Law Commons^™

Feeding The Good Fire: Paths To Facilitate Native-Led Fire Management On Federal Lands, Kevin Burdet

Seattle University Law Review

In 2003, nearly twenty Native American reservations were devastated by wildfires that originated on adjacent federal lands. The San Pasqual Reservation’s entire 1,400 acres were burned along with over a third of its homes, and seventy-five percent of the Rincon Reservation was burned, taking twenty homes with it. These devastating fires, along with others in 2002, brought about the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 (TFPA), which offered hope for Tribes to propose projects on bordering or adjacent federal lands and protect reservation lands in the process. Unfortunately, twenty years later, the TFPA has had a marginal effect in enabling …

The First Amendment To The Constitution, Associational Freedom, And The Future Of The Country: Alabama’S Direct Attack On The Existence Of The Naacp, Helen J. Knowles-Gardner

Seattle University Law Review

Sixty years ago, on Wednesday, April 8, 1964, Professor Harry Kalven, Jr., gave the second of three lectures at The Ohio State University College of Law Forum. These lectures were published two years later in a book entitled The Negro & the 1st Amendment. In the second lecture, Kalven distinguished between direct and indirect threats to the associational freedom of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Kalven categorized the 1958 decision in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson as an indirect effort to control the NAACP.

With the benefit of material obtained from numerous archival sources, …

What Is In Your Tampon? Increasing Transparency In Menstrual Products, Elianna Spitzer

Seattle University Law Review

The average person who menstruates will bleed for an average of five days, every twenty-four to thirty-eight days, over several decades and could use thousands of disposable menstrual products in their lifetime. Menstrual products line retail shelves. They can be found in homes, bags, and bodies—but until 2021, manufacturers were not required to disclose the ingredients used to make these products to consumers at all. In fact, they still are not federally required to disclose menstrual product ingredients on product packaging. Instead, in recent years, changes to menstrual product labels have largely been the result of state legislation. In 2019, …

Due Process Shaped By The Present Instead Of The Past: The Needed Reinvigoration Of A Lawrence Vision Of Due Process, Azor Cole

Seattle University Law Review

The recognition of unenumerated rights, rights implied from the text of the constitution, is a political battlefield waged through law with profound implications for all Americans. Generally, there have been two prongs for an inquiry into an unenumerated constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment. One is to ask whether the right to be found is objectively deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition. The other is to ask whether the right to be found is fundamental to this Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty. The current Supreme Court has effectively done away with this present-day liberty analysis, saying it is …

Sneakers, The Shoes That Talk The Talk And Walk The Walk: How Jack Daniel’S Properties, Inc. V. Vip Products Left Its Footprint On Trademark Law And The Sneaker Industry, Nitya Tolani

Seattle University Law Review

As the fashion industry—including the sneaker industry housed within it—continues to go through the motions of collectively flocking out, and then collectively flocking again to the newest innovations in the world of wearables, the landscape of laws to protect and promote those innovations expands as well, mainly in the area of intellectual property law. Although copyright, trademark, and patent law can cover innovations in the fashion industry, this Note centers its analysis on trademark law. Trademark law has been through notable change in recent years because of the United States Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. …

Prejudice Standards In Washington’S Appellate Courts, Andrew B. Van Winkle

Seattle University Law Review

When an appellate court finds an error to have occurred during a proceeding, the error is not yet subject to correction. In order to merit a remedy, the error must have been sufficiently prejudicial to the aggrieved party’s case. Drawing the line between correctable and non-correctable errors is not an easy task, for it often requires guessing at what was in the minds of jurors and trial judges. To cope with this task, courts have devised various rules and tests for deciding whether an error was likely prejudicial or not. These standards often go by names such as “harmless error,” …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Irreconcilable: Mcdonnell Douglas And Summary Judgment, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Publications

The McDonnell Douglas framework is the most important analytical structure in employment discrimination law. Scholars and judges have regularly criticized the three-part burden-shifting test. Despite decades of criticism, a central feature of the framework remains unexamined - its second step is incompatible with the summaryjudgment standard.

In employment discrimination cases courts often grant summaryjudgment in the employer's favor. Scholars have offered various accounts of why this happens, including docket pressures and published case law that focuses on grants of summary judgment. The second step of the inquiry has largely escaped scrutiny because it appears to be a quirky, but somewhat …

The First New Deal: Planning, Market Coordination, And The National Industrial Recovery Act Of 1933, Sanjukta Paul

Other Publications

In 1933, four years into the Great Depression, Congress enacted the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in close cooperation with the Roosevelt administration. The central action of the statute was to facilitate price coordination across a given market or industry. Its rationale was to contain the destructive competition and below-cost pricing that were exacerbating the problems already roiling the economy as a result of the initial stock market crash, and subsequent cascading credit and liquidity crises. In addition to addressing the credit crisis directly through banking and monetary reform, the Roosevelt administration thus sought to buoy up purchasing power by …

Colonies And International Labour Organization: A Subaltern Outlook, Aathira Raju

National Law School of India Review

This paper put forward a subaltern perspective to outline the conditions of colonial labour during the interwar era. It is argued that despite the efforts of postcolonial international legal scholars to make the subaltern class visible, the latter’s voice remained scanty. One of the reasons is the paradox of international law. As noted by Chimni, “It is an instrument of subjugation and of liberation, of exploitation and possible emancipation”. This dichotomy can be witnessed in the transactions of international institutions, notably the International Labour Organization (‘ILO’). On the one hand, the ILO was regarded as the pacesetter for labour interests; …

The Uber Conundrum: Analysing The Worker Rights Of Uber Drivers In India, Shantanu Braj Choubey

National Law School Journal

This article analyses the impact of the proposed labour codes and the UK Supreme Court judgement in Uber BV vs Aslam to assess the legal status of Uber drivers under Indian labour laws. Uber is one of the biggest cab aggregators in India, both in terms of revenue and the number of drivers associated with it. However, the labour rights of such drivers still fall in the shadows. This has led to several instances of dispute between the drivers, governments and the company. While the law concerning the legal status of drivers with respect to Uber is increasingly being settled …

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …

Securities Regulation And Administrative Deference In The Roberts Court, Eric C. Chaffee

Seattle University Law Review

In A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, A.C. Pritchard and Robert B. Thompson write, “Securities law offers an illuminating window into the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence over the last century. The securities cases provide one of the most accessible illustrations of key transitions of American law.” A main reason for this is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a bellwether among administrative agencies, and as a result, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court is a history of administrative law in the Supreme Court of the United States as well.

Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …

Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner

Seattle University Law Review

Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …

The Esg Information System, Stavros Gadinis, Amelia Miazad

Seattle University Law Review

The mounting focus on ESG has forced internal corporate decision-making into the spotlight. Investors are eager to support companies in innovative “green” technologies and scrutinize companies’ transition plans. Activists are targeting boards whose decisions appear too timid or insufficiently explained. Consumers and employees are incorporating companies sustainability credentials in their purchasing and employment decisions. These actors are asking companies for better information, higher quality reports, and granular data. In response, companies are producing lengthy sustainability reports, adopting ambitious purpose statements, and touting their sustainability credentials. Understandably, concerns about greenwashing and accountability abound, and policymakers are preparing for action.

In this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …

Securing Workers' Futures: Why Replacing Union Workers With Artificial Intelligence In Creative Professions Is The New Subcontracting, Katherine J. Kyriakoudes

American University Law Review

Artificial intelligence poses a significant threat to unionized professionals in creative industries, particularly as employers may be tempted to replace unionized workforces with artificial intelligence. However, Supreme Court precedent and the National Labor Relations Act paves a path forward for unionized workers in creative fields to safeguard themselves from job displacement through collective bargaining.

This Comment argues that replacing a unionized workforce with artificial intelligence is analogous to subcontracting under Fibreboard Paper Products Co. v. NLRB, First National Maintenance Corp. v. NLRB, and congressional intent behind the National Labor Relations Act. Consequently, artificial intelligence should be a mandatory subject of …

Battling The Form: A Front-End Approach To Default-Use Noncompetes, Rachel Arnow-Richman

UF Law Faculty Publications

A growing consensus holds that employer overuse of noncompete agreements adversely affects workers and the economy. But there is little agreement on how best to regulate these instruments. States have experimented with an array of idiosyncratic reforms that capture the most egregious misuses, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has issued an outright ban that would prohibit all employee noncompetes and comparable instruments nationwide.

This Article argues that any effective reform strategy must target what it terms “default-use” noncompetes—boilerplate restraints imposed by employers as a matter of course without close consideration of their underlying justification. Some unlawful noncompetes are clearly …

The Uniform Restrictive Agreement Act In A Vast Sea Of Strange Reform: An Introduction, Rachel Arnow-Richman

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Primacy Versus Shareholder Accountability, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

When corporations inflict injuries in the course of business, shareholders wielding environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) principles can, and now sometimes do, intervene to correct the matter. In the emerging fact pattern, corporate social accountability expands out of its historic collectivized frame to become an internal subject matter—a corporate governance topic. As a result, shareholder accountability surfaces as a policy question for the first time. The Big Three index fund managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, responded to the accountability question with ESG activism. In so doing, they defected against corporate legal theory’s central tenet, shareholder primacy. Shareholder primacy builds …

Verses Turned To Verdicts: Ysl Rico Case Sets A High-Watermark For The Legal Pseudo-Censorship Of Rap Music, Nabil Yousfi

Seattle University Law Review

Whichever way you spin the record, rap music and courtrooms don’t mix. On one side, rap records are well known for their unapologetic lyrical composition, often expressing a blatant disregard for legal institutions and authorities. On the other, court records reflect a Van Gogh’s ear for rap music, frequently allowing rap lyrics—but not similar lyrics from other genres—to be used as criminal evidence against the defendants who authored them. Over the last thirty years, this immiscibility has engendered a legal landscape where prosecutors wield rap lyrics as potent instruments for criminal prosecution. In such cases, color-blind courts neglect that rap …

Human Capital Disclosure & Corporate Governance: The New Evidence, George S. Georgiev

Faculty Articles

This Article explores the evolution of human capital disclosure—firm-supplied information about various workforce-related matters—as a factor in contemporary corporate governance. Regulatory and nonregulatory developments from recent years have upended longstanding practices and generated extensive new evidence. Most notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a human capital management (“HCM”) disclosure mandate in 2020, which, though long overdue, was criticized from the outset for its modest scope and lax design. In the meantime, courts have taken a renewed interest in board of directors’ oversight responsibilities in a number of areas, including HCM, while labor’s power has unexpectedly increased in some …

Quantifying An Inconvenient Truth : Revisiting A Culture Of Adjustment On Work/Rest Hours, Bikram S. Bhatia, Raphael Baumler, Maria Carrera-Arce, Michael E. Manuel, Inga Bartuseviciene

Reports

No abstract provided.

Benefits Transparency, Samantha Prince

Faculty Scholarly Works

Recently, several states and cities have enacted equal pay laws in a push for pay transparency in job postings to inform and help reduce wage gaps. Some of these laws also require a description of the employee benefits that the company offers. However, none of these laws require a detailed description of said benefits, even though employee benefits on average make up 24% of an employee’s compensation.

Businesses can choose how much to disclose with respect to their benefits and they may even engage in what this author calls “benefits washing”—a practice where companies provide vague or misleading information about …

The New Yellow Dog Contract: Mandatory Arbitration Agreements And Collective Action Waivers In The Aftermath Of Epic Systems, Eric Lundy

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has consistently found arbitration agreements in employment contracts to be enforceable, citing a strong national policy favoring arbitration. This line of cases came to its apogee in 2018 with Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis. The Court held that the statutory right to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection did not confer upon employees the right to bring class actions against their employer when they had signed an arbitration agreement with a collective action waiver. While the Court’s decision was widely criticized in the academic community, it sent a …

Why Do Banks Fail Together? Evidence From Executive Compensation, Deniz Anginer, Jinjing Liu, Cindy A. Schipani, H. Nejat Seyhun

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Recent bank failures have elicited extensive interest about the causes, focusing on incompetence of bank executives, policymakers, bank regulators and supervisors and even uninsured depositors. Yet, before we can prescribe solutions to bank failures, we need to identify the correct causes of the underlying problems. We argue that the problem is not so much with incompetence of executives, depositors, or regulators per se, but rather with managerial incentives.

We provide both a conceptual basis as well as empirical evidence to show that bank executives have incentives to increase systemic risks in order to maximize the benefits of bank bailouts. Consequently, …

Another Major Question: The Department Of Labor Should Retire The Tiebreaker Rule And Reemploy Pecuniary Language In Erisa, Brandon Chesner

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) soon turns 50. Instead of celebrating with cake, retirees and future retirees alike get to witness a new chapter in the debate over the consideration of Environmental, Social, or Governance (“ESG”) factors in investing with plan assets. As employees cross the bridge into retirement, they look to their 401(k)s and pension plans for peace of mind, for it is ERISA that has been working silently in the background establishing minimum standards, practices, and fiduciary duties to protect participants. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has passed three regulations—two …

Minnesota's Misclassification Solutions Lead The Way But Leave Undocumented Workers Behind: How Minnesota Can Increase Worker Protections, Mckayla Murphy Zelaya

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.