Digital Commons Network^™

Patents As Promoters Of Competition: The Guild Origins Of Patent Law In The Venetian Republic, Ted Sichelman, Sean O'Connor

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Part II of this Article describes the artisan and merchant guild systems of the Venetian Republic. Part III explores the emergence of the patent system as a means for foreigners and Venetian citizens to compete with the guilds, as well as the eventual addition of negative exclusive rights to the basic license form of positive patent privileges. In so doing, contrary to the speculation of some scholars, we reject with near certainty the contention that the first patent law statute granting exclusionary rights for—in modern parlance—technological inventions was a silk-specific directive enacted by the Venetian Grand Council in the late …

Hired To Invent Vs. Works Made For Hire: Resolving The Inconsistency Among Rights Of Corporate Personhood, Authorship, And Inventorship, Sean M. O'Connor

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This Essay focuses on the interrelation of three legal doctrines that affect the allocation of ownership and attribution of products of the human mind. The first, corporate personhood, grants corporations rights of personhood similar to those of natural persons. The second, the work-made-for-hire doctrine (WMFH) under copyright law, allocates ownership and attribution for copyrightable works to the employer of the natural-person author—even where that employer is a nonnatural, legal person such as a corporation. And the third, shop rights and the hired-to-invent exception, permits courts to grant equitable licenses or assignments to employers for their employees’ inventions.

These three doctrines …

In Tribute: Frank I. Michelman, Judge Guido Calabrese, Judge Dennis Davis, Rosalind Dixon, Dieter Grimm, Patrick O. Gudridge, Martha Minnow, Margaret Jane Radin

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No abstract provided.

China’S ‘Attitude’ Toward Human Rights: Reading Hungdah Chiu In The Era Of The Iraq War, Dongsheng Zang

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China observers in the United States generally share two observations on China today: that China has made impressive progress in economic development in the past three decades, and that China has maintained a poor human rights record since the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. On the economic front, China overtook Japan and became the second largest economy in 2010. In a joint study with China's Development Research Center of the State Council, the World Bank recently predicted that even if the Chinese economy grows a third as slowly in the future, it will outstrip the United States in terms of overall GDP …

Taxing Facebook Code: Debugging The Tax Code And Software, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

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This article sets out to analyze both intellectual property laws and tax systems as applied to computer software. It analyzes software within intellectual property's established doctrinal framework, a difficult task due to the fact that software can encompass some combination of the traits of copyrights, trade dress, patents, and trade secrets. It then examines both the federal and state tax systems governing software. It shows that fitting software within current tax schemes presents unique challenges, as software contains both tangible and intangible elements, is subject to varying intellectual property protections, and can be delivered through various media. The article argues …

Giving Voice To Rachel Carson: Putting Science Into Environmental Law, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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Certainly, the most pressing issue of modern times is to develop a body of environmental law (that includes climate change) that is highly responsive to science. Without demeaning the many distinctions between the exercise of science and the practice of law, let me cut to the chase and declare that science is mostly about the “pursuit of truth” and law is mostly about “who wins.” Anybody who doubts this proposition should examine the radical differences between the “Supreme Court of Science” in the United States and the Supreme Court of Law.

The Supreme Court of Science, the National Research Council, …

Serious Flaw Of Employee Invention Ownership Under The Bayh-Dole Act In Stanford V. Roche: Finding The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle In The German Employee Invention Act, Toshiko Takenaka

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This article argues that the current Bayh-Dole Act is incomplete because the Act fails to provide a mechanism for contractors to secure the ownership of federally funded inventions from their employees. Part I of this Article discusses this flaw in the current Bayh-Dole Act, highlighted by Stanford v. Roche, and argues that a historical accident resulted in this flaw due to Congress's failure to pass a series of bills based on the German EIA. Passages in the Bayh-Dole Act suggest that the Act assumes a transfer by operation of law to secure the ownership of federally funded inventions through …

A Teaching Practice Review Of The Use Of Multiple-Choice Questions For Formative And Summative Assessment Of Student Work On Advanced Undergraduate And Postgraduate Modules In Engineering, Aidan O'Dwyer

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This paper reflects on, reports on and evaluates the use of multiple-choice questions, in both formative and summative assessment modes, on control engineering modules taken by advanced undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, over four academic years. The material covered by the modules is analytical in nature. The rationale for examining the assessment strategy was the poor performance by students in a closed book traditional terminal examination on one of the advanced undergraduate modules over some years. The change in assessment strategy has improved student learning, as measured by assessment data; student feedback on the assessment methods is broadly positive. The …

Four Reservations On Civil Rights Reasoning By Analogy: The Case Of Latinos And Other Nonblack Groups Symposium: The Thirteenth Amendment: Meaning, Enforcement, And Contemporary Implications: Panel Iv: Contemporary Implications, Richard Delgado

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No abstract provided.

Support Of Non-Biological Children In Jewish Law, J. David Bleich

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Adoption as a legal institution is unknown in Jewish law. Suppression of parental identity, as generally occurs in closed adoption, is banned “lest the earth become filled with licentiousness” (Leviticus 19:29). Rabbinic tradition interprets that verse as expressing concern regarding the possibility of a future incestuous marriage. Nevertheless, raising an orphan in one’s home is regarded as highly meritorious. However, binding obligations of support and maintenance can be undertaken only by means of contract. Such a contract in favor of a stepchild may be verbal if entered into at the time of marriage. Otherwise, a formal kinyan, i.e., one of …

Trust In The Information Society, Brian O'Neill

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Trust is an important feature for all users of the Internet who rely on the safety and security of network technologies and systems for their daily lives. Trust, or the lack of it, has also been identified by the European Commission’s Digital Agenda as a major barrier to further development of the information society in Europe. One of the areas in which concerns have been raised is in relation to children’s safety online. As a result, substantial efforts have been made by policymakers and by the industry to build greater trust and confidence in online digital safety. This paper examines …

Irish Writers And The Eucharist, Eamon Maher

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No abstract provided.

Journalism Education And Children's Rights: New Approaches To Media Development In Cee/Cis Countries, Michael Foley, Noirin Hayes, Brian O'Neill

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This article gives the background to a project entitled Children's Rights and Journalism Practice, which was carried out for UNICEF in university journalism faculties in CEE/CIS countries

By focusing on journalism in the context of the academy and raising awareness of children’s rights from a journalistic perspective, the project seeks to provide a relatively safe space for critical engagement with journalistic ethics and values. Children are targets of, or are implicated in, nearly all aspects of public policy, yet are largely invisible in news-media coverage, and rarely have their voices heard in matters affecting them. By using the UNCRC as …

Women As Keepers Of Algerian And Pied-Noir Identity, Aoife Connolly

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The Algerian War (1954-1962) was arguably the most traumatic war of decolonisation fought by Western colonial powers. As the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence approaches, this “War Without a Name” remains a problematic subject in France, in which the commemoration of the war, the teaching of colonial history and issues associated with North African immigration and French identity, are hotly contested subjects. An especially neglected aspect of the Algerian war has been the one million French of Algeria, now known as pieds-noirs, who fled to France near the end of the conflict. As a symbol of a failed colonial system, …

Work-Family Conflict And The Pipeline To Power: Lessons From European Gender Quotas, Julie C. Suk

Articles

The article examines the persistent gender disparities at the top of the legal profession, attributing them to work-family conflict and the disproportionate impact of caregiving responsibilities on women. It explores European gender quotas as a potential solution, arguing that such measures address the legitimacy and effectiveness of institutions by ensuring gender parity in leadership positions. While acknowledging the challenges in implementing quotas in the U.S., the analysis suggests that European approaches offer valuable insights for addressing the "leaky pipeline" and advancing gender equality in the legal profession.

Provocation At Face Value, Kyron J. Huigens

Articles

To take provocation at face value is to plead and prove it as a manslaughter offense, as it is defined in most criminal codes. To do this seems to be both unnecessary and impossible. The defendant has the best access to evidence of provocation and will benefit from the proof of this partial defense, so why should he not be required to prove it? The prosecution has no incentive to prove provocation manslaughter because the definition of this offense includes a murder. Why would the prosecution, having proved a murder, set out to prove a lesser crime than the crime …

Public-Private Approaches To Mass Tort Victim Compensation: Some Thoughts On The Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Myriam E. Gilles

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No abstract provided.

Pleading As Information-Forcing, Alexander Reinert

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Academics, judges, and practitioners have devoted much attention to the potential impact of the federal pleading standards announced in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007). Many have criticized Iqbal and Twombly on procedural, substantive, and policy grounds. And although most everyone agrees that the cases mark a break with past liberal pleading rules and have changed pleading practice, there is little agreement about precisely how the cases have affected ultimate outcomes. Indeed, there is much confusion about what exactly the new rules require of a pleader.

In this Article, …

Ethical Limits On Civil Litigation Advocacy: A Historical Perspective, Carol Rice Andrews

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This article considers and critiques the history of civil litigation conduct standards from ancient times to the present For hundreds of years in both England and France truth and reasonable behavior were constant duties owed to the judicial system itself and they remain paramount today The primary evolution has come with regard to whether any of three additional court duties just cause motive or objective merit also take precedence over client duties Early European litigation standards varyingly imposed versions of each and in nineteenth century America lawyers and scholars debated alternative models for proper litigation advocacy ranging from a full …

Standing Lessons: What We Can Learn When Conservative Plaintiffs Lose Under Article Iii Standing Doctrine, Heather Elliott

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The Supreme Court's Article III standing doctrine has plagued liberal groups for nearly forty years Recently however the doctrine has blocked a number of conservative lawsuits opposing gay marriage the 2010 health care law and the expansion of federal funding for stemcell research What can we learn from these cases Because contemporary criticisms of standing doctrine have usually come from the left and defenses from the right it is commonplace to associate arguments for broad standing with leftwing political agendas But as some scholars have shown older versions of standing doctrine served liberal purposes in the New Deal and its …

Precious Knowledge: State Bans On Ethnic Studies, Book Traffickers (Librotraficantes), And A New Type Of Race Trial Race Trials, Richard Delgado

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No abstract provided.

Planning Positivism And Planning Natural Law, Martin J. Stone

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Scott Shapiro offers an elaboration and defense of “legal positivism,” in which the official acceptance of a plan figures as the central explanatory notion. Rich in both ambition and insight, Legality casts an edifying new light on the structure of positive law and its officialdom. As a defense of positivism, however, it exhibits the odd feature that its main claims will prove quite acceptable to the natural lawyer. Perhaps this betokens – what many have begun to suspect anyway – that our usual tests for classifying legal theories (as positivist or not) are, in the present state of discussion, no …

The Foolosophy Of Justice And The Enigma Of Law, Peter Goodrich

Articles

The article explores the symbolic meaning of legal images, particularly the figure of Justitia (Justice) and her blindfold, in 16th-century legal texts. It argues that these images, often overlooked, are enigmatic symbols rooted in legal and theological traditions, conveying meanings that have been forgotten over time. The blindfold, in particular, signifies the separation between divine and human law, emphasizing the limits of human understanding and the enigmatic nature of legal symbolism.

Devising Law: On The Philosophy Of Legal Emblems, Peter Goodrich

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No abstract provided.

Sms Spam Filtering: Methods And Data, Sarah Jane Delany, Mark Buckley, Derek Greene

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Mobile or SMS spam is a real and growing problem primarily due to the availability of very cheap bulk pre-pay SMS packages and the fact that SMS engenders higher response rates as it is a trusted and personal service. SMS spam filtering is a relatively new task which inherits many issues and solu- tions from email spam filtering. However it poses its own specific challenges. This paper motivates work on filtering SMS spam and reviews recent devel- opments in SMS spam filtering. The paper also discusses the issues with data collection and availability for furthering research in this area, analyses …

Speech Intelligibility Prediction Using A Neurogram Similarity Index Measure, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Articles

Performance Intensity functions can be used to provide additional information over measurement of speech reception threshold and maximum phoneme recognition by plotting a test subject's recognition probability over a range of sound intensities. A computational model of the auditory periphery was used to replace the human subject and develop a methodology that simulates a real listener test. The newly developed NSIM is used to evaluate the model outputs in response to Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word lists and produce phoneme discrimination scores.

Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Tom Dunne

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Tom Dunne explores the long term drivers of dysfunction in Ireland's housing markets and what a more sustainable housing system would look like.

Irish Culinary Manuscripts And Printed Books: A Discussion, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Dorothy Cashman

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This paper provides a discussion of Irish Culinary Manuscripts and Printed Cookbooks. It covers Gaelic hospitality and aristocratic hospitality, setting the background for the Anglo-Irish households from which many manuscripts emerge. It charts the growing sources of information on Irish culinary history. It outlines Barbara Wheaton's framework for reading historic cookbooks and discusses the growing manuscript cookbook collection in the National Library of Ireland.

Book Review (Reviewing Martha Minow, In Brown's Wake: Legacies Of America's Educational Landmark (2010)), Gerald Rosenberg

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No abstract provided.

Property's Memories, Eduardo Peñalver

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No abstract provided.