Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Cross-Examining The Brain: A Legal Analysis Of Neural Imaging For Credibility Impeachment, Charles N. W. Keckler

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

The last decade has seen remarkable process in understanding ongoing psychological processes at the neurobiological level, progress that has been driven technologically by the spread of functional neuroimaging devices, especially magnetic resonance imaging, that have become the research tools of a theoretically sophisticated cognitive neuroscience. As this research turns to specification of the mental processes involved in interpersonal deception, the potential evidentiary use of material produced by devices for detecting deception, long stymied by the conceptual and legal limitations of the polygraph, must be re-examined. Although studies in this area are preliminary, and I conclude they have not yet satisfied …

Thinking Outside The Pandora's Box: Why The Dmca Is Unconstitutional Under Article I §8 Of The U.S. Constitution, Joshua L. Schwartz

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Ancillary Joint Ventures And The Unanswered Questions After Revenue Ruling 2004-51, Gabriel O. Aitsebaomo

ExpressO

Ever since the Internal Revenue Service (the "Service") issued Revenue Ruling 98-15… in which it emphasized "control" as a critical factor in determining whether a tax-exempt hospital that enters into a whole-hospital joint venture with a for-profit entity would continue to maintain its tax-exemption, practitioners and scholars alike have sought guidance from the Service regarding whether such "control" would also be required of an exempt organization that enters into an "ancillary joint venture" with a for-profit entity. In response, the Service issued Revenue Ruling 2004-51 on May 6, 2004.

… In Revenue Ruling 2004-51, the Service enunciated that a tax-exempt …

Will Video Kill The Radio Star? Visual Learning And The Use Of Display Technology In The Law School Classroom, Fred Galves

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Owning Music: From Publisher's Privilege To Composer's Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

ExpressO

More than four years after Napster demonstrated the power of the Internet as a means of distributing music, we still are in the midst of a cultural and legal debate about what the respective rights of music copyright owners, follow-on creators, disseminators, and purchasers should be. A common assumption underlying much of the debate is that whatever settlement emerges, it will apply equally to all forms of expression. This Article questions that assumption by investigating the early history of copyright in music.

For the first time in legal scholarship, the Article reveals and examines the distinct early history of copyright …

Media Policy Out Of The Box: Content Abundance, Attention Scarcity, And The Failures Of Digital Markets, Ellen P. Goodman

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Unilateral Application Of The Lanham Act, Jinku Hwang

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Diamond V. Chakrabarty: Gauging Congress’ Response To Dynamic Statutory Interpretation By The Supreme Court , Anna E. Lumelsky

ExpressO

In this article, I consider the 1980 Supreme Court decision, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, and Congress’ response to it in light of several contemporary views on statutory interpretation. I conclude that in science and technology-related cases in which delay could significantly hamper the advancement of the field, the Supreme Court should interpret federal statutes dynamically in response to a changing social context, but should also attempt to conform its interpretations to legislative preferences in order to avoid a legislative override.

Fuel Efficiency: The Disconnect Between Environmental Policy And Tax Policy, John J. Marciano

ExpressO

The recent high gas prices in America have intensified the debate over oil and gas efficiency, use, and reserves. As the national average for a gallon tops $2.10, Congress and the President strive to find a common position to foster energy independence, protect the environment, and bolster the struggling economy.

President Bush’s energy policy and recent Senate and House bills have not contemplated their effects on the environmental state of our nation or its impact on the internal revenue code. In this time of uncertainty, energy independence and measured use of resources may be at odds, but must we stray …

Essay, Digital Bowdlerizing: Removing The Naughty Bytes, Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

ExpressO

Unlike Dr. Bowdler, who republished the works of Shakespeare with the naughty bits removed, the modern digital Bowdlerizer deletes offensive content from digital works in a variety of ways. This Essay will analyze the technologies used by the modern Bowdlerizer to determine when, if, and which technologies make copies in violation of the copyright owner’s § 106(1) right to control reproduction or make derivative copies of a preexisting work that may infringe the copyright owner’s 17 U.S.C. § 106(2) right to authorize the creation of derivative works. These technologies not only support militant prudery, but they also may add new …

Modern Bootlegging And The Prohibition On Fair Prices: Last Call For The Repeal Of Pharmaceutical Price Gouging, Luke W. Cleland

ExpressO

This article discusses the recent passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Modernization and Improvement Act of 2003, and the executive and judicial decisions affecting the ability of the general public to access foreign pharmaceutical markets. The article examines the recent actions taken by the U.S. government, explore various state movements within the United States aimed at reducing pharmaceutical drug prices, outline the process of pharmaceutical drug prices in foreign countries, and advocate for a workable integration of all available mechanisms to feasibly reduce prescription drug prices for the benefit of both U.S. consumers and U.S. drug companies. As avenues to …

A Distance Education Primer: Lessons From My Life As A Dot.Edu Entrepreneur, Linda C. Fentiman

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Options For Designing A Mandatory U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program, Robert R. Nordhaus, Kyle W. Danish

ExpressO

The United States faces growing pressure – both from domestic and international sources – to adopt a mandatory greenhouse gas reduction program to address the risk of global climate change. If policy-makers decide to establish such a program, they could end up creating an environmental regulatory regime of potentially unprecedented scope and impacts. A domestic greenhouse gas program could break ground in other ways too. Many policy-makers are considering innovative market-based approaches to regulation, including a multi-billion dollar economy-wide “cap-and-trade” program. In this paper, we: (1) set forth criteria for evaluating program options; (2) analyze the leading design options and …

Innovation, Regulation And The Selection Environment, Timothy F. Malloy, Peter Sinsheimer

ExpressO

This article focuses on the question of how regulation can be best designed to encourage technological innovation. Most scholarship in this area applies standard economic analysis to evaluate the impact of various forms of regulation on technological innovation. We reject that approach as too narrow, drawing instead upon principles of evolutionary economics. The basic premise of the article is that a firm’s technology choices—and its response to regulation intended to shape those choices—are influenced by other actors (such as suppliers and competitors), by external social and legal institutions (e.g., industry standards and norms) and by the firms' internal structure (such …

Government Policy Towards Innovation In The United States, Canada, And The European Union As Manifested In Patent, Copyright And Competition Laws, Daniel J. Gifford

ExpressO

Abstract: This paper examines a number of government policies related to competition or intellectual property and affecting innovation for their welfare effects. Its premise is that the enhancement of social welfare is included among the purposes of competition and intellectual-property laws. It also assumes that innovation is a major contribution to long-run welfare. The paper then considers whether the policy initiatives under review furthered that purpose. First it considers U.S. and Canadian legislation designed to promote the entry of generic pharmaceutical products into the market and the response (or lack thereof) of both governments to the issue of regulatory delay …

Assisted Reproduction In Germany And The United States: An Essay In Comparative Law And Bioethics , John A. Robertson

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Gay And Lesbian Rights To Procreate And Access To Assisted Reproductive Technology, John A. Robertson

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Democratic Public Domain: Reconnecting The Modern First Amendment And The Original Progress Clause (A.K.A. Copyright And Patent Clause), Malla Pollack

ExpressO

If the Progress Clause, a.k.a. the Patent and Copyright Clause, of the U.S. Constitution had been construed when its original meaning was still obvious, United States law would be far different. In this area at least, the Drafters’ Constitution was much less aristocratic than the modern (mis)reading. The original meaning of the Progress Clause, furthermore, should have stimulated a more communitarian First Amendment, the type of First Amendment currently being suggested by leading First Amendment scholars such as Jack Balkin.

The Dmca Subpoena Power: Who Does It Actually Protect?, Thomas P. Ludwig

ExpressO

After years of legal maneuvering and courtroom skirmishes, the lines in the war between copyright holders and online copyright infringers have been clearly drawn. This conflict, which is poised to erupt in courts across the country, began decades ago with the birth of the Internet, which gave rise to a previously unparalleled opportunity for the dissemination, sharing, and enjoyment of every conceivable form of human expression. In addition to the benefits it has provided, the Internet also has given rise to copyright infringement on a global scale through the unauthorized posting and sharing of digital files. After years of unsuccessfully …

Invasion Of The Clones: Animal Cloning And The Potential Implications On The Future Of Human Cloning And Cloning Legislation In The United States, The United Kingdom, And Internationally, Adrienne N. Calhoun

ExpressO

Cloning is an area of science that changes daily; with advances being made constantly. This technology has caused great controversy in the United States and across the world. The issue has raised religious, ethical, technical and legal concerns. This paper is broken into four parts in order to best address the complex area of cloning technology. Part one will be a review of the history of the science of cloning and the history of animal cloning. Part two will be a discussion of the risks and benefits of cloning. Part three will address ethical and religious concerns surrounding human cloning. …

Developing Internationally Uniform Liability Principles For Harms From Genetically Modified Organisms , Ryan C. Hansen

ExpressO

This paper analyzes the current legal principles regarding liabillity for harms from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the U.S. and E.U., as well as the various international policies and mechanisms affecting GMOs

National Identity Cards: Fourth And Fifth Amendment Issues, Daniel J. Steinbock

ExpressO

In the past two years there have been serious calls for a national identity system whose centerpiece would be some form of national identity card. Such a system is seen mainly as a tool against terrorists, but also as a useful response to illegal immigration, identity theft, and electoral fraud. Both proponents and opponents have noted the potential constitutional problems of such an identity system, but as yet there has been no published legal analysis of these questions. This article aims to fill that gap by analyzing the Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues in two major features of any likely …

A Gradual Shift In U.S. Privacy Laws Towards A Comprehensive Regime , Kamaal R. Zaidi

ExpressO

This paper examines the current trends in a predominantly sectoral U.S. privacy regime that appears to be becoming more comprehensive in nature with respect to data privacy protection. This trend has been greatly attributed to the European Union's comprehensive position on data privacy protection. This paper investigates the growth in U.S. data privacy protection in relation to federal and state legislative history, federal administrative procedures, and private industry efforts. This shift from sectoral to comprehensive regimes is significant in the backdrop of U.S-EU trade relations.

Whose Music Is It Anyway?: How We Came To View Musical Expression As A Form Of Property -- Part I, Michael W. Carroll

Working Paper Series

Many participants in the music industry consider unauthorized downloading of music files over the Internet to be “theft” of their “property.” Many Internet users who exchange music files reject that characterization. Prompted by this dispute, this Article explores how those who create and distribute music first came to look upon music as their property and when in Western history the law first supported this view. By analyzing the economic and legal structures governing musicmaking in Western Europe from the classical period in Greece through the Renaissance, the Article shows that the law first granted some exclusive rights in the Middle …

Technological Protection Measures In The United States, The European Union And Germany - How Much Fair Use Do We Need In The "Digital World"?, Wencke Baesler

ExpressO

This article analyzes the different approaches of the United States and the European Union in the EU Copyright Directive towards the protection of technological protection measures against circumvention. The European and German laws have a radically different approach to fair use that heretofore has not been satisfactorily examined. It is a basic principle of copyright law in the European countries not to provide for a broad fair use exception, but to enumerate specific uses that are excluded from the copyright owner’s right to intervene. However, mostly payment of a reasonable compensation is required. This system is preserved in the recently …

The Rational Exuberance Of Structuring Venture Capital Startups, Victor Fleischer

ExpressO

This Article takes the bursting of the dot com bubble as an opportunity to reevaluate the tax structure of venture capital startups. By organizing startups as corporations rather than as partnerships, investors and entrepreneurs seem to leave money on the table by failing to fully use tax losses -- especially since the vast majority of startups fail. Conventional wisdom attributes the lack of attention paid to losses to a "gambler's mentality" or optimism bias. I argue here that the use of the corporate form is, in fact, rational, or at least that there is a method to the madness.

I …

Monopoly Power In The Electronic Information Industry: Why, And So What?, Curt A. Hessler

ExpressO

This "law and economics" article diagnoses why monopoly power infects so many markets in the electronic media, communications, and information technology industries (collectively the "Industry"),and recommends changes to prevailing intellectual property and antitrust doctrines to remedy this problem.

The analysis focuses on a single "norm" -- the maximization of economic value, as defined by standard welfare economic theory. Identifying three distinct functions that operate throughout this otherwise diverse Industry -- authoring, publishing, and distribution -- the article notes that two economic peculiarities characterize most Industry markets: the technical feasibility of "non-rivalrous use" of digitized information products, and the frequent "creative …

Invisible Foundations: Science, Democracy, And Faith Among The Pragmatists, Patrick J. Deneen

Pragmatism, Law and Governmentality

Today science is almost universally regarded as an ally of democracy. Religion - once viewed by Tocqueville as the great support of democratic mores, in contrast to the materialism of then-contemporary atheists who threatened to undermine democratic commitments - is now viewed by many as antithetical to the openness and provisionality that marks both science and democracy. As framed by the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, religion is a "conversation-stopper," the very definition of anti-democratic, anti-scientific anti-pragmatism.

Whereas a pragmatic form of faith, notably "democratic faith," secures belief in an ever improving future, the "politics of skepticism" is reinforced by the initial …

The Bill Of Rights And The Constitution: Facing The Challenge Of The Future, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.