Law Commons^™

Science Or Status Quo? Disregard For A Defendant's Mental Illness In Tort Suits, Gabrielle Lindquist

Washington Law Review Online

Mental illness is almost never considered when courts determine whether a defendant is liable for a tort. Nearly every United States jurisdiction—Washington state included—declines to offer a modified “reasonable person” standard for negligent tort defendants with mental illnesses or any form of mental illness-based affirmative defense for intentional tort defendants. There is much debate about whether tort law should evolve to accommodate defendants with mental illnesses. This Comment seeks to dive deeper into why that debate persists.

Although there are numerous justifications for this current state of tort law, the most common rationalizations given are twofold. First, that the primary …

Challenging Presidential Tweets, Mallory Barnes-Ohlson

Washington Law Review Online

Presidents have tried to control agency behavior for decades. The rise of social media gave the President new and innovative tools for controlling agency behavior. As President Obama demonstrated during his time in office, social media became a platform through which the President could communicate to his constituents, align himself with agency actions he supported, and urge agencies to enact policies he favored. After he was elected in November of 2016, President Donald Trump continued his predecessor’s use of social media to engage with both agencies and the public. Different from his predecessor, however, President Trump and his presidential orders …

Registering A Home When Homeless: A Case For Invalidating Washington’S Sex Offender Registration Statute, Sarah Kohan

Washington Law Review Online

Sex offenders experiencing homelessness face unique challenges in Washington that sex offenders with housing do not. When individuals commit a sex offense, they are required to register as a sex offender by providing the state with a current home address. But what happens if an offender has no home? Currently, Washington’s sex offender registration statute forces sex offenders experiencing homelessness to appear in person weekly at the county sheriff’s office to meet registration requirements. Failing to appear for even one week can result in a charge for failure-to-register as a sex offender. In contrast, the statute requires non-homeless sex offenders …

Climate Change Disobedience, Charles R. Disalvo

Law Faculty Scholarship

Among those who recognize climate change as an existential threat, some are willing to take dramatic action against it by committing civil disobedience. Activists, such as those taking part in the Extinction Rebellion in the United Kingdom, are willing to exchange their liberty for some putative good. There is no discussion in the disobedience literature of the discrete purposes of climate disobedience or the principles by which climate activists ought to be guided in seeking to fulfill those purposes. This Article takes on that task. After offering an overview of the purposes of civil disobedience, this Article isolates those purposes …

War On The Wards: The Collapse Of Health Care Infrastructure Resulting From Violent Conflict, Nathan Hersh, Amy Hagopian, Barry Levy

Phase 1

Introduction: While utilizing satellite images to verify reports of hospital damage resulting from armed conflict allows for remote assessment, the use of private satellites to gain access to images prohibits widespread use. The questions this study sought to answer were: Is it possible to replicate the findings of previous reports of hospital damage that used the services of private satellite imagery using open source software, such as Google Earth? What variations exist among the different sites where damage to hospitals is visible, and what gradation is possible? Is this methodology applicable to other examples of armed conflict?

Methods: Using the …

Restoring Stare Decisis In The Wake Of Janus V. Afscme, Council 31, James Tilghman

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Outdated Third-Party Doctrine And The Need For Modernization, Shawn Bass

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Board Of Editors And Law School Faculty

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don't Hire Me As A Token: Best Practices For Recruiting And Supporting Externs From Historically Marginalized Backgrounds, Alexi Freeman

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Sandbox Paradox: Balancing The Need To Facilitate Innovation With The Risk Of Regulatory Privilege, Brian R. Knight, Trace E. Mitchell

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Energy Poverty: The Relevance Of Faith And Reason, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

The challenge of energy poverty (EP) primarily confronts the least developed countries (LDCs) of the world, located in Africa and Asia, but is also prevalent within segments of more advanced developing countries in Asia. This article will first delineate the nature of global energy poverty that results in the premature deaths of millions of people and leads to pervasive sickness among many more millions. The article will next sketch the legal and political responses to this problem that have generally applied principles of sustainable development (SD) and the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015 adopted by the General Assembly …

Evidentiary Irony And The Incomplete Rule Of Completeness: A Proposal To Amend Federal Rule Of Evidence 106, Daniel J. Capra, Liesa L. Richter

Faculty Articles

In recent years, there have been many calls and suggestions for a more equitable criminal justice system. Although sometimes overlooked in that dialogue, the fair operation of the Federal Rules of Evidence is a crucial component in ensuring such an equitable system. Unfortunately, the interpretation of Federal Rule of Evidence 106 in some jurisdictions permits unjust results, particularly for criminal defendants seeking to rely upon the Rule. Rule 106, also known as the “rule of completeness,” is premised upon notions of fundamental fairness and ostensibly permits a party to force its adversary to introduce the remainder of a written or …

Privately Ordered Fiduciaries, Megan Wischmeier Shaner

Faculty Articles

There exists a disconnect in corporate law between the outsized role officers play in managing the corporation and the scant attention these actors receive in statutes and case law. Out of the doctrinal void, a proposal by the ABA’s Officer Liability Task Force has emerged. Seizing on the private ordering movement in corporate law, the Task Force proposes contractual means for addressing the uncertainty surrounding the duties of officers. The Task Force’s proposal extends private ordering in a radical new direction, taking aim at bedrock principles of corporate law – fiduciary duties and the business judgment rule. This article takes …

The Corporate Chameleon, Megan Wischmeier Shaner

Faculty Articles

Who is an “officer” of a corporation? That is the straightforward, yet complex, question this Article seeks to examine and answer. Corporate law contemplates three distinct actors involved in the governance of the corporation–directors, stockholders, and officers. State corporate statutes make clear the identities of the first two actors, yet “officer” is left relatively undefined. The definitional uncertainty surrounding “officer” results in individuals moving in and out of officer status in a chameleon-like fashion. The variable nature of “officer” in corporate law is problematic because officer status carries with it distinct legal consequences. Linguistic precision is vital to the development, …

Assumed Compliance, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Join With Me, Won't You? Civic Engagement, Covid-19, And The Millennial Generation Of Law Professors, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

My goals in this essay are to place legal education’s COVID-19 crisis into this broader context and illuminate the unique opportunity that millennial law professors have to create the conditions for more robust community participation within and outside of our law schools. Part I summarizes the decline of civic engagement and social capital in preceding decades and its consequences for law, public discourse, and quality of life. Part II outlines how this deficit of social capital exacerbates the challenges facing law schools and professors in delivering legal education and constructing community during the coronavirus pandemic. Part III explores the unique …

Covid, Crisis, And Courts, Colleen Shanahan, Alyx Mark, Jessica Steinberg, Anna Carpenter

Faculty Articles

Our country is in crisis. The inequality and oppression that lies deep in the roots and is woven in the branches of our lives has been laid bare by a virus. Relentless state violence against Black people has pushed protestors to the streets. We hope that the legislative and executive branches will respond with policy change for those who struggle the most among us: rental assistance, affordable housing, quality public education, comprehensive health and mental health care. We fear that the crisis will fade, and we will return to more of the same. Whatever lies on the other side of …

Legal Lessons From A Very Fast Problem: Covid-19, Eric E. Johnson, Theodore Bailey

Faculty Articles

The course of a pandemic is as much a function of social structures as protein structures. Law is among the most important of these social structures, and it is among those most capable of the kind of rapid adaptation that is needed against an exponentially replicating virus. Thus, there is an urgent need to scrutinize the role of the law in impeding or supporting timely and effective measures to combat the great pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated malady, coronavirus disease 2019, better known as COVID-19. This Essay offers a look back on …

Hands Off The Wheel: The Role Of Law In The Coming Extinction Of Human-Driven Cars, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

Law and technology scholars have been writing about the coming release of fully autonomous vehicles for quite some time, and yet there is a significant gap in that literature. The United States has experienced a technology-driven upheaval in transportation once already, and it did so almost exactly 100 years ago when society transitioned (surprisingly rapidly) from horses to automobiles. No legal scholar has, as of yet, explored that transition at any length and asked what it can teach us about the role law and lawmaking should play in the coming transition between human-driven and fully autonomous vehicles. This is a …

Judicial Independence: Origins And Contemporary Challenges, David J. Barron

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

When The Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro*: Management Best Practices In The Age Of Medicinal Marijuana, John I. Winn Jd, Llm

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Boldly Marching Through Closed Doors: The Experiences Of The Earliest Female Attorneys In Their Own Words, Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Boudreau V. Automatic Temperature Controls, Inc., 212 A.3d 594 (R.I. 2019), Sophia J. Weaver

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Puerini V. Lapierre, 208 A.3d 1157 (R.I. 2019), Rachel E. Dunham

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Saving The Space: How Free Speech Zones On College Campuses Advance Free Speech Values, Troy Lange

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Summit Insurance Co. V. Stricklett, 199 A.3d 523 (R.I. 2019), Amanda Larocca

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Full Swede: Revising Rhode Island’S Prostitution Law To Decriminalize The Selling Of Sex While Still Criminalizing The Buying Of Sex, Amanda Larocca

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States Supreme Court Survey: 2018 Term: Iancu V. Brunetti: Free Speech Meets "Immoral And Scandalous" Trademarks In The Supreme Court, Niki Kuckes

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Title Ix Beyond School Lines: The Proposed Regulations That Will Limit Colleges And Universities’ Jurisdictional Scope Of Responsibility, Rachel Dunham

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bacon Construction Co. V. Arbella Protection Insurance Co., 208 A.3d 595 (R.I. 2019), Lucas A. Sylvia

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.