Law Commons^™

State V. Ortiz, 317 A.3d 737 (R.I. 2024), Samantha Barnes

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Glassie V. Doucette, 316 A.3d 1152 (R.I. 2024), Christopher M. Ray

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislating Literacy: The Need For Reading Reform In The United States, Lia M. Williams

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practicing Justice: A Critical Self- Reflection On The Role Of Trauma In Legal Practice, Sarah Katz

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rhode Island Troopers Ass’N V. Division Of The State Police, 316 A.3d 1140 (R.I. 2024), Alexis N. Reed

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vidot V. Salisbury, 315 A.3d 928 (R.I. 2024), Alexander Lavoie

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Knudsen V. Dejean, 311 A.3d 102 (R.I. 2024), Ma Camille Briones

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Parallels In The Repatriation Of Cultural Property: How The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act Provides A Framework For A More Effective Native American Grave Protection And Repatriation Act, Samantha Rhodes

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V. Pires, 316 A.3d 701 (R.I. 2024), Anna Macgillivray

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re N.B., 312 A.3d 428 (R.I. 2024), Olivia F. Johnson

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Wellness Connection January 2025, Roger Williams University School Law Office Of Student Life

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (January 2025): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Debugging The Trademark Laws Part Ii: Criminal Penalties For Trafficking In Counterfeit Microelectronics, Patricia E. Campbell

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Counterfeit microelectronics have been a persistent problem in government and industry supply chains for many years. Counterfeit electronic parts (e.g., integrated circuits, transistors, capacitors) pose serious risks to human health and safety, harm the economy, and jeopardize national security. Trafficking in counterfeit goods and services was first criminalized in 1984, and Congress has acted on several occasions to increase the corresponding penalties. Nevertheless, the trade in counterfeit microelectronics continues to evolve to meet market demands, and relatively few criminal cases have been brought for trafficking in counterfeit microelectronics. While several factors may contribute to this apparent lack of enforcement, the …

The Artificial Intelligence Trolley Problem: Governance In The Post-Chevron World, James M. Cooper, Kashyap Kompella

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This Essay addresses a growing Constitutional challenge in public governance: the increasing delegation of consequential decisions to algorithmic systems that encode value trade-offs between liberty and security, equity and efficiency, and expression and control, without visibility, legal justification, or institutional oversight. We view this hidden normative choice an example of the “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trolley Problem.” Like the classic moral dilemma, it involves unavoidable sacrifices among competing goods. Unlike its philosophical counterpart, however, algorithmic trade-offs occur silently. They are embedded in data proxies, optimization logic, and model design, and insulated from scrutiny by claims of technical neutrality. This Essay argues …

Systemic Risk And The Social Contract, Kevin Frazier

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The stability of the constitutional order turns, in part, on a stable economy and reliable advances in technology. Political order cannot withstand economic collapse or a massive technological failure. Such crises chip away at the collective will to adhere to the social contract because they indicate the government may not have the capacity to uphold its end of the bargain—protecting individual liberty from broad threats. “Unprecedented” economic downturns, however, have a precedent of emerging from the very deliberate decision of some actors to pursue extremely risky behavior in their self-interest at the expense of the public. Societal disruption from over-dependence …

Retail Innovation Through Ai: Benefits And Liabilities, W. Michael Schuster, Simon E. Corrigan

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This article investigates the transformative capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) within the retail industry. We highlight significant opportunities for product customization, innovation, and enhanced supply chain efficiency, while also examining complex legal challenges associated with AI-generated content. In particular, concerns in the copyright realm are highlighted— including documented biases against AI-produced works. Recognizing these issues, retailers should adopt proactive legal strategies, ensure transparency, and consider hybrid human-AI collaborative approaches. Strategically addressing these issues will help maximize consumer and business benefits while mitigating legal exposure.

Robot Regulators, Brian L. Frye

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Visual Legal Rhetoric In The Age Of Generative Ai And Deepfakes: Renaissance Or Dark Ages?, Michael D. Murray

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The paradoxical development of visual generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, simultaneously signals a renaissance and a potential dark age in visual rhetoric and communication. On the one hand, these tools democratize the creation of visual content, empowering attorneys and others to become artists and illustrators of their legal communications without needing to learn how to draw. These AI systems can simplify complex legal concepts, bridge language barriers, and enhance advocacy. But on the other hand, the proliferation of deepfakes presents significant challenges for visual rhetoric. Deepfakes can quickly and easily create realistic but …

Willful Ignorance Or Embracing Ai To Find Prior Art? Uspto Misses The Mark, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is frequently in the news. Policymakers and business executives must decide whether it is a revolutionary phenomenon, likely to overturn established enterprises and practices, or if it is a mere modest advancement in decades-old natural language capability over-advertised by Silicon Valley seeking the “next big thing” and hyped by reporters eager for the next byline. The patent office and the patent bar are not immune from the turmoil. The USPTO has issued several policies and inquiries related to the impact of AI on various aspects of patent prosecution. Most recent is a Request for Comments on the …

The Radical Potential Of Consumer Financial Protection, Vijay Raghavan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers a novel retheorization of consumer financial protection that surfaces its radical potential. That retheorization is motivated by two developments. The first is the rise of debtor movements over the last decade demanding the abolition or cancellation of debt, such as the recent national campaigns against student debt and medical debt. The second is an emerging view this Article identifies in sociological and legal scholarship. Recent scholarship understands consumer financial protection as in tension with the radical ambitions of debtor movements and neoliberal in its orientation: it operates to sustain market logics as opposed to contest them.

This …

Data Property & Digital Sales, Christina Mulligan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Towards The Abolition Of The Immigration Detention Of Children In The United States, Lauren E. Bartlett

All Faculty Scholarship

For over a decade, international human rights mechanisms have been calling for the prohibition of the detention of children based solely on immigration status. Human rights experts agree that the detention of children for immigration purposes is never in the best interests of the child, it leads to long-term harm, and it is a clear human rights violation. Until recently, the United States has detained hundreds of thousands of migrant children in cages each year and we have still not outlawed the inhumane practice. This article argues that engaging with international human rights mechanisms on this topic, including during the …

The Value Of A Statistical Life: From Skin In The Game To Vision Zero, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay discusses justice issues surrounding occupational safety and health and assesses the ethical legitimacy—the justice—of regulatory cost benefit analysis when the costs in question involve the risks and realization of workplace injury and fatalities. The current “value of a statistical life” for legal-regulatory purposes is 13.1 million dollars. While economists are careful to say that this figure does not “really” represent an attempt to value any particular life, the purpose of even calculating the number is to provide an “aggregated” statistical justification for saying “no” to rules requiring safer work. This seems acceptable until you, or someone you love, …

Pharmaceutical-Telehealth Confederacies, Michael S. Sinha

All Faculty Scholarship

Access to prescription pharmaceuticals has historically been controlled by a physician’s pen. As a result, pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on advertising and promotion to mitigate this barrier: first and primarily, to physicians and other prescribers, and more recently, to the general public through direct-to-consumer advertising. The success of these promotional efforts can be seen in greater prescribing of costly brand-name medicines, even in settings where lower-priced generic alternatives exist. Brand-name prescriptions now make up only 10% of all prescriptions written yet account for 87% of drug spending. Despite these substantial returns on investment, companies continue to seek opportunities …

Bar Examination: A Verb, Not A Noun, Marsha Griggs

All Faculty Scholarship

The legal profession, long steeped in tradition, is witnessing a transformative shift in the protocols for licensing new attorneys. Multiple jurisdictions are moving away from reliance on standardized testing as the sole gateway to law practice and are developing individualized (and potentially reciprocal) systems of state licensure. Ironically, the planned launch of a new standardized exam—the NextGen bar exam—appears to be a major catalyst in the transformation of state licensure pathways. This shift has the potential to realign the regulatory hierarchy in attorney admission. Such a realignment is vital to the preservation of lawyer self-governance, and it offers great promise …

An Indecent Exposure Of The Rules Of Legal Ethics, Lauren E. Bartlett

All Faculty Scholarship

Thousands of attorneys experience rape and sexual assault by clients, as well as indecent exposure, public masturbation, unwanted touching, verbal threats, and stalking. These incidents are not often publicly reported, but client sexual violence against attorneys is not uncommon. The ethical rules currently fail to account for an attorney who has experienced client sexual violence, whether to allow for termination of representation or to mitigate future harm to other lawyers. While the ethical rules are usually thought of as neutral, this Article critically examines the gender stereotypes and structures of oppression corseting the rules. Relying on a fifty-state survey of …

Fixing Mfw: Fairness And Vision In Controller Self-Dealing, Zohar Goshen, Assaf Hamdani, Dorothy S. Lund

Faculty Scholarship

The legal regime governing controlling shareholders relies on the ability of Delaware courts to police conflicted transactions under the stringent "entire fairness" standard of review. This review involves both implicit valuation – evaluating the transaction process, and explicit valuation – assessing the fairness of the transaction's financial terms. This Article reveals a critical flaw in this regime: courts cannot reliably engage in valuation when the transaction involves an entrepreneur's idiosyncratic vision for the company. As a result, there is a gaping hole in Delaware's framework for policing the fairness of controller transactions.

Delaware courts have developed guardrails to avoid judicial …

Text, Fairness, And Efficiency: The Case Against The Plausibility Standard For Affirmative Defenses, Jessica Marks, Marcus A. Gadson

Faculty Publications

Lower federal courts have struggled to answer the following question without any guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court: Does the Iqbal and Twombly plausibility standard apply to affirmative defenses? In this essay, we explain why the answer is no. We aim to provide practical guidance to the countless judges deciding whether to strike an affirmative defense. First, we argue that Rule 8’s text makes using the plausibility standard to evaluate affirmative defenses improper. Judges should pay especially careful attention to our textual analysis because the Supreme Court has placed great weight on the text’s plain meaning in recent civil procedure …

The Lawyer's Obligation As Public Citizen, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

This essay by Gene R. Nichol examines the lawyer’s duty as a “public citizen,” drawing from the ABA Model Rules’ preamble and historical, civic, and religious touchstones to argue that legal professionals bear a unique obligation to sustain democracy, the rule of law, and public confidence in justice. Situating the discussion in contemporary struggles—particularly in North Carolina—the essay details court-documented gerrymandering, voter suppression, and politicization of the judiciary, and laments the comparative silence of the institutional legal community, including bar associations, law schools, and leading firms.

Nichol juxtaposes today’s reticence with past episodes of vocal resistance (and support) from the …