Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Introduction, Toward More Reliable Jury Verdicts?: Law, Technology And Media Developments Since The Trials Of Dr. Sam Sheppard, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

As the Ohio Supreme Court noted almost one-half century ago, the Sheppard case had it all—“Murder, mystery, society, sex[,] and suspense were combined in this case in such a manner as to intrigue and captivate the public fancy to a degree perhaps unparalleled in recent annals.” But apart from the tantalizingly lurid details of the murder of Marilyn Sheppard and the curious way the case became a national cause celebre, the Sheppard case is of historical significance and academic interest because of the many important and ground-breaking aspects of the case. In actuality, there have been three (and perhaps four) …

Irreconcilable Differences: Congressional Treatment Of Internet Service Providers As Speakers, Raymond Shih Ray Ku

Faculty Publications

This Article argues that under the CDA and OCILLA, Congress adopted facially inconsistent approaches towards ISP liability for expression. Nonetheless, despite the overt differences, it is possible to discern an underlying principle for determining when ISPs should be considered speakers that reconciles this inconsistency. Put simply, the CDA and OCILLA support an approach toward determining when ISPs are speakers that focuses on whether an ISP exercises editorial control over its network. This approach is evidenced by the fact that both statutes recognize that ISPs are able to exercise editorial control over any and all content on their networks, and both …

Integration & Biocomplexity, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

Sustainable development (SD) is premised on the inescapable and integral role played by humans in shaping and impacting the natural world and has been recognized as a foundational norm of international environmental law and policy. Ecologicalism - an outlook that embraces a comprehensive approach to interdependent natural and human systems - provides the conceptual underpinnings for a creative and integrated environmental management philosophy for implementing SD. This Article argues that the daunting task of defining and applying such an integrated approach and philosophy to the multiple interacting changes affecting planetary life support systems can benefit from the U.S. experience in …

The Fourth Amendment And New Technologies: The Constitutionality Of Thermal Imaging, Jeffrey P. Campisi

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act: A Well Built Fence Or Barbed Wire Around The Intellectual Commons, Warigia M. Bowman

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is a proposed state contract law developed to regulate transactions in intangible goods such as computer software, online databases and other digital products.' UCITA was intended to act as Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Article 2 comprises the law governing commercial transactions in the sale of goods and ensures consistent contract laws from state to state. The stated goal of UCITA is to provide clarity regarding computer information transactions.

Patenting Industry Standards, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 897 (2001), Janice M. Mueller

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dna Patentability: Shutting The Door To The Utility Requirement, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 973 (2001), Donald L. Zuhn Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Computer-Aided Drug Design Using Patented Compounds: Infringement In Cyberspace?, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1001 (2001), Ted L. Field

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Peer-To-Peer Sharing On The Internet: An Analysis Of How Gnutella Networks Are Used To Distribute Pornographic Material, Michael D. Mehta, Don Best, Nancy Poon

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

By our very nature, humans are creatures that communicate and network. Over the past several decades much of this communicating and networking has been facilitated by developments in information and communication technology. The social and economic transformations resulting from developments on the Internet have created several challenges for policymakers, lawmakers, courts and a wide range of other kinds of institutions. Some of these challenges are associated with the technologies and applications themselves. Other challenges result from content made available on the Internet and how users exchange data. Recent developments in peer-to-peer data exchange bring these two sets of challenges together.

Information Technology And Non-Legal Sanctions In Financing Transactions, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay investigates the effect of advances in information technology on the private institutions that businesses use to resolve information asymmetries in financing transactions. The first part of the Essay discusses how information technology can permit direct verification of the information, obviating the problem entirely; the Essay discusses the example of the substitution of the debit card for the check, which provides an immediate payment that obviates the need for the merchant to consider whether payment will be forthcoming when the check is presented to the bank on which it is drawn.

The second part of the Essay discusses how …

Privacy, Ideology, And Technology: A Response To Jeffrey Rosen, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews Jeffrey Rosen’s The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America (2000).

Rosen offers a compelling (and often hair-raising) account of the pervasive dissolution of the boundary between public and private information. This dissolution is both legal and social; neither the law nor any other social institution seems to recognize many limits on the sorts of information that can be subjected to public scrutiny. The book also provides a rich, evocative characterization of the dignitary harms caused by privacy invasion. Rosen’s description of the sheer unfairness of being “judged out of context” rings instantly true. Privacy, Rosen …

Bargaining Over The Transfer Of Proprietary Research Tools: Is This Market Failing Or Emerging?, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

This analysis highlights the importance of transactions between prior and subsequent innovators to permit valuable research to go forward across the boundaries of prior patent claims. In a recent article focusing on biomedical research,4 Michael Heller and I argue that too many patent rights on 'upstream' discoveries can stifle 'downstream' research and product development by increasing transaction costs and magnifying the risk of bargaining failures. Just as too few property rights leave communally held resources prone to overuse in a 'tragedy of the commons', too many property rights can leave resources prone to underuse in what Heller calls a 'tragedy …

Criminal Law In Cyberspace, Neal K. Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Two of the most talked-about crimes of the year, the ILoveYou computer worm and the denial of service attacks on Yahoo, eBay, and ETrade, suggest that a new form of crime is emerging: cybercrime. Thousands of these crimes occur each year, and the results are often catastrophic; in terms of economic damage, the ILoveYou worm may have been the most devastating crime in history, causing more than $11 billion in losses.

This paper asks how cybercrime is best deterred. It identifies five constraints on crime - legal sanctions, monetary perpetration cost, social norms, architecture, and physical risks - and explains …

Genetic Testing For Susceptability To Disease From Exposure To Toxic Chemicals: Implications For Public And Worker Health Policies, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

The Environmental Genome Program intends to identify "susceptibility genes" that would indicate if a person is more vulnerable to cancer or other disease as a result of exposure to certain chemicals in the workplace, the environment, foods, or other products. Research findings and the capability to test persons for such genes are likely to impugn and challenge health policies and regulatory programs that do not take genetic susceptibility into account when conferring health benefits and restricting chemical exposures. This article focuses on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and discusses four options available to this agency for protecting genetically …

Embryonic Stem Cell Research As An Ethical Issue: On The Emptiness Of Symbolic Value, Kevin P. Quinn

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The debate over human embryonic stem cell research-scientific and clinical prospects as well as ethical implications-became front-page news only after two teams of university researchers reported in November 1998 that they had isolated and cultured human pluripotent stem cells. The discovery caused a flurry of excitement among patients and researchers and drew attention from President Clinton, who instructed the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) to "conduct a thorough review of the issues associated with. .. human stem cell research, balancing all medical and ethical issues.”

Comparative Institutional Analysis In Cyberspace: The Case Of Intermediary Liability For Defamation, Susan Freiwald

Susan Freiwald

Almost every day brings reports that Congress is considering new cyberspace-targeted laws and the courts are deciding novel cyberspace legal questions. These developments lend urgency to the question of whether a particular cyberspace legal change should come through operation of new statutes, judicial decisions, or the free market. If we can develop sophisticated analytical methods to evaluate institutional competence in cyberspace, we can vastly improve the development of cyberspace law and public policy.

Comparative Institutional Analysis in Cyberspace: The Case of Intermediary Liability for Defamation promotes just such an approach. By describing and extending a recently proposed model of comparative …

Beyond The Polemic Against Junk Science: Navigating The Oceans That Divide Science And Law With Justice Breyer At The Helm, Joelle A. Moreno

Joelle A. Moreno