Law Commons^™

But We Didn’T Agree To That!: Why Class Proceedings Should Not Be Implied From Silent Or Ambiguous Arbitration Clauses After Lamps Plus, Inc. V. Varela, Andrea Demelo Laprade

Catholic University Law Review

The application of class arbitrability when a contract is silent on the matter remains a mystery. The Supreme Court has not clarified its stance on class arbitrability and preemptive effects of the Federal Arbitration Act on state law when applied to determine if class arbitrability is available. The purpose of this Paper is to address how the Lamps Plus v. Varela decision created more confusion about the question of class arbitrability. It argues that the failure to address the particulars of the availability of class arbitration will perpetuate litigation on this issue. This Paper suggests that the FAA’s purpose supports …

Federalism, Free Competition, And Sherman Act Preemption Of State Restraints, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

The Sherman Act establishes free competition as the rule governing interstate trade. Banning private restraints cannot ensure that competitive markets allocate the nation's resources. State laws can pose identical threats to free markets, posing an obstacle to achieving Congress's goal to protect free competition.

The Sherman Act would thus override anticompetitive state laws under ordinary preemption standards. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court rejected such preemption in Parker v. Brown, creating the "state action doctrine." Parker and its progeny hold that state-imposed restraints are immune from Sherman Act preemption, even if they impose significant harm on out-of-state consumers. Parker's progeny …

Putting A Gag On Farm Whistleblowers: The Right To Lie And The Right To Reamin Silent Confront State Agricultural Protectionism, Rita-Marie Cain Reid, Amber L. Kingery

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Whistleblowers play an important role in filling gaps in government food safety systems. Unfortunately, several dominant food-producing states have pursued legislative initiatives that punish farm whistleblowers and silence investigative tactics. First, this research describes various state legislative initiatives that curb criticism of agriculture. The work analyzes the federal food safety system and how these protections limiting agricultural criticism contravene that food safety net. Further, the research analyzes the free speech concerns in the newest protectionist laws. The analysis recommends strategies and future research to improve agricluture safety and protect free speech in an evolving food safety landscape.

Local And State Governments Are Taking The Stage When It Is Fda's Curtain Call - Are Local And State Governments' Safety Warnings Preempted By Federal Law?, Melissa M. Card

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Eliminated from fad diets, sworn off by celebrities, and frantically reformulated out of processed foods, added sugars have been deemed the new nutritional scoundrel. Recent studies from the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Cancer Association demonstrate that the consumption of added sugar leads to increased risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and gout. While all foods containing added sugar are deemed unhealthy, Sugary-Sweetened Beverages ("SSBs") are said to be especially toxic by the American health community, by virtue of these beverages' being excessively high in added sugar content, low in satiety, and incomplete in compensation …

Staying True To Nsmia: A Roadmap For Successful State Fiduciary Rules After Reg Bi, Maria E. Vaz Ferreira

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

As Americans, there is hardly anything we value more than freedom. Being “free to choose” is the core guarantee through which we pursue our livelihood and succeed at happiness. The more choices, the better. But what if we we are supposed to choose blindly? In our postindustrial society, we often feel overwhelmed by the myriad choices we must make simply to get through our daily lives. To inform our choices, we rely on assumptions. More importantly, we rely on each other.

Reliance is central in the world of financial investments. Financial products are increasingly complex, and investors need specialized …

Note: Improving The Defend Trade Secrets Act Of 2016: Against Preempting State Trade Secret Law, Victoria Hanson

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

In order to better protect companies from losing their valuable trade secrets and prevent irreparable harm, Congress enacted the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA),8 the first federal civil protection given for trade secrets. In this paper, I argue that the DTSA has indeed not met its supposed goals, but the solution does not lie in preempting state law. Firstly, I explain the history, goals, and provisions of the DTSA and how it has failed to meet the original goals over the past three years. Secondly, I explain the argument for the DTSA to preempt state law and its …

Preemption According To Islamic Jurisprudence, The Uae Transactions Law And, The Jordanian Law: A Comparative Study, Mohammad Mahmoud Abu Lail

UAEU Law Journal

Islamic jurisprudence has dealt in-depth with the concept of Preemption. Preemption is derived from an established Islamic jurisprudentialmax that: damage is to be removed either by compensation or restitution.

The research aims at investigating and analyzing the concept of Preemption in Islamic jurisprudence, UAE Transaction Law and, Jordanian Law. It focuses on the following issues: definition of Preemption, its legitimacy, its nature and, attempts to expose various legal doctrines regarding Preemption

Takings Localism, Nestor M. Davisdson, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Faculty Scholarship

Conflicts over “sanctuary” cities, minimum wage laws, and gender-neutral bathrooms have brought the problematic landscape of contemporary state preemption of local governance to national attention. This Article contends that more covert, although equally robust, state interference can be found in property, with significant consequences for our understanding of takings law.

Takings jurisprudence looks to the states to mediate most tensions between individual property rights and community needs, as the takings federalism literature recognizes. Takings challenges, however, often involve local governments. If the doctrine privileges the democratic process to resolve most takings claims, then, that critical process is a largely local …

Nothing Is Inevitable: A Rejection Of The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine Under The Defend Trade Secrets Act, Jacqueline R. Mancini

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Until June 2013, Manish Desai worked for Molon Motor and Coil Corporation (“Molon”) as Head of Quality Control. In June of that year, Desai left Molon to take a position with a competitor of Molon, Nidec Motor Corporation (“Nidec”). Molon brought suit against Nidec for trade secret misappropriation and alleged that Desai copied confidential information onto a flash drive before his departure. Based on these allegations, Molon argued not only that Desai unlawfully disclosed its trade secrets but also that “Nidec used and continues to use that information.” Molon brought suit under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and …

Food And Drug Regulation: A Statutory Approach, Adam I. Muchmore

Books

This is the first chapter of a new casebook on food and drug regulation. This book presents food and drug regulation as a statutory subject. It is organized around the structure of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and emphasizes guided reading of statutes, regulations, and federal register documents. Cases are presented primarily when they involve major issues of statutory interpretation, are historically significant, or are in one of the areas where case law plays a major role.

The book is designed to work with a Statutory and Regulatory Supplement provided as a PDF. The statutes and regulations in …

Food And Drug Regulation: Statutory And Regulatory Supplement, Adam I. Muchmore

Books

This Statutory and Regulatory Supplement is intended for use with its companion casebook, Food and Drug Regulation: A Statutory Approach (2021). This is not a traditional statutory supplement. Instead, it contains selected, aggressively edited provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), related statutes, and the Code of Federal Regulations. The Supplement includes all provisions assigned as reading in the casebook, as well as a few additional provisions that some professors may wish to cover. The excerpts are designed to be teachable rather than comprehensive.

Medical Device Artificial Intelligence: The New Tort Frontier, Charlotte A. Tschider

Faculty Publications & Other Works

The medical device industry and new technology start-ups have dramatically increased investment in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, including diagnostic tools and AI-enabled devices. These technologies have been positioned to reduce climbing health costs while simultaneously improving health outcomes. Technologies like AI-enabled surgical robots, AI-enabled insulin pumps, and cancer detection applications hold tremendous promise, yet without appropriate oversight, they will likely pose major safety issues. While preventative safety measures may reduce risk to patients using these technologies, effective regulatory-tort regimes also permit recovery when preventative solutions are insufficient.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the administrative agency responsible for overseeing the …

The Twin Environmental Law Problems Of Preemption And Political Scale, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

This is a daunting moment for the United States environmental movement. Since 2017, it often seems that federal environmental law is being systematically dismantled—most aggressively by the executive branch, but with tacit support from much of the sitting legislature, and likely with increasing support from the judiciary as well. For environmentalists, the assault on the regulatory accomplishments made over decades of previous lawmaking is cause for grief, but it also compels preparation for the challenges yet to come. This chapter advises environmentalists to resist federal preemption of state regulation and to think creatively about how to accomplish the goals of …

Environmental Rights For The 21st Century: A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Public Trust Doctrine And Rights Of Nature Movement, Erin Ryan, Holly Curry, Hayes Rule

Scholarly Publications

This Article contrasts two theoretically distinct approaches to pursuing related objectives of environmental protection: the public trust doctrine and the rights of nature movement. It reviews the development of public trust and rights of nature principles in both domestic and international legal contexts, and explores points of theoretical commonality and contrast between the two, giving special attention to the opposing systems of environmental ethics from which the anthropocentric public trust and ecocentric rights of nature principles arise. The marked jurisdictional variation associated with both approaches suggests their evolving and inchoate nature as a guarantor of environmental rights. Moreover, both are …

Pricing Drugs Fairly, Govind C. Persad

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Dissatisfaction with drug prices has prompted a flurry of recent legislation and academic research. But while pharmaceutical policy often regards fair pricing as a goal, the concept of fairness itself frequently goes undefined. Legal scholarship—even work ostensibly focused on fairness—has not defined and defended an account of fair pricing. Recent legislative proposals passed by the House and proposed by Sens. Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassley have similarly avoided a determinate position on fairness. This Article explains and defends an account of what makes a price for a drug fair that identifies fair price with social value, argues for implementing fair …

Policy Brief: The Occ’S Repeated Failures To Comply With The Dodd-Frank Act And Other Legal Authorities Governing The Scope Of Preemption For National Banks And Federal Savings Associations, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This policy brief examines several failures by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act and other legal authorities governing the scope of preemption for national banks and federal savings associations. The policy brief argues that the OCC should promptly rescind or revise several of its existing rules, policies, and legal interpretations to bring those materials into compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and other applicable laws.