Law Commons^™

The Meaning Of Judicial Impartiality: An Examination Of Supreme Court Confirmation Debates And Supreme Court Rulings On Racial Equality, Stuart Chinn

Utah Law Review

Three years into the Trump presidency and especially in the aftermath of Justice Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court, the ideal of judicial impartiality is once again central in our public discourse. Because we have, in turn, a president especially skeptical of the judiciary’s separation from partisanship, heightened political polarization, and heightened stakes around judicial rulings in this age of gridlocked governance, the question of how judges approach their work has assumed a significance that goes beyond concern over the outcomes they will reach.

However, as important as the concept of judicial impartiality may be, it is worth pausing to …

Employees As Regulators: The New Private Ordering In High Technology Companies, Jennifer S. Fan

Utah Law Review

There is mounting public concern over the influence that high technology companies have in our society. In the past, these companies were lauded for their innovations, but now as one scandal after another has plagued them, from being a conduit in influencing elections (think Cambridge Analytica) to the development of weaponized artificial intelligence, to their own moment of reckoning with the #MeToo movement, these same companies are under scrutiny. Leaders in high technology companies created their own sets of norms through private ordering. Their work was largely unfettered by regulators, with the exception of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s oversight …

The Legalization Of Restorative Justice: A Fifty-State Empirical Analysis, Thalia González

Utah Law Review

This Article addresses the increasing formal legal nature of restorative justice in the United States. Over the last three decades, a substantial body of research has demonstrated the ways in which restorative justice offers an alternative societal response to crime and harm. It has also examined how restorative justice empowers individuals and groups to address violence, respond to social, political and economic injustice, and engage in resistance to existing structural inequities. Yet a prominent gap in the field exists: a comprehensive theoretical and empirical examination of the codification of restorative justice in state law. Studies of this nature are essential …

Mandatory Disclosure In Primary Markets, Andrew A. Schwartz

Utah Law Review

Mandatory disclosure—the idea that companies must be legally required to disclose certain, specified information to public investors—is the first principle of modern securities law. Despite the high costs it imposes, mandatory disclosure has been well defended by legal scholars on two theoretical grounds: ‘Agency costs’ and ‘information underproduction.’ While these two concepts are a good fit for secondary markets (where investors trade securities with one another), this Article shows that they are largely irrelevant in the context of primary markets (where companies offer securities directly to investors). The surprising result is that primary offerings—such as an IPO—may not require mandatory …

Cryptocorporations: A Proposal For Legitimizing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, Timothy Nielsen

Utah Law Review

A DAO does not fit well within the current landscape of recognized organizational structures and, rather than shoehorning it into one, states should recognize a new hybrid entity. This Note’s proposed Cryptocorporation form, with rules and protections better suited to the unique qualities of a DAO, could allow for the most appropriate tax treatment of shared profits, limit personal liability, and allow for an appropriate voting structure as articulated in the White Paper. The proposed Cryptocorporation would also protect investors and give the SEC more presumptive jurisdiction over the token-based-stock that is issued and represented exclusively through blockchain tokens. Cryptocorporations …

What’S The Point? The Missing Piece Of Criminal Justice Reform Through Consensus And Compromise, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Criminal justice reform has had a firm place in news headlines for more than a decade. When the mass incarceration crisis came to the fore in 2008, with reports that one in a hundred adults in America was behind bars, there had already long been cries for reducing the prison and jail populations. Reform has mainly been sought through two approaches: consensus through ballot initiative or legislative compromise. But these modes of reform share a fundamental failure: both often lack a clear articulation of the purpose of criminal sentencing. In other words, “What’s the point?” Without an agreement on …

Ensuring Victims’ Rights And Inspiring Hope Through Community Collaboration, Evelyn Rodriguez Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Numerous crime victims who qualify for Victim Witness Assistance Program services through the San Benito County District Attorney's office are not accessing the resources. Research done to support this project revealed that countless crime victims did not utilize the services offered by the program during the time of their victimization. The project conducted was an outreach presentation, which included all the services provided by the Victim Witness Assistance Program, victims’ legal rights, and the qualifications for the California Victim Compensation Board. The outreach presentation was developed to increase awareness of victims’ rights and the Victim Witness Assistance Program to community …

Unregulated Charity, Eric Franklin Amarante

Washington Law Review

The vast majority of charities in the United States operate in a regulatory blind spot: they are neither meaningfully evaluated when they apply for charitable status nor substantively monitored after they receive charitable status. Driven by severe budget constraints, the IRS decided to essentially ignore any charity that claims it will realize less than $50,000 in annual gross receipts. From a practical perspective, the IRS’s decision makes sense. To the extent smaller charities are less likely to cause harm, it is reasonable (perhaps even preferable) to subject them to less scrutiny. This type of prioritization, known as risk-based regulation, has …

Legal And Regulatory Framework For The Mortgage Industry In Nigeria, Kehinde Ogundimu

Economic and Financial Review

This article examines the legal and regulatory framework for the mortgage industry in Nigeria. The article examines the concept of housing as a global need and provides an overview of the Nigerian Housing Market with a population of 183 million people and increasing rapidly, a huge housing deficit of around 17 million units. This is further compounded by a rapid rising need for housing by about 20 per cent a year in cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, and Abuja. At least 700,000 housing units across different segments are needed annually to keep up with demand, whereas, production was around 100,000 …

The Land Use Act And The Nigerian Housing Sector, Yusuf Yahaya

Economic and Financial Review

The article discusses the Land Use Act and the and how it has affected developments in the Nigerian housing sector. Prior to the Land Use Act, all the existing tenure systems encouraged land holding without an obligation to develop them, fragmentation and uncoordinated alienation, hoarding speculatively for value appreciation and without precise documentation. Consequently, the Land Use Act was enacted to: make land easily accessible to all Nigerians; prevent speculative purchases of communal land; streamline and simplify the management and ownership of land; make land available to government at all levels for development; provide the system of government administration of …

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Fall 2019, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

School Of Law Faculty And Professional Staff, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Science And Risk Analysis In Cptpp/Sps-Plus: Role Model Or Unbearable Burden?, Kuei-Jung Ni

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Trade in food and agricultural products accounts for a major part of global trade, and the trade continues to alert domestic consumers to the risks associated with modern food processing and production methods. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), now rebranded as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), represents a new model of mega-regional trade pacts posed to set higher standards for promoting and streamlining trade liberalization. Because of concerns with national food safety regulations that could constitute forms of non-tariff barriers, the CPTPP, in contrast to the World Trade Organization (WTO), stipulates further rules on parties’ sanitary …

The Marketing Of Self-Care And Alternative Therapies In The U.S. In 2019: How Industry Stakeholders Appeal To Consumers’ Perceptions Of Novel Food Products And Additives, Melanie Marie Glover

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This article examines the current marketing techniques of food products and additives in the growing self-care industry in print and digital formats. It assesses how well consumers understand such advertising tactics, and what the industry and federal government agencies are doing (or not doing) to help consumers be mindful and savvy about their purchase choices. The discussion further showcases hot-topic food products and additives including CBD, Kratom, and plant-based meat as examples of both regulatory risk and opportunity. Lastly, the article advocates a collaborative effort among federal government agencies (FDA, FTC, USDA, etc.), industry stakeholders, and the public to help …

Going Hemp Wild: Understanding The Challenges And Opportunities For Fda Regulation Of Cbd In Food Products, Hannah Catt

Journal of Food Law & Policy

After the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, champions of hemp began to tout opportunities for farmers and businesses involved with the crop. The industry has rallied around one of hemp’s major byproducts, cannabidiol, or CBD. However, the demand for CBD has left the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) playing catch-up. This article explains what CBD is, how it is derived, current FDA-approved uses, and a current path forward for the FDA in creating guidance for industry and consumers.

Agricultural Exceptionalism And Industrial Animal Food Production: Exploring The Human Rights Nexus, Charlotte E. Blattner, Odile Ammann

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The host of negative effects of animal agriculture on the immediate environment, workers, and local communities are well-documented, yet little is known about the global repercussions of animal agriculture, especially on human rights guarantees. This contribution attempts to begin filling this soaring gap. It examines the nexus between industrial animal agriculture (with a focus on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)) on the one hand, and specific international human rights violations on the other hand. Our emphasis is on the role of government in producing these violations, rather than on the agribusiness itself. Laws originally designed to govern small family farms—so-called …

The Fine Print, Winter (December) 2019, University Of South Carolina School Of Law

Law School Alumni Magazines

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (December 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Negative Liberty Meets Positive Social Change, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Concussions And Contracts: The National Football League's Limitations To Protecting Its Players From Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Julia Wolpert

Journal of Law and Health

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative brain injury that has become prevalent among high-contact professional sports, especially American football. More and more retired players are exhibiting symptoms of CTE and being diagnosed with CTE post-mortem. While the neuroscience community constantly releases studies showing a causal connection between brain trauma and CTE, the National Football League (NFL) continues to deny that any brain injury can arise from playing football. The NFL must implement provisions in their contracts to fully inform and protect players from this lethal brain injury. This article examines the repercussions of CTE, how players’ contracts do and …

Time For Change: Stepping Up The Fda's Regulation Of Dietary Supplements To Promote Consumer Safety And Awareness, George Kennett

Journal of Law and Health

People are often looking for that quick fix when it comes to their health. With dietary supplements so readily available on the market, the public assume that they have been through rigorous testing. Dietary supplements are not tested as much as consumers believe. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not initiate the same type of testing and analysis for supplements as it does for food, drink and medication. Given that people are now choosing supplemental meal replacements and the like, as opposed to whole foods, regulations drastically need to be stepped up in an effort to emphasise public safety. …

Cryptocurrency Taxation: Suggested Revisions On Current Treatment, Joe Wilwerding

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The current tax regulations applied to cryptocurrencies are inappropriate. The initial purpose of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was to circumvent the fraud associated with using credit and debit cards for e-commerce. Simply put, cryptocurrencies can be thought of as cash for the internet. The Internal Service Revenue acknowledged its use as a unit of account, store of value, and medium of exchange (the definition of a currency). Despite its function as a currency, and the IRS’s acknowledgement of this function, the new asset has been designated as property for tax purposes. Property transactions are generally taxed on realized gains. …

Front Matter

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bitter Beer Face: Are Beer Conglomerates Violating New York Consumer Protection Laws?, Christopher R. Deubert

Hofstra Law Review

This Article examines the potential legal implications under New York consumer protection laws of the growth in the beer industry: specifically, the battle between the craft beer industry and its large corporate competitors over labeling and advertising. This Article proceeds in four Parts: Part II summarizes the growth and consolidation of the craft beer industry; Part III explains federal regulation of beer labeling; Part IV explains New York State's regulation of beer labeling; and Part V examines the application of New York consumer protection laws to the labeling practices of the beer industry. This Article concludes with the determination that …

Your Personal Health Information May Have Been Compromised: Using Encryption To Prevent Data Breaches On End-User Devices, Nina Patel

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Venue To Grow: Researching Professional Growth In The Collaborative Courts Of The Northern District Of California, Wyatt Lim-Tepper

Master's Projects and Capstones

This study examines the professional growth of collaborative court staff in the Northern District of California (NDCA). First, it sets forth a background that reviews the history of collaborative courts and details the development, purpose and structure, and current processes at the federal level. Second, the researcher describes the framework of the NDCA as an institution and further identifies the stakeholders who participate in the NDCA’s two collaborative courts: the Reentry Court and the Conviction Alternatives Program (CAP). Third, the study reviews the literature on professional growth in the legal field, education and academia, and public-health fields. Fourth, this paper …

A Hardy Case Makes Bad Law, Victoria Sahani

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the first ever to analyze a direct clash between the inherent power of US courts regarding the enforcement ofjudgments and the obligations of the United States as one of the 163 member countries of the 1965 Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, commonly known as the "ICSID Convention. " The ICSID Convention includes a self-enforcement mechanism whereby the courts of the member countries are obligated to enforce the pecuniary obligations in multimillion (and sometimes over one billion) dollar ICSID arbitration awards as though they were court judgments of the …

Follow The Money? A Proposed Approach For Disclosure Of Litigation Finance Agreements, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

Litigation finance is the new and fast-growing practice by which a non-party funds a plaintiff’s litigation either for-profit or for some other motivation. Some estimates placed the size of the litigation finance market at 50–100 billion dollars. Both proponents and opponents of this newly -emergent phenomenon are in agreement that the it is the most important development in civil justice of this era. Litigation finance is already transforming civil litigation at the level of the single case as well as, incrementally, at the level of the civil justice system as a whole. It is also beginning to transform the way …

Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge For Privacy, Democracy, And National Security, Robert Chesney, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Harmful lies are nothing new. But the ability to distort reality has taken an exponential leap forward with “deep fake” technology. This capability makes it possible to create audio and video of real people saying and doing things they never said or did. Machine learning techniques are escalating the technology’s sophistication, making deep fakes ever more realistic and increasingly resistant to detection. Deep-fake technology has characteristics that enable rapid and widespread diffusion, putting it into the hands of both sophisticated and unsophisticated actors. While deep-fake technology will bring with it certain benefits, it also will introduce many harms. The marketplace …

Prophetic Patents, Janet Freilich

Faculty Scholarship

In most contexts, making up data is forbidden - considered fraudulent or even immoral. Not so in patents. Patents often contain experimental data and it is perfectly acceptable for these experiments to be entirely fictional. These so-called "prophetic examples" are not only explicitly permitted by both the Patent and Trademark Office and federal courts, but are considered almost equivalent to factual data in patent doctrine. Though prophetic examples are thought to be common, there are no studies of these experiments, no explanation for why fictional data are allowed in patents, and no evaluation of the practice.

Here, I provide the …