Law Commons^™

The Costs Of Trademarking Dolls, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Curtin’s article, Zombie Cinderella and the Undead Public Domain, takes a recent case from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) as the basis for an argument that trademark doctrine needs stronger protection against the exclusive commercial appropriation of characters that are in the public domain. In that case, a doll manufacturer sought to register the term “Zombie Cinderella” for a doll that was zombie-ish and princess-like. The examiner refused registration because the term “Zombie Cinderella” for this kind of doll was confusingly similar to the mark for Walt Disney’s Cinderella doll. Although the TTAB overturned the examiner’s …

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

Una Perspectiva Socio-Legal De La Ley 348: La Ley Para Garantizar A Las Mujeres Una Vida Libre De La Violencia / A Socio-Legal Perspective Of Law 348: The Law To Guarantee Women A Life Free Of Violence, Maya Anthony

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Bolivia es un país con leyes muy progresistas para enfrentar la lucha contra la violencia contra las mujeres, pero en al mismo tiempo Bolivia tiene los más altos niveles de la violencia doméstica en Latinoamérica. Esta investigación va a enfocarse en la ley 348 “para garantizar a las mujeres una vida libre de la violencia”. En este ensayo voy a explorar cómo la ley 348 que fue redactada para proteger a las mujeres del sistema patriarcal, que es un sistema enraizado en el abuso, imposición a la sumisión, e intimidación a la mujer y, “una estructura institucional que impone prácticas …

Money Laundering By Politically Exposed Persons In Nigeria: Consequences And Combative Measures, Ike Onyiliogwu

Economic Crime Forensics Capstones

The Capstone Project will focus on money laundering in Nigeria by Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and the devastating negative impact on Nigeria’s progress as well as various measures that could combat it.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) defines money laundering as the processing of “ Criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin.” And PEPs as “someone who has been entrusted with a public function.” (FATF, 2018). The Nigerian government has adopted the term, “politically exposed persons” to include senior politicians and senior government officials as well as their immediate family.

According to Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, $150 billion was …

Yelp’S Review Filtering Algorithm, Yao Yao, Ivelin Angelov, Jack Rasmus-Vorrath, Mooyoung Lee, Daniel W. Engels

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present an analysis of features influencing Yelp's proprietary review filtering algorithm. Classifying or misclassifying reviews as recommended or non-recommended affects average ratings, consumer decisions, and ultimately, business revenue. Our analysis involves systematically sampling and scraping Yelp restaurant reviews. Features are extracted from review metadata and engineered from metrics and scores generated using text classifiers and sentiment analysis. The coefficients of a multivariate logistic regression model were interpreted as quantifications of the relative importance of features in classifying reviews as recommended or non-recommended. The model classified review recommendations with an accuracy of 78%. We found that reviews …

A Content Analysis Of Section 1983 Litigation Against Reserve Police Officers, Michael Ryan Broadus

Master's Theses

Police studies have well developed a demonstrative framework for detailing risks which generate financially-detrimental civil litigation – particularly regarding 42 U.S.C. §1983. Conversely, though, police studies have given little attention to the often-used but differentially-trained reserve police officer. Primarily replicating the methodologies of Kappeler, Kappeler, and del Carmen (1993) and Ross (2000), this descriptive study sought to fill this void via a manifest content approach to purposively select a sample of Section 1983 cases decided by U.S. District Courts over a 16-year period (2001-2016) to determine: (1) if significant liability was generated by reserve officers, (2) the main basis for …

Trans Women In Incarceration: Housing, Healthcare, And Humanity, Stanislaw Bielous

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper seeks to analyze the experience of male-to-female transgender inmates housed in men’s prisons and to propose housing and healthcare policies with humanity and safety for all in mind. To do this, the paper examines gender dysphoria and its treatments, transgender prisoners’ increased risk of victimization, current housing placement policies, and lastly, transgender prison healthcare practices. Ultimately, this paper proposes the use of fair and adequately trained panel-based placement teams, the provision of comprehensive mental and physical health care and the establishment of impartial grievance procedures.

The Ethics Of Environmental Litigation, Jenna Marie Dibenedetto

Student Theses 2015-Present

Abstract

We are raised from the early days of our youth to distinguish right from wrong, evil from good. Though there are many careers that have easily distinguishable ethics from their day of creation, others require spend their entire professional careers floating in a grey area. Being a lawyer can leave you in limbo very often. The ethical battle between prosecuting people whose actions go against everything you believe in and defending someone who actions you struggle to rationalize, looking for a “nail in the coffin” or finding a way to pry it open can play a large role in …

The 1492 Jewish Expulsion From Spain: How Identity Politics And Economics Converged, Michelina Restaino

Honors College Theses

In 1492, after Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand defeated the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, they presented the Jewish community throughout their kingdoms with a choice: leaving or converting to Catholicism. The Spanish kingdoms had been anti-Jewish for centuries, forcing the creation of ghettos, the use of identifying clothing, etc. in an effort to isolate and “other” the Jews, who unsuccessfully sought peaceful co-existence. Those who did not accept expulsion, but converted, were the subject of further prejudice stemming from a belief that Jewish blood was tainted and that conversions were undertaken for financial gain. The government’s dramatic …

Adoption Process For The Model Aquatic Health Code: An Example, William D. Ramos, Allison L. Fletcher, Mike Mettler, Marcus A. Yoder

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

In 2014 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the first edition of the Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC). This document represented the inaugural introduction of a federal policy guideline with a direct focus in the area of aquatic venue operation and maintenance with the sole purpose of improving the nature of public health in the field. The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) began the review and adoption process soon after the policy’s release. The ISDH process is proposed as one method for others to consider. The background and history of the MAHC are presented in …

Panel Discussion: Author Meets Critic

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Interplay Between Human Rights And Accessibility Laws: Lessons Learned And Considerations For The Planned Federal Accessibility Legislation, Laverne Jacobs

Law Publications

In this study, the author analyzes, comparatively, the administrative governance functions of legislation that provides accessibility standards in six jurisdictions that also offer legal protection from discrimination to people with disabilities: Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. The following governance functions were examined: a) creating accessibility standards, b) enforcing accessibility standards, c) enforcing decisions,d) encouraging compliance, e) raising public awareness (and promoting systemic culture change) and f) public education. The study was conducted with a view to understanding how human rights laws, principles and values can be used to …

The Abandoned Shipwrecks Act In Florida, Tyler Wolanin

School of Public Policy Capstones

The Abandoned Shipwrecks Act is a 1988 federal law that grants states jurisdiction over abandoned shipwrecks in their territorial waters. The intention of the law is to allow states to form historic preservation regimes to protect historic shipwrecks from looters and salvagers. One of the most important beneficiaries of this law is the state of Florida, with the longest coastline in the continental United States and a history of attempts to protect historic shipwrecks.

This law has been criticized since inception for removing the profit incentive for salvors to discover new shipwrecks. The Act has been subjected to a considerable …

Contested Identity And Making Sense Of Atrocity: Understanding The Rohingya Crisis In Myanmar, Christopher Andrew Long

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Myanmar’s recent transition towards democracy has caused western leaders to become increasingly optimistic about the future of human rights within the country. However, since emerging on the international stage in 2012, the Rohingya crisis has drastically upset such expectations, leaving the international community in complete shock over the issue. Attempting to shed light on this human rights tragedy, international media coverage has produced an overly simplified depiction of the Rohingya crisis. In addition, very little academic literature exists seeking to explain the root causes of the issue. By utilizing interviews conducted at the University of Mandalay this paper attempts to …

Emancipatory Learning, Open Educational Resources, Open Education, And Digital Critical Participatory Action Research, Jason Leggett, Jay Wen, Anthony Chatman

Publications and Research

Given that we must prepare students for the future workforce today how can we use the power of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Digital Social Science research to improve student learning and help students develop technical skills needed for the high-tech workforce? In this article, we use transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978) and Digital + Critical Participatory Action Research (D+CPAR) to analyze the effectiveness of integrating OERs into a course and reflect on how we used OERs to support student learning and make civic engagement more equitable at an urban community college. In a criminal justice course analyzing the legal …

When Law Is Complicit In Gender Bias: Ending De Jure Discrimination Against Women As An Important Target Of Sustainable Development Goal 5, Rangita De Silva De Alwis

All Faculty Scholarship

Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but also crucial to accelerating sustainable development. The very first target of Goal 5. 1.1 calls to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere and the indicator for the goal is: “Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex”. In many countries around the world the legal frameworks themselves allow for both direct (de jure) and indirect (de facto) discrimination against women. This essay identifies some areas …

Innovation And Tradition: A Survey Of Intellectual Property And Technology Legal Clinics, Cynthia L. Dahl, Victoria F. Phillips

All Faculty Scholarship

For artists, nonprofits, community organizations and small-business clients of limited means, securing intellectual property rights and getting counseling involving patent, copyright and trademark law are critical to their success and growth. These clients need expert IP and technology legal assistance, but very often cannot afford services in the legal marketplace. In addition, legal services and state bar pro bono programs have generally been ill-equipped to assist in these more specialized areas. An expanding community of IP and Technology clinics has emerged across the country to meet these needs. But while law review articles have described and examined other sectors of …

Assessing The International Criminal Court, Beth A. Simmons, Mitchell Radtke, Hyeran Jo

All Faculty Scholarship

One of the most important issues surrounding international courts is whether they can further the dual causes of peace and justice. None has been more ambitious in this regard than the International Criminal Court (ICC). And yet the ICC has been the object of a good deal of criticism. Some people claim it has been an expensive use of resources that might have been directed to other purposes. Others claim that its accomplishments are meager because it has managed to try and convict so few people. And many commentators and researchers claim that the Court faces an inherent tension between …