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Full-Text Articles in Law

Juridical Discourse For Platforms, Thomas E. Kadri Jan 2022

Juridical Discourse For Platforms, Thomas E. Kadri

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has created a private “Supreme Court,” or so he says. Since 2021, his company’s Oversight Board has issued verdicts on a smattering of Facebook’s decisions about online speech. Cynics frame the Board as a Potemkin village, but defenders invoke analogies to separation of powers to claim that this new body empowers the public and restrains the company. Some are even calling for a single “platform supreme court” to rule over the entire industry.

Juridical discourse for platforms is powerful, but it can also be deceptive. This Response explores how juridical discourse has legitimized and empowered Facebook’s …


The “Sovereigns Of Cyberspace” And State Action: The First Amendment’S Application (Or Lack Thereof) To Third-Party Platforms, Jonathan Peters Jan 2017

The “Sovereigns Of Cyberspace” And State Action: The First Amendment’S Application (Or Lack Thereof) To Third-Party Platforms, Jonathan Peters

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Many scholars have commented that the state action doctrine forecloses use of the First Amendment to constrain the policies and practices of online service providers. But few have comprehensively studied this issue, and the seminal article exploring “[c]yberspace and the [s]tate [a]ction [d]ebate” is fifteen years old, published before the U.S. Supreme Court reformulated the federal approach to state action. It is important to give the state action doctrine regular scholarly attention, not least because it is increasingly clear that “the private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression.” It is critical to understand whether the First …


Busting Blocks: Revisiting 47 U.S.C. §230 To Address The Lack Of Effective Legal Recourse For Wrongful Inclusion In Spam Filters, Jonathan I. Ezor Jan 2011

Busting Blocks: Revisiting 47 U.S.C. §230 To Address The Lack Of Effective Legal Recourse For Wrongful Inclusion In Spam Filters, Jonathan I. Ezor

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This paper discusses the growth and increasing significance of e-mail in the business and personal environment, and how unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, also known as spam, has become a significant drain on technical and economic resources. It analyzes the statutory and self-help efforts to combat spam, with a specific focus on block lists and automated spam filters, and describes how alleged spammers have brought lawsuits in U.S. courts claiming they had been wrongfully included within block lists and filters. Finally, it describes some possible claims under U.S. law, then argues for a revision to current statutes to mandate a higher …


Concurring In Part & Concurring In The Confusion, Sonja R. West Aug 2006

Concurring In Part & Concurring In The Confusion, Sonja R. West

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When a federal appellate court decided last year that two reporters must either reveal their confidential sources to a grand jury or face jail time, the court did not hesitate in relying on the majority opinion in the Supreme Court's sole comment on the reporter's privilege--Branzburg v. Hayes. "The Highest Court has spoken and never revisited the question. Without doubt, that is the end of the matter," Judge Sentelle wrote for the three-judge panel on the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. By this declaration, the court dismissed with a wave of its judicial hand the arguments …


Lessons From The Nextwave Saga: The Federal Communications Commission, The Courts, And The Use Of Market Forms To Perform Public Functions, Rodger D. Citron, John A. Rogovin Jan 2005

Lessons From The Nextwave Saga: The Federal Communications Commission, The Courts, And The Use Of Market Forms To Perform Public Functions, Rodger D. Citron, John A. Rogovin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part Ii), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel Jan 2002

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part Ii), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

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This part of the article provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA. (Part I provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation.)


"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part I), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel Jan 2002

"Retail Choice" Is Coming: Have You Hugged Your Utilities Lawyer Today? (Part I), Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel

Scholarly Works

This part of the article provides a primer on the history of utilities regulation. (Part II provides a discussion on the intersection of utilities law and bankruptcy law, pre-BAPCPA.)


Race To The Stars: A Federalism Argument For Leaving The Right Of Publicity In The Hands Of The States, Usha Rodrigues Oct 2001

Race To The Stars: A Federalism Argument For Leaving The Right Of Publicity In The Hands Of The States, Usha Rodrigues

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This Note will argue that, given the variation in the right of publicity from state to state, and the relative newness of this property right, Congress should refrain from passing a law to federalize it. Although there are sound arguments for adopting this right, there are also reasons to hesitate. Given that only half of the states have adopted it, federalization seems premature. This Note will only obliquely address the main objection usually leveled at a robust right of publicity, namely that it stifles creativity and implicates First Amendment concerns. The focus instead will be on the right of individual …


Challenging Defamatory Opinions As An Alternative To Media Self-Regulation, James F. Ponsoldt Oct 1998

Challenging Defamatory Opinions As An Alternative To Media Self-Regulation, James F. Ponsoldt

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This Essay analyzes defamation law as it applies to the media. Part I summarizes the state of defamation law prior to the 1990 Supreme Court decision in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., when opinion was presumed immune from liability. Part II examines the holding in Milkovich, which suggests the potential liability for recklessly defamatory statements couched as or in the context of opinion. Part III reviews post-Milkovich decisions during the 1990's. This Essay concludes that the predictions of Milkovich were accurate in many jurisdictions and could apply to televised allegations during the coverage of the Clinton affair. …


Comparative Broadcast Licensing Procedures And The Rule Of Law: A Fuller Investigation, Michael Botein Jul 1972

Comparative Broadcast Licensing Procedures And The Rule Of Law: A Fuller Investigation, Michael Botein

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Professor Botein examines the validity of Professor Fuller's widely read but seldom criticized theory that traditional administrative adjudication is unsuited to resolve certain kinds of social tasks, which Fuller had labeled "polycentric problems." Professor Botein focuses upon Professor Fuller's example of the FCC's comparative licensing procedure as a problem unsuited to adjudication. Taking as his starting point Professor Fuller's criticism of the FCC -- a criticism Fuller never tested against the Commission's actual operations -- Professor Botein examines Fuller's theory of polycentricity by analyzing its contents, applying it to concrete situations, and exploring whether there exists any alternatives better than …