Law Commons^™

Not Just For Products Liability: Applying The Economic Loss Rule Beyond Its Origins, Danielle Sawaya

Fordham Law Review

Most litigants, if given the chance, prefer to assert tort theories to recover their economic losses, rather than rely on the remedies provided under contract law. This is primarily because plaintiffs have the potential to recover more damages under tort law than contract law. However, most courts have adopted a doctrine known as the economic loss rule to bar plaintiffs from asserting certain tort theories to recover for their economic loss. Although the economic loss rule may seem like an easy way to maintain the boundary between tort law and contract law, confusion abounds when courts attempt to determine the …

Stay Tuned: Whether Cloud-Based Service Providers Can Have Their Copyrighted Cake And Eat It Too, Amanda Asaro

Fordham Law Review

Copyright owners have the exclusive right to perform their works publicly and the ability to license their work to others who want to share that right. Subsections 106(4) and (5) of the Copyright Act govern this exclusive public performance right, but neither subsection elaborates on what constitutes a performance made “to the public” versus one that remains private. This lack of clarity has made it difficult for courts to apply the Copyright Act consistently, especially in the face of changing technology.

Companies like Aereo, Inc. and AereoKiller, Inc. developed novel ways to transmit content over the internet to be viewed …

Chevron And Deference In State Administrative Law , Aaron J. Saiger

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

What 30 Years Of Chevron Teach Us About The Rest Of Statutory Interpretation , Abbe R. Gluck

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Search Of Skidmore, Peter L. Strauss

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is It Really All About Race?: Section 1985(3) Political Conspiracies In The Second Circuit And Beyond, Lee Pinzow

Fordham Law Review

The recent scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups highlights the need for a judicial remedy to politically motivated deprivations of legally recognized rights. Section 2 of the Ku Klux Klan Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), presents such a remedy.

However, it is unclear whether the statute applies to conspiracies motivated solely by political animus. The U.S. Supreme Court in Griffin v. Breckenridge and United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 610 v. Scott delved into the question but chose not to resolve the issue. Based on the Court’s discussion of the statute’s legislative history …

Centennial Dedication: A Brief History Of The Fordham Law Review, Editors

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Return Of Noncongruent Equal Protection, Brian Soucek

Fordham Law Review

Contemporary equal protection doctrine touts the principle of congruence: the notion that equal protection means the same thing whether applied to state or to federal laws. The federalism-tinged equal protection analysis at the heart of Justice Kennedy’s opinion in United States v. Windsor, however, necessarily violates the congruence principle. Commentators and courts—especially those deciding how Windsor’s federalism should affect the ever-growing number of state same-sex marriage cases—have so far failed to account for Windsor’s noncongruent equal protection, much less ask whether noncongruence is generally desirable, and if so, what form it should take.
This Article draws answers …

Contractualizing Custody, Sarah Abramowicz

Fordham Law Review

Many scholars otherwise in favor of the enforcement of family contracts agree that parent-child relationships should continue to prove the exception to any contractualized family law regime. This Article instead questions the continued refusal to enforce contracts concerning parental rights to children’s custody. It argues that the refusal to enforce such contracts contributes to a differential treatment of two types of families: those deemed “intact”—typically consisting of two married parents and their offspring—and those deemed non-intact. Intact families are granted a degree of freedom from government intervention, provided that there is no evidence that children are in any danger of …

The Internet Of Things: Building Trust And Maximizing Benefits Through Consumer Control, Julie Brill

Fordham Law Review

The Internet of Things is one of the fastest growing facets of a world that is becoming more data intensive. Connecting cars, appliances, and even clothing to the internet promises to deliver convenience, safety, and, through analysis of the torrent of additional data generated, potential solutions to some of our most intractable problems. But turning on this data flood also creates privacy and security risks for consumers, challenging us to consider how to apply basic privacy principles to the Internet of Things. A wide range of stakeholders—technologists, lawyers, industry leaders, and others—has a role to play in meeting this challenge.

Agency Costs And The False Claims Act, David Farber

Fordham Law Review

The False Claims Act represents the U.S. Justice Department’s most effective tool in detecting, punishing, and deterring fraud against the government. The effectiveness of the False Claims Act is due in large part to the law’s qui tam provisions, which provide a private right of action to whistleblowers who may sue fraudsters on behalf of the government in exchange for a percentage of the recovery. The resulting relationship between the government and whistleblowers has led to increased detection and recoveries from corporate defendants who defraud and abuse government programs.
However, these whistleblower provisions also come with social costs where profit-motivated …

Searching For A Harmless Alternative: Applying The Harmless Error Standard To Alternative Theory Jury Instructions, Erika A. Khalek

Fordham Law Review

Judges in federal criminal cases provide juries with instructions before the jury members retire to consider their verdict. In some situations, the judge may include alternative theories of guilt, informing the jury that it may convict a defendant of a single offense on the basis of one of several different theories. But because most juries in federal criminal trials deliver only a general verdict of either “guilty” or “not guilty,” it is usually not possible to determine the theory upon which the jury relied in reaching its decision. This lack of transparency may be problematic if the defendant appeals his …

An Officer Walks Into A Bar: Acknowledging The Need For Deterrence In Officer And Director Bars, Steven W. Shuldman

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the civil regulatory agency responsible for helping to defend and protect the American investor. One significant threat to investor security occurs when an individual, acting as an officer or director, violates a fiduciary duty to his or her employer and its shareholders, risking investor money. These actions could involve insider trading, fraudulent statements in public filings, or other self-serving conduct.
Recognizing the importance of deterring such misconduct, Congress gave the SEC the authority to bar certain individuals from serving as officers and directors of public companies. An individual should be barred if …

Fighting A Losing Battle To Win The War: Can States Combat Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Despite Cda Preemption?, Stephanie Silvano

Fordham Law Review

The explosion of the internet and online communication has led to an alarming increase in an existing epidemic: domestic minor sex trafficking. Sex traffickers utilize websites, such as Backpage.com, to post trafficking advertisements depicting minors, which are minimally regulated as a result of the civil immunity provision of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230). This immunity provision has been interpreted broadly by the courts, granting expansive immunity to websites as both publishers and distributors of content.
In an effort to combat minor sex trafficking at a local level, some state legislatures enacted statutes criminalizing the knowing publication of …

Supremacy Of The Supremacy Clause: A Garamendi-Based Framework For Assessing State Law That Intersects With U.S. Foreign Policy, Alexandria R. Strauss

Fordham Law Review

State and local governments across the United States increasingly act in areas that intersect with foreign policy. Federalism concerns and U.S. foreign relations are thus in constant tension.
In American Insurance Ass’n v. Garamendi, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 both expanded and detracted from where states and localities may permissibly act in areas that touch upon foreign affairs. This Note works within the confines of Garamendi to outline four distinct categories of state action that might intersect with foreign relations. It discusses how lower courts, namely the Ninth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Northern District of Illinois, …

Des And A Proposed Theory Of Enterprise Liability, Naomi Sheiner

Fordham Law Review

To commemorate our founding in 1914, the Board of Editors has selected six influential pieces published by the Law Review over the past 100 years and will republish one piece in each issue.
The first piece selected by the Board is DES and a Proposed Theory of Enterprise Liability. This Comment, written in 1978 by Fordham Law Review staff member Naomi Sheiner, helped to pioneer the concept of enterprise liability. It has been cited by nearly 250 scholarly articles and in more than 100 cases, including Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories, 607 P.2d 924 (Cal. 1980), the leading case …

Reputational Injury Without A Reputational Attack: Addressing Negligence Claims For Pure Reputational Harm, Bryson Kern

Fordham Law Review

This Note examines the unsettled relationship between defamation and negligence. The law of defamation, through the torts of libel and slander, constitutes a well-developed and complex body of state common law and constitutional considerations. However, some claims for reputational harm may fall outside of this framework, as the law of defamation does not account for all of the ways that an individual’s reputation may be injured. Thus, plaintiffs sometimes bring negligence claims to seek redress for damage to reputation.
When a plaintiff brings a negligence claim for pure reputational harm, the court is faced with a variety of options for …

Federal Enforcement Of Police Reform, Stephen Rushin

Fordham Law Review

Congress passed 42 U.S.C. § 14141 in an effort to combat police misconduct and incentivize proactive reform in local law enforcement agencies. The statute gives the U.S. Attorney General the power to initiate structural reform litigation against local police departments engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional behavior. While academics initially praised the law’s passage, many have since worried that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not effectively administered the measure. Little research has analyzed how the DOJ has used its authority to initiate structural police reform. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, I fill this gap …

Foreword: The Profession’S Monopoly And Its Core Values, W. Bradley Wendel

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Profession Or The Public? Rethinking Unauthorized-Practice Enforcement, Deborah L. Rhode, Lucy Buford Ricca

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Monopoly Myth And Other Tales About The Superiority Of Lawyers, Leslie C. Levin

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cracks In The Profession’S Monopoly Armor, Jack P. Sahl

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hemispheres Apart, A Profession Connected, Dana Remus

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Overstepping Ethical Boundaries? Limitations On State Efforts To Provide Access To Justice In Family Courts, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Fordham Law Review

Family law courts in America are overwhelmed with self-represented parties who try their best to navigate an unfamiliar territory laden with procedural and evidentiary rules. Efforts to level the playing field in these courts have resulted in state entities and judges taking on roles that previously belonged to attorneys. State supreme court judges and state agencies draft and promulgate family law forms, such as divorce pleadings and paternity acknowledgments, to provide poor citizens access to justice. While these efforts have resulted in positive outcomes for some families, reliance on the state’s imprimatur has caused significant harm to others. Upon closer …

Access To Justice Requires Access To Attorneys: Restrictions On The Practice Of Law Serve A Societal Purpose, Lisa H. Nicholson

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Anyone Can “Think Like A Lawyer”: How The Lawyers’ Monopoly On Legal Understanding Undermines Democracy And The Rule Of Law In The United States, Bridgette Dunlap

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Information, The Consumer Law Market, And The First Amendment, Renee Newman Knake

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Globalization And The Monopoly Of Aba-Approved Law Schools: Missed Opportunities Or Dodged Bullets?, Carole Silver

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Control?, Anthony J. Sebok

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Compliance And Claim Funding: Testing The Borders Of Lawyers’ Monopoly And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Michele Destefano

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.