Law Commons^™

Virtual Justice: A Complex Portrait Of Canadian Self-Represented Litigant Experiences With Virtual Hearings, Jennifer Leitch, Dayna Cornwall, David Lundgren

National Self Represented Litigants Project

“Virtual Justice: A complex portrait of Canadian self-represented litigant experiences with virtual hearings” is the result of a year-long project generously funded through a grant from the McLachlin Fund, with the goal of understanding the experiences of Canadian self-represented litigants (SRLs) with virtual hearings since the onset of the pandemic, when such processes began to dramatically increase and become much more common.

Using a survey and focus groups, we gathered data from many SRLs with experiences across jurisdictions and types of legal matter. The results reflect the fact that SRLs’ experiences with virtual hearings are, in fact, quite varied. Approximately …

Flexibility And Conversions In New York City's Housing Stock: Building For An Era Of Rapid Change, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Noah Kazis

Law & Economics Working Papers

Post-COVID, New York City faces reduced demand for commercial space in its central business districts, even as residential demand is resurgent. Just as in past eras of New York’s history, conversion of commercial spaces into housing may help the city adapt to these new market conditions and provide an additional pathway for producing badly needed housing. If 10 percent of office and hotel spaces were converted to residential use, around 75,000 homes would be created, concentrated in Midtown Manhattan. However, there are considerable obstacles to such conversions, including a slew of regulatory barriers. Allowing greater flexibility in building uses—including by …

Law School News: East Meets West Law School Consortium Demystifies Admission Process 09-20-2023, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Shared Ethical Framework To Allocate Scarce Medical Resources: A Lesson From Covid-19, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to clarify the fair and equitable allocation of scarce medical resources, both within and among countries. The ethical allocation of such resources entails a three-step process: (1) elucidating the fundamental ethical values for allocation, (2) using these values to delineate priority tiers for scarce resources, and (3) implementing the prioritisation to faithfully realise the fundamental values. Myriad reports and assessments have elucidated five core substantive values for ethical allocation: maximising benefits and minimising harms, mitigating unfair disadvantage, equal moral concern, reciprocity, and instrumental value. These values are universal. None of the values are sufficient alone, …

Center For Health & Homeland Security Newsletter, Spring 2023

Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pathogen Genomes As Global Public Goods (And Why They Should Not Be Patented), Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

During past viral outbreaks, researchers rushed to patent genomic sequences of the viruses as they were discovered, leading to disputes and delays in research coordination. Yet similar disputes did not occur with respect to the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. With respect to COVID-19, global research collaboration occurred rapidly, leading to the identification of new variants, the ability to track the spread of the disease, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics in record time. The lack of patenting of SARSCoV-2 is likely due the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Association for Molecular Pathology v. …

Pandemic As Transboundary Harm: Lessons From The Trail Smelter Arbitration, Russell A. Miller

Scholarly Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incalculable harm around the world. The fact that this immense harm can be traced back to a localized outbreak in or near Wuhan, China, raises questions about the responsibility China might bear for the pandemic under public international law. Famously applied in the seminal Trail Smelter Arbitration (1938/1941), the Transboundary Harm Principle provides that no state can use or allow the use of its territory in a manner that causes significant harm in the territory of other states. This article does not intend to tap into the unseemly, xenophobic spirit that animates much of the …

Considering Vaccination Status, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

"This Article examines whether policies—sometimes termed “vaccine mandates” or “vaccine requirements”— that consider vaccination status as a condition of employment, receipt of goods and services, or educational or other activity for participation are legally permitted, and whether such policies may even sometimes be legally required. It does so with particular reference to COVID-19 vaccines.

Part I explains the legality of private actors, such as employers or private universities, considering vaccination status, and concludes that such consideration is almost always legally permissible unless foreclosed by specific state legislation. Part II examines the consideration of vaccination status by state or federal policy. …

Changemakers: From The Classroom To The Courtroom: Miguel Garcia, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Reserve System Design For Allocation Of Scarce Medical Resources In A Pandemic: Some Perspectives From The Field, Parag A. Pathak, Govind C. Persad, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Covid Aftermath: The Impact Of The Pandemic On Florida's Public School Students, Hannah Blount, Michael Figg, Autumn Finke, Christina Gilbert, Mackenzie O'Connell, Nyasia Minaya, Kylee Neeranjan, Alyssa Rodriguez

Gator TeamChild Juvenile Law Clinic

The goal of this White Paper is to provide an overview of the current and future impacts the COVID-19 pandemic (“COVID”) has left on Florida’s public school education system. Additionally, this White Paper review shows how public education institutions are still working to address the loss of instructional time and long-term consequences due to pandemic-related school disruptions.

A Multicenter Weighted Lottery To Equitably Allocate Scarce Covid-19 Therapeutics, Douglas B. White, Erin K. Mccreary, Chung-Chou H. Chang, Mark Schmidhoffer, J. Ryan Bariola, Naudia N. Jonassaint, Govind C. Persad, Robert D. Truog, Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Shortages of new therapeutics to treat coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have forced clinicians, public health officials, and health systems to grapple with difficult questions about how to fairly allocate potentially life-saving treatments when there are not enough for all patients in need. Shortages have occurred with remdesivir, tocilizumab, monoclonal antibodies, and the oralantiviral Paxlovid.

Ensuring equitable allocation is especially important in light of the disproportionate burden experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic by disadvantaged groups, including Black, Hispanic/Latino and Indigenous communities, individuals with certain disabilities, and low-income persons. However, many health systems have resorted to first-come, first-served approaches to allocation, which tend …

Fair Allocation Of Scarce Therapies For Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), Govind C. Persad, Monica E. Peek, Seema K. Shah

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for nonhospitalized patients with mild or moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease and for individuals exposed to COVID-19 as postexposure prophylaxis. EUAs for oral antiviral drugs have also been issued. Due to increased demand because of the Delta variant, the federal government resumed control over the supply and asked states to ration doses. As future variants (e.g., the Omicron variant) emerge, further rationing may be required. We identify relevant ethical principles (i.e., benefiting people and preventing harm, equal concern, and mitigating health inequities) …

Sidelined Again: How The Government Abandoned Working Women Amidst A Global Pandemic, Jessica K. Fink

Faculty Scholarship

Among the weaknesses within American society exposed by the COVID pandemic, almost none has emerged more starkly than the government’s failure to provide meaningful and affordable childcare to working families—and, in particular, to working women. As the pandemic unfolded in the spring of 2020, state and local governments shuttered schools and daycare facilities and directed nannies and other babysitters to “stay at home.” Women quickly found themselves filling this domestic void, providing the overwhelming majority of childcare, educational support for their children, and management of household duties, often to the detriment of their careers. As of March 2021, more than …

What History Can Tell Us About The Future Of Insurance And Litigation After Covid-19, Kenneth S. Abraham, Tom Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article, written for the annual Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy, chronicles a series of developments in American history that profoundly influenced the course of insurance and insurance law, in order to predict the post-COVID-19 future of these fields. In each instance, there was a direct and decided cause-and-effect relationship between these developments and subsequent change in the world of insurance and insurance law. As important as the influence of COVID-19 is at present and probably will be in the future, in our view the COVID-19 pandemic will not be as significant an influence on insurance and …

Nonparty Interests In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, David A. Hoffman, Cathy Hwang

All Faculty Scholarship

Contract law has one overarching goal: to advance the legitimate interests of the contracting parties. For the most part, scholars, judges, and parties embrace this party primacy norm, recognizing only a few exceptions, such as mandatory rules that bar enforcement of agreements that harm others. This Article describes a distinct species of previously unnoticed contract law rules that advance nonparty interests, which it calls “nonparty defaults."

In doing so, this Article makes three contributions to the contract law literature. First, it identifies nonparty defaults as a judicial technique. It shows how courts deviate from the party primary norm with surprising …

Confronting Intellectual Property Nationalism, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Stories about nations engaging in vaccine (and medical) nationalism by hoarding limited COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are widespread, but there is a hidden phenomenon that has exacerbated vaccine nationalism and prolonged the pandemic: intellectual property nationalism or “IP nationalism.” This Article coins and explains this term and highlights its negative impacts. Essentially, some nations, primarily of the Global North, are hoarding essential knowledge protected by intellectual property (IP). This Article argues that IP nationalism has contributed to millions of unnecessary deaths and limited the growth of the global economy. Meanwhile, countries and pharmaceutical companies obscure the role of IP nationalism …

Why Govern Broken Tools?, Ryan Calo

Articles

In Assessing the Governance of Digital Contact Tracing in Response to COVID-19: Results of a Multi-National Study, Brian Hutler et al. ably compare two approaches to the governance of digital contract tracing (DCT). In this brief essay, I want to examine to what extent governance actually played a meaningful role in the failure of DCT. If DCT failed primarily for other reasons, then the authors’ normative suggestion to pursue “a new governance approach … for designing and implementing DCT technology going forward” may be misplaced.

Race-Specific, State-Specific Covid-19 Vaccination Rates Adjusted For Age, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Kaitlyn M. Berry, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The authors provide the first age-standardized race/ethnicity-specific, state-specific vaccination rates for the United States. Data encompass all states reporting race/ethnicity-specific vaccinations and reflect vaccinations through mid-October 2021, just before eligibility expanded below age 12. Using indirect age standardization, the authors compare racial/ethnic state vaccination rates with national rates. The results show that white and Black state median vaccination rates are, respectively, 89 percent and 76 percent of what would be predicted on the basis of age; Hispanic and Native rates are almost identical to what would be predicted; and Asian American/Pacific Islander rates are 110 percent of what would be …

Equal Protection And Scarce Therapies: The Role Of Race, Sex, And Other Protected Classifications, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic brought debates over the use of age in scarce resource allocation to the fore once again. Initially, particularly in developed countries, debates surrounded the use of older age as an exclusion or lower-priority criterion for receipt of scarce medical interventions such as ICU beds and ventilator therapy. Many advocacy groups for older adults argued that age should not be used as a criterion for access to such interventions.[1] In developed countries and in particular the United States, they were largely successful, at least with respect to formal policy, ensuring that resource allocation policies excluded or minimized the …

A Comprehensive Covid-19 Response—The Need For Economic Evaluation, Govind C. Persad, Ankur Pandya

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Recently, the World Health Organization has exhorted countries to fight the Covid-19 pandemic with other interventions in addition to vaccines. But for countries to mount a comprehensive and effective response, more than exhortation is needed. Policymakers must understand the benefits and burdens associated with various policy options. They also have to be equipped to rigorously and systematically compare these benefits and burdens, both when evaluating individual policies and when determining which policies to include in a legislative or regulatory package.

Errors In Converting Principles To Protocols: Where The Bioethics Of Us Covid‐19 Vaccine Allocation Went Wrong, William F. Parker, Govind C. Persad, Monica E. Peek

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

For much of 2021, allocating the scarce supply of Covid-19 vaccines was the world's most pressing bioethical challenge, and similar challenges may recur for novel therapies and future vaccines. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) identified three fundamental ethical principles to guide the process: maximize benefits, promote justice, and mitigate health inequities. We argue that critical components of the recommended protocol were internally inconsistent with these principles. Specifically, the ACIP violated its principles by recommending overly broad health care worker priority in phase 1a, using being at least seventy-five …

Worth A Shot: Encouraging Vaccine Uptake Through "Empathy", Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Pro- and anti-vaccine organizations and individuals have frequently invoked empathy as a strategy for increasing uptake of COVID-19 precautions, including vaccinations. On one hand, vaccine supporters deployed empathy to defuse conflict, prioritize safeguarding the collective welfare, and avoid government mandates. On the other hand, vaccine opponents used empathy to emphasize the alleged individual effects of pandemic precautions, mobilize public voices, and stress the importance of medical freedom in policy-making contexts.

This Article first defines empathy and reviews empathy scholarship, paying particular attention to its relationship with narrative and the contexts where empathy can be difficult or dangerous. It then applies …

Pandemic Rules: Covid-19 And The Prison Litigation Reform Act’S Exhaustion Requirement, Betsy Ginsberg, Margo Schlanger

Articles

For over twenty-five years, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) has undermined the constitutional rights of incarcerated people. For people behind bars and their allies, the PLRA makes civil rights cases harder to bring and harder to win—regardless of merit. We have seen the result in the wave of litigation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning March 2020, incarcerated people facing a high risk of infection because of their incarceration, and a high risk of harm because of their medical status, began to bring lawsuits seeking changes to the policies and practices augmenting the danger to them. Time and again, …

Law, Religion, And The Covid Crisis, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

This essay explores judicial responses to legal restrictions on worship during the COVID-19 pandemic and draws two lessons, one comparative and one relating specifically to U.S. law. As a comparative matter, courts across the globe have approached the problem in essentially the same way, through intuition and balancing. This has been the case regardless of what formal test applies, the proportionality test outside the United States, which expressly calls for judges to weigh the relative costs and benefits of a restriction, or the Employment Division v. Smith test inside the United States, which rejects judicial line-drawing and balancing in favor …

Obligations In A Global Health Emergency - Authors' Reply, Ezekiel J. Emanuel

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Responses: A Living Archive, Centre For Ai & Data Governance (Smu)

Centre for AI & Data Governance

COVID-19 has reshaped our lives, the global economy, and the geopolitical landscape in unimaginable ways. Socio-economic disruptions are keenly felt across every sector in every country and irreversible damage has been done to our collective health and livelihood opportunities. From a health crisis, the pandemic has insidiously unfolded into a human one - where efforts taken to contain the virus have resulted in the targeting and/or neglect of vulnerable populations, the exacerbation of structural inequalities, and the pushback against fundamental rights and freedoms. The prolonging of this health crisis has also accentuated the need for better governance as questions of …

In Fulton Decision, Scotus Solidifies Expansion Of Religious Exercise Rights, Law, Rights, And Religion Project

Center for Gender & Sexuality Law

On June 17, 2021, the Supreme Court solidified a dramatic shift in its reading of the constitutional protections for religious liberty. The Court ruled that religious organizations that contract with local governments to provide foster care services should be exempted from compliance with city non-discrimination requirements if the city permits any discretionary exemptions from those laws.

School Of Law Grad Walk & Virtual Ceremony 05/21/2021, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden, Jill Rodrigues

School of Law Commencement (1996- )

No abstract provided.

The Unified Legal Skills Program: How One Law School Adapted To Meet The Needs Of Students Online, And How Those Adaptations May Inform Post-Pandemic Teaching, David Austin, Allison D. Cato, Amy E. Day, Liam Vavasour

Faculty Scholarship

When CWSL was forced to switch to online learning for the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked hard to follow best practices for online learning by attending online conferences and voraciously reading everything we could find to make the learning experience the best we could for our students. CWSL's Legal Skills program earned high praise in student evaluations for adapting so quickly given the difficult circumstances.

During the summer of 2020, we met as a Legal Skills team to discuss how to approach the regular school term. Specifically, we faced a larger-than-anticipated first-year class and contemplated how to remedy the sense of …