Law Commons^™

The Challenge Of Regulatory Excellence, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Regulation is a high-stakes enterprise marked by tremendous challenges and relentless public pressure. Regulators are expected to protect the public from harms associated with economic activity and technological change without unduly impeding economic growth or efficiency. Regulators today also face new demands, such as adapting to rapidly changing and complex financial instruments, the emergence of the sharing economy, and the potential hazards of synthetic biology and other innovations. Faced with these challenges, regulators need a lodestar for what constitutes high-quality regulation and guidance on how to improve their organizations’ performance. In the book Achieving Regulatory Excellence, leading regulatory experts …

Et Tu, Android?: Regulating Dangerous And Dishonest Robots, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Consumer robots like personal digital assistants, automated cars, robot companions, chore-bots, and personal drones raise common consumer protection issues, such as fraud, privacy, data security, and risks to health, physical safety, and finances. They also raise new consumer protection issues, or at least call into question how existing consumer protection regimes might be applied to such emerging technologies. Yet it is unclear which legal regimes should govern these robots and what consumer protection rules for robots should look like.

This paper argues that the FTC's grant of authority and existing jurisprudence are well-suited for protecting consumers who buy and interact …

2016 – A Tumultuous Year Of The Revolt Against The Elites, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan noted that 2016 will probably be remembered as the year of the populist revolt against the elites, against the backdrop of bewildering disruptions and an abiding sense of displacement and control accentuated by technological advancements. He highlighted that the critical challenge is to bring trust back into the core of the relationship between those in power and the masses, adding that governments need to purposively deal with people's resentments, fury and fears.

Open Source, Modular Platforms, And The Challenge Of Fragmentation, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Open source and modular platforms represent two powerful conceptual paradigms that have fundamentally transformed the software industry. While generally regarded complementary, the freedom inherent in open source rests in uneasy tension with the strict structural requirements required by modularity theory. In particular, third party providers can produce noncompliant components, and excessive experimentation can fragment the platform in ways that reduce its economic benefits for end users and app providers and force app providers to spend resources customizing their code for each variant. The classic solutions to these problems are to rely on some form of testing to ensure that the …

Information Technology And Learning On-The-Job, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Economists disagree how much technology raises demand for workers with pre-existing skills. But technology might affect wages another way: through skills learned on the job. Using instrumental variables on 9 panels of workers from 1989 to 2013, this paper estimates that workers who use information technology (IT) have wage growth that is about 2% greater than non-IT workers, all else equal, implying substantial learning. This effect persists over time, implying sustained productivity growth from IT. Also, it benefits workers both with and without college degrees. Because many more college-educated workers use IT, college wages grow faster, contributing to economic inequality.

Newsroom: The Legal Impact Of Marine Debris 10-21-2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs, And Skills, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

This paper investigates basic relationships between technology and occupations. Building a general occupational model, I look at detailed occupations since 1980 to explore whether computers are related to job losses or other sources of wage inequality. Occupations that use computers grow faster, not slower. This is true even for highly routine and mid-wage occupations. Estimates reject computers as a source of significant net technological unemployment or job polarization. But computerized occupations substitute for other occupations, shifting employment and requiring new skills. Because new skills are costly to learn, computer use is associated with substantially greater within-occupation wage inequality.

Sales Suppression: The International Dimension, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Sales transaction taxes are highly susceptible to technology fraud, which is an inevitable result of today’s widespread reliance on technology to document taxed transactions. Technology can be (and is) manipulated to defeat the collection of these taxes. Both the U.S. retail sales tax (RST) and the European value added tax (VAT) are vulnerable to technology-based fraud. This Article concerns sales suppression — intentionally not recording sales — in the RST, and at the final stage of the VAT, the retail stage, when tax is collected from final consumers.

The modern electronic cash register (ECR)/point of sale (POS) system is vulnerable …

Marine Law Symposium: Legal And Policy Approaches To Reduce Marine Debris In New England 11/04/2016, Roger Wiliams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Linn F. Freedman's Post: The Goal Of Gender Equality In Cybersecurity 08/23/2016, Linn F. Freedman

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Lautenberg Act: Chemical Safety Overhaul Of The Toxic Substances Control Act, Alyssa S. Rosen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (Lautenberg Act), a landmark bipartisan compromise legislation designed to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The Lautenberg Act makes it easier for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate toxic substances while providing the chemical industry with regulatory clarity and certainty. Law Librarians, practicing lawyers, and academics have taken note of this groundbreaking law that most likely will set the template for the next generation of environmental reform by tackling issues such as preemption of state law, protection of vulnerable populations, …

Vatcoin: The Gcc's Cryptotaxcurrency, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Mike Cheetham

Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin is the world’s first peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. VATCoin is similar, but it is used in tax compliance. Both Bitcoin and VATCoin are distributive ledger applications built upon blockchain technology. Bitcoin’s ledger is public; VATCoin’s is private. If adopted, VATCoin could well become the world’s first government-mandated cryptotaxcurrency. Unlike Bitcoin, VATCoin will not be a speculative currency. It is always fixed to the home currency.

This paper proposes that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopt VATCoin in its VAT Framework. The GCC is expected to have multiple 5% VATs in place by January 1, 2018. There is an ample amount of …

Vat In The Gcc - Missing Trader Frauds, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

All VATs are susceptible to missing trader (MT) fraud. VATs adopted in an economic community are particularly more susceptible. The EU, for example, loses in excess of €100b annually to this fraud. Given the anticipated adoption of a European-style credit-invoice VAT in the GCC by January 1, 2018, this paper offers a technology-based solution involving the real-time tracking of taxable transactions with centrally collected (securely encrypted) data flows that are risk-analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI).

Platform Neutrality: Enhancing Freedom Of Expression In Spheres Of Private Power, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Traffic Analysis To Homeland Security, Bob Duhainy

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

One of the biggest challenges currently faced by the Department of Homeland Security is guaranteeing cybersecurity. Each and every day some type of cybercrime occurs. Such crimes have the potential to affect the country’s national security. This paper investigates the significance of internet traffic and analysis to Homeland Security. It will look at the importance of internet traffic and analysis to Homeland Security as well as encrypted traffic and its implications to cyber-security. The manner in which the U.S. has handled cybersecurity over the past twenty years and the methods that the government has used in this time period will …

Science As A Non-Issue, Fabian M. Dayrit

Chemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Law, Responsibility, And The Sciences Of The Brain/Mind, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter is a submission to the Oxford Handbook of Law and the Regulation of Technology edited by Roger Brownsword. It considers whether the new sciences of the brain/mind, especially neuroscience and behavioral genetics, are likely to transform the law’s traditional concepts of the person, agency and responsibility. The chapter begins with a brief speculation about why so many people think these sciences will transform the law. After reviewing the law’s concepts, misguided challenges to them, and the achievements of the new sciences, the chapter confronts the claim that these sciences prove that we are really not agents and that …

Inquiry Into The Implementation Of Bush’S Executive Order 13211 And The Impact On Environmental And Public Health Regulation, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, Gunwant Gill, Miriam Jovanovic

Publications and Research

Executive Order 13211, promulgated in 2001, requires the federal government to consider the impact of federal action on energy independence as part of the George W. Bush’s National Energy Policy. This law review examines whether EO 13211 was used to curtail environmental protection and natural resource conservation. The article begins with a review of the procedure required of federal agencies under EO 13211 and its associated documents. The paper then examines case law and published federal rulemaking proceedings and examines how federal agencies apply tests to evaluate the potential energy effect. The study concludes that EO 13211 strikes a reasonable …

The Mouse That Trolled (Again), Robert Cook-Deegan, Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Tania Bubela

Faculty Scholarship

We welcome the opportunity to respond to the commentaries on our paper-The Mouse that Trolled-by Hardy, Sarnoff, and Cordova and Feldman. Their comments are academic criticism in the very best sense. We also take the opportunity to update on recent legal actions, which we had not predicted. This opportunity enriches our narrative history of the patenting of the APPswe mutation for early onset Alzheimer's disease, and we hope the continued saga is of interest.

The Erosion Of Autonomy In Online Consumer Transactions, Eliza Mik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Online businesses influence consumer behaviour by means of a wide range of technologies that determine what information is displayed as well as how and when it is displayed. This creates an unprecedented power imbalance between the transacting parties, raising questions not only about the permissible levels of procedural exploitation in contract law, together with the adequacy of existing consumer protections but also about the impact of technology on consumer autonomy. There is, however, no single technology that threatens the latter. It is the combined, mutually-enforcing effect of multiple technologies that influence consumer choices at different stages in the transacting process, …

Biology, Genetics, Nurture, And The Law: The Expansion Of The Legal Definition Of Family To Include Three Or More Legal Parents, Myrisha S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Manufacturing Barriers To Biologics Competition And Innovation, W. Nicholson Price Ii., Arti K. Rai

Articles

As finding breakthrough small-molecule drugs becomes more difficult, drug companies are increasingly turning to "large molecule" biologics. Although biologics represent many of the most promising new therapies for previously intractable diseases, they are extremely expensive. Moreover, the pathway for generic-type competition set up by Congress in 2010 is unlikely to yield significant cost savings. This Article provides a fresh diagnosis of and prescription for this major public policy problem. It argues that the key cause is pervasive trade secrecy in the complex area of biologics manufacturing. Under the current regime, this trade secrecy, combined with certain features of Food and …

Making Civilian Drones Safe: Performance Standards, Self-Certification, And Post-Sale Data Collection, Henry Perritt, Albert Plawinski

All Faculty Scholarship

With millions of small drones in private hands, the FAA continues its struggle to develop an effective regulatory regime to comply with Congress’s mandate to integrate them into the national airspace system. Thousands of individuals and small businesses have obtained authorization from the FAA—"section 333 exemptions"—allowing them to fly their drones commercially. Farmers, TV stations, surveyors, construction-site supervisors, real estate agents, people selling their properties, and managers seeking cheaper and safer ways to inspect their facilities, want to hire the exemption holders, but many are holding back until the FAA clarifies the groundrules.The FAA understands that its traditional approach for …

Outsourced Law Enforcement, Kiel Brennan-Marquez

Faculty Articles and Papers

How should the Constitution think about "outsourced law en­forcement"-that is, investigative activity carried out by private actors that substitutes, in practice, for the labor of law enforcement officials? Existing doctrine offers a simple answer to this question, centered on chronology. If the government was responsible for outsourcing law enforcement-if a private actor was operating as an "agent or instru­ment" of the state-Fourth Amendment scrutiny applies, just as it would apply to the conduct of state officials.' If, on the other hand, the outsourcing transpired voluntarily-if a private actor decided, without prodding, to assist the authorities-no Fourth Amendment scrutiny applies. This …

Policing Criminal Justice Data, Wayne Logan, Andrew Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article addresses a matter of fundamental importance to the criminal justice system: the presence of erroneous information in government databases and the limited government accountability and legal remedies for the harm that it causes individuals. While a substantial literature exists on the liberty and privacy perils of large multi-source data assemblage, often termed "big data," this article addresses the risks associated with the collection, generation and use of "small data" (i.e., individual-level, discrete data points). Because small data provides the building blocks for all data-driven systems, enhancing its quality will have a significant positive effect on the criminal justice …

The Big Data Jury, Andrew Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article addresses the disruptive impact of big data technologies on jury selection.Jury selection requires personal information about potential jurors. Current selection practices, however, collect very little information about citizens, and litigants picking jury panels know even less. This data gap results in a jury selection system that: (1) fails to create a representative cross-section of the community; (2) encourages the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges; (3) results in an unacceptably high juror “no show” rate; and (4) disproportionately advantages those litigants who can afford to hire expensive jury consultants.Big data has the potential to remedy these existing limitations and …

Why The Hurry To Regulate Autonomous Weapon Systems-But Not Cyber-Weapons?, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Liability For Mobile Health And Wearable Technologies, Lindsay Wiley, Nicolas Terry

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Most of the legal commentary regarding mobile health has focused on direct regulation leveraging existing laws and regulators such as HIPAA privacy through HHS-OCR or device regulation by the FDA. However, much of the mobile health revolution likely will play out in lightly regulated spaces bereft of most of the privacy, security, and safety rules associated with traditional health care. This article examines the potential for common law liability models to bridge these gaps (even on a temporary basis). Part II of this paper provides an introduction to the terminology used, and presents a brief typology of the apps appearing …

Predictive Prosecution, Andrew Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Police in major metropolitan areas now use “predictive policing” technologies to identify and deter crime. The early successes of predictive policing have led a few prosecutor’s offices to adopt quasi-“predictive prosecution” strategies. Predictive prosecution involves the identification and targeting of suspects deemed most at risk for future serious criminal activity, and then the use of that information to shape bail determinations, charging decisions, and sentencing arguments. This type of “Moneyball” prosecution has begun in New York City and Chicago, and this essay addresses the promise and peril of this new technology.This essay for the Wake Forest Law Review’s Symposium on …

Modularity Theory And Internet Regulation, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Modularity is often cited as one of the foundations for the Internet’s success. Unfortunately, academic discussions about modularity appearing in the literature on Internet policy are undertheorized. The persistence of nonmodular architectures for some technologies underscores the need for some theoretical basis for determining when modularity is the preferred approach. Even when modularity is desirable, theory must provide some basis for making key design decisions, such as the number of modules, the location of the interfaces between the modules, and the information included in those interfaces.

The literature on innovation indicates that modules should be determined by the nature of …