Law Commons^™

Ssrn As An Initial Revolution In Academic Knowledge Aggregation And Dissemination, David Bray, Sascha Vitzthum, Benn Konsynski

Sascha Vitzthum

Within this paper we consider our results of using the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) over a period of 18 months to distribute our working papers to the research community. Our experiences have been quite positive, with SSRN serving as a platform both to inform our colleagues about our research as well as inform us about related research (through email and telephoned conversations of colleagues who discovered our paper on SSRN). We then discuss potential future directions for SSRN to consider, and how SSRN might well represent an initial revolution in 21st century academic knowledge aggregation and dissemination. Our paper …

Cyber Civil Rights, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Social networking sites and blogs have increasingly become breeding grounds for anonymous online groups that attack women, people of color, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups. These destructive groups target individuals with defamation, threats of violence, and technology-based attacks that silence victims and concomitantly destroy their privacy. Victims go offline or assume pseudonyms to prevent future attacks, impoverishing online dialogue and depriving victims of the social and economic opportunities associated with a vibrant online presence. Attackers manipulate search engines to reproduce their lies and threats for employers and clients to see, creating digital “scarlet letters” that ruin reputations. Today’s …

Towards Self-Organizing, Smart Business Networks: Let’S Create ‘Life’ From Inert Information, David Bray, Benn Konsynski

David A. Bray

We review three different theories that can inform how researchers can determine the performance of smart business networks, to include: (1) the Theory of Evolution, (2) the Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm, and (3) research insights into computers and cognition. We suggest that each of these theories demonstrate that to be generally perceived as smart, an organism needs to be self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. Consequentially, to determine the performance of a smart business network, we suggest that researchers need to determine the degree to which it is self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. We then relate these findings to the Internet and …

El Fallo Ate Y Sus Circunstancias (Elementos Para Su Estudio), Horacio M. Lynch

Horacio M. LYNCH

Estudio sobre el histórico fallo de la Corte Suprema sobre la libertad sindical (el fallo ATE).

Reflexões Sobre A Natureza Jurídica Dos Embriões Excedentários Na Experiência Brasileira Contemporânea, Carolina Altoé Velasco

Carolina Altoé Velasco

O presente trabalho tem por finalidade examinar algumas das implicações trazidas pela biotecnologia para a sociedade contemporânea. São analisados os fatores geradores dos embriões excedentários, bem como a busca pela melhor forma de repensar os reflexos revelados pelo biodireito neste contexto. Constata-se como fundamental o equilíbrio entre tecnologia, direito e moral, a fim de compatibilizar o progresso científico – que não tem o objetivo ultrapassar os limites do próprio ser humano. São demonstradas, ainda, as divergências existentes sobre a natureza jurídica do embrião humano excedentário, bem como as questões éticas decorrentes. Os embriões excedentários devem, contudo, receber a tutela jurídica …

Open Code Governance, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Automated information systems offer an opportunity to improve the democratic legitimacy of the administrative state. Today, agencies transfer crucial responsibilities to computer systems. Computers gather and interpret important information. For instance, electronic machines record and calculate votes. Automated systems execute policy and render decisions about important individual rights, such as a person’s eligibility for public benefits. Computer systems store sensitive personal information. These systems’ closed architecture, however, shields vital agency decisions from view. No one can see how a system operates without a software program’s source code. Closed code hides programming errors that disenfranchise voters, under-count communities for the census, …

Cyber Civil Rights (Mp3), Danielle Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

No abstract provided.

Hiding Behind Reciprocity: The Temporary Presence Exception And Patent Infringement Avoidance, Jonas Anderson

J. Jonas Anderson

The temporary presence exception provides vessels engaged in international transport with a defense to patent infringement when traveling outside of the vessel’s home nation. The exception was adopted internationally and added to the Paris Convention in an effort to (1) minimize the costs associated with transporting between various countries with distinct national patent systems and (2) eliminate international tensions arising from charges of patent infringement when in foreign lands. Although the modern enactments of the temporary presence exception further these goals, this article argues that the exception is overbroad. Specifically, this article argues that the exception’s reciprocity requirement, in concert …

Cyber Civil Rights, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Social networking sites and blogs have increasingly become breeding grounds for anonymous online groups that attack women, people of color, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups. These destructive groups target individuals with defamation, threats of violence, and technology-based attacks that silence victims and concomitantly destroy their privacy. Victims go offline or assume pseudonyms to prevent future attacks, impoverishing online dialogue and depriving victims of the social and economic opportunities associated with a vibrant online presence. Attackers manipulate search engines to reproduce their lies and threats for employers and clients to see, creating digital “scarlet letters” that ruin reputations. Today’s …

Technological Due Process, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Distinct and complementary procedures for adjudications and rulemaking lie at the heart of twentieth-century administrative law. Due process required agencies to provide individuals notice and an opportunity to be heard. Agencies could foreclose policy issues that individuals might otherwise raise in adjudications through public rulemaking. One system allowed focused advocacy; the other featured broad participation. Each procedural regime compensated for the normative limits of the other. Both depended on clear statements of reason. The dichotomy between these procedural regimes has become outmoded. This century’s automated decision-making systems collapse individual adjudications into rulemaking while adhering to the procedural safeguards of neither. …

Tercer Congreso Nacional De Organismos Públicos Autónomos, Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

Tercer Congreso Nacional de Organismos Públicos Autónomos

"Autonomía, Reforma Legislativa y Gasto Público"

Open Code Governance, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Automated information systems offer an opportunity to improve the democratic legitimacy of the administrative state. Today, agencies transfer crucial responsibilities to computer systems. Computers gather and interpret important information. For instance, electronic machines record and calculate votes. Automated systems execute policy and render decisions about important individual rights, such as a person’s eligibility for public benefits. Computer systems store sensitive personal information. These systems’ closed architecture, however, shields vital agency decisions from view. No one can see how a system operates without a software program’s source code. Closed code hides programming errors that disenfranchise voters, under-count communities for the census, …

Minimum Contacts In A Borderless World: Voice Over Internet Protocol And The Coming Implosion Of Personal Jurisdiction Theory, Danielle Keats Citron

Danielle Keats Citron

Modern personal jurisdiction theory rests on the twin pillars of state sovereignty and due process. A nonresident’s “minimum contacts” with a forum state are treated as the equivalent of her territorial presence in the state and hence justify a state’s exercise of sovereignty over her. At the same time, the nonresident’s “purposeful availment” of opportunities within the state is seen as implying her agreement to that state’s jurisdiction in exchange for the protection of its laws. This theory presumes that a nonresident directs voice communications to known places by dialing a telephone number’s area code. Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) …

La Protection Des Données À Caractère Personnel Dans Le Contexte De La Construction En Piliers De L'Union Européenne, Franck Dumortier, Yves Poullet

Franck Dumortier

Dans son arrêt du 30 mai 2006, la Cour de justice des Communautés européennes (CJCE) a annulé la décision de la Commission constatant la protection adéquate des données PNR par les Etats-Unis et la décision du Conseil approuvant la conclusion d'un accord sur leur transfert vers ce pays, estimant que ces décisions n’étaient pas fondées sur une base juridique adéquate.

La question fondamentale posée à la Cour en cette occasion était celle des critères de distinction entre piliers appliqués à la protection des données à caractère personnel. Dans son arrêt, la CJCE à réaffirmé le principe selon lequel c’est bien …

Foreword, Michele L. Mekel

Michele L Mekel

Foreword for the book "Nanotechnology, Ethics, and Society"

What Is 'Private' Data?, Karen Mccullagh

Karen McCullagh

The development of a frontier-free Internal Market and of the so-called 'information society' have resulted in an increase in the flow of personal data between EU Member States. To remove potential obstacles to such transfers data protection legislation was introduced. One of the underpinning principles of Directive 95/46/EC is the protection of privacy. Yet, the legislation does not provide a conclusive understanding of the terms ‘privacy’ or ‘private’ data. Rather, privacy protection is to be achieved through the regulation of the conditions under which personal data may be processed. An assessment of whether, 10 years after the enactment of the …

Regulatory Data Protection Under Trips Article 39(3) And Article 10bis Of The Paris Convention: Is There A Doctor In The House?, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

Article 39 of the WTO TRIPs Agreement has attracted much attention for the protection its final paragraph affords for regulatory data in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, but the literature has tended to treat Article 39(3) in individual isolation. This is to ignore one of the most striking features of Article 39, which is that in contrast to every other substantive provision of TRIPs, it expressly defines its entire scope of application by reference to a pre-existing treaty, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and specifically Article 10bis of the latter, dealing with unfair competition. This article …

Legal And Technological Normativity: More (And Less) Than Twin Sisters, Mireille Hildebrandt

Mireille Hildebrandt

Within science technology and society studies the focus has long been on descriptive micro-analyses. Several authors have raised the issue of the normative implications of the findings of research into socio-technical devices and infrastructures, while some claim that material artifacts have moral significance or should even be regarded as moral actors. In this contribution the normative impact of technologies is investigated and compared with the normative impact of legal norms, arguing that a generic concept of normativity is needed that does not depend on the intention of whoever designed either a law or a technology. Furthermore this contribution develops the …

Trademarking Nanotechnology: Nano-Lies & Federal Trademark Registration, Jason Du Mont

Jason John Du Mont

No abstract provided.

Idealized Images Of Science In Law: The Expert Witness In Trial Movies, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.

Fourth Amendment Protection For Stored E-Mail, Susan Freiwald, Patricia L. Bellia

Susan Freiwald

The question of whether and how the Fourth Amendment regulates government access to stored e-mail remains open and pressing. A panel of the Sixth Circuit recently held in Warshak v. United States, 490 F.3d 455 (6th Cir. 2007), that users generally retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the e-mails they store with their Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which implies that government agents must generally acquire a warrant before they may compel ISPs to disclose their users' stored e-mails. The Sixth Circuit, however, is reconsidering the case en banc. This Article examines the nature of stored e-mail surveillance and argues …

Electronic Surveillance At The Virtual Border, Susan Freiwald

Susan Freiwald

A virtual border divides people into two groups: those subject to the Fourth Amendment’s protections when the U.S. government conducts surveillance of their communications and those who are not. The distinction derives from a separation in powers: inside the virtual border, U.S. citizens and others enjoy the extensive oversight of the judiciary of executive branch surveillance. Judges review such surveillance before, during, and after it transpires. Foreign persons subject to surveillance in foreign countries fall within the executive branch’s’ foreign affairs function. However, the virtual border does not exactly match the physical border of the United States. Some people inside …

Cascading Infrastructure Failures: Avoidance And Response, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

No critical infrastructure is self-sufficient. The complexity inherent in the interdependent nature of infrastructure systems complicates planning and preparedness for system failures. Recent wide-scale disruption of infrastructure on the Gulf Coast due to weather, and in the Northeast due to electric power network failures, dramatically illustrate the problems associated with mitigating cascading effects and responding to cascading infrastructure failures once they have occurred.

The major challenge associated with preparedness for cascading failures is that they transcend system, corporate, and political boundaries and necessitate coordination among multiple, disparate experts and authorities. This symposium brought together concerned communities including government and industry …

‘Move On’ Orders As Fourth Amendment Seizures, Stephen E. Henderson

Stephen E Henderson

If a police officer orders one to move on, must the recipient comply? This article analyzes whether there is a federal constitutional right to remain, and in particular whether a police command to move on constitutes a seizure of the person for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Although it is a close question, I conclude that the Fourth Amendment typically does not restrict a move on (MO) order, and that substantive due process only prohibits the most egregious such orders. It is a question of broad significance given the many legitimate reasons police might order persons to move on, as …