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Full-Text Articles in Law

Something's Gotta Give: Origin-Based E-Commerce Sales Tax, Juliana Frenkel Dec 2017

Something's Gotta Give: Origin-Based E-Commerce Sales Tax, Juliana Frenkel

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

How to tax interstate online purchases is a frequently debated and contentious topic in the business and tax arena. There are numerous parties affected when a transaction occurs and each affected party would like a taxation policy that benefits its own economic interests, without regard for others. Neither the legislative nor the judicial branch has successfully resolved this e-commerce taxation issue. With the growing need for tax revenue, it is prudent for Congress to finally resolve this circuit split and agree on a unifying Online Sales Tax Law. As opposed to the vast majority of proposals pending in Congress, this …


Copyright Infringement In Sound Recording: How Courts And Legislatures Can Get In Vogue In A Post-Ciccone World, Kristen B. Kennedy Dec 2017

Copyright Infringement In Sound Recording: How Courts And Legislatures Can Get In Vogue In A Post-Ciccone World, Kristen B. Kennedy

Journal of Law and Policy

Music sampling is a legally complex and ambiguous area, with staggeringly high costs attached for copyright infringers. The legality of sampling frequently depends upon what jurisdiction the inquiry into the sampling takes place in, and has been guided by inconsistently applied doctrines of fair use, de minimis, and copyright infringement. The Ninth Circuit’s decision in VMG Salsoul v. Ciccone has dramatically highlighted these inconsistencies. This note suggests a four-part solution to resolve the tensions in copyrightable sound recordings magnified by the recent circuit split created by VMG Salsoul v. Ciccone. It incorporates elements of de minimis and fair use, a …


Finally, A True Elements Test: Mathis V. United States And The Categorical Approach, Rebecca Sharpless Jan 2017

Finally, A True Elements Test: Mathis V. United States And The Categorical Approach, Rebecca Sharpless

Brooklyn Law Review

The fate of defendants facing lengthy federal sentence enhancements often turns on what the U.S. Supreme Court calls the categorical approach. The approach controls whether a federal defendant might face an additional decade or longer in prison based solely on having prior convictions of a certain type. At a time when many question the wisdom of mass incarceration, the Court has taken great care to delimit the circumstances in which a federal sentencing judge can lengthen sentences based on recidivism. The categorical approach also governs most immigration cases involving deportation for a crime. As Congress has cut back deportation defenses …


The Foreign Emoluments Clause: Protecting Our National Security Interests, Deborah Samuel Sills Jan 2017

The Foreign Emoluments Clause: Protecting Our National Security Interests, Deborah Samuel Sills

Journal of Law and Policy

Classical republican ideals played an important role in the formation of our country. Guided by these ideals, several provisions were included in the Constitution to protect the United States from these harms, including the Emoluments Clause. This Clause prohibits United States officials from accepting certain types of benefits from foreign nations, except with Congress's consent. It protects our national interests by ensuring that federal officials remain free from improper pressures from foreign states and act for the welfare of our country. This provision promotes transparency and accountability and helps guard against corrupt influences that could undermine, and even destroy, a …


Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke Jan 2017

Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke

Journal of Law and Policy

In Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donziger, the Southern District of New York granted Chevron an injunction against Donziger under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, preventing the enforcement of an Ecuadorean judgment against it in the United States. This Note discusses the circuit court split on whether injunctive relief may be granted in a civil RICO suit, arguing that injunctive relief is an available remedy within the statute’s plain meaning, legislative intent, and evolving jurisprudence of civil RICO. The Note applies the Donziger interpretation of RICO to a case of a similarly corrupted judgment, Caperton v. A.T. Massey …


Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke Jan 2017

Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke

Journal of Law and Policy

In Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donziger, the Southern District of New York granted Chevron an injunction against Donziger under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, preventing the enforcement of an Ecuadorean judgment against it in the United States. This Note discusses the circuit court split on whether injunctive relief may be granted in a civil RICO suit, arguing that injunctive relief is an available remedy within the statute’s plain meaning, legislative intent, and evolving jurisprudence of civil RICO. The Note applies the Donziger interpretation of RICO to a case of a similarly corrupted judgment, Caperton v. A.T. Massey …


Free Agency: The Constitutionality Of Methods That Influence A Presidential Elector’S Ability To Exercise Personal Judgment, Zachary J. Shapiro Jan 2017

Free Agency: The Constitutionality Of Methods That Influence A Presidential Elector’S Ability To Exercise Personal Judgment, Zachary J. Shapiro

Journal of Law and Policy

When the Constitution of the United States went into effect on March 4, 1789, it established a new, hybrid form of government. As such, it created a complex and multifaceted process of electing our nation’s chief executive. Most notably, it granted states the power to choose a slate of presidential electors to debate the qualifications of the candidates selected by the voters. In recent history, however, certain states have established laws that severely limit the ability of presidential electors to exercise their right to vote for the candidates that they believe to be the best choice to sit in the …


The Foreign Emoluments Clause: Protecting Our National Security Interests, Deborah Samuel Sills Jan 2017

The Foreign Emoluments Clause: Protecting Our National Security Interests, Deborah Samuel Sills

Journal of Law and Policy

Classical republican ideals played an important role in the formation of our country. Guided by these ideals, several provisions were included in the Constitution to protect the United States from these harms, including the Emoluments Clause. This Clause prohibits United States officials from accepting certain types of benefits from foreign nations, except with Congress's consent. It protects our national interests by ensuring that federal officials remain free from improper pressures from foreign states and act for the welfare of our country. This provision promotes transparency and accountability and helps guard against corrupt influences that could undermine, and even destroy, a …


Free Agency: The Constitutionality Of Methods That Influence A Presidential Elector’S Ability To Exercise Personal Judgment, Zachary J. Shapiro Jan 2017

Free Agency: The Constitutionality Of Methods That Influence A Presidential Elector’S Ability To Exercise Personal Judgment, Zachary J. Shapiro

Journal of Law and Policy

When the Constitution of the United States went into effect on March 4, 1789, it established a new, hybrid form of government. As such, it created a complex and multifaceted process of electing our nation’s chief executive. Most notably, it granted states the power to choose a slate of presidential electors to debate the qualifications of the candidates selected by the voters. In recent history, however, certain states have established laws that severely limit the ability of presidential electors to exercise their right to vote for the candidates that they believe to be the best choice to sit in the …


Putting The Substance Back Into The Economic Substance Doctrine, Nicholas Giordano Jan 2017

Putting The Substance Back Into The Economic Substance Doctrine, Nicholas Giordano

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The foreign tax credit, which saves U.S. taxpayers from paying both foreign and domestic income taxes on the same income, is critical to facilitating global commerce. However, as savvy taxpayers discover increasingly complicated ways to abuse the foreign tax credit regime through the structuring of business transactions, courts have become increasingly skeptical of the validity of those transactions. Using the economic substance doctrine, a common law doctrine codified in 2010 at I.R.C. § 7701(o), courts will disallow tax benefits stemming from a transaction that is not profitable absent its tax benefits, and which the taxpayer had no incentive to undertake …


The Legal Climate On Climate Change: The Fate Of The Epa's Clean Power Plan After Michigan And Uarg, Israel Katz Jan 2017

The Legal Climate On Climate Change: The Fate Of The Epa's Clean Power Plan After Michigan And Uarg, Israel Katz

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

One of the centerpieces of the United States’ effort to combat climate change is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) controversial Clean Power Plan, which consists of the first-ever federal regulations requiring states to achieve massive carbon dioxide emissions reductions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants. The regulations operate by setting interim and final emissions target dates for states to ultimately reach an aggregate 32% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2030. This Note argues that the current regulations will not survive judicial scrutiny, because the U.S. Supreme Court has moved away from traditional administrative deference in instances where an …


Denying Certiorari In Bell V. Itawamba County School Board: A Missed Opportunity To Clarify Students’ First Amendment Rights In The Digital Age, Elizabeth A. Shaver Jan 2017

Denying Certiorari In Bell V. Itawamba County School Board: A Missed Opportunity To Clarify Students’ First Amendment Rights In The Digital Age, Elizabeth A. Shaver

Brooklyn Law Review

In the last decade, the federal circuit courts have grappled with the issue whether, and to what extent, school officials constitutionally may discipline students for their off-campus electronic speech. Before 2015, three federal circuit courts had extended school authority to off-campus electronic speech by applying a vague test that allows school officials to reach far beyond the iconic “schoolhouse gate” referenced in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Two other federal circuits had avoided the issue altogether by deciding the cases before them on other grounds. In 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court …