Law Commons^™

Cybersecurity: What About U.S. Policy?, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

During December 2014, just hours before the holiday recess, the U.S. Congress passed five major legislative proposals designed to enhance U.S. cybersecurity. Following signature by the President, these became the first cybersecurity laws to be enacted in over a decade, since passage of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. My goal is to explore the unusually complex subject of cybersecurity policy in a highly readable manner. An analogy with the recent deadly and global Ebola epidemic is used to illustrate policy challenges, and hopefully will assist in transforming the technological language of cybersecurity into a more easily understandable …

Gingles Versus Shaw: Why The Sweet Spot Between Thornburg V. Gingles And Shaw V. Reno Calls For An Amended § 2, Timothy L. O'Hair

Timothy L. O'Hair

Minority voter enfranchisement, and the related issue of minority voter dilution, has been a back and forth issue since the Reconstruction Era—the Fifteenth Amendment was countered by the Jim Crow laws, which were countered by the Voting Rights Act, and so on (this paper goes in depth regarding this seesaw history). After the 1982 Amendments to the VRA, the holding in Thornburg v. Gingles articulated a threshold to ensure minority groups receive a majority-minority district when the group is sufficiently large and compact and politically cohesive. Shaw v. Reno frustrated this by enabling an Equal Protection claim for the majority …

Lessons In Fiscal Activism, Mirit Eyal-Cohen

Mirit Eyal-Cohen

This article highlights an anomaly. It shows that two tax rules aimed to achieve a similar goal were introduced at the same time. Both meant to be temporary and bring economic stimuli but received a dramatically different treatment. The economically inferior rule survived while its superior counterpart did not. The article reviews the reasons for this paradox. It shows that the causes are both political and an agency problem. The article not only enriches an important and ongoing debate that has received much attention in recent years, but also provides important lessons to policymakers.

Executing On An Empty Tank: Protecting The Supply Of Lethal Injection Drugs From Public Records Requests, Ira K. Rushing

Ira K Rushing

With the US Supreme Court holding the death penalty and lethal injection as Constitutional, there has been a new strategy for condemned prisoners. Using public information requests to discover the identities of the suppliers of lethal injection drugs and others in ancillary roles, the media has broad range to publish this information. This has led to many suppliers and compounding pharmacies to withhold supplies of the drugs to states using them in executions. This paper lays out a history of the death penalty in Mississippi that has gotten us to this point. It then attempts to provide persuasive arguments on …

The Farm Bill: A Wicked Problem Seeking A Systematic Solution, Sarah J. Morath

Sarah J Morath

This article advocates for employing systems thinking in food system reform generally, but also, specifically, as a way to approach farm bill reform. Using the most recent farm bill as an example, this article introduces principles of systems thinking and explains how a systems thinking approach to food policy reform might be developed. Part I describes the original farm bill and its evolution from a law supporting farmers and the hungry during the Great Depression, to a 1,000 page, one trillion dollar piece of legislation. Part II uses the concept of a “wicked problem” to describe challenges to food policy …

Applying Software Development Techniques To Statutory Drafting, Hyun G. Lee

Hyun G Lee

This note will examine three characteristics common in poor statutory drafting: legalese, ambiguity, and poor conceptual organization. Legalese is the arcane, lawyerly language that is hard to understand for the layperson. Some common-sense solutions can counter the use of legalese. Ambiguity, which can be either semantic or syntactic, is the uncertainty due to the multiple valid interpretations of the statute. Normalization technique, adapted from the mathematical notation of symbolic logic, can eliminate most ambiguities. Poor conceptual organization results in conceptually related topics physically scattered throughout the statute. Hypertext, legal dialectic, and object-oriented analysis and design are possible solutions to this …

Studying Is Dangerous? Possible Federal Remedies For Study Abroad Liability, Robert J. Aalberts, Chad G. Marzen, Darren A. Prum

Chad G. Marzen

Every year, thousands of U.S. students study abroad for academic credit. Study abroad programs have traditionally garnered strong congressional support, and proponents of the programs emphasize the educational, cultural, and diplomatic benefits from study abroad experiences.

Despite the many benefits of study abroad programs, risks are incurred overseas. In the past several years, a number of incidents have resulted in which students studying abroad have not only incurred physical harm, but in some instances have died while enrolled in a study abroad program. The current liability standards governing study abroad programs are murky. This article not only discusses the various …