Administrative Law Commons^™

Arbitrary And Capricious X Artificial Intelligence, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

The "arbitrary and capricious" review standard has been interpreted to govern the judicial review of agency factual findings that are produced through informal rulemaking or informal adjudication. In contrast, agency factual findings that are produced through formal rulemaking or adjudication will be reviewed under the Administrative Procedure Act, Section 706(2)(E), which states that such findings can be set aside if they are "unsupported by substantial evidence." While the standards technically vary-factual findings that are the product of informal procedures will warrant arbitrary and capricious review, while factual findings that are the product of formal procedures will warrant substantial evidence review …

Duties Owed To The Public, Nicolas Cornell

Book Chapters

How does private law conceptualize duties owed to the public-at-large? Are they owed to individual members of the public? This question is interstitial in two ways—it concerns both the space between public law and private law and the spaces between different fields of private law. Different areas of private law handle it in contradictory ways. Duties of public officials are regarded as owed to individual citizens for the purposes of contract law’s preexisting duty rule but as not owed to individuals as a matter of tort law’s public duty rule. Violations of public property might be enforceable through public nuisance, …

Beyond The Ban: One Major Challenge Facing The Ftc Non-Compete Rule, Brendan Mohan

Akron Law Student Publications

This article analyzes the implications of President Biden's Executive Order 14036 and the subsequent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ban non-compete agreements. It examines the legal basis for the NPRM, including Sections 5 and 6(g) of the FTC Act, and anticipates potential challenges to its implementation, most notably under the major questions doctrine. It explores the broader ramifications of the NPRM for labor and employment law, emphasizing its potential to reshape administrative agency regulation and the regulatory landscape. It concludes by analyzing the rule under the major questions doctrine and the possible outcomes …

A Novel Means To Increase Access To Local News: Analyzing The Benefits And Costs Of Zero-Rating, Kevin Frazier

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The dismal and declining state of local news has motivated bipartisan efforts to “save” this important aspect of a strong civic sphere. A full review of these efforts is beyond the scope of this paper, but an initial review suggests that recent legislative proposals will fall short of reviving local news, if enacted. It follows that other means of assisting the generation and distribution of local news must be considered. One such means is mandating that Internet Service Providers zero-rate content provided by local news outlets. In short, zero-rating results in certain data not counting toward a user’s data cap …

Locke-Ing Down Nonsense Trademarks: Applying The Property Theory Of John Locke To The Issue Of Nonsense Trademarks, Jake H. Howell

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office received almost half a million trademark applications. This was the tenth year in a row in which the number of applications received broke the record from the previous year. Since 2015 there has been a marked increase in the number of applications for trademarks that are unusual. These applications are for trademarks that consist of an apparently random string of letters unpronounceable in English and with no meaning in another language. These unusual trademarks have come to be known as nonsense trademarks. Nonsense trademarks are a growing problem in intellectual property. …

The Future Of Art And Copyright In The World Of Ai, Danna Subia Espinoza

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This paper focuses on the interpretive framework embodied in copyright law and its application to art-producing technologies, how this framework has been applied to new technologies in the past, and the issues surrounding the adaption of these old frameworks to the modern concern of AI-created art. The paper also considers how the application of copyright law to modern AI issues reflects the law’s capability, or inability, to evolve and address novel situations, specifically in relation to AI-based technology. Further, it examines what, if any, steps should be taken to promote courts maintaining a firm grip on copyright protections. The issues …

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …

Securities Regulation And Administrative Deference In The Roberts Court, Eric C. Chaffee

Seattle University Law Review

In A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, A.C. Pritchard and Robert B. Thompson write, “Securities law offers an illuminating window into the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence over the last century. The securities cases provide one of the most accessible illustrations of key transitions of American law.” A main reason for this is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a bellwether among administrative agencies, and as a result, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court is a history of administrative law in the Supreme Court of the United States as well.

Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …

Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner

Seattle University Law Review

Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …

The Esg Information System, Stavros Gadinis, Amelia Miazad

Seattle University Law Review

The mounting focus on ESG has forced internal corporate decision-making into the spotlight. Investors are eager to support companies in innovative “green” technologies and scrutinize companies’ transition plans. Activists are targeting boards whose decisions appear too timid or insufficiently explained. Consumers and employees are incorporating companies sustainability credentials in their purchasing and employment decisions. These actors are asking companies for better information, higher quality reports, and granular data. In response, companies are producing lengthy sustainability reports, adopting ambitious purpose statements, and touting their sustainability credentials. Understandably, concerns about greenwashing and accountability abound, and policymakers are preparing for action.

In this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …

Independence Through Judicialization: The Politics Surrounding Administrative Adjudicators, 1929-1949, Lawrence J. Liu

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

One front in today’s battle to define the scope of the administrative state concerns the authority, status, and future of its 10,000-plus administrative adjudicators. Decisions by federal courts and the executive branch to increase the dependence of administrative adjudicators on the executive have sparked strong reactions from observers, with many advocating for measures to increase adjudicator “independence.” But who should administrative adjudicators be independent of, which ought to be independent, and why?

Calls for administrative adjudicator independence are not new. This Article draws on primary documents produced by private actors, congressional decisionmakers, and federal executive agents to present a political …

Improving The Affirmative Disclosure Of Agency Legal Materials, Bernard W. Bell, Cary Coglianese, Michael Herz, Margaret B. Kwoka, Orly Lobel

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

It is axiomatic that in a democratic society the law must be broadly accessible. Administrative agencies produce a plethora of materials imposing legal obligations on commercial or individual actors in the private sector. Other materials bind the agencies themselves in ways that affect the rights or interests of private parties. Still other materials provide the public with information about how agencies interpret and apply the statutes and rules they administer, or how agencies seek to deploy their discretion or take other actions that can affect private individuals or organizations. This Article focuses on improving the public availability of all of …

Behaviour Of Creditors And Involved Stakeholders In Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (Cirp) In India: An Economic Perspective, Hiteshkumar Thakkar, Pranay Agarwal, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

IBC has long clarified its purpose of achieving efficiency in the resolution procedure along with the welfare of the stakeholders. In order to achieve it, the code introduced Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) as a group solution mechanism in insolvency cases. While there is a plethora of studies focusing on the procedural and substantive working of the process, its influence over the behaviour and conduct of the stakeholders and its impact on its success has been ignored. Through this study, the author aims to develop a comprehensive economic model to explain the impact of CIRP on the creditor’s behaviour and …

"Major Questions" Malarkey: An Arbitrary And Capricious New Doctrine For Vetoing Controversial Agency Rules, Lars Noah

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2022, in West Virginia v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court officially adopted the “major questions” doctrine. Commentators have already spilled plenty of ink trying to make sense of what this might portend, but so far seemingly everyone has accepted at face value the Court’s framing of the issue that it confronted in that case. This symposium contribution offers a slightly different perspective on the decision and suggests that closer attention to the precise nature of the question posed therein might reveal a distinctive flaw at the heart of the majority’s newfangled clear statement rule—it only sows confusion to …

"The Game" (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Major Questions Doctrine, Gary Lawson

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Securities Law—The Issue With Designating Crypto Assets On The Secondary Market As Securities And Regulating Crypto Assets Appropriately, Bregje De Vet

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Banned Books & Banned Identities: Maintaining Secularism And The Ability To Read In Public Education For The Well-Being Of America's Youth, Megan M. Tylenda

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Books containing LGBTQ+ themes and characters are being removed from public school libraries at a rapid rate across the United States. While a book challenge has made it to the Supreme Court once before, the resulting singular plurality opinion left courts without a clear test to apply, ultimately leaving students’ First Amendment rights in the air. Additionally, the increasingly relaxed view of courts towards religious influence in public schools indicates that if a modern case were to reach the Supreme Court, religious challenges may be accepted, which would leave LGBTQ+ students who seek to see themselves represented in literature without …