Law Commons^™

Disclosure 2.0: Can Technology Solve Overload, Complexity, And Other Information Failures?, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

In recent years, securities law scholars have either renewed an old attack on mandatory issuer disclosure or questioned the effectiveness of securities disclosure in the context of modern financial instruments. Some scholars argue that mandatory disclosure rules prove ineffective because investors suffer from “information overload.” Others claim that securities disclosure cannot describe adequately the complexity of modern firms and finance. These academic criticisms of mandatory securities disclosure provide some of the intellectual underpinnings for recent efforts to roll back some mandatory securities disclosure rules, such as the SEC’s Disclosure Effectiveness initiative.

This Article questions these critiques of securities disclosure, including …

Prioritizing Management And Protection Of The Colorado River's Environmental Resources, Colorado River Research Group

Books, Reports, and Studies

4 pages.

A Look At Laws Authorizing Uses Of Conserved And Saved Water In California, Montana, Oregon, And Washington, Cassidy Woodard

Books, Reports, and Studies

28 pages : color illustrations.

Enhancing Watershed Planning In Implementation Of The Colorado Water Plan: An Overview Of Implementation Challenges And Opportunities, Douglas S. Kenney

Books, Reports, and Studies

25 pages.

Introduction -- Review of existing efforts -- Summary of interviews -- The salience of funding -- Recommendations -- Attachment A: Summary of reviewed watershed plans.

Watershed Planning And Management In Colorado, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Books, Reports, and Studies

9 pages.

Introduction -- The watershed approach in Colorado -- Moving to the next level : implementation of the BIPs -- Possible next steps -- Conclusion.

Dear Irs, It Is Time To Enforce The Campaigning Prohibition. Even Against Churches, Samuel D. Brunson

University of Colorado Law Review

In 1954, Congress prohibited tax-exempt public charities, including churches, from endorsing or opposing candidates for office. To the extent a tax-exempt public charity violated this prohibition, it would no longer qualify as tax-exempt, and the IRS was to revoke its exemption.

While simple in theory, in practice, the IRS rarely penalizes churches that violate the campaigning prohibition and virtually never revokes a church's tax exemption. And, because no taxpayer has standing to challenge the IRS's inaction, the IRS has no external imperative to revoke the exemptions of churches that do campaign on behalf of or against candidates for office.

This …

The Guardian Ad Litem As The Child's Privilege Holder, Starla Doyal

University of Colorado Law Review

Children in therapy have a strong interest in maintaining the confidentiality of communications with their therapists. Without the assurance of confidential communications, children may not be as open with their therapists, which can make therapy less effective. Although children have privilege rights to their psychotherapist-patient communications just as adults do, their parents generally hold and exercise that privilege. Many courts have recognized that a parent should not hold a child's privilege when the parent and child have divergent interests. This raises the question of who should hold the privilege in the parent's place. In L.A.N. v. L.M.B., the Colorado Supreme …

Finding Safe Harbor: Eliminating The Gap In Colorado's Human Trafficking Laws, Jessica A. Pingleton

University of Colorado Law Review

In March 2014, the Colorado Court of Appeals acquitted Dallas Cardenas of all human trafficking charges. The court determined that under the 2014 version of Colorado's human trafficking statute, a defendant who sold the sexual services of a minor, as opposed to selling a minor for sex, did not commit the crime of human trafficking. Following the Cardenas decision, the state legislature passed House Bill 1273, which broadened the language of the statute and eliminated all possible affirmative defenses, including minor consent. Under the new law, a defendant can no longer argue that a minor consented to commercial sex. However, …

The Dynamics Of Excessive Force, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Dynamics Of Excessive Force, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

Existing scholarship suggests that police use of excessive force will be greatest in departments with "bad apple" officers or bad top-down incentive structures. This paper proposes an alternative theoretical account to argue that patterns of excessive force dynamically emerge from local interactions among individuals that aggregate to form more global patterns of escalation, contagion, and decay. I focus on two dynamic interactions in particular. First, I argue that excessive force spreads and escalates by way of a self-reinforcing arms race between civilians and officers that intensifies the use of excessive force over time. As officers use excessive force, civilians in …

Whistling For The Dog In Affirmative Action, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Law Hybridization, Clark D. Asay

University of Colorado Law Review

Traditionally, patent and copyright laws have been viewed as separate bodies of law with distinct utilitarian goals. Conventional wisdom holds that patent law aims to incentivize the production of inventive ideas, while copyright focuses on protecting the original expression of ideas, but not the underlying ideas themselves. This customary divide between copyright and patent laws finds some support in the distinction between "authors" and "inventors," as well as that between "writings" and "discoveries," in the U.S. Constitution's Intellectual Property Clause. And Congress, courts, and scholars have largely perpetuated the divide in separately enacting, interpreting, and analyzing copyright and patent laws …

Little Sisters Of The Poor Home For The Aged V. Sebelius: Ramifications For Church Plans And Religious Nonprofits, Samantha T. Ford

University of Colorado Law Review

The mandate for certain employers to provide contraceptive care as part of their employees' benefit plans established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and pertinent regulations has been controversial and highly litigated since its passage in 2010. One party to this litigation, the Little Sisters of the Poor, finds the contraceptive care mandate to be in conflict with their fundamental religious beliefs. The Little Sisters also find PPACA's exceptions to the contraceptive care mandate for religious nonprofits to be inadequate in preventing the government from requiring the Little Sisters to violate their beliefs. Currently, the Little Sisters …

Restore The Republic: The Incompatibility Between The Taxpayer's Bill Of Rights And The Guarantee Clause, Joshua Pens

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

All Your Data Are Belong To Us: Consumer Data Breach Rights And Remedies In An Electronic Exchange Economy, Michael D. Simpson

University of Colorado Law Review

Consumers navigating the United States' modern electronic exchange economy are uniquely vulnerable to injury from data breaches. Hackers run data breach operations on an industrial scale, with a worldwide underground economy supporting the processing and exploitation of stolen information. Economic damages from data breaches exceed millions of dollars annually in direct and indirect costs for consumers and businesses alike. While existing common law, statutory law, and regulatory law offer consumers affected by a data breach some degree of protection, that protection is largely inadequate in the face of the threat posed by consumer data breaches. This Comment argues that consumers …

Reclaiming The Right Of Beneficial Use, Abby Harder

University of Colorado Law Review

Under the doctrine of prior appropriation, those that divert and apply water resources to a beneficial use gain a future right of use. Further, individuals may contract with the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for the delivery of federal project water. Under either method, individuals are required to use their water appropriation for a beneficial purpose to acquire and maintain their rights of use. What constitutes a beneficial purpose or a beneficial use of water resources has traditionally been defined by state law. Following some states’ legalization of marijuana, the BOR announced a new policy with regard to water use, …

To Have Our Water And Use It Too : Why Colorado Water Law Needs A Public Interest Standard, Larry Myers

University of Colorado Law Review

This Comment proposes constitutional and statutory amendments that would allow water courts to consider the public interest in water allocations. It offers a model public interest standard and argues that this public interest standard is an economic necessity given the shifting contributions of water-reliant industries and the nature of their water needs. Assuming the purpose of Colorado water law is to promote growth and the economic health of the state, then Colorado must adjust the guiding laws to reflect the current economic reality. Where facilitating economic growth formerly required consumptive diversions from streams to subsidize homesteads, ranches, and mines, now …

The President's Faithful Execution Duty, Harold H. Bruff

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Power Under The Constitution: A Presidential And Parliamentary System Compared, Gabrielle Appleby, Adam Webster

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Presidential Constitutional Interpretation, Signing Statements, Executive Power, And Zivotofsky, Henry L. Chambers, Jr

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Armstrong Evolution, Michael Pappas

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Right To Be Regulated, Michael Pappas

Publications

No abstract provided.

The President And Immigration Federalism, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan

Publications

This Article lays out a systematic, conceptual framework to better understand the relationship between federal executive action and statelevel legislation in immigration. Prior immigration law scholarship has focused on structural power questions between the U.S. federal government-as a unitary entity-and the states, while newer scholarship has examined separation of powers concerns between the President and Congress. This Article builds on both of these traditions, focusing on the intersectional relationship between the federal Executive and subfederal lawmaking, which is an important yet overlooked dynamic in the resurgence of immigration federalism. First, this Article explains the relationship between presidential action and state …

A New Governance Recipe For Food Safety Regulation, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Although food safety is a significant and increasing global health concern, international economic law does not adequately address today’s global food safety needs. While most countries rely on a collection of formalized legal rules to protect food safety, these rules too often fall short. As fiscal constraints impede raising the number of border inspections, formal international commitments (treaties) frequently limit governmental efforts to raise food safety standards. Private companies, meanwhile, can readily adopt higher standards to meet consumer demands and supply chain needs, thus demonstrating more nimbleness and flexibility in adopting the highest food safety standards available. Can countries learn …

Practicing Practical Wisdom, Deborah J. Cantrell, Kenneth Sharpe

Publications

Wisdom is not an innate character trait; no one automatically is wise; wisdom is learned and acquired. More importantly, one can learn and acquire wisdom intentionally and skillfully — one can practice it. And, if the practice is structured in particular ways, the practice will improve one’s capacities to act with wisdom. This article clarifies theoretical muddiness and pedagogical imprecision by bringing together two important and robust strands of legal ethics literature. The first strand focuses on what the appropriate role of a lawyer is in a just society, while the second focuses on how a lawyer learns to be, …

Energy Deference, Sharon B. Jacobs

Publications

Electricity law is complex, and the Supreme Court knows it. Lawyers are familiar with the adage that generalist courts tend to defer to agency decisions where the subject matter is complex or technical. But what features of a case make the Court more or less likely to defer to the agency's judgment? And how exactly do deference regimes work in the presence of complexity? This essay offers insights gleaned from Court's opinion in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Ass’n (“EPSA”). It explains, first, that Courts are highly deferential in energy cases due to both the complexity of …

Owning Red: A Theory Of Indian (Cultural) Appropriation, Angela R. Riley, Kristen A. Carpenter

Publications

In a number of recent controversies, from sports teams’ use of Indian mascots to the federal government’s desecration of sacred sites, American Indians have lodged charges of “cultural appropriation” or the unauthorized use by members of one group of the cultural expressions and resources of another. While these and other incidents make contemporary headlines, American Indians often experience these claims within a historical and continuing experience of dispossession. For hundreds of years, the U.S. legal system has sanctioned the taking and destruction of Indian lands, artifacts, bodies, religions, identities, and beliefs, all toward the project of conquest and colonization. Indian …

Re-Ordering The First Amendment, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

The President's Faithful Execution Duty, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Model Law On Lighting For Developed Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy, Jason Aamodt, Anne Aguirre, Yazan Fattaleh, Gianna Fitzsimmons, Teresa Milligan, Giedre Stasiunaite

Publications