Law Commons^™

Pills And Picasso: Evaluating The Proposed Liquidation Of The Detroit Institute Of Arts During The Detroit Bankruptcy, Kevin Deutsch

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Part I of this Note provides background information that is helpful for understanding the Detroit bankruptcy, the role of the DIA in the bankruptcy, and municipal bankruptcies in general. Part II evaluates equitable arguments against a sale of the DIA’s collection. Part III provides a rationale for a partial sale of the DIA’s collection.

Intellectual Property In Experience, Madhavi Sunder

Michigan Law Review

In today’s economy, consumers demand experiences. From Star Wars to Harry Potter, fans do not just want to watch or read about their favorite characters— they want to be them. They don the robes of Gryffindor, flick their wands, and drink the butterbeer. The owners of fantasy properties understand this, expanding their offerings from light sabers to the Galaxy’s Edge®, the new Disney Star Wars immersive theme park opening in 2019.Since Star Wars, Congress and the courts have abetted what is now a $262 billion-a-year industry in merchandising, fashioning “merchandising rights” appurtenant to copyrights and trademarks that give fantasy owners …

Graffiti Museum: A First Amendment Argument For Protecting Uncommissioned Art On Private Property, Margaret L. Mettler

Michigan Law Review

Graffiti has long been a target of municipal legislation that aims to preserve property values, public safety, and aesthetic integrity in the community. Not only are graffitists at risk of criminal prosecution but property owners are subject to civil and criminal penalties for harboring graffiti on their land. Since the 1990s, most U.S. cities have promulgated graffiti abatement ordinances that require private property owners to remove graffiti from their land, often at their own expense. These ordinances define graffiti broadly to include essentially any surface marking applied without advance authorization from the property owner. Meanwhile, graffiti has risen in prominence …

Trespassory Art, Randall Bezanson, Andrew Finkelman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The history of art is replete with examples of artists who have broken from existing conventions and genres, redefining the meaning of art and its function in society. Our interest is in emerging forms of art that trespass-occupy space, place, and time as part of their aesthetic identity. These new forms of art, which we call trespassory art, are creatures of a movement that seeks to appropriate cultural norms and cultural signals, reinterpreting them to create new meaning. Marcel DuChamp produced such a result when, in the early twentieth century, he took a urinal, signed it, titled it Fountain, and …

When It’S Ok To Sell The Monet: A Trustee-Fiduciary-Duty Framework For Analyzing The Deaccessioning Of Art To Meet Museum Operating Expenses, Jennifer L. White

Michigan Law Review

Contrary to the view adopted by current codes of ethics, this Note argues that courts should approve a museum director's use of proceeds from the sale of deaccessioned art to meet operating expenses if the director's conduct comports with the duties of trustees under the law of trusts. Part I explores possible organizational structures for museums, including the charitable trust and the nonprofit corporation. Part I also compares the fiduciary duties of museum managers under trust and corporate law. Part II argues that courts should apply trust-law principles both to trustees of charitable trusts and directors of charitable corporations26 because …

The Writing On Our Walls: Finding Solutions Through Distinguishing Graffiti Art From Graffiti Vandalism, Marisa A. Gómez

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that outlawing graffiti completely is not an effective solution. The only effective means of controlling graffiti is to develop laws and policies which accommodate graffiti art while discouraging graffiti vandalism and which attack the root causes of graffiti. Part I briefly outlines the origins of graffiti. Part II describes the different types of graffiti and the motivations of their respective creators. Part III analyzes the arguments for and against the legalization of certain types of graffiti and concludes that, because of the multitude of different types of graffiti, both graffiti proponents and opponents have meritorious arguments that …

Legal Modernism, David Luban

Michigan Law Review

What are the roots of Critical Legal Studies? "The immediate intellectual background . . . is the . . . achievement of early twentieth century modernism ... ," writes Roberto Unger in his CLS manifesto; he elaborates this modernist connection in his deep and subtle book Passion. Other CLS members also draw parallels between their endeavor and artistic modernism.

Obviously, CLS is first and foremost a movement of left-leaning legal scholars; it is also associated with distinctive theoretical claims about law. But it should be equally obvious that CLS involves sensibilities and affinities that are strikingly similar to those …

Thinking About The Elgin Marbles, John Henry Merryman

Michigan Law Review

In the early nineteenth century, a British Lord removed much of the sculpture from the Parthenon and shipped it to England. Housed in the British Museum and named after their exporter, the Elgin Marbles have become a source of international controversy. The Greeks wish to see the Marbles returned to the Acropolis and their position is supported by a growing movement seeking the repatriation of cultural property. The Elgin Marbles are representative of the many works of art in the world's museums and private collections that could be subject to repatriation. Rejecting the emotional appeal of the Greek position, Professor …