Law Commons^™

Joinder Of Unrelated Infringers As Defendants In Patent Litigation Under The Jurisprudence Of The United States District Court For Eastern District Of Texas—A Critical Review, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

On September 16, 2011, the American patent system started a new era because of the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”). 35 U.S.C. § 299 was enacted to limit district court’s power to permit joinder of unrelated infringers as defendants in a single lawsuit. Before that, district courts apply Rule 20 of the Federal Civil Procedure. The Eastern District of Texas had permitted joinder only because the same patent was infringed. By introducing § 299, Congress intended to abrogate such approach. Later, the Federal Circuit in In re EMC limited the practice of Rule 20 and required a …

7 Things You Need To Know About: The American Court System, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

These presentation slides cover the 7 most important things you need to know about the American Court System. They cover: personal jurisdiction, subject matter jurisdiction, removal, change of venue, and the steps in bringing a lawsuit.

Dismissing Provenance: The Use Of Procedural Defenses To Bar Claims In Nazi-Looted Art And Securitized Mortgage Litigation, Christian J. Bromley

Christian J Bromley

The litigation surrounding an estimated 650,000 works looted by the Nazis in the Second World War and the millions of securitized mortgages foreclosed in the wake of the Great Recession converge on a fundamental legal principle: who really holds rightful title? Seemingly worlds apart, these separate yet remarkably similar forms of property challenge the American judiciary to allocate property rights between adversaries steadfast in their contention of rightful ownership. The legal fulcrum in this allocation often rests not on the equity or righteousness of either parties’ claim—whether museum versus heir or bank versus former homeowner—but instead on procedural defenses that …

We Do Not Recognise Anything 'Private': Public Interest And Private Law Under The Socialist Legal Tradition And Beyond, Rafal Manko

Dr. Rafał Mańko

In line with Lenin’s famous quote that Bolsheviks “do not recognise anything private” and that private law must be permeated with public interest, the private (civil) law of the USSR and other countries of the Soviet bloc, including Poland underwent reform aimed at furthering the public interest at the expense of the private one. Specific legal institutions were introduced for this purpose, in the form of legal innovations, loosely, if at all, based on pre-existing Western models. In the Polish case, such legal institutions were usually legal transfers, imported from the Soviet Union. When the socio-economic and political system changed …

Recent Reforms In Eu Law: Recognition And Enforcement Of Judgments, Samuel P. Baumgartner

Samuel P. Baumgartner

The European Union has just adopted a set of amendments to the Brussels I Regulation, which governs jurisdiction to adjudicate, parallel proceedings, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This article discusses the Regulation and the adopted amendments regarding the recognition and enforcement of judgments and argues that these amendments are part of a deeper set of structural and conceptual changes in the law of transnational litigation in the European Union over the last two decades. The article concludes with an analysis of both the amendments and the underlying changes for litigants and law reformers in the United States, …

Aereo's Errors, Ira Steven Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

This article scrutinizes the many troubling errors made by the United States Supreme Court in its decision in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. Aereo’s streaming television service allowed subscribers to watch broadcast television on a computer, tablet, or smartphone without requiring them to be directly connected to cable, satellite, or a local antenna. Aereo’s system was designed to comply with existing copyright law by using thousands of antennas, each of which was designated for only one subscriber at a time. Aereo was sued for copyright infringement by a number of leading television broadcasters. The United States Supreme Court, …

When The Mountain Goes To Mohammed: The Internet And Judicial Decision-Making, Layne S. Keele

Layne S. Keele

Judges increasingly are scouring the Internet in search of case-related facts, often without the parties’ knowledge. This article grapples with the question of what limits, if any, should circumscribe judicial Internet use. Drawing a distinction between online searches for adjudicative facts and online research into legislative facts, I argue that the former are always improper, while the propriety of the latter depends largely on one’s view of the role of the judiciary. In both cases, Internet research creates unique risks not found with other kinds of research, and this article offers some suggestions for alleviating those risks. This article also …

Usando La Camiseta De Indecopi En El Poder Judicial: Trazos Sobre El Proceso De Modificación De Denominación O Razón Social Por Conflicto Con Signos Distintivos, Javier André Murillo Chávez

Javier André Murillo Chávez

No abstract provided.

Commerce And Tradition As Gatekeepers Of Admiralty: Falsity And Futility, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

The use of traditional maritime activity and disruption of maritime commerce as conditions of admiralty tort jurisdiction has no foundation in history or jurisprudence. They conflict with understandings and positive legislation of Congress and cause confusion and fruitless litigation about their meanings and application.

Brief Of Professor Stephen E. Sachs As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Neither Party, Atlantic Marine Construction Co. V. U.S. District Court, Stephen E. Sachs

Stephen E. Sachs

[This brief was filed in support of neither party in No. 12-929 (U.S., cert. granted Apr. 1, 2013).] The parties in this case defend two sides of a many-sided circuit split. This brief argues that a third view is correct. If a contract requires suit in a particular forum, and the plaintiff sues somewhere else, how may the defendant raise the issue? Petitioner Atlantic Marine Construction Company suggests a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(3) or 28 U.S.C. § 1406, on the theory that the contract renders venue improper. Respondent J-Crew Management, Inc. contends that venue remains proper, …

Beyond Uniqueness: Reimagining Tribal Courts' Jurisdiction, Katherine J. Florey

Katherine J. Florey

If there is one point about tribal status that the Supreme Court has stressed for decades if not centuries, it is the notion that tribes as political entities are utterly one of a kind. This is to some extent reasonable; tribes, unlike other governments, have suffered the painful history of colonial conquest, making some distinctive treatment eminently justifiable. But recent developments have demonstrated to many tribes that uniqueness has its disadvantages. In the past few decades, the Supreme Court has undertaken a near-complete dismantling of tribal civil jurisdiction over nonmembers. Under current law, tribes have virtually no authority to permit …

Understanding The Obstacles To The Recognition And Enforcement Of U.S. Judgments Abroad, Samuel P. Baumgartner

Samuel P. Baumgartner

Questions of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments have entered center stage. Recent empirical work suggests that there has been a marked increase in the frequency with which U.S. courts are asked to recognize and enforce foreign judgments. The U.S. litigation surrounding a multibillion-dollar Ecuadoran judgment against Chevron indicates that the stakes in some of these cases can be high indeed. This rising importance of questions of judgments recognition has not been lost on lawmakers. In November of 2011, the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee held hearings on whether to …

Super-Intermediaries, Code, Human Rights, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

We live in an age of intermediated network communications. Although the internet includes many intermediaries, some stand heads and shoulders above the rest. This article examines some of the responsibilities of “Super-Intermediaries” such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, intermediaries that have tremendous power over their users’ human rights. After considering the controversy arising from the incendiary YouTube video Innocence of Muslims, the article suggests that Super-Intermediaries face a difficult and likely impossible mission of fully servicing the broad tapestry of human rights contained in the International Bill of Human Rights. The article further considers how intermediary content-control procedures focus too …

No Glue Stocked On Aisle 23: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. V. Dukes Deals A Death Blow To Title Vii Class Actions, Matthew Costello

Matthew Costello

After almost ten years, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes ended before it began. In a 5-4 decision (split among ideological lines), the U.S. Supreme Court decertified the Dukes class from the starting gate, ending the country’s largest employment discrimination class-action lawsuit against the country’s largest corporation. In the months following the Court's controversial decision, lawyers and academics have been scrambling to assess the impact of the case on procedural class action and substantive discrimination law. This Note posits that Dukes misapplied procedural class action law and seemingly overturned well-settled employment discrimination precedent. As a result, the Court’s imprudent decision will …

Changes In The European Union's Regime Of Recognizing And Enforcing Judgments And Transnational Litigation In The United States, Samuel P. Baumgartner

Samuel P. Baumgartner

The European Commission has proposed to amend (recast) the Brussels I Regulation, which governs jurisdiction to adjudicate, parallel proceedings, and judgments recognition within the European Union. Although much of the Brussels I Regulation is simply the 1968 Brussels Convention cast into European Union legislation, the proposed amendments are part of a deeper set of structural and conceptual changes in the law of transnational litigation within the Union over the past couple of decades. Understanding these changes is essential to understanding what drives the proposed amendments and what is likely to follow.

In this paper – presented at the symposium Our …

Navigating The Uncharted Waters Of Teaching Law With Online Simulations, Ira Steven Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

The Internet is more than a place where the Millennial Generation communicates, plays, and shops. It is also a medium that raises issues central to nearly every existing field of legal doctrine, whether basic (such as Torts, Property, or Contracts) or advanced (such as Intellectual Property, Criminal Procedure, or Securities Regulation). This creates tremendous opportunities for legal educators interested in using the live Internet for experiential education. This Article examines how live websites can be used to create engaging and holistic simulations that tie together doctrine, theory, skills, and values in ways impossible to achieve with the case method. In …

Best Practices For The Law Of The Horse: Teaching Cyberlaw And Illuminating Law Through Online Simulations, Ira Steven Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

In an influential 1996 article entitled "Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse," Judge Frank Easterbrook mocked cyberlaw as a subject lacking in cohesion and therefore unworthy of inclusion in the law school curriculum. Responses to Easterbrook, most notably that of Lawrence Lessig in his 1999 article "The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach," have taken a theoretical approach. However, this Article—also appropriating the “Law of the Horse” moniker—concludes that Easterbrook’s challenge is primarily pedagogical, requiring a response keyed to whether cyberlaw ought to be taught in law schools. The Article concludes that despite Easterbrook’s concerns, cyberlaw presents …

The Equity Of The M/S Bremen And Its Extraordinary Influence, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

It is rare that an admiralty case will be widely influential in other fields of law. Such a one was the case of The Bremen. The Supreme Court unanimously renounced the past hostility to forum selection clauses and held them enforceable in Equity by way of admiralty, a precedent soon widely copied as a reform in common law. Note: The intention to publish a larger article on this subject has been abandoned.

Teaching Law With Online Role-Playing Simulations, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

This document contains materials prepared for the summer 2011 conference of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning held at New York Law School. The concise materials include: a listing of useful online tools; documentation for a miniature simulation; suggested components of an "associate" case file; methodology for formative and summative evaluation; and a sample scoresheet incorporating all ten MacCrate skills. A summary of the presentation is provided below: Live websites provide a dynamic “sandbox” for role-playing simulations that cast students as “lawyers” acting for fictional clients. Such simulations, initially crafted for a Cyberlaw class, can also be used in …

Beyond Common Sense: A Social Psychological Study Of Iqbal's Effect On Claims Of Race Discrimination, Victor D. Quintanilla

Victor D. Quintanilla

This article examines the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009) from a social psychological perspective, and empirically studies Iqbal’s effect on claims of race discrimination.

In Twombly and then Iqbal, the Court recast Rule 8 from a notice-based rule into a plausibility standard. Under Iqbal, federal judges must evaluate whether each complaint contains sufficient factual matter “to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” When doing so, Iqbal requires judges to draw on their “judicial experience and common sense.” Courts apply Iqbal at the pleading stage, before evidence has been …

(Mis)Judging Intent: The Fundamental Attribution Error In Federal Securities Law, Victor D. Quintanilla

Victor D. Quintanilla

This article examines the element of scienter (fraudulent intent) in claims of federal securities fraud under Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and, more specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd., 551 U.S. 308 (2007) from a social-psychological perspective. The field of social psychology has documented a pervasive phenomena—the Fundamental Attribution Error—the failure of decision-makers to consider situational explanations, including the force of environments and social and situational norms on human conduct. In light of robust social-psychological research on the Fundamental Attribution Error, legal concepts such as intent, intentionality, mens rea, and …

Some Questions About Interpretation, Ecto-Ambiguity, Tradition, And Conflicts Of Law And Fact, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

Questions raised by the interpretation of a conrtract clause with the aid of the following devices: Recognizing a more restrictive "traditional" understanding; Finding contract ambiguity between actual wording and traditional understanding; Resolving its intent by the canon contra proferentem; Accepting the finding of intent as controlling foreign state law

Exceptional Circumstances: Texas Mandamus Moves Into A Bleak House, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure Reform In Switzerland And The Role Of Legal Transplants, Samuel P. Baumgartner

Samuel P. Baumgartner

On January 1, 2011, Swiss courts will begin operating under a unified federal code of civil procedure for the first time in the country’s history. This code has been exceedingly long in the making. In this chapter, I use the new code and its history to engage the editors’ claim that the old categories of common law and civil law procedure are crumbling, thus making differences among countries within the common law or civil law world more important than differences across the divide.

First, the new Swiss code of civil procedure includes a number of features that may look like …

Civil Procedures For A World Of Shared And User-Generated Content, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

Scholars often focus on the substance of copyrights as opposed to the procedures used to enforce them. Yet copyright enforcement procedures are at the root of significant overreach and deserve greater attention in academic literature. This Article explores three types of private enforcement procedures: direct enforcement (cease-and-desist practice); indirect enforcement (DMCA takedowns); and automated enforcement (YouTube’s Content ID filtering program). Such procedures can produce a “substance-procedure-substance” feedback loop that causes significant de facto overextensions of copyrights, particularly against those creating and sharing User-Generated Content (UGC). To avoid this feedback, the Article proposes descriptive and normative frameworks aimed towards the creation …

Texas Civil Procedure—The Texas Supreme Court Expands Mandamus Review For Rulings On Motions For New Trial, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

No abstract provided.

Pearson, Iqbal, And Procedural Judicial Activism, Goutam U. Jois

Goutam U Jois

In its most recent term, the Supreme Court decided Pearson v. Callahan and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, two cases that, even at this early date, can safely be called “game-changers.” What is fairly well known is that Iqbal and Pearson, on their own terms, will hurt civil rights plaintiffs. A point that has not been explored is how the interaction between Iqbal and Pearson will also hurt civil rights plaintiffs. First, the cases threaten to catch plaintiffs on the horns of a dilemma: Iqbal says, in effect, that greater detail is required to get allegations past the motion to dismiss stage. …

Restoring Equal Justice: Towards General Progressive Fee Shifting, Issachar Rosen-Zvi

Issachar Rosen-Zvi

Equal justice in present-day America is a myth. Millions are essentially blocked from accessing the civil justice system. The central factor in this predicament is the fees charged by attorneys, whose prohibitive rates prevent more and more Americans from asserting their legal rights. In order to ensure equal justice, it is, therefore, essential that measures be devised to counteract the effect of attorney fees on access to civil justice for low- and average-income individuals, to enable them to engage in litigation on equal terms with the more well-to-do. While the civil justice system offers a variety of mechanisms designed to …

Remedies For Wrong Preliminary Injunctions: The Case For Disgorgement Of Profits, Ofer Grosskopf

Ofer Grosskopf

The remedy available for those enjoined by a wrong preliminary injunction affects both the incentives of litigants to apply for preliminary injunctions and the scope of the irreparable social harms inflicted when a preliminary injunction is issued. This Article demonstrates that efficiency-based considerations yield the idea that the moving-party should be required to compensate the defendant for only part of the harms inflicted due to the wrong preliminary injunction. Moreover, these considerations support the use of the remedy of restitution, which requires the moving-party to disgorge the benefits obtained at the expense of the defendant by the wrong preliminary injunction. …

Looking For Fair Use In The Dmca's Safety Dance, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

Like a ballet, the notice-and-take-down provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") provide complex procedures to obtain take-downs of online infringement. Copyright owners send notices of infringement to service providers, who in turn remove claimed infringement in exchange for a statutory safe harbor from copyright liability. But like a dance meant for two, the DMCA is less effective in protecting the "third wheel," the users of internet services. Even Senator John McCain - who in 1998 voted for the DMCA - wrote in exasperation to YouTube after some of his presidential campaign videos were removed due to take-downs. McCain …