Law Commons^™

Forget About Ferpa: How Foia Protects Student-Athlete Privacy In The Nil Era, Kamron Cox

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The start of the name, image, and likeness (NIL) era stirred public fervor about the new earning potential of high-profile student-athletes. Since institutional policies and state laws governing NIL require student-athletes to broadly disclose information about their NIL activities to their respective institutions, the several state laws that follow the approach of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) can jeopardize the privacy of student-athlete NIL information. Major universities have repeatedly resorted to the unreliable defense of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as well as sporadic state legislation to protect student-athlete privacy in the new NIL space. However, …

Breaking Cultural And Financial Barriers In Olympic Sports, Maureen A. Weston, Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Nelson Mandela has said that “[s]port has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does . . . . It is more powerful than governments in breaking down barriers.” Sports can have tremendous value, not only to the individual participants in promoting physical and mental health, skills, and teamwork, but also to society in fostering community, civic pride, and a sense of belonging, even among the fans. Sports have significant economic, political and cultural impacts at the local, national, and international spheres. …

The Potential Of Humor To Joyously Dismantle Ableism+: Considerations For Social Workers, Mia Ocean

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy transformation. First, I share an example of how to use humor as a direct, call-in strategy to confront social worker-initiated ableist interactions. Second, I describe how a mixed disabled/abled couple can laugh together at …

Counting Is Hard! A Theory Of Doctrinal Expansion, Kip Hustace

Faculty Articles

We conventionally see pleading as liberalized, with leeway for inconsistent claims and expansive choice among theories of relief, or counts. Yet procedure scholars have shown how heightened pleading post-Twiqbal constricts liberality, turning us back toward 19th Century fact-intensive code pleading. This Article theorizes a further constriction: proliferating and ossifying counts. While affording pleading latitude, doctrinal expansion forces hard strategy decisions and represents an inversion of the maxim that procedure shapes substance. Expansion increases system complexity, making localized strategy and discretion more impactful and amplifying opportunities for juridical manipulation. The result: doctrines complexifying toward a tipping point, beyond which we make …

Criminal Law Drafting Manual, Jean Mangan

Books

This textbook was created under a Round 19 Mini-Grant. It is hosted on the Open ALG (Affordable Learning Georgia) Projects platform. 2024 edition.

Beside Marriage Equality: Conversations On Supriyo, Danish Sheikh, Rupali Samuel

Socio-Legal Review

This case comment takes the form of an epistolary exchange between the authors as they reflect on the Indian Supreme Court’s 2023 judgment in Supriyo @ Supriya Chakraborty & Anr v Union of India, which denied the existence of a constitutional right to marriage and deferred the responsibility of legalising same-sex marriage to the legislature. Through a staged conversation, the comment explores personal subject positions, legal frameworks, and the intricate entanglements of intimacy and state recognition. The authors consider how the law leaves imprints on our bodies and, in turn, how our embodied lives reshape the law through acts …

Empirical Examination Of Factors That Influence Official Decisions In Criminal Cases Against Police Officers, Francis D. Boateng, Daniel K. Pryce, Michael K. Dzordzormenyoh, Ming-Li Hsieh, Alan Cuff

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In the current paper, we examine departmental and court decision-making in criminal cases against police officers. The study has two objectives: 1) to examine variables that impact departmental decisions in criminal cases against police officers, and 2) to examine factors that affect case disposition/conviction decisions by the courts. To achieve these objectives, we analyzed nationally representative arrest data using multiple statistical approaches. The results obtained revealed important patterns that are critical to our understanding of how the courts and police departments decide matters relating to police criminality. For instance, victim characteristics significantly influenced decision-making by both the police agency and …

The Challenges And Rewards Of Carrying Out Qualitative Research On The Police In The African American Community, Daniel K. Pryce, Ingrid Phillips Witaker

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In this paper, we discuss the challenges and rewards of carrying out qualitative research on the police in the African American1 community. Using data drawn from interviews with seventy-seven African American adults in Durham, NC, we found that community member hostility toward research(ers) and fear of both neighbors and the police lowered African Americans’ willingness to be interviewed about their perceptions of and experiences with U.S. police. These findings were observed primarily in public housing and middle-income communities. On a positive note, we found that greater awareness of policing issues increased African Americans’ willingness to participate in research about the …

Model For Understanding Cedaw's Impact On Implementing Gender Equality Reforms: Lessons From Canada And India, Amanda L. Stephens

Faculty Articles

This Article provides a model for examining the impact of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW") on implementing gender equality reforms using Canada and India, two CEDAW State Parties, as case studies. It also explores the influence of heteropatriarchy, deeply rooted cultural norms perpetuating gender inequality, on hindering CEDAW's ratification in the United States, as well as CEDAW's effectiveness in implementing reforms in Canada and India. The analysis showcases how non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") in these countries have nevertheless achieved limited successes through their mobilization of CEDAW to address specific gender injustices, such as …

The Short And Troubled History Of The Printed State Administrative Codes And Why They Should Be Preserved, Kurt X. Metzmeier

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This article makes a case for the historical importance of early state administrative codes and urges that law libraries preserve them for future researchers of state administrative law and policy.

Content Moderation Regulation As Legal Role-Scripting, Sari Mazzurco

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Lawmakers and scholars concerned with content moderation regulation typically appeal to "analogies" to justify or undermine different forms of regulation. The logic goes: law should afford individuals due process rights against speech platforms because speech platforms are "like" speech governors as a matter of objective reality. Other common analogies include common carriers, publishers, distributors, shopping malls, and bookstores. Commentators attempt to invoke social roles to understand what the content moderation relationship is, what behaviors are "right" and "wrong" within it, and how law should police behavioral deviations. But they do so without relying on foundational sociology theory that explains what …

The Death Of The Evolving Standards Of Decency, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The Eighth Amendment Punishments Clause is in jeopardy. The constitutionality of punishments is usually judged according to the “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” And in evaluating these standards, the Court has traditionally looked to changing societal views on punishment. This is a living constitution approach to interpretation, and the Eighth Amendment is the only area of law in which the Court has consistently and explicitly ap-plied such an approach. But a living constitution approach is diametrically opposed to the current Court’s focus on originalism. This is the first originalist Court in history, and …

Origins Of Russian Membership In The Council Of Europe And The Seeds Of Russia's Expulsion, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The story of Russia’s membership in the Council of Europe now has a beginning, a middle, and an end. What can we learn about the values of this international organization, and its preeminent human rights convention, from Russia’s inclusion in them? Was Russia’s membership “worth it”? Any attempted answer must produce more questions: from which perspective – Russia’s, the Council’s, other Member States’ – should the effects of Russian membership be evaluated? How did the Council of Europe change Russia (if Russia was, indeed, changed) and how did Russia change the Council of Europe?

This paper examines the beginning of …

Ghost-Hunting In Ai And The Law, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Generative AI is booming. This technology offers amazing opportunities for growth in various business sectors and creates the opportunity for swift progress on medical innovations, climate change, world hunger, and innumerable other areas. AI also poses a number of challenges, though, such as replacing human workers and exacerbating pernicious biases. Another major concern about generative AI is singularity-the idea that this technology could surpass human intelligence and subjugate us or render us extinct. Although some commentators discount this possibility, the fact that AI experts such as Geoffrey Hinton, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk share the singularity concern should at least …

The Law Of The New Musical Author, Eyal Brook

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The process of musical creation has been transformed materially in the Digital Age due to technological developments, both regarding the technologies for making music and regarding novel stylistic developments. New musical practices, based on novel technology, afford entirely new modes of creative authorship. The effects of such shifts have redefined the nature of music and the role of musicians in fundamental ways. This article opens a new debate regarding the identity ofthe new musical author and the changes to the musical creative process.

As such changes have impacted the musical creative process, there are necessary changes required to adapt the …

Satire And Actual Malice: Expanding The Reasonable Reader Analysis For The Modem Era, Cory Crystal

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

For The Love Of The Game: Examining The Legality Of Unofficial Fan Video Game Remakes, Madeleine Higgs

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note explores the legal challenges faced by creators of fan remakes of delisted video games under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and proposes potential solutions to address these issues. It argues that expanding exemptions for such works and adopting a statutory licensing regime could provide a legal framework that balances the rights of copyright holders with the creative interests of fan creators. The analysis emphasizes the need for reforms to prevent overly broad enforcement of copyright protections and to incentivize fair use considerations.

Is Chinese Law Well-Prepared For Al Songs?: A Note Of Caution On The Over-Expansion Of Personality Rights, Yang Chen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) singers, or more precisely, AI songs cloning celebrities' real voices (AI songs), have become a key topic in the entertainment industry and among fan groups across the globe, particularly in China. AI songs have attracted considerable attention from the legal community, as they unsurprisingly raise various ethical and legal issues. Examples of hotly discussed legal issues surrounding AI songs include whether using prior published songs to train AI models violates copyright holders' rights and whether the creators of Al songs breach copyright protection by training AI to sing songs copyrighted by other celebrities or companies. One …

Bias Notification Duty, Eldar Haber, Shai Stern

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Algorithms are often tainted with bias that could negatively affect subjects' lives in many aspects. But while policymakers and scholars tend to focus their attention on methods to fix the bias within the algorithm or its output, they neglect a crucial piece of the puzzle: when companies discover bias and fix it in the algorithmic output, they do so behind the scenes. While such a move might debias the output, society remains in the dark about its existence or how it might have affected the outcome. Society thus misses a unique opportunity to study social and cognitive biases that shape …

What Happens When The Conflicts Of Interest Board Does Not Prevent Conflicts? Examining New York City Charter Chapter 68, Abigail Damsky

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note critiques the New York Board's advisory opinion on elected officials' use of personal social media accounts, arguing that it contravenes Chapter 68 and Board Rule Section 113 by allowing the use of city resources for political gain, undermining government integrity, and creating transparency issues under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The analysis advocates for revising the advisory opinion to align with existing ethical standards and ensure accountability.

The New Frontier For Bankruptcy: Crypto, Lindy Lofton

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note examines the regulatory challenges posed by the rise of cryptocurrency platforms like Celsius and FTX, which have faced significant financial difficulties and bankruptcy. These platforms operate similarly to traditional banks and brokerages but lack the same regulatory oversight, leaving customers vulnerable without protections like FDIC insurance. The note argues that adopting legislation akin to the Banking Act of 1933 or the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) could provide necessary safeguards, such as insurance mechanisms similar to FDIC or SIPC. However, the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency and opposition from the crypto community pose challenges to implementing such regulations. The …

Trademark Fair Use Is No Joke, Christine Haight Farley

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article critiques the Supreme Court's decision in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products, arguing that the Court missed an opportunity to clarify the relationship between trademark law and the First Amendment. While the Court acknowledged the importance of protecting parodies, it failed to develop a comprehensive framework for balancing trademark rights with free speech. Instead, it introduced a narrow rule that limits the application of the Rogers test, potentially undermining speech protections in trademark disputes. The article contends that the Court's reliance on the likelihood of confusion test is insufficient to address the broader First Amendment implications of …

What Recent Scrutiny Surrounding New Jersey's Newborn Screening Program Is Missing: Comment On The Reproductive And Social Justice Issues The Program Illuminates, Dylan Blanchard

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note critiques New Jersey's Newborn Screening Program, highlighting its constitutional and social justice implications. While the program is a vital public health measure, its retention of newborn blood samples without informed consent and subsequent use by law enforcement raises significant Fourth Amendment concerns. The analysis argues that the program disproportionately impacts minorities and perpetuates systemic racism in the criminal legal system, as biometric data from these samples can be used to bypass probable cause requirements.

Incentivizing Innovation In The Realm Of Social Goods: Patent Law's Unintended Inhibiting Effect On Environmental Technological Advancement, Ethan Graham

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note argues that while Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology holds significant potential to address climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, its development and deployment are hindered by the gatekeeping mechanism of patents. These patents, though intended to incentivize innovation, often stifle progress by restricting access to critical technologies. The analysis highlights the urgency of climate action, the limitations of current legal frameworks, and the need for policy reforms to accelerate DAC innovation and mitigate global warming.

Regulatory Approaches To Consumer Protection In The Financial Sector And Beyond: Towards A Smart Disclosure Regime?, Nydia Remolina, Yvonne Ai-Chi Loh, David Hardoon

International Journal on Consumer Law and Practice

Consumer and data protection policies often focus on consent and information disclosure. The purpose of these regulatory strategies is the protection of consumers by reducing some contracting failures, such as asymmetries of information and a lower bargaining power, especially in transactions involving complex issues such as financial products and sensitive personal data. In the past, regulators have responded to privacy and consumer protection by adopting what this article refers to as an “imperfectly informed regime”, in which consumers do not receive full information about the risks associated with their decisions, even if they are still protected through a variety of …

Impact Of Social Media Influencers On Consumer Choice: A Case Study Of Reviews By Youtubers, Faisal Fasih

International Journal on Consumer Law and Practice

Consumer participation is vital for businesses, especially in online markets, because potential customers cannot physically check the product. One of the standard options is to watch the review on YouTube, a source of a host of information, including consumer-related products. However, it also provides a fertile ground for disseminating misinformation, including fake reviews of consumer goods, because the contents of the information are unverified. Fake reviews can create information asymmetry, lead to the dismissal of genuine reviews, and ultimately reduce market competition. Therefore, one would have expected that the popularity of YouTube would decrease as a source of information access. …

Evaluating The Rights Of Air Consumers Under International And Regional Instruments With A Focus On Qatar, Eman Naboush

International Journal on Consumer Law and Practice

This paper examines the rules protecting air consumers in cases of flight disruptions as outlined in the international instruments, regional agreements, and in Qatar. It aims to examine the Qatari rules that may provide protection for air consumers and compare them to those adopted regionally and internationally. The article demonstrates that Qatari legislation falls short of the internationally recognized minimal threshold for safeguarding air consumers, as implemented in other countries. Nevertheless, the Qatari national airline incorporates many sets of regulations for customers from the European Union, United States, and Canada in its carriage contract. Although the contractual provisions offer significant …

The Emerging Name, Image, And Likeness Industry And The Perils Of Appropriating "Entrepreneurial" Collegiate Athletes' And "Vengeful" Minors' Property Interests - Historical And Empirical Guidance From Courts' Rights Of Publicity, Misappropriation, And Breach Of Contract Decisions, Willy E. Rice

Faculty Articles

From the late-1880s to the early-2020s, universities and the collegiate sports industry exploited millions of "college kids" as well as their parent investors by preventing "entrepreneurial athletes" from monetizing their names, images, and likenesses (NILs). Yet, during the same era, the collegiate-athletics industry like the movie and music industries appropriated young people's NILs and pocketed billions of dollars. In 2021, the Supreme Court decided NCAA v. Alston and embraced the Ninth Circuit's ruling in O'Bannon v. NCAA. Ostensibly, these decisions and thirty plus state NIL statutes terminated the "official" exploitation of students. Currently, entrepreneurial students and some parents may commercialize …

Front Matter

Animal Law Review

Front Matter includes Front Matter includes Title Page, Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for Animal Law Review Volume 30, Issue 2, 2024.

The 3rs And Non-Human Animals In Biomedical Research: The Next 65 Years, Paul Locke, Richelle Romanchik, Breanne Kincaid, Emily Golden

Animal Law Review

It has been 65 years since the publication of Russell and Burch’s “The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique,” which established the ‘3Rs’—refinement, reduction, and replacement—as the key principles applicable to decision making about, and the use of, non-human animals in laboratory settings. The 3Rs are universally accepted by responsible scientists throughout the world and form the basis for many national legal and regulatory systems governing animal use in laboratories. This Article will discuss broadly how the 3Rs have evolved over the past seven decades since the publication of Russell and Burch’s seminal work, and examine the 3Rs in light of …