Digital Commons Network^™

Small Suburbs, Large Lots: How The Scale Of Land-Use Regulation Affects Housing Affordability, Equity, And The Climate, Eric Biber, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, Nicholas Marantz, Moira O’Neill

Faculty Scholarship

Housing costs in major coastal metropolitan areas nationwide have skyrocketed, impacting people, the economy, and the environment. Landuse regulation, controlled primarily at the local level, plays a major role in determining housing production. In response to this mounting housing crisis, scholars, policymakers, and commentators are debating whether greater state involvement in local land-use decision-making is the best path forward. We argue here that there are good reasons to believe that continuing on the current path—with local control of land-use regulation as it is— will lead to persistent underproduction of housing. The benefits of housing production are primarily regional, including improved …

Secrets, Lies, And Lessons From The Theranos Scandal, Lauren Rogal

UC Law Journal

Theranos, Inc., the unicorn startup blood-testing corporation, was ultimately laid low by a former employee whistleblower. The experience of that whistleblower during and after her employment illuminates detrimental secrecy practices within the startup sector, as well as legal and practical barriers to corporate accountability. Theranos sought to avoid exposure by cultivating an environment of secrecy and intimidation, and by aggressively extracting and enforcing nondisclosure agreements. The legal landscape for whistleblowers facilitated this strategy: while whistleblowing employees enjoyed certain protections under anti-retaliation statutes, trade secrets statutes, and common law contract principles, these protections were neither readily accessible nor certain. This Article …

Why Familial Searches Of Civilian Dna Databases Can And Should Survive Carpenter, Jasper Ford-Monroe

UC Law Journal

Over the past few years, a powerful new forensic technique has emerged. By uploading DNA from a crime scene to a civilian DNA database, such as GEDmatch, investigators can discover the genetic relatives of the perpetrator and thereby track down the perpetrator himself. This procedure is known as forensic genetic genealogy searching (FGGS), and in under three years it has cracked numerous decades-old cases once thought to be unsolvable.

Concerned about genetic privacy and discrimination, most legal commentators have thus far confronted FGGS with raised hackles. They either argue FGGS is a Fourth Amendment search under Carpenter, or that it …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Clean Air Act Of 1963: Postwar Environmental Politics And The Debate Over Federal Power, Adam D. Orford

UC Law Environmental Journal

This Article explores the development of the Clean Air Act of 1963, the first law to allow the federal government to fight air pollution rather than study it. The Article focuses on the postwar years (1945-1963) and explores the rise of public health medical research, cooperative federalism, and the desire to harness the powers of the federal government for domestic social improvement, as key precursors to environmental law. It examines the origins of the idea that the federal government should “do something” about air pollution, and how that idea was translated, through drafting, lobbying, politicking, hearings, debate, influence, and votes, …

The Children’S Hour: Climate Change, Law, And The Family, Jessica Rizzo

UC Law Environmental Journal

U.S. family law has historically been regarded as “exceptional,” or insulated from the geopolitical forces that shape laws governing public life. Climate change, however, is putting new and terrible pressures on families and family law—the earth may be verging on the uninhabitable by the time a child born today comes of age. While U.S. family law is presently organized around ensuring “stability” for children, the family law of the future must follow the lead of kinship innovators finding creative and sustainable ways to respond to the instability introduced by climate change.

The Climate Responsibility Norm Ensuring Meaningful Participation In A Budding International Norm, Katie Lindsay

UC Law Environmental Journal

States are shifting their focus from preventing climate change to lessening the potential harms and learning how to live within a harsher climate. This paper focuses on why the international community needs to focus on its climate responsibility to abate these growing concerns. Focusing on the goal, not the form, would allow flexibility and for states to adapt to climate change within their governmental and cultural norms. Developing states should not dedicate resources to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions when their national goals barely make a dent compared to developed states’ total contributions. Mayer argues that a climate assessment norm is …

Uc Hastings Academic Village Request For Expressions Of Interest, Uc Hastings College Of The Law

Long Range Campus Planning Archive

No abstract provided.

California’S Sb 1437 And Its Applicability To Attempted Murder Liability, Violeta Alvarez

Hastings Journal of Crime and Punishment

No abstract provided.

The Three Conundrums: Doctrinal, Theoretical, And Practical Confusion In The Law Of Sexually Explicit Speech, Kyla P. Garrett Wagner, P. Brooks Fuller

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In First Amendment law, one rarely disputed notion is that sexually explicit speech is less valuable than so-called “core” forms of expression, such as political discourse. This study revives that dispute with a focus on the Supreme Court’s justifications for categorizing sexually explicit speech as “low-value” in the first place. The analysis reveals three conundrums plaguing the Court’s jurisprudence: categorizing restrictions on sexually explicit speech; interpreting the value and harms of sexually explicit speech; and assessing the evidence (or lack thereof) for restrictions on sexually explicit speech. This article explains how these conundrums should be resolved in sexually explicit speech …

Liberty Or Licentiousness: Disinsenting, Disparaging, And Scandalous Marks Post-Tam And Brunetti, Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Vaccines And Their Pitfalls In Informed Consent, Yousef Haik, Eleni Polymenopoulou

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as a global health crisis. The search for a coronavirus vaccine escalated to a global competition. Drugs for other diseases as well as new formulations are proposed as potential candidates for the treatment or intervention of coronavirus. Almost all pharmaceutically able countries are pursuing potential vaccines. At the time of writing this article, two vaccines are already marketed and tested with promising interim results. Both vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA) encapsulated in a lipid nanocarrier. Under ordinary circumstances, clinical trial authorizations oblige sponsors to disclose all risks to volunteers in order …

Unilateral Economic Sanctions And Protecting U.S. National Security, Fatemeh Bagherzadeh

UC Law SF International Law Review

Terrorism remains the most important national security concern. Multi-national economic organizations around the world have increasingly established counter-terrorism commissions to assess the magnitude of the threat posed by terrorism. Economic sanctions have been a counter-terrorism measure for many decades and remain an essential tool of U.S. foreign policy and a mechanism to protect the U.S. national security interests. In recent years, the internationalization of terrorism and emergence of non-state terrorist actors has led the U.S. to use smart targeted sanctions to dismantle financial support of terrorism. Yet, conventional country-specific nation-wide sanctions that penalize a single target nation, continue to be …

A “Journey” Through Band Agreements, Jordan M. Whitford

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

No abstract provided.

Paternity And Parental Leave: Towards A New International Labour Standard, Katharine Booth

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The article recommends for the International Labour Organization to implement a new Standard on paternity and parental leave. It sets out the most important provisions that should be incorporated into such a Standard to encourage the uptake of paternity and parental leave by fathers and partners, and thereby to contribute to the realization of gender equality. These provisions include: application of the Standard to as many workers as possible, generous length of and compensation for paternity and parental leave, an individual right to a significant period of non-transferable parental leave, and flexibility in relation to the scheduling of leaves.

To …

Tax Tattletales Hit The Jackpot: Now What?, Sharon Kaur

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This note examines the recent change to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) whistleblower program. Whistleblowers receive a percentage of the proceeds collected as a result of an action or settlement. In 2018, Congress expanded the definition of the proceeds collected to include criminal fines, civil forfeitures, and penalties arising out of the violations of reporting requirements. Prior to this change, the IRS asserted that criminal fines and civil forfeitures did not constitute “collected proceeds.” Analyzing the judicial and legislative history, along with empirical data reported by the IRS, this note specifically addresses whether the change in the definition of proceeds …

The Kuwaiti National Assembly: A De Facto Boys’ Club, Fatemah Albader

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Richelle Joy Gernan

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Presidential Impunity And The Mueller Report: How The Department Of Justice’S Failure To Subject The Special Counsel Regulations To Notice And Comment Undermined The Rule Of Law, M. Akram Faizer

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Special Counsel, Robert S. Mueller, III’s two-volume, 448-page Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election (“the Report”), did an outstanding job in evidencing that President Trump’s actions in office satisfied the federal obstruction of justice standards. However, due to Mueller’s limited brief and his concern for maintaining the proper separation of powers, the Report, submitted confidentially to former Attorney General Barr as required by Department of Justice Regulations, abjured a determination as to Presidential criminality. This regulatory confidentiality requirement in conjunction with the requirement that Barr disclose an unverifiable Report summary …

Disability Rights And The Louisiana Constitution, Derek Warden

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Louisiana Constitution contains three Equal Protection Clauses. Article I, section 3 prohibits discriminatory laws; but, as an original matter, should prohibit both discriminatory laws and government conduct. Article I, section 12 prohibits discrimination by individuals (government or private) in regard to access to public places. Finally, article I, section 2, the Due Process Clause, also contains an Equal Protection component. Each clause prohibits discrimination on the basis of “physical condition,” which contains a general “disability” component. Based upon statements from the Louisiana Constitutional Convention and other modalities of constitutional argument, this article concludes that these clauses—individually and in conjunction— …

Presidential Removal: Impeachment As A Tool To Promote Democracy In Haïti, Brynna Bolt

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Financial Benchmark Control As Monopoly Power, Sharon E. Foster

UC Law Business Journal

No abstract provided.

Litigating California Contracts, Curtis E.A. Karnow

UC Law Business Journal

No abstract provided.

Cinderella’S Slipper: A Better Approach To Regulating Cryptoassets As Securities, Carol R. Goforth

UC Law Business Journal

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks both to protect investors and to promote efficient capital formation, but in the context of cryptoassets these goals sometimes collide. The SEC vigorously reacts to fraudulent offerings of cryptoassets but has had to do so by forcing crypto into an antiquated framework designed with very different interests in mind. Even worse than the convoluted and complex arguments needed to force crypto into the existing category of “investment contracts,” once crypto is treated as a security, a host of onerous and inapt disclosure requirements and regulations follows. Developers, promoters, exchanges, and others who might …

How The “Exception” Becomes The Standard, Margeaux Bergman

UC Law Business Journal

No abstract provided.

California Policy Recommendations For Realizing The Promise Of Medication Abortion: How The Covid-19 Public Health Emergency Offers A Unique Lens For Catalyzing Change, Kerri Pinchuk

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

While the new composition of the United States Supreme Court has raised speculation about the fate of Roe v. Wade, for millions in America the promise of a patient’s right to choose an abortion is already a distant illusion.** Decades of work by anti-abortion policymakers has resulted in prohibitive state and federal funding restrictions and widespread clinic closures. But clinicians, advocates, and researchers are optimistic about one way to expand access: medication abortion. Known colloquially as “the abortion pill,” medication abortion is poised to significantly increase access for patients everywhere, and particularly for low-income patients and those who live in …

El Salvador: Root Causes And Just Asylum Policy Responses, Karen Musalo

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Throughout the course of United States history, there has often been a chasm between our ideals as a country, and our actions. Our foreign policy and immigration policy have been no exception – frequently betraying our stated commitment to democracy, respect for human rights, and protection of the persecuted. This article takes a close look at El Salvador, whose nationals make up a significant number of asylum seekers at our border. Our foreign and immigration policies towards El Salvador are illustrative of that gap between ideals and reality. We supported a brutal military during that country’s civil war, and adopted …

Operating Within Systems Of Oppression, Karissa Provenza

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

Uc Hastings College Of The Law 140th Commencement, Uc Hastings College Of The Law

Commencement Exercises

No abstract provided.

Hedonic-Loss Damages That Optimally Deter: An Alternative To “Value Of A Statistical Life” That Focuses On Both Decedent And Tortfeasor, Michael Pressman

UC Law Journal

Plaintiffs in wrongful-death suits typically are unable to recover for the decedent’s “hedonic loss”—the loss of happiness (or wellbeing) incurred as a result of the lost life-years themselves. Although this omission might not be a mistake on a backward-looking account of tort law (because the decedent is dead and arguably cannot be compensated), it is problematic on a forward-looking account of tort law, because it results in under-deterrence of activities causing death. Thus, we must provide an answer to the tricky question of what dollar sum should be assigned to the loss of life. The dominant framework among legal theorists …