Legislation Commons^™

Who Defends: Judge Sutton's Vision And The Challenge Of A Plural Executive, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

It’s no secret that this is a perilous moment for American democracy. We’re nine months out from a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, launched with the explicit goal of disrupting the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election. Congress appears gridlocked on basic questions of debt and spending, and the possibility of a default before the end of the year remains a live one, with the covid pandemic still ongoing. The U.S. Supreme Court is facing an unprecedented legitimacy deficit in the eyes of the public. Election experts warn that future American elections, including the 2024 election, …

Conflicting Limitation Periods: A Comparison Between Hong Kong And Mainland China, Alan Gibb, King Fung Tsang

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The article examines the conflicting approaches to limitation periods in private international law between Hong Kong and Mainland China. It highlights the complexities arising from Hong Kong's traditional common law approach, which characterizes limitation periods as procedural, and Mainland China's structured approach, which treats them as substantive. The article advocates for legislative reform in Hong Kong to adopt a more modern approach, aligning with international practices and reducing forum shopping and legal uncertainty.

Rethinking Immigration Enforcement, Peter L. Markowitz

Articles

As the nation turns the page away from the dark chapter of President Trump's relentless assault on immigrants, it is time to take stock of the nation's unprecedented immigration enforcement regime. During its relatively short existence, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has deported more than twice as many people as were deported in the entire previous history of the United States. The human and fiscal costs of ICE's mass deportation agenda are astronomical, and there is almost universal agreement across the political spectrum that the United States' immigration enforcement apparatus is badly broken. That, however, is where the …

Introduction, Kate Levine

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Inadequacy Of The Impossible: Obtaining Post-Conviction Dna Testing In Alabama, Trena Riley

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom From Thirst: A Right To Basic Household Water, Martha F. Davis

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

One Or Many? Critiquing New York’S "Unfortunate Event" Test For Determining Occurrences In Light Of The Passage Of The New York Child Victims Act, Kharis Lund

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defending "Universal Vacatur" - Nationwide Injunctions For Administrative Law, Michael E. Herz

Online Publications

The nationwide injunction has seized the imagination of courts and law professors in recent years. Not surprisingly, JOTWELL’s pages screens have given it extensive attention. Recent jots have described important work by Samuel Bray (twice), Amanda Frost (also twice), Russell Weaver, and Alan Trammell that attacks, defends, or theorizes nationwide (or “universal”) injunctions. Jack Beermann, in praising Bray and Frost, did have one complaint: “As an administrative law nut, I wish they both grappled more with the meaning of the APA’s instruction that reviewing courts should ‘hold unlawful and set aside’ unlawful agency action.” Mila Sohoni has now filled that …

Applying Mediation To The Complexities Of Surrogacy Agreements, Aude-Mazarine Lestienne

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In the late part of the twentieth century, assisted reproductive technologies ("ART") offered new hope to individuals who were infertile, could not carry a pregnancy, or whose attempts to form non-biological families were rejected. At the same time, advances in ART transformed and strained the traditional notions of family, as well as the legal concepts surrounding it. If utilized for the negotiation of the terms of surrogacy agreements, mediation could provide a creative alternative to time-worn legalistic approaches to solving the problems raised by these complex new family dynamics.

From A Circuit Split To A District Split: Amending Copyright Lawsuits After Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation V. Wall-Street.Com, Llc, Habeeb Sheikh

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note examines the legal implications of the Supreme Court's decision in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, which resolved a circuit split by adopting the "registration approach" for copyright lawsuits. This approach requires a copyright registration to be granted by the Copyright Office before a lawsuit can be filed. The article argues that lower courts are now divided on whether plaintiffs can amend their complaints to include newly registered copyrights after the initial filing, and it advocates for allowing such amendments to ensure fairness and efficiency in the judicial process.

Courts Beyond Judging, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

Across all fifty states, a woefully understudied institution of government is responsible for a broad range of administrative, legislative, law enforcement, and judicial functions. That important institution is the state courts. While the literature has examined the federal courts and federal judges from innumerable angles, study of the state courts as institutions of state government — and not merely as sources of doctrine and resolvers of disputes — has languished. This Article remedies that oversight by drawing attention for the first time to the wide array of roles state courts serve, and by evaluating the suitability of both the allocation …

Defining Who Is An Employee After A.B.5: Trading Uniformity And Simplicity For Expanded Coverage, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

My assessment of California’s A.B.5 differs from the evaluation advanced by the advocates and opponents of that legislation: I conclude that A.B.5 made a significant but limited expansion of the coverage of California labor law but at a notable cost. Even as A.B.5 broadened the reach of the Golden State’s labor protections, A.B.5 also made the definition of "employee” more complex and less uniform. Those seeking federal or state legislation like A.B.5 confront the same trade-off under which greater coverage is achieved at the expense of more complexity and less uniformity in the definition of who is an employee. The …

From The Frying Pan To The Fire: Scotus’ Fsia Inaction As Further Permitting Executive Branch Intervention In “Takings Exception” Cases And Its Consequences In Forcing Holocaust Plaintiffs To Return To Europe, Richard H. Weisberg

Articles

The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) very recently punted and left wide a circuit split on a key question under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”): Do plaintiff Holocaust victims need to return to the country that wronged them in order to proceed in a United States federal court that otherwise had jurisdiction over their claims? While sending down unresolved a conflict between the D.C. and Seventh Circuits, in a companion case also involving Holocaust victims, SCOTUS essentially ended an action against Germany by taking the strong suggestion of the Executive Branch through its Solicitor General that a …

Unwaivable: Public Enforcement Claims And Mandatory Arbitration, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

This essay, written for a conference on the “pathways and hurdles” that lie ahead in consumer litigation, is the first to examine the implications of California’s recent jurisprudence holding public enforcement claims unwaivable in standard-form contracts of adhesion, and the inevitable clash with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisional law interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act. With its rich history of rebuffing efforts to deprive citizens of public rights through private contract, California provides an ideal laboratory for exploring this escalating conflict.

Good Governance Paper No. 17: How To Use The Bureaucracy To Govern Well, Rebecca Ingber

Online Publications

In every new presidential administration, the President and political appointees come to power with strong views about the policies they wish to enact and the substantive breaks they wish to make with the administration that came before – including views on where the U.S. government should change legal positions on key issues. But views on substantive positions alone are not enough preparation for a new administration seeking to impose its values on the government. And policy preparation on substance is especially insufficient when an incoming administration’s values include norms of process – such as adherence to the rule of law, …

Should They Stay, Or Should They Go? Statue Politics In Shifting Societies: The Permissibility Of Peacetime Removal, Alteration And Destruction Of Problematic Political Monuments In The United States, Adrienne Liebenberg Nel

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note argues that Confederate monuments in the U.S. are often protected by outdated preservationist laws that hinder efforts to remove or alter them, despite their association with systemic racism and oppression. It advocates for legal reform to allow local governments to address these problematic symbols, drawing on international examples and emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that respects history while promoting inclusivity.

Symposium: The California Consumer Privacy Act, Margot Kaminski, Jacob Snow, Felix T. Wu, Justin Hughes

Articles

This symposium discussion of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review focuses on the newly enacted California Consumer Privacy Act (CPPA), a statute signed into state law by then-Governor Jerry Brown on June 28, 2018 and effective as of January 1, 2020. The panel was held on February 20, 2020.

The panelists discuss how businesses are responding to the new law and obstacles for consumers to make effective use of the law’s protections and rights. Most importantly, the panelists grapple with questions courts are likely to have to address, including the definition of personal information under the CCPA, the application …

Are We In Good Hands? A Comparative Analysis Of Compensation Schemes Concerning Catastrophes And Their Administrative Structure, Yi Ming Zeng

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note critiques the administrative structure of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), highlighting its limitations in providing equitable and transparent compensation. It proposes integrating elements from Germany's and Japan's administrative systems to address these shortcomings and improve future disaster compensation schemes in the U.S.

Human Rights In Indefinite Occupation: Palestine, Sari Bashi

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The article examines the tension between international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in the context of prolonged occupations, specifically focusing on Israel's 53-year occupation of Palestinian territory. It proposes a framework that integrates human rights norms, such as nondiscrimination and progressive realization of economic and social rights, into IHL to enhance protections for civilians under occupation. The analysis highlights the limitations of IHL in addressing long-term occupations and advocates for a more robust approach that balances military necessity with the welfare of the occupied population, while also addressing the challenges of enforcing these standards in the …

The Experience Of Immigrants And Low-Wage Workers In The New York Worker's Compensation System, Robert E. Grey

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The workers' compensation system, originally designed to protect low-wage and immigrant workers in hazardous occupations, has eroded over time, disproportionately affecting its intended beneficiaries. Despite initial protections, such as coverage regardless of immigration status, the system now perpetuates disparities, with declining benefits for low-wage workers and systemic barriers to access. The article advocates for reforms to address eligibility, wage replacement, and dependency requirements, emphasizing the need to adapt the system to the modern labor market, including gig economy workers.

The Sexual Being: A Vulnerability Theory Approach To Sexual Assault, Brittany Pierce

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques traditional legal frameworks addressing sexual assault for focusing on a flawed neoliberal concept of consent, which fails to account for power imbalances and societal influences. It advocates for a vulnerability theory approach, emphasizing that sexual assault is deeply rooted in institutional failures, particularly in education, religion, and cultural norms, which perpetuate harmful gender roles and lack of comprehensive sexual education. The author argues that addressing these systemic issues through education and regulation is more effective than solely refining legal definitions of consent.

What Is The Difference Between A Conclusion And A Fact?, Howard M. Erichson

Cardozo Law Review

In Ashcroft v. Iqbal, building on Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, the Supreme Court instructed district courts to treat a complaint's conclusions differently from allegations of fact. Facts, but not conclusions, are assumed true for purposes of a motion to dismiss. The Court did little to help judges or lawyers understand this elusive distinction, and, indeed, obscured the distinction with its language. The Court said it was distinguishing "legal conclusions" from factual allegations. The application in Twombly and Iqbal, however, shows that the relevant distinction is not between law and fact, but rather between different types of …

Notice Pleading In Exile, Adam N. Steinman

Cardozo Law Review

According to the conventional wisdom, the Supreme Court's 2009 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal discarded notice pleading in favor of plausibility pleading. This Article-part of a symposium commemorating the Iqbal decision's tenth anniversary-highlights decisions during those ten years that have continued to endorse notice pleading despite Iqbal. It also argues that those decisions reflect the best way to read the Iqbal decision. Although Iqbal is a troubling decision in many respects, it can be implemented consistently with the notice-pleading framework that the original drafters of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure had in mind.

The New Qui Tam: A Model For The Enforcement Of Group Rights In A Hostile Era, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

The present Administration has made clear it has no interest in enforcing statutes designed to protect workers, consumers, voters, and others. And, as we have chronicled in prior work, the ability of private litigants to enforce these laws has been undercut by developments in the case law concerning class actions—particularly class-banning arbitration clauses. As these critical enforcement methods recede, will alternative methods of prosecuting claims arise? How might they work? Are they politically and fiscally sustainable? We focus here on a promising approach just now coming into view: qui tam legislation authorizing private citizens to bring representative claims on behalf …

Easy As Abc: Why The Abc Test Should Be Adopted As The Sole Test Of Employee–Independent Contractor Status, Eric Markovits

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note examines the features and history of the three most commonly used tests for employee classification before advocating that the ABC test be more broadly adopted going forward.

How A Good Idea Became A Bad Idea: Universities And The Use Of Non-Disclosure Agreements In Terminations For Sexual Misconduct, Julie Macfarlane

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

One of the challenges that face every third-party intervenor in a conflict is what the parties shall agree about the public nature of an agreed outcome. In private dispute resolution, in contrast to adjudication by courts, there is neither a requirement nor (with a few exceptions) a legal compulsion to reveal those outcomes, if one or more parties prefer to keep the matter private.

Arbitration Of Worker Contracts: New Prime's Proper Statutory Interpretation Of The 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, Margaret L. Moses

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article will discuss how, in a future case, if the Court applied the reasoning of its unanimous opinion in New Prime-that the language of the statute should be interpreted consistent with the meaning it had to the Congress that adopted it-no worker would be covered by the FAA. Part I will consider the scope of the Commerce Clause, and the expansion in the Court's understanding of Congress' power under the Clause that occurred post-1925. In Part II, the article will deal with the purpose of the FAA as understood at the time of its adoption, as well as …

Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned: Explicitly Enumerating Clergy Members As Mandatory Reporters To Combat Child Sexual Abuse In New York, Gabriella Deritis

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Current Application Of The Myriad And Mayo/Alice Rulings On Patent Eligibility: Inconsistent Results And Contradistinguishing Biotechnology Products, Skye Cho

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note examines the inconsistent application of the patent eligibility framework under Section 101 of the Patent Act, particularly in biotechnology. It argues that despite efforts by the USPTO to clarify the framework through memos and examples, courts have applied it inconsistently, leading to discrimination against biotechnology products. The analysis focuses on key Supreme Court decisions, such as Myriad Genetics and Mayo, and their impact on the patent eligibility of biotechnological innovations. The note highlights the need for clearer guidance to ensure consistent outcomes and fair treatment of biotechnological inventions.

Scrolling, Trolling, And Uploading: Youtube's Impact On Modern Public Discourse, Internet Regulation, And Free Speech, Brett Gossett

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.