Digital Commons Network^™

Judicial Review Of Scientific Uncertainty In Climate Change Lawsuits: Deferential And Nondeferential Evaluation Of Agency Factual And Policy Determinations, Robert L. Glicksman, Daniel Kim, Keziah Groth-Tuft

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Scientific determinations are often at the heart of environmental disputes. When those disputes take the form of litigation, the courts may be called on to determine whether an administrative agency’s treatment of the science warrants deference. For several reasons, judges are inclined to apply deferential review to agency factual and policy science-based determinations. Most judges are not trained in the language and methods of science. They may be reluctant to intervene on matters on which their lack of expertise risks producing uninformed judgments. If a statute delegates to an agency the responsibility of making those determinations, courts may be loath …

Protecting Free Speech And Due Process Values On Dominant Social Media Platforms, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In recent years, dominant social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been increasingly perceived as engaging in discrimination against conservative and right-wing viewpoints – especially by conservatives themselves. Such concerns were exacerbated by Twitter and Facebook’s deplatforming of then-President Trump in response to the president’s tweets and posts leading up to and during the January 6 th insurrection. Trump’s deplatforming, coupled with the recent actions taken by the platforms in removing Covid- and election-related misinformation, led to cries of censorship by conservative and increased calls for regulation of the platforms. Supreme Court Justice Thomas took up this charge (in …

Code Free Or Die: Regulations Of Computer Code And The First Amendment, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

After the San Bernardino terrorist attack in 2015, the FBI sought to enlist Apple in its efforts to acquire potential evidence about the attack by accessing the contents of the cell phone used by the shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI claimed that the messages, contacts, and other information stored on Farook’s cell phone could lead them to potential co-conspirators who assisted in the attack or who were involved in planning other terrorist activities, or other relevant evidence. The FBI claimed that it needed Apple’s help because the cell phone in question embodied a number of security features familiar to …

Follow The Leader? A Comparative Law Study Of The Eu’S General Data Protection Regulation’S Impact In Latin America, Arturo J. Carrillo, Matias Jackson

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force in the European Union. As is widely recognized, its impact goes beyond the borders of the old continent, permeating through the regulatory processes of countries all over the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in Latin America, where governments have long emulated European data protection standards. Professor Anu Bradford has famously characterized this phenomenon as a prominent example of ‘the Brussels Effect,’ defined as Europe’s unilateral power to regulate global markets. Other scholars see a more complex dynamic at play. This is especially true in the data …

Regulating Big Tech: Lessons From The Ftc’S Do Not Call Rule, William E. Kovacic, David A. Hyman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Big Tech (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) is under regulatory assault. Cases have been brought against each of these companies in multiple countries around the world, but there is an emerging consensus that more needs to be done – most likely in the form of ex ante regulation that prescribes rules of conduct for dominant information platforms. The European Union and the United Kingdom are well on the way to establishing such frameworks, and the United States appears poised to undertake similar measures in the coming years. Most of the debate has focused on the case for ex ante regulation …

An Overview Of Privacy Law In 2022, Daniel J. Solove, Paul M. Schwartz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Chapter 1 of PRIVACY LAW FUNDAMENTALS (6th edition, IAPP 2022) provides an overview of information privacy law circa 2022. The chapter summarizes the common themes in privacy laws and discusses the various types of laws (federal, constitutional, state, international). It contains a list and brief summary of the most significant U.S. federal privacy laws. The heart of the chapter is an historical timeline of major developments in the law of privacy and data security, including key cases, enactments of laws, major regulatory developments, influential publications, and other significant events. The chapter also contains a curated list of important treatises and …

Democracy And Demography, Paul S. Berman, Neal S. Mehrotra, Kathryn S. Sadasivan

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

American democracy is under siege. This is so because of the confluence of three trends: (1) demographic change and residential segregation, which increasingly have placed more racially diverse Democratic Party voters in cities and suburbs, while rural areas have become more white and Republican; (2) a constitutional structure—particularly the Electoral College, the composition of the Senate, and the use of small, winner-take-all legislative districts—that gives disproportionate representation to rural populations; and (3) the willingness of this rural Republican minority to use its disproportionate power to further entrench counter-majoritarian structures, whether through extreme partisan gerrymandering, increased voter suppression efforts, court-packing, or …

Selective Judicial Activism In The Roberts Court, Alan B. Morrison

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito offers two main reasons why there is no Due Process right to an abortion in the Constitution, and hence why Roe v. Wade should be overturned: abortion is not mentioned in the text, and decisions about whether abortions should be permitted and, if so, under what conditions, are properly the province of the elected representatives and not federal judges. In this essay I show that, in many of the most significant cases decided by the Roberts Court, the Court has disregarded both of those reasons, and engaged in the kind …

The Remedies For Constitutional Flaws Have Major Flaws, Richard J. Pierce Jr

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this essay, Professor Pierce describes the many ways in which the conservative majority of the Supreme Court has attempted to use its unique approach to interpretation of the constitution to restructure the government and to reallocate power among the branches of government. He then describes the problems that the Court has encountered in its efforts to choose remedies for the constitutional flaws that it detects.

Increasingly, the Court must choose between remedies that are ineffective and remedies that make it impossible for the government to function. Pierce predicts that the problems that the Court has experienced to date will …

Organizational Conflicts Of Interest: Cautionary Tales, Jessica Tillipman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

A recent, high-profile investigation involving McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) and its contracts with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reminded us that organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) are an integrity issue that never should be written off as a check-the-box exercise during the procurement process. This incident highlighted the need to address critical gaps in this area of the law. This article appeared in the August 2022 issue of Contract Management magazine published by the National Contract Management Association. Used with permission.

China’S Sanctions And Rule Of Law: How To Respond When China Targets Lawyers, Thomas D. Grant, F. Scott Kieff

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has begun to use sanctions against people who speak out against its policies. Well-known are the sanctions that the PRC’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson announced on January 20, 2021 against twenty-eight persons, both named and unnamed, who recently served or were then serving in the Trump administration, including the then-Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. On March 26, 2021, however, the PRC announced sanctions against a less conspicuous target: Essex Court Chambers, a set of barristers’ chambers in London known for commercial work and investment arbitration. What ostensibly provoked China’s unusual move was a …

An Expanded Version Of Oira Can Ensure Democratic Accountability In The Administrative State, Richard J. Pierce Jr

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this contribution to a symposium, Professor Pierce argues that the most promising way of ensuring democratic accountability in the administrative state is to combine an expanded version of OIRA with complementary doctrines.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place? Ict Companies, Armed Conflict, And International Law, Arturo J. Carrillo

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

What is an ICT company to do when operating in the midst of international armed conflict like the one raging in Ukraine? How should tech company executives respond to urgent government demands – often conflicting -- to propagate or censor online content arising in the context of war, including disinformation? And what of their demands to access the personal data or communications of users, ostensibly to safeguard security but nonetheless presenting the potential for abuse? Governments make difficult demands of ICT companies by seeking to impose heavy restrictions on the free flow of information and data privacy via the latter’s …

The Field Of State Civil Courts, Anna E. Carpenter, Alyx Mark, Colleen F. Shanahan, Jessica Steinberg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This symposium Issue of the Columbia Law Review marks a moment of convergence and opportunity for an emerging field of legal scholarship focused on America’s state civil trial courts. Historically, legal scholarship has treated state civil courts as, at best, a mere footnote in conversations about civil law and procedure, federalism, and judicial behavior. But the status quo is shifting. As this Issue demonstrates, legal scholars are examining our most common civil courts as sites for understanding law, legal institutions, and how people experience civil justice. This engagement is essential for inquiries into how courts shape and respond to social …

No Man Is An Island In Defense Procurement: Developments In Eu Defense Procurement Regulation And Its Implications For The U.S., Luke R.A. Butler, Michael Bowsher, Christopher R. Yukins

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union have focused minds on the EU’s role as a defense actor. In the context of defense procurement, this includes whether the EU should itself co-fund cooperative programmes with Member States (through the European Defense Fund, for example, and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) initiatives among Member States), what can be commonly procured (and what cannot, e.g., due to prohibitions against offsets), and how (for example, under the competing constraints of Article 346 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the 2009 European Defense …

Harman And Lorandos’ False Critique Of Meier Et Al.’S Family Court Study, Joan S. Meier, Sean Dickson, Chris S. O'Sullivan, Leora N. Rosen

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Jennifer Harman and Demosthenes Lorandos purport to have identified numerous methodological flaws in our 2019 study of family court outcomes in cases involving abuse and alienation allegations (“FCO study”; Meier et al., 2019). At least half of the supposed flaws they itemized relate to one claim - that they were unable to access our methods and data. They treat the claimed lack of public access as evidence that our study is unreliable, while speculating about other potential flaws. Yet we note - and they acknowledge - that most of the methodological information they sought was in fact available before publication …

Remorse, Relational Legal Consciousness, And The Reproduction Of Carceral Logic, Kathryne M. Young, Hannah Chimowitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

One in seven people in prison in the US is serving a life sentence, and most of these “lifers” will someday be eligible for discretionary parole. But little is known about a key aspect of parole decision-making: remorse assessments. Because remorse is a complex emotion that arises from past wrongdoing and unfolds over time, assessing the sincerity of another person’s remorse is neither a simple task of lie detection, nor of determining emotional authenticity. Instead, remorse involves numerous elements, including the relationship between a person’s past and present motivations, beliefs, and affective states. To understand how parole board members make …

The Failure Of Data Security Law, Daniel J. Solove, Woodrow Hartzog

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this book chapter, we survey the law and policy of data security and analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Broadly speaking, there are three types of data security laws: (1) breach notification laws; (2) security safeguards laws that require substantive measures to protect security; and (3) private litigation under various causes of action. We argue that despite some small successes, the law is generally failing to combat the data security threats we face.

Breach notification laws merely require organizations to provide transparency about data breaches, but the laws don’t provide prevention or a cure. Security safeguards laws are often enforced …

Research Directions For Historic Preservation Law, Sara C. Bronin

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Preservation laws govern an ever-increasing range of public and private activities affecting historic properties. Enacted at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels, these laws shape four aspects of preservation practice: designation, public obligations, private constraints, and financial incentives. Unfortunately, research on the scope and impact of these laws has been lacking. Whose history do we preserve? What costs are imposed by historic designation, and on whom? Do preservation regulations prepare us for climate change? Who are the regulators? What legal tools maximize economic activity in general, and equitable growth more specifically? Considering these and other unanswered questions, this chapter …

Sustainable Strategies For Mass Rapid Transit Ppps, Sock Yong Phang, Bin Chye Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Mass rapid transit (MRT) PPPs have proliferated in the past two decades. This chapter provides a framework to categorise and understand alternative PPP designs. As MRT systems are inherently large, unprofitable and risky projects, PPP design is critical to project success and sustainability. We study the experiences of MRT PPPs in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing to understand factors underlying success and failure and to arrive at policy recommendations for PPPs. Policymakers need to have additional governance improvement and risk mitigation measures in place when tied supply chains are utilised. Hong Kong’s experience illustrates that ‘Rail plus Property’ strategy …

Does A District Mandate Matter For The Behavior Of Politicians? An Analysis Of Roll-Call Votes And Parliamentary Speeches, Andreas Born, Aljoscha Janssen

Research Collection School Of Economics

In most democracies, members of parliament (MPs) are elected either through a party list or by a district. We use a discontinuity in the German electoral system to investigate the causal effect of a district election on an MP’s conformity with the party line. A district election does not affect roll-call voting behavior causally, possibly due to overall high adherence to party-line voting. Analyzing the parliamentary speeches of each MP allows us to overcome the high party-line discipline with regard to parliamentary voting. Using textual analysis and machine learning techniques, we create two measures of closeness of an MP’s speeches …

Toward Video-Conferencing Tools For Hands-On Activities In Online Teaching, Audrey Labrie, Terrance Mok, Anthony Tang, Michelle Lui, Lora Oehlberg, Lev Poretski

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many instructors in computing and HCI disciplines use hands-on activities for teaching and training new skills. Beyond simply teaching hands-on skills like sketching and programming, instructors also use these activities so students can acquire tacit skills. Yet, current video-conferencing technologies may not effectively support hands-on activities in online teaching contexts. To develop an understanding of the inadequacies of current video-conferencing technologies for hands-on activities, we conducted 15 interviews with university-level instructors who had quickly pivoted their use of hands-on activities to an online context during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our analysis, we uncovered four pedagogical …

Sheep And Goat Industry Funding Scheme Annual Report 2020/2021, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity published reports

The Sheep and Goat Industry Funding Scheme (IFS) has been operating since 2010 to address biosecurity threats relevant to the Western Australian (WA) sheep and goat industry. The Scheme was established by regulation under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 to enable sheep and goat producers to identify pest and disease priorities at a whole-of-industry level and raise funds for activities to address these priorities.

There are currently three Industry Funding Schemes in operation. In addition to the Sheep and Goat IFS, there is a Cattle IFS and a Grains, Seeds and Hay IFS. The three IFSs operate in …

The Legal Framework For Multimodal Transport In West Africa: The African Continental Free Trade Area In Perspective, Damilola Idris Osinuga

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

This thesis examines how multimodal transport can play a role in achieving the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The thesis argues that multimodal transport is cheaper compared with unimodal transportation. While there are a number of issues affecting the operationalisation of multimodal transport in Africa, this study considers, at its core, the legal regimes and other fragmented institutional and governance frameworks of multimodal transport in West Africa. The fragmentation of the legal framework governing multimodal transport leads to uncertainty and unforeseeability of the liability of parties involved in multimodal transport, consequently leading to increased legal costs. …

A Systematic, Holistic And Transdisciplinary Energy Management Framework To Promote Environmentally Sustainable Shipyards, Seyedvahid Vakili

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

Shipbuilding is an energy-intensive industry and has negative environmental impacts. Given the contribution of the production phase to ships' air emissions throughout their life cycle, there is no international regulation to monitor, control or reduce air emissions during this phase. However, it may be covered by State’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. Achieving a zero-emission shipping industry requires a broader, holistic, systematic and "cradle to grave" approach that takes into account the life cycle of the ship, from production to scrapping.

The aim of the study is to develop to a holistic and systematic approach to reducing …

Cellular Network-Supported Machine Learning Techniques For Autonomous Uav Trajectory Planning, Ghada Afifi, Yasser Gadallah

Faculty Journal Articles

Autonomous trajectory planning is a hot topic in the UAV mission planning area of research. Autonomous UAVs have major use case applications which involve navigation in complex environments such as aerial photography, package delivery and relief operations. Many existing trajectory planning solutions rely on the GPS system. However, such GPS-based solutions do not provide a reliable real-time navigation solution, particularly in dense urban environments. Opportunely, cellular networks can be utilized as an attractive alternative for UAV navigation applications. We therefore propose to utilize existing 5G infrastructure to enable the UAV to navigate complex environments, independent of the GPS and other …

Integral Equation Formulation For Planar Plasmonic Structures With Finite Thickness In Layered Media, Esraa M. Mahdy, Alaa Abdelmageed, Ezzeldin A Soliman

Faculty Journal Articles

A detailed Volume Integral Equation (VIE) formulation for planar plasmonic nano structures with finite thickness in flat multi-layers medium is presented. The boundary condition along the localized metallic objects is expressed in terms of the unknown polarization current flowing through these objects in the form of an integral equation, which is solved using the Method of Moments (MoM). The Green's functions associated with a layered medium of practical importance are expressed in the spectral domain. The corresponding spatial domain Green's functions are obtained using the Discrete Complex Images Method (DCIM). Special treatment for the spectral function's asymptote at high spectral …

‘Own Your Narrative’: Teenagers As Producers And Consumers Of Porn In Netflix’S Sex Education, Debra Dudek, Giselle Woodley, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Netflix’s Sex Education both represents sex education and educates viewers about sex. From the opening scene of the first episode, viewers are positioned to see this series as one that is not afraid to represent explicitly the details of a range of sexual experiences. The series’ frank depiction of sexual relationships between characters, and its exploration of characters’ hopes, fears, and choices regarding ways to express their sexual desire is, arguably, ground-breaking. This paper focuses upon the ways in which the series represents young people as producers and consumers of pornographic/erotic narratives, harnessing the communication options within their social settings …

Deformation And Stress Theory Of Surrounding Rock Of Shallow Circular Tunnel Based On Complex Variable Function Method, Guizhen Wang, Linglong Zhou, Reem Alotaibi, Roaya Hdeib

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

After reviewing many literature foundations, the thesis combines the basic methods of elastic mechanics with mathematical knowledge, sets the bipotential stress potential complex function and analyses the relationship between stress component, strain component and stress potential function, and applies the complex variable function. The expression of the relevant stress component is derived, and the displacement boundary conditions of the surrounding rock of shallow circular tunnel are obtained. Furthermore, the paper applies the basic theory of complex variable function to solve the boundary condition complex variable function for common tunnel sections, and obtains the analytical expression of the surrounding rock stress …

M-Cubes: An Efficient And Portable Implementation Of Multi-Dimensional Integration For Gpus, Ioannis Sakiotis, Kamesh Arumugam, Marc Paterno, Desh Ranjan, Balŝa Terzić, Mohammad Zubair

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The task of multi-dimensional numerical integration is frequently encountered in physics and other scientific fields, e.g., in modeling the effects of systematic uncertainties in physical systems and in Bayesian parameter estimation. Multi-dimensional integration is often time-prohibitive on CPUs. Efficient implementation on many-core architectures is challenging as the workload across the integration space cannot be predicted a priori. We propose m-Cubes, a novel implementation of the well-known Vegas algorithm for execution on GPUs. Vegas transforms integration variables followed by calculation of a Monte Carlo integral estimate using adaptive partitioning of the resulting space. mCubes improves performance on GPUs by maintaining relatively …