Law Commons^™

Measles And Misrepresentation In Minnesota: Can There Be Liability For Anti-Vaccine Misinformation That Causes Bodily Harm?, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, John Diamond

San Diego Law Review

Balancing protecting and compensating victims of harmful fake news and protecting freedom of speech and the information flow is both important and challenging. Vaccines are one area where misinformation can directly cause harm. When misrepresentation leads people to refuse vaccines, disease outbreaks can happen, causing harm, even deaths, and imposing costs on the community. The tort of negligent misrepresentation that causes physical harm appears a custom-made remedy for those affected. However, courts—appropriately— narrowed the tort to protect freedom of speech and the flow of information. This Article uses an especially egregious example of anti-vaccine misrepresentation to examine the boundaries of …

Back To The Future: The Revival Of Pennoyer In Personal Jurisdiction Doctrine And The Demise Of International Shoe, Robert M. Bloom, Janine A. Hanrahan

San Diego Law Review

This Article argues that the Court’s recent decisions have effectively revived Pennoyer’s focus on physical presence and status, at the expense of the fairness and contact considerations set forth in International Shoe, as the bases for asserting personal jurisdiction. Part II details the jurisdictional analysis under both Pennoyer and International Shoe. Part III discusses the evolution of personal jurisdiction doctrine under International Shoe. Part IV demonstrates that the Court’s recent decisions have revitalized Pennoyer’s territorially based regime, and consequently diminished the thrust of International Shoe.

The Defamation Injunction Meets The Prior Restraint Doctrine, Doug Rendleman

San Diego Law Review

This article maintains that, under defined circumstances, a judge should be able to grant an injunction that forbids the defendant’s proved defamation. It analyzes the common law of defamation, the constitutional prior restraint doctrine, the constitutional protection for defamation that stems from New York Times v. Sullivan, and injunctions and their enforcement.

In Near v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court expanded protection for expression by adding an injunction to executive licensing as a prior restraint. Although the Near court circumscribed the injunction as a prior restraint, it approved criminal sanctions and damages judgment for defamation. An injunction that forbids the defendant’s …

In Consumer Protection We Trust? Re-Thinking The Legal Framework For Country Of Origin Cases, Shmuel I. Becher, Jessica C. Lai

San Diego Law Review

Markets are becoming more complicated in an ever faster changing world. New findings pertaining to human behavior and consumer markets constantly challenge traditional legal and policy assumptions. Social science offers a myriad of insights into the ways trust, identity, ideology, and preferences interact and impact one another. Against this background, the need to advance a nuanced legal framework is increasingly vital.

Consumer law policy requires an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. Recent scholarship has acknowledged this need, proposing novel ways to enrich the academic discourse and develop consumer law policy. Along these lines, a growing body of literature examines how notions …

Conscious Identity Performance, Leslie P. Culver

San Diego Law Review

Marginalized groups in the legal profession sometimes feel pressure to perform strategies to communicate their identity in a predominantly white legal profession. Relevant legal scholarship describes this phenomenon, for example, in terms such as covering and passing—largely forms of assimilation. The notion is that outsiders—women, people of color, LGBTQ—use these strategies to communicate with insiders—white, heterosexual, males—in ways designed to advance their status in the legal profession. This article expands on that scholarship by drawing on a theoretical framework that legal scholars have largely ignored: co-cultural theory. This interdisciplinary theory describes how non-dominant cultures communicate in a dominant society. In …

Laying Siege To The Ivory Tower: Resource Allocation In Response To The Heckler's Veto On University Campuses, Macklin W. Thornton

San Diego Law Review

High in the towers of academia, the lofty ideals of free speech are tossed around with a deceptive ease. However, as legal minds grapple with heady legal doctrines, free speech has concrete consequences down at the foot of those towers. At this ivory base, the property line between the university and the community blur. Students and nonstudents assemble and deliver conflicting speech that, at times, foments violence. Molotov cocktails, gun shots, broken windows, disgruntled students. All attempts to trigger the dreaded heckler’s veto—an attempt the government has an obligation to prevent. In addition to the public relations disasters grown from …

Tort Reform With Chinese Characteristics: Towards A Harmonious Society In The People's Republic Of China, Andrew J. Green

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article presents an analysis of tort law in China specifically focusing on personal injury tort law. It provides a general background on the role of tort law in society, and then it analyzes the specific laws, regulations, and cases that form the personal injury tort regime, covering both historical and recent laws. The article then explores the forces in society and politics that seem to be behind the new legal rules. It concludes by drawing attention to several steps that may be taken as part of further reform.

Equality In Germany And The United States, Edward J. Eberle

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will proceed as follows. Part I will describe the methodology and approach of American and German equality law. The constitutional Courts of both countries value equality highly, resulting in strong and well developed jurisprudence. Each of the Courts employ a sliding scale of judicial scrutiny with the degree of scrutiny varying with the trait or personal interest affected by the governmental measure. Strict or extremely intensive scrutiny applies to measures targeting personal traits that especially affect a person's identity, like race, national heritage, or alienage under United States law, and race, sex, gender, language, national origin, disability, faith, …

Cyberbullying: What's The "Status" In England?, Krupa A. Patel

San Diego International Law Journal

This comment will explore the growing concern of cyberbullying and will highlight the need for the English Parliament to create its own national anti-cyberbullying legislation, or to incorporate this activity into existing laws as a preventative measure. Part II will define cyberbullying, highlight the various ways in which cyberbullying differs from traditional forms of bullying, and explore specific forms and mediums of cyberbullying to underscore the difficulty in regulating such actions through the law. It will also include illustrative examples of cyberbullying incidents. Part III explores the current laws that English prosecutors are attempting to use to penalize those who …

Sovereignty In Theory And Practice, Winston P. Nagan, Aitza M. Haddad

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article deals with the theory and practice of sovereignty from the perspective of a trend in theoretical perspectives as well as the relevant trend in practice. The Article provides a survey of the leading thinkers’ and philosophers’ views on the nature and importance of sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty is exceedingly complex. Unpacking its meanings and uses over time is challenging. An aspect of this challenge is that the discourse about sovereignty is vibrant among diverse policy, academic, and political constituencies. At times, its narratives are relatively discrete and at other times, the narratives overlap with the discourses from …

Economic And Social Rights: The Role Of Courts In China, Randall Peerenboom

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article considers what the role of the courts could and should be in implementing ESR in China. Part II surveys recent global developments giving greater bite to economic and social rights, as well as some of the main controversies, debates, and approaches to promoting, protecting, and fulfilling ESR, with particular attention to the role of the courts. Part III provides a general introduction to the social, legal, political, and economic context in China, and contrasts the situation in China with South Africa?one of the global leaders in judicial implementation of ESR. The overall environment in China is, if not …

Gangs, Violence, And Victims In El Salvador, Guatemala, And Honduras, Juan J. Fogelbach

San Diego International Law Journal

Country conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will require U.S. courts to address complex protection law issues involving current and former gang members, as well as their victims. For example, just three months after the Seventh Circuit's decision, the Sixth Circuit also held that former gang members were a particular social group. In order to ensure proper handling of these cases, advocates, adjudicators, government attorneys, and judges must acquire a high level of understanding of gangs and violence in the affected countries. To facilitate this process, this paper will synthesize and analyze publicly available information on gangs and violence …

Partitioning Paternity: The German Approach To A Disjuncture Between Genetic And Legal Paternity With Implications For American Courts, Shelly Ann Kamei

San Diego International Law Journal

This paper will address the strengths and weaknesses of the German approach as well as the potential use of this approach by American states, with particular emphasis given to the conflict between the right to know one’s origins and a child’s right to care and support. Part II discusses the challenge of defining legal paternity in an age of genetic certainty. It will first give a brief explanation of how courts have used functional–social and genetic considerations in defining legal paternity. It will then evaluate the legal implications of this approach on the rights of the father, mother, and child. …

Constitutions, International Law, And The Settlement Function Of Law: A Schema For Further Reflection, Larry Alexander

San Diego International Law Journal

Imagine a community living in a defined geographical area. Its members generally believe that their actions should be guided by moral norms, and they generally comply with those norms as they understand them. And, from our external vantage point, we believe that they are indeed subject to moral norms and should comply with them, both in dealing with each other and with those outside their community....

Silencing The Silk Road: China's Language Policy In The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Aurora Elizabeth Bewicke

San Diego International Law Journal

As part of its push for mono-culturalism throughout China in general, and in the XUAR in particular, China's language policy is at the forefront of what some have labeled China's program of "cultural genocide." While most agree that this provocative terminology is overstated, China's language policy may well be at the root of various human rights violations. Part II of this article will describe the historical context and modern realities of China's language policy in the XUAR, which is compromised of both overt policies in the form of laws, regulations, and policy statements as well as more covert policies, which …

Towards A New Transitional Justice Model: Assessing The Serbian Case, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will survey the key episodes of transitional justice in various countries since the 1970s, and then apply the lessons gleaned to the transition of Serbia during the first five years following the deposition of authoritarian ruler Slobodan Milosevic in October 200, and the subsequent establishment of democratic rule...This article will show that the empirical evidence demonstrates that the outcome of the transitional justice process a country undertakes, upon its political stability, needs to be taken into account when fashioning said process.

An International Perspective On Battling The Bulge: Japan's Anti-Obesity Legislation And Its Potential Impact On Waistlines Around The World, Christin Lawler

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment identifies six factors which my be analyzed to predict the outcome of Japan's new "Metabo" legislation: (1) the compelling need for anti-obesity legislation; (2) the broad authority vested in Japanese physicians and medical policymakers; (3) the Japanese cultural emphasis on harmony; (4) the structure of the Japanese Constitution; (5) the legislation's enforcement mechanisms; and (6) the costs of the program. This Comment predicts that although the cost of implementing the program could pose a serious impediment to initiating the anti-obesity campaign on a national scale, the new legislation is likely to succeed in decreasing Japanese obesity.

Global Crisis Writ Large: The Effects Of Being Stateless In Thailand On Hill-Tribe Children,, Joy K. Park, John E. Tanagho, Mary E. Weicher Gaudette

San Diego International Law Journal

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), "[n]o region of the world has been left untouched by the statelessness issue." International law defines a stateless person as someone "who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law." Yet across the nations, stateless persons do not desire citizenship simply for the sake of citizenship. Ultimately, citizenship, or membership in a nation, provides a link between an individual and that nation and carries with it fundamental benefits and rights. Correspondingly,lack of citizenship translates into a denial of benefits and rights, including basic …

The Right To Privacy Unveiled, Samuel C. Rickless

San Diego Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to bring order to this theoretical chaos. In my view, none of these accounts of the right to privacy is accurate. As I will argue, we are better served by a completely different theoretical description of the relevant right. It is my hope that greater philosophical clarity in this area of ethics will lead to a more careful appreciation of the value of the right to privacy, as well as legislation and judicial reasoning that is more carefully crafted to protect against violations of the right. This Article is organized as follows: In Part …

Privacy Versus Security: Why Privacy Is Not An Absolute Value Or Right, Kenneth Einar Himma

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, I consider the scope of this right to informational privacy relative to our interests in security and argue, in particular, that the right to privacy must yield to these interests in the case of a direct conflict. I offer arguments from a number of different perspectives. I will, for example, begin with a case directly rooted in what I take to be ordinary case intuitions and then continue with an argument grounded in the distinction between intrinsic and instrumental value, which is thought to serve as a rough mark between what is important from a moral point …

Claims To Privacy And The Distributed Value View, Alan Rubel

San Diego Law Review

This Article is organized as follows. In Part II, I briefly explain my view of what privacy is - the particularized judgment account. I then turn to the question of privacy - value in Part III, where I examine several views prominent in the literature. In Part IV, I outline my view of privacy's value. I argue that, at its strongest, privacy has constitutive value, which is to say that privacy is a constituent part of intrinsically valuable states of affairs. However, in many cases, privacy's value is not morally weighty. Unlike other goods to which privacy is compared, I …

Introduction To The 2007 Editors’ Symposium: Informational Privacy: Philosophical Foundations And Legal Implications, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

The outstanding collection of articles and comments thereon that follows this Introduction constitutes the 2007 Editors' Symposium of the San Diego Law Review. This year's theme is: "Informational Privacy: Philosophical Foundations and Legal Implications."

Does Warrantless Wiretapping Violate Moral Rights?, Evan Tsen Lee

San Diego Law Review

The controversy over the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program will not disappear any time soon. Legislators, policymakers, and academics should be thinking about whether and under what circumstances such surveillance should be illegal. A major factor in that decision is the moral status of such wiretapping. This essay, written for a symposium on moral rights to informational privacy, argues that two key determinants in the morality of warrantless wiretapping are (1) whether the subjects of the surveillance are known terrorists; and (2) whether the wiretapping is part of a pre-emptive surveillance program, or instead whether government operatives actually know of …

Toward Informational Privacy Rights, Adam D. Moore

San Diego Law Review

In this paper I will offer several arguments in support of the view that individuals have moral claims to control personal information. Coupled with rights to control access to one's body, capacities, and powers, or physical privacy rights, we will have taken important steps toward a general right to privacy. In Part I, a definition of privacy is offered along with an account of the value of privacy. Simply put, privacy - defined as control over access to locations and information - is necessary for human well-being. In Part II, an attempt to move beyond claims of value to claims …

Some Questions For The Barrier Theory, Alan Rubel

San Diego Law Review

Having set out the basics, Rickless considers several questions one might pose for the Barrier Theory. For example, must the barrier be solid? No. Must the barrier be erected by, rather than merely used by, the rightholder? No. Must the barrier be morally permissible in the first instance? No. While Rickless's answers seem correct, I think that they raise some concerns about the Barrier Theory.

Separation, Risk, And The Necessity Of Privacy To Well-Being: A Comment On Adam Moore's Toward Informational Privacy Rights, Kenneth Einar Himma

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, I want to raise doubts about certain of Moore's premises in his argument defending information privacy rights. As always and I say this as a continuing admirer of his skill as a philosopher, information theorist, and legal theorist his argument is well thought out and persuasively written. But, as we will see, there are serious problems with each major plank of his schema for justifying privacy rights.

"I'Ve Got Nothing To Hide" And Other Misunderstandings Of Privacy, Daniel J. Solove

San Diego Law Review

In this short Article, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the nothing to hide argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: "I've got nothing to hide." According to the nothing to hide argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The nothing to hide argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the nothing to hide …

The Human Right To Privacy, James Griffin

San Diego Law Review

To say much of interest about a particular human right, we have to know its content. So we have to know how to decide its content. That is where I shall start.

The European Neighborhood Policy And Its Impact On The Israel - European Union - United States Triangle, Guy Harpaz

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is not intended to deal with the feasibility of successfully implementing the [European Neighbourhood Policy] ENP, nor does it address its normative aspects from the European perspective. Instead, this article assumes that the parties will successfully implement the ENP, and on the basis of that assumption, attempts to provide a first, critical and interdisciplinary examination of the potentially significant impact of the ENP on the legal, economic, social, and trade landscape of the State of Israel, her citizens, economy, and on her relations with the EU and the United States.

Does The Tax Law Discriminate Against The Majority Of American Children: The Downside Of Our Progressive Rate Structure And Unbalanced Incentives For Higher Education?, Lester B. Snyder

University of San Diego Law and Economics Research Paper Series

Our graduate income tax structure provides an incentive to shift income to lower-bracket family members. However, some parents have much more latitude to shift income to their children than do others. Income derived from services and private business-by far the majority of American income-is less favored than income derived from publicly traded securities. The rationale given for this discrimination is that parents in services or private business, as opposed to those in securities, do not actually part with control of their property. This article explores these tax broader (yet subtle) tax benefits and their impact on the majority of children …