Law Commons^™

Brokered Abuse, Thomas E. Kadri

Scholarly Works

Data brokers are abuse enablers. These companies, which traffic information about people for profit, facilitate interpersonal abuse by making it easier to find and contact people. By thwarting people’s obscurity, brokers expose them to physical, psychological, financial, and reputational harm. To date, there have been four common legal responses to this situation: prohibiting abusive acts, mandating broker transparency, limiting data collection, and restricting data disclosure. Though these measures each have some merit, none is adequate, and several recent privacy laws have even made matters worse. Put simply, the current legal landscape is neither effective nor empathetic.

This Essay explores the …

International Tax Reform: Who Gets A Seat At The Table?, Assaf Harpaz

Scholarly Works

The international tax framework relies on early-twentieth-century principles and favors the interests of the Global North, which created it. It bases taxing rights on a corporation’s physical presence and mostly allocates profits to the country of residence. Moreover, it has been slow to adapt to modern business practices. In the digital economy, companies shift profits with relative ease and often do not require a physical presence in the location of their consumers. International taxation needs reform, but leading proposals do not reflect meaningful input from the Global South and are unlikely to serve the needs of developing countries.

In 2021, …

Which Transportation Technologies Do We Want?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

A review of Todd Litman's book, New Mobilities- Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies

Requiring What’S Not Required: Circuit Courts Are Disregarding Supreme Court Precedent And Revisiting Officer Inadvertence In Cyberlaw Cases, Michelle Zakarin

Scholarly Works

As the age of technology has taken this country by surprise and left us with an inability to formally prepare our legal system to incorporate these advances, many courts are forced to adapt by applying pre-technology rules to new technological scenarios. One illustration is the plain view exception to the Fourth Amendment. Recently, the issue of officer inadvertence at the time of the search, a rule that the United States Supreme Court has specifically stated is not required in plain view inquiries, has been revisited in cyber law cases. It could be said that the courts interested in the existence …

Platforms As Blackacres, Thomas E. Kadri

Scholarly Works

While writing this Article, I interviewed a journalist who writes stories about harmful technologies. To do this work, he gathers information from websites to reveal trends that online platforms would prefer to hide. His team has exposed how Facebook threatens people’s privacy and safety, how Amazon hides cheaper deals from consumers, and how Google diverts political speech from our inboxes. You’d think the journalist might want credit for telling these important stories, but he instead insisted on anonymity when we talked because his lawyer was worried he’d be confessing to breaking the law—to committing the crime and tort of cyber-trespass. …

Taxation Of The Digital Economy: Adapting A Twentieth-Century Tax System To A Twenty-First-Century Economy, Assaf Harpaz

Scholarly Works

This Article analyzes the tax challenges of digitalization and the potential solutions to address them. This Article argues in favor of a multilateral approach and proposes applying a new tax nexus based on market thresholds subject to a global de minimis amount. As more companies conduct business online, current international tax law and its principles have failed to adapt to global commercial practices. Digital-tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have been able to exploit the international tax framework by avoiding a physical presence in the jurisdiction of their consumers. As a result, profits of highly digitalized enterprises can …

Of Wigs, Wickets, And Moonshine: Leadership Development Lessons From An International Collaboration, Douglas A. Blaze

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Networks Of Empathy, Thomas E. Kadri

Scholarly Works

Digital abuse is on the rise. People increasingly use technology to perpetrate and exacerbate abusive conduct like stalking and harassment, manipulating digital tools to control and harm their victims. By some accounts, 95% of domestic-abuse cases involve technology, while a sizeable chunk of the U.S. population now admits to having suffered or perpetrated serious abuse online. To make matters worse, people often trivialize digital abuse or underestimate its prevalence. Even among those who do appreciate its severity, there remains ample disagreement about how to address it.

Although law can be a powerful tool to regulate digital abuse, legal responses are …

Coding For Cultural Competency: Expanding Access To Justice With Technology, Sherley Cruz

Scholarly Works

Innovations in legal technology are revolutionizing access to justice for individuals who previously had little or no ability to obtain legal assistance. This Article explores how the lack of culturally competent designs within legal technology negatively impacts diverse communities, thereby hindering the ability to expand access to justice. An examination of the underlying theories of access to justice and cultural competency illustrates why it is necessary for legal professionals and technology designers to incorporate culturally competent designs when developing legal technology. In light of ongoing changes in United States’ demographics, and the heightened need to provide access to justice given …

Experiencing Experiential Education: A Faculty-Student Perspective On The University Of Tennessee College Of Law's Adventure In Access To Justice Author, Robert C. Blitt

Scholarly Works

This article functions both as a brief history lesson in experiential education and as a case study of an experiential course entitled “Human Rights Practicum” offered at the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2015. After briefly discussing historical and current trends in law school reform, including the rise of experiential education within the law school curriculum and the role played by technology in this context, the article turns to explore the impetus for the Human Rights Practicum, its development and implementation, as well as the software technology used to develop its final work product, a web-based “guided interview” …

University Technology Transfer - Profit Centers Or Black Holes: Moving Toward A More Productive University Innovation Ecosystem Policy, Brian Krumm

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing: Students, Scholars, And Sources In The Law Library, Jeanne Price

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Indie Lawyer Of The Future: How New Technology, Cultural Trends, And Market Forces Can Transform The Solo Practice Of Law, Lucille Jewel

Scholarly Works

This article is about individual lawyers innovating in the practice of law. New technology, cultural trends, and market forces have the potential to awaken latent markets for one-to-one legal services grounded in the sharing economy, the commons, DIY businesses, and other similar endeavors. These forces might reshape the solo practice of law, which in turn might induce structural change in the legal system itself. Despite the mass commoditization of many law products, there is a potentially new market for craft-oriented lawyers who directly connect with clients.

When we connect the sharing economy and the cultural values that support it with …

Technology's Triple Threat To The Attorney-Client Privilege, Paula Schaefer

Scholarly Works

Three issues – volume of recorded communications, ease of dissemination, and lack of knowledge – are today’s primary technology-related threats to the attorney-client privilege. Generally speaking, attorney-client communications must be kept confidential to retain their privileged status. In the information age, the volume of recorded attorney-client communications and ease of their dissemination makes it more difficult than ever to protect against disclosure. Whether that disclosure is intentional or inadvertent, it can result in privilege waiver.

While some perceive that a gap in attorney knowledge about technology is a major threat to the privilege, that does not appear to be the …

Practically Grounded: Convergence Of Land Use Law Pedagogy And Best Practices, Patricia E. Salkin, John R. Nolan

Scholarly Works

The changing dynamics in the field of land use and sustainable community development law demand that land use law professors rethink the way in which we prepare law students to practice law in this area. This needed paradigm shift converges with the growing momentum of the best practices movement which urges law schools to dramatically revise the curricular approach to legal education, arguing that traditional models are no longer effectively serving the goal of producing competent and fully prepared new lawyers. A perfect storm is present and a unique opportunity exists through the application of many “best practices” concepts for …

Social Networking And Land Use Planning And Regulation: Practical Benefits, Pitfalls And Ethical Considerations, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This article explores how social networking sites have been used or might be used in the land use context. Part I focuses on the use of social networking for land use planning and zoning. It includes a discussion of the pros and cons of the use of social networking sites to present public information and to gather public input and invite general participation in the process, as well as to provide notice to the public of forthcoming government decision-making. This section offers concrete examples of how this technology is currently being used in the land use context. Part II focuses …

From Bricks And Mortar To Mega-Bytes And Mega-Pixels: The Changing Landscape Of The Impact Of Technology And Innovation On Urban Development, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This article reflects upon the impact that technology and innovation has had on urban development. From NASA's Landstat program, to Google maps and GPS, technology has had a significant impact on urban planning and land use law. The article begins with a discussion of the impact of the elevator and steel technologies on urban architecture and density, and then moves to changes in transportation such as the automobile and the development of public transportation systems. Green buildings, GIS, satellite data, online mapping, personal computers, the Internet and cell phones are all examined.

The Future Of Inadvertent Disclosure: The Lingering Need To Revise Professional Conduct Rules, Paula Schaefer

Scholarly Works

In recent years, the American Bar Association and state bars have deferred to lawmakers to create a legal solution to the problems associated with inadvertent disclosure. When Federal Rule of Evidence 502 was enacted in September 2008, lawmakers and commentators praised the new rule as a remedy to costly pre-production privilege review and as an answer to the uncertainties of waiver law.

This article examines the numerous inadvertent disclosure issues that remain unanswered for litigators and transactional attorneys, and considers the new problems created by Federal Rule of Evidence 502. In 2009, transactional attorneys have no practical means to obtain …

Small Is The New Biglaw: Some Thoughts On Technology, Economics, And The Practice Of Law, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

This paper looks at technological and economic changes affecting lawyers, and their effect on the competitiveness of large law firms. It explores methods of unbundling big law firm features, and providing similar services on a more ad hoc basis. In addition, it considers whether current legal education is properly preparing students for a world in which large law firms will be much less dominant. Based on a talk given at Hofstra Law School in March of 2009.

Caught In (Or On) The Web: A Review Of Course Management Systems For Legal Education, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

Like other teaching innovations, course management software has been somewhat slow to take hold in legal education. Yet, as law teachers, we cannot deny that our current students are children of a technological age that centers on electronic communication. Although there is a lack of empirical evidence strongly supporting the pedagogic case for the use of technology in law teaching, some of us in the law academy have ventured forth with the use of teaching technologies on the theory that the current demographics of the law student population demand our interaction with students on this basis.

Course management systems are …

Scientific Testing & Proof Of Paternity: Some Controversy And Key Issues For Family Law Counsel, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Blood and tissue testing, especially DNA matching, have become important elements of both criminal and paternity or maternity litigation. Such scientific testing has become so important that it has taken on aspects that may cause it to benefit or to do harm to the judicial process or to any given case. This article focuses on the value and the dangers surrounding this interesting subject.

The 1995 Louisiana Supreme Court decision in Pace v. State reemphasized the importance of DNA testing generally and the significance of blood and tissue genetic testing used to exclude paternity. The advances in and importance of …

The Transfer Of Technology To Latin America, Gabriel M. Wilner

Scholarly Works

The transfer of technology to Latin America has taken place through both the licensing process and direct investments by foreign enterprises that are often transnational corporations. National law has concerned itself first with the creation of rights in technological knowledge and the protection of these rights by law. The regulation of these rights as set out in contractual relationships and the regulation of direct investment, particularly the technological component thereof, were dealt with thereafter. Other matters such as the repatriation of profits (exchange control), customs controls, and various taxes have also become a part of the national regulatory scene today. …