Law Commons^™

Race & International Investment Law: On The Possibility Of Reform And Non-Retrenchment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The international investment regime is in flux. The mainstream practice of investment law and arbitration works on the basis of the regime’s foundations in contract and property law. However, critical scholarship in the field has unearthed the coloniality of power that permeates both the practice of international investment law and the current reform exercise led by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III. These critical scholars warn of the imminent reproduction and entrenchment of the systemic inequities, power asymmetries, and investment law’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime which is skewed against post-colonial host states. The …

To Limit Air Pollution's Risks: A Law/Science Success Story, Jamison E. Colburn

Faculty Scholarship

This is the first major study of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in a generation. This study focuses on a unique co-evolution of science and law over more than a half-century of development. Our NAAQSs can be found everywhere from your phone’s air quality index to the trends of cardiovascular and respiratory disease in America. Yet no one has studied the ways in which law and the science of air pollution have reciprocally determined each other through them. Through a study of 26 reviews across seven presidencies and 21 reported opinions adjudicating 106 petitions challenging those reviews/revisions, this …

Exploring The Role Of Mandatory Mediation In Civil Justice, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this article, I offer a framing of the debates around mandatory mediation that rest on the premise that a legitimate civil justice process depends on unhindered access to an adjudicative system, which must be recognized as a procedural right. This is a keystone of the rule of law, and a valid legal system that deserves the authority that it asserts is contingent on this. My central thesis is that requiring mediation (which is independent of the rule of law) before allowing full access to adjudication compromises the procedural rights of legal subjects, and the rule of law principle. Such …

International Investment Law And Climate Justice: The Search For A Just Green Investment Order, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Adebayo Majekolagbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Efforts are underway to craft responses to the climate crisis within the international investment order. This Article highlights international investment law (“IIL”) and international climate law (“ICL”) as two basic governance contexts within which investment- related responses to climate change are being designed. There is, however, a multilevel—normative and institutional—dissonance between both regimes that makes for an asymmetric integration of the regimes at best, or worse still, the escalation of the injustices which have characterized both. While similar in their recognition of international investment as an important tool for responding to climate change, assumptions and approaches under both regimes are …

‘A Most Equitable Drug’: How The Clinical Studies Of Convalescent Plasma As A Treatment For Sars-Cov-2 Might Usefully Inform Post-Pandemic Public Sector Approaches To Drug Development, Quinn Grundy, Chantal Campbell, Ridwaanah Ali, Matthew Herder, Kelly Holloway

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Interventional clinical studies of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 were predominantly funded and led by public sector actors, including blood services operators. We aimed to analyze the processes of clinical studies of convalescent plasma to understand alternatives to pharmaceutical industry biopharmaceutical research and development, particularly where public sector actors play a dominant role. We conducted a qualitative, critical case study of purposively sampled prominent and impactful clinical studies of convalescent plasma during 2020-2021. We found that studies were mobilized and scaled at record pace due to well-connected investigators who engaged in widespread sharing of clinical trials resources, regulatory facilitators, and …

Can A Tribunal’S Former Counsel Appear Before The Tribunal? A Comment On Certain Container Chassis, Andrew Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Lawyer mobility has been recognized as an important but not determinative consideration in legal ethics, particularly when it comes to conflicts of interest. Mobility poses particular issues for counsel to a tribunal. Those counsel may well at some point leave that position and pursue other opportunities. Prospective opportunities may sometimes involve appearing as counsel for a party before the same tribunal – especially where the tribunal operates in a highly specialized area of law. Can a lawyer appear before a tribunal if they were previously counsel to that tribunal? This discrete issue, though it rarely arises in the case law, …

“Vancouver’S Favourite Country Music Pub,” Single Room Occupancy Hotels, And The Context Of International Frameworks: Mapping Vancouver’S Urban Law And Cultural Policy, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The public and private spaces of cities, their design, and the urban law and policy that shapes the lived spaces within cities provides a potent example of overlapping and often contested heritage(s) and heritage spaces that may have built heritage merit, may carry a high intangible value as gathering spaces for art, culture, and performance, or may be both characterized by their tangible and intangible heritage merit. The layers of diverging, contested, or interwoven heritage within the same urban spaces can diverge in what they mean to a group, community, or individual. They may represent significant moments of architectural grandeur, …

'More Of The Same, But Worse Than Before': A Qualitative Study Of The Challenges Encountered By People Who Use Drugs In Nova Scotia, Canada During Covid-19, Emilie Comeau, Matthew Bonn, Sheila Wildeman, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Background

To learn about the experiences of people who use drugs, specifically opioids, in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), in Nova Scotia, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic through qualitative interviews with people who use drugs and healthcare providers (HCP). This study took place within the HRM, a municipality of 448,500 people. During the pandemic many critical services were interrupted while overdose events increased. We wanted to understand the experiences of people who use drugs as well as their HCPs during the first year of the pandemic.

Methodology

We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 13 people who use …

The Microsoft Litigation’S Lessons For United States V. Google, John E. Lopatka, William H. Page

Faculty Scholarship

The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and three overlapping groups of states have filed federal antitrust cases alleging Google has monopolized internet search, search advertising, internet advertising technologies, and app distribution on Android phones. In this Article, we focus on the DOJ’s claims that Google has used contracts with tech firms that distribute Google’s search services in order to exclude rival search providers and thus to monopolize the markets for search and search advertising—the two sides of Google’s search platform. The primary mechanisms of exclusion, according to the DOJ, are the many contracts Google has used to secure its …

Stalling A Norm's Trajectory?: Revisiting U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 On Libya And Its Ramifications For The Principle Of The Responsibility To Protect, Tiyanjana Maluwa

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Active Vices, Benjamin Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

Alexander Bickel's pathbreaking idea of the "passive virtues" attempted to explain and justify the Supreme Court's power to control its docket. He proposed that the Court's extensive discretion allows it to remain passive and avoid politically perilous cases, preserving its institutional legitimacy until such time as durable principles are at stake. This theory remains one of the most influential ideas in legal scholarship, but is dangerously incomplete. Discretion is a double-edged sword, empowering the Court not only to avoid politics, but also to engage in it. In other words, a policy-motivated Court can use its agenda-setting power to target highly …

Noise, Displacement, And Justice In Designing Urban Law And Policy For The Night, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article will map local law and policy developments regarding nighttime noise and music in Toronto, Canada, within the context of international guiding frameworks for sustainable and equitable urban development. Specific focus will be given to the agent of change principle and noise easement agreement framework as tools for urban law and policy that better respond to the realities of a 24-hour city. Then, it is argued that such tools can be used to preserve tangible and intangible cultural assets such as nighttime music venues, music performance, and the ability of urban denizens to participate in nighttime music culture. In …

Five Linguistic Methods For Revitalizing Indigenous Laws, Naiomi Walqwan Metallic

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Building on the ground-breaking work on the revitalization of Indigenous laws ongoing over the past decade, this article seeks to contribute to our understanding of how Indigenous languages can be used to recover Indigenous laws. It posits that there is not one single linguistic method, but at least five: 1) the ‘Meta-principle’ method; 2) the ‘Grammar as revealing worldview’ method; 3) the ‘Word-part’ method; 4) the ‘Word-clusters’ method; and 5) the ‘Place names’ method. Using the Mìgmaq language to illustrate, the article explains each method and provides examples of how they can be used to inform Indigenous law revitalization. The …

From Cryptocurrencies To Cryptocourts: Blockchain And The Financialization Of Dispute Resolution Platforms, Matthew Dylag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper contributes to emerging discussions of blockchain governance through an analysis of dispute resolution platforms that reimagine justice. We focus specifically on Kleros, a blockchain-enabled dispute resolution platform, that promises to secure, authenticate, and democratize access to justice for the twenty-first century. We advance the concept of cryptocourts whereby jurors, incentivized by accumulating cryptocurrency, rapidly mobilize using principles of on-demand crowdsourcing to resolve disputes. We critique the broader social imaginaries that cryptocourts such as Kleros will result in a more open, trustworthy, transparent, and democratic systems of justice. These platforms instead pose important questions concerning their potential impact …

Theorizing Access To Civil Justice, Matthew Dylag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Despite more than half a century of reform efforts, access to civil justice is still understood to be in a state of crisis. Part of the reason for this is because there is no consensus among the legal community on the meaning of justice in this context. This paper seeks to provide a muchneeded theoretical underpinning to the access-to-civil-justice movement. It advances ‘justice as fairness,’ as articulated by the American philosopher John Rawls, in conjunction with Lesley Jacobs’ model of equal opportunities, as a suitable theory in which to frame the access-to-civil-justice movement. I explain why this framework is appropriate …

Critical Pathways To Disability Decarceration: Reading Liat Ben-Moshe And Linda Steele, Sheila Wildeman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

I consider how Liat Ben-Moshe’s Decarcerating Disability and Linda Steele’s Disability, Criminal Justice and Law: Reconsidering Court Diversion contribute to emerging conversations between critical disability studies and anti-carceral studies, and between disability deinstitutionalization and prison abolitionism. I ask: what if any role might law, or specifically rights-based litigation, play in resisting carceral state strategies and redirecting material and conceptual resources toward supports for diverse forms of flourishing? I centre my remarks on the special relevance of Ben-Moshe’s and Steele’s books to social movement activism in Atlantic Canada and critical reappraisal of Canada’s solitary confinement litigation.

Achieving A (Copy)Right To Repair For The Eu’S Green Economy, Anthony D. Rosborough, Leanne Wiseman, Taina Pihlajarinne

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

• The Right to Repair is a global movement in favour of rebalancing the relationship between manufacturers and end users of products and devices. As part of the European Union (EU) Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, EU legislators have made the Right to Repair a key policy aim. To date, however, the EU’s Right to Repair policy focus has been predominantly consumer law–oriented.

• This article sheds light on another key dimension of the Right to Repair—IP (and principally copyright law). It canvasses the ways in which copyright can inhibit repair activities, including curtailing access to repair information and …

  ---

  Go to article

Repair As Research: How Copyright Impedes Learning About Devices, Anthony D. Rosborough, Aaron Perzanowski

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Widespread computerization and ubiquitous smart devices have enabled software-based copyright governance to reach into new domains. Beyond their instrumental utility, these devices are also containers of vast amounts of information in the form of software and technical know-how. Through copyright and anti-circumvention rules, however, this information can be cordoned off and confined to exclusive distribution channels. This can have a significant impact on research. While copyright law traditionally conceives research as the use of expressive works within institutional settings, this paper proposes a broader conceptualization that includes device research, including informal inquiries and DIY activities. Whether for the purposes of …

Unreasonable Risk: The Failure To Ban Asbestos And The Future Of Toxic Substances Regulation, Rachel Rothschild

Articles

Every day, Americans are exposed to hundreds of chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the products we use. The vast majority of these chemicals have never been tested far safety. Many have been shown to cause serious health harms, ranging.from cancer to autoimmune illness to IQ loss. They also have disproportionate effects on some of the most vulnerable populations in our society, such as children, minorities, and industrial workers.

The law that is supposed to protect Americans from dangerous chemical exposures-the Toxic Substances Control Act ("TSCA")-was long considered a dead letter after the Environmental Protection …

Restoring Indian Reservation Status: An Empirical Analysis, Michael K. Velchik, Jeffery Zhang

Articles

In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court held that the eastern half of Oklahoma was Indian country. This bombshell decision was contrary to settled expectations and government practices spanning 111 years. It also was representative of an increasing trend of federal courts recognizing Indian sovereignty over large and economically significant areas of the country, even where Indians have not asserted these claims in many years and where Indians form a small minority of the inhabitants.

Although McGirt and similar cases fundamentally turn on questions of statutory and treaty interpretation, they are often couched in consequence-based arguments about the good …

Back To Basics: The Benefits Of Paradigmatic International Organizations, Kristina Daugirdas, Katerina Linos

Articles

In the early 2000s, small “coalitions of the willing,” flexible networks, and nimble private-public partnerships were promoted as alternatives to bureaucratic, consensus-seeking, and slow-moving international organizations. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established as an efficient alternative to the lumbering World Health Organization. The Basel Committee, the Financial Stability Forum, and the Financial Action Task Force were lauded as global market regulators. The Pompidou Group, the Dublin Group, and Interpol were touted as effective police networks in the battle against transnational crime.

We systematically reviewed the evolution of these celebrated networks in the ensuing decades by …

How Not To Lie: A Don't-Do-It-Yourself Guide For Litigators, Leonard Niehoff

Articles

Over the past few years, a number of high-profile attorneys have been sanctioned or suspended from the practice of law because they lied. The instance that probably received the greatest media attention came in June of 2021, when the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York ordered the immediate suspension of Rudy Giuliani’s license because he had made demonstrably false statements to the courts, lawmakers, and the public at large concerning the 2020 presidential election. In a 33- page opinion, the court considered the arguments Giuliani raised in his defense but concluded that his pants …

Tempering Arbitrary Power: A Moral Theory Of The Rule Of Law, Brian Z. Tamanaha

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

No abstract provided.

The Paradoxes Of A Unified Judicial Philosophy: An Empirical Study Of The New Supreme Court: 2020-2022, Victoria Nourse

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalism's Wrong Turn: Legal Rather Than Political Supremacy, Brian Christopher Jones

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

No abstract provided.

Melnick Misses Milliken, Myron Orfield

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

No abstract provided.

It Doesn't Matter What "Interpretation" Is, Francisco J. Urbina

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

No abstract provided.

To Save Democracy From Juristocracy: J.B. Thayer And Congressional Power After The Civil War, Samuel Moyn, Rephael G. Stern

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

As many Americans once again worry that their democracy is hostage to judicial power, this Article is an archival reconstruction of how famed Harvard law professor James Bradley Thayer set out on a mission to stave off the syndrome before it stuck—though he failed in the end. The Article shows how Thayer (1831–1902) arrived at his epoch-making theory of judicial deference to safeguard Congress’s power after the democratic revolutions of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Indeed, he hoped to see America transformed in the direction of British legislative supremacy, in which Parliament—and not the courts—reigned supreme.Scandalized by growing ventures to …

Professor John S. Lowe: A Master Teacher Who Never Doubted The Confidence Of His Convictions Even When He Was Wrong!, Owen L. Anderson

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tribute For Professor Lowe, James W. Coleman

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.