Law Commons^™

Submission To The U.N. Human Rights Committee In Relation To The List Of Issues Of The United States Concerning The Unsafe Dumping And Mismanagement Of Coal Ash In Puerto Rico, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

The IHRC has investigated the human rights abuses arising out of the environmental injustices imposed on communities in the southern municipalities of Puerto Rico that represent violations of international human rights, and specifically of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”). Since 1994, Applied Energy Systems (“AES”), a private American energy company, has been responsible for continued coal ash contamination of the southern coastal region of Puerto Rico.[i] AES coal-fired power plants in Puerto Rico have released toxic amounts of coal ash into the air and water, negatively impacting air quality and drinking water for residents in …

Why Are Seemingly Satisfied Female Lawyers Running For The Exits? Resolving The Paradox Using National Data, Joni Hersch, Erin E. Meyers

Joni Hersch

Despite the fact that women are leaving the practice of law at alarmingly high rates, most previous research finds no evidence of gender differences in job satisfaction among lawyers. This Article uses nationally representative data from the 2015 National Survey of College Graduates to examine gender differences in lawyers’ job satisfaction, and finds that any apparent similarity of job satisfaction between genders likely arises from dissatisfied female JDs sorting out of the legal profession at higher rates than their male counterparts, leaving behind the most satisfied women. This Article also provides a detailed examination of the specific working conditions that …

The Gendered Burdens Of Conviction And Collateral Consequences On Employment, Joni Hersch, Erin E. Meyers

Joni Hersch

Ex-offenders are subject to a wide range of employment restrictions that limit the ability of individuals with a criminal background to earn a living. This Article argues that women involved in the criminal justice system likely suffer a greater income-related burden from criminal conviction than do men. This disproportionate burden arises in occupations that women typically pursue, both through formal pathways, such as restrictions on occupational licensing, and through informal pathways, such as employers’ unwillingness to hire those with a criminal record. In addition, women have access to far fewer vocational programs while incarcerated. Further exacerbating this burden is that …

Energy Exactions, Jim Rossi, Christopher Serkin

Jim Rossi

Exactions are demands levied on residential or commercial developers to force them, rather than a municipality, to bear the costs of new infrastructure. Local governments commonly use them to address the burdens that growth places on schools, transportation, water, and sewers. But exactions almost never address energy needs, even though local land use decisions can create signficant externalities for the power grid and for energy resources.

This Article proposes a novel reform to land use and energy law: "energy exactions"-understood as local fees or timing limits aimed at addressing the energy impacts of new residential or commercial development. Energy exactions …

They, Them, And Theirs, Jessica Clarke

Jessica Clarke

Nonbinary gender identities have quickly gone from obscurity to prominence in American public life, with growing acceptance of gender-neutral pronouns, such as “they, them, and theirs,” and recognition of a third gender category by U.S. states including California, Oregon, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Washington. People with nonbinary gender identities do not exclusively identify as men or women. Feminist legal reformers have long argued that discrimination on the basis of gender nonconformity — in other words, discrimination against men perceived as feminine or women perceived as masculine — is a harmful type of sex discrimination that the law should redress. But …

Trade And The Separation Of Powers, Timothy Meyer, Ganesh Sitaraman

Ganesh Sitaraman

There are two paradigms through which to view trade law and policy within the American constitutional system. One paradigm sees trade law and policy as quintessentially about domestic economic policy. Institutionally, under the domestic economics paradigm, trade law falls within the province of Congress, which has legion Article I authorities over commercial matters. The second paradigm sees trade law as fundamentally about America’s relationship with foreign countries. Institutionally, under the foreign affairs paradigm, trade law is the province of the President, who speaks for the United States in foreign affairs. While both paradigms have operated throughout American history, the domestic …

Countering Nationalist Oligarchy, Ganesh Sitaraman

Ganesh Sitaraman

The challenge we face today is not one of authoritarianism, as so many seem inclined to believe, but of nationalist oligarchy. This form of government feeds populism to the people, delivers special privileges to the rich and well-connected, and rigs politics to sustain its regime.

Nationalist oligarchy is an existential threat to American democracy. The countries already under its thrall steal technology and use economic power as political leverage. Some of them are actively trying to undermine democracy, through cyber attacks, hacking, and social media disinformation. And they spread bribery and corruption around the world—deepening inequality and threatening to turn …

Beyond The Witness: Bringing A Process Perspective, Edward K. Cheng, G. Alexander Nunn

Edward Cheng

For centuries, the foundation of the Anglo-American trial has been the witness.' Witnesses report on their personal observations, provide opinions of character, offer scientific explanations, and in the case of parties, narrate their own story. Indeed, even for documentary and other physical evidence, witnesses often provide the conduit through which such evidence reaches the factfinder. Documentary or physical evidence rarely stands on its own. The law of evidence has thus unsurprisingly focused on-or perhaps obsessed over-witnesses. The hearsay rule and the Confrontation Clause demand that declarants be available witnesses at trial so that they may be subject to cross-examination.' Expert …

Improper Appropriation, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

The traditional (Arnstein) test for copyright infringement is satisfied when the owner of a valid copyright establishes unauthorized copying by the defendant. To demonstrate unauthorized copying, one of the major tests is that the plaintiff must first show that her work was actually copied; second, she must establish substantial similarity and/or that the copying amounts to an improper or unlawful appropriation. The second prong is satisfied when (i) protected expression in the earlier work was copied and (ii) the amount of the copyrighted work that is copied must be more than de minimis. This Article examines, first, how impropriety has …

How Leadership In International Criminal Law Is Shifting From The United States To Europe And Asia: An Analysis Of Spending On And Contributions To International Criminal Courts, Stuart Ford

Stuart Ford

No abstract provided.

The Patent Option, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

There is a shift in the shape of intellectual property (IP) tools used to strengthen and lengthen the right of pharmaceutical companies to exclude others from making and marketing their products. Patents have traditionally been the tool of choice. Over the past two decades, however, pharmaceutical companies have increased their degree of reliance on a right known as “data exclusivity.” This right, which now exists in most major jurisdictions, is the right to prevent third parties from relying on the clinical trial data submitted by another pharmaceutical company to obtain marketing approval for a bioequivalent or biosimilar product. The right …

Intellectual Property: A Beacon For Reform Of Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

Investor-state dispute-settlement (ISDS) clauses give multinational investors (corporations) a right to sue a state in a binding proceeding before an independent arbitration tribunal. This jurisgenerative right to file a claim in an international tribunal with mandatory jurisdiction is generally reserved to States. ISDS is a mechanism meant to protect the private property of multinational investors against certain acts of public authorities.

Intellectual Property differs from the more traditional private (property) law interests that ISDS aims to protect. IP incorporates public policy objectives such as innovation, access to information or public health that are reflected in limitations and exceptions to the …

Exploring The Interfaces Between Big Data And Intellectual Property Law, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

This article reviews the application of several IP rights (copyright, patent, sui generis database right, data exclusivity and trade secret) to Big Data. Beyond the protection of software used to collect and process Big Data corpora, copyright’s traditional role is challenged by the relatively unstructured nature of the non-relational (noSQL) databases typical of Big Data corpora. This also impacts the application of the EU sui generis right in databases. Misappropriation (tort-based) or anti-parasitic behaviour protection might apply, where available, to data generated by AI systems that has high but short-lived value. Copyright in material contained in Big Data corpora must …

Energy Exactions, Jim Rossi, Christopher Serkin

Christopher Serkin

Exactions are demands levied on residential or commercial developers to force them, rather than a municipality, to bear the costs of new infrastructure. Local governments commonly use them to address the burdens that growth places on schools, transportation, water, and sewers. But exactions almost never address energy needs, even though local land use decisions can create signficant externalities for the power grid and for energy resources. This Article proposes a novel reform to land use and energy law: "energy exactions"-understood as local fees or timing limits aimed at addressing the energy impacts of new residential or commercial development. Energy exactions …

Firearms Law Workshop Mini-Symposium, Part Iii: Framing The Second Amendment: Gun Rights, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

The Second Amendment As A Fundamental Right, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

The Second Amendment has been suffering from an inferiority complex. Litigants, scholars, and judges have complained that the right to keep and bear arms is not being afforded the respect and dignity befitting a “fundamental” constitutional right. They have asserted that, both on its own terms and relative to rights in the same general class, the Second Amendment has been disrespected, under-enforced, and orphaned. They have argued that courts have treated the Second Amendment as “peripheral,” “fringe,” “anachronistic,” “second rate,” and “second-class.” The Second Amendment has been described as “the Rodney Dangerfield of the Bill of Rights” and even compared …

Arming Public Protests, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

Public protests have become armed events, with protesters and counter-protesters openly carrying firearms—generally pursuant to state law. Many view the presence of firearms at protest events as wholly incompatible with the exercise of First Amendment free speech and assembly rights. Although the Supreme Court has yet to decide whether there is a Second Amendment right to openly carry firearms in public, all but a small handful of states in the United States provide some legal protection for open carry. Taking the law as it currently stands, this Article provides a comprehensive assessment of the options available to officials who seek …

Partial Termination Of Single-Employer Tax Qualified Plans: Clarity Or Misappropriated Judicial Decision-Making?, Samantha Prince, Jo Ann Petroziello

Samantha J. Prince

For over three decades, the Internal Revenue Code [hereinafter I.R.C. or Code 1 has contained provisions that require that all benefits in a single-employer tax qualified plan become fully vested when the plan is partially terminated. However, the Internal Revenue Service [hereinafter IRS or Service] has failed to articulate a standard for determining when a partial termination has occurred. Instead, the courts and the Service have utilized a “facts and circumstances” test which does not set clear guidelines. In light of the application of inconsistent approaches by the courts, recent decisions answering partial plan termination questions have served only to …

Concept Release On Harmonization Of Securities Offering Exemptions; File Number S7-08-19, Robert Anderson, Samantha Prince, John Neil Conkle, Sarah Zomaya

Samantha J. Prince

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of The Working Class Shareholder: An Application, An Extension And A Challenge, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

A review and analysis of David Webber's book The Rise of the Working Class Shareholder, with ideas on how to extend his points, and a challenge to one of his underlying assumptions with regard to the impact of Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.

Case Study 3: Movement Lawyers And Community Organizers In Litigation: Issues Of Finances And Collaboration, Paul R. Tremblay, Baher Azmy

Paul R. Tremblay

This essay represents one of several Case Studies published as the Movement Lawyering Roundtable Symposium by Hofstra Law Review. The Case Studies were developed within a roundtable of movement lawyers, community organizers, and legal ethics experts convened in March, 2018 by the Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law. This Case Study addresses the ethical tensions encountered by movement lawyers and community organizers engaged in public interest litigation. The Study consists of three topics, with resulting ethics analyses of the issues that arise in the differing settings. …

Inside Job: The Assault On The Structure Of The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Patricia A. Mccoy

Patricia A. McCoy

Soon after the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, while Republicans controlled Congress, opponents of the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened a campaign against the Bureau. Their target was less the substance of federal consumer financial protection laws than the structure of the CFPB itself. This emphasis on structure was a response to the fact that Congress in 2010 had given special thought to the design of the CFPB to safeguard the Bureau and its mission.

In 2017, after legislation to weaken the Bureau’s structure failed in Congress and constitutional challenges to the …

The Faulty Foundation Of The Draft Restatement Of Consumer Contracts, Adam J Levitin, Nancy S Kim, Christina L Kunz, Peter Linzer, Patricia A. Mccoy, Juliet M. Moringiello, Elizabeth A Renuart, Lauren E. Willis

Patricia A. McCoy

Professor Gregory Klass's replication study of the Draft Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contract's empirical analysis of privacy policies found troubling and pervasive problems with the Reporters' coding of cases. We extended Professor Klass's study with a replication of the coding of the two largest datasets supporting the Draft Restatement, those on the enforceability of unilateral contract modifications and those on the enforceability of clickwrap assent. For the replication, we reviewed 186 cases blind to the Reporters' coding.

Catholic Social Thought And Criminal Justice Reform, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

Professor Cassidy examines the criminal justice reform movement in the United States through the lens of Catholic social thought. In particular, he focuses on God’s gift of redemption and the Gospels’ directives that we love one another and show mercy toward the poor, the oppressed and the imprisoned. Cassidy then examines the implications of these fundamental Catholic teachings for the modern debate about the death penalty, sentencing reform, prisoner reentry and parole.

Undue Influence: A Prosecutor’S Role In Parole Proceedings, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

Professor Cassidy explores what it means for a prosecutor to act as a “minister of justice” in the context of parole proceedings. He argues that prosecutors should not perceive themselves as zealous advocates in what is essentially an administrative setting, and that prosecutors should not oppose release simply because they believe that the nature and circumstances of the crime warrant continued incarceration. Rather, Cassidy argues that prosecutors ordinarily should refrain from personally testifying at parole hearings, and should submit written comments to the parole board only in those rare situations where the prosecutor is in possession of otherwise unavailable information …

Sexual Misconduct In Prison: What Factors Affect Whether Incarcerated Women Will Report Abuses Committed By Prison Staff?, Sheryl Pimlott Kubiak, Hannah Brenner, Deborah Bybee, Rebecca Campbell, Cristy E. Cummings, Kathleen M. Darcy, Gina Fedock, Rachael Goodman-Williams

Cristy Cummings

No abstract provided.

Corporate Power And Campaign Finance, H. Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Chapter in a book about answers to the policy problems created by Citizens United, focusing on the possibility of using corporate governance to transform corporations into positive players in the public space.

Strike Down Obamacare, Says Justice Department, Saikrishna B. Prakash, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

The Federalist Society Majority, Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Commodification, Intellectual Property And The Quilters Of Gee's Bend, Victoria F. Phillips

Victoria Phillips

No abstract provided.