Law Commons^™

Climate Justice In The Anthropocene And Its Relationship With Science And Technology: The Importance Of Ethics Of Responsibility, Paolo Davide Farah, Alessio Lo Giudice

Articles

Climate change is a global phenomenon. Therefore, globalization is the necessary hermeneutical horizon to develop an analysis of the metamorphosis climate change could cause at a political, social, and economic level. Within this horizon, this Article shows how the relationship between the concept of the Anthropocene epoch and the request for justice allows for framing a climate-justice and intergenerational equity–focused political interpretation of the effects of climate change. In order to avoid reducing such an interpretation to merely an ideological critique of capitalism, the conception of climate justice needs to be grounded in a rational, ethical model. This Article proposes …

Cyborgs And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Lou Colasanti

Student Scholarship

Medical technology is advancing at lightning speed with the potential to drastically benefit the disabled. These new technologies will result in humans who will use a wide array of assistive technologies and will likely be labelled as Cyborgs. Assistive technologies such as self-driving cars, robots, computer chip implants, insertable medical hardware, and exoskeletons are already well developed. The day is rapidly approaching when Cyborgs as a class will be large and influential. Critically, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the judges tasked with enforcing this legislation, and the legislature itself are all ill equipped to handle the speed of this …

Climate Science In Adaptation Litigation In The U.S., Jacob Elkin

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The most prominent climate litigation to date has primarily focused on mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—but as climate impacts become more frequent, extreme, and intense, adaptation litigation will increase. Adaptation cases frequently rely on evidence drawn from scientific research into past and future climate change. This research oftentimes consists of one of two types of climate research: attribution studies of climate change to date, and future projections of climate change and its impacts.

Climate change attribution links human activity to climate change, especially changes in the statistics of extreme weather events. Increasingly, it is also beginning to be applied to impacts …

The Evolution Of International Environmental Law Amidst Political Gridlock: Environmental Rights As A Common Ground, Maria Antonia Tigre

Dissertations & Theses

In the leadup to the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference and the global Covid- 19 pandemic, nations and people have realized they have not lived up to the obligations of the U.N. Charter and the principles of international environmental law. In 2019, the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution No. A/RES/73/333, which set forth substantive and procedural recommendations for follow-up work for the progressive development of international environmental law, and specifically called for the adoption of a political declaration in 2022 to strengthen the implementation of international environmental law. The resolution derives from the proposed Global Pact for the …

Humility, Climate Change, And The Pursuit Of Scientific Truth, John Nagle

Journal Articles

This Essay begins with the understanding that environmental law could not exist without science. The tolerable amount of pollution, the proximity of a species to extinction, and the threats presented by climate change are just some of the questions that environmental law depends on science to answer. Often environmental law insists that science alone is relevant to a particular regulatory action, such as an air pollution standard or an endangered species listing. It is not surprising, therefore, that many disputes about environmental law are really disputes about science.

Science, however, does not always yield the information that environmental law needs …

The Right To Participate In And Enjoy The Benefits Of Scientific Progress And Its Applications: A Conceptual Map, Andrea Boggio

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

The last generation experienced extraordinary progress in science and technology. Scientific and technological progress is now increasingly seen as essential in addressing the pressing global challenges we face as a human civilization. These advancements have led international organizations, scholars, and practitioners to pay increasing attention to the right to participate in and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications or, as it is often referred to, “the human right to science.”

When adequately parsed, the “right to science” contains three distinct but interrelated clusters of rights (first-level rights): rights to scientific progress; rights to participate in scientific progress; …

Introduction To The Symposium: The Stakes For Critical Legal Theory, Elizabeth S. Anker, Justin Desautels-Stein

Publications

No abstract provided.

Raw And Pure Education In The Society, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

Educational Administration: Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research

What does education mean to individuals in the world today? Education is a way one can attain or improve his or her ability to lead and survive in the society of ours. Without educational training of the mind, it may be impossible to realize the importance of adaptability of living in the environment. Without education, It may also be difficult to embellish the use of both the mental and physical attributes possessed by individual beings.

What really is education? Education is the training of the mind to perform desire functions or to perpetuate the modality of obtaining an end or …

Fraud Law And Misinfodemics, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Brief For The Coalition Against Patent Abuse As Amicus Curiae In Support No Party, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs

Perhaps unexpectedly, a case on the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has major significance to the pressing policy crisis of drug prices in the United States. Erroneously issued patents monopolize medical therapies, making them unaffordable or inaccessible to numerous Americans. The inter partes review proceedings that the Board conducts have repeatedly and successfully overcome such patents, enabling competition and dramatically lowering prices. This Court should ensure the continued viability of the Board and of inter partes review, by preserving the Board’s objectivity and independence from executive branch political influence.

Structural Sensor Surveillance, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

City infrastructure is getting smarter. Embedded smart sensors in roads, lampposts, and electrical grids offer the government a way to regulate municipal resources and the police a new power to monitor citizens. This structural sensor surveillance, however, raises a difficult constitutional question: Does the creation of continuously-recording, aggregated, long-term data collection systems violate the Fourth Amendment? After all, recent Supreme Court cases suggest that technologies that allow police to monitor location, reveal personal patterns, and track personal details for long periods of time are Fourth Amendment searches which require a probable cause warrant. This Article uses the innovation of smart …

The Effects Of Computer And Information Technology On Education, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

CSE Journal Articles

In the society of ours, is it true really that computers and information technology have contributed immensely to the way we learn? After observing and reading various educational paraphernalia and scanning the environment research has shown that the educational systems have greatly been impacted by computers and information technology. With the growth of technology, the ways we learn have been improved tremendously. Innovative technologies have contributed to the innovation of learning in the education arena and outside. The traditional ways of conveying instructions to learners have been augmented with the use of computers information technologies. The educational system of our …

Law School News: Dennis W. Nixon: Doctor Of Laws, Honoris Causa 05-09-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Science And The Eighth Amendment, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

As time hurtles forward, new science constantly emerges, and many scientific fields can shed light on whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, or even on whether bail or fines are unconstitutionally excessive under the Eighth Amendment. In fact, in recent years, science has played an increasingly important role in the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. From the development of an offender’s brain, to the composition of lethal injection drugs, even to measurements of pain, knowledge of various scientific fields is becoming central to understanding whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. There are a number of limits to …

2019-2020 Annual Report: Roger Williams University School Of Law, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Brief Fof The R Street Institutte, Public Knowledge, And The Niskanen Center As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Charles Duan, Meredith F. Rose

Amicus Briefs

The Java SE declarations of this case are simply a language of commands. As an application programming interface, or API, they exhibit features common to any language: a structured vocabulary and grammatical syntaxes, which a computer system understands as instructions to perform predefined tasks. What Oracle accuses as infringement is “reimplementation,” namely the building of a system, in this case Google’s Android platform, that repurposes the same words and syntaxes of the Java declarations.

Secret Conviction Programs, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Judges and juries across the country are convicting criminal defendants based on secret evidence. Although defendants have sought access to the details of this evidence—the results of computer programs and their underlying algorithms and source codes—judges have generally denied their requests. Instead, judges have prioritized the business interests of the for-profit companies that developed these “conviction programs” and which could lose market share if the secret algorithms and source codes on which the programs are based were exposed. This decision has jeopardized criminal defendants’ constitutional rights.

Disabling Fascism: A Struggle For The Last Laugh In Trump’S America, Madeleine M. Plasencia

Articles

Six years before the start of the Second World War and seven months after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the German government instituted the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases.” The moral depravity that started as a sterilization program targeting “useless eaters” and lives “unworthy of life” degenerated into a “euthanasia” program that murdered at least 250,000 people with mental and physical dis/abilities as an “open secret” until 1941, when the Bishop of Munster, Clemens August Count von Galen, delivered a sermon protesting the killing of “unproductive people.”2 Although the Trump Administration has not yet driven …

The Legitimacy Of Judicial Climate Engagement, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Courts in key climate change cases have abdicated their constitutional responsibility to protect a prejudiced and disenfranchised group (nonvoting minors and future generations) and remedy an insidious pathology in public discourse and the political process: the industry-funded climate disinformation campaign. This Article posits that this abdication results from courts' uneasiness about displacing the prerogatives of democratically elected bodies. This uneasiness is misplaced. Court engagement with climate cases would strengthen democracy in accord with widely accepted justifications for countermajoritarian judicial review. This Article first describes in detail how courts exhibit a frustrating reticence to accept jurisdiction over cases that present questions …

Law School News: 'Rwu Law Is Essential To The Vision' 8-30-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (August 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Brief Of The R Street Institute As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs

It is a common but misleading premise of cases such as this one that the disappointed patent applicant has two options for judicial review: a 35 U.S.C. § 145 district court action and an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 141. The applicant also has a non-judicial option: administrative remedies within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

These administrative remedies add an important dimension to this case. The Court of Appeals adopted what it conceded was an atextual construction of § 145 expense recovery provision in order to ensure that § 145 actions were not cost-prohibitive to “small businesses and individual …

Brief For The R Street Institute As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs

The government and its agencies should be treated as a “person” that may petition to institute post-issuance review proceedings under the America Invents Act, for two reasons. First, permitting the government to seek review of patents under these proceedings best realizes the intent of Congress to make those proceedings widely available. Second, compared to the government’s alternative option for administratively challenging patents, AIA post-issuance review better serves important norms of procedure and governance, including transparency, due process, and separation of functions.

The Science, Law, And Politics Of Canada's Pathways To Paris: Introduction To Ubc Law Review's Special Section On Climate Change And Canada, Jason Maclean, Meinhard Doelle, Chris Tollefson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This brief essay introduces two articles comprising a special section of the UBC Law Review on climate change law and policy in Canada.

A Note On Science, Legal Research And Artificial Intelligence, Sean Goltz, Giulia Dondoli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper discusses the principles of scientific research and in turn review legal research that was done using Artificial Intelligence arguing that it is the tools (Artificial Intelligence) that take center stage while the meaning (legal research) is left back stage. In turn, this kind of research does not adhere to the fundamentals of scientific research nor comply with scientific and industry ethical codes.

Ripensare La Razionalità: La Crescita Di Significato E I Limiti Del Formalismo, Susan Haack

Articles

Man mano che la nostra conoscenza e la nostra esperienza crescono, i concetti assumono un significato nuovo e più ricco. La filosofia del linguaggio recente (post-Fregeana) hanno prestato poca attenzione a questo fenomeno; e filosofi radicali come Feyerabend e Rorty diedero per scontato che il cambiamento di significato fosse una minaccia alla razionalità. Ma i pensatori nella tradizione pragmatica classica – Peirce nella filosofia della scienza e, più implicitamente, Holmes nella teoria giuridica – riconobbero l’importanza della crescita di significato e capirono come questa potesse contribuire al progresso della scienza e all’adattamento di un sistema giuridico al cambiare delle circostanze. …

"Scientific Inference" Vs. "Legal Reasoning"? Not So Fast! ¿"Inferencia Cientifíca" Vs."Razonamiento Jurídico"? -- No Tan Rápido!, Susan Haack

Articles

No abstract provided.

Brief For The R Street Institute And Engine Advocacy As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs

Under 35 U.S.C. § 102, an inventor may not obtain a patent on an invention that has been “on sale” for more than a year. The question is whether, from this so-called on-sale bar, certain classes of sales should be exempted— sales under a confidentiality agreement, in Petitioner’s view; and sales to those other than the ultimate customers, according to the government.

September 2, 2018: When Does Disagreement On Climate Become Dishonesty?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ When Does Disagreement on Climate Become Dishonesty?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

We’Ve Come A Long Way (Baby)! Or Have We? Evolving Intellectual Freedom Issues In The Us And Florida, L. Bryan Cooper, A.D. Beman-Cavallaro

Works of the FIU Libraries

This paper analyzes a shifting landscape of intellectual freedom (IF) in and outside Florida for children, adolescents, teens and adults. National ideals stand in tension with local and state developments, as new threats are visible in historical, legal, and technological context. Examples include doctrinal shifts, legislative bills, electronic surveillance and recent attempts to censor books, classroom texts, and reading lists.

Privacy rights for minors in Florida are increasingly unstable. New assertions of parental rights are part of a larger conservative animus. Proponents of IF can identify a lessening of ideals and standards that began after doctrinal fruition in the 1960s …