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UC Irvine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mission Statement

UC Irvine Law Review

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Table Of Contents

UC Irvine Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Approach To Patent Reform, Janet Freilich, Michael Meurer, Mark Schankerman, Florian Schuett

UC Irvine Law Review

Scholars and policymakers have tried for years to solve the tenacious and harmful crisis of low-quality, erroneously granted patents. Far from resolving the problem, these determined efforts have resulted in hundreds of conflicting policy proposals, failed congressional bills, and no way to evaluate the policies’ value or impact or to decide between the overwhelming multiplicity of policies.

This Article provides not only new solutions but a new approach for designing and assessing policies both in patent law and legal systems more generally. We introduce a formal economic model of the patent system that differs from existing scholarship because it permits …

The Epistemic Injustice Of Algorithmic Family Policing, Stephanie K. Glaberson

UC Irvine Law Review

The child welfare system is the system through which U.S. state authorities identify and intervene in families seen as posing a risk of abuse or neglect to their children. Impacted families, advocates, and scholars have joined in a growing chorus in recent years, demonstrating how this system—which many now refer to as the “family policing” system—destroys families and communities as opposed to supporting them. Many now call for the system’s abolition, arguing that the system, while masquerading as one of care and benevolence, is in fact an integral part of the carceral web constituted by criminal policing, prisons, jails, and …

Whiteness As Contract In The Racial Superstate, Marissa Jackson Sow

UC Irvine Law Review

Despite the United Nations’ (UN) ongoing commemoration of the International Decade for People of African Descent and direct calls from UN member states for the body to confront systemic racism in the United States, the United States has with the support of its allies—successfully blocked measures beyond those which gently encourage mere aspiration to racial equity. Moreover, notwithstanding formal guarantees of equal access to justice and accountability for human rights violations, people of African descent and majority Black member states are systematically constructed out of international policymaking authority and legal protections at the UN—leaving them vulnerable to aggression, exploitation, and …

A New Framework For Condominium Structural Safety Reforms, Stewart E. Sterk, Reid W. Weisbord

UC Irvine Law Review

Forty years after the widespread popularization of residential condominium ownership in the United States, millions of Americans now live in aging, densely occupied structures that are subject to little (if any) ongoing regulation of structural safety. Most structural safety requirements are imposed and enforced at the time of initial construction, thus relegating questions of how to maintain a building’s structural integrity to individual owners and the mechanisms of condominium governance. However, reliance on voluntary action by unit owners too often falters because the divided ownership characteristic of the condominium form deters associations from investing in preventive maintenance. Postponement of critical …

“Specializing” Section 1983, Ndjuoh Mehchu

UC Irvine Law Review

Recent Supreme Court decisions eroding protections for race-class-gender subjugated rights claimants have drummed up alarm about the legitimacy of the Court. Much discussion focuses on the need to reform the Court, reflecting a widely shared belief that the institution is inclined to abjure checks on the coercive apparatus and punishment bureaucracy (e.g., police) while failing to vindicate the rights of disadvantaged groups. The lower federal courts, however, while not only implementing the Supreme Court’s rights-retrenching decisions but, in some cases, dipping below the floor of protection the Court itself has recognized, have received relatively scant attention. This vacuum persists despite …

Enforcing The Post-Financial Crisis Ban On Abusive Conduct, Rohit Chopra

UC Irvine Law Review

Government enforcers have long contended with corporate misconduct, from the abuses of corporate power and monopolization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the set up to fail products and digital dark patterns of the 21st century. This Article explains the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Policy Statement on Abusive Acts or Practices, which is appended to this article, and its importance in protecting people from business excesses. The statutory prohibition on illegal abusive conduct was a response to the predatory mortgage lending practices that drove the 2007-2008 financial crisis and sought to reach conduct that might not …

Presuming Parentage Without The Intent To Parent (And Vice Versa), Grace Palcic

UC Irvine Law Review

As a result of the women’s rights movements of the twentieth century, the law shifted the origin of family creation from the married man to the person who gave birth, resulting in the presumption of maternity as the law has now. This Note explores how the presumption of maternity fails to provide legal recognition to nontraditional families—including families who use Assisted Reproductive Technology, same-sex parents, and unmarried parents—and how it furthers gender and sex-based norms within a family, parenting, and marriage. In response, the Note identifies the underlying justification to the modern presumption of parentage: the belief that a person …

The Inadequacy Of Constitutional And Evidentiary Protections In Screening False Confessions: How Risk Factors Provide Potential For Reform, Nicole Tackabery

UC Irvine Law Review

The admission of a criminal defendant’s confession into evidence is almost always fatal to a defendant’s case. And this is no surprise: common sense advises that a confession is particularly incriminating and definitive in establishing a defendant’s guilt. But while a confession’s persuasiveness is not inherently problematic, its unique ability to convey guilt poses a problem when a confession happens to be false. This problem is wrongful conviction. In fact, false confessions are one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction, and individuals who are at risk due to their age, intellectual disability, and/or mental health are especially susceptible.

While …

Cover Page, Masthead, And Table Of Contents

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Interpretive Divergence In The New York Court Of Appeals, Ethan J. Leib

Journal of Legislation

This Article focuses attention on the New York Court of Appeals, which is decidedly formalist about contract interpretation but decidedly contextualist about statutory interpretation. It explores some recent exemplary cases to show where the New York Court of Appeals tends to land in what turns out to be, for this court at least, two different battlefields in the law of interpretation. Finding that there is “interpretive divergence” between statutory and contract cases, the Article then reflects on the practice of divergence more generally, revisiting assumptions about why anyone might have thought harmonization was sensible in the first place.

Volume 50, Issue Ii - Full Combined Issue

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Admiralty Law, John P. Kavanagh Jr.

Mercer Law Review

The cases discussed herein represent decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, as well as District Courts within the Circuit, issued in 2023. While not an all-inclusive list of maritime decisions during that timeframe, the Author identified and provided summaries of key rulings of interest to the maritime practitioner,

I Hope This Email Finds You Well: The Eleventh Circuit Addresses The Standard Of Review For Incarcerated Persons’ Outgoing Emails, Olivia Greenblatt

Mercer Law Review

An unfortunate and inevitable aspect of incarceration is separation from the outside world. The various constraints on communication exemplify one of the many ways through which incarceration creates this divide. Maintaining the connections that incarcerated people have with their loved ones and communities is essential for fostering a vital support system, facilitating the exchange of information, aiding in successful reintegration, and reducing recidivism upon release. Unfortunately, instead of encouraging and safeguarding this communication, prisons often curtail it through restrictive methods: visitation is limited, phone calls are costly, physical mail involves a time-consuming and intrusive process, and now, email is being …

Authoritarian Privacy, Mark Jia

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Privacy laws are traditionally associated with democracy. Yet autocracies increasingly have them. Why do governments that repress their citizens also protect their privacy? This Article answers this question through a study of China. China is a leading autocracy and the architect of a massive surveillance state. But China is also a major player in data protection, having enacted and enforced a number of laws on information privacy. To explain how this came to be, the Article first turns to several top-down objectives often said to motivate China’s privacy laws: advancing its digital economy, expanding its global influence, and protecting its …

Vol. 44, No. 2, Spring 2024: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 44, Issue 2 of the Northern Illinois Law Review

Anti-Lgbt Legislation In Florida: A Prime Example Of States Mentally Harming Lgbt Youth, Kyla Tinsley

Northern Illinois University Law Review

While there has been a growing societal acceptance of LGBT individuals throughout the decades, anti-LGBT bills and laws within the states are on the rise—in particular, bills against LGBT youth. The most famous anti-LGBT law currently in place is Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law. The prevalence and inconsistent application of such legislation raises constitutional questions surrounding the rights of LGBT youth, as well as the negative effects the legislation has had on LGBT youth’s mental health and their perception of the legal system they are supposed to trust in and rely on. This Article discusses the impact state anti-LGBT …

Strengthening The Illinois Freedom Of Information Act: Affording The Administrative Enforcement Necessary For Government Transparency And Accountability, Joshua Jenkins

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

The Illinois Freedom of Information Act was amended in 2009 to avail a greater level of government transparency. The amendments to the Act have given Illinois some of the transparency the Legislature sought to provide, however, there are some issues with the administrative remedy which have prevented full openness of government information as envisioned. The administrative remedies created to provide oversight of government compliance with the Act have not fully fulfilled their role and reform is needed. This article analyzes the circumstances surrounding the application of the Act as it relates to the public’s interaction with law enforcement. Specifically, this …

Vol. 14, No. 1, 2024: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 14, Issue 1 of the Northern Illinois Law Review Online Supplement

The Consequences Of Homophobia: Analysis Of Discriminatory Medical And Legislative Policies And Their Influence On Health Disparities, Kaiden J. Fandel

Honors Thesis

Are there specific roots that influence the introduction and incorporation of discriminatory medical policies? What are the sources of such stigma, discrimination, and prejudice, in what forms does such discrimination take place, and what negative impacts does such hatred have on health outcomes, quality of care, and health disparities? Through a review of existing literature on this topic, intertwining the examination of the evolution of discriminatory policies and other explanatory literature in the United States, this thesis aims to answer the questions above, and explain the roots of such homophobic discrimination and its prevalence in the United States. Through the …

In Pursuit Of Water Justice In Jakarta, Widya Naseva Tuslian, Patricia Rinwigati, Stanislaus Sandyawan

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

Despite becoming a rapidly growing megacity, in some of Jakarta’s areas, particularly in the underprivileged areas, a significant portion of its citizens still lack access to adequate domestic water. For years, water privatization has been considered a major barrier to solving the issue. Jakarta’s citizens have mobilized themselves to publicly reclaim Jakarta’s water governance. One of the significant actions was filing a citizen lawsuit against the relevant state authorities, which eventually was ruled in favor of the state authorities due to procedural reasons. Using the ROLAX framework developed by Bedner and Vel, this paper tries to understand to what extent …

Circular Economy In The Industrial Goods Sector: A Framework For Understanding Private Sector Progress And Innovation, Chris Albin-Lackey, Madeleine Songy

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

A “circular economy” is an economic system that creates a closed loop, allowing for the reuse of resources and minimization of waste. How are circularity principles implemented in the business practices of private companies? “Circular Economy in the Industrial Goods Sector: A Framework for Understanding Private Sector Progress And Innovation” analyzes a diverse cross-section of industrial goods companies and develops a five pillar framework to characterize what good circularity practices look like in practice.

This report was commissioned by Stewart Investors, a long-term investor that looks to drive sustainable development progress through its portfolio. Stewart Investors' approach to stewardship includes …

Government Procurement, Financial Services, And Environment: Linkages And Implications For The Eu And Brazil, Adeet Dobhal, Lucas Moreira Jiminez

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The relationship between trade and the environment is increasingly a priority for policymakers and civil society. However, some of the disciplines covered by modern trade agreements have not received enough attention when it comes to their potential impact on the environment. Financial services and government procurement are two such areas, even though they are increasingly consequential topics for international trade policy and negotiations. This blind spot merits greater consideration as the connections definitely exist: the regulation of government procurement and financial services can have positive or negative implications for environmental outcomes on the ground, which makes understanding these links a …

Reforming International Investment Law To Advance Tax Justice, Madeleine Songy

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Reforming International Investment Law to Advance Tax Justice" highlights the detrimental impact of current international investment treaties on tax justice and sustainable development objectives. It argues that Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms often impede states' ability to implement effective tax policies by allowing foreign investors to challenge tax measures. The brief recommends a comprehensive reform of international investment law to ensure that investment treaties support rather than undermine tax justice. This can include eliminating ISDS provisions, drafting new treaties that safeguard the sovereign right of states to regulate taxation, and facilitating cooperation among states to reform tax systems at national, …

Is Usmca Good For Mexican Labor? A Preliminary Analysis Of Usmca And Labor Market Outcomes In Mexico, Diego Marroquín Bitar

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) introduced significant labor provisions aimed at bolstering labor rights and promoting union democracy, representing a departure from its predecessor, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This paper examines USMCA’s potential benefits and limitations on labor, arguing that the trade agreement’s effectiveness in improving labor conditions in Mexico may be limited. By primarily benefitting export-oriented firms, USMCA leaves a significant portion of Mexico’s workforce untouched. Moreover, USMCA's new wage requirements, intended to raise labor standards, may paradoxically increase production costs for formal firms, potentially lowering overall productivity. This paper underscores the persistent formal-informal labor divide …

Fetch The Bolt Cutters: Reflections On Racial Capitalism And The Nafta/Usmca, J. Benton Heath

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Using the pecan orchards of West Texas as a starting point, this Article offers a reflection on the utility of racial capitalism as an organizing frame for understanding international trade and trade agreements. The Article is also a tribute to other scholars in this field, whose work long precedes and informs my own. It is an expanded version of a presentation given for an symposium at Brooklyn Law School in October 2023 on Promises and Challenges for the Future of North American Trade, and it is written for readers who may be unfamiliar with this body of work.

South Africa Land Reform: More Is Less, Elizabeth Stephani

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2019, South Africa's Parliament considered a bill to amend the Constitution and expropriate land taken from black South Africans during Apartheid. The bill did not pass, despite a general consensus in the country that land reform is needed (Part I). Thus, lawmakers are challenged by exactly how to achieve equitable land reform for South Africa. This paper looks to the language of the proposed amendment and offers improvements alongside accepted U.S. legal frameworks (Part II). By comparing Just Compensation under the Takings Clause of the United States Constitution and South Africa's proposed expropriation amendment, this paper advocates for clear …

American Handling Of Holocaust Property Takings: What We Can Learn From International Policies, Matthew Franks

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The Supreme Court decision in Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp and US enforcement of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act have made it extremely difficult for Holocaust survivors and their families to recover lost and stolen property from during the World War II era. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, have had great success in this arena through various methods. This Note explores the ways in which US jurisprudence continues to make recovery inaccessible, while highlighting the specific processes these few European countries have created to foster recovery. Finally, this Note argues that the US must …