Digital Commons Network^™

A Solution Hiding In Plain Sight: Special Education And Better Outcomes For Students With Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Challenges, Yael Cannon, Michael J. Gregory, Julie Waterstone

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will contribute to the ongoing dialogue about special education and the IDEA in two ways. First, it will describe patterns that have emerged from our work with individual children and families that shed light on how common IDEA implementation failures increase the risk of poor outcomes for students with social, emotional and behavioral challenges. Critiques of the law and proposals to amend it should be grounded in an understanding of exactly how and why it is falling short of meeting its promise to these children. Our hope is that mapping the common implementation failures we have seen in …

Diversity May Be Justified, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Virotech Patents, Viropiracy, And Viral Sovereignty, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Although there are many important intellectual property and public health developments in the United States, the domestic debate remains surprisingly disconnected from the international debate. To help bridge this disconnect, this Article discusses the interrelationship between intellectual property and public health in the context of communicable diseases. This type of disease is intentionally picked to highlight how developments abroad could easily affect what happens at home, and vice versa.

The first half of this Article recounts three distinct stories about viruses responsible for AIDS, SARS, and the avian influenza (H5N1). The first story focuses on the ongoing developments within the …

The Tobacco Diaries: Lessons Learned And Applied To Regulation Of Dietary Supplements, Joanna K. Sax

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the future role of the FDA in the regulation of the dietary supplement industry. To address the role of the FDA in the twenty-first century with respect to the dietary supplement industry, Part I of this Article begins by describing the dietary supplement industry and the role of the FDA in this industry. In Part II, this Article provides a brief exposé of the tactics used by the tobacco industry to evade regulation. The purpose of Part II is to provide insight into the tobacco industry’s ability to manipulate consumers and discount scientific proof of the harmful …

Do Npes Matter? Non-Practicing Entities And Patent Litigation Outcomes, Michael J. Mazzeo, Jonathan H. Ashtor, Samantha Zyontz

Faculty Scholarship

It is widely argued that so-called “patent trolls” are corrupting the U.S. patent system and endangering technology innovation and commercialization at large. For example, a recent White House report argued that “trolls” hurt firms of all sizes and advocated for specific policies aimed at curtailing practices thought to be particularly harmful. Yet the existence and extent of any systematic effects of so-called “troll-like” behavior, and the implications of modern patent assertion practices by Non-Practicing Entities (“NPEs”), remains unclear. This article develops novel empirical evidence to inform the debate over NPEs on patent litigation. Specifically, we conduct a large-scale empirical analysis …

Reflections On The Cost Of "Low-Cost" Whole Genome Sequencing: Framing The Health Policy Debate, Timothy Caulfield, Jim Evans, Amy Mcguire, Christopher Mccabe, Tania Bubela, Robert Cook-Deegan, Jennifer Fishman, Stuart Hogarth, Fiona A. Miller, Vardit Ravitsky, Barbara Biesecker, Pascal Borry, Mildred K. Cho, June C. Carroll, Holly Etchegary, Yann Joly, Kazuto Kato, Sandra Soo-Jim Lee, Karen H. Rothenberg, Pamela Sankar, Michael J. Szego, Pilar Ossorio, Daryl Pullman, Francois Rousseau, Wendy J. Ungar, Brenda Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

The cost of whole genome sequencing is dropping rapidly. There has been a great deal of enthusiasm about the potential for this technological advance to transform clinical care. Given the interest and significant investment in genomics, this seems an ideal time to consider what the evidence tells us about potential benefits and harms, particularly in the context of health care policy. The scale and pace of adoption of this powerful new technology should be driven by clinical need, clinical evidence, and a commitment to put patients at the centre of health care policy.

The Right To Quantitative Privacy, David Gray, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

We are at the cusp of a historic shift in our conceptions of the Fourth Amendment driven by dramatic advances in surveillance technology. Governments and their private sector agents continue to invest billions of dollars in massive data-mining projects, advanced analytics, fusion centers, and aerial drones, all without serious consideration of the constitutional issues that these technologies raise. In United States v. Jones, the Supreme Court signaled an end to its silent acquiescence in this expanding surveillance state. In that case, five justices signed concurring opinions defending a revolutionary proposition: that citizens have Fourth Amendment interests in substantial quantities of …

Dynamic Expansion, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Nearly one in four Americans will have medical care and costs covered by the Medicaid program when it has been expanded pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA). National media outlets have been reporting that only about half of the states are participating in the Medicaid expansion; if the reports were true, millions of Americans would be left without insurance coverage, and many of the nation’s medically fragile citizens would not have access to consistent healthcare. Contrary to these reports, most states will participate in the Medicaid expansion in the near future. This claim is not …

Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann

Faculty Scholarship

After decades of failed interstate agreements, the Chesapeake Bay is choking on too many nutrients. The estuary’s last, best chance of recovery is the Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load (“TMDL”) program, also known as a pollution diet. To meet this deadline, all polluters, including large animal farms, will need to sharply reduce the pollutants they release into the Bay. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) must ensure that each Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (“CAFO”) has developed a facility-specific permit that details when and where manure is applied to fields and how waste is stored and handled. Then …

Educating Main Street Lawyers, Luz E. Herrera

Faculty Scholarship

Discussion about the value of a law degree has focused on the financial success of lawyers. Both defenders and critics of the existing legal education model largely ignore the implications that the cost of legal education and high lawyer fees have on access to justice. While a lawyer’s ability to make a decent living must be addressed when determining the value of a legal education, we fail to take into account the fact that there are millions of individuals in the U.S. who cannot find a lawyer to represent them when they need one. For advocates who believe that our …

Probiotics: Finding The Right Regulatory Balance, Diane E. Hoffmann, Claire M. Fraser-Liggett, Frank B. Palumbo, Jacques Ravel, Karen H. Rothenberg, Virginia Rowthorn

Faculty Scholarship

Some products marketed as drugs should be excused from Phase I trials, but safety and efficacy claims for dietary supplements should be more tightly regulated.

Citizen Engagement In The Shrinking City: Toward Development Justice In An Era Of Growing Inequality, Barbara L. Bezdek

Faculty Scholarship

What are the aims of the revitalization conducted by local officials: for which social goods? Good for whom? By what means can the city’s people understand and influence the tradeoffs made by their government in the redevelopment of city blocks already occupied by residents. This is more than a matter of development finance or physical redevelopment. It is a question of social justice, of whose reality counts in the legal process utilized to reach development decisions and approve significant public subsidy for the projects that are remaking American cities.

Sherry Arnstein, writing in 1969 about citizen involvement in planning processes …

Intellectual Property Defenses, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Injunctive And Reverse Settlements In Competition-Blocking Litigation, Keith N. Hylton, Sungjoon Cho

Faculty Scholarship

We distinguish standard settlements, in which the status quo is preserved, and injunctive settlements, which prohibit the defendant's activity. The reverse (payment) settlement is a special type of injunctive settlement. We examine the divergence between private and social incentives to settle and policies that would minimize socially undesirable injunctive and reverse settlements (e.g., banning reverse settlements). The results are applied to competition-blocking litigation, such as patent infringement and antidumping.

Breaking Bankruptcy Priority: How Rent-Seeking Upends The Creditors' Bargain, Mark J. Roe, Fred Tung

Faculty Scholarship

Bankruptcy reallocates value in a faltering firm. The bankruptcy apparatus eliminates some claims and alters others, leaving a reduced set of claims to match the firm’s diminished capacity to pay. This restructuring is done according to statutory and agreed-to contractual priorities, so that lower-ranking claims are eliminated first and higher ranking ones are preserved to the extent possible. Bankruptcy scholarship has long conceptualized this reallocation as a hypothetical bargain among creditors: creditors agree in advance that if the firm falters, value will be reallocated according to a fixed set of predetermined rules and contracts. In any given reorganization case, creditors …

Systematically Thinking About Law Firm Ethics: Conference On The Ethical Infrastructure And Culture Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

To advance the discourse related to law firm ethics and the impact of formal controls and informal influences on lawyer conduct, we convened on April 5, 2013 the Conference on the Ethical Infrastructure and Culture of Law Firms ("Conference" or "Symposium"). The Conference, conducted under the auspices of the Hofstra Law Review and the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University's Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics, was funded in part by the Abraham J. Gross '78 Conference and Lecture Fund at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Experts who have studied issues …

In Good Company: How Corporate Social Responsibility Can Protect Rights And Aid Efforts To End Child Sex Trafficking And Modern Slavery, Erika George, Scarlet R. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

The principal contribution of this Article is to show that, in many cases, the private sector, in cooperation with law enforcement, can initiate and implement policies that help increase the likelihood that buyers and traffickers are caught ultimately making access to child sex workers more difficult. Most commentary regarding child sex trafficking focuses on the failures of local law enforcement to find a solution. However, this Article argues that the private business sector can effectively supplement the efforts of law enforcement, nongovernmental organizations, and international human rights initiatives to protect exploited children. In Part I, this Article first introduces the …

Toward A Jurisprudence Of Free Expression In Russia: The European Court Of Human Rights, Sub-National Courts, And Intersystemic Adjudication, Robert B. Ahdieh, H. Forrest Flemming

Faculty Scholarship

Protection of free expression in Russia is headed the wrong direction, but one institution may still be able to slow its backward slide: the Russian judiciary. In particular, sub-national courts-those operating at the ground level-have the potential to shape a renewed jurisprudence of free expression in Russia. To encourage as much, the European Court ofHuman Rights (ECHR) should engage the Russian courts in a pattern of "intersystemic adjudication, "pressing them to embrace ideas about the role of courts, the law, human rights, and free expression more in line with international norms. Hopefully, this can reverse Russia's current path toward the …

Brief Research Report: Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Hiv Status Among African American Women In Washington, Dc, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: African American women living in Washington, DC have one of the highest Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence rates in the US. However, this population has been understudied, especially as it relates to factors associated with HIV status. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined sociodemographic factors that were associated with having a negative or positive HIV status among a sample of 115 African American women between the ages of 24 and 44 years. We assessed such factors as age, education, sexual orientation, household income, sources of income, number of children, length of residency tenure in Washington, DC, and level of HIV-prevention …

Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections From A Legal Observer (Part I, Ii & Iii), Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act: Time To End The Corporate Welfare, Robert J. Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, inflicted enormous losses on the insurance industry and businesses. In the wake of the disruptions occurring in the insurance market at the time, the government enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 to create a “temporary” federal backstop against catastrophic losses. This program subsidized private risk with public funds through a cost-sharing program for which the government does not receive any compensation. The compelling need for the program was unclear even in the smoldering aftermath of 9/11. Yet in response to effective lobbying by the insurance industry and business interests, Congress has …

Gauging The Gender Divide In The Middle East’S Educational System: Causes, Concerns, And The Impetus For Change, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Justadvice: Studying Law In Snapshots, Brenda Bratton Blom, Leigh Maddox

Faculty Scholarship

Access to legal services continues to be a critical need in the United States. Clinical programs in law schools are part of responding to the demand for these services, but often face the challenge of filling gaps left by larger programs serving the poor or responding to unique legal needs. JustAdvice was designed to provide limited advice to a broad range of people with legal needs, unbundling those services where possible. The story of the development, implementation and transformation of the program into a teaching, triage and referral system that importantly links multiple organizations and services is the core of …

Just Who Are Humanitarian Workers?, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

On the 19th of August, World Humanitarian Day, we honor the contributions of humanitarian workers around the world, especially those who have lost their lives helping people in war-torn societies.

Tackling Vat Fraud: Thirteen Ways Forward, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In a May 31, 2006 Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, and the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Commission indicated a need to develop a coordinated strategy to improve the fight against fiscal fraud [COM (2006) 254 final]. Although the Communication considers fiscal fraud broadly (VAT, excise duties and direct taxes) the most pressing need seems to be for a VAT strategy that will effectively deal with carousel fraud.

This paper considers thirteen proposals that deal with missing trader intra-community fraud (MTIC):

(1) Common VAT (origin system) (2) Vanistendael’s foreign tax offices proposal (3) CVAT (Compensating VAT) …

Render Unto Rawls: Law, Gospel, And The Evangelical Fallacy, Wayne R. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

There are many voices in American politics claiming that various candidates, laws and policies are necessitated by a “Christian” worldview. Many of these voices use explicit public rhetoric that their position is the one compelled by “Christian” principles. Although religious voices have been present in the United States since its founding, the volume and urgency of the voices seems to have increased dramatically in the last several decades, during the so-called “culture wars.” These voices famously come from the Christian Religious Right, advocating socially conservative laws on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. But there are also voices from …

Current Practices In Distance Learning Library Services At Urban And Metropolitan Universities, J B. Hill, Hongyu Li, Carol Macheak

Faculty Scholarship

Urban and metropolitan universities serve a diverse population of learners, including nontraditional and part-time students, many taking courses on-campus, off-campus at remote locations and/or online. Libraries at these institutions are committed to providing collections and services to support students and faculty engaged in both traditional and online environments. This article reports on a survey of libraries at the member institutions of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) that identifies the services, activities and policies that urban and metropolitan libraries have developed to provide library resources to their distance learners.

In Defense Of Specialized Theft Statutes, David C. Gray, Chelsea Jones

Faculty Scholarship

This essay is an invited contribution to a symposium hosted by the New England Law Review in celebration of Stuart Green’s important book 13 Ways to Steal a Bicycle. As we note, Professor Green’s argument is so reasonable and executed in such elegant prose, there is little call for anything other than praise. Nevertheless, in the spirit of academic exchange, we challenge Professor Green’s skepticism of specialized theft statutes. Relying on retributivist theories of criminal punishment, we argue that specialized theft statutes have an important role to play in contemporary criminal law by educating the public about the necessary commitments …

Paradoxes Of Digital Antitrust, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Privacy, Antitrust, And Power, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.