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Meeting Of The Executive Committee - Open Session Book 01/12/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

When Ownership Meets Licensing–New Normative Expectations And The Need For Nft Categorization: All Your Projects “Are” Belong To Us, Charles Belle

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

The current treatment of all NFTs in legal scholarship as identical digital assets fundamentally misunderstands their varied applications and the new normative expectations they create. The Moonbirds controversy of 2022, where a creator’s unilateral license change affected nearly 20,000 token holders, exemplifies the crisis: token holders believed they owned digital assets that could be controlled and commercialized, but existing copyright frameworks treat NFTs merely as licenses subject to creator discretion. Picture for Profile (PFP) Projects—community-based NFT collections involving thousands of tokens often with governance and commercial rights—combine concepts of possession, community governance, and commercialization in ways that challenge traditional intellectual …

From Prompt To Clone: Copyright Challenges In Ai Model Distillation, Claudia Philipp

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

This paper examines the legality of model distillation in the context of large language models (LLMs), where smaller “student” models are trained by mimicking the outputs of larger, proprietary “teacher” models. As artificial intelligence continues to advance rapidly, the legal framework surrounding patent, and contract law is being tested. Specifically, the paper explores whether current U.S. copyright law offers sufficient protection for frontier LLM developers and whether practices like unauthorized distillation amount to infringement. By analyzing model architecture, training data, behavioral mimicry, and reverse engineering under prevailing legal doctrines—including fair use, terms of use enforcement, and recent litigation—the paper finds …

Private Money: Stablecoins, Bitcoin, And The Genius Act, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

Cryptocurrency has been legalized in the United States. The 2025 GENIUS Act provides a sensible regulatory framework for cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange while avoiding predicted monetary chaos. The Act correctly distinguishes between volatile fiat cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are unsuitable as payment mechanisms, and stablecoins backed by traditional currencies and reserves.

Historical analysis spanning American monetary systems from the “free banking era” before 1860 through modern digital payments demonstrates that private money has long coexisted with government currency but requires appropriate regulation to prevent bank runs, fraud, and monetary instability. The GENIUS Act addresses key cryptocurrency risks—technological failures, …

Prevention Beyond Deterrence, Benjamin A. Barsky

Faculty Scholarship

This Article reconceptualizes preventive justice—the public safety paradigm that seeks to prevent harm before it occurs. Scholars have long documented how cities have advanced this paradigm through largely punitive measures, notably variants of broken windows policing, which posit that aggressive misdemeanor enforcement deters more serious crime. Yet in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd protests, and as underscored recently in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, these measures have faced a legitimacy crisis—prompting calls for nonpunitive responses to nonviolent incidents.

This Article establishes a preventive justice approach that advances health and safety without emphasizing crime deterrence. It draws on …

Pharmaceutical Mergers: Do We Have The Right Cure?, Robin Feldman, Gideon Schor, Yaniv Konchitchki, Tanziuzzaman Sakib

Faculty Scholarship

Few federal agencies wield tools more powerful than the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to review—and deny—proposed mergers between companies. This authority is powerful for a reason: Large mergers can be uniquely harmful to the United States economy, potentially reducing competition, undercutting consumer choice, and inflating prices.

The pharmaceutical industry is particularly sensitive to merger harms, given the limited number of competitors and the inelasticity of demand for prescription drugs. As a result, when pharmaceutical companies seek to merge, the FTC often requires that one of the companies divest ownership of certain drugs not yet on the market—so-called “pipeline” drugs––to a …

Retrenchment, Segregation, And Public Education: A Five-Year Analysis Of State Exclusionary School Discipline Legislation, Thalia Gonzalez, Will Martel

Faculty Scholarship

Notwithstanding the decision in Brown v. Board of Education formally ending educational segregation and more than two decades of state reform, the legislative landscape protecting minoritized children from the structural violence of exclusionary school discipline has dramatically shifted in less than five years. From the passage of state “Teacher’s Bills of Rights” to mandatory expulsions, rescissions of prior protections, and new categories of removal, a retrenchment of anti-inclusion legislation—and its corollary, educational carcerality— has occurred. While studies of other forms of legislative retrenchment in K–12 public schools, such as anti-Critical Race Theory and Don’t Say Gay laws, literacy bans, and …

Virtual Influencers, Real Liability: Strategies For Companies To Ensure Consumer Protection When Using Ai Influencers, Sherri Hufstedler

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

When You Wish Upon A Clause, Hannah Lee

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Fair Use Or Foul Play? Copyright Law’S Battle Over Using Sound Recordings In Ai Training, Matthew Schurz

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

How Slow Legislative Reform Allows For Fake News, The Remedies And Solutions To Modernize The Law, Christopher Kidwell

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Board Of Directors Quarterly Meeting - Open Session Book 12/05/2025, Uc Law Sf

2025 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Academic Village Finance Authority Board Of Directors Meeting - Open Session Book 12/05/2025, Uc Law Sf

2025 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Beyond Loper Bright: Iterative Construction At The National Labor Relations Board, Fred B. Jacob, Anne Marie Lofaso

UC Law Journal

“[The agency’s actions] express an intuition of experience which outruns analysis and sums up many unnamed and tangled impressions—impressions which may lie beneath consciousness without losing their worth. The board was created for the purpose of using its judgment and its knowledge.”
- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1907

Trust matters. In the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, Congress entrusted the heavy responsibility of protecting labor peace to a board of experts and an administrative agency, both steeped with experience in resolving labor disputes and fluent in the science of industrial relations. This was no accident. For decades prior, federal courts …

Privacy And Disinformation, Tiffany C. Li

UC Law Journal

All three branches of the federal government have wrestled with how the law could or should regulate social media applications to mitigate the harms of disinformation. However, most proposed solutions make the same critical mistake: Lawmakers may focus on speech regulation or even economic regulation to solve for disinformation but these solutions do not actually address contemporary, technological vectors of disinformation. In today’s increasingly technologically driven global speech environment, the lynchpin for disinformation is not speech but data.

In particular, algorithmic personalization is a new, technological factor that makes disinformation especially harmful. Luckily, data protection and privacy regulation can greatly …

Rap Snitches: A New Framework To Evaluate Rap Lyrics And Creative Expressions As Evidence, Chris Kenefick

UC Law Journal

Rap music has earned its prominent place in American music culture.1 It provides a unique creative outlet for artists to share their experiences and criticize the systems in which they live. Rap lyrics, often metaphorical or exaggerated, have been weaponized by prosecutors to attack the character of artist-defendants at a level not seen with other modes of creative expression. The lyrics of an artist are turned against them in a manner that invites unfair prejudice and improper character evidence into legal proceedings. In the 2020s, major progress has been made to curb this practice, with several jurisdictions introducing legislation that …

Wide Nets, Heavy Burdens: Unpacking Executive Order 14105’S Final Rule, Breanna Li

UC Law Journal

Executive Order 14105 “Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern” was enacted to protect U.S. national security interests in light of China’s military technological growth. This Executive Order creates an outbound investment review program that restricts investments by a U.S. person into companies in specified countries operating in certain technology sectors. This Note will discuss the background of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, review E.O. 14105, and argue that the program it creates results in burdensome unintended consequences to the U.S. economy. These unintended circumstances include: (1) high regulatory …

The Autonomy Default Paradigm In Contract Law, Hanoch Dagan, Michael Heller

UC Law Journal

You can scribble an agreement on a napkin or hire lawyers to negotiate a hundred-page contract. Either way, most of your contractual obligations will not be in your document. They will be in the background rules contract law applies absent your express agreement. Justifying these defaults is a core task of contract theory; getting them right is a core task of contract law.

This Article introduces the autonomy default paradigm, a conceptually coherent and normatively attractive account of contract law defaults. We show that defaults are justified to the extent they enhance our autonomy, understood as self-determination. They vindicate our …

An Age Of Statutes Or An Age Of Executive Orders? Conflicting Judicial And Presidential Visions Of Policymaking, Daniel A. Farber

UC Law Journal

Two decades ago, then-Professor Elena Kagan hailed the era of presidential administration in which Presidents would launch major policy initiatives within the executive branch and end run congressional gridlocks. Since then, the President’s role in the regulatory state has snowballed. In his second term, President Donald Trump has used this authority to the utmost in a quantum leap in presidential administration. Paradoxically, the same Justices who have championed the unitary executive have created roadblocks to presidential policymaking. Overruling the Chevron doctrine, the Court has sought to cabin the role of agencies, and thus the newly supreme President, in statutory administration. …

Brewing Solidarity: Rights Consciousness And Class Consciousness In Coffeeshop Organizing, Brishen Rogers

UC Law Journal

Almost ten thousand baristas have unionized since 2022 in cafes across the country. Their effort breaks with recent history in several respects. For example, baristas have used a novel “worker-to-worker organizing” model in which workers themselves—rather than union staff and leadership—design and manage campaigns. Also, while scholars and unionists have argued for decades that the National Labor Relations Board’s secret ballot elections process is a dead end, baristas have used that process quite effectively, winning over 85% of their elections against the major company involved. Through their organizing efforts, baristas have centered the issues and voices of LGBTQ+ workers and …

The Forever Fight Against Forever Chemicals: Analyzing Loopholes In California’S Pfas Ban For Consumer Products, Jake B. Goldman

UC Law Journal

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals used for their unique qualities in manufacturing across numerous industries. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” persist in the environment for long periods of time and cause serious health risks to consumers. Given mounting research on PFAS and their adverse health effects, the California legislature passed four laws banning the chemicals in specific consumer products.

This Note argues that three new California laws requiring manufacturers to replace PFAS with “the least toxic alternative” are inadequate because they are ambiguous. This ambiguity will invite litigation and create business challenges by …

Dei: Definitely Earned It–A Review Of Contemporary Dei Initiatives Against Emerging Legal Frameworks, Joseph Cremona

UC Law Journal

Since 2024, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have ignited a volatile political debate. Fierce opposition continues to attack their very existence. On one hand, proponents of DEI programs argue that such initiatives are a pivotal mechanism for ensuring that historically marginalized communities receive professional opportunities in America. On the other hand, opponents of DEI insist that these programs are detrimental because they prioritize the advancement of minority groups at the expense of their majority counterparts. With the recent enactment of multiple executive orders by President Trump, DEI programs have become the target of a plethora of lawsuits. These legal …

Religious Freedom & The Fertilized Egg, Rabea Benhalim

UC Law Journal

Anti-abortion activism and litigation have challenged established caselaw on the legality of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the legal treatment of IVF fertilized eggs. These challenges rely on conservative Christian ideologies that full personhood occurs at fertilization. Litigation has primarily arisen out of wrongful death suits and divorce proceedings, wherein a party either has destroyed or seeks to dispose of frozen blastocysts. Some legislatures now seek to regulate the treatment of IVF fertilized eggs vis-á-vis legislation, as politicians increasingly seek to ban any destruction of human fertilized eggs by legally defining human life as beginning at fertilization. However, the question …

Beyond Comprehension: Why Tax Code Complexity Necessitates Irs Deference, Doron Narotzki, Tamir Shanan, Julianne Jones, Ori Barel, Yifat G. Ben-Yaakov, Tomer Surujon, Revital Yusupov, Or Haim Anidjar

UC Law Business Journal

This Article argues that deference to Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) interpretations is essential for the effective interpretation of U.S. federal income tax law due to the technical demands inherent in this uniquely complex area. The U.S. federal income tax code, often considered one of the most intricate legal systems, consists of dense, specialized language, nuanced policy considerations, economic theories, and frequently updated provisions. Judges, as generalists, face a daunting challenge in interpreting this complex, ever-evolving body of law without the specialized expertise that the IRS professionals bring. Frequent amendments further add to this complexity, layering additional provisions that require in-depth …

The Role Of First Amendment In Equal Protection And Affirmative Action Analysis: The Compelling Governmental Interest, Simona Grossi

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College has transformed the legal framework governing university admissions, sharply limiting race-conscious policies and compelling institutions to align their diversity objectives with the newly shaped heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause. Concurrently, the Trump administration’s broad-based attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs—culminating in executive orders restricting race-conscious initiatives— has further intensified the legal and political pressure on colleges and universities striving to foster inclusive academic environments. This article contends that the First Amendment—particularly its protections of academic freedom and free speech—plays a critical and underutilized role …

Foreword

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Political Questions And The Role Of Federal Courts In Deciding Claims That The Executive Branch Is Violating Fundamental Norms Of International Law: The Case Of United States Aid For The Israeli War Against Palestinians In Gaza And The West Bank, Jules Lobel

UC Law Journal

A recent challenge to the Biden Administration’s military aid to Israel as aiding genocide presents an important question of the role of U.S. courts in adjudicating claims that top U.S. officials, in their execution of U.S foreign policy, are violating fundamental international law norms, such as the prohibition against committing or aiding and abetting genocide. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the case as presenting a non-justiciable political question.

The Ninth Circuit’s decision raises the broad question of whether challenges to U.S. government violations of fundamental norms of international law can ever …

Realizing The Americans With Abilities Act: Promoting Civil Rights & Capabilities In The Service Of Individuals With Brain Injury, Zachary E. Shapiro, Tiffany Li, Kaiulani S. Shulman, Melisa Olgun, Chantelle Van Wiltenburg, Molly Teague, Emma Kromm, Brandy Allen, Elliot E.C. Ping, John D. Bowers, Rebecca Harris, Nayla Basma, Apurv Hirsh Shekhar, Gregory E. Antill, Megan S. Wright, Joseph J. Fins

UC Law Journal

Brain injuries often result in varying degrees of impairment to communication and cognitive processes, impeding an individual’s ability to engage in daily activities, participate in social interactions, and achieve independence. This paper builds upon our legislative proposal from Designing An Americans With Abilities Act: Consciousness, Capabilities, and Civil Rights, published in the Boston College Law Review in 2022. That paper proposed new legislation called “The Americans with Abilities Act” (“AWAA”), a comprehensive framework for the effective development, uptake, and utilization of advanced assistive technology (“AT”). These technologies aid individuals with brain injuries in realizing their capabilities and reintegrating into broader …

The First Amendment, Global Corporate Responsibility Standards, & The Quest For Online “Speech Nirvana”, Evelyn M. Aswad

UC Law Journal

With large and powerful social media companies operating as worldwide speech regulators, it is unsurprising that governments have attempted to not only regulate how these companies address platform speech but also pressure them to deliver preferred speech outcomes. In 2024, the Supreme Court decided two cases addressing both themes in the U.S. context. In Moody v. NetChoice, the Court explained how legislation regulating private platform curation of usergenerated content runs afoul of First Amendment protections. And, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Court appeared to erect significant hurdles to challenging alleged governmental coercion of such platforms. These cases have left many …

Freedom Of Expression In Next-Generation Computing, Brittan Heller

UC Law Journal

Extended reality (XR)—the integration of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies—creates immersive, embodied, and behaviorally integrated forms of communication that challenge traditional understandings of freedom of expression. While XR offers new opportunities for creativity, civic engagement, and cross-cultural participation, its immersive nature introduces risks of censorship, surveillance, biometric profiling, algorithmic manipulation, and inequitable access.

This Article situates XR within the framework of European human rights law. It begins by identifying the technical and psychological features that distinguish XR from conventional platforms, particularly presence, immersion, and embodiment, which transform speech into multisensory and interactive experiences. It then evaluates how existing legal …