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Articles 1 - 30 of 40
Full-Text Articles in Law
Left With No Name: How Government Action In Intra-Church Trademark Disputes Violates The Free Exercise Clause Of The First Amendment, Mary Kate Nicholson
Left With No Name: How Government Action In Intra-Church Trademark Disputes Violates The Free Exercise Clause Of The First Amendment, Mary Kate Nicholson
Washington and Lee Law Review
The United States was founded in part on the principle of freedom of religion, where citizens were free to practice any religion. The founding fathers felt so strongly about this principle that it was incorporated into the First Amendment. The Free Exercise Clause states that “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” The Supreme Court later adopted the neutral principles approach to avoid Free Exercise violations resulting from courts deciding real property disputes. Without the application of the same neutral principles to intellectual property disputes between churches, however, there is …
Social Activism Through Shareholder Activism, Lisa M. Fairfax
Social Activism Through Shareholder Activism, Lisa M. Fairfax
Washington and Lee Law Review
This article is based on the author's keynote address at the 2018-2019 Lara D. Gass Annual Symposium: Civil Rights and Shareholder Activism at Washington and Lee University School of Law, February 15, 2019.
In 1952, the SEC altered the shareholder proposal rule to exclude proposals made “primarily for the purpose of promoting general economic, political, racial, religious, social or similar causes.” The SEC did not reference civil rights activist James Peck or otherwise acknowledge that its actions were prompted by Peck’s 1951 shareholder proposal to Greyhound for desegregating seating. Instead, the SEC indicated that its change simply reflected a codification …
Chancery’S Greatest Decision: Historical Insights On Civil Rights And The Future Of Shareholder Activism, Omari Scott Simmons
Chancery’S Greatest Decision: Historical Insights On Civil Rights And The Future Of Shareholder Activism, Omari Scott Simmons
Washington and Lee Law Review
This article builds upon the author's remarks at the 2018-2019 Lara D. Gass Annual Symposium: Civil Rights and Shareholder Activism at Washington and Lee University School of Law, February 15, 2019.
Shareholder activism—using an equity stake in a corporation to influence management—has become a popular tool to effectuate social change in the twenty-first century. Increasingly, activists are looking beyond financial performance to demand better corporate performance in such areas as economic inequality, civil rights, human rights, discrimination, and diversity. These efforts take many forms: publicity campaigns, litigation, proxy battles, shareholder resolutions, and negotiations with corporate management. However, a consensus on …
From Public Policy To Materiality: Non-Financial Reporting, Shareholder Engagement, And Rule 14a-8’S Ordinary Business Exception, Virginia Harper Ho
From Public Policy To Materiality: Non-Financial Reporting, Shareholder Engagement, And Rule 14a-8’S Ordinary Business Exception, Virginia Harper Ho
Washington and Lee Law Review
This article builds upon the author's remarks at the 2018-2019 Lara D. Gass Annual Symposium: Civil Rights and Shareholder Activism at Washington and Lee University School of Law, February 15, 2019.
In 2017, shareholder proposals urging corporate boards to report on their climate-related risk made headlines when they earned majority support from investors at ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, and PPL. The key to this historic vote was the support of Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard, which broke with management and cast their votes behind the proposals. The 2018 proxy season saw several more climate-related proposals earn majority support, and in 2018 …
Reaching Through The “Ghost Doxer:” An Argument For Imposing Secondary Liability On Online Intermediaries, Natalia Homchick
Reaching Through The “Ghost Doxer:” An Argument For Imposing Secondary Liability On Online Intermediaries, Natalia Homchick
Washington and Lee Law Review
Imagine you have decided to run for office, to speak out publicly against an injustice, to enter the job market, or even to join a new online forum. Now, imagine after starting your chosen endeavor, you go online to discover that someone who disagrees with your position posted your personal information on the internet and called for others to harass you. To make matters worse, you realize that you cannot determine who posted your personal data. You have been doxed. Because you cannot identify the person who posted your information, where can you turn for recourse? The next logical party …
Civil Rights And Shareholder Activism: Sec V. Medical Committee For Human Rights, Sarah C. Haan
Civil Rights And Shareholder Activism: Sec V. Medical Committee For Human Rights, Sarah C. Haan
Washington and Lee Law Review
This article builds upon the author's remarks at the 2018-2019 Lara D. Gass Annual Symposium: Civil Rights and Shareholder Activism at Washington and Lee University School of Law, February 15, 2019.
What does “corporate democracy” mean? How far does federal law go to guarantee public company investors a say in a firm’s policies on important social, environmental, or political issues? In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared ready to start sketching the contours of corporate democracy—and then, at the last minute, it pulled back. This Article tells the story of Securities and Exchange Commission v. Medical Committee for Human Rights …
Adopting Civil Damages: Wrongful Family Separation In Adoption, Malinda L. Seymore
Adopting Civil Damages: Wrongful Family Separation In Adoption, Malinda L. Seymore
Washington and Lee Law Review
The Trump Administration’s new immigration policy of family separation at the U.S./Mexico border rocked the summer of 2018. Yet family separation is the prerequisite to every legal adoption. The circumstances are different, of course. In legal adoption, the biological parents are provided with all the constitutional protections required in involuntary termination of parental rights, or they have voluntarily consented to family separation. But what happens when that family separation is wrongful, when the birth mother’s consent is not voluntary, or when the birth father’s wishes to parent are ignored? In theory, the child can be returned to the birth parents …
Categorical Confusion In Personal Jurisdiction Law, Todd Peterson
Categorical Confusion In Personal Jurisdiction Law, Todd Peterson
Washington and Lee Law Review
In Part I, the Article discusses the history of the U.S. Supreme Court’s substantive due process limitations on personal jurisdiction and, in particular, the standards for corporate-activities-based jurisdiction before the Court’s recent cases on that issue. Part II discusses the Court’s failure to provide a convincing theoretical justification for imposing substantive due process limitations on personal jurisdiction. It also discusses the consequences of that failure in three doctrinal areas of personal jurisdiction law, the traditional basis of service on an individual in the forum state, specific jurisdiction and corporate-activities-based jurisdiction. Part III then analyzes in detail the four recent Supreme …
The Future Of Physicians’ First Amendment Freedom: Professional Speech In An Era Of Radically Expanded Prenatal Genetic Testing, Wynter K. Miller, Benjamin E. Berkman
The Future Of Physicians’ First Amendment Freedom: Professional Speech In An Era Of Radically Expanded Prenatal Genetic Testing, Wynter K. Miller, Benjamin E. Berkman
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Article explores the First Amendment questions prenatal whole genome sequencing (PWGS) is likely to raise. It argues that most of the foreseeable options for state intervention in conversations between physicians and prospective parents about genetic sequencing should trigger at least heightened scrutiny. Part I provides an overview of the most recent advances in genetic testing. It assesses the ongoing impact of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for providers and patients and charts the course from NIPT to PWGS. Part II establishes a foundational background for evaluating First Amendment claims. Part II.A describes the development of First Amendment jurisprudence, focusing on …
Masterpiece Of Misdirection?, Mark Strasser
Masterpiece Of Misdirection?, Mark Strasser
Washington and Lee Law Review
In Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the United States Supreme Court overruled a finding that a religious baker had violated a state antidiscrimination law when refusing to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The decision might seem to have been a masterful resolution of an extremely difficult case because the Court issued a narrow opinion that seemed to affirm free exercise rights while at the same time affirming the right of same-sex couples to marry. Yet, the opinion, along with the accompanying concurrences and dissent, may well destabilize various settled areas of constitutional law …
A Commercial Law For Software Contracting, Michael L. Rustad, Elif Kavusturan
A Commercial Law For Software Contracting, Michael L. Rustad, Elif Kavusturan
Washington and Lee Law Review
Since the 1980s, software is at the core of most modern organizations, most products and most services. Part II of this Article examines how the U.C.C. evolved as the primary source of law for the first generation of computer contracts during the mainframe computer era. Part III examines how courts have overextended U.C.C. Article 2, as the main source of law for software licensing, to the limits. Part IV argues that the ALI and the NCCUSL should propose a new Article 2B for software licensing. Part V recommends a new Article 2C for “software as a service.”
This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms
This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is Mined Land: Expanding Governmental Ownership Liability Under Cercla, Kiersten E. Holms
Washington and Lee Law Review
Part II of this Note begins by providing a brief overview of the background and goals of CERCLA. Part II also provides an examination of the issue of ownership liability under CERCLA and recounts the federal courts’ difficulty in applying ownership liability. Part II then describes how the federal government’s “bare legal title” argument arose out of the confusion surrounding ownership liability in CERCLA litigation. Part III moves on to examine the recent trend in CERCLA litigation rejecting the federal government’s bare legal title argument, thus holding the federal government liable as an owner based on its possession of legal …
Text Messages Are Property: Why You Don’T Own Your Text Messages, But It’D Be A Lot Cooler If You Did, Spence M. Howden
Text Messages Are Property: Why You Don’T Own Your Text Messages, But It’D Be A Lot Cooler If You Did, Spence M. Howden
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Note proceeds as follows: Part II offers a brief overview of what text messages are and what they are not. Part III covers the history of intangible personal property law and reviews the evolution of “cybertrespass” claims. Part IV explores the judiciary and the Fourth Amendment’s failure to protect text messages. Finally, Part V evaluates whether text messages constitute property and the practical implications of this finding.
In Search Of A Unified Theory Of The Duties Flowing From Property Ownership In Virginia: A Response To Mcelhaney’S If A Tree Falls, E. Kyle Mcnew
In Search Of A Unified Theory Of The Duties Flowing From Property Ownership In Virginia: A Response To Mcelhaney’S If A Tree Falls, E. Kyle Mcnew
Washington and Lee Law Review
In his Note, Ian McElhaney concludes that the Court got it right in Cline v. Dunlora South, LLC—that the landowner owes no duty to protect travelers on adjoining roadways from natural conditions on the landowner’s property—because the Court also got it right in Cline v. Commonwealth when it held that the Commonwealth of Virginia may have that duty instead. In the narrowest view, that is certainly a defensible position. If the case is just about natural conditions and roads, then there is intuitive appeal in saying that they are the Commonwealth’s roads; so, it is the Commonwealth’s job to make …
Probate Funding And The Litigation Funding Debate, Jeremy Kidd
Probate Funding And The Litigation Funding Debate, Jeremy Kidd
Washington and Lee Law Review
Third-party funding of legal claims is becoming more common, and increasingly more controversial. Whether in the legislative arena or in the courts, the fight over whether and how independent parties might provide funding to litigants has become heated. The fight now threatens to spill over into the probate realm, where funders have begun purchasing probate rights from putative heirs. These probate funding transactions share many characteristics with broader litigation funding but also differ in important respects. The meager existing literature tends to address the issue in a pre-biased and methodologically unsound way, making it impossible to properly assess the nature …
Christian Legislative Prayers And Christian Nationalism, Caroline Mala Corbin
Christian Legislative Prayers And Christian Nationalism, Caroline Mala Corbin
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Response to Mary Nobles Hancock's Note explains Christian nationalism, and argues that government sponsored Christian prayers reflect and exacerbate Christian nationalism. It further contends that to help curb Christian nationalism and its ill effects, legislative prayers ought to cease entirely. Such a result is most in keeping with the Establishment Clause goal of avoiding a caste system based on religious belief.
If A Tree Falls In A Roadway, Is Anyone Liable?: Proposing The Duty Of Reasonable Care For Virginia’S Road-Maintaining Entities, Ian J. Mcelhaney
If A Tree Falls In A Roadway, Is Anyone Liable?: Proposing The Duty Of Reasonable Care For Virginia’S Road-Maintaining Entities, Ian J. Mcelhaney
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Note considers whether a duty for road-maintaining entities is tenable under Virginia law. It also explores the rationale for imposing differing liabilities between landowners and road-maintaining entities. Part III reviews the various duties other states use with respect to dangerous roadside trees and concludes that the duty of reasonable care is most appropriate for Virginia. Sovereign immunity is a companion issue and is addressed in Part IV. The Part provides a brief overview of the policy arguments for sovereign immunity, before reviewing immunity’s impact at the state, county, and municipal levels. The Part also addresses a government employee’s entitlement …
God Save The United States And This Honorable County Board Of Commissioners: Lund, Bormuth, And The Fight Over Legislative Prayer, Mary Nobles Hancock
God Save The United States And This Honorable County Board Of Commissioners: Lund, Bormuth, And The Fight Over Legislative Prayer, Mary Nobles Hancock
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Note addresses whether, and to what extent, the four factors proposed by the Fourth Circuit, and subsequently rejected by the Sixth Circuit, are an appropriate test of the constitutionality of a legislative prayer practice under United States Supreme Court jurisprudence. Part II explores the background of the Establishment Clause and legislative prayer. The Supreme Court has placed significant emphasis on the history of legislative prayer in evaluating modern prayer practices, as seen in its two cases Marsh v. Chambers and Town of Greece v. Galloway. Part III examines the first two circuit court decisions to consider challenges to local …
Individualized Sentencing, William W. Berry
Individualized Sentencing, William W. Berry
Washington and Lee Law Review
In Woodson v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court proscribed the use of mandatory death sentences. One year later, in Lockett v. Ohio, the Court expanded this principle to hold that defendants in capital cases were entitled to “individualized sentencing determinations.” The Court’s reasoning in both cases centered on the seriousness of the death penalty. Because the death penalty is “different” in its seriousness and irrevocability, the Court required the sentencing court, whether judge or jury, to assess the individualized characteristics of the offender and the offense before imposing a sentence. In 2012, the Court expanded this Eighth Amendment concept …
Patents As Credentials, Jason Rantanen, Sarah E. Jack
Patents As Credentials, Jason Rantanen, Sarah E. Jack
Washington and Lee Law Review
The conventional explanation for why people seek patents draws on a simple economic rationale. Patents, the usual story goes, provide a financial reward: the ability to engage in supracompetitive pricing by excluding others from practicing the claimed technology. People are drawn to file for patents because that is how these economic rewards are secured. While scholars have proposed variations on the basic exclusionary mechanism, and there is a general acknowledgement that patents can affect a firm’s reputation, the actual mechanisms of patents’ effect on individuals — human beings — remains relatively uncharted. In this Article we offer a concrete theory …
Innovation Agents, Mirit Eyal-Cohen
Innovation Agents, Mirit Eyal-Cohen
Washington and Lee Law Review
The standard narrative of entrepreneurship is one of self-employed creative individuals working out of their garage or independently owned start-up companies. Intrapreneurship— where employees are responsible for being alert to new opportunities inside firms—is another model for developing innovations. Relatively little is known, however, about the latter process through which large, complex firms engage in groundbreaking corporate entrepreneurship.
This Article’s focus is on these types of innovation agents. It provides a thorough account of the positive and negative spillovers of intrapreneurial firms while making the following key points: First, intrapreneurial companies utilize their economies of scale, scope, and age to …
Collaboration Theory And Corporate Tax Avoidance, Eric C. Chaffee
Collaboration Theory And Corporate Tax Avoidance, Eric C. Chaffee
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Article argues that aggressive corporate tax avoidance is legally impermissible based upon the essential nature of the corporate form. The history of the debate over the essential nature of the corporation is substantial. This debate has been reinvigorated by the Supreme Court’s recent opinions, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which explore the scope of corporate rights.
Address By Professor David B. Wilkins, Washington And Lee University School Of Law Commencement Exercises, May 5, 2018, David B. Wilkins, Brant J. Hellwig
Address By Professor David B. Wilkins, Washington And Lee University School Of Law Commencement Exercises, May 5, 2018, David B. Wilkins, Brant J. Hellwig
Washington and Lee Law Review
Professor David B. Wilkins of Harvard Law School delivered an invited address to the Washington and Lee Law Class of 2018 at their commencement ceremony. Following the conclusion of the ceremony, Dean Brant Hellwig secured Professor Wilkins' gracious permission to publish the address in the Washington and Lee Law Review, and provides a written introduction to Professor Wilkins' speech here.
Professor Wilkins undertook considerable research in crafting a commencement address that incorporated several prominent figures from the history W&L Law and the University. His speech highlighted not only the contributions of George Washington and Robert E. Lee, for whom …
Inappropriate For Establishment Clause Scrutiny: Reflections On Mary Nobles Hancock’S, God Save The United States And This Honorable County Board Of Commissioners: Lund, Bormuth, And The Fight Over Legislative Prayer, Samuel W. Calhoun
Washington and Lee Law Review
This Response to Mary Nobles Hancock’s Note, after noting the complexity of the issues she presents, briefly comments on Ms. Hancock’s analysis, which focuses on how current Supreme Court doctrine should be applied to legislative prayer. Part III ranges more broadly. The author's basic position is that the Supreme Court has long misconstrued the Establishment Clause. This misinterpretation in turn has led the Court mistakenly to interpose itself into the realm of legislative prayer, an incursion the Founders never intended.