Transportation Law Commons^™

Ride-Hailing Drivers As Autonomous Independent Contractors: Let Them Bargain!, Ronald C. Brown

Washington International Law Journal

“Autonomous” workers include most gig-platform drivers, like those working globally for Uber and Lyft, who are usually classified as independent contractors and are ineligible for labor protections and benefits. The “new economy” and its business model, with its fissurization and increased use of contingent and outsourced workers hired as independent contractors, provide employers flexibility and lower costs by shifting labor costs to the workers. Many of these workers operate more as employees rather than genuine independent contractors or self-employed entrepreneurs, causing lost employee labor benefits and costing the government billions of lost tax dollars. Legal attempts continue to classify these …

What Is Remembered, Alice Ristroph

Michigan Law Review

Review of Sarah A. Seo's Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom.

Who’S Afraid Of Uber?, Jeremy Kidd

Articles

Ride-sharing has disrupted the transportation-for-hire industry, breaking down barriers to entry that have protected entrenched incumbents for decades. The disruption has led to calls for increased regulation, along with criticisms about the effect of innovation on consumer safety, market stability, rule of law, and other areas. That disruption, however, has also led to tremendous benefits to consumers as they are freed from a regulatory regime that limited their transportation choices and forced them to pay higher prices for lower quality service. The same type of disruptive innovation is upon us in almost every area of our economy. How we deal …

The Future State Of Mobility, Jerome Quandt

Purdue Road School

Formed in 2018, the Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA) is a privately funded non-for-profit organization focused on establishing thought leadership in the state of Illinois, by identifying and addressing the current and emerging opportunities related to the inevitable growth of CAV technologies throughout the transportation network. Through the deployment of scalable and sustainable business solutions, facilitating industry education and establishing thought leadership, ILAVA is creating an ecosystem that defines Illinois as #TheFutureStateofMobility.

For Once, A Defense Of Amtrak: Do Market Participants With Regulatory Authority Violate Due Process?, Blayne Justus Yudis

University of Miami Business Law Review

The National Basketball Association (“NBA”) regulates American professional basketball.. After acquiring the New Orleans Hornets in 2010, the NBA temporarily became both the league regulator and a franchise owner. As owner, the NBA vetoed a trade that would have sent the Hornets’s best player to another team. Was the NBA acting out of self-interest when it blocked the trade? In other words, was its trade block fair?

Federal Courts have recently dealt with this issue in Association of American Railroads v. U.S. Department of Transportation. Following a decade of litigation, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that granting …

Innovation In A Legal Vacuum: The Uncertain Legal Landscape For Shared Micro-Mobility, David Pimentel

Articles

The last few years have seen an explosion in the number and size shared of micro-mobility systems (“SMMS”) across the United States. Some of these systems have seen extraordinary success and the potential benefit of these systems to communities is considerable. However, SMMS have repeatedly ran into legal barriers that either prevent their implementation entirely, confuse and dissuade potential users, or otherwise limit SMMS’s potential positive impact. This paper reflects a detailed study of state laws relating to SMMS and the platforms commonly used in these systems. The study uncovered many inconsistencies with micro-mobility laws across the country. Currently, many …

The Friendly Skies Are Not Always So Friendly, Rachel Reid

Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Failure To Capture: Why Business Does Not Control The Rulemaking Process, Gabriel Scheffler

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

If You Provide, Will They Ride? Motivators And Deterrents To Shared Micro-Mobility, David Pimentel

Articles

Bike share, e-bike share, and e-scooter systems (shared micro-mobility) are gaining popularity throughout the United States and internationally, but the optimal system design has not been determined. This study investigated motivators and deterrents to the use of such systems in the Pacific Northwest with secondary data, participant observations, depth interviews, and an on-line survey to users and non-users. The survey was administered in all cities in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho that have shared micro-mobility systems. The strongest motivators reported were exercise and enjoyment. The strongest deterrents were weather, danger from automobile traffic, and insufficient bike lanes and paths. The latter …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Introduction, Aldo Chircop, Floris Goerlandt, Claudio Aporta, Ronald Pelot

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter introduces a multidisciplinary collection of chapters addressing various aspects of governance of Arctic shipping written by leading international scholars. It investigates how ocean changes and anthropogenic impacts affect our understanding of risk, policy, management and regulation for safe navigation, environment protection, conflict management between ocean uses, and protection of Indigenous peoples’ interests in Canadian Arctic waters. The book is divided in three parts, together providing a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary view on governance of Arctic shipping. The first part addresses conceptual and empirical aspects of risk governance, management, and assessment in the Canadian Arctic. The second part focuses on …

Electric Vehicles, Infrastructure Electrification And The Urban-Rural Divide, Nathan Reck

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Road Again: Revisiting State Laws That Unreasonably Restrict Drivers With Epilepsy And Burden The Physicians Who Treat Them, Katrina E. Luffy

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

When a driver with epilepsy experiences a seizure behind the wheel, she is more likely than not to cause an accident. Consequently, all fifty states and the District of Columbia have statutes, regulations, and policies governing drivers with epilepsy and the physicians who treat them. Although these laws aim to protect the states' interest in public safety, many of them are premised on the inaccurate assumption that drivers with epilepsy have higher crash rates than the general population. They provide blanket restrictions for a highly individualized disorder and ignore evidence that drivers with other disorders or diseases should be of …

Who Gets To Operate On Herbie? Right To Repair Legislation In The Context Of Automated Vehicles, Jennifer J. Huseby

Journal of Law and Mobility

You bought it, you own it, but do you have the right to repair it? As right-to-repair remains a hot topic in the context of consumer electronics such as smartphones, one must consider the ramifications it may have for the automated vehicle (“AV”) industry. As the backdrop for one of the first legislative victories for right-to-repair, the automobile industry has continued to push for the expansion of right-to-repair to cover increased access to telematics and exceptions to proprietary software controls. However, as we revisit the issue for more highly connected and automated vehicles, it is important to assess the unique …

How Reporters Can Evaluate Automated Driving Announcements, Bryant Walker Smith

Journal of Law and Mobility

This article identifies a series of specific questions that reporters can ask about claims made by developers of automated motor vehicles (“AVs”). Its immediate intent is to facilitate more critical, credible, and ultimately constructive reporting on progress toward automated driving. In turn, reporting of this kind advances three additional goals. First, it encourages AV developers to qualify and support their public claims. Second, it appropriately manages public expectations about these vehicles. Third, it fosters more technical accuracy and technological circumspection in legal and policy scholarship.

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Yvonne S. Godfrey, T. Peyton Bell, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all of the significant forms of passenger and freight transportation across the United States. This Article surveys significant judicial and legislative developments in Georgia commercial-transportation law during the period from June 1, 2017 through May 31, 2019.

Three of the areas discussed here—commercial motor vehicles, aviation, and rail—are subject to heavy federal regulation due to their large effects on interstate commerce. Accordingly, motor-carrier and railroad law primarily saw developments pertaining to state procedure and in the interactions between state and federal law, while state aviation law primarily focused on Georgia’s efforts both to regulate and facilitate the …

Autonomous Vehicles: Regulatory Challenges And The Response From Germany And Uk, Antonios E. Kouroutakis

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hands Off The Wheel: The Role Of Law In The Coming Extinction Of Human-Driven Cars, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

Law and technology scholars have been writing about the coming release of fully autonomous vehicles for quite some time, and yet there is a significant gap in that literature. The United States has experienced a technology-driven upheaval in transportation once already, and it did so almost exactly 100 years ago when society transitioned (surprisingly rapidly) from horses to automobiles. No legal scholar has, as of yet, explored that transition at any length and asked what it can teach us about the role law and lawmaking should play in the coming transition between human-driven and fully autonomous vehicles. This is a …

Accelerating Deep Decarbonization In The U.S. Transportation Sector, Daniel Sperling, Lewis Fulton, Vicki Arroyo

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The transportation sector includes light-duty vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles (trucks), off-road vehicles, buses, rail, shipping, and aviation. Reducing emissions in this sector is critical in order to achieve the pathways to zero carbon. Transportation emissions accounted for 37 percent of total CO₂ emissions from energy and industry in 2019. The principal strategy for decarbonizing transportation is electrification (including battery, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cells) of all light-duty vehicles, urban-based trucks and buses, rail, much of long-haul trucking, and some short-haul shipping and aviation. For long-haul aviation and long-haul ocean shipping, advanced low-carbon biofuels and synthetic liquids or gases produced with …

China’S Regulatory Approach To The Sharing Economy: A Perspective On Ride-Hailing, Huiqin Jiang, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

While the sharing economy brings significant social benefits in China, it comes with regulatory challenges that are novel and unpredictable. How should regulators handle these challenges? This paper offers fresh insights into the regulatory approach to the ride-hailing industry, the most comprehensively regulated sharing industry in China. A historical review identifies three regulatory approaches deployed to date: self-regulation, market-based regulation and government regulation. Self-regulation relies on the platforms with incentive to provide better service for greater profit, and to deal with sharing-specific challenges. Market-based regulation invites rivals to keep a watchful eye on other players, in order to enhance their …

Grotheer V. Escape Adventures, Inc., Paisley Piasecki

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Failure To Capture: Why Business Does Not Control The Rulemaking Process, Gabriel Scheffler

Articles

Leading figures on both the political right and the political left have concluded that the agency rulemaking process is captured: that it serves to benefit businesses, at the expense of the general public. This perception appears to be supported by recent theoretical and empirical scholarship and has prompted lawmakers to introduce various proposals to reform the federal rulemaking process.

Yet as I will demonstrate in this Article, the view of the rulemaking process as captured is unwarranted. I will show that the academic literature actually provides little guidance as to the magnitude of business influence that is, the extent to …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

No Longer Lost In Translation : South African Admiralty And Insolvency Proceedings At A Crossroads, Phiwe Ngcobo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Between Scylla And Charybdis: Maritime Liens And The Bankruptcy Code, Ian T. Kitts

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Federal courts have had trouble fitting maritime law into the bankruptcy scheme created by the Bankruptcy Code (the Code). Particularly troublesome have been vessel-arrest proceedings that are underway when the vessel’s owner files for bankruptcy. Prior to the enactment of the Code, courts applied the doctrine of custodia legis to decide whether the admiralty or the bankruptcy court would administer the vessel. Since the Code was enacted, courts have generally held that the bankruptcy court gained control. A recent Ninth Circuit decision, however, split with other circuits and seems to have revived custodia legis. This Note argues that the Ninth …

Critical Issues In Transportation 2019: Climate Change Resilience, Vicki Arroyo

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The climate is rapidly changing, bringing more frequent and extreme floods, droughts, and heatwaves, along with stronger hurricanes and more intense wildfires. Each year brings new record-breaking weather extremes; in the first six months of 2019, for example, a record number of U.S. counties flooded. July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded for the world as a whole (1). Climate change is also melting glaciers, reducing the amount of sea ice, and raising sea levels, bringing devastation to coastal areas. From Louisiana to Alaska, many coastal communities are forced to make difficult decisions about whether to relocate …

Sabotage By Cabotage: The Jones Act’S Attack On U.S. Energy, Kyle Mason

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will explore the ramifications that the Jones Act has on those other crucial areas of the U.S. economy, specifically looking at the U.S. energy market and analyzing how the Jones Act’s interplay with the domestic energy transportation market has been affected. Because of the substantial burden the Jones Act places on the shipping of natural resources, the U.S. energy market has been hindered, as this law continues to adversely impact both U.S. consumers and energy industry development in general. Given the U.S.’s renewed interest in development of an independent energy market, it is time to revise or repeal …

Strategic Implications For The United States Of The Belt And Road Initiative In Africa, Alec Monnie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The belt and road initiative is one of the most significant developments of the twenty-first century, which the United States will need to learn to adapt to. Much of the academic literature regarding the belt and road initiative mentions that Africa is a significant participant in this policy development, but fail to elaborate as to why that is, or what the implications for this are for the United States. This article expands upon the strategic significance of the African continent, and explains the implications thereof for the United States and China. This article argues that the belt and road initiative …

Re(Writing) The Rules Of The Road: Reflections From The Journal Of Law And Mobility's 2019 Conference, Raphael Beauregard-Lacroix

Journal of Law and Mobility

On March 15th, 2019, the Journal of Law and Mobility, part of the University of Michigan’s Law and Mobility Program, presented its inaugural conference, entitled “(Re)Writing the Rules of The Road.” The conference was focused on issues surrounding the relationship between automated vehicles (“AVs”) and the law. In the afternoon, two panels of experts from academia, government, industry, and civil society were brought together to discuss how traffic laws should apply to automated driving and the legal person (if any) who should be responsible for traffic law violations. The afternoon’s events occurred under a modified version of the Chatham House …

Death Be Not Strange. The Montreal Convention’S Mislabeling Of Human Remains As Cargo And Its Near Unbreakable Liability Limits, Christopher Ogolla

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article discusses Article 22 of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (“The Montreal Convention”) and its impact on the transportation of human remains. The Convention limits carrier liability to a sum of 19 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per kilogram in the case of destruction, loss, damage or delay of part of the cargo or of any object contained therein. Transportation of human remains falls under Article 22 which forecloses any recovery for pain and suffering unaccompanied by physical injury. This Article finds fault with this liability limit. The Article notes that if …