Digital Commons Network^™

Power, Process, And Automated Decision-Making, Ari Ezra Waldman

Articles & Chapters

Many decisions that used to be made by humans are now made by machines. And yet, automated decision-making systems based on “big data” – powered algorithms and machine learning are just as prone to mistakes, biases, and arbitrariness as their human counterparts. The result is a technologically driven decision-making process that seems to defy interrogation, analysis, and accountability and, therefore, undermines due process. This should make algorithmic decision-making an illegitimate source of authority in a liberal democracy. This Essay argues that algorithmic decision-making is a product of the neoliberal project to undermine social values like equality, nondiscrimination, and human flourishing …

Revisiting Abbe Smith's Question, "Can A Good Person Be A Good Prosecutor?", In The Age Of Krasner And Sessions, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Punishment Without Process: Victim Impact Proceedings For Dead Defendants, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

After Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in jail, two judges allowed his accusers to speak in court. This article argues that the proceedings were inappropriate because the criminal case ends when the defendant dies. If the conviction and appeal are not final, there is no finding of guilt, and the defendant is still presumed innocent. Allowing accusers to speak at this time violates the principle of due process and threatens to undermine faith in judges and the criminal justice system in general. While courts are at times legally required to hear from victims of crimes, they were not allowed to do …

Tribute To Professor Lewis R. Katz: Beloved Mentor, Global Visionary, Entrepreneur, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

An Alternative Path To Rule Of Law: Thailand's Twenty-First Century Administrative Courts, Frank W. Munger, Peerawich Thoviriyavej, Vorapitchaya Rabiablok

Articles & Chapters

New courts in Asia’s rapidly developing states offer an opportunity to understand how a court system takes root in a society. This article presents a case study of the development of administrative court structure, functions, and practice in Thailand: Southeast Asia’s newest system of administrative courts. The study examines why courts made sense to those who established them and how the courts’ authority is being utilized. For relatively powerless and resource-poor litigants, barriers to litigation may be many, but when these barriers are overcome, administrative courts exercise extraordinary influence, even when they fail to render a decision fully vindicating a …

Justice Anthony Kennedy's Free Speech Legacy [Comments], Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

Justice Kennedy has been hailed by free speech advocates as a leading free speech champion. In contrast, other experts have not only criticized particular opinions and votes by Justice Kennedy that rejected free speech claims, but they also have maintained that Justice Kennedy specifically declined to protect speech that was at odds with his conservative political and religious views. It is certainly true that Justice Kennedy did not uphold freedom of speech in some important contexts, including when the Government asserted countervailing national security or "War on Drugs" concerns. However, in other important cases, Justice Kennedy showed courage in defending …

From Chevron To Consent Of The Governed, David Schoenbrod

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Board Governance For The Twenty-First Century, Faith Stevelman, Sarah C. Haan

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Legal Vs. Non-Legal Responses To Hateful Expression, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

This chapter explains the understanding of all who seek to advance both free speech and equality anywhere in the world. It discusses supports the conclusions of many expert individuals and organizations around the world – that counterspeech and other non-censorial alternatives are much more likely than hate speech laws to prove effective in limiting hate speech and its possible harmful effects. Social scientists have confirmed that counterspeech by leaders in the pertinent community is especially persuasive in rebutting hateful speech and in countering its potential harmful effects. Speech that counters the potentially harmful impact of hate speech comprises a broad …

Lev On The Links Between Legal Evolution, Political Change And Activism, Frank W. Munger

Articles & Chapters

This concluding chapter reflects on the contributions in this volume in light of Dan S. Lev’s work on legal evolution and political change. Munger highlights Lev’s admirable lifetime of academic-activism on Indonesian law. It is this mix of academic scholarship and practical advocacy that informs the chapters in this volume and orients the chapters towards Lev’s work as an example of scholarship infused with activism.

The Temperance Movement's Impact On Adoption Of Women's Suffrage, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

This paper examines the nature of the Progressive Era and the Prohibition Movement and the important links between the sentiments giving rise to prohibition and those stimulating adoption of suffrage. Though each arose from a somewhat distinct array of reform impulses and overcame varying opposition groups, they were closely related in some ways, supported by overlapping groups of people, advanced by large numbers of women, and, in part, lifted to enactment by similar motivations. Indeed, without the support of many conservative citizens approving both Amendments, it is not clear what the fate of suffrage would have been after World War …

“Temporary” Conceptual Art: Property And Copyright, Hopes And Prayers, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Sculpture, Industrial Design, Architecture, And The Right To Control Use Of Publicly Displayed Works, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

This article explores the anomalous ways in which copyright owners may control use of works they publicly display. Treatment of rights associated with publicly displayed sculpture and architecture are dramatically different. The copyright statute deprives owners of copyrights in constructed buildings of the ability to police the ways in which imagery or other uses of the publicly visible structure may be exploited by others. This article focuses on three related but different settings involving the public display of (1) a work of graffiti, (2) a large-scale sculpture, and (3) a building with sculptural features. Through an analysis of the differences …

Remembrances Of Steve Ellmann, Still Present, Susan Abraham, Adele Bernhard, Frank Bress, Carol Buckler, Anna G. Cominsky '05, Anne Goldstein, Lawrence Grosberg, Lisa Grumet, Kim Hawkins, Mariana Hogan, Gowri Krishna, Richard D. Marsico, Howard S. Meyers, Michael L. Perlin, Samantha C. Pownall, Andrew Scherer, Richard Sherwin, Lynn Boepple Su, Claire R. Thomas, Daniel Warshawsky

Articles & Chapters

In Memoriam: Steven Ellmann

Book Review: From Prohibited Immigrants To Citizens: The Origins Of Citizenship And Nationality In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

To Promote Innovation, Congress Should Abolish The Supreme Court Created Exceptions To 35 U.S. Code Sec. 101, Shahrokh Falati

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Design Of An Arduino Based Smart Home System, Qi Lu

Graduate Research Papers

Smart home is a home setup where smart appliances can be controlled remotely using networked devices. It has gained widely attentions due to its flexible integrations. However, not everyone is willing to upgrade their old home appliances to smart ones. One alternative solution is to design and implement a wireless controlled smart system that could utilize existing home appliances. This project aims to design an Arduino based smart home system. The system may upgrade existing appliances into smart home devices by integrating the wireless capability through XBee modules and low-cost Arduino boards.

Exploring Latino Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes And Beliefs About Learning And Teaching Science: What Are The Critical Factors?, Maria E. Diaz

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This qualitative study explores the in- and out-of-school experiences that could have influenced elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward learning and teaching science. Participants were 126 Latina/o EC-6 preservice teachers in the context of a 16-week undergraduate level elementary methods course. Data sources consisted of written reflections and semi-structure interviews. Findings show that preservice Latino teachers’ views about science can be determined by multiple factors, being the most important, their science teachers’ attitudes and the type of instruction they received as students from elementary through high school. Participation in science activities with their families and media influence were other …

Mdl Immunity: Lessons From The National Prescription Opiate Litigation, Roger Michalski

Faculty Articles

Federal multi-district litigation (“MDL”) suffers from a massive blind spot that has largely escaped notice: it only selects cases based on “convenience,” “efficiency,” and the preservation of judicial resources. The statute does not take into account broader societal and governmental interests that can trump litigation efficiency arguments. One way to fix this blind spot is through the new concept of MDL immunity (a procedural rather than liability immunity). This doctrinal innovation would exempt cases by and against government entities from generalized MDL treatment. I make the doctrinal argument for MDL immunity informed by original data collected from hundreds of cases …

Should Robots Prosecute And Defend?, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

Even when we achieve the ‘holy grail’ of artificial intelligence—machine intelligence that is at least as smart as a human being in every area of thought—there may be classes of decisions for which it is intrinsically important to retain a human in the loop. On the common account of American criminal adjudication, the role of prosecutor seems to include such decisions given the largely unreviewable declination authority, whereas the role of defense counsel would seem fully susceptible of automation. And even for the prosecutor, the benefits of automation might outweigh the intrinsic decision-making loss, given that the ultimate decision—by judge …

The Misadventure Of Copyrighting State Law, Eric E. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Many states have asserted copyright over their own official state legal texts, limiting access to those materials and attempting to monetize them. This Article aims to provide helpful analysis for state officials deciding whether to pursue such policies and for courts reviewing challenges to such practices. Prior scholarship in this area has focused on the issue of whether such copyright assertions can be valid under federal law given the inherent conflicts they pose to due process and democratic ideals. This Article aims to expand this dialogue in a couple of ways-first, by situating the controversy within the broader arc of …

Universities As Vehicles For Immigrant Integration, Kit Johnson

Faculty Articles

This Essay discusses how universities could play a productive role in helping potential future U.S. citizens feel a sense of belonging to the United States. This discussion is prompted by, and is offered as a reaction to, Chapter Four of Professor Ming Hsu Chen’s forthcoming book, Constructing Citizenship for Noncitizens. In that chapter, Professor Chen focuses on the “blocked pathways to citizenship” experienced by international students, temporary workers, and DACA recipients in the United States. Professor Chen notes that these three groups of noncitizens share a common thread of status insecurity, and she explores how this challenges their integration into …

Institutional Independence: Lawyers And The Administrative State, Melissa Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

The institutional structure where federal government lawyers practice is fraught with political and economic pressures that undermine the ability of lawyers to exercise independent professional judgment. A lack of candid legal advice in this space not only removes a pivotal fail-safe between legal and illegal state action but also precariously imbalances the powerful administrative state, exposing it to undue political influence. For these reasons, this Article argues that structural changes to administrative institutions must be made to support and nurture lawyers’ ability to independently determine the bounds of legality. Previous scholarship has examined the role of professional independence for lawyers …

Poetry In Motion: The Federal Rules Of Evidence And Forward Progress As An Imperative, Daniel J. Capra, Liesa L. Richter

Faculty Articles

This Article dives into the long-standing debate about the propriety of altering the time-honored Federal Rules of Evidence. Noted authorities, such as the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, have eschewed any modification to the Rules, claiming that they must remain essentially fixed in their original form to maximize their utility to trial advocates and to avoid wasteful dislocation costs that accompany updates. Unlike the many scholarly works examining the merits and demerits of particular evidence rules, this Article shines a light on the lesser examined process of amending the Federal Rules of Evidence, revealing a taxonomy of evidentiary circumstances or trigger …

Crafting Communities Of Writers: Advice From Teens, Ann D. David, Annamary Consalvo, Amy Vetter

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors interviewed teens in five states to catalog their ideas about how teachers can build communities of writers.

Graduate Bulletin 2019-2020, Cuny John Jay College

College Bulletins

Covers academic year 2019-2020

Real Property, J. Richard White, Amanda Grainger, G. Roland Love

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Securities Regulation, George Lee Flint Jr.

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Targeting The Bcl-2 Family In B Cell Lymphoma., Clare M. Adams, Sean Clark-Garvey, Pierluigi Porcu, Christine M. Eischen

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

Although lymphoma is a very heterogeneous group of biologically complex malignancies, tumor cells across all B cell lymphoma subtypes share a set of underlying traits that promote the development and sustain malignant B cells. One of these traits, the ability to evade apoptosis, is essential for lymphoma development. Alterations in the Bcl-2 family of proteins, the key regulators of apoptosis, is a hallmark of B cell lymphoma. Significant efforts have been made over the last 30 years to advance knowledge of the biology, molecular mechanisms, and therapeutic potential of targeting Bcl-2 family members. In this review, we will highlight the …

The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory Of Organised Social Media Manipulation, Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Executive Summary

Over the past three years, we have monitored the global organization of social media manipulation by governments and political parties. Our 2019 report analyses the trends of computational propaganda and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources.

1. Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically.

2.Social media has become co-opted by many authoritarian regimes. In 26 countries, computational propaganda …