Law Commons^™

Iconic Designs, Icon Status, And Intellectual Property: Discussing Copyright And Fashion And The Ideal Mode Of Protection For Fashion Designs And Patterns, Bianca Lindau

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

In the United States, the establishment of copyright protection for fashion designs and patterns has been a struggle that has only partially been successful. Protections available under design patent, trademark, and trade dress law only provide insufficient protection to fashion designs. Since the Star Athletica v. Varsity decision, it is clear that fashion patterns enjoy sufficient protection under copyright law. In the European Union and in Germany, the intellectual property protection capital of Europe, fashion designs enjoy much greater protection than in the United States. This paper uses a comparative approach to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of providing more …

Incarceration Or E-Carceration: California’S Sb 10 Bail Reform And The Potential Pitfalls For Pretrial Detainees, Ashley Mullen

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

California’s bail system not only infringes on individual rights, but also exacerbates a cobweb criminal justice system. The In re Humphrey court framed the issue perfectly when it stated that the problem with the bail system stems “from the enduring unwillingness of our society, including the courts, to correct a deformity in our criminal justice system that close observers have long considered a blight on the system.” California sought to rectify this “deformity” of a wealth-based bail system by passing SB 10 (the California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017).

This Note addresses the arguments that will likely be raised …

Regulatory Takings And The Constitutionality Of Commercial Rent Regulation In New York City, Henry Topper

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

In recent years, the plight of small businesses in New York City has become a contentious topic. Although the city and its current mayoral administration share a long-standing commitment to affordable housing, the city’s small businesses—an integral and defining feature of the urban landscape—have suffered immensely. In the past decade, local establishments have largely given way to a homogeneous landscape of empty storefronts and national chain stores.The loss of local busi- ness occurs with such staggering frequency that there is an entire thriving blog subculture documenting their “vanishing” and the Center for an Urban Future publishes an annual report on …

A Jury Of Your [Redacted]: The Rise And Implications Of Anonymous Juries, Leonardo Mangat

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Since their relatively recent beginnings in 1977, when the first completely anonymous jury was empaneled in a federal court in New York, anonymous juries have been used across a litany of cases: organized crime, terrorism, murder, sports scandals, police killings, and even gubernatorial corruption. And their use is on the rise. An anonymous jury is a type of jury that a court may empanel in a criminal trial; if one is used, then information that might otherwise identify jurors is withheld from the parties, the public, or some combination thereof, often for varying lengths of time.

Though not without its …

Columbia University And Incarcerated Worker Labor Unions Under The National Labor Relations Act, Kara Goad

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Kara Goad’s research examines the forms and terms of labor that incarcerated workers perform in American prisons, seeking to demonstrate that labor law could provide potential remedies for work-related grievances.

Goad’s research includes traditional statutory and case law analysis along with examinations of prison statistics, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions and other administrative law materials relating to prisons and labor law. She uses her findings lay out a path for incarcerated workers to potentially unionize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Truth Or Dare: A Framework For Analyzing Credibility In Children Seeking Asylum, Karen Smeda

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

U.S. border agents detained at least 52,000 unaccompanied minors from only four Central American countries—Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras—in 2014, while 95,000 unaccompanied children sought asylum in Europe in 2015. Given the ongoing turmoil in various parts of the world, these numbers will likely rise. Children are narrowly escaping their native countries. With little help available from legal counsel and little time to gather supporting evidence, more children are relying on the gamble of a positive credibility assessment in an asylum application.

The stakes are high—either a new life in the United States, or probable fatality at home if …

An Ode To Sea Turtles & Dolphins: Expanding Wto’S Mandate To Bridge The Trade-Environment Divide, Geary Choe

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Geary Choe’s ambitious paper showcased a diverse and sophisticated understanding of research in public international law and interdisciplinary sources.

Choe’s paper proposes expanding the World Trade Organization’s mandate to carve out a new exception for trade-restrictive measures in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). His process involved analyzing international conventions, WTO panel and appellate body reports as well as non-legal materials written by economists, environmentalists and non-governmental organizations. Choe used that research to examine the historical tension between the competing interests of trade vs. environment and concluded with original proposals of how to reconcile them within the WTO’s legal framework.

Most rewardingly, …

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Imposing An American Definition Of Corruption On Global Markets, Mateo J. De La Torre

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Mateo de la Torre’s research had an international focus in examining the cross-cultural implications of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

de la Torre’s research required a comparative analysis of foreign laws that are similar to the United States’ FCPA and included statutes, legislative histories, and commentary from Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom. He also consulted extensively with several members of the Cornell Law faculty. de la Torre’s findings provided the basis for his examination of the FCPA’s impact on nondomestic actors and markets, arguing that the United States’ aggressive stance belies the Act’s original purpose. He then presented frameworks …

Don’T Forget About The Jury: Advice For Civil Litigators And Criminal Prosecutors On Differences In State And Federal Courts In New York, Ariel Atlas

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

In civil cases, forum selection has become an integral part of litigation strategy. Plaintiffs have the initial choice of where to file a complaint, and thus where to begin a lawsuit. Defendants have the power to remove cases, under circumstances prescribed by statute, from state court to federal court. Many factors enter into the decision of where to file a complaint or whether to remove a case including convenience, applicable law, and suspected biases. But what about the jury? Should a plaintiff consider characteristics of the jury when deciding where to file a complaint or a defendant in a civil …

"Nobody's Saying We're Opposed To Complying": Barriers To University Compliance With Vawa And Title Ix, Charlotte Savino

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Part I of this note will explore the government’s action in addressing sexual assault on campus, including the history of VAWA, the Clery Act, and Title IX. Part II will posit barriers to compliance, including ambiguous mandates, due process issues of private adjudication, and privacy law. Part III encapsulates the current political landscape and the laws that are under consideration. Part IV concludes with the financial and legal consequences of university action and inaction, including lawsuits brought by victims, lawsuits brought by the accused, Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights fines, and admissions consequences as prospective students actively …

The Religion Of Alcoholics Anonymous (Aa): Applying The Clergy Privilege To Certain Aa Communications, Ari J. Diaconis

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

In the debate about AA’s status as a religion for clergy privilege purposes, there has been a lack of accurate information.315 AA originated from among the most evangelic of Christian movements, the Oxford Group. AA’s 12 Step program is so centered on a higher power as to preclude an atheist from moving beyond Step 2, let alone complete the entire 12 Step program.

AA’s historical origins and program of recovery are so faith based as to render it a religion under virtually any First Amendment definition.Indeed, courts have already defined AA as a religion in certain Establishment Clause contexts. To …

The Law Review Divide: A Study Of Gender Diversity On The Top Twenty Law Reviews, Lynne N. Kolodinsky

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

My goal in this Note is to provide the first comprehensive statistical analysis of independently reported and verified data on law review membership in order to determine whether or not a gender disparity exists on law reviews. I further hope that this analysis would indicate whether any given admissions process correlates particularly strongly with that gender disparity. Interestingly, no single selection method or even combination of selection methods appears to consistently yield any greater number of women than men; some law reviews with similar admissions processes have very different membership compositions by gender, and some law reviews with very different …

How To Kill Copyright: A Brute-Force Approach To Content Creation, Kirk Sigmon

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Libor Integrity And Holistic Domestic Enforcement, Milson C. Yu

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

Libor rate rigging is a dangerous externality of the increasing interconnectedness of global markets. Its effects have transcended national boundaries and permeated through the domestic socioeconomic stratum. And it is, unfortunately, not a singular threat: Libor and its companion reference rates have revealed the subtle holes in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s current enforcement toolbox. This Note encourages clarification of the domestic defenses available to financial regulators to combat the rate rigging of benchmark reference rates in the global financial markets.

Targeted Killing And Just War: Reconciling Kill-Capture Missions, International Law, And The Combatant Civilian Framework, Louis H. Guard

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

This paper addresses how kill-capture missions can be reconciled with the underlying principles of just war theory. Part I of this paper outlines the traditional just war combatant-civilian framework and the basic legal doctrines currently thought to apply to targeted killing. Part II advances a new conception of the traditional combatant-civilian framework that incorporates the third category of alternative belligerents by showing how groups such as al Qaeda are neither combatants nor non-combatants in the just war sense and thus compel the creation of a third conceptual category. Part III of the paper applies the new framework to the kill-capture …

Annexation Of The Jury's Role In Res Judicata Disputes: The Silent Migration From Question Of Fact To Question Of Law, Steven J. Madrid

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

When the application of res judicata involves factual disputes, the jury must be the judicial actor to resolve these discrepancies. The fact-law distinction, which gives questions of fact to the jury and questions of law to the judge, has guided American courts for hundreds of years. From the time of the adoption of the Seventh Amendment until the end of the nineteenth century, courts have viewed res judicata disputes as factual determinations within the province of the jury.The migration from question of fact to question of law in the twentieth century lacked any proffered legal justification, and even as the …

Law On The Books Vs. Law In Action: Under-Enforcement Of Morocco's Reformed 2004 Family Law, The Moudawana, Ann Marie Eisenberg

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

This Note focuses on women’s family law rights in Morocco, a country located in northwestern Africa, and often regarded as the western boundary of the Muslim-Arab world. Significantly, despite Morocco’s shared roots with nations such as Saudi Arabia in culture, religion, and language, the Moroccan government has interpreted similar traditions to yield a starkly different stance: gender equality is desirable. Morocco’s new Moudawana, the 2004 legislation on family law with provisions largely derived from Islamic sources, confers unprecedented rights on Moroccan women.

Part I of this Note evaluates the Moudawana in light of its break with traditional Shari’a, alongside its …