Law Commons^™

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Tough Love: The Dramatic Birth And Looming Demise Of Unclos Property Law (And What Is To Be Done About It), Peter S. Prows

ExpressO

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) represents the culmination of thousands of years of international relations, conflict, and now nearly universal adherence to an enduring order for ocean space that is the most significant achievement for international law since the UN Charter. UNCLOS establishes international property law erga omnes that, by legal and political necessity, required a bargained consensus to be effective. This bargain, in essence, provided coastal States with extended but limited jurisdictions, while ensuring that the seabed and its mineral resources beyond were the “common heritage of mankind” that would peaceably and …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Vanquishing Copyright Pirates And Patent Trolls: The Divergent Evolution Of Copyright And Patent Laws, Robert E. Thomas

ExpressO

In the last decade copyright law has followed an almost linear path of increasing legal protections for copyright holders’ battle against digital piracy. By contrast, proposed changes in patent law are decidedly anti-patent holder due to efforts to battle patent trolls – companies that acquire and use patent portfolios to extract payoffs from technology companies. Patent law reform faces a far more contentious path and will likely lose several of its most significant provisions. This paper analyzes efforts to change the laws of copyright and patent using James Q. Wilson’s theory of regulation. With little concerted opposition, copyright law has …

The Children Of Science: Property, People, Or Something In Between?, Star Q. Lopez

ExpressO

How should states classify embryos? The war has often waged between two classifications, people versus property. But what if a state assumed something in between, finding the embryo to be a potential person entitled to special respect? If a state adopted this position, how would the law affect medical research?

Presuming embryos constitute potential persons, the debate would continue with how to define “special respect.” The status of a potential person runs along a spectrum between property and personhood. How one defines “special respect” determines where the potential person falls along this spectrum. Special respect would create a spectrum of …