Law Commons^™

Foreword: From Personal Life To Private Law: The Jurisprudence Of John Gardner, Scott Hershovitz

Other Publications

John Gardner was a great philosopher. He was appointed as the Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford when he was still quite junior in the profession. It was a big job. Ronald Dworkin held the post before Gardner, and H.L.A. Hart before him. Gardner delivered on his promise. He had wide-ranging interests. He wrote about jurisprudence, criminal law, and tort law. His pushed those fields forward—and others too. Gardner’s scholarship was incisive, creative, rigorous, generous, and witty. He had a knack for illuminating law and life too. In recent years, Gardner published two books that tackled tort law: From Personal Life …

Brief For Plaintiff-Appellee, Carroll V. Trump, No. 20-3977 (2nd Cir. Apr. 16, 2021), Leah Litman, Roberta A. Kaplan, Joshua A. Matz, Raymond P. Tolentino

Appellate Briefs

Introduction

In June 2019, E. Jean Carroll revealed that former President Donald J. Trump had sexually assaulted her decades earlier. Trump denied it, saying he did not know who Carroll was and had never met her. But he did not stop there. He launched a series of vicious, personal attacks. He implied that she was too ugly to rape; that she had falsely accused other men of sexual assault; and that she had invented her story for money, or to sell books, or to advance a political plot. None of this was true. Trump knew that he had assaulted Carroll. …

How Can I Tell If My Algorithm Was Reasonable?, Karni A. Chagal-Feferkorn

Michigan Technology Law Review

Self-learning algorithms are gradually dominating more and more aspects of our lives. They do so by performing tasks and reaching decisions that were once reserved exclusively for human beings. And not only that—in certain contexts, their decision-making performance is shown to be superior to that of humans. However, as superior as they may be, self-learning algorithms (also referred to as artificial intelligence (AI) systems, “smart robots,” or “autonomous machines”) can still cause damage.

When determining the liability of a human tortfeasor causing damage, the applicable legal framework is generally that of negligence. To be found negligent, the tortfeasor must have …

Impostor Scams, David Adam Friedman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Impostor scams have recently become the most common type of consumer scam in America, surpassing identity theft. It has never been easier and more profitable to be an impostor scammer. Though the core of these scams dates back centuries, these fraudsters consistently find novel ways to manipulate human motives and emotions. Nonetheless, the public should not give up hope. Policymakers and private actors can slow down this scourge if they focus on the key chokepoints that impostor scammers rely upon to achieve their ends. This Article provides a roadmap for a solution to impostor scams, offering specific suggestions for mitigating …

The Ragged Edge Of Rugged Individualism: Wage Theft And The Personalization Of Social Harm, Matthew Fritz-Mauer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Every year, millions of low-wage workers suffer wage theft when their employers refuse to pay them what they have earned. Wage theft is both prevalent and highly impactful. It costs individuals thousands each year in unpaid earnings, siphons tens of billions of dollars from low-income communities, depletes the government of necessary resources, distorts the competitive labor market, and causes significant personal harm to its victims. In recent years, states and cities have passed new laws to attack the problem. These legal changes are important. They are also, broadly speaking, failing the people they are supposed to protect.

This Article fills …

Tort Law And Civil Recourse, Mark A. Geistfeld

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Recognizing Wrongs. by John C.P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky.

From Automation To Autonomy: Legal And Ethical Responsibility Gaps In Artificial Intelligence Innovation, David Nersessian, Ruben Mancha

Michigan Technology Law Review

The increasing prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in daily life and the evolving capacity of these systems to process data and act without human input raise important legal and ethical concerns. This article identifies three primary AI actors in the value chain (innovators, providers, and users) and three primary types of AI (automation, augmentation, and autonomy). It then considers responsibility in AI innovation from two perspectives: (i) strict liability claims arising out of the development, commercialization, and use of products with built-in AI capabilities (designated herein as “AI artifacts”); and (ii) an original research study on the ethical practices …

Sovereign Immunity And Interstate Government Tort, Louise Weinberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This paper argues that the Supreme Court made a serious mistake last term, when, in a case of interstate government tort, it tore up useful options that should be available to each state for the rare cases in which they would be of service. In seeking to insulate a state from liability when its employee intrudes on a sister state’s territory and causes injury there, the Court stripped every state of power, in cases of interstate government tort, to try injuries occurring on its own territory to its own residents—an unprecedented disregard of a state’s acknowledged traditional interests. Indeed, the …