Consumer Protection Law Commons^™

Private Rights Under The Housing Act: Preserving Rental Assistance For Section 8 Tenants, John M. Lerner

Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice

The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides low-income families with federally funded rental assistance. In order to receive rental assistance, tenants and landlords must maintain units in compliance with the Housing Quality Standards promulgated by the United States Housing Act. A failure by either party to comply with the Housing Quality Standards results in a termination of the federal funding. Unfortunately for voucher recipients, this means that they can be stripped of their rental assistance through no fault of their own. To remedy this situation, many tenants have tried to bring an action against their landlord, alleging a violation of the ...

One-Step Forward: The D.C. Circuit Provides Clarity To The Incremental Approach To Rulemaking, Cory Lewis

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

In 2011, EPA issued the Deferral Rule, excusing generators of biogenic b-CO2—emitted from the combustion of biological materials—from Clean Air Act (CAA) regulations for three years. Citing the need to study b-CO2, EPA invoked three legal doctrines to justify the rule: the de minimus, one-step-at-a-time, and administrative necessity doctrines. This Comment addresses Center for Biological Diversity v. Environmental Protection Agency, where the Center for Biological Diversity challenged the Deferral Rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit vacated the rule. Although the court did not decide the issue of ...

The Public Right-To-Know On A Need-To-Know Basis: Striking The Balance Between National Security And Environmental Protection, Brian Reilly

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Enforcing environmental laws does not immediately appear to be fundamentally inconsistent with maintaining national security. Many people have criticized the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, however, as potentially placing American citizens at risk of a terrorist attack. This Note discusses the difficulties associated with striking the balance between giving citizens access to important environmental information while limiting terrorists’ ability to misuse that same information. Although this issue is a difficult one on its own, it is compounded by recent developments affecting standing in environmental citizen suits. This Note argues that even if the proper balance is struck ...

The Technological And Business Evolution Of Machine Based Gambling In America, Darren Prum, Carlin Mccrory

Darren A. Prum

Machine Based Gambling has become a major source of revenue to many states across the country that need the money but face obstacles to raising taxes within their jurisdiction. The figures are startling with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s cut at over $1.456 Billion in 2011, which exceed the next closest state by $500 million. In addition, there are more than twice as many slot machines available to the public than ATMs. The benefits of machine based gaming has allowed many governments to revitalized tourism locations, make some Native Americans economically self-sufficient, and save horse and dog race tracks ...

American Trucking V. Port Of Los Angeles: Is The Castle Doctrine A Ticking Time Bomb, Potentially Eliminating Ports’ Control Of Cargo Trucking?, Katherine B. Puccio

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

As the Port of Los Angeles and the shipping industry continue to expand, states struggle to regulate the heavy trucking businesses that support the shipping companies. In American Trucking Assn’s, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, the Supreme Court struck down as preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 parts of a Concession Agreement that sought to regulate the relationship between these trucking companies and the Port. The Court declined to decide a second question of whether the Port could punish trucking companies that routinely fail to comply with regulations. This Comment argues that the FAAAA ...

Pro-Rata Apportionment In “Long-Tail” Contamination Cases: Will Presumed Efficiencies Undercut Environmental Cleanups?, Benjamin S. Reilly

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Environmental contamination often causes injuries that occur over long periods of time. These “long-tail” injuries, which tend to span periods during which a liable party was covered by multiple insurers, do not map neatly onto standard indemnification insurance policies. As a result, liable parties and their insurers frequently engage in protracted litigation to minimize the portion that they must contribute to environmental remediation projects. In Boston Gas Co. v. Century Indemnity, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld an application of Massachusetts’s recently announced pro rata apportionment rule, which greatly reduced the insurer’s liability ...

Toxic Solid Waste Leaching From Telephone Poles? Navigating Ambiguous Definitions In Rcra, Cadesby B. Cooper

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

This Comment analyzes the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Ecological Rights Foundation v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The plaintiff alleged that two utility companies operated utility poles that discharged wood preservative in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The plaintiff’s RCRA claim depended on whether the wood preservative was a “solid waste” according to the Act. The Ninth Circuit dismissed the claims but acknowledged that RCRA has two definitions of solid waste, and the wood preservative was not a solid waste according to the ...

Public School Governance And Cyber Security: School Districts Provide Easy Targets For Cyber Thieves, Michael A. Alao

michael a alao

School districts rely on information systems to a similar extent as private, business organizations, yet the rules and regulations to ensure that school districts maintain adequate security to prevent data breaches and theft have failed to keep pace with private-sector developments. Advances in the private sector include notice-of-breach laws, consumer protection laws limiting individual liability for fraudulent electronic funds transfers, and auditing and reporting of internal controls. The public sector, including school districts, has also made advances in cyber security rules and regulations, but to a more limited extent than the private sector. Because of the sheer number of public ...

The New Policing Of Business Crime, Rachel E. Barkow

Seattle University Law Review

The central goal of this Article is to describe the burgeoning turn to new policing techniques in the business crime context and to offer some initial thoughts on the promises and limits of the approach. Part II begins by explaining the traditional or “old policing” of business crime. After implementing an initial strategy that focused on pursuing individuals, the government turned its attention to the organizations where those individuals operated. It increased the sanctions for violators and sought to target companies in an effort to prompt them to adopt internal compliance pro-grams. The focus on company compliance programs was designed ...

Deferred Prosecutions In The Corporate Sector: Lessons From Libor, Justin O'Brien, Olivia Dixon

Seattle University Law Review

Since 2008, the global economic downturn has significantly in-creased operating pressures on major corporations. Additionally, there has been a corresponding increase in corporate tolerance for corruption, which has coincided with a marked preference by regulators in settling, rather than litigating, enforcement actions. This Article argues that the expansion of prosecutorial authority without appropriate accountability restraints is a major tactical and strategic error. It evaluates whether the mechanism can be made subject to effective oversight. It argues that the current frame-work in the United States is highly problematic, leading to settlements that generate newspaper headlines but not necessarily cultural change. It ...

Are Defined Contribution Pension Plans Fit For Purpose In Retirement?, Jeremy R. Cooper

Seattle University Law Review

This Article considers the historical basis for the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, the structural and practical shortcomings of defined contribution plans, alternate pension models, and adjustments to existing retirement plan models that may offer a degree of protection to plan contributors. Like the United States, Australia is now realizing the limitations of a defined contribution retirement system insofar as it relates the provision of reliable retirement income for a population with increasing life expectancy. Unlike defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans provide a benefit based typically on time served and a predetermined proportion of either ...

Australia’S Experience With Foreign Direct Investment By State Controlled Entities: A Move Towards Xenophobia Or Greater Openness?, Greg Golding

Seattle University Law Review

Over the last few years, there has been considerable debate in Australia as to the appropriate regulation of foreign direct investment by entities affiliated with foreign governments. During that time, Australia has been a significant beneficiary of investment by sovereign wealth funds from many foreign jurisdictions, particularly by Chinese state owned enterprises. The Australian government, similar to governments of many developed Western countries, has struggled to properly calibrate its policy settings for regulating this type of investment activity. This Article considers the Australian regulatory regime and assesses Australia’s experience in regulating those investment flows during this period.

Dirty Debts Sold Dirt Cheap, Dalie Jimenez

Dalie Jimenez

This Article examines the sale and purchase of consumer debts (e.g., delinquent credit card debts) through the lens of a rare collection of contracts.† It finds that in many instances, sellers disclaim all warranties about the underlying debts sold or the information transferred, sometimes as far as specifically refusing to stand by “the accuracy or completeness of any information provided.” The Article argues that the collection of consumer debts sold through these transactions violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s prohibition against using deceptive or misleading representations in connection with the collection of a debt. After considering potential ...

Peering Into The Comcast-Netflix Deal, Daniel A. Lyons

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Contrastanti Orientamenti Nel Difficile Accertamento Della Natura Di Operatore Qualificato Nelle Operazioni Di Swap, Valerio Sangiovanni

Valerio Sangiovanni

No abstract provided.

Cracking The Cable Conundrum: Government Regulation Of A La Carte Models In The Cable Industry, Jade Brewster

Jade Brewster

No abstract provided.

Big Data And Due Process: Toward A Framework To Redress Predictive Privacy Harms, Kate Crawford, Jason Schultz

Boston College Law Review

The rise of “Big Data” analytics in the private sector poses new challenges for privacy advocates. Through its reliance on existing data and predictive analysis to create detailed individual profiles, Big Data has exploded the scope of personally identifiable information (“PII”). It has also effectively marginalized regulatory schema by evading current privacy protections with its novel methodology. Furthermore, poor execution of Big Data methodology may create additional harms by rendering inaccurate profiles that nonetheless impact an individual’s life and livelihood. To respond to Big Data’s evolving practices, this Article examines several existing privacy regimes and explains why these ...

An Impossible Reconciliation? Understanding Class-Action Waivers And Arbitration After American Express V. Italian Colors, Kristine A. Bergman

Kristine A Bergman

No abstract provided.

Le Contrôle Des Conditions Générales: L'Envol Manqué Du Phénix, Nicolas Pierre Marie Kuonen

Nicolas Kuonen

This article presents and discusses the new fairness test for Standard Terms & Conditions ("ST&C") which has recently been introduced in Switzerland (the new art. 8 of the Swiss Federal Act against Unfair Competition). This article's first aim is to provide some guidelines for the understanding of that test. It second aim is to explain why, although it was supposed to strongly impact ST&C used in Switzerland, it has failed to change anything to date.

The Evolution Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act; Changing Interpretations Of The Dmca And Future Implications For Copyright Holders, Hillary A. Henderson

Hillary A Henderson

Copyright law rewards an artificial monopoly to individual authors for their creations. This reward is based on the belief that, by granting authors the exclusive right to reproduce their works, they receive an incentive and means to create, which in turn advances the welfare of the general public by “promoting the progress of science and useful arts.”

Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device . . . . In no ...