Digital Commons Network^™

Could A More Limited Environmental Goods Agreement Resolve Continued Issues In Cities Compliance?, Andrew Coccoli

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will adopt an economic perspective while advocating for the most sustainable practices in natural resources management. It will first conduct a series of case studies of natural resources for which there is transnational or international demand, but unsustainable management. While CITES-listed resources will be considered with particular attention, unlisted and more conventional resources will also be considered. In its second part, this Note will consider mechanisms currently available in international trade to accommodate environmental progress, then will set forth various new measures the WTO could adopt to incentivize sustainable management of the Part I resources. Part III will …

Public Acceptance Of Medical Screening Recommendations, Safety Risks, And Implied Liabilities Requirements For Space Flight Participation, Cory J. Trunkhill

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The space tourism industry is preparing to send space flight participants on orbital and suborbital flights. Space flight participants are not professional astronauts and are not subject to the rules and guidelines covering space flight crewmembers. This research addresses public acceptance of current Federal Aviation Administration guidance and regulations as designated for civil participation in human space flight.

The research utilized an ordinal linear regression analysis of survey data to explore the public acceptance of the current medical screening recommended guidance and the regulations for safety risk and implied liability for space flight participation. Independent variables constituted participant demographic representations …

The Rise Of Machines: Patenting Inventions Generated By Artificial Intelligence In Canada, Morris Odeh

LLM Theses

“The rise of machines is here,” but they did not come as “rogue robots” to terminate humankind as some fictional writers predicted. Rather, they have come as inventors of human-like creativity. Therefore, this thesis examines the question of the patentability of inventions generated by artificial intelligence (AI) machines within the context of the Canadian patent system. Applying the modern principle of statutory interpretation, utilitarianism, and economic theoretical framework, this research determines whether AI-generated inventions can constitute patentable subject matter, AI systems can be inventors, and AI technology can own and exercise patent rights under the Canadian Patent Act. The thesis …

An Appeal To Heaven—The Timeless Plea For Nollan/Dolan Extension To The Sphere Of Legislative Exactions, Sam Sturgis

MC Law Review

“. . . [W]henever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people . . . they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience . . . .”1

In 1772, the colonists of Weare, New Hampshire, were given a choice: cede all white pine trees grown on their lands to the King of England or pay a hefty fine. It was an odious decree—one that struck at the very ideal of the American colonies. Imbued as they were with a sense of divine right to …

Exponential Growth Bias And The Law: Why Do We Save Too Little, Borrow Too Much, And Fail To React On Time To Deadly Pandemics And Climate Change?, Doron Teichman,, Eyal Zamir, Professor Of Commercial Law

Vanderbilt Law Review

Many human decisions, ranging from the taking of loans with compound interest to fighting deadly pandemics, involve phenomena that entail exponential growth. Yet a wide and robust body of empirical studies demonstrates that people systematically underestimate exponential growth.

This phenomenon, dubbed the exponential growth bias (“EGB”), has been documented in numerous contexts and across different populations, using both experimental and observational methods.

Despite its centrality to human decisionmaking, legal scholarship has thus far failed to account for the EGB. This Article presents the first comprehensive study of the EGB and the law. Incorporating the EGB into legal analysis sheds a …

A Destabilized World: The Effects Of Climate Change On Armed Conflict And International Humanitarian Law, Chase Doctor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced, and they will have an increasingly destabilizing effect on societies around the globe. This research paper utilizes primary source material (e.g. interviews with field experts) and secondary source material to analyze the relationship between climate change and armed conflict, and the response of international humanitarian law. The consequences of climate change, like changing weather patterns, will increase global migration and strain the resources of host communities. This phenomenon, in addition to other climate-induced factors, may increase the likelihood of armed conflict breaking out. The case studies of the Darfur conflict in …

Expanding The Idea To Mitigate Disproportionality Of English Language Learners In Special Education, Hannah R. Kramer

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note addresses the disproportionate representation of English Language Learners (ELLs) in special education, arguing that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is insufficient in addressing their unique linguistic and cultural needs. It advocates for reforms to the IDEA, including enhanced pre-evaluation screening, culturally sensitive assessments, and an expanded definition of the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) to ensure ELLs receive appropriate educational support without misclassification.

Time To Repay Or Time To Delay? The Effect Of Having More Time Before A Payday Loan Is Due, Paige Marta Skiba, Susan Payne Carter, Kuan Liu, Justin Sydnor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

We examine the effect of state laws on minimum payday loan durations that give some borrowers an additional pay cycle to repay their initial loan with no other changes to contract terms. Neoclassical models predict this “grace period” would reduce borrowers’ need for costly loan rollovers. However, in reality, borrowers’ repayment behavior with grace periods is very similar to borrowers with shorter loans, merely pushed out a few weeks. Potential explanations include heuristic repayment decisions and naïve present focus. A calibrated model suggests that present-focused borrowers get less than one-half of the benefit from a grace period that time-consistent borrowers …

Charting A Course To Conserve 30% Of Freshwaters By 2030, Sandra B. Zellmer

William & Mary Law Review

One of President Biden’s earliest executive orders established an ambitious national goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands, waters, and oceans by 2030. The Biden administration is not alone; over 100 countries support this goal as a means of combating climate change and slowing the pace of species extinction, both of which are accelerating at a rate that is unprecedented in history.

Despite its vow to pursue a wide-sweeping, all-of-government approach, Biden’s 30 by 30 initiative overlooks a critical component of the conservation goal—it pays virtually no attention to freshwater. Freshwater ecosystems are among the most endangered …

Reckoning With Structural Racism In Legal Education: Methods Toward A Pedagogy Of Antiracism, Doron Samuel-Siegel

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

There is an empty quality to much of what passes as "diversity, equity, and inclusion" work in legal education. Despite a robust body ofscholarship on teaching law consistent with the goals of antiracism, many legal educators struggle to put theory into practice. This Article responds to that struggle, offering a holistic, methodical approach to a pedagogy of antiracism whose goal is twofold: create conditions in which racially minoritized students learn to their full potential, free from the harms of traditional legal education; and equip all students, regardless of identity, to contribute to the dismantlement of structural racism. Absent such pedagogy, …

Rechtsstrukturvergleichung, Corinna Coupette, Dirk Hartung

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Rechtsstrukturvergleichung untersucht die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen den Strukturen einzelner Rechtssysteme. Theoretisch verwurzelt in Systemtheorie und Komplexitätsforschung, modelliert sie Rechtssysteme als Netzwerke von Dokumenten, Organisationen und Individuen. Rechtsstrukturvergleichung nutzt Methoden der Netzwerkanalyse, um diese Netzwerke zu vermessen, ihre Veränderung über die Zeit zu beobachten und mehrere Rechtssysteme quantitativ zu vergleichen. Sie unterscheidet sich von anderen Ansätzen der Rechtsvergleichung in ihren Annahmen, Methoden und Zielen, indem sie die Abhängigkeiten zwischen den Systembestandteilen abbildet und eher datenwissenschaftliche als ökonometrische Werkzeuge einsetzt. Als neuartige Ergänzung des Methodenrepertoires der Rechtsvergleichung eröffnet die Rechtsstrukturvergleichung zahlreiche Möglichkeiten für weitere Forschung auf der Schnittstelle von Rechtsvergleichung und …

Innovation Transition Success: Practice Doesn't Make Perfect, Kaitlyn Ryan, Amy M. Cox, Ethan Blake, Clay Koschnick, Alfred E. Thal Jr.

Faculty Publications

The authors of this research examine and evaluate organizational factors associated with commercialization under the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Their objective is to improve return on investment. The data set used was the SBIR Phase II program data set, which contains information on 433 SBIR topics with closed contracts reported during Department of Defense (DoD) fiscal years (FYs) 2015 to 2018. Each data point contained characteristics of the topic, including commercialization. Military capability or topic areas were hypothesized to have varying commercialization rates. Incumbency was theorized to be a characteristic of successful programs, while increased company …

Lawbreaker: An Approach For Specifying Traffic Laws And Fuzzing Autonomous Vehicles, Yang Sun, Christopher M. Poskitt, Jun Sun, Yuqi Chen, Zijiang Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Autonomous driving systems (ADSs) must be tested thoroughly before they can be deployed in autonomous vehicles. High-fidelity simulators allow them to be tested against diverse scenarios, including those that are difficult to recreate in real-world testing grounds. While previous approaches have shown that test cases can be generated automatically, they tend to focus on weak oracles (e.g. reaching the destination without collisions) without assessing whether the journey itself was undertaken safely and satisfied the law. In this work, we propose LawBreaker, an automated framework for testing ADSs against real-world traffic laws, which is designed to be compatible with different scenario …

Hermeneutics For Legal Research And Analysis, Konstantin G. Vertsman

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Clamouring For Legal Protection: What The Great Books Teach Us About People Fleeing From Persecution, Cori Alonso-Yoder

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Education Of Common Lawyers In A Twenty-First-Century Environment, Howard O. Hunter

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Legal And Ethical Considerations Of Facial Recognition Technology In The Business Sector, Samuel D. Hodge Jr.

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

Living In The Shadow Of American Racism, James E. Coleman Jr.

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Uncertainty Within United States' Immigration Law In The Competition For Critical Chinese-Born Stem Grads, Neil Rutledge

Nebraska Law Bulletin (Selected Issues)

It is difficult to overstate the information technology sector’s role in the United States economy. According to the Brookings Institute, “(i)n 2017 alone, the IT industry’s contribution to real economic output in the United States exceeded that of the professional and business services, finance and insurance, and manufacturing sectors.” The Covid-19 pandemic further accelerated this growth–49 members of the Fortune 500 are now tech companies.

In the battle for economic and national-security supremacy, Chinese-born students and scientists studying and working at United States’ universities have emerged as a singular vital component in each nation's strategic ambitions. In the United States, …

Information Theory And Patent Documents, W. Michael Schuster

Akron Law Review

Recent scholarship has expanded the scope of analytical tools available to patent law researchers. The foundation of information theory published by Claude Shannon has been applied to textual analysis to determine the similarities of patents and to assess a patent’s value. This article presents a theoretical application of information theory to quantify lexical ambiguity and originality in innovation within patent law.

Recommender Systems And Autonomy: A Role For Regulation Of Design, Rights, And Transparency, Christian Djeffal, Christina Hitrova, Eduardo Magrani

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

Recommender systems are now widely deployed across multiple dimensions of the digital reality that increasingly shapes our lives. In doing so, they mould individual thoughts and actions and can affect individual and collective autonomy. In this paper we first discuss how the ubiquitous exercise of ‘soft’ power by recommender systems on individual users presents interference into individual autonomy and its legal dimensions, expressed through collective and individual self-determination, democratic values and institutions, as well as individual human rights and freedoms. We then argue that this exercise of power over individual and collective destinies necessitates regulatory action to establish an appropriate …

Encryption In India: Preserving The Online Engine Of Privacy, Free Expression, Security, And Economic Growth, Greg Nojeim, Namrata Maheshwari, Eduardo Miglani

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This article argues that the traceability mandate imposed in India by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 undermines encryption and negatively impacts cybersecurity as well as the fundamental right to privacy. In doing so, it explains how the traceability requirement fails the necessity and proportionality test laid down by the Indian Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy judgment, wherein it held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. Further, the article makes a case for why encryption is important for protecting privacy, free expression, and other human rights, …

Fake Facts: An Incredulous Look At Piracy Statistics In India, Prashant Iyengar

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The author of the paper looks at how the expression ‘piracy’ has acquired traits due to the manner in which news has been reported, and also the manner in which ‘piracy statistics’ have defined the boundaries of their context by perpetuating an image of value-neutrality while revealing little other than the quantity of ‘pirates’. By examining newspaper reports, he notes the manner in which the losses in the music and video industries are portrayed, and the estimations of the same which are sometimes downright fictitious, but nonetheless accepted by the press. Accounts of piracy in the press have changed though, …

The Melting Of Patent Law, Eben Moglen

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

In this special comment, the author posits that the patent system as it stands is archaic and oppressive, and has neither intellectual nor moral support. Having veered away from its original goals, by virtue of the change in the technological and functional basis of government, it instead serves as a justification for inequalities of wealth distribution. The author argues that substantial reform is required that would shift the balance in patent law from monopolistic greed to public interest, paving the way for access to knowledge.

Licensing Information Assets In The New Economy: A Pro-Rights Perspective, Raymond T. Nimmer

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

Transactions in the twenty-first century are no longer restricted to just transactions of goods. The digital age has brought with it a boom in transactions in information, and licensing of information assets is often seen as the best way to permit and control the use of the information in question by mutual agreement. However, given the rapidity of technological advances and the corresponding changes in the nature of licensing transactions, an economy is not best served by a static legal system that continues to treat information licensing in the same manner as a hire, rent or lease of goods. This …

Intellectual Property Rights And The Public Domain In The New World Order, John Frow

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The proprietary system of intellectual property rights introduced by the TRIPS regime is premised on Western, neo-liberal notions of the nature of property. This article first highlights a number of recent changes in the global organisation of intellectual property rights. These changes indicate the international convergence of intellectual property law. The repercussions of the TRIPS regime on pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and genetic research are then examined. Finally, it stresses the importance of the idea of “common heritage” as a better way of thinking about the public domain.

Evolution Of Copyright Law: The Indian Journey, Justice Prathiba M. Singh

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

Out of all the forms of protection given to innovation and creation, copy- right law is the most versatile. This law encompasses recognition, protection and enforcement of rights for a very large variety of creative works including traditional forms of works such as books, articles, poetry, lyrics of songs, paintings, musical compositions, sculpture, architecture, script in a drama or a film, to modern forms of copyrighted works such as computer software, databases, compilations, broadcasts etc. Protection for copyright finds its justification in fair play. The law strikes a fine balance between the rights and interests of authors/owners of copyright and …

Brief Of Amicus Curiae Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic In Support Of Plaintiffs-Appellants, John A. Meiser, Francesca Genova Matozzo

Court Briefs

No. 22-11674
Thai Meditation Association of Alabama, Inc. v. City of Mobile, Alabama

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama No. 1:16-cv-00395

From the Summary of the Argument

This Court already corrected the district court’s errant understanding of RLUIPA’s substantial-burden analysis once in this case. Unfortunately, a second correction is needed now.

In Thai Meditation Association’s first appeal, this Court explained that “the district court misread our opinion in Midrash” and, as a consequence, had erroneously required the Association to show that the government “completely prevent[ed]” its religious exercise in order to demonstrate …

One Hundred Tones, One Decision: Exploring Race, Skin Tone, And Motivations For Becoming A Criminal Justice Practitioner, Talisa J. Carter

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Overall, scholarship finds individuals have similar motivations to work in the criminal justice system. However, several studies acknowledge race and gender can influence motivations to work as justice professionals. Absent from the motivation and criminal justice profession literature is the potential role that skin tone plays. This gap is surprising as research firmly establishes people with darker skin complexions are more likely to negatively experience the criminal justice system. And thereby may find working as a criminal justice practitioner less desirable. Taken together, this raises the question, how does skin tone impact motivations to work in the justice system? To …

Trust Me: Combining Online Dispute Resolution, Law And Blockchain Technology, Tina Van Der Linden

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This piece focuses on the unsettled relationship between online dispute resolution, law and smart contracts (and the ‘trust’ provided by them). It first introduces the ways in which smart contract applications on a blockchain provide the trust required to deal with unknown business partners – trust in the network rather than in an old-fashioned trusted third party. A distinction is also drawn between calculated trust and institutional trust. The piece then attempts to reconcile the trust provided by smart contracts with the demands of business and concludes that some gaps remain. Finally, it examines what online dispute resolution and the …