Digital Commons Network^™

Four Reforms For The Twenty-First Century, Barry C. Scheck

Articles

What follows are my top four suggestions for judicial action and advocacy that can result in urgently needed and readily achievable reforms. Ass the American Judicature Society and its members consider their agenda and mission for the coming years, each of these issues deserves their support.

The Haennig-Nordmann Papers: Two Lawyers In Occupied France, Eric Freedman, Richard H. Weisberg

Articles

No abstract provided.

Legal Positivism And Russell's Paradox, David G. Carlson

Articles

In this Article, I argue that legal positivism is subject to the same paradox as was engendered by Frege's set theory-a paradox that has come to be known as Russell's Paradox. Basically, Frege tried to define what a set is. Russell showed that, because of self-reference, any attempt to define the word "set" led to formal condition. I argue that Russell's analysis can be applied to legal positivism, if "legal positivism" is defined to mean that a complete and closed rule of recognition for law is a logical possibility. I also argue that, to the extent legal positivism claims that …

California Dreaming: The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

Half of American workers are not covered by employer-sponsored retirement arrangements. The recently passed California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act seeks to solve this problem by mandating retirement savings arrangements for California employers, coupled with a public investment vehicle for investing these private retirement savings. The Act is important because of California’s size and status as a trendsetter for other states.

This Article is the first to examine the important legal questions the Act raises under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. Contrary to the drafters’ intent, the savings accounts authorized under the Act do not qualify as individual …

Reply - Commercialization Without Exchange, Michael J. Burstein

Articles

In this brief reply to Prof. Ted Sichelman’s comments on my article Exchanging Information Without Intellectual Property, I argue that justifications for intellectual property that rely on the incentives exclusive rights offer for commercialization are not economically distinguishable from traditional theories based on incentives to invent or create in the first instance. Because innovation is not an event but a process, innovative activities may be subject to misappropriation – and therefore under-production – at multiple points along the supply chain that runs from conception to commercialization. The grant of exclusive rights is an intervention that can be made at any …

Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter The Public Domain?: Empirical Tests Of Copyright Term Extension, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald

Articles

The international debate over copyright term extension for existing works turns on the validity of three empirical assertions about what happens to works when they fall into the public domain. Our study of the market for audio books and a related human subjects experiment suggest that all three assertions are suspect. We demonstrate that audio books made from public domain bestsellers (1913-22) are significantly more available than those made from copyrighted bestsellers (1923-32). We also demonstrate that recordings of public domain and copyrighted books are of equal quality. While a low quality recording seems to lower a listener's valuation of …

What's A Name Worth?: Experimental Tests Of The Value Of Attribution In Intellectual Property, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco, Zachary Burns

Articles

Despite considerable research suggesting that creators value attribution – i.e., being named as the creator of a work – U.S. intellectual property (IP) law does not provide a right to attribution to the vast majority of creators. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, many European countries give creators, at least in their copyright laws, much stronger rights to attribution. At first blush it may seem that the U.S. has gotten it wrong, and the Europeans have made a better policy choice in providing to creators a right that they value. But for reasons we will explain in this …

Well-Being Analysis Vs. Cost-Benefit Analysis, John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco, Jonathan S. Masur

Articles

No abstract provided.

Presumed Incompetent Too: A Review Of The New Must-Have Manual For Women Of Color In The Academy, Montre D. Carodine

Articles

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Issues In Critical Race Theory: The Implications Of Race As Character Evidence In Recent High-Profile Cases Challenging Authority: A Symposium Honoring Derrick Bell, Montre D. Carodine

Articles

No abstract provided.

Nullification As Law, Jenny E. Carroll

Articles

The rule of law is central to our notion of governance and our legal system The ideal of a knowable regular public law shimmers in the discourse of our democracy It stands in sharp contrast to the arbitrary and often anarchic law of men in which those with absolute power rule absolutely But the devil is always in the details To move past the idealism is to enter a contested realm where competing theories seek to claim the mantle of the rule of law While this article cannot claim to resolve the dispute over the precise meaning or construct of …

The Structure Of Standing At 25: Introduction To The Symposium Symposium: The Structure Of Standing At 25, Heather Elliott

Articles

No abstract provided.

To Say What The Law Is: Rules, Results, And The Dangers Of Inferential Stare Decisis, Adam N. Steinman

Articles

Does stare decisis require future courts to follow the rules stated in a precedentsetting opinion Or must future courts merely reconcile their decisions with the ultimate result of the precedentsetting case It is widely assumed that a rulebased approach puts greater constraints on future courts but two recent Supreme Court decisions "“ WalMart Stores Inc v Dukes and Ashcroft v Iqbal "“ turn this conventional wisdom on its head In both cases what the Court said about the governing rules was not inherently controversial and would leave courts with considerable flexibility going forward But what the Court did in applying …

Exploring Taxation As A Substitute For Overregulation In The Development Process, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

No abstract provided.

Conservation Easements As Charitable Property: Fiduciary Duties And The Limits Of Charitable Self-Regulation, Melanie B. Leslie

Articles

No abstract provided.

Finding The Proper Measure For Conditions Of Pretrial Confinement, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

Comment in response to Catherine T. Struve, The Conditions of Pretrial Detention, 161 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1009 (2013).

"He Is The Darkey With The Glasses On": Race Trials Revisited, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Community Education And Access To Justice In A Time Of Scarcity: Notes From The West Grove Trolley Garage Case, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Next Generation Civil Rights Lawyers: Race And Representation In The Age Of Identity Performance, Anthony V. Alfieri, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Articles

This Book Review addresses two important new books, Professor Kenneth Mack's Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer and Professors Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati's Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America, and utilizes their insights to both explore the challenges that face the next generation of civil rights lawyers and offer suggestions on how this next generation of civil rights lawyers can overcome these difficulties. Overall, this Book Review highlights one similarity in the roles of black civil rights attorneys past and present: the need for lawyers in both generations to perform their identities in …

Managing Global Supply Chains: Coca Cola And Sugar In Brazil, Caroline Bradley

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Conventional Option, Gregory Koger, Sergio J. Campos

Articles

The filibuster in the United States Senate effectively imposes a supermajority vote requirement to pass any legislation. Both supporters and critics of the filibuster agree that any filibuster reform would require extraordinary measures. In contrast to this consensus, this Article describes a method we call the "conventional option," which allows the filibuster to be reformed by a simple majority of senators at any time using ordinary Senate procedures. As we show below, a majority of senators using the conventional option (1) cannot be filibustered; (2) can act on any day the Senate is in session (not just at the beginning …

Class Actions All The Way Down, Sergio J. Campos

Articles

No abstract provided.

Does The Individual Mandate Coerce?, Raphael Boleslavsky, Sergio J. Campos

Articles

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes an individual mandate that penalizes individuals who do not purchase health insurance. Critics of the individual mandate, including a majority of justices on the Supreme Court, contend that Congress cannot use its Commerce Clause power to coerce individuals to buy a product. Supporters concede that the mandate coerces but argue that it is otherwise permissible under the Commerce Clause. This article questions whether the individual mandate coerces. It uses a simple economic model to show that, under certain conditions, the individual mandate induces insurers to sell health insurance at a price each …

The Contraception Mandate, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

Under the new health care regime, health insurance plans must cover contraception. While religious employers are exempt from this requirement, religiously affiliated employers are not. Several have sued, claiming that the "contraception mandate" violates the Free Exercise Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This Essay explains why the contraception mandate violates none of them.

Exempt Entities As Government Contractors: Regulation Through Cooperative Federalism, Frances R. Hill

Articles

No abstract provided.

Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process? An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice Lave, Justin Mccrary

Articles

No abstract provided.

Protecting Elites: An Alternative Take On How United States V. Jones Fits Into The Court's Technology Jurisprudence, Tamara Rice Lave

Articles

This Article argues that the Supreme Court's technology jurisprudence can be best understood as protecting the privacy interest of elites. After providing an overview of the major technology cases from Olmstead to Kyllo, the Article focuses on the recent case of United States v Jones. The Article does not contend that the Court intended to protect elites, but instead posits that this motive likely operated at a more unconscious level because of the Justices' greater relative affluence and elevated social position.

Who's Naughty And Who's Nice? Frictions, Screening, And Tax Law Design, Leigh Osofsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Presumptive Collection: An Innovative Proposal For A Notoriously Difficult Problem, Leigh Osofsky

Articles

No abstract provided.

Colonizing Humanity, Kunal Parker

Articles

No abstract provided.