Law Commons^™

"It's Not My Fault!": Inequality Among Posthumously Conceived Children And Why Limiting The Degree Of Benefits To Innocent Babies Is A Big "No-No!", Katie Christian

Mississippi College Law Review

Girl meets boy. Boy likes girl. Girl and boy decide to get married. Like most young adults, the boy and girl dream of having children. But what if the possibility of having children came with a price? Many situations arise that can either foster or hinder a young couple’s ability to start a family. For example, suppose Fitz and Marie got married in 2010. Three years later, unexpectedly and to the devastation of both Fitz and Marie, Fitz is diagnosed with cancer causing the young couple to put their plans for a family on hold. Told that a side effect …

Law's Credibility Problem, Julia Simon-Kerr

Washington Law Review

Credibility determinations often seal people’s fates. They can determine outcomes at trial; they condition the provision of benefits, like social security; and they play an increasingly dispositive role in immigration proceedings. Yet there is no stable definition of credibility in the law. Courts and agencies diverge at the most basic definitional level in their use of the category.

Consider a real-world example. An immigration judge denies asylum despite the applicant’s plausible and unrefuted account of persecution in their country of origin. The applicant appeals, pointing to the fact that Congress enacted a “rebuttable presumption of credibility” for asylum-seekers “on appeal.” …

The Right To Data Encryption, Steven W. Schlesinger, Dr. Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid

San Diego Law Review

Technology drives our society, and we are data-dependent as a people. Though the legal system in the United States lacks neither basic protections nor methods to address data protection-related issues, this Article proposes an essential and more robust alternative.

This Article introduces the prevalence and reliance on data and stored information, noting the growing need for a better balance between enabling users’ ability to access encryption tools and the threats and concerns from a governmental perspective for malicious use of encryption tools for criminal and terror purposes.

The Article first recounts a brief history of encryption, focusing on its growing …

A New Tool In Police-Civilian Mediations: Conflict Coaching And Its Potential Benefits, Beatrice Connaghan

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Communities across the country have implemented mediation programs as an alternative dispute resolution process for civilian complaints against police officers. These programs vary from state to state, but certain challenges exist in each, such as ensuring neutrality, encouraging participants to engage fully in the mediation, and navigating subconscious biases held by officers and civilians. In response to these issues, this article considers whether conflict coaching opportunities within these programs have the potential to improve their effectiveness in resolving disputes and better support mediation participants. Conflict coaching is an emerging conflict navigation tool and thus there is limited research on its …

No Leave To Grieve: How Misfit Frameworks And America's "Grief Tsunami" Require Better Bereavement Policy, Katherine S. Hanson

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled America’s recent death surge: 2021 has become the deadliest year on record in the United States. Scholars and commentators claim that the American workplace re-mains unprepared for the impending “grief tsunami” in the wake of such pervasive loss. Likewise, American law is ill-equipped for workplace grief. Bereavement, while medically “normal,” lacks a substantial foothold in workplace benefits and in the law. Currently, organizations bear the burden of developing their own policies—and where available, these policies remain insufficient to accommodate the myriad logistical and emotional complexities associated with the loss of a loved one. In the event …

Puerto Rico's Second-Class Statehood: The Impact Of Restricted Access To Federal Public Benefits Programs On Puerto Rico's Economic Recovery, Evette Ocasio

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Mitigating The Discretion Disaster: How Changes In The Law Can Help Fema Effectuate Its Critical Mission, Paul G. Rando

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

California And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Statutory Employee Classification Scheme, Richard H. Gilliland Iii

Washington and Lee Law Review

The battle over worker classification between state governments, on the one hand, and gig economy companies, on the other, has raged since at least the first time someone ordered an Uber. Nowhere has this battle played out more prominently in recent years than in California. In 2019, the state legislature passed AB 5, a bill which adopted a stringent independent contractor standard and effectively classified all gig economy workers as employees of the companies whose apps they use to find work. AB 5’s ripple effects were enormous—the significant popularity of gig economy apps among consumers launched what might have been …

For All Who Have Borne The Battle: A Wish List For The Incoming Secretary Of The United States Department Of Veterans Affairs, Benjamin Pomerance

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Weighing The Patent Box: An Evaluation Of The Ex Post Tax Incentive Of A Lower Tax Regime For Products That Incorporate Patents, Kyle Beczkiewicz

Marquette Intellectual Property & Innovation Law Review

None

The Emerging Law Of Portable Retirement Benefits, Paul M. Secunda

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reinvigorating The Human Right To Technology, Haochen Sun

Michigan Journal of International Law

The right to technology is a forgotten human right. Dating back to 1948, the right was established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) in response to the massive destruction wrought by technologically advanced weapons in the Second World War. This human right embodies one of the most profound lessons the framers of the UDHR learned from this war: Technology must benefit humanity rather than harm it.

It has been more than seventy years since the adoption of the UDHR, and technology has advanced at a rapid pace and become more important than ever in our daily lives. Yet …

The Friday Night “Who Is Driving?” Debate Will Soon Come To An End: How Autonomous Vehicles Are Changing Our Lives And Societal Norms, Nicholas Calabria

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pepperdine University School Of Law Legal Summaries, Analise Nuxoll

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

For Him Who Shall Have Borne The Battle: How The Presumption Of Competence Undermines Veterans’ Disability Law, Chase Cobb

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

When the Veterans Administration denies a veteran’s claim for disability benefits it often does so based on the opinion of an expert medical examiner—usually a doctor or a nurse. But under a recent federal rule, the VA carries no burden of laying a foundation for the expert medical examiner’s opinion—no burden of establishing the quality of the expert’s education or the depth of her experience; no burden of establishing the scope of the expert’s training or the soundness of her reasoning. Instead, the VA may simply presume the qualifications of its own expert examiner and throw the burden on the …

Believing Survivors: In Veterans Affairs Benefits Claims, No In-Service Report Is Required To Prove An Instance Of Military Sexual Trauma, Allysen Adrian

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

AZ v. Shinseki held that the Department of Veterans Affairs could not treat the absence of military documentation of an in-service sexual assault as proof that the assault never occurred. Nor can the Department of Veterans Affairs assert that a veteran’s decision not to report an instance of sexual trauma to military authorities is proof that the assault did not occur. A veteran’s submission of testimonial lay evidence can supplant the lack of report. This holding aligns with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ duty to consider all evidence in the file and to maximize benefits for the veteran.

Twelve Injured Men: Why Injured Jurors Should Not Receive Workers' Compensation Coverage From The Courts, Corey Baron

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the legislature should add a provision to New York’s Workers’ Compensation Act that expressly precludes jurors from coverage. Such a provision would comport with the policy underlying the statute, the statute’s structure, and the statute’s language. Moreover, that legislative provision would prevent the court from wasting the considerable time and expense of grappling with other courts’ inconsistent interpretations of workers’ compensation statutes and their underlying policies. First, Part I of this Note provides an overview of the workers’ compensation law and explores the policies underlying the advent of workers’ compensation statutes. Then, Part II surveys …

A Practical Look At Ending Homelessness, Aimee Majoue

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Going To The Clerk’S Office And We’Re Not Going To Get Married, Alicia F. Blanchard

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Same-sex marriage is a controversial topic subject to great debate. The Supreme Court in 2015 federally recognized the legality of same-sex marriages in Obergefell v. Hodges. Despite this ruling, some people looked for any reason to denounce the holding. Perhaps none were more vocal than those who rejected same-sex marriage on the basis of their religious tenets. Miller v. Davis provided people who were morally opposed to same-sex marriage a platform to support their concerns grounded in a First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The question is how far does one’s freedom of religion extend? Does freedom of religion …