Law Commons^™

The Skeptic’S Guide To Information Sharing At Sentencing, Ryan W. Scott

Utah Law Review

The “information sharing model,” a leading method of structuring judicial discretion at the sentencing stage of criminal cases, has attracted broad support from scholars and judges. Under this approach, sentencing judges should have access to a robust body of information, including written opinions and statistics, about previous sentences in similar cases. According to proponents, judges armed with that information can conform their sentences to those of their colleagues or identify principled reasons for distinguishing them, reducing inter-judge disparity and promoting rationality in sentencing law.

This Article takes a skeptical view of the information sharing model, arguing that it suffers from …

Paving The Road Ahead: Autonomous Vehicles, Products Liability, And The Need For A New Approach, Kevin Funkhouser

Utah Law Review

Cars that drive themselves may seem about as realistic as Marty McFly’s DeLorean in Back to the Future, but this is far from the case. Autonomous technology is available and in use in many new vehicle models. In fact, in 2010 Google announced that the company had successfully built cars capable of driving themselves (“autonomous cars”). Even more amazing, at its 2010 announcement, Google also revealed its driverless cars (customized Toyota Prius models) had logged over 100,000 miles on public roads. As of early 2013, Google’s several autonomous vehicles have traveled over 300,000 miles, and have yet to cause a …

Legal And Ethical Precepts Governing Emerging Military Technologies: Research And Use, George R. Lucas

Utah Law Review

From the emergence and increasing use of unmanned or remotely piloted vehicles to the advent of cyber war and conflict, the development of new and exotic military technologies has provoked fierce and divisive public debate regarding the ethical challenges posed by such technologies.1 I have increasingly come to believe that the language of morality and ethics has served us poorly in this context and presently serves to further confuse us, rather than to clarify or enlighten us, on how best to cope with the continuing development and deployment of seemingly exotic new military technologies.

The Humanitarian Problem With Drones, Frédéric Mégret

Utah Law Review

One of the difficulties with the debate on drones is that it has become a sort of lightning rod for all kinds of anxieties about the use of force in today’s world. Drones are, often problematically, the emblematic weapon for a range of other phenomena, and unsurprisingly, attract much polemic. The challenge, therefore, is to find the specific problem with drones as a technology in armed conflict that could not be dealt with better by invoking a larger genus of problems. To do this, this Article outlines ways in which drones have been seen as problematic, which this Article argues …

The Supreme Court Screws Up The Science: There Is No Abusive Head Trauma/Shaken Baby Syndrome “Scientific” Controversy, Joëlle Anne Moreno, Brian Holmgren

Utah Law Review

Even if it is not true that law school is the consolation prize for those whose freshman biology grades make medical school impossible, judges, law professors, and lawyers are not (as a general rule) scientists. But they increasingly shape our understanding of scientific ideas by determining how law interprets and applies scientific information and by ensuring that bad science does not create bad law. As law becomes more science-dependent and expert witnesses play a greater role in a wide range of criminal and civil cases, there has been a concomitant increase in the need to ensure that the expert testimony …

Path Dependence In Tax Subsidies For Home Sales, Lily Kahng

Faculty Articles

At a time of looming fiscal crisis and virtual unanimity that tax expenditures must be curtailed, tax subsidies for homeownership stand out as among the most costly and unfair of these expenditures. As a result of tax subsidies for homeownership, the government foregoes billions of dollars in revenue each year, most of which benefits wealthy taxpayers. Moreover, subsidies for homeownership encourage overinvestment in housing and underinvestment in other business sectors, which impedes economic productivity, jobs creation and the ability of U.S. businesses to compete in the global marketplace.

Scholars and commentators have analyzed extensively the tax subsidy for home mortgage …

First Amendment And "Foreign-Controlled" U.S. Corporations: Why Congress Ought To Affirm Domestic Subsidiaries' Corporate Political-Speech Rights, Scott L. Friedman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Political spending in the modern-day, prolonged election cycle continues to exceed historic proportions. With money equated to speech, whether the First Amendment entitles certain contributors to engage in this political activity remains an open question. Unlike France and Israel, which prohibit corporate contributions, and Canada and the United Kingdom, which turn to public funding for campaign finance, the United States has pushed candidates to rely on political party contributions, personal wealth, and the generosity of individuals, political action committees, and corporations. Concerns about corporate and foreign influence on politics have been especially salient during this lengthy economic downturn, as shown …

The Role Of Uncitral Texts In Promoting A Harmonized Legal Framework For Cross-Border Mobile Payments, Luca G. Castellani

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The establishment of a regulatory environment is a condition necessary, but not sufficient, for setting up a legal environment supportive of mobile payment and banking services. Equally important is the creation of an enabling legislative environment on the legal status of electronic communications and on other relevant rules such as those on payments. In fact, existing legal frameworks, be they of statutory or contractual origin, are often insufficient to address all legal issues, especially in developing countries. Therefore, guidance in the form of international standards, such as those prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), is …

Mobile Payments In The United States: How Disintermediation May Affect Delivery Of Payment Functions, Financial Inclusion And Anti-Money Laundering Issues, Erin F. Fonté

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Mobile banking and mobile payments in the United States have evolved differently than in other developed and developing countries. The current fervor for mobile payments in the United States is more about chasing affluence and advertising than creating access for the unbanked and underbanked. However, those individuals may eventually gain access to a broader range of financial services at lower costs depending on how the mobile payments ecosystem evolves in the United States. U.S. regulators have made it clear that existing financial services regulations apply to mobile banking and mobile payments, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is poised …

Espn V. Ohio State: The Ohio Supreme Court Uses Ferpa To Play Defense For Offensive Athletic Programs, Konrad R. Krebs

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Combat: Is Fighting A Form Of Free Speech? The Ultimate Fighting Championship And Its Struggle Against The State Of New York Over The Message Of Mixed Martial Arts, Daniel Berger

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

The Irs' Double-Bogey: Goosen V. Commissioner Remains A Fairway To Characterize Endorsement Income For Nonresident Alien Athletes In Garcia V. Commissioner, Seth William Stern

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Man, Machine, Or Mutant: When Will Athletes Abandon The Human Body?, Sara M. Lewis

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Who Is Going To Pay The Bills: An Examination Of The Financing And Lease Options Available To The Buffalo Bills And Ralph Wilson Stadium, Benjamin S. Bolas

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

What's All The Noise About: Did The New York Yankees Violate Fans' First Amendment Rights By Banning Vuvulezas In Yankee Stadium?, Shane Kotlarsky

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Enough Is Enough: The Case For Federal Regulation Of Sports Agents, James Masteralexis, Lisa Masteralexis, Kevin Snyder

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Can We Really Ascribe A Dollar Amount To Interpersonal Communication? How Phonedog V. Kravitz May Decide Who Owns A Twitter Account, Robert J. Kolansky

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Pecover V. Electronic Arts, Inc.: Should Exclusive Licensing Agreements Made By Madden Nfl's Publisher Be Sacked By The Sherman And Cartwright Acts?, Robert T. Sharkey

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Paying To Play (Somewhere Else): An Examination Of The Enforceability Of Athletic Conferences' Liquidated Damages Provisions, Joe Meyer

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

City Walls Can Speak: The Street Art Movement And Graffiti's Place In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Elizabeth G. Gee

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Showing On-Field Racism The Red Card: How The Use Of Tort Law And Vicarious Liability Can Save The Mls From Joining The English Premier League On Racism Row, Joseph B. Kenney

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

About The New Format Of The Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal, Various Editors

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

From The Director, Andrew Brandt

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Equity On The Extended Continental Shelf? How An Obscure Provision In Unclos Provides New Challenges For Ocean Governance, Aldo Chircop

Reports & Public Policy Documents

One of the major novelties of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 is the legitimizing of coastal State claims to large areas of continental margins in all oceans by virtue of Article 76. In addition to exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of 200 nautical miles, coastal States whose continental margins extend beyond the EEZ limit are able to further claim the seabed and subsoil beyond the EEZ limit to 350 nautical miles from the base lines of the territorial sea or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath. The UN Convention established a procedure for …

Understanding The Amt, And Its Unadopted Sibling, The Amxt, James R. Hines Jr., Kyle Logue

Law & Economics Working Papers

U.S. taxpayers are currently required to pay the greater of their liabilities under the regular income tax and their liabilities under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Despite its unpopularity, the AMT serves the function of permitting Congress to offer tax preferences for certain activities and expenditures while maintaining a progressive tax system. This paper examines this role of the AMT, and explores the possibility of adding an Alternative Maximum Tax (AMxT) that would augment the impact of the AMT. An AMxT limits a taxpayer’s liability to the minimum of the amount due under the regular income tax and the amount …

Why Y? Reflections On The Baucus Proposal, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

The international tax reform proposal introduced by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on November 19, 2013 contains several significant innovations that promise to define the terms of the debate for the foreseeable political future. It is therefore worth examining in detail even if it seems unlikely that progress toward meaningful reform can be achieved very soon. The major component of the proposal is a move toward territoriality coupled with two alternative anti-profit shifting options, option Y and option Z. This article will argue that option Y represents a significant step forward and can be the basis of adopting a territorial regime, …

Territoriality: For And Against, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

This article will survey the main arguments for and against territoriality and conclude that it is the wrong way to go in the short run, but can perhaps be adopted in the medium to long run in conjunction with more fundamental international tax reform. The main reason that territoriality should not be adopted now is that the OECD may be about to recommend worldwide consolidation for all its members as part of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, and if the OECD does that, all of the standard arguments in favor of territoriality and against abolishing deferral disappear.

A Presumptively Better Approach To Arbitrability, John A. E. Pottow, Jacob Brege, Tara J. Hawley

Law & Economics Working Papers

One of the most complex problems in the arbitration field is the question of who decides disputes over the scope of an arbitrator’s purported authority. Courts in Canada and the United States have taken different approaches to this fundamental question of “arbitrability” that necessarily arises when one party disputes the contractual validity of the underlying “container” contract carrying the arbitration clause. If arbitration is a creature of contract, and contract is a product of consensual agreement, then any dispute that impugns the underlying consent of the parties to the container contract implicates the arbitration agreement itself (i.e., no contract, no …

Explaining Variation In Insurance Anti-Discrimination Laws, Ronen Avraham, Kyle D. Logue, Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz

Law & Economics Working Papers

Discrimination in insurance underwriting is regulated at the state level. Surprisingly, there is a great deal of variation across jurisdictions in how and the extent to which risk classification by insurers is limited. Some states expressly permit insurers to consider certain characteristics, while other characteristics are forbidden or limited in various ways. What explains this variation across states? Drawing on a unique, hand-collected data-set consisting of the laws regulating insurer risk classification in all 51 U.S. jurisdictions, this Article argues that much of the variation in state-level regulation of risk classification can in fact be explained by focusing exclusively on …

Unitary Taxation And International Tax Rules, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

Any proposal to adopt Unitary Taxation (UT) of multinationals has to contend with whether such taxation is compatible with existing international tax rules and in particular with the bilateral tax treaty network. Indeed, some researchers have argued that the separate accounting (SA) method and the arm’s length standard are so embodied in the treaties that they form part of customary international law and are binding even in the absence of a treaty. In this paper we will argue that UT can be compatible with most of the existing tax treaties, and that developing countries in particular can implement it in …