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Full-Text Articles in Law
The New American Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
The New American Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
The European Union sparked an intercontinental furor last year with proposed legislation to supersede the 1995 Data Protection Directive (DPD). The EU Parliament approved legislation in a 49-3 committee vote in October. The text, which is not yet published in its current draft at the time of this writing, may yet be amended before being accepted by the union’s 28 member states. The legislation is billed a money saver because it would harmonize EU member states’ data protection laws, which have diverged under the DPD umbrella. The business community is not convinced, fearful that costly new demands will strain balance …
In Tort Pursuit Of Mass Media: Big Tobacco, Big Banks, And Their Big Secrets, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Eric J. Booth
In Tort Pursuit Of Mass Media: Big Tobacco, Big Banks, And Their Big Secrets, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Eric J. Booth
Faculty Publications
This article examines potential civil liability under the multistate norms of tort and closely related areas in the common law of the United States for the mass media re-publisher of leaked corporate secrets. The examination employs two fact patterns derived from real cases: one, contemporary, an international bank's grievance, never resolved on the merits in court, against the online publisher WikiLeaks; and second, conventional, a tobacco manufacturer's grievance, feared but never filed, against the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes. The study assumes jurisdiction arguendo and examines liability theories in tortious interference; unfair-competition law; and conversion, trade-secret appropriation, and related theories of …
The New American Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
The New American Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
Conventional wisdom paints U.S. and European approaches to privacy at irreconcilable odds. But that portrayal overlooks a more nuanced reality of privacy in American law. The free speech imperative of U.S. constitutional law since the civil rights movement shows signs of tarnish. And in areas of law that have escaped constitutionalization, such as fair-use copyright and the freedom of information, developing personality norms resemble European-style balancing. Recent academic and political initiatives on privacy in the United States emphasize subject control and contextual analysis, reflecting popular thinking not so different after all from that which animates Europe’s 1995 directive and 2012 …
Guest View: In Defense Of Student Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Guest View: In Defense Of Student Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
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.
Teaching Access, Or Freedom Of Information Law, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Teaching Access, Or Freedom Of Information Law, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
Based on the author's experience developing and administering the course and materials, this article provides an introduction and resources to teach a graduate journalism or professional law school course on access to government, commonly called "freedom of information law", which may be constructed as a capstone course in law school. The appendices provide supporting material and references.
U.S. Business: Tort Liability For The Transnational Republisher Of Leaked Corporate Secrets, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
U.S. Business: Tort Liability For The Transnational Republisher Of Leaked Corporate Secrets, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
Wikileaks, the web enterprise responsible for the unprecedented publication of hundreds of thousands of classified government records, is reshaping fundamental notions of the freedom of information. Meanwhile more than half of records held by Wikileaks are from the private sector, and the organization has promised blockbuster revelations about major commercial players such as big banks and oil companies. This paper examines the potential liability under U.S. business-tort law for Wikileaks as a transnational republisher of leaked corporate secrets. The paper examines the paradigm for criminal liability under the Espionage Act to imagine a construct of civil liability for tortious interference …
Arkansas's Public Records Retention Program: Records Retention As A Cornerstone Of Citizenship And Self-Government, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Arkansas's Public Records Retention Program: Records Retention As A Cornerstone Of Citizenship And Self-Government, Richard J. Peltz-Steele
Faculty Publications
This article first provides background, charting the scope of record retention in relation to the freedom of information, then outlining record retention through its history and development in the federal government, through its general principles and modes of practice, through a sketch of the problems that have arisen specially in the electronic era, and through an overview of its development at the state level. The article then describes the recent history of record retention law in Arkansas, up to and including the initiative enacted by the General Assembly in 2005, and the process and product of a state working group …
The Arkansas Proposal On Access To Court Records: Upgrading The Common Law With Electronic Freedom Of Information Norms, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Joi L. Leonard, Amanda J. Andrews
The Arkansas Proposal On Access To Court Records: Upgrading The Common Law With Electronic Freedom Of Information Norms, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Joi L. Leonard, Amanda J. Andrews
Faculty Publications
The law and practice of court record access across United States jurisdictions is in a confused state. Public access to records in the hands of government, including court records, is a desirable norm of public policy; on this point, there is universal agreement. But there is disagreement on questions as fundamental as whether public access to court records is founded in constitutional law, or only in common law; and the extent to which court record access is the province of the courts or the legislature. And most importantly, there is widely divergent disagreement about what circumstances warrant restriction on public …