Law Commons^™

The Online Criminal Trial As A Public Trial, Stephen Smith

Faculty Publications

There are two ways of favorably conceiving online trials in Sixth Amendment terms. One is that an online trial is a public trial, by its terms. The other is that an online trial may not be public, for Sixth Amendment purposes, but may nonetheless satisfy applicable constitutional demands for trials considered “closed.” This Essay proposes both: that an online trial is fundamentally “public” for Sixth Amendment purposes and, if it is not, it may still be a constitutional accommodation of the Sixth Amendment’s public trial guarantee, in appropriate circumstances.

The constitutionality of an online trial may be largely an idle …

On The Constitutionality Of Hard State Border Closures In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Benjamen Franklen Gussen

Journal of Law and Health

I investigate the constitutionality of hard state border closures in the United States as a prophylactic response to a pandemic. This type of border closure prevents people from entering a State, except for exempt travelers, a category that includes, for example, military, judicial and government officers, and people granted entry on compassionate grounds. Those allowed to enter usually have to then go through a quarantine regime before being released into the community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, no State has attempted such closures. However, epidemiological experts suggest that, in comparison to other border and non-border measures, such closures are more effective. …

Creating Cautionary Tales: Institutional, Judicial, And Societal Indifference To The Lives Of Incarcerated Individuals, Nicole B. Godfrey

Arkansas Law Review

It has long been said that a society’s worth can be judged by taking stock of its prisons. That is all the truer in this pandemic, where inmates everywhere have been rendered vulnerable and often powerless to protect themselves from harm. May we hope that our country’s facilities serve as models rather than cautionary tales. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued the above-quoted clarion call to protect the lives of incarcerated people on May 14, 2020. At that point, the COVID-19 pandemic had brought American society to a standstill for a little more than two months, …

“Pandemic Brain,” Burnout, And 2022, Olivia R. Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Online Publications

In my first post, I wrote about the big feelings our students might be grappling with and how to approach the semester carefully, with kindness and grace. Lately I’ve been asking myself: how do we do the same for ourselves? Something about this moment – this month, this semester, this year, you pick – feels. . . off. People are stressed, depressed, or entirely burnt out. People are quitting their jobs at higher-than-average rates and having trouble focusing on their work, feeling overwhelmed and distracted. It’s almost 2022 and people are still struggling with processing 2020.

Obligations In A Global Health Emergency - Authors' Reply, Ezekiel J. Emanuel

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Going, Going, Gone: Takings Clause Challenges To The Cdc’S Eviction Moratorium, Meredith Bradshaw

Georgia Law Review

In September 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a residential eviction moratorium to prevent the further spread of COVID- 19. One year later, the U.S. Supreme Court terminated the moratorium. During the year that the moratorium was in effect, landlords across the country filed lawsuits against the CDC because they were unable to evict tenants who did not satisfy their rental obligations. Because the moratorium allowed tenants to remain on the property without paying rent, some landlords argued that the regulation effected …

Time To Mail It In? A Survey Of 2020 Voting Rights Issues In Arkansas And Recommendations For More Inclusive Elections, Kim Vu-Dinh

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

The highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic, combined with over fifty lawsuits brought by former President Donald Trump, made the general election of 2020 one of the most controversial in the history of the United States. Accusations of voter disenfranchisement proliferated across the nation and were initiated by members of both sides of the political spectrum, even before Election Day. Arkansas was no exception to this rule. In 2020, multiple Arkansas lawsuits highlighted the weaknesses of the state’s voter infrastructure, particularly with regard to the absentee ballot process. Voting-by-mail was particularly important in the pandemic year when long lines became a public …

Socially Distant Signing: Why Georgia Should Adopt Remote Will Execution In The Post-Covid World, Jessie Daniel Rankin

Georgia Law Review

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and other state governors issued emergency executive orders authorizing the attestation and execution of wills, trusts, and other testamentary documents through the use of audio-video technology. Most states have traditionally required that such testamentary documents be signed in the physical presence of two or more witnesses to be valid. Georgia’s executive order permits these witnesses to instead observe the signing via video-conferencing software, alleviating the requirement that the witnesses be physically present with the testator. This authorization, however, only exists through this executive order and could lapse or be …

Supreme Court Institute Annual Report, 2020-2021, Georgetown University Law Center, Supreme Court Institute

SCI Papers & Reports

During the U.S. Supreme Court’s October Term (OT) 2020—corresponding to the 2020-2021 academic year— the Supreme Court Institute (SCI) provided moot courts for advocates in 57 of the 58 cases argued at the Supreme Court, offered our annual press and student term preview programs, and continued to integrate the moot court program into the Law Center curriculum. As in past Terms, the varied affiliations of advocates mooted reflect SCI’s commitment to assist advocates without regard to the party represented or the position advanced.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of hosting all OT 2020 …

Law School News: 'You Have To Adapt To Survive' 11-11-2021, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Open Covid Pledge: Design, Implementation And Preliminary Assessment Of An Intellectual Property Commons, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Review

Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of widely-publicized incidents gave rise to concerns that holders of patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights could hinder the development, manufacture and distribution of essential medical devices, protective equipment and biomedical products. The global response to these concerns was swift and included the issuance of compulsory licensing orders by several national governments, as well as the proposal of a technology pool by the World Health Organization (WHO). Alongside these efforts, a group of scientific, engineering and legal experts created a lightweight, open framework under which IP holders could voluntarily pledge not to …

A Pioneer Of The Law & Society Movement: One Eyewitness’S Reflections, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There is arguably no more seminal a figure in the field of law and society than Professor Marc Galanter. That a Special Issue featuring dedications to several leading academic lights would be hosted by the University of Chicago Law Review is especially significant in terms of Marc’s inclusion because Chicago is where Marc came of age as a student.

Professor Richard Abel, some years back, chronicled Marc’s educational journey in Hyde Park. As Abel tells it—and as Marc has told me over the years—after finishing his B.A. and while continuing to work on his master’s degree from Chicago, Marc enrolled …

Chosen Family, Care, And The Workplace, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Employees often request time off work to care for the medical needs of loved ones who are part of their extended or chosen family. Until recently, most workers would not have had any legal right to take such leave. A rapidly growing number of state laws, however, not only guarantee paid time off for family health needs, but also adopt innovative and expansive definitions of eligible family.

Several provide leave to care for intimate partners without requiring legal formalization of the relationship. Some go further to include any individual who has a relationship with the employee that is “like” or …

What To Learn From Pandemic Teaching? Our Student’S Names, Eun Hee Han

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Survival Of Animal Care Organizations Impacted By The Covid-19 Pandemic In 2020, Juan Fernando Torrico

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

This note assessed how animal care organizations and the animals in their care were impacted, negatively and positively, by the coronavirus pandemic. Several animal care organizations in the United States–including animal shelters, rescues, sanctuaries, and zoos–were contacted directly, and invited to share their experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They provided valuable in-depth insight into how government shutdowns and social distancing impacted their facility; if any of the animals in their care tested positive for COVID-19; how the animals in their care were affected indirectly by COVID-19; if they sought and received any government assistance to keep them operational; …

Osha’S Comprehensive Failure To Protect Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nancy M. Modesitt

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Under the Trump Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), failed to protect workers from COVID-19, which has led to deadly workplace outbreaks of the virus. OSHA’s failures began when it refused to produce legally-binding rules, known as emergency temporary standards, that would mandate the most basic step of requiring masks in the workplace to protect workers from the risks of infection on the job. In addition, while OSHA did produce non-binding guidance for employers, that guidance was unclear and fundamentally deficient in failing to require masks in all workplaces and failing to require recordkeeping that would identify potential …

Setting The Health Justice Agenda: Addressing Health Inequity And Injustice In The Post-Pandemic Clinic, Emily Benfer, James Bhandary-Alexander, Yael Cannon, Medha D. Makhlouf, Tomar Pierson-Brown

Faculty Scholarly Works

The COVID-19 pandemic surfaced and deepened entrenched preexisting health injustice in the United States. Racialized, marginalized, poor, and hyper-exploited populations suffered disproportionately negative outcomes due to the pandemic. The structures that generate and sustain health inequity in the United States—including in access to justice, housing, health care, employment, and education—have produced predictably disparate results. The authors, law school clinicians and professors involved with medical-legal partnerships, discuss the lessons learned by employing a health justice framework in teaching students to address issues of health inequity during the pandemic. The goal of health justice is to eliminate health disparities that are linked …

Reflections On Legal Education In The Aftermath Of A Pandemic, Timothy Casey

Faculty Scholarship

This essay considers two significant changes to legal education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, on-line programs will expand, based on the largely successful experiment in delivering legal education on-line during the pandemic. But this expansion must be thoughtful and deliberate. The legal education curriculum could include more on-line courses, but only if the learning outcomes and the pedagogy are aligned with on-line education. Experiential courses may not be the best fit for on-line given the specific learning outcomes and the benefits of in-person instruction in those courses. Second, student well-being will receive more attention in legal education. …

Pandemic Policing, Christian Sundquist

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Repercussions Of The Covid-19 Crisis On Global Markets And The Expected Scenarios For The Advancement Of The Global Economy, Firas Al Kufy

AAU Journal of Business and Law مجلة جامعة العين للأعمال والقانون

The research focuses on assessing and analyzing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated impacts on the international market scenarios. Moreover, the research evaluates financial recovery scenarios for global markets to understand the future path of the global economy’s progress and overcoming its current distress. Thus, the aim of conducting relevant research is to provide appropriate guidance to various policymakers regarding the development of economic benefits by coordinating global policies to respond effectively to the implications of epidemiological situations associated with COVID-19. We have monitored many indicators from various countries that seek to overcome the remnants of the epidemic …

Insuring The "Uninsurable": Business Interruption Insurance Coverage & Covid-19, Natalie E. Delatour

Georgia State University Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every facet of life in the United States, including the insurance industry. In particular, the number of business interruption insurance coverage lawsuits has continued to climb since March 2020, as insurers are denying coverage for pandemic-related losses and policyholders are seeking indemnification. Courts across the country are faced with answering difficult, novel questions about the interpretation and scope of business interruption insurance policies. Collectively, the conclusions the courts reach are critically important because they will determine the fate of policyholders and the insurance industry, respectively. This Note explores business interruption insurance coverage during COVID-19 …

Due Process And Administrative Hearings In The Time Of Covid-19: Help, I Need Somebody!, Leslie Birnbaum

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the reinvention of the administrative hearing process in a virtual or hybrid setting. Since March 2020, administrative forums have experienced continuances, backlogs, and the digital divide. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of COVID-19 on procedural due process and administrative hearings, and to address some of the problems and unanswered questions about the new normal. Part I presents background information about the virus and a brief history of pandemics. Part II examines past and present case law, and the NAALJ and National Conference of Administrative Law Judges' national survey. Part III …

Constitutional Law—Fourth Amendment Search And Seizure—Online Schools During A Pandemic: Fourth Amendment Implications When The State Requires Your Child To Turn On The Camera And Microphone Inside Your Home, Conan N. Becknell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liberty And Health, Frank Griffin

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Liberty is the essence of human nature and is necessary for optimal health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government placed unprecedented restrictions on personal liberty in the name of public health, confining millions of Americans to their homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of businesses and parks to close, shuttering abortion clinics, heavily regulating churches, monitoring gatherings in private homes, restricting interstate travel, and shifting disease burdens onto protected populations. Personal liberty is sustenance for individual health. Medical principles of patient autonomy, patient privacy, and social justice are closely related to legal concepts of personal liberty, the liberty of constitutional privacy, …

Law Students, Covid-19, And Big Feelings, Olivia R. Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Online Publications

It’s Fall 2021 and well . . . we’re back. Or rather – some of us are. Along with a patchwork of universities requiring vaccinations and/or masks for students comes a patchwork of modes of instruction: fully online, hybrid, fully in-person (and subject to change). Some employees have shifted to occasional work-from-home models while others are required to be in-person every day. It’s all very complicated. Honestly, right now everything is complicated. With big, complicated situations come big, complicated feelings, and our students’ feelings are certainly that: big.

Book Review Of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And The Next), Scott L. Cummings

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Political Versus Expert Messaging On Vaccination Intentions Of Trump Voters, Christopher Robertson, Keith Bentele, Beth Meyerson, Alexander Wood, Jacqueline Salwa

Faculty Scholarship

To increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake in resistant populations, such as Republicans, focus groups suggest that it is best to de-politicize the issue by sharing five facts from a public health expert. Yet polls suggest that Trump voters trust former President Donald Trump for medical advice more than they trust experts. We conducted an online, randomized, national experiment among 387 non-vaccinated Trump voters, using two brief audiovisual artifacts from Spring 2021, either facts delivered by an expert versus political claims delivered by President Trump. Relative to the control group, Trump voters who viewed the video of Trump endorsing the vaccine were …

Shifting Standards Of Judicial Review During The Coronavirus Pandemic In The United States, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Emergencies are exceptions to the rule. Laws that respond to emergencies can create exceptions to rules that protect human rights. In long lasting emergencies, these exceptions can become the rule, diluting human rights and eroding the rule of law. In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted states to change rules governing commercial and personal activities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Many governors’ executive orders were challenged as violations of the constitutionally protected rights of those affected. Judges are deciding whether emergencies can justify more restrictions than would be permitted in normal circumstances and whether some rights deserve …

An Evil Who Teaches Humility In The Novel «La Couronne Du Diable» From Alexandre Najjarun Mal Qui Enseigne L’Humilité Dans La Couronne Du Diabled’Alexandre Najjar », Sophie Nicolaïdès-Salloum

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

Abstract: After many natural disasters, a sanitary disaster overwhelms the planet earth, the COVID19 pandemic. Alexandre Najjar writes about this crisis in a novel translate as “The devil’s crown”. The author uses the way of testimony to describe the way the characters live the confinement in different countriesand the consequences of an unprecedent situation on the psyche: fear of the other, feeling imprisoned, powerlessness. The intervention includes the analysis of the title, the choice of the polyphonyand the similarity between this novel and an ancient tragedy.

Résumé: Après plusieurs catastrophes naturelles, une catastrophe sanitaire accable aujourd’hui notre planète : la …

Uga School Of Law Covid-19 Student Flow Chart, Fall 2021, University Of Georgia School Of Law, Rachel S. Evans

COVID-19 Pandemic Archive

Two flow charts were revised for Fall 2021 and distributed to faculty, staff and students in August 2021 under advisement from Dean Peter B. Rutledge in consultation with members of UGA's College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Population Health and the AU/UGA Medical Partnership. UGA Law Librarian Rachel Evans assisted with the graphic design aspects of this resource.

A generic template of this flow chart was also created so that other departments, schools and colleges across the University of Georgia could adapt and use this resource for their communities. That template is attached below as an additional file.