Digital Commons Network^™

Framing Franchise Antitrust Litigation: The Legacy Of Kodak And Queen City Pizza, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

A decade ago, many antitrust commentators were predicting a “revival” of franchise antitrust claims flowing in the wake of Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc. The thinking was that Kodak’s recognition of a claim for monopolization of an “aftermarket” for parts and services separate from each other and from a primary product might be extended to cover franchise relationships in which the franchisee is required to purchase fungible products from its franchisor, even though those products could be purchased elsewhere on more favorable terms. Fairly quickly, though, the Third Circuit decided Queen City Pizza, Inc. v. Domino’s Pizza, …

Competing Theories Of Blackmail: An Empirical Research Critique Of Criminal Law Theory, Michael T. Cahill, Paul H. Robinson, Daniel M. Bartels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Competing Theories Of Blackmail: An Empirical Research Critique Of Criminal Law Theory, Michael T. Cahill, Paul H. Robinson, Daniel M. Bartels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Visible Hand: Coordination Functions Of The Regulatory State, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

We live in a coordination economy. As one surveys the myriad challenges of modern social and economic life, an ever increasing proportion is defined not by the need to reconcile competing interests, but by the challenge of getting everyone on the same page. Conflict is not absent in these settings. It is not, however, the determinative factor in shaping our behaviors and resulting interactions. That essential ingredient, instead, is coordination.

Such coordination is commonly understood as the function of the market. As it turns out, however, optimal coordination will not always emerge, as if led “by an invisible hand.” Even …

President's Missed Chance With Sikhs, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

Decision to skip temple visit made out of fear, expediency

Resolving The Dilemma Of Nonjusticiable Causation In Failure-To-Warn Litigation, Neil B. Cohen, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Resolving The Dilemma Of Non-Justiciable Causation In Failure To Warn Litigation, Aaron D. Twerski, Neil B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Economic Impact Of Local Immigration Regulation: An Empirical Analysis, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

A wave of local anti-immigration laws has swept the country, triggering contentious debate and raising significant legal and policy issues. One critical dimension that has been largely ignored, however, is the economic impact of these laws: Are jurisdictions with them better off economically than those without them?

In the first empirical study of this issue, we analyze the economic impact of local anti-immigration laws. The laws take different forms some authorize local police to enforce federal immigration laws, some restrict benefits like housing and employment to those with legal immigration status, and some require all government transactions to be conducted …

It's All In A Day's Work: Managing The Institutional Repository, Pamela Bluh

Faculty Scholarship

An overview of the decision to select the Digital Commons as the platform for the institutional repository and comments on why library technical services is well suited to manage the repository.

Distributive Justice Through Tort (And Why Sociolegal Scholars Should Care), Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Child, Family, State, And Gender Equality In Religious Stances And Human Rights Instruments: A Preliminary Comparison, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recently began its third decade. Why has the United States still not ratified the CRC, celebrated as the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history? Once again, this question is on the table: Congressional resolutions that President Obama should not transmit the CRC to the Senate for advice and consent rapidly followed intimations that the Obama Administration had some qualms about the U.S. keeping company only with Somalia in not ratifying it. Some scholars contend that enlisting the unique resources of religions would help to ground a culture …

Vat Fraud - Technological Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Every VAT/GST allows missing trader fraud. The fraud is simple, and can be simply prevented (with technology). The fraud arises when a business makes a purchase without paying VAT, collects VAT on an onward sale, and then “disappears” without remitting the tax. Missing trader fraud is common in high-value/low-volume goods sold across borders – computer chips and cell phones are the classic examples. But the fraud easily migrates when pursued. It operates well with goods as wide ranging as xenon bulbs, automobiles, and earth moving equipment.

The recent appearance of MTIC fraud in tradable CO2 permits and VoIP is a …

Civil Rights Violations = Broken Windows: De Minimis Curet Lex, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Economic Impact Of Local Immigration Regulation: An Empirical Analysis, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

A wave of local anti-immigration laws has swept the country, triggering contentious debate and raising significant legal and policy issues. One critical dimension that has been largely ignored, however, is the economic impact of these laws: Are jurisdictions with them better off economically than those without them?

In the first empirical study of this issue, we analyze the economic impact of local anti-immigration laws. The laws take differentformssome authorize local police to enforce federal immigration laws, some restrict benefits like housing and employment to those with legal immigration status, and some require all government transactions to be conducted in English …

Context-General And Context-Specific Determinants Of Online Satisfaction And Loyalty For Commerce And Content Sites, Rakesh Kumar Niraj

Faculty Scholarship

We use the context-general and context-specific factor approach to examine the generalizability of satisfaction and loyalty models across two disparate online contexts -- online retailing and content site browsing. Our conceptual models include the moderating effects of user-characteristic Web expertise, besides main effects of Web site factors and Web expertise. Results indicate that satisfaction and loyalty judgments are sensitive to both context-general and context-specific determinants, as well as to some interactions between them. Among context-general determinants, ease of use and customer service are positively related to satisfaction, Web community to loyalty, and Web expertise to both satisfaction and loyalty. Flow, …

Courage And Political Resistance, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

We celebrate courageous acts, but the conventional selection of acts to honor may sanction the slaughter of innocent persons. Most of those who are cited by governments for bravery are military personnel (I shall refer to them, generically, as “soldiers”). We can understand why governments routinely honor soldiers for bravery. Courage is required in warfare. To act as they are told that duty requires, soldiers must overcome reasonable fear of the gruesome dangers that they face. And we can expect governments to claim that their soldiers did not die in vain, but served nobly in a just cause.

Killing The Microphone: When Broadcast Freedom Should Yield To Genocide Prevention, Carol Pauli

Faculty Scholarship

When powerful radio broadcasts exhort listeners to kill their neighbors, may outside nations or international organizations legally interrupt the signals to prevent genocide? International law has no legal framework for assessing and responding to such broadcasts. This Article attempts to create one. The Article draws on empirical research in the field of communication to identify conditions in which media messages become so powerful that they can mobilize audience members. Using this research, it constructs a framework for determining when speech constitutes incitement to genocide such that it loses any protection under international law and perhaps even triggers an affirmative duty …

Response, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

How can one reply to the presentations and discussion of this conference? I think in the same spirit. The paper that took issue most substantially with some writing of mine was Aaron Garrett’s, Courage, Political Resistance, and Self-Deceit. What I have called political resistance has proved difficult for philosophers to theorize about. Aaron helps us to understand it much better. I am truly grateful for that and I am delighted to have provided the occasion for his paper. The same goes for the other contributions to this conference, which address issues more deeply than I have found it possible to …

See No Evil - Revisiting Early Visions Of The Social Responsibility Of Business: Adolf A. Berle's Contribution To Contemporary Conversations, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Article situates Adolf A. Berle's contribution to the field of corporate law in the context of current debates over the alleged complicity of multinational corporations in international human rights violations. Specifically, this Article revisits some central insights offered by Berle and Gardiner C. Means in The Modern Corporation and Private Property and reconsiders what conducting business consciously across borders requires in the context of a governance gap generated by economic globalization. Further, this Article considers how both ownership and control are well situated to ensure that business conduct becomes better aligned with a growing consciousness that business organizations must …

Copyright, Derivative Works, And The Economics Of Complements, Glynn S. Lunney Jr

Faculty Scholarship

From an economic perspective, copyright is irrational. In defining the scope of a copyright owner's exclusive rights, it treats situations that have similar economic consequences differently, as infringement in one case and not in the other, and situations that have radically different economic consequences similarly. This essay explores such area in which copyright exhibits economic irrationality: Copyright's treatment of complements. Where a lower price on a substitute reduces demand for the original, a lower price on a complement increases it. So defined, copyright addresses whether a copyright owner will control three different types of complements: (i) complementary products, such as …

Wto Jurisprudence & Its Critiques: The Appellate Body's Anti-Constitutional Resistance, William Magnuson

Faculty Scholarship

In a time of financial crisis and rising demand for economic protectionism, the World Trade Organization, promoting free trade and economic growth, has never been more important. Enforcement of the WTO’s provisions has grown increasingly contentious and high-stakes, and the Appellate Body empowered to rule on violations of the treaty has received harsh criticism. Three elements of WTO jurisprudence, in particular, stand out. First, the court’s excessive use of narrow textualist argument tends to lead to short-sighted decisions that give little guidance to member states. Second, the court’s decisions have increasingly interfered with sensitive democratic processes in sovereign countries. Third, …

Long Range Interactions In Nanoscale Science, Roger H. French

Faculty Scholarship

Our understanding of the “long range” electrodynamic, electrostatic, and polar interactions that dominate the organization of small objects at separations beyond an interatomic bond length is reviewed. From this basic-forces perspective, a large number of systems are described from which one can learn about these organizing forces and how to modulate them. The many practical systems that harness these nanoscale forces are then surveyed. The survey reveals not only the promise of new devices and materials, but also the possibility of designing them more effectively.

United States Response To Questionnaire Concerning The Terms Of Protection In The Field Of Copyright And Related Rights, June M. Besek, Jane C. Ginsburg, N. Orly Leventer, Joshua L. Simmons

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fulfilling Government 2.0'S Promise With Robust Privacy Protections, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

The public can now “friend” the White House and scores of agencies on social networks, virtual worlds, and video-sharing sites. The Obama Administration sees this trend as crucial to enhancing governmental transparency, public participation, and collaboration. As the President has underscored, government needs to tap into the public’s expertise because it doesn’t have all of the answers.

To be sure, Government 2.0 might improve civic engagement. But it also might produce privacy vulnerabilities because agencies often gain access to individuals’ social network profiles, photographs, videos, and contact lists when interacting with individuals online. Little would prevent agencies from using and …

The Twist Of Long Terms: Judicial Elections, Role Fidelity, And American Tort Law, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

The received wisdom is that American judges rejected strict liability through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To the contrary, a majority of state courts adopted Rylands v. Fletcher and strict liability for hazardous or unnatural activities after a series of flooding tragedies in the late nineteenth century. Federal judges and appointed state judges generally ignored or rejected Rylands, while elected state judges overwhelmingly adopted Rylands or a similar strict liability rule.

In moving from fault to strict liability, these judges were essentially responding to increased public fears of industrial or man-made hazards. Elected courts were more populist: they were …

The Italian Job — Voice Over Internet Protocol Mtic Fraud In Italy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On February 8, 2010 a speculative paper on the likelihood that fraudsters proficient in missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud might move into voice over internet protocol (VoIP) was submitted to the Boston University School of Law Working Paper Series.

Prior to that paper there was very little (if any) public discussion of VoIP MTIC. There were no assessments, no arrests, and not a hint of litigation. Fifteen days later, and before final publication the financial press exploded with coverage of a massive VoIP MTIC fraud (the Operazione “phuncards-broker” investigation). The Wall Street Journal reported: An [Italian] judge…ordered the arrest of …

The Taxation Of Cause-Related Marketing, Terri Lynn Helge

Faculty Scholarship

With the economy in turmoil, charitable organizations are looking to nontraditional sources of financing to supplement contributions and fee-based revenues. One potentially lucrative source of revenue stems from cause-related marketing. Cause-related marketing is the public association of a for-profit company with a charitable organization to promote the company’s product or service in order to raise money for the charitable organization. Introduced almost twenty-five years ago, cause-related marketing has now become a $1 billion a year industry. Cause-related marketing has evolved beyond mere use of a charitable organization’s name to an apparent union for the purpose of promoting products that carry …

Respecting Working Mothers With Infant Children: The Need For Increased Federal Intervention To Develop, Protect, And Support A Breastfeeding Culture In The United States, Heather M. Kolinsky

Faculty Scholarship

The author argues that the benefits of breastfeeding are overwhelming and that more needs to be done to ensure that all women have a viable option to continue breastfeeding upon returning to work, particularly the working poor and minorities. Those least likely to breastfeed are more likely to be part of an at risk population in terms of health. Most significantly, the lack of a cohesive policy in the workplace has had a disparate impact on the most vulnerable populations of breastfeeding mothers and their children. The lack of federal protection and a patchwork of protection in the states have …

Unpaid Furloughs And Four-Day Work Weeks: Employer Sympathy Or A Call For Collective Employee Action, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

In these tough economic times, employers have responded by pursuing four-day work weeks and other mechanisms that change the components of the standard five-day work week. Although four-day work weeks provide some savings in the form of reduced operating and energy costs and have received recent notice for also being family-friendly and environmentally friendly, current dismal economic prospects have inspired employers to pursue other work week changes to achieve further savings. Furloughs, also referred to as unpaid days off, represent a form of a reduced work week as employees do not work during their furloughed time and receive no income …

Discipline And Nourish: On Constructing Commons, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Scholarship has examined many possible ways to encourage the creation and dissemination of art, works of authorship, ideas, and inventions: rights of exclusion (copyrights and patents), prizes, governmental subsidies, private subsidies (including both foundations and patronage), reputation, and so forth. Legal scholars have long recognized that copyright and patent are not the only options. And while some legal academics have mentioned the possibility of groups of users and creators interacting on a voluntary but structured basis, legal scholars did not give much sustained attention to such possibilities until fairly recently.