Law Commons^™

Gaming The System: Approaching 100% Access To Legal Services Through Online Games, William E. Hornsby Jr.

Chicago-Kent Law Review

By all measures, the American Legal System falls short of providing access to justice for all. Legal needs studies show that people often do not recognize when they have a problem for which there is a legal solution and therefore do not seek out lawyers or the justice system to provide assistance with their problems. Some assert that the costs of legal services are beyond the means of many people. While that is true for the poor in some areas of law, both the marketplace and specific programs, such as lawyer referral modest means panels, provide affordable legal services for …

Liberty, Justice, And Legal Automata, Marc Lauritsen

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Legal work is increasingly doable by artificial systems built out of software. Providers in both commercial and non-profit contexts are making such systems available for direct use by consumers. Some lawyers and policy makers understandably worry that these developments pose dangers for users and may inappropriately intrude on the prerogatives of the legal profession. This article reviews the extent to which software-based legal assistance systems can or should be suppressed as the unauthorized practice of law in light of constitutional rights of free expression and the social good of access to justice.

Educating The Underground: The Constitutionality Of Non-Residence Based Immigrant In-State Tuition Laws, Alexander F.A. Rabanal

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Recent political discourse on undocumented immigration has triggered questions regarding the extent to which the individual states are preempted from making undocumented immigrants eligible for certain state benefits. In-state tuition, in particular, has become a site of contentious debate. This Note examines whether states may, consistent with federal law and federal preemption principles, make undocumented students eligible to matriculate at public universities at the in-state rate. Part I of this Note provides historical background on the development of the federal exclusivity principle in matters of immigration law. Part II examines the federal laws against which immigrant in-state tuition laws are …

Table Of Contents - Issue 3, Chicago-Kent Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

If Only We Knew What We Know, Conrad Johnson, Brian Donnelly

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article contributes to the broader themes surrounding law and technology raised in this symposium by taking a look at lawyering and knowledge management. This topic is presented both as a theory and with a case study. The first part provides a brief summary of the basic lawyering paradigm used in the Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic at Columbia Law School—that all lawyering activities can be understood within the context of gathering, managing and presenting information. The second category of the paradigm is expanded upon to review the activity of managing knowledge. Then, knowledge management is positioned as the …

Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman And . . . : Latest Evolution Of Marital Residence Regime In Contemporary China, Yu Di

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Note discusses the controversial August 2011 Judicial Interpretation on the Marriage Law of China concerning the treatment of marital residence in divorce proceedings. The Interpretation gives great weight to the title under which the property is held, and commentators have criticized this approach as unfair to women. This Note examines the Interpretation from a historical and comparative viewpoint. Section I traces the development history of Chinese law of marital property. Section II summarizes the U.S. law on the most prominent scenario addressed by the new Interpretation, that of the distribution at divorce of a marital residence to the acquisition …

Teaching Law And Digital Age Legal Practice With An Ai And Law Seminar, Kevin D. Ashley

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article provides a guide and examples for using a seminar on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Law to teach lessons about legal reasoning and about legal practice in the digital age. Artificial Intelligence and Law is a subfield of AI/ computer science research that focuses on computationally modeling legal reasoning. In at least a few law schools, the AI and Law seminar has regularly taught students fundamental issues about law and legal reasoning by focusing them on the problems these issues pose for scientists attempting to computationally model legal reasoning. AI and Law researchers have designed programs to reason with …

Technically Speaking, Does It Matter? An Empirical Study Linking The Federal Circuit Judges' Technical Backgrounds To How They Analyze The Section 112 Enablement And Written Description Requirements, Dunstan H. Barnes

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Patent cases are decided exclusively by federal judges, who—unlike patent attorneys appearing before the United States Patent and Trademark Office—are not required to have any scientific or technical qualifications. The present empirical study explores whether there is a correlation between the technical backgrounds of judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and these judges’ analysis of the enablement and written description patent requirements under 35 U.S.C. § 112. The results indicate that Federal Circuit judges with technical backgrounds are more likely than their non-technical peers to reverse lower courts, but not significantly more likely to …

Reinventing The Development Wheel Of The World Trading System (Reviewing Sonia E. Rolland, Development At The World Trade Organization (2012)), Sungjoon Cho

All Faculty Scholarship

In probing how WTO norms may affect developing countries, Sonia Rolland introduces two paradigms in this book: development as an idiosyncrasy and development as a normative co-constituent to trade. The first paradigm concerns development-related exceptions and carve-outs found within WTO rules and agreements that exemplify a contingent provision of special favors to developing countries. Overall, it represents a limited mandate on development in the WTO. In contrast, the second paradigm embodies a normative operationalization of development agenda within the WTO system. It normatively reconstructs WTO rules and institutions in a way where development is a core mandate of the WTO, …

Table Of Contents, Seventh Circuit Review

Seventh Circuit Review

No abstract provided.

Preface, Jennifer Nimry Eseed

Seventh Circuit Review

No abstract provided.

Another Glance At Vance: Examining The Seventh Circuit's About-Face On Bivens Immunity And The Military, Eric Michel

Seventh Circuit Review

When a prisoner is tortured or otherwise abused in violation of his or her constitutional rights, that prisoner may sue the wrongdoer for money damages. If the abuse was done by a state or local official, § 1983 provides a statutory cause of action. Prisoners who are abused by federal officials may seek damages under Bivens, a federal common law doctrine that authorizes such a recovery even in the absence of explicit statutory authorization. This doctrine has been controversial since its inception in 1971 because it gives courts the power to create federal causes of action, a role typically …

Keys, Wallet, And Pistol: The Seventh Circuit Establishes A Constitutional Right To Carry Firearms Outside Of The Home, K.L. Daniels

Seventh Circuit Review

In 2012, the Seventh Circuit decided Moore v. Madigan, declaring Illinois' ban on concealed carry unconstitutional. With this decision, the court extended the Supreme Court's previous Second Amendment jurisprudence. In 2008, the Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that the constitutional right to bear arms includes a right to self-defense in the home; however, the Court did not state whether that right extended to a constitutional right to carry handguns in public.

In his Moore opinion, Judge Posner decided that because the Second Amendment is a right to self-defense, citizens must be allowed to exercise that …

The Ftaia In Its Proper Place: Merits, Jurisdiction, And Statutory Interpretation In Minn-Chem, Inc. V. Agrium Inc., Donald R. Caplan

Seventh Circuit Review

The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA) excludes anticompetitive conduct occurring in purely foreign commerce from the reach of U.S. antitrust laws. However, the act permits the application of U.S. antitrust laws to both import commerce and foreign commerce that has a “direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable” effect on U.S. commerce. Controversy over the act centers on whether the act proscribes a federal court's subject-matter jurisdiction. In his 1993 dissent in Hartford v. California, Justice Scalia argued that the act does not affect a court's adjudicative authority. However, ten years later the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held the …

Friend Request Pending: Does A Rare Victory Before The Seventh Circuit Mean Sex Offenders Will Finally Receive Fair Treatment From Courts?, Matt Dillinger

Seventh Circuit Review

Sex offender laws have spiraled out of control in recent years. Yet, despite the irrationality and punitive nature of many of these laws, courts have overwhelmingly sided with states in constitutional challenges. However, recent case law suggests that courts may no longer be willing to give states the benefit of the doubt where substantial individual rights are implicated. In Doe v. Prosecutor, Marion County, Indiana, the Seventh Circuit struck down an Indiana law that banned certain registered sex offenders from using social media websites, finding the law facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment. This comment argues that the court …

The Right To Speak With Another's Voice—Why The Seventh Circuit Should Characterize The Right To Record As The Limited Right To Gather Information Under The First Amendment, Prava Palacharla

Seventh Circuit Review

As technology advances, millions of Americans now carry a recording device on their person. The ease with which private conversations can be recorded and disseminated without the permission of the speakers has sparked a backlash of legislation criminalizing the act of recording oral communications. These statutes, in an attempt to defeat an expanding problem, impede an individual's First Amendment right to audio record speech.

The Illinois Eavesdropping Law (IEL), the broadest piece of eavesdropping legislation in the nation, prohibits recording speech, even if that speech was not intended to be private. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the statute's validity …

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act: The Roadblocks To Recovery, Sivonnia L. Hunt

Seventh Circuit Review

This Article focuses on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's (FSIA) state-sponsored terrorism exception and roadblocks created by judicial rulings in this area. Through litigation, courts expanded the FSIA beyond Congress' intent to allow injured U.S. citizens to bring state law claims in federal court for damages resulting from a terrorist action supported by a foreign state. However, other courts took a restrictive approach, barring these claims. This shift led Congress to revise the FSIA to carry out its true intent.

There are three parts to this Article. Part I introduces the FSIA and its original exception for state-sponsored terrorism. It …

Righting Lechmere'S Drift: Nlra Preemption Of State Property Law Of Easements And Leases, Ramsin G. Canon

Seventh Circuit Review

Has the Supreme Court's concern that employers can envelop themselves in a “cordon sanitaire” of parking lots, berms, and strip malls to insulate themselves from employees' lawful union organizing activities finally come true? In the seminal Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, the Supreme Court interpreted workers' § 7 organizing rights as being inherently limited by state property laws. However, this ruling was effectively limited by the Court's policy concern of not suborning trespass through national labor policy. However, since Lechmere was decided, courts have expressed deference to state property rights, defining easements and related property interests to …

New Google Services, Debbie Ginsberg

Presentations

On April 30, 2013, CLC added new services to Chicago-Kent's Google Apps suite. Among other services, these included: Google+, Google's social network that also includes basic video conferencing; Google Groups, a tool allowing collaboration with with people outside of Chicago-Kent; and Google Books, with which you can create your own virtual library. In this Brown Bag, Google Drive and other new services are discussed.

Prepare To Practice - The Process Of Legal Research, Clare Gaynor Willis

Presentations

Class Prepare to Practice lecture.

What To Do When You Find A Case, Clare Gaynor Willis

Presentations

Class presentation for 1L students.

Does Public Employee Collective Bargaining Distort Democracy? A Perspective From The United States, Martin H. Malin

All Faculty Scholarship

The beginning of the second decade of the 21st century saw renewed attacks on public employee collective bargaining, which included claims that allowing public employees to organize and bargain collectively distorts democratic processes. These renewed attacks included the traditional claim that public employee collective bargaining inappropriately gives one interest group, workers and their unions, an avenue of access to public decision-makers that is not available to other interest groups. The attack also raised a new claim of distortion of democratic processes: that unions are inappropriately advantaged in the broader political process through agency shop or fair share and dues check-off …

Aba Techshow Report, Debbie Ginsberg, Emily Barney

Presentations

In this Brown Bag, Emily Barney and Debbie Ginsberg discussed the latest trends in legal technology, including finding evidence in social networks and mobile technologies, practicing law "on the go," and technologies for courtroom presentations.

The Dark Side Of Town: The Social Capital Revolution In Residential Property, Stephanie M. Stern

All Faculty Scholarship

Social capital has pervaded property law, with scholars and policymakers advocating laws and property arrangements to promote social capital and relying on social capital to devolve property governance from legal institutions to resident groups. This Article challenges the prevailing view of social capital’s salutary effects with a more skeptical account that examines the dark side of residential social capital — its capacity to effectuate local factions and promote restraints and inegalitarianism that close off property. I introduce a set of claims about social capital’s dark side in residential property and explore these points through the examples of local racial purging, …

Vol. 30, No. 2, Ann C. Hodges

The Illinois Public Employee Relations Report

Contents:

Union Dues in the Public Sector: Legislative Changes and Legal Challenges, by Ann C. Hodges

Recent Developments

Permits For Puddles? The Constitutionality And Necessity Of Proposed Agency Guidance Clarifying Clean Water Act Jurisdiction, Jennifer L. Baader

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The Clean Water Act, enacted and amended in the mid-20th century, was a significant development in the protection and restoration of the Nation’s waters. The Act authorized the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the discharge of pollutants into many types of bodies of water. However, this wide-spread jurisdictional authority was challenged by the Supreme Court in two turn of the century cases which limited the application of the Act to certain waters. In 2011, a draft guidance document was released by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, which would increase …

Copyright And Freedom Of Expression: Saving Free Speech From Advancing Legislation, Amanda Beshears Cook

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The Supreme Court has expressly recognized the possibility of a First Amendment defense to copyright infringement claims, but it has never actually found such a defense to apply to a case before it. And nearly every year, Congress enacts or attempts to enact more legislation that restricts speech under the banner of the copyright clause. The problem is that the natural right of free speech is being depleted by the legislatively granted right of intellectual property, putting both individual liberty and the public good at risk. Congress and the courts both must begin to acknowledge that in the common law …

Shopping For Reversals: How Accuracy Differs Across Patent Litigation Forums, Teresa Lii

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

This study analyzes the rate of reversal on appeal of each district court for the most popular patent litigation forums in the United States. Alarmingly, this study finds that district courts which have been shopped for by litigants may also be the courts that are most often applying patent law erroneously. Among these districts is the notoriously patentee-friendly Eastern District of Texas, which has attracted huge volumes of litigants to its dockets in recent years.

Although forum shopping has always antagonized the fairness of civil proceedings, it is of special problem in the context of patent litigation. Where billions of …

Protecting Religious Identity With American Trademark Law, Steven John Olsen

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

A Book By Any Other Name: E-Books And The First Sale Doctrine, Elizabeth Mckenzie

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.