Law Commons^™

Help From Above: The Role Of International Law In Facilitating The Use Of Outer Space For Disaster Management, Brian R. Israel

Brian R Israel

This chapter explores the role of international law as well as non-legal mechanisms in enabling the use of outer space for valuable new disaster management applications. This overall challenge is addressed in three phases, ranging from the collective action problems arising from the use of space in general, to sovereignty-based objections to observing the Earth from space, to the complex coordination challenges of harnessing existing space systems for disaster applications. One mechanism in particular, the legally non-binding International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, serves as a remarkable case study in international cooperation because of the speed with which it …

The Construction Of Morals, Daniel L. Chen, Susan Yeh

Susan Yeh

When do policies generate expressive or backlash effects? Recent economic models suggest that where a proscribed activity is prevalent, permissive laws liberalize attitudes toward partakers while increasing utility. The opposite occurs in communities where the proscribed activity is rare. To test these predictions, we randomize data entry workers to transcribe newspaper summaries of liberal or conservative court decisions about obscenity. We find that liberal obscenity decisions liberalize individual and perceived community standards and increase utility. Yet religious workers become more conservative in their values, identify as more Republican, view community standards as becoming more liberal, and report lower utility. Workers …

Public Reason As Higher Law, Gordon D. Ballingrud

Gordon D Ballingrud

This paper presents a model of higher-law formation by employing a modified version of John Rawls’ idea of public reason. The model specifies a theory of public reason that combines the procedural and substantive aspects of public reason, and extends the concept over a third dimension, time. This concept, by virtue of its multi-generational democratic pedigree, forms a repository of political and legal concepts of justice that conform to the duty of civility, and the broad consensus on political and legal norms required of the content of public reason, which forms the overlapping consensus. Thus, public reason as higher law …

Barreras A La Competencia Y Libre Concurrencia E Insumos Esenciales, Carlos Mena-Labarthe

Carlos Mena-Labarthe

En la Constitución Mexicana y la Ley Federal de Competencia Económica se establecen facultades para que la autoridad de competencia elimine barreras y regule insumos.

Las investigaciones de mercado son una herramienta adicional que permite obtener una perspectiva integral de los mercados para la corrección de fallas conductuales y estructurales.

Se trata de un procedimiento muy riguroso con plazos establecidos para su ejecución.

Las investigaciones de mercado han resultado exitosas en otras jurisdicciones con una sólida tradición en competencia económica.

The Unc Law Library's Redaction Of Its Digitized Collection Of North Carolina Supreme Court Briefs: A Case Study, Nicole Downing

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers

This study evaluates the digital redaction process as undertaken by the University of North Carolina Kathrine R. Everett Law Library as part of digitizing their collection of North Carolina Supreme Court briefs. New privacy concerns are raised by digitizing court documents and making them available online. Libraries have an interest in digitizing their print collections of court documents for public access on the Internet, but have received no clear guidance on how to proceed in the face of legal concerns. The purpose of this research is to inform libraries of the legal, ethical, and practical situation surrounding redaction of digitized …

Between Politics And Science: The Dilemma Of Reason, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker, Zoran S. Nikolić

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Curiosity, our deepest inner intellectual need and concern brought about what we today call science. This Article will try to address the problem of the interrelation between politics and science. There is no need to discuss which of the two came first, but rather the real question is to what extent can science influence the political process? Can it help proper decision-making and, if it can, to what extent? Decision-making is most often prefixed with the term political. Can the intellectual class representing the world of science have an influence on political decision-making? As C. Wright Mills rightly noticed, if …

Patent Assertion Entities & Privateers: Economic Harms To Innovation And Competition, Robert G. Harris

Robert G Harris

This paper addresses the problems of aggressive rent-seeking activities by patent assertion entities (PAEs) and privateers. Section II explains why aggressive patent assertion is especially problematic in patent thick products and systems (such as computers, smartphones and software), and why technological developments have increased the number and “density” of patent thickets. Section III addresses the fundamental differences in the strategic positions and interests of practicing entities and PAEs, and explains why those differences affect the conduct of PAEs and increase the opportunities for, and economic harm caused by, their rent-seeking conduct and efforts to engage in patent hold-up. Section IV …

Patent Assertion Entities & Privateers: Economic Harms To Innovation & Competition, Robert G. Harris

Robert G Harris

This paper addresses the problems of aggressive rent-seeking activities by patent assertion entities (PAEs) and privateers. Section II explains why aggressive patent assertion is especially problematic in patent thick products and systems (such as computers, smartphones and software), and why technological developments have increased the number and “density” of patent thickets. Section III addresses the fundamental differences in the strategic positions and interests of practicing entities and PAEs, and explains why those differences affect the conduct of PAEs and increase the opportunities for, and economic harm caused by, their rent-seeking conduct and efforts to engage in patent hold-up. Section IV …

Controlling Shareholders: Benevolent “King” Or Ruthless “Pirate”, Sang Yop Kang

Sang Yop Kang

Unfair self-dealing and expropriation of minority shareholders by a controlling shareholder are common business practices in developing countries (“bad-law countries”). Although controlling shareholder agency problems have been well studied so far, there are many questions unanswered in relation to behaviors and motivations of controlling shareholders. For example, a puzzle is that some controlling shareholders in bad-law countries voluntarily extract minority shareholders less than other controlling shareholders. Applying Mancur Olson’s framework of political theory of “banditry” to the context of corporate governance, this Article proposes that there are at least two categories of controlling shareholders. “Roving controllers” are dominant shareholders with …

Young Children’S Difficulty With Indirect Speech Acts: Implications For Questioning Child Witnesses, Angela D. Evans, Stacia Stolzenberg, Kang Lee, Thomas D. Lyon

Stacia N. Stolzenberg

Prior research suggests that infelicitous choice of questions can significantly underestimate children’s actual abilities, independently of suggestiveness. One possibly difficult question type is indirect speech acts such as “Do you know…” questions (DYK, e.g., “Do you know where it happened?”). These questions directly ask if respondents know, while indirectly asking what respondents know. If respondents answer “yes,” but fail to elaborate, they are either ignoring or failing to recognize the indirect question (known as pragmatic failure). Two studies examined the effect of indirect speech acts on maltreated and non-maltreated 2- to 7-year-olds’ post-event interview responses. Children were read a story …

Children's Memory For Conversations About Sexual Abuse: Legal And Psychological Implications, Thomas D. Lyon, Stacia N. Stolzenberg

Stacia N. Stolzenberg

No abstract provided.

We The Peoples: The Global Origins Of Constitutional Preambles, Tom Ginsburg, Daniel Rockmore, Nick Foti

Tom Ginsburg

We like to think that constitutions are expressions of distinctly national values, speaking for “We the People.” This is especially true of constitutional preambles, which often recount distinct events from national history and speak to national values. This article challenges this popular view by demonstrating the global influences on constitutional preambles. It does so using a new set of tools in linguistic and textual analysis, applied to a database of most constitutional preambles written since 1789. Arguing that legal language can be analogized to memes or genetic material, we analyze “horizontal” transfer of language across countries and “vertical” transfers within …

Legitimation, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Mark C Modak-Truran

This article identifies three different conceptions of legitimation - pre-modern, modern, and post-secular - that compete both within and across national boundaries for the coveted prize of informing the social imaginary regarding how the government and the law should be legitimated in constitutional democracies. Pre-modern conceptions of legitimation consider governments and rulers legitimate if they are ordained by God or if the political system is ordered in accordance with the normative cosmic order. Contemporary proponents of the pre-modern conception range from those in the United States who maintain that the government has been legitimated by the “Judeo-Christian tradition” to those …

New Powers- New Vulnerabilities? A Critical Analysis Of Market Inquiries Performed By Competition Authorities, Tamar Indig, Michal Gal

Michal Gal

In the past two decades the number of jurisdictions which have empowered their Competition Authorities to engage in market inquiries (MIs) has grown substantially. Although jurisdictions differ in the scope and procedure adopted for such studies, they all share an important common trait: attempting to allocate the roots of limited competition in the studied market. Market studies differ from traditional competition law tools in their triggers, range, object, and the level of pro-activity of the Competition Authority. They are not triggered by a suspicion of anti-competitive conduct of specific firm(s), but rather allow the Authority to use a broad prism …

Industrial Hemp: Canada Exports, United States Imports, Courtney N. Moran Ll.M.

Courtney N. Moran LL.M.

Industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive variety of Cannabis sativa L., (C. sativa) is the greatest renewable resource available to mankind. Industrial hemp is an environmentally friendly crop that does not require herbicides or pesticides and can clean up toxins in soil. Manufacturers can produce hemp into over 25,000 products.

More than 30 industrialized nations, including Canada, cultivate industrial hemp for commercial purposes. Despite the fact that industrial hemp is a viable agricultural commodity, in the United States hemp is classified as marihuana, a Schedule I controlled substance, under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Therefore, it is illegal under U.S. federal law …

Ebola And Bioterrorism, Joshua P. Monroe

Joshua P Monroe

This paper will be a comparison of the United States government’s reaction to the recent outbreak of Ebola and will compare this response with the potential response by the United States government toward an act of biological or chemical warfare. The paper will analyze these responses from a cultural, political, legal, and policy standpoint

Current Realities Of Collaborative Intellectual Property In Africa, Jeremy De Beer, Chidi Oguamanam, Tobias Schonwetter, Chris Armstrong

Jeremy de Beer

No abstract provided.

Innovation & Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics In Africa

Jeremy de Beer

No abstract provided.

Introducing The Laws Of The Knowledge Workplace, Dariusz Jemielniak

Dariusz Jemielniak

No abstract provided.

Beyond The National Resource Privilege: Towards An International Court Of The Environment, Fabian Schuppert

Fabian Schuppert

No abstract provided.

Unlimited Government: When Conservative Efforts To Regulate Women’S Bodies Reach Beyond The Grave, David R. Quintanilla

David R Quintanilla

In Texas, a women may not choose to die without interference from the state government. In a conservative state that publicly promotes individual rights and small government, a women may lose even her constitutional right to die by virtue of being pregnant. This was made blatantly and painfully clear in 2013 by the tragic story of Marlise Munoz. Her story is both heartbreaking and confusing for those that are not familiar with Texas death legislation. In reality, the drama that unfolded after Marlise died, was unnecessary and unconstitutional. Using Marlise's tragic story as the background, this article displays that the …

Green Building Geography Across The United States: Does Governmental Incentives Or Economic Growth Stimulate Construction?, Darren Prum, Tetsuo Kobayashi

Darren A. Prum

As green building activity continues to rise across the country, some state governments decided to create incentives that would motivate developers to voluntarily pursue third party certification for their real estate projects in order to assist in meeting sustainability and environmental goals. Despite the growing number of studies in green buildings, the geography of green buildings and sustainable construction only includes a few studies, which emphasize the lack of green building research from the spatial perspective and their relevance to public policies the lack of green building research from the spatial perspective and their relevance to public policies. This study …

Aesthetic Functionality And Genericism, Charles E. Colman

Charles E. Colman

This presentation, the basis for a working article, begins by positing that U.S. trademark law's denial of exclusive rights in "generic" words and phrases is, in essence, a proxy for what might be called "linguistic functionality." In other words, the doctrine of genericism is simply one iteration of trademark law's general principle that no one may claim exclusive rights where recognition of such rights would produce anticompetitive results. Unfortunately, when it comes to non-word marks -- and perhaps most notably, product-design "trade dress" -- courts have neglected to establish a uniform, coherent, and fully theorized test for evaluating "genericism." The …

What Role Can An International Financial Centre’S Law Play In The Development Of A Sunrise Industry? The Case Of Hong Kong And Solar Powered Investments, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

How can international financial centres like Hong Kong increase assets under management – and thus their size and ranking? Most policymakers and their advisors wrongly answer this question by focusing on financial institutions, and the law that governs them. Instead, policymakers need to start by looking at actual markets. What new tastes and technologies need funding? How can such funding fit into already existing geographies of production, distribution and finance? In this paper, we show how a focus on funding sunrise industries can help increase assets under management for the financial institutions operating in an international financial centre like Hong …

International Arbitration Culture And Global Governance, Joshua Karton

Joshua Karton

Academics increasingly characterize international commercial arbitration (ICA) as a form of global governance. However, this literature rarely discusses why ICA should come to provide truly global governance, as opposed to being simply an atomized form of governance derivative of national court litigation — more neutral, more widely enforceable, perhaps faster and cheaper, but essentially the same adjudicative exercise in a different venue. For ICA to constitute global governance, as opposed to merely disconnected resolutions of individual cross-border disputes according to national laws, there are at least two prerequisites. First, legal rules must be formulated at the global level and apply …

The Weaknesses Of Criticism Against Supermajority, Sergio Verdugo Sverdugor@Udd.Cl

Sergio Verdugo R.

The article critically examines the objections that professors Guillermo Jiménez, Pablo Marshall and Fernando Muñoz have made to the exceptional legislative supermajority rule, defended by Sergio Verdugo in a prior paper of 2012. The objections relies in a biased conception of democracy and political equality. Their arguments conduct to a naïve position that prevents the evaluation of supermajorities in an instrumental way. Verdugo defends the idea that legislative supermajorities are useful given certain conditions and under certain cases.

Supermayorías A Nivel Legislativo. Los Problemas Del Debate Y Una Propuesta Metodológica, Sergio Verdugo Sverdugor@Udd.Cl

Sergio Verdugo R.

Se analiza el debate institucional relativo a si deben o no permanecer los quórums legislativos súper-mayoritarios (esto es, aquellos mayores a la mayoría simple) en la Constitución. El autor critica la manera en que la discusión ha tenido lugar desde la perspectiva académica. Luego, revisa los alcances y límites de los argumentos favorables a las supermayorías, defendiendo la idea de que ellas pueden servir de forma instrumental algunos fines legítimos que son compatibles con la democracia. Las implicancias de este trabajo alcanzan a algunas leyes orgánicas constitucionales y, también, a las leyes de quórum calificado, a las que se les …

A Política E A Cidade, Rafael De Oliveira Alves

Rafael de Oliveira Alves

No abstract provided.

Cartel Detection And Collusion Screening: An Empirical Analysis Of The London Metal Exchange, Danilo Samà

Dr. Danilo Samà

Cartel detection and collusion screening: an empirical analysis of the London Metal Exchange
Author:Dr Danilo Samà (LUISS “Guido Carli” University, Law & Economics LAB)
Abstract:In order to fight collusive behaviors, the best scenario for competition authorities would be the possibility to analyze detailed information on firms’ costs and prices, being the price-cost margin a robust indicator of market power. However, information on firms’ costs is rarely available. In this context, a fascinating technique to detect data manipulation and rigged prices is offered by an odd phenomenon called Benford’s law, otherwise known as First-digit law, which has been successfully …

Essays On Economic Analysis Of Competition Law: Theory And Practice (Ph.D. Dissertation Defence), Dr. Danilo Samà

Dr. Danilo Samà

Essays on economic analysis of competition law: theory and practice
Author:Dr Danilo Samà (LUISS “Guido Carli” University, Law & Economics LAB)
Abstract:The Ph.D. dissertation, submitted to LUISS “Guido Carli” University of Rome in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economic Analysis of Competition Law (XXV cicle), is the result of a scientific research in the field of the economic analysis of competition law developed through academic experiences at the Erasmus Rotterdam University in the Netherlands, the Ghent University in Belgium, the University of Hamburg in Germany and the Toulouse School of Economics in …