Law Commons^™

You’Re Out!: Three Strikes Against The Plra’S Three Strikes Rule, Kasey Clark

Georgia Law Review

As federal court caseloads increased in the twentieth century, concerned jurists and academics pointed their fingers at many potential culprits. One culprit in particular, however, caught the attention of Congress: suits brought by prisoners. To curtail what it believed was an influx of frivolous prisoner litigation, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) in 1996. One provision of the PLRA, known as the “three strikes rule,” prohibits a prisoner from proceeding in forma pauperis if three or more of the prisoner’s prior actions or appeals have been dismissed as frivolous or malicious or for failure to state a claim …

Stay Schemin’: Tax Court’S Recent Ruling On Credit Card Rewards And The Impact This Ruling Has On Future Rewards Programs, Hunter Davis

Georgia Law Review

Beyond the utility of actual “credit,” the most important perk cardholders seek to capitalize on are the rewards that each cardholder’s particular credit card offers. Cardholders look for the most bang for their buck in terms of rewards and points. Ranging from frequent flyer miles to cash back to everything in between, rewards programs have expanded and diversified rapidly over the past several decades, and consumers cannot get enough. So much so that the question of whether, and when, consumer loyalty rewards should be taxable has arisen and persists today. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Tax Court have …

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Biased But Reasonable: Bias Under The Cover Of Standard Of Care, Maytal Gilboa

Georgia Law Review

Inequities in the distribution of healthcare are widely acknowledged to plague the United States healthcare system. Controversies as to whether anti-discrimination law allows individuals to bring lawsuits with respect to implicit rather than intentional bias render negligence law an important avenue for redressing harms caused by implicit bias in medical care. Yet, as this Article argues, the focus of negligence law on medical standards of care to define the boundaries of healthcare providers’ legal duty of care prevents the law from adequately deterring implicit bias and leaves patients harmed by biased treatment decisions without redress for their losses, so long …

Constitutional Text, Founding Era History, And The Independent-State-Legislature Theory, Dan T. Coenen

Georgia Law Review

One question raised by proponents of the so-called independent-state-legislature theory concerns the extent to which state courts can apply state constitutional requirements to invalidate state laws that concern federal elections. According to one proposed application of the theory, state courts can never subject such laws to state-constitution-based judicial review. According to another application, federal courts can broadly, though not invariably, foreclose state courts from drawing on state constitutions to invalidate federal-election-related state legislation. This article evaluates whether either of these positions comports with the original meaning of the Constitution. Given the article’s focus on the originalist methodology, it directs attention …

Standing On The Shoulders Of Llcs: Tax Entity Status And Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, Samuel D. Brunson

Georgia Law Review

Since the formation of the first decentralized autonomous organization in 2016, their use has exploded. Thousands of DAOs now try to take advantage of smart contracts to solve a problem that plagues business entities: the gulf between ownership and management. Armed with smart contracts and requiring token-holders to vote on any change in strategy, DAOs dispense with the management layer so necessary in traditional business entities.

DAOs owe their existence to technology. Without blockchain, without cryptocurrency, and without smart contracts, there would be no DAOs. But they owe their explosive to something much more unexpected: Treasury regulations.

In the wake …

Faithful Execution In The Fifty States, Zachary S. Price

Georgia Law Review

Amid heightened political conflict over criminal-justice policy, norms surrounding prosecutorial discretion have shifted rapidly. Under the prior mainstream approach, prosecutors exercised broad charging discretion, but generally did so tacitly and in case-by-case fashion out of deference to statutory law’s primacy. Under an emerging alternative approach, associated for the moment with progressive politics, prosecutors categorically and transparently suspend enforcement of laws they consider unjust or unwise. The federal government under President Obama employed this theory in high-profile policies relating to marijuana crimes, as well as immigration and the Affordable Care Act. More recently, a number of self-described “progressive prosecutors” have employed …

Unacceptable Risk: The Failure Of Georgia’S “Guilty But Intellectually Disabled” Statute And A Call For Change, Logan Purvis

Georgia Law Review

In 1988, Georgia became the first state in the nation to prohibit the execution of intellectually disabled criminal defendants. At the time, this groundbreaking action played a critical role in shaping the national debate surrounding the criminal justice system’s treatment of this group of individuals, culminating in the United States Supreme Court’s own prohibition in 2002. A drafting error in Georgia’s statute, however, created a highly prejudicial process for determining intellectual disability, all but ensuring that the law’s protections are unattainable for those who seek it. Despite this error, Georgia’s process has remained the same since the statute’s enactment with …

A Fourteenth Century Solution To A Twenty-First Century Problem: Using Qui Tam Legislation To Limit Executive War Power, Nicholas R. Lewis

Georgia Law Review

The United States was founded on the principle that Congress alone has the power to take the nation to war. This founding principle has failed. In its place now stands the modern principle that the Executive holds the power to initiate, wage, and conclude warfare. This modern principle, which is irreconcilable with the intent of America’s Founders, is a problem that must be remedied. And while this problem may be most pronounced in the twenty-first century, a possible solution comes from the most unlikely of places: fourteenth century England. In the 1300s, England developed qui tam legislation, a novel legal …

Privacy Is Not Dead: Expressively Using Law To Push Back Against Corporate Deregulators And Meaningfully Protect Data Privacy Rights, Alexander F. Krupp

Georgia Law Review

When the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) passed in 2016, it represented the world’s first major comprehensive data privacy law and kicked off a conversation about how we think about the right to privacy in the modern age. The law granted a broad range of rights to EU citizens, including a right to have companies delete data they collect about you, a right not to have your personal information sold, and a range of other rights all geared towards individual autonomy over personal data. All the while, platform companies like Facebook (Meta), Apple, and Amazon have taken …

Campuses Or Courtrooms? Government Involvement In U.S. And U.K. University Sexual Misconduct Response, Courtney H. Robinson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Freedom And Whisky: The Renewed Case For Scottish Independence In A Post-Brexit Europe, Emily P. Johnson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Do You Need Legs To Stand? Wild Rice Stands In Trial And An Examination Of The Use Of Legal Personhood To Protect The Rights Of Nature In Court, Anna C. Scartz

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Roots Of Rights: Where Do Courts Find Constitutional Support For A Woman’S Right To Choose Or A Fetal Right To Life?, Kathleen M. Mcgean

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Concept Of “Investment” At The Dawn Of The Digital Era, Dmitry A. Pentsov

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

New methods of doing international business, which have appeared in the process of digital transformation of economic and social life, have not gone unnoticed by a number of States that use tax and administrative methods to regulate them. One possible way to protect the interests of operators of digital business models from such regulation could be bringing claims against these States on the basis of bilateral and multilateral treaties for the promotion and protection of investments. Among the mandatory conditions for the presentation of such claims is the presence in the territory of a host State of protected “investments” within …

Conflict Resolution Procedures Within The Courtroom: Between The Adversarial And Inquisitorial Traditions, Amos Gabrieli, Michal Alberstein

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

Modern courts have evolved around two central legal traditions—the adversarial and the inquisitorial. The two traditions have historically reflected different approaches towards consent and authority or towards conflict resolution and strict application of the law. Yet with the blurring of boundaries between the two legal traditions, and alongside various reforms in adversarial and inquisitorial legal systems, new practices of judicial conflict resolution within the courtroom have developed. This Article will compare the two legal traditions and examine the assimilation of ideologies and procedures typical to conflict resolution processes into the work of judges, as they strive to end civil legal …

Tortious Liability In China’S Motorsports Industry, Hui Jing, Chen Gengzhao, Sun Bing

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

In 2020, the Chinese Civil Code came into effect. Article 1176 of the code offers a statutory defense for those participating in “a recreational or sports activity carrying certain risk” when they cause injury to other participants. However, the Chinese Civil Code does not specify how or to what extent Article 1176 may be relied upon as a statutory defense in assessing the tortious liability of the organizers of such recreational or sports activities. The courts in China have long sought to develop a principled approach to applying the voluntary assumption of risk defense to such organizers. This Article provides …

Attributing Criminal Responsibility For The Crime Of Aggression, Nikola R. Hajdin

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

To hold a person criminally responsible, the prosecution must prove that his conduct violated (without justification) a prohibitory norm of the criminal code and that he is culpable for such wrongdoing. In international criminal law, wrongfulness and culpability are assessed through the prisms of material (actus reus) and mental (mens rea) elements, respectively. Also called “objective attribution,” ascribing wrongfulness requires a causal link between individual conduct and criminal consequences. Attributing culpability, or “subjective attribution,” on the other hand, consists of establishing mental links between the perpetrator and the occurrence he has caused and the situation in which such an event …

Table Of Contents, Masthead, And Dedication, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Safeguarding America’S “Unnatural” Guardians: How Georgia’S Legal Guardianship Statute Excludes “Atypical,” Matriarchal Familial Structures Rooted In Black Culture, Destiny B. Barnett

Georgia Law Review

The stereotypical American family is often seen as one man, one woman, and their child. However, this notion of the traditional family is changing. For centuries, familial matriarchs have assumed roles typically reserved for a child’s biological parents. Specifically, African American grandmothers, aunts, and other female figures have served as kinship caregivers for countless generations of children dating back to before the period of American slavery. These forgotten matriarchs, who often serve as the foundation of African American family units, have been historically abandoned by our universalist legal system that idolizes the nuclear concept of family and favors the retention …

Democratic Renewal And The Civil Jury, Richard L. Jolly, Valerie P. Hans, Robert S. Peck

Georgia Law Review

The United States is in a period of democratic decline. Waning commitment to principles of self-governance throughout the polity necessitates urgent action to revitalize the Republic. The civil jury offers an often-overlooked avenue for such democratic renewal. Welcoming laypeople into the courthouse and deputizing them as constitutional actors demonstrates a profound faith in representative governance and results in wide-reaching and pronounced sociopolitical and administrative benefits. The Seventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and similar state provisions protect the rights of litigants to jury trials in most circumstances. But these promises have been hollowed over time through legal, political, and practical …

Does It Sparc Joy? Cleaning Up The Spac Space, G. Max Miseyko

Georgia Law Review

For the last few years, the special purpose acquisition company—SPAC—was one of the hottest investment trends on Wall Street. In a SPAC, an investment vehicle with a limited lifespan (usually two years), a sponsor raises money from investors up front with the goal of finding a target company to take public via a reverse merger with a publicly traded shell company. Once touted as a democratized way to access public markets that avoids the rigors associated with traditional initial public offerings (IPOs), those characterizations came under fire in 2021 as academics and regulators spotlighted the hidden costs and misaligned incentives …

Making Lease Payments A Lessor Problem, Devin C. Berrigan

Georgia Law Review

The frustration of purpose doctrine is a contracts defense that has garnered increased interest since the COVID-19 pandemic’s initial wave. To manage this public health emergency, many governments have issued orders restricting the operation of businesses. These orders, while necessary, put commercial lessees in a bind once it came time to pay rent because these restrictions drastically cut their profits. Other frustrating events, like war and natural disasters, cause the same problems, yet the current frustration of purpose doctrine is too narrow to be practically helpful to these lessees. This Note examines the English and Canadian frustration doctrines and draws …

A Short Treatise On College-Athlete Name, Image, And Likeness Rights: How America Regulates College Sports’ New Economic Frontier, John T. Holden, Marc Edelman, Michael Mccann

Georgia Law Review

For the past seventy years, intellectual property law’s right of publicity has allowed for celebrities to monetize their names, images and likenesses for commercial gain. Until recently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) internal Principle of Amateurism excluded college athletes from the endorsement marketplace, keeping the wealth of college sports in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches.

Following years of mounting pressure from the college-athletes’ rights movement, a number of states recently announced new laws to ensure college athletes the right to endorse products free from NCAA interference. As such, the NCAA begrudgingly relented on …

Because They Are Lawyers First And Foremost: Ethics Rules And Other Strategies To Protect The Justice Department From A Faithless President, Stephen Gillers

Georgia Law Review

During the Trump presidency, Americans were reminded that the nation relies on norms or custom—not laws alone—to protect the Department of Justice and the rule of law from improper political interference. The Justice Department is an agency within the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court has told us that the executive power—“all of it”—resides in the President alone, implying that the President can use the Department anyway he wishes limited only by the Constitution and by laws that do not violate separation of powers principles. Which laws are those? This Article concludes that Congress can do only a little to …

The Crossover Event From Hell: Evidence, Admissibility, And Truth When Reality Television Meets Criminal Prosecution, K. L. Renner

Georgia Law Review

Erika Girardi has played many roles: Real Housewives star, pop singer, Broadway performer. But Girardi’s new role as a party in a host of lawsuits related to her husband’s alleged embezzlement of client settlement funds may be her most difficult yet. For years, Girardi and her spending habits were closely documented by television cameras and broadcasted to millions of viewers. When news of Girardi’s legal troubles broke, a question emerged: if Girardi were to face criminal charges in connection with her husband’s misdeeds, would prosecutors be able to use years of footage of Girardi to help their cases?

While evidence …

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Your Socially Responsible Investment Fund Green Or Greedy? How A Standard Esg Disclosure Framework Can Inform Investors And Prevent Greenwashing, Cara Beth Musciano

Georgia Law Review

As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing exponentially increases, so does the level of inconsistent ESG disclosures, adding to investor confusion. Without any mandates for standardization, companies will continue disclosing their sustainability efforts without concrete facts behind their subjective claims in hopes that they will appear “greener” to investors. This practice—known as greenwashing—could become prevalent, resulting in capital intended for sustainable investments flowing toward harmful businesses investors sought to avoid. Regulators should develop a mandatory ESG disclosure framework to create accurate, reliable data and to prevent capital from being misallocated against investors’ genuine sustainable efforts. Some existing rules could hold …

Contracts Without Courts Or Clans: How Business Networks Govern Exchange, Sadie Blanchard

Georgia Law Review

Legal scholars have long recognized the close-knit community as an alternative means of supporting trade when contract law and trusted courts cannot. But recent research suggests that another option may be available: heterogeneous business networks. What is interesting is that these networks lack features traditionally seen as essential to community-supported trade. In particular, they lack preexisting social ties that allow reliable information to spread at low cost, make exiting the trade difficult, and enable the coordinated sanctioning of cheaters. As a result, some leading scholars have come to doubt that these networks are capable of sustaining cooperation.

This Article offers …

Table Of Contents

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.