Law Commons^™

The Taking Economy: Uber, Information, And Power, Ryan Calo, Alex Rosenblat

Articles

Sharing economy firms such as Uber and Airbnb facilitate trusted transactions between strangers on digital platforms. This creates economic and other value but raises concerns around racial bias, safety, and fairness to competitors and workers that legal scholarship has begun to address. Missing from the literature, however, is a fundamental critique of the sharing economy grounded in asymmetries of information and power.

This Essay, coauthored by a law professor and a technology ethnographer who studies work, labor, and technology, furnishes such a critique and proposes a meaningful response through updates to consumer protection law. Commercial firms have long used what …

Industry Lobbying And "Interest Blind" Access Norms At International Organizations, Melissa J. Durkee

Articles

The standard approach of international organizations (IOs) makes no formal distinctions between nonprofit private sector associations, known as trade or industry groups, and public interest groups like Amnesty International or Greenpeace. After all, these groups are all organized as nonprofits; they may all be characterized as nongovernmental organizations representing the interests of their memberships; and the groups all seek to advance the agendas of members by offering ideas and expertise to international officials or bodies—classic lobbying activity. Thus, most IOs offer accreditation and access to both private sector and public interest groups on equal terms, without differentiating between them. I …

Hacking Qualified Immunity: Camera Power And Civil Rights Settlements, Mary D. Fan

Articles

Excessive force cases are intensely fact-specific. Did the suspect resist, necessitating the use offorce? What threat did the suspect pose, if any? Was the use of force excessive in light of the situation? These are judgment calls based on myriad facts that differ from case to case. Establishing what really happened forces courts and juries to wade into a fact-bound morass filled with fiercely conflicting defendant-said, police-said battles.

Now an evidentiary transformation is underway. We are in an era where the probability of a police encounter being recorded has never been higher. With the rise of recording—by the public as …

Justice Visualized: Courts And The Body Camera Revolution, Mary D. Fan

Articles

What really happened? For centuries, courts have been magisterially blind, cloistered far away from the contested events that they adjudicate, relying primarily on testimony to get the story—or competing stories. Whether oral or written, this testimony is profoundly human, with all the passions, partisanship and imperfections of human perception.

Now a revolution is coming. Across the nation, police departments are deploying body cameras. Analyzing body camera policies from police departments across the nation, the article reveals an unfolding future where much of the main staple events of criminal procedure law will be recorded. Much of the current focus is on …

The Vested Rights Doctrine: How A Shield Against Injustice Became A Sword For Opportunistic Developers, Steve P. Calandrillo, Chryssa Deliganis, Christina Elles

Articles

In an era of pioneering environmental and land use laws, savvy developers are using the “vested rights” doctrine to circumvent and undermine critical public health, safety, and environmental regulations. This controversy pits two legitimate interests against each other: On the one hand, local governments must have the power to pass land use laws and regulations in the public interest to protect their community’s health, safety, welfare, and environment. On the other, developers who rely on the laws in existence at the time their project is approved should be protected from subsequent changes to the law that could increase transactional costs …

Standards Of Review In Law And Sports: How Instant Replay's Asymmetric Burdens Subvert Accuracy And Justice, Steve P. Calandrillo, Joseph Davison

Articles

A fundamental tension exists in both law and sports: on one hand, adjudicators must “get the decision right” in order to provide fairness to the parties involved, but on the other, they must issue speedy and certain rulings to avoid delaying justice. The certainty principle dictates that courts follow stare decisis in the law even if they believe that an earlier decision was wrong. However, it is often the case that there is a need to reverse earlier decisions or the law itself in order to make the correct call on appeal.

Both law and sports are constantly balancing the …

Electoral Evidence, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Each year, millions of Americans cast votes for specific candidates or on specific ballot measures. Each such vote generates potential "electoral evidence," the admissibility of which may be the subject of dispute in subsequent litigation. The evidence may take various forms, including the marked ballot itself, a voter's testimony regarding her vote, or her written or oral statements regarding her vote.

Electoral evidence is most commonly offered in litigation over the election outcome itself, with the parties seeking to determine how certain individuals voted to resolve a close election. However, its potential relevance is not limited to such proceedings. It …

Regulating Cumulative Risk, Sanne H. Knudsen

Articles

This Article proceeds in four parts. Part I describes how cumulative risk assessments tackle the real-world exposure problems that lie at the heart of public health. It shows how risk science has evolved and why policy, not science, lags behind. Part II then examines why key public health concerns cannot be answered through information disclosure or consumer choice models alone.

Having established that regulatory drivers are needed, Part III begins to examine how to move forward. It does so by looking backward and examining how TSCA and FIFRA have failed historically to provide this critical public health focus despite room …

The Other Securities Regulator: A Case Study In Regulatory Damage, Anita K. Krug

Articles

Although the Securities and Exchange Commission is the primary securities regulator in the United States, the Department of Labor also engages in securities regulation. It does so by virtue of its authority to administer the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the statute that governs the investment of retirement assets. In 2016, the DOL used its securities regulatory authority to adopt a rule that, for the first time, designates securities brokers who provide investment advice to retirement investors as fiduciaries subject to ERISA's stringent transaction prohibitions. The new rule's objective is salutary, to be sure. However this Article shows that, …

Richmond Law Magazine: Summer 2017, University Of Richmond

Richmond Law Magazine

Features:

Destination Education

Land of the Lawyers

The Case for Clemency

Volume 41, No. 3

The Weldon Times

A student-run newspaper published at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editor in Chief: Marina Bruggeman

Digital Editor: Jessica Patrick

Editors: Theron Davis, Lisandra Naranjo Hernandez, Melissa Pike

The Noteworthy Absence Of Women Advocates At The United States Supreme Court, Jennifer Crystal Mika

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Situating The Corporation Within The Vulnerability Paradigm: What Impact Does Corporate Personhood Have On Vulnerability, Dependency, And Resilience, Heather Kolinsky

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Towards A Relational Conceptualization Of The Right To Personal Autonomy, Yael Braudo-Bahat

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

This Article lays the foundation for a relational conceptualization of the right to personal autonomy, where personal autonomy is perceived as a fluid and dynamic competency, which evolves and flourishes through one’s web of relationships. On its face, the more common, liberal conception of personal autonomy seems more fitting for the articulation of the right to personal autonomy, as most Western legal systems are based on liberal grounds. Indeed, several liberal legal scholars have addressed the right to personal autonomy and the state’s duty to promote it. Nonetheless, I show that the liberal conception of autonomy is limited in its …

A Higher Power Produces Greater Problems: How Religious Honor Codes And Religious Schools Exacerbate Campus Sexual Assault, Samuel T. Jay

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

"Lifting As We Climb": The American Council On Human Rights And The Quest For Civil Rights, Gregory S. Parks

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

The narrative of African Americans’ quest for racial equality and social justice in the Twentieth Century is typically construed in the context of main-line civil rights organizations—e.g., NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the like. However, for decades, black fraternal networks had been helping to lay the groundwork for the major civil rights campaigns that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1938 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated created the National Non-Partisan Lobby on Civil and Democratic Rights (“NPC”), later renamed the National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs. It was the first full-time congressional lobby for minority group civil rights. …

Jasta Straw Man? How The Justice Against Sponsors Of Terrorism Act Undermines Our Security And Its Stated Purpose, Katherine Holcombe

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

A Family Is What You Make It? Legal Recognition And Regulation Of Multiple Parents, Haim Abraham

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Multiparental family structures, in which there are more than two parents, are becoming increasingly common. Thus, they defy the social and legal conception of the nuclear family. Yet, despite the growing number of multiparental families, their legal status in most jurisdictions is not recognized, leaving various issues unaddressed and potentially risking the children’s best interests. This paper examines how the legislatures and courts of California, Canada, and the U.K. recognize and regulate multiparental families. It shows that the treatment of multiparental families varies from non-recognition of any status, through regulation of the multiparental family, to the recognition of the multiparental …

Trickle-Down Bullying And The Truly Great American Response: Can Responsible Rhetoric In Judicial Advocacy And Decision-Making Help Heal The Divisiveness Of The Trump Presidency?, Maureen Johnson

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Price Waterhouse: How Title Vii Reduces The Lives Of Lgbt Americans To Sex And Gender Stereotypes, Drew Culler

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Criminalizing Nonviolent Dissent: New York's Unconstitutional Repression Of The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (Bds) Movement, Dalal Hillou

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Economic Coercion And The Limits Of Sovereignty: Cuba’S Embargo Claims Against The United States, Jose Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

While scholars and journalists have written exhaustively about the property claims against Cuba certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, little attention has been paid to Cuba’s public international law claim against the United States for embargo losses caused by its unilateral sanctions. As a result of the normalization process between the two countries that began in 2014, resolving both the property claims and the embargo claim has become a diplomatic priority. While conceding the doctrinal limitations under existing authorities, this paper critically evaluates Cuba’s claim and presents strong legal support for it.

Public international law provides no exact …

Prioritising Human Development In African Intellectual Property Law, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

The global intellectual property structure has been criticised for requiring developing nations to adopt intellectual property standards that are appropriate for industrialised countries. Some commentators have observed that industrialised nations, such as the United States, developed their economies by borrowing from others, but that through the use of globalised intellectual property standards, they have effectively limited other nations from doing the same. This article does not aim to revisit the question of the suitability of the existing intellectual property standards for developing countries. Nor does it seek to analyse whether, as a general proposition, intellectual property rights should be expanded …

Police Misconduct, Video Recording, And Procedural Barriers To Rights Enforcement, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

The story of police reform and of "policing the police" has become the story of video and video evidence, and "record everything to know the truth" has become the singular mantra. Video, both police-created and citizen-created, has become the singular tool for ensuring police accountability, reforming law enforcement, and enforcing the rights of victims of police misconduct. This Article explores procedural problems surrounding the use of video recording and video evidence to counter police misconduct, hold individual officers and governments accountable, and reform departmental policies, regulations, and practices. It considers four issues: 1) the mistaken belief that video can "speak …

In The Shadow Of Gaslight: Reflections On Identity, Diversity, And The Distribution Of Power In The Academy, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This essay explores identity and diversity in the Academy through the work of feminist philosopher, Sara Ahmed. It makes two interventions. First, it sketches the use of identity politics from the 1980s and 1990s as a tool of resistance against assimilation and erasure to its current uses sometimes as a tool of discipline within minority groups. Second, it raises the problem of the cooptation of identity by institutions to maintain the status quo. In the hands of institutions and as a metric for progress, diversity can mask ongoing subordination and create doubt in the minds of minorities about whether what …

Who Belongs: Citizenship And Statelessness In The Dominican Republic, Ediberto Román, Ernesto Sagás

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

99 Problems And The Bitchin' Is One: A Pragmatist's Guide To Student-Edited Law Reviews, Joelle A. Moreno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

That's A Wrap! Examining The Enforceability Of Electronic Agreements, Emilie Blanchard Wedman, Timila S. Rother

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Blockchain Solve The Holdup Problem In Contracts?, Richard T. Holden, Anup Malani

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

A basic problem in contracting is holdup: after one party has made relationship-specific investments, the other party refuses to perform unless the first one offers better terms than the original contract. Such renegotiation deters relationship-specific investments and reduces the value of trade via contract, which can either result in no trade or more trade within firms. A classic example is the case of Alaska Packers Association v. Demenico, 117 F. 99 (9th Cir. 1902). Economists have devised solutions – called renegotiation design and revelation mechanisms – to these problems, but they are presently difficult to implement as they require very …

Accidents And Aggregates, Lee Anne Fennell

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Tort law responds to discrete, harmful events—“accidents”—by converting unruly facts into a binary on/off judgment about liability. This operation, characteristic of much of law, resembles the “thresholding” process used to convert grayscale images to black and white. It embeds decisions about how to isolate and evaluate the sample of risk-related behavior connected to the accident. This Article focuses on the implicit but powerful role that aggregation—of behavior, precautions, and events—plays in the determination of liability. These aggregative choices determine how large a slice of an injurer’s conduct tort law will capture within its viewfinder, and how tight the causal connection …