grossed $100 million or more (adjusted for inflation) which shaped the childhood of lawyers practicing today. We find that the predominant representation of the relationship between law and morality is that they are at odds. Law most often is portrayed as having no relationship to morality or, even worse, as an obstacle to justice. These findings have implications for theories of law and morality, justice, and ethics. These findings …

Snopa And The Ppa_ Do You Know What It Means For You, Angela Goodrum

Angela Goodrum

No abstract provided.

Alice Through The Wormhole: Reconciling Spatial And Temporal Disjunctions In The Creation Of Content In Australian Media Law, Marett Leiboff

Marett Leiboff

Copy of powerpoint presentation to the conference.

Preventing Sex-Offender Recidivism Through Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approaches And Specialized Community Integration, Michael L. Perlin

Michael L Perlin

Preventing Sex-Offender Recidivism Through Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approaches and Specialized Community Integration

Abstract

The public’s panic about the fear of recidivism if adjudicated sex offenders are ever to be released to the community has not subsided, despite the growing amount of information and statistically-reliable data signifying a generally low risk of re-offense. The established case law upholding sex offender civil commitment and containment statutes has rejected challenges of unconstitutionality, and continues to be dominated by punitive undertones. We have come to learn that the tools used to assess offenders for risk and civil commitment still have indeterminate accuracy, and that the …

A People's History Of Baseball, Mitchell J. Nathanson

Mitchell J Nathanson

Baseball is much more than the national pastime. It has become an emblem of America itself. From its initial popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, the game has reflected national values and beliefs and promoted what it means to be an American. Stories abound that illustrate baseball's significance in eradicating racial barriers, bringing neighborhoods together, building civic pride, and creating on the field of play an instructive civics lesson for immigrants on the national character. In A People's History of Baseball, Mitchell Nathanson probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, …

Regulating From Typewriters In An Internet Age: The Development & Regulation Of Mass Media Usage In Presidential Campaigns, Anthony J. King

Anthony J. King

The American election process has become a misleading process of campaign promises and self-promotion, thus diluting its primary and most fundamental purpose. This discrepancy can be traced to three primary groups; (1) the candidates, who supplied the motive; (2) the mass media, who supplied the means; and (3) the electorate, who so far have allowed it to happen. Seeking to remedy the situation lawmakers have turned to regulations of the media in attempt to assure fairness and nurture the marketplace of ideas. These numerous attempts at fairness have been met with a mixed reception and mixed results leading to questions …

Qatar, Al Jazeera, And The Arab Spring, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

No abstract provided.

Copyright Basics, B. Douglas Robbins

B. Douglas Robbins

In this paper we discuss the fundamentals of copyright law: what sort of works are protected by copyright, what sort of works are not protected, how copyright protection operates, the term of copyright protection, and what the consequences are for copyright infringement.

Law, Media, & Environmental Policy: A Fundamental Linkage In Sustainable Democratic Governance, Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Zygmunt J.B. Plater

The functional linkages between law and media have long been signficant in shaping American democratic governance. Over the past thirty-five years, environmental analysis has similarly become essential to shaping international and domestic governmental policy. Environmentalism—focusing as it does on realistic interconnected accounting of the full potential negative consequences as well as benefits of proposed actions, policies, and programs, over the long term as well as the short term, with careful consideration of all realistic alternatives— provides a legal perspective important for societal sustainability. Because environmental values and norms are often in tension with established industrial interests that resist public interest …

Information Overload, Multi-Tasking, And The Socially Networked Jury: Why Prosecutors Should Approach The Media Gingerly, Andrew Taslitz

Andrew E. Taslitz

The rise of computer technology, the internet, rapid news dissemination, multi-tasking, and social networking have wrought changes in human psychology that alter how we process news media. More specifically, news coverage of high-profile trials necessarily focuses on emotionally-overwrought, attention-grabbing information disseminated to a public having little ability to process that information critically. The public’s capacity for empathy is likewise reduced, making it harder for trial processes to overcome the unfair prejudice created by the high-profile trial. Market forces magnify these changes. Free speech concerns limit the ability of the law to alter media coverage directly, and the tools available to …

Manipulating The Public Agenda: Why Acorn Was In The News, And What The News Got Wrong, Peter Dreier, Christopher Martin

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.

Property Rights To Information, Jamie Lund

Jamie Lund

Laws against defamation regulate information sharing by correcting misstatements of fact in order to protect reputations. One benefit of enforcement of defamation laws is the reduction of information pollution. Misinformation increases search costs and thereby reducing efficiency in the procurement of accurate information. First Amendment protection over false speech has expanded over the last half century, decreasing the occurrence of defamation suits, leaving the information field wide open for information pollution undeterred by defamation suits. The market for information has changed dramatically with the popularization of the Internet, the exponential growth of speakers in the past decade, and the corresponding …

Information Overload, Multi-Tasking, And The Socially Networked Jury: Why Prosecutors Should Approach The Media Gingerly, Andrew Taslitz

Andrew E. Taslitz

Abstract The rise of computer technology, the internet, rapid news dissemination, multi-tasking, and social networking have wrought changes in human psychology that alter how we process news media. More specifically, news coverage of high-profile trials necessarily focuses on emotionally-overwrought, attention-grabbing information disseminated to a public having little ability to process that information critically. The public’s capacity for empathy is likewise reduced, making it harder for trial processes to overcome the unfair prejudice created by the high-profile trial. Market forces magnify these changes. Free speech concerns limit the ability of the law to alter media coverage directly, and the tools available …