Law Commons^™

Terror On Your Timeline: Criminalizing Terrorist Incitement On Social Media Through Doctrinal Shift, Zachary Leibowitz

Fordham Law Review

The United States faces a barrage of threats from terrorist organizations on a daily basis. The government takes some steps to prevent these threats from coming to fruition, but not much is being done proactively. Any person can log into a social media account to preach hate and incite violence against the United States and its citizenry, and sometimes these words result in action. When speakers are not held accountable, they can continue to incite the masses to violent action across the United States. This Note proposes a new incitement doctrine to prevent these speakers from being able to spread …

Deference To The Plaintiff In Forum Non Conveniens Cases, Brett Workman

Fordham Law Review

This Note analyzes several cases in an effort to understand why, based on each case’s unique circumstances, the plaintiff’s choice of forum received a particular level of deference. This Note then produces a synthesized list of factors that alter the level of deference a plaintiff’s choice of forum receives under forum non conveniens analysis. An understanding of these factors provides increased predictability as to when a plaintiff’s choice of forum might receive heightened deference under this common law doctrine.

Carbon Taxation By Regulation, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article argues that, even though a carbon tax remains politically elusive, a carbon taxation by regulation has begun to flourish as a way of financing carbon reduction. For more than a century, energy rate setting has been used to promote public good and redistributive goals, akin to general financial taxation. Various non-tax subsidies in customer energy rates have enormous untapped potential for promoting low-carbon sources of energy, while also balancing broader economic and social welfare goals. While carbon taxation by regulation offers many benefits, regulators' narrow fixation on consumer protection and economic goals has hobbled realization of its potential. …

The Role Of Individual And Household Behavior In Decarbonization, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Paul C. Stern

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article asks: why does household behavior matter for deep decarbonization, and how can laws, policies, and programs that target behavior change be employed to facilitate decarbonization? Individuals and households can affect carbon emissions in multiple ways through their behavior as environmental activists, by offering support or opposition to environmental public policies in their citizen roles, by exerting influence within organizations of which they are a part, by making investment decisions based on carbon considerations, and by acquiring and using energy and carbon-emitting goods and services or meeting their needs in ways that do not emit greenhouse gases. Each of …

The Net Effects Of Medical Malpractice Tort Reform On Health Insurance Losses, W. Kip Viscusi, Patricia H. Born, J. Bradley Karl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this paper, we examine the influence of medical malpractice tort reform on the level of private health insurance company losses incurred. We employ a natural experiment framework centered on a series of tort reform measures enacted in Texas in 2003 that drastically altered the medical malpractice environment in the state. The results of a difference-in-differences analysis using a variety of comparison states, as well as a difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis, indicate that ameliorating medical malpractice risk has little effect on health insurance losses incurred by private health insurers.

Honest Copying Practices, Joseph P. Fishman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

One of intellectual property theory’s operating assumptions is that creating is hard while copying is easy. But it is not always so. Copies, though outwardly identical, can come from different processes, from cheap digital duplication to laborious handmade re-creation. Policymakers around the world face a choice whether such distinctions should affect liability. The two branches of intellectual property that condition liability on actual copying, copyright and trade secrecy, give different answers. Both in the United States and elsewhere, trade secrecy regimes distinguish between copying methods deemed illegitimate and those deemed legitimate, what international treaties call “honest commercial practices.” Copyright regimes, …

The Ideological Consequences Of Selection: A Nationwide Study Of The Methods Of Selecting Judges, Brian T. Fitzpatrick

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

One topic that has gone largely unexplored in the long debate over how best to select judges is whether there are any ideological consequences to employing one selection method versus another. The goal of this study is to assess whether certain methods of selection have resulted in judiciaries that skew to the left or right compared with the public at large in those states. In particular, I examine the ideological preferences of state appellate judges in all 50 states over a 20-year period (1990-2010) as measured by their relative affiliation with the Republican or Democratic Party through campaign contributions, voter …

Judicial Politics And Decisionmaking: A New Approach, Chris Guthrie, Andrew J. Wistrich, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In twenty-five different experiments conducted on over 2,200 judges, we assessed whether judges' political ideology influences their resolution of hypothetical cases. Generally, we found that the political ideology of the judge matters, but only very little. Across a range of bankruptcy, criminal, and civil cases, we found that the aggregate effect of political ideology is either nonexistent or amounts to roughly onequarter of a standard deviation. Overall, the results of our experiments suggest that judges are not "politicians in robes."

State Criminal Appeals Revealed, Nancy J. King, Michael A. Heise, Nicole A. Heise

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Every state provides appellate review of criminal judgments, yet little research examines which factors correlate with favorable outcomes for defendants who seek appellate relief. To address this scholarly gap, this paper exploits the Survey of Criminal Appeals in State Courts (2010) dataset, recently released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for State Courts (hereinafter, “NCSC Study”). The NCSC Study is the first and only publicly available national dataset on state criminal appeals and includes unprecedented information from every state court in the nation with jurisdiction to review criminal judgments. We focus on two subpools of state …

From No Child Left Behind To Every Student Succeeds: Back To A Future For Education Federalism, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

When passed in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act represented the federal government’s most dramatic foray into the elementary and secondary public school policymaking terrain. While critics emphasized the Act’s overreliance on standardized testing and its reduced school district and state autonomy, proponents lauded the Act’s goal to close the achievement gap between middle- and upper-middle-class students and students historically ill served by their schools. Whatever structural changes the No Child Left Behind Act achieved, however, were largely undone in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act, which repositioned significant federal education policy control in state governments. From a …

Corporate Deferred Prosecution As Discretionary Injustice, Peter Reilly

Utah Law Review

A recent federal appellate court ruling of first impression permits the resolution of allegations of serious corporate criminal wrongdoing by way of an Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism called Deferred Prosecution, without appropriate judicial review. This Article describes why this ruling is ill-advised, and suggests how other courts might address these same legal issues while arriving at different conclusions. This Article argues that if federal prosecutors are going to continue using Deferred Prosecution Agreements (“DPAs”) in addressing allegations of corporate criminal misconduct, then that discretionary power must be confined and checked through meaningful judicial review. The overriding concern with the appellate …

Spec Kit 357 Libraries, Presses, And Publishing November 2017, Laurie N. Taylor, Brian W. Keith, Chelsea Dinsmore, Meredith Morris-Babb

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Many Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members have robust and long-standing publishing activities, often in collaboration with or running parallel to the press of the larger institutional entity. As reported in the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) 2015–2016 annual report, 30 AAUP member presses are in libraries. Eighty-one institutions are both ARL and AAUP members, and at 21 of those institutions, the press reports to the library. Other libraries—including Amherst College Press and the University of Cincinnati Press—launched new presses within libraries. Most of the 123 ARL member libraries are engaged in publishing or publishing support activities such as …

Laws On Erasure Of Online Information: Canada, France, European Union, Germany, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, Luis Acosta

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Comparative Summary by Luis Acosta, Chief, Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Division II, Law Library of Congress (United States), Global Legal Research Center

This report describes the laws of twelve jurisdictions that have some form of remedy available enabling the removal of online data based on harm to individuals’ privacy or reputational interests, including but not limited to defamation. Six of the countries surveyed are within the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area, and therefore have implemented EU law. Five non-EU jurisdictions are also surveyed.

Comparative analysis across jurisdictions presents terminological challenges, because legal language across jurisdictions seems …

Designed To Fail: The President’S Deference To The Department Of Justice In Advancing Criminal Justice Reform, Rachel E. Barkow, Mark Osler

William & Mary Law Review

One puzzle of President Obama’s presidency is why his stated commitment to criminal justice reform was not matched by actual progress. We argue that the Obama Administration’s failure to accomplish more substantial reform, even in those areas that did not require congressional action, was largely rooted in an unfortunate deference to the Department of Justice. In this Article, we document numerous examples (in sentencing, clemency, compassionate release, and forensic science) of the Department resisting common sense criminal justice reforms that would save taxpayer dollars, help reduce mass incarceration, and maintain public safety. These examples and basic institutional design theory all …

The Conjunction Problem And The Logic Of Jury Findings, David S. Schwartz, Elliott Sober

William & Mary Law Review

For several decades, evidence theorists have puzzled over the following paradox, known as the “conjunction paradox” or “conjunction problem.” Probability theory appears to tell us that the probability of a conjunctive claim is the product resulting from multiplying the probabilities of its separate conjuncts. In a three element negligence case (breach of duty, causation, damages), a plaintiff who proves each element to a 0.6 probability will have proven her overall claim to a very low probability of 0.216. Either the plaintiff wins the verdict based on this low probability (if the jury focuses on elements), or the plaintiff loses despite …

Itenant: How The Law Should Treat Rental Relationships In The Sharing Economy, Matthew Rosendahl

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Decomposing The “Tacit Knowledge Problem:” Codification Of Knowledge And Access In Crispr Gene-Editing, Neil Thompson, Samantha Zyontz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Rights Not So Fundamental? Critique Of The Supreme Court Judgment In Law Association Of Zambia V. The Attorney General, Muna B. Ndulo, Samuel Ngure Ndungu

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The article discusses the constitutionality of sections 5 and 6 of the Public Order Act of Zambia. The Law Association of Zambia had unsuccessfully argued in the High Court of Zambia that the sections violated section 20 (Freedom of expression) and 21 (Freedom of assembly) of the Zambian Constitution. The Supreme Court of Zambia upheld the decision of the High Court and held that the sections did not violate sections 20 and 21 of the constitution and were constitutional. This article argues that the Supreme Court decision is wrong and falls short of effectively protecting citizen’s rights of peaceful assembly …

Defending Our Coasts: Ensuring Military Readiness & Economic Viability As Waters Rise, Deborah Kornblut, Angela King, Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

2017 Tax Conference Speakers

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Corporate Tax Developments: Tax Reform And Beyond (Power Point), Lisa M. Zarlenga, Cameron Arterton

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Resolving Identity Theft Issues, Diana Leyden, Keith Fogg, Craig D. Bell

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Like-Kind Exchanges And Avoiding Dealer Status (Powerpoint), Robert D. Schachat

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Symposium: The Least Understood Branch: The Demands And Challenges Of The State Judiciary: Introduction, Alex Carver, Susanna Rychlak

Vanderbilt Law Review

On March 31, 2017, the Vanderbilt Law Review, in conjunction with the American Constitution Society, hosted a Symposium at Vanderbilt Law School entitled The Least Understood Branch: The Demands and Challenges of the State Judiciary. This Symposium began five months earlier at Emory University School of Law, where the Symposium's contributors gathered to discuss the importance and difficulties of studying state courts. This theme is reflected in the articles published in this Symposium issue. The importance of state courts to the American system of justice can hardly be overstated. As Professors Tracey George and Albert Yoon recognize, "The work of …

Introduction: The Power Of New Data And Technology, Laura E. Dolbow

Vanderbilt Law Review

Modern technology has revolutionized the law. Computers drastically expanded the scope and speed of access to legal information. Unlike the days when lawyers had to climb ladders in the stacks to find specific statutes or cases in printed reporters, Westlaw brings up thousands of resources at the touch of a fingertip. Beyond transforming legal research, new data and technology have transformed the law in two other powerful ways: they have made the law more accessible to nonlawyers, and they have made it possible for lawyers to gather information about how the law is being executed. The articles in this Section …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Aaron J. Campbell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article aims to give a succinct review of notable criminal

law and procedure cases decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia

and the Court of Appeals of Virginia during the past year. Instead

of covering every ruling or rationale in these cases, the article

focuses on the "take-away" of the holdings with the most

precedential value. The article also summarizes noteworthy

changes to criminal law and procedure enacted by the 2017 Virginia

General Assembly.

The Evolution Of E-Commerce In Virginia Real Property Transactions, Ronald D. Wiley Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Howell V. Mcauliffe, L. Michael Berman

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Volume 42, No. 2

The Weldon Times

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

Editors in Chief: Lisandra Naranjo Hernandez, Melissa Pike

Layout Editors: Shay Oxner, Michael Davies-Cole

Editors: Melia Moorhouse, Emma Chapple

How Would You Like To Die? Glossip V. Gross Deals Blow To Abolitionists, Brenda I. Rowe

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications (Archived)

After capital punishment opponents’ pressure on drug suppliers reduced the lethal injection drug supply, Oklahoma began using midazolam, resulting in botched executions. Condemned inmates sought to stop use of this lethal injection protocol. In Glossip v. Gross, the U.S. Supreme Court found inmates failed to establish such protocols entail a substantial risk of severe pain compared to available alternatives, undermining the supply side attack strategy and leaving inmates facing the possibility of an unnecessarily painful execution. This article places the Glossip decision within the context of method of execution jurisprudence and discusses implications for the ongoing battle over capital …