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The Post-Dobbs Reality: Privacy Expectations For Period-Tracking Apps In Criminal Abortion Prosecutions, Sophie L. Nelson Apr 2024

The Post-Dobbs Reality: Privacy Expectations For Period-Tracking Apps In Criminal Abortion Prosecutions, Sophie L. Nelson

Pepperdine Law Review

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in June 2022 was met with waves of both support and criticism throughout the United States. Several states immediately implemented or began drafting trigger laws that criminalize seeking and providing an abortion. These laws prompted several period-tracking app companies to encrypt their users’ data to make it more difficult for the government to access period- and pregnancy-related information for criminal investigations. This Comment explores whether the Fourth Amendment and U.S. privacy statutes protect users of period-tracking apps from government surveillance. More specifically, this Comment argues that …


Freezing Innovation: How The Platform Competition And Opportunity Act Will Freeze Funds In The Tech Start-Up Market, Brandon Wong Feb 2023

Freezing Innovation: How The Platform Competition And Opportunity Act Will Freeze Funds In The Tech Start-Up Market, Brandon Wong

Pepperdine Law Review

The rise of technological giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook motivated the House Judiciary Committee to pass a slew of new antitrust legislation bills to curb these companies’ considerable market power. The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act proposes to significantly cut a dominant online platform’s ability to continue growing by deeming certain acquisitions presumptively unlawful. The Act shifts the burden to the acquiring company to prove the proposed transaction would not be anticompetitive by eliminating a potential competitor. In an effort to protect competition, the Act has good intentions to protect start-up companies that are fearful of being acquired …


Emerging Technology & Regulation Panel Transcript, Bill Goodwin, Ryan Hagemann, Brooks Rainwater, Caleb Watney Jun 2020

Emerging Technology & Regulation Panel Transcript, Bill Goodwin, Ryan Hagemann, Brooks Rainwater, Caleb Watney

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Modern Privacy Advocacy: An Approach At War With Privacy Itself?, Justin "Gus" Hurwitz, Jamil N. Jaffer Jun 2020

Modern Privacy Advocacy: An Approach At War With Privacy Itself?, Justin "Gus" Hurwitz, Jamil N. Jaffer

Pepperdine Law Review

This Article argues that the modern concept of privacy itself, particularly as framed by some of its most ardent advocates today, is fundamentally incoherent. The Article highlights that many common arguments made in support of privacy, while initially seeming to protect this critical value, nonetheless undermine it in the long run. Using both recent and older examples of applying classic privacy advocacy positions to key technological innovations, the authors demonstrate how these positions, while seemingly privacy-enhancing at the time, actually resulted in outcomes that were less beneficial for consumers and citizens, including from a purely privacy-focused perspective. As a result, …


When Considering Federal Privacy Legislation, Neil Chilson Jun 2020

When Considering Federal Privacy Legislation, Neil Chilson

Pepperdine Law Review

Legislators, advocates, and business interests are proposing federal privacy legislation with new urgency. The United States has a long-established federal framework for addressing commercial privacy concerns, including general consumer protection law and sector-specific legislation. But the calls to expand or replace this approach have grown louder since Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect and since California adopted detailed and prescriptive privacy legislation. Should we create a U.S. federal privacy law, and if so, how? When considering any kind of privacy regulation, three concepts are fundamental. First, no one can control all information about them. Second, all privacy laws …


Taxing The Robots, Orly Mazur Apr 2019

Taxing The Robots, Orly Mazur

Pepperdine Law Review

Robots and other artificial intelligence-based technologies are increasingly outperforming humans in jobs previously thought safe from automation. This has led to growing concerns about the future of jobs, wages, economic equality, and government revenues. To address these issues, there have been multiple calls around the world to tax the robots. Although the concerns that have led to the recent robot tax proposals may be valid, this Article cautions against the use of a robot tax. It argues that a tax that singles out robots is the wrong tool to address these critical issues and warns of the unintended consequences of …


The Unintended Consequences Of California Proposition 47: Reducing Law Enforcement’S Ability To Solve Serious, Violent Crimes, Shelby Kail Aug 2017

The Unintended Consequences Of California Proposition 47: Reducing Law Enforcement’S Ability To Solve Serious, Violent Crimes, Shelby Kail

Pepperdine Law Review

For many years, DNA databases have helped solve countless serious, violent crimes by connecting low-level offenders to unsolved crimes. Because the passage of Proposition 47 reduced several low-level crimes to misdemeanors, which do not qualify for DNA sample collection, Proposition 47 has severely limited law enforcement’s ability to solve serious, violent crimes through California’s DNA database and reliable DNA evidence. This powerful law enforcement tool must be preserved to prevent additional crimes from being committed, to exonerate the innocent, and to provide victims with closure through conviction of their assailants or offenders. Proposition 47’s unintended consequences have led to devastating …


The Outer Limits: Imsi-Catchers, Technology, And The Future Of The Fourth Amendment, Ryan C. Chapman Jul 2017

The Outer Limits: Imsi-Catchers, Technology, And The Future Of The Fourth Amendment, Ryan C. Chapman

Pepperdine Law Review

Recent advances in technology are posing new challenges for a legal system based on decades-old precedent. Nowhere is this more apparent than in law enforcement’s warrantless use of IMSI Catchers. These devices mimic a cell phone tower, and when the device is activated, cell phones will naturally connect to them. Law enforcement officers can use those intercepted cell phone signals to track a suspect’s movements in real time with startling accuracy. Scholarly commentary on these devices has largely concluded that their use requires a warrant. This Comment engages in a close examination of Fourth Amendment precedent and argues that, as …


False Rubicons, Moral Panic, & Conceptual Cul-De-Sacs: Critiquing & Reframing The Call To Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Chris Jenks Jan 2017

False Rubicons, Moral Panic, & Conceptual Cul-De-Sacs: Critiquing & Reframing The Call To Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Chris Jenks

Pepperdine Law Review

By casting into the indeterminate future and projecting visions of so-called killer robots, The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (The Campaign) has incited moral panic in an attempt to stimulate a discussion—and ultimately a ban—on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS). The real concern is the weapon systems’ ability to select and engage targets without human intervention. However, weapons systems that perform these functions have already been employed internationally since 1980 and The Campaign has been unable to specify which of the current systems its proposed ban should include. This article explains autonomy in general and as applied to weapons systems. It …


Small Data Surveillance V. Big Data Cybersurveillance, Margaret Hu Jul 2015

Small Data Surveillance V. Big Data Cybersurveillance, Margaret Hu

Pepperdine Law Review

This Article highlights some of the critical distinctions between small data surveillance and big data cybersurveillance as methods of intelligence gathering. Specifically, in the intelligence context, it appears that “collect-it-all” tools in a big data world can now potentially facilitate the construction, by the intelligence community, of other individuals' digital avatars. The digital avatar can be understood as a virtual representation of our digital selves and may serve as a potential proxy for an actual person. This construction may be enabled through processes such as the data fusion of biometric and biographic data, or the digital data fusion of the …


Complex Litigation In The New Era Of The Ijury, Andrew J. Wilhelm May 2014

Complex Litigation In The New Era Of The Ijury, Andrew J. Wilhelm

Pepperdine Law Review

This Comment argues for a comprehensive approach to legitimizing the lay jury—an approach involving education, attorney adaptation, courtroom renovations, and judicial knowledge—and a better understanding of how legal professionals can fairly and most effectively transmit knowledge to the average American. The lay jury can remain a vital, unique part of the American judicial system if the bench and bar take seriously their responsibilities and adapt to today’s new reality. Part II examines the background of three basic components of a successful contemporary trial: technology, litigation, and the jury. Part III explores how these three components have evolved in the modern …


Diamond V. Chakrabarty: Oil Eaters: Alive And Patentable, Dennis J. Walsh Feb 2013

Diamond V. Chakrabarty: Oil Eaters: Alive And Patentable, Dennis J. Walsh

Pepperdine Law Review

Congress is empowered, under article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution, to create patent laws that encourage the promotion of arts and sciences. In the congressional fulfillment of this task, the courts have been confused as to what products are worthy of patent protection under the patent statutes. One illustration of this confusion is the recent controversy of whether living organisms fit into the statutory patentable classification of section 101 of the 1952 Patent Act. The recent United States Supreme Court decision of Diamond v. Chakrabarty has ended this confusion by holding that living micro bacteria is patentable …


Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights In Computers And Computer Programs: Recent Developments , Alan C. Rose Feb 2013

Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights In Computers And Computer Programs: Recent Developments , Alan C. Rose

Pepperdine Law Review

The following article examines the protection offered to computers and computer programs, under the various applicable patent, copyright and trade secret laws. Concerning patent protection; the author discusses the history and current status of the patent laws, and analyzes in detail the landmark case of Diamond v. Diehr. Discussed also is an analysis of copyright protection for computer programs, offered by the 1980 amendments to section 117 of the 1976 Copyright Act; which paved the way for the increased protection.


International Law Of Outer Space And Its Effect On Commercial Space Activity, James J. Trimble Feb 2013

International Law Of Outer Space And Its Effect On Commercial Space Activity, James J. Trimble

Pepperdine Law Review

The United Nations, through a series of five treaties, has created a body of international space law which controls the activities in space of states, international organizations, and private interests. Corporations planning an investment in commercial space ventures must consider the restrictions and obligations which space law will impose on their activities. This article discusses the substantive principles of the law of outer space and focuses on those provisions which will affect commercial space activities.


The Use Of In Vitro Fertilization: Is There A Right To Bear Or Beget A Child By Any Available Medical Means?, Matthew R. Eccles Jan 2013

The Use Of In Vitro Fertilization: Is There A Right To Bear Or Beget A Child By Any Available Medical Means?, Matthew R. Eccles

Pepperdine Law Review

The prodigious advancements of biomedical science in human reproduction have brought both blessing and cursing in recent years. Many join with childless couples and hail the opportunity to bear a child, while others fearfully contemplate the moral and ethical consequences that accompany the birth of that child. In view of those consequences, laws limiting access to the new methods of reproduction are bound to be drawn and couples are bound to challenge them as unconstitutionally limiting their right to privacy. This comment examines the arguments of both sides in determining whether the right of privacy protects the use of the …


Antimony: The Use, Rights, And Regulation Of Laboratory Animals , Brenda L. Thomas Jan 2013

Antimony: The Use, Rights, And Regulation Of Laboratory Animals , Brenda L. Thomas

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Technology, Robotics, And The Work Preservation Doctrine: Future Considerations For Labor And Management, Christie A. Moon Jan 2013

Technology, Robotics, And The Work Preservation Doctrine: Future Considerations For Labor And Management, Christie A. Moon

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Beyond Abortion: Human Genetics And The New Eugenics, John R. Harding Jr. Nov 2012

Beyond Abortion: Human Genetics And The New Eugenics, John R. Harding Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Medical Evidence In Cases Of Intrauterine Drug And Alcohol Exposure , Judith Larsen, Robert M. Horowitz, Ira J. Chasnoff Nov 2012

Medical Evidence In Cases Of Intrauterine Drug And Alcohol Exposure , Judith Larsen, Robert M. Horowitz, Ira J. Chasnoff

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Vaccines And The Law, Michael Sanzo Ph.D. Nov 2012

Vaccines And The Law, Michael Sanzo Ph.D.

Pepperdine Law Review

The last twenty years have seen a sea-change in the area of proving causation in the toxic tort setting, with courts demanding stronger, scientifically tested evidence. At the same time, a closely related debate has been raging about separating cause from coincidence under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act compensation program for injuries that might have been the result of vaccinations. The Vaccine Act created a no-fault compensation fund financed by a tax on childhood vaccines to address harms resulting from those vaccines. Unfortunately, Congress gave little direction with regard to the level of causal certainty that would be required …


Technology Transfer Laws Governing Federally Funded Research And Development, James V. Lacy, Bradford C. Brown, Michael R. Rubin Nov 2012

Technology Transfer Laws Governing Federally Funded Research And Development, James V. Lacy, Bradford C. Brown, Michael R. Rubin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Oh, The Places You'll Go: The Implications Of Current Patent Law On Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Stacy Kincaid Apr 2012

Oh, The Places You'll Go: The Implications Of Current Patent Law On Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Stacy Kincaid

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Daubert On The Admissibility Of Behavioral Science Testimony, Henry F. Fradella, Adam Fogarty, Lauren O'Neill Apr 2012

The Impact Of Daubert On The Admissibility Of Behavioral Science Testimony, Henry F. Fradella, Adam Fogarty, Lauren O'Neill

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Bartnicki V. Vopper: Another Media Victory Or Ominous Warning Of A Potential Change In Supreme Court First Amendment Jurisprudence?, Jennifer Nichole Hunt Apr 2012

Bartnicki V. Vopper: Another Media Victory Or Ominous Warning Of A Potential Change In Supreme Court First Amendment Jurisprudence?, Jennifer Nichole Hunt

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Daubert On Forensic Science, Henry F. Fradella, Lauren O'Neill, Adam Fogarty Apr 2012

The Impact Of Daubert On Forensic Science, Henry F. Fradella, Lauren O'Neill, Adam Fogarty

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Genetically Correct: The Political Use Of Reproductive Terminology, June Mary Zekan Makdisi Mar 2012

Genetically Correct: The Political Use Of Reproductive Terminology, June Mary Zekan Makdisi

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Natural Selection, Irreducible Complexity, And The Bacterial Flagellum: A Contrarian Approach To The Intelligent Design Debate , David Crump Feb 2012

Natural Selection, Irreducible Complexity, And The Bacterial Flagellum: A Contrarian Approach To The Intelligent Design Debate , David Crump

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill Jan 2012

Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill

Pepperdine Law Review

My focus is on an apparent trend at the intersection of the fields of evidentiary standards for expert admissibility and professional responsibility, namely the eagerness to place more ethical responsibilities on lawyers to vet their proffered expertise to ensure its reliability. My reservations about this trend are not only based on its troubling implications for the lawyer’s duty as a zealous advocate, which already has obvious limitations (because of lawyers’ conflicting duties to the court), but are also based on the problematic aspects of many reliability determinations. To expect attorneys - and this is what the proponents of a duty …