Law Commons^™

Protecting Offshore Areas From Oil And Gas Leasing: Presidential Authority Under The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act And The Antiquities Act, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

For over one hundred years, presidents of both parties have used executive power to protect America’s lands and waters. Until the second half of the twentieth century, however, little attention was given to protecting the marine ecosystem. Federal authority reaches out to two hundred miles or more in the oceans off the United States, covering an area known as the Outer Continental Shelf. Federal interest in the area historically focused on developing oil and gas reserves and ensuring that the area was open to trade and commerce. The area is also very important for indigenous subsistence uses and commercial and …

Investors' Paradox, Anita K. Krug

Articles

For the first time in an era, new investment products for smaller ("retail ") investors are emerging. These products are mutual funds that engage in the types of trading and investment activities that have long been the province of sophisticated investors. Accordingly, the new funds (called "alternative funds") promise to reduce the gulf between retail investors and their sophisticated counterparts, in terms of portfolio diversification and investment results.

This Article describes the complex mix of factors that spawned alternative funds and critically evaluates the funds' potential, the first scholarly work to do so. It additionally unearths the paradox that impedes …

International Lobbying Law, Melissa J. Durkee

Articles

An idiosyncratic array of international rules allows “consultants” to gain special access to international officials and lawmakers. Historically, many of these consultants were public-interest associations like Amnesty International. For this reason, the access rules have been celebrated as a way to democratize international organizations, enhancing their legitimacy and that of the rules they produce. But a focus on the classic public-law virtues of democracy and legitimacy produces a theory at odds with the facts: Many of these international consultants are now industry and trade associations like the World Coal Association, whose principal purpose is to lobby for their corporate clients. …

Freedom In Structure: Helping Foreign-Trained And International Graduate Students Develop Thesis Statements By Component, Elizabeth R. Baldwin

Articles

This article explains how foreign-trained and international graduate students can use a thesis development template to find and articulate narrow, novel, non-obvious, and useful claims for their final, academic papers in law. These students, in particular, are in need of clear direction and methods for crafting well-developed claims (or thesis statements), given that many are non-native speakers of English who trained in different legal and educational systems with different expectations about what constitutes good academic writing—in any genre, let alone law. Through the use of a thesis development template (adapted from writing advice by Joseph M. Williams and Eugene Volokh), …

Profit-Split Method: Time For Countries To Apply A Standardized Approach, Jeffery M. Kadet, Tommaso Faccio, Sol Picciotto

Articles

Now that the OECD has issued its final guidance on the action 10 profit-split method, individual countries must determine how they might consider and apply the profit-split method.

It’s true that some countries have large and well-staffed transfer pricing audit groups that include economists and other tax professionals knowledgeable in the application of transfer pricing principles and rules. However, those resources are never enough to match the legions of specialists that can be deployed by large multinational groups.

The situation is even worse elsewhere. Most countries not only have significant resource and personnel constraints, but they also simply do not …

Effects Of The New Sourcing Rule: Eci And Profit Sharing, David L. Koontz, Jeffery M. Kadet

Articles

For the first time in eons, Congress has seen fit to change a basic rule for the sourcing of income. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97) minced few words in its addition of a single sentence to section 863(b) that applies to sales or exchanges of inventory property (1) produced in whole or in part by the taxpayer in one country, and (2) sold or exchanged in another country. The United States can either be the country where the inventory property is produced or the country where it is sold.

With this change, income from the sale of …

Letter From Jeffery M. Kadet And David L. Koontz To The Internal Revenue Serv. (June 5, 2018) On Notice 2018-43, 2018-2019 Priority Guidance Plan Regulatory And Ruling Guidance Concerning Various International Tax Issues, Jeffery M. Kadet, David L. Koontz

Articles

A principal focus of our suggestions is the modernization and updating of regulations as well as providing guidance that will affect the many multinational corporations (MNCs) whose operations take place partially or wholly within the U.S. Many of these MNCs have embarked on complicated and legalistic schemes whose primary purpose is to shift profits without any real operational changes and to record those profits within zero- and low-taxed foreign members. Importantly, this includes not only U.S.-based MNCs, but also the many inverted MNCs that structured their inversions to remain untouched by the §7874 anti-inversion rules.

Sourcing Rule Change: Manufacturing And Competitiveness, Jeffery M. Kadet

Articles

In this article, Kadet explains how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act favors foreign-based manufacturers selling through a U.S. sales branch over comparable U.S. manufacturers, and he recommends legislative fixes.

Indigenous Rights To Water & Environmental Protection, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This article examines the rights of Indian nations in the United States to adequate water supplies and environmental protection for their land and associated resources. Part I of this article provides a brief background on the history of federal-tribal relations and the source and scope of federal obligations to protect tribal resources. Part II reviews the source and nature of the federal government’s moral and legal obligations to Indian tribes, which are generally referred to as the trust responsibility. Indian reserved water rights and the difficulty tribes experience in protecting habitat needed for healthy treaty resources is discussed in Part …

Privacy's Double Standards: Public Disclosure Tort Case Chart (2006-2016), Scott Skinner-Thompson

Washington Law Review Online

This is a chart of public disclosure tort cases analyzed in Scott Skinner-Thompson, Privacy’s Double Standards, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 2051 (2018).

The State Department Can Gun Down 3-D Printed Firearms, Derk Westermeyer

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In 1976, Congress enacted the Arms Export Control Act (“AECA”), giving the President broad power to control imports and exports of defense articles. At the time, defense articles included any “technical data” relating to weapons, such as the manufacturing blueprints of a firearm. Generally, this technical data was only in the hands of weapon manufacturers. After forty years of technological advances, however, this “technical data” can now be accessed by anyone in the world in a matter of seconds. Thanks to 3-D printing, a person can use this data to personally manufacture a fully functional plastic weapon within a few …

Report And Recommendations Of The Arizona Task Force On Court Management Of Digital Evidence, Arizona Task Force On Court Management Of Digital Evidence

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The court record has three components, each historically paper-based and tangible: (1) filings; (2) transcripts; and (3) exhibits. Given technology changes, filings and transcripts now are often kept as digital files. Exhibits, however, continue to be received and held by the court in tangible form. Technology changes mean that will soon change, and will change drastically. The 2016 Joint Technology Committee Resource Bulletin: Managing Digital Evidence in Courts, warned that “[c]ourt management systems are not currently designed to manage large quantities of digital evidence, which means that courts and industry must find creative ways to deal immediately with the dramatically …

The "Time Of Arrest" Rule: How The Washington State Supreme Court Untethered Its Search Incident To Arrest Jurisprudence From The Exception's Underlying Rationales, Laura Zanzig-Wong

Washington Law Review Online

The search incident to arrest exception is based on two exigencies: officer safety and evidence preservation. In searches incident to arrest of an arrestee’s person, these exigencies are presumed. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court extended this presumption to all items carried by an arrestee at the time of arrest, regardless of whether the arrestee can access such items at the time of the search. I argue that this extension untethers the search incident to arrest doctrine from its underlying rationales and focuses too heavily on the practical issue of transporting an arrestee’s belongings to the station post-arrest. In doing …

Defining Attorney-Client Privilege For The Independent Contractor: A Case For The Functional Equivalent Doctrine In Washington, Benjamin J. Robbins

Washington Law Review Online

Corporations increasingly rely on independent contractors to fulfill basic organizational needs. This increased reliance has created a number of legal issues, one of which is the level of privilege extended to communications between contractors and legal counsel for the contracting corporation. This issue is particularly relevant for corporations in the “gig economy,” like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates, which rely on independent contractors for fundamental business functions. Washington State courts have yet to decide whether independent contractors are entitled to attorney-client privilege regarding these conversations. Generally, Washington courts follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Upjohn rule,” which protects communications between corporate counsel …

Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould

Washington Law Review Online

A neighbor digs a ditch on his side of a property line, exposing root systems from two of the adjoining landowner’s trees. The neighbor then cuts off the exposed roots, leaving the trees unsupported and in danger of falling onto the house of their owner. Is the root cutter liable to the owner of the tree? The Washington Court of Appeals recently answered this question in Mustoe v. Ma. The Mustoe Court held that when a root-cutting neighbor removed encroaching tree roots, he owed no duty to the tree owner “to act in good faith and to act reasonably so …

Radical Jurisprudence, Benjamin Gould

Washington Law Review Online

A neighbor digs a ditch on his side of a property line, exposing root systems from two of the adjoining landowner’s trees. The neighbor then cuts off the exposed roots, leaving the trees unsupported and in danger of falling onto the house of their owner. Is the root cutter liable to the owner of the tree? The Washington Court of Appeals recently answered this question in Mustoe v. Ma. The Mustoe Court held that when a root-cutting neighbor removed encroaching tree roots, he owed no duty to the tree owner “to act in good faith and to act reasonably so …

The "Time Of Arrest" Rule: How The Washington State Supreme Court Untethered Its Search Incident To Arrest Jurisprudence From The Exception's Underlying Rationales, Laura Zanzig-Wong

Washington Law Review Online

The search incident to arrest exception is based on two exigencies: officer safety and evidence preservation. In searches incident to arrest of an arrestee’s person, these exigencies are presumed. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court extended this presumption to all items carried by an arrestee at the time of arrest, regardless of whether the arrestee can access such items at the time of the search. I argue that this extension untethers the search incident to arrest doctrine from its underlying rationales and focuses too heavily on the practical issue of transporting an arrestee’s belongings to the station post-arrest. In doing …

Privacy Commitments, Rachel Wilka

Washington Law Review Online

What responsibilities do corporations have with regard to their consumers’ information? Many articles have looked at ways to make personal information the “property” of the consumer. Property approaches attempt to overlay personal information on the legal frameworks of trade secret, trademark, and copyright law. While each approach has its merits, and contributes to the field, none of the proposals generate a concrete way for a consumer to enforce his or her rights against a company. The proposals all suffer from the same fatal flaw, a new system must not just create a consumer right but also balance the inequities in …

Response To Professor Rosenbloom: Fifty Shades Of Gray Infrastructure: Land Use And The Failure To Create Reslient Cities, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 317 (2018), Roberta F. Mann

Washington Law Review Online

This piece is a response to Jonathan Rosenbloom, Fifty Shades of Gray Infrastructure: Land Use and The Failure to Create Resilient Cities, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 317 (2018).

Beyond Corporate Contract: A Response To Helen Hershkoff & Marcel Kahan, Forum-Selection Provisions In Corporate 'Contracts', Verity Winship

Washington Law Review Online

This piece is a response to Helen Hershkoff & Marcel Kahan, Forum-Selection Provisions in Corporate “Contracts”, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 265 (2018).

Jevic'S Promise: Procedural Justice In Chapter 11, Pamela Foohey

Washington Law Review Online

This piece is a response to Jonathan C. Lipson, The Secret Life of Priority: Corporate Reorganization after Jevic, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 631 (2018).

Privacy's Double Standards: Public Disclosure Tort Case Chart (2006-2016), Scott Skinner-Thompson

Washington Law Review Online

This is a chart of public disclosure tort cases analyzed in Scott Skinner-Thompson, Privacy’s Double Standards, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 2051 (2018).

Jevic'S Promise: Procedural Justice In Chapter 11, Pamela Foohey

Washington Law Review Online

This piece is a response to Jonathan C. Lipson, The Secret Life of Priority: Corporate Reorganization after Jevic, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 631 (2018).

Book Review: Legal Scholarship In Japan, Daniel H. Foote

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Is Tricking A Robot Hacking?, Ryan Calo, Ivan Evtimov, Earlence Fernandes, Tadayoshi Kohno, David O'Hair

Tech Policy Lab

The authors of this essay represent an interdisciplinary team of experts in machine learning, computer security, and law. Our aim is to introduce the law and policy community within and beyond academia to the ways adversarial machine learning (ML) alter the nature of hacking and with it the cybersecurity landscape. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986—the paradigmatic federal anti-hacking law—as a case study, we mean to evidence the burgeoning disconnect between law and technical practice. And we hope to explain what is at stake should we fail to address the uncertainty that flows from the prospect that …

Volk V. Demeerleer Study, Patricia C. Kuszler, Terry J. Price, University Of Washington School Of Law, Center For Law, Science And Global Health

Center for Law in Science & Global Health

The University of Washington School of Law Center for Law, Science and Global Health was asked to “convene a study on the Washington State Supreme Court decision Volk v. DeMeerleer, 386 P.3d 254 (Wash. 2016).” The Volk case elaborated on the duty of mental health providers to protect foreseeable victims of a dangerous patient. The goal of the study was to evaluate whether or not this case “substantially changed the law [in Washington] on the duty of care owed to third parties by mental health providers and whether it has had an impact on access to mental health services …

Lessons From Case Study Of Secured Transactions With Bitcoin, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

There has been some discussion about the flaws in using secured transactions law, Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.), to govern commercial transactions involving Bitcoins as collateral. Flaws necessitate the urgency of immediately fixing of the existing law. In the case of Bitcoins there is still much to learn about the marketplace for secured transactions with Bitcoins as collateral. The rapid change in technology, the speed of new ideas proposed, the constant announcements of adoption and adaptation of smart contracts in transactions, the volatility in cryptocurrency value, the endless reports of scams, and the rise of dark pools …

Patent Aversion: An Empirical Study Of Patents Collateral In Bank Lending, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Erik Hille

Articles

The most valuable assets of many companies today are patents. If patents are valuable, why do banks operating across the United States refuse to lend against patents in commercial lending to reduce their risks? Lending is the primary function of banks. Yet banks have a strong aversion to accept patents as collateral, rendering the vast number of patents as idle assets. This empirical study is the first to identify the patent aversion problem as contrary to the frequent headlines of how valuable patents are to the economy. By carefully extracting relevant patent and security interest filings data and examining the …

A Long-Standing Debate: Reflections On Risk And Anxiety: A Theory Of Data Breach Harms By Daniel Solove And Danielle Keats Citron, Ryan Calo

Articles

This jointly-authored Article contributes mightily to our understanding of a critical aspect of privacy: harm. As Professors Solove and Citron carefully evidence, courts are reticent to countenance the harms that flow from a violation of privacy, even as they compensate similar harms in other contexts. Thus while exposing a plaintiff to an environmental or health risk may be compensable, few decisions vindicate victims of a data breach unless or until they experience actual identity theft. Courts have recognized subjective harms such as fear since the night W de S threw his fateful axe at M de S. But courts seldom …

Visual Rulemaking, Elizabeth G. Porter, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

Visual politics are seeping into the technocracy. Rulemaking stakeholders—including agencies, the President, and members of the public—are deploying politically tinged visuals to push their agendas at every stage of high-stakes, often virulently controversial, rulemakings. These images, GIFs, and videos usually do not make it into the official rulemaking record, so this new “visual rulemaking” world has not been discussed much by scholars or others.

In this article, we explore the new visual rulemaking culture that emerged in Obama’s presidency, providing examples and discussing relevant policy implications. Although we recognize some risks, we argue that, on balance, visual rulemaking is a …