Digital Commons Network^™

The Under-Policed, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Freeze Play: Bennett's Strategy For Entrenching Inequality, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Risks Of Clouded Property Title For Cannabis Business Owners, Investors, And Creditors, Sean O'Connor

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Present Of Newsworthiness, Amy Gajda

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Short-Termism And Long-Termism, Michal Barzuza, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

A significant debate in corporate law and finance concerns the role of activist investors (especially hedge funds) in corporate governance. Activists, it is often alleged, imprudently privilege short term earnings over superior (but less liquid) long term investments. Activists counter that they target managers who unjustifiably cling to questionable strategies. While this debate is hardly new, it has grown increasingly fractious of late. We analyze the activism debate within a theoretical securities-market setting. In our framework – which draws from an emerging literature in empirical and experimental finance – managers are differentially overconfident (causing them to favor long-term projects), while …

#Sayhername Captured: Using Video To Challenge Law Enforcement Violence Against Women, Amber Baylor

Faculty Scholarship

Recorded encounters between women of color and police officers have been invaluable in bringing the reality of these interactions into the living rooms of otherwise unknowing Americans. The recordings are instrumental pieces of documentation and evidence, with the power to impact verdicts and galvanize the domestic struggle for human rights outside of the courtroom. They also are fraught with ethical issues that must be addressed by attorneys and activists hoping they effect change. Complexities such as implicit biases, editing and sourcing of videos, anonymity for those attacked and bystanders, and vicarious trauma on affected communities complicate use of violent police …

Truth And Legitimacy (In Courts), Kenneth S. Klein

Faculty Scholarship

This Article draws upon empirical and theoretical scholarship from philosophy, economics, social science, psychology, political science, ethics, and jurisprudence, in addition to more traditional legal sources such as Supreme Court decisions, to develop an articulation of the meaning, role, and importance of truth in courts. It is frequently articulated that trials are a search for truth. But as insiders to the judicial system know, if this is so then it is a meaning of truth that differs what truth means in any other context. And exposing this definitional dissonance in turn exposes that the legitimacy of the courts rests on …

Toward A Civilized System Of Justice: Reconceptualizing The Response To Sexual Violence In Higher Education, Hannah Brenner, Kathleen Darcy

Faculty Scholarship

The reporting, investigation, and prevention of sexual violence in settings that are closed off from the greater community and subject to their own laws, rules, norms and biases present special challenges for survivors of sexual violence. This essay builds on our existing scholarship that explores the pervasive problem and exceedingly high incidence of sexual violence perpetrated against women in closed institutional systems like prison, the military, and immigration detention centers. Survivors in these contexts are routinely denied access to justice internally and from the external criminal justice system; they also face major limitations (imposed by both federal law and Supreme …

Madonnas And Whores In The Workplace, Jessica K. Fink

Faculty Scholarship

Much has been written about “lookism” – the preferential treatment given to those who conform to societal standards of beauty. But in a recent case before the Iowa Supreme Court, a gender discrimination plaintiff alleged a sort of “reverse-lookism,” claiming that her male employer terminated her long-term employment because the employee was too physically attractive, thus tempting the employer to think about entering into an extramarital affair. To the great surprise of many who followed this case, the Iowa Supreme Court sided with the employer, declining to find him liable for gender discrimination. As one might expect, uproar ensued, with …

Bars To Justice: The Impact Of Rape Myths On Women In Prison, Hannah Brenner, Kathleen Darcy, Gina Fedock, Sheryl Kubiak

Faculty Scholarship

This article stems from a National Science Foundation-funded interdisciplinary research project that addresses a major gap in understanding the reporting of sexual victimization in prison and the confluence of factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of internal laws and policies. As a basis of this work, our cohort of scholars in law, social work, and psychology utilized data and personal narratives from the groundbreaking class action lawsuit, Neal v. MDOC, brought on behalf of over 800 female inmates against the State of Michigan. In this article, we identify the most prevalent rape myths we observed from women who were involved …

Inefficiently Automated Law Enforcement, Woodrow Hartzog, Gregory Conti, John Nelson, Lisa A. Shay

Faculty Scholarship

For some crimes the entire law enforcement process can now be automated. No humans are needed to detect the crime, identify the perpetrator, or impose punishment. While automated systems are cheap and efficient, governments and citizens must look beyond these obvious savings as manual labor is replaced by robots and computers. Inefficiency and indeterminacy have significant value in automated law enforcement systems and should be preserved. Humans are inefficient, yet more capable of ethical and contextualized decision-making than automated systems. Inefficiency is also an effective safeguard against perfectly enforcing laws that were created with implicit assumptions of leniency and discretion. …

A Study On Immigrant Activism, Secure Communities, And Rawlsian Civil Disobedience, Karen Pita Loor

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the immigrant acts of protest during the Obama presidency in opposition to the Secure Communities (SCOMM) immigration enforcement program through the lens of philosopher John Rawls’ theory of civil disobedience and posits that this immigrant resistance contributed to that administration’s dismantling the federal program by progressively moving localities, and eventually whole states, to cease cooperation with SCOMM. The controversial SCOMM program is one of the most powerful tools of immigration enforcement in the new millennium because it transforms any contact with state and local law enforcement into a potential immigration investigation. SCOMM has now been revived through …

Improving Access To Justice In Developing And Post-Conflict Countries: Practical Examples From The Field, Jessica Vapnek, Peter Boaz, Helga Turku

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Multiplication Effect Of Legal Insurance, Ben Depoorter, Jef De Mot, Michael G. Faure

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

First Do No Harm: Protecting Patients Through Immunizing Health Care Workers, Dorit R. Reiss, Rene F. Najera

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Startups And Unmet Legal Needs, Alice Armitage, Evan Frondorf, Christopher Williams, Robin Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Capturing The Insights: Commonalities And Differences, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judicial Ethical Integrity: Challenges And Solutions, Morris A. Ratner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Drug Wars: A New Generation Of Generic Pharmaceutical Delay, Robin Feldman, Evan Frondorf

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cross-Cultural Challenges, Consensus, And Opportunities For Advancing The Professional Ethical Integrity Of Legal System Actors, Rory Little

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Progressive Property And Public Debt, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Debt is property, and, because of this, property law has a lot to say about how debts are resolved. Indeed, property law is deeply woven into the fabric of the bankruptcy process — a fact that has been woefully neglected by many scholars. The ability to provide debtors with relief and the ability of creditors to demand protections from discharge or diminished payments are both concepts that are intimately tied to property law. However, despite the doctrinal workings of property law in this context, from a theoretical standpoint property law has been underutilized. This is particularly true, as this Article …

Do The Merits Matter: Empirical Evidence On Shareholder Suits From Options Backdating Litigation, Minor Myers, Q. Curtis

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Presidential Legitimacy Through The Anti-Discrimination Lens, Catherine Y. Kim

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nonprofit Oversight Under Siege: Introduction, Dana Brakman Reiser

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Student-Edited Law Reviews Should Continue To Flourish, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, the Author opines that the institution of the student-edited law review could no doubt be improved upon in a number of ways, but the existence of the student-edited journal should be sustained, nurtured, and grown by law school administration and faculty. Helping student-edited law reviews improve and flourish should be part of the mission of teachers, scholars, and lawyers committed to providing a skills-based education, for an intellectual discourse, and a service to the legal community.

Granting Exemptions From Legal Duties: When Are They Warranted And What Is The Place Of Religion?, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

In what follows, I focus on when exemptions from legal duties are called for and whether religion should be a crucial ingredient. I concentrate especially on the present controversy over same-sex marriage, and how far people and organizations should be required to afford those couples equal status. But other kinds of exemptions can help us understand various general questions and provide key insights about this intense concern of our time.

My basic conclusions are these: religious convictions and practices do matter but only sometimes should they be legally distinguished from other bases. Considering all that is at stake, certain exemptions …

Clinical Legal Education's Contribution To Building Constitutionalism And Democracy In South Africa: Past, Present, And Future, Peggy Maisel, Shaheda Mahomed, Meetali Jain

Faculty Scholarship

Clinical Legal Education (“CLE”) courses were first introduced in South Africa nearly fifty years ago. Since then, their role has changed from addressing legal problems perpetrated by an oppressive system, to strengthening South Africa’s transition to democracy. The end of apartheid has been accompanied by a transition of focus from private law to public law. South Africa currently has seventeen public universities, each of which has a law faculty and a legal clinic. Many clinical programs’ missions are primarily dedicated to community service and providing access to justice.

Although CLE programs have undertaken some human rights and law reform work, …

Beyond Lifestyle: Governing The Social Determinants Of Health, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Non-communicable and chronic diseases have overtaken infectious diseases as the major causes of death and disability around the world. Despite recognition that reduction in the chronic disease burden will require governance systems to address the social determinants of health, most public health recommendations emphasize individual behavior as the primary cause of illness and the target of intervention. This Article argues that focusing on lifestyle can backfire, by increasing health inequities and inviting human rights violations. If States fail to take meaningful steps to alter the social and economic structures that create health risks and encourage unhealthy behavior, health at the …

The Way We Pay Now: Understanding And Evaluating Performance-Based Executive Pay, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last ten years, performance-based equity pay, and particularly performance shares, have displaced stock options as the primary instrument for compensating executives of large, public companies in the U.S. This article examines that transformation, analyzing the structure and incentive properties of these newly important instruments and evaluating the benefits and risks from an investor’s perspective. Notable observations include the following: Although technically “stock” instruments, performance shares mimic the incentive characteristics of options. But performance shares avoid the tax, accounting, and other constraints that have led to uniform grants of non-indexed, at the money options. Performance share plans can be …

Facebook’S Emotional Contagion Study And The Ethical Problem Of Co-Opted Identity In Mediated Environments Where Users Lack Control, Evan Selinger, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

We argue a main but underappreciated reason why the Facebook emotional contagion experiment is ethically problematic is that it co-opted user data in a way that violated identity-based norms and exploited the vulnerability of those disclosing on social media who are unable to control how personal information is presented in this technologically mediated environment.