Other Law Commons^™

What's Important To Write About? A Century Of Washington Law Review Topics, Hugh Spitzer

Washington Law Review

This Article examines the topics of all lead articles in Washington Law Review during its past ninety-eight years of publication. The analysis illustrates the changing interests of legal academics, student editors, and the working lawyers and judges who have read and used the articles over a century. For its first fifty years, the journal focused on general topics of interest to practitioners, Washington law matters, business and tax law, and government regulation. Other topics, such as legal and judicial system reform, constitutional law, and comparative and international law, were present in modest numbers. In its second half century, Washington Law …

Barlow V. Washington: Judicial Hesitancy And Sexual Violence At Universities, Elizabeth G. Porter

Washington Law Review

Sexual violence among university students—most frequently, violence against women—is a well-known and pernicious problem. But the liability of universities for failing to prevent such violence is exceedingly rare. Courts remain hesitant to impose a duty on universities to prevent sexual violence, even in situations where they are in by far the best position to do so. This Article examines that judicial hesitancy in the context of a claim by Madeleine Barlow, who sued Washington State University (WSU) after she was raped at an off-campus party in her first week of college by a student with a record of past sexual …

Washington's Implementation Of Legalized Cannabis: A Model For Other States And The Federal Government, Bruce Turcott, Daniel Shortt

Washington Law Review

This Article examines the process and outcomes of cannabis legalization in Washington State, offering insights for other states and potential federal legalization schemes. It begins with an overview of the campaign that led to the passage of Initiative 502 (I-502), detailing the initiative’s structure, which draws from liquor licensing laws. The Article then explores the establishment of a recreational cannabis market from scratch, focusing on agency structure, federal responses such as the Cole Memorandum, and the state’s regulatory framework aimed at preventing adverse outcomes.

Additionally, this Article highlights Washington’s efforts to promote social equity, emphasizing that I-502 was framed as …

Ai Co-Counsel: An Attorney's Guide To Using Artificial Intelligence In The Practice Of Law Symposium, Brandon Mchugh, David Myers, Ashvi Patel

Akron Law Review

This panel discussion as part of Akron Law Review’s Symposium, discusses how artificial intelligence is changing how to practice law. Panelists will focus on their own practice and how lawyers can integrate artificial intelligence into legal practice. Panelists include Brandon McHugh, an associate attorney with the Akron law firm Plakas Manos; Ashvi Patel, an associate attorney with the global law firm Jones Day; and David Myers, a partner with the northeast Ohio business law firm Buckingham, Doolittle, and Burroughs. The panel was moderated by part-time law review assistant editor and full-time professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at …

Reactive Hypotheticals In Legal Education: Leveraging Ai To Create Interactive Fact Patterns, Sean Steward

Akron Law Review

Good legal hypotheticals require carefully constructed scenarios designed to mimic the challenges and dilemmas that students will face in their future legal careers. Hypotheticals help students take abstract concepts such as negligence or res ipsa loquitor and ground them in the reality that these rules were meant to control. Yet, despite our best efforts, creating hypotheticals with a rich tapestry of facts, personalities, and complexities that characterize real-world legal practice remains challenging and time-consuming. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can solve this problem. By leveraging emerging AI technology, legal educators can create richer, more realistic hypotheticals that react to students and keep …

Let's Chat About Chatgpt: A Practical Guide To Risks In Attorney Use Of Generative Ai, Hon. John G. Browning

Akron Law Review

The rapid rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT in the legal profession has sparked significant ethical and regulatory challenges after a federal judge sanctioned attorneys for citing non-existent cases generated by AI. This incident led to widespread judicial mandates requiring disclosure of AI use and prompted bar associations and ethics committees to address AI’s implications for legal practice. Despite AI’s potential to automate up to 44% of legal tasks, concerns about accuracy and ethical obligations persist. This article argues that the issue lies not with the technology itself but with lawyers neglecting duties of competence and supervision. As generative …

Governing Generative Ai, Daryl Lim

Akron Law Review

This Article paper explores the evolving landscape of copyright law in the age of generative artificial intelligence, dissecting the multifaceted challenges and opportunities it presents for creators, legal practitioners, and policymakers. Part I, “Governing Authorship,” delves into the existential questions AI poses to traditional notions of creativity and authorship, illustrating the tension between innovation and the preservation of human creators’ rights within existing legal frameworks. Part II, “Governing Infringement,” examines the intricate issues of copyright infringement in the digital era, especially the unauthorized use of copyrighted content by AI for training purposes and the exploration of private ordering mechanisms as …

مبدأ يقينية العقد في القانون الإنجليزي- دراسة تحليلية مقارنة بالغرر في الفقه الإسلامي والقانون المقارن

UAEU Law Journal

Abstract

The principle of certainty of contract is considered one of the principles included in the unwritten English common law of customary origins and based upon judicial precedents of the English courts. It allows the court to intervene to give certainty to the contract, and save it from nullity; by completing it through construction and adding some phrases to its legal wording, and giving it an objectively clear meaning, that is consistent with the common intention of the contracting parties. This principle can also nullify the contract, despite the availability of its basic elements, if its subject matter and terms …

التجنُّس عن طريق الاستثمار دراسة مقارنة طبقاً للمرسوم بقانون إماراتي رقم (3) لسنة 2020 والتشريعين المصري والأردني

UAEU Law Journal

Abstract

This study deals with nationality by investment in accordance with the Decree by Federal Law No. (3) of 2020, which amends certain provisions of Federal Law No. 17 of 1972 regarding nationality and passports in the UAE, particularly through Article (9) bis. Since naturalization is one of the directions for obtaining citizenship, the above-mentioned article dealt with the permission to grant citizenship to certain categories which includes, investors, entrepreneurs, specialized professionals and talented people in accordance with the terms and conditions set by the executive regulations of this law, our study focuses exclusively on the investor category for whom …

Infiltrating The Black Box: Expanding The No-Impeachment Rule To Protect Defendants From Pervasive Juror Bias, Jordan Whitfield

Arkansas Law Review

In the United States, a criminal defendant is entitled to “a fair trial but not a perfect one, for there are no perfect trials.” However, defendants are also guaranteed the right to an impartial jury. While perfection within a jury is “an untenable goal,” a system that allows for juror bias during deliberations to go undetected threatens a defendant’s most crucial constitutional rights. Thus, when juror bias threatens to interfere with a defendant’s rights to a fair trial and impartial jury, there is a prevalent need for the judicial system to step in and mitigate the effects of juror bias. …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

On Blockchain As A Tool Against Corporate Corruption, Yannis Normand

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Over the last decades domestic and international legal frameworks have successfully coalesced to limit corrupt behavior worldwide. However, despite their success, current regulatory tools are not sufficiently well-equipped to address corruption in modern economic settings. These mechanisms can often be too costly to implement, too cumbersome to induce compliance, politically manipulatable, and may disincentivize foreign investment and internal corporate monitoring efforts. To address such drawbacks, policymakers should consider the introduction of blockchain-based tools in developing future anti-corruption efforts.

Blockchain can serve as a foundation for structures that can make it more attractive, easier and cost-efficient to monitor economic transactions, to …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Regulatory Sandboxes: One Decade On, Hilary J. Allen

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Regulatory sandboxes have spread like wildfire since the U.K Financial Conduct Authority launched its sandbox for financial technology businesses (fintech) one decade ago. Despite widespread adoption, however, there is little empirical evidence available to assess whether the signature sandbox policy com- bination of regulatory rollbacks and regulatory guidance is in fact good policy. The empirical evidence that is available suggests that regulatory sandboxes are beneficial for the tech firms that participate in them, but tells us nothing about how regulatory sandboxes have impacted the broader enterprise of regulation, or whether the innovation generated by sandbox participants is beneficial for any- …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Confronting The Challenges Of Regulating Artificial Intelligence, Amy B. Cyphert

FIU Law Review

Public opinion polls conclude that the American public is in favor of regulating artificial intelligence (“AI”), and many technology companies publicly claim that they would welcome regulation. And yet the United States has struggled to enact federal comprehensive AI regulations beyond a short-lived Executive Order. Why? Part I of this Article explains why regulating AI is so difficult, focusing on six key reasons: AI is a global issue; AI is not one discrete issue; AI is developing at a speed that is unprecedented; lawmakers largely lack the technical expertise effective AI regulation requires; the stakes of getting the regulation wrong …

Pitching For Reform: Cangrejeros' Push To Level The Legal Playing Field By Challenging Baseball's Antitrust Exemption, Justin P. Chaljub

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

For over one-hundred years, professional baseball has enjoyed an antitrust exemption unique among American major sports leagues, stemming from Supreme Court decisions in Federal Baseball and its progeny. This exemption has significantly influenced the evolution and structure of Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite extensive criticism and challenges for judicial and legislative reform, the exemption persists today.

However, new efforts have emerged to comprehensively disrupt this framework. In 2023, Nostalgic Partners was brought and structured to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Plaintiffs anticipated they would lose at the lower court levels and garnered widespread support for the Court to grant a …

The Federal Reserve’S Fight Against Covid-19: A Study Of The Corporate Bond Intervention, Noah Seilgson

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve (Fed) embarked on an unprecedented mission to stabilize the U.S. economy as businesses shut down. One emergency Fed facility, the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), was used to purchase corporate bonds and corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the secondary market. This extraordinary measure, which injected liquidity into the corporate bond market, aimed to mitigate economic fallout for large companies. Purchasing corporate bonds marked a departure from previous Federal Reserve interventions, but the statutory authority was the same as had been used in past crises: Section 13(3) of the Federal …

Company Districts, C.J. Suglia

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Special districts that are owned or controlled by private entities and act almost uniformly like a company town can be dubbed a “company district.” These special districts, similar to historical company towns, have autonomy over the districts, control the local government, and only have to answer to the state government. Historical company towns like Pullman, Illinois and Hershey, Pennsylvania had almost canonical command over the land within their boundaries. Company districts operate their business similar to a company town—in a city that the private entity controls, but do not have employees living on-site. Company districts benefit by being immune to …

Algorithms In Finance: Balancing First Amendment Protections And Regulation, Yusraa Tadj

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

As algorithms become a function of decision-making in the financial sector, policymakers, the judiciary, and academics grapple with regulatory questions. With the increased reliance on algorithms in finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule to mitigate potential conflicts of interest that can arise out of financial firms using algorithms. Algorithm users, including financial firms, are finding novel ways to protect algorithm use, such as by offering them First Amendment protections.

This Note considers to what extent algorithms can be considered protected speech amidst the complexity of algorithms and relationship within the financial sector. The Note argues that …

The Method Is The Message: Movement Law And The Social Change Commons, Raymond H. Brescia

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Legal scholars have long sought to understand the relationship between social movements and the law. A new group of such scholars has argued that to better understand this relationship, and to advance social change that is effective, sustainable, equitable, and just, they must engage in dialogue with such movements to generate ideas that will catalyze that change. For those interested in generating ideas that can spark meaningful and lasting social change, such developments in legal scholarship represent an exciting evolution in the relationship between legal scholarship, legal scholars, and social movements: a relationship that appears to be growing stronger, deeper, …

Absent Words, Absent Consent: Gisèle Pélicot And The Limits Of French Rape Law, Victoria Baez

FIU Law Review

France's force-based definition of rape, which centers on violence, coercion, threat, or surprise, fails to adequately protect victims who are unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to resist. This deficiency was highlighted by the Mazan case, where structural gaps in French law made prosecuting mass sexual assaults involving an unconscious victim unusually complex. Under this framework, the legal requirements to establish rape distort the understanding of consent and perpetuate longstanding rape myths, including the presumption that silence implies agreement. Although convictions were ultimately secured in the Mazan case, they occurred despite the structure of the law. Without reform, France's current rape …