Law and Society Commons^™

Seizing Welfare From The Bankrupt, Michael D. Sousa

University of Cincinnati Law Review

The earned income tax credit (EITC) is currently the largest means-tested antipoverty program in the United States that assists low-income working families surviving along the edges of poverty. A central component of the national welfare system, the EITC has lifted millions of families with children out of poverty and has produced myriad benefits for their everyday lives. But most of the poor and near-poor endure in the low-wage labor market and often lead turbulent financial lives, plagued by precarious employment along with deleterious material and psychological constraints in budgeting for daily expenses. For the segment of these families also burdened …

Corpus Linguistics At The U.S. Patent And Trademark Office, Tabrez Y. Ebrahim

BYU Law Review

This Article examines the intersection of corpus linguistics and patent law. It introduces the foundations of corpus linguistics and its application to the law and advances the potential for its application to patent examination at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Historically, the disciplines of corpus linguistics and patent law did not intersect until scholars began to consider the application of corpus linguistics to patent litigation for interpretation of terms in patent claims. Interpretation of legal language provided by corpus linguistics and applied to patent examination at the USPTO has yet to be addressed and is a novel …

Queens Residents, Sex Workers At Odds Over What It Means To Keep The Community Safe, David L. Paiz-Torres, Mia Hollie, Asad Jung

Capstones

Exploring the Impacts of Operation Restore Roosevelt Avenue.

On October 15, 2024, Mayor Eric Adams announced a 90-day operation along Roosevelt Avenue, Queens, targeting sex-workers, unlicensed vendors and “other quality-of-life offenses.” This year, nearly 30% of all arrests for sex-work related offenses occurred on Roosevelt avenue, according to NYPD data released in late October.

Our project sought to explore the impacts the operation has had on sex workers and business owners - we also spoke to local residents to get their opinions on the operation. We also looked at arrest data, laws regarding sex-work, previous efforts to crack down on …

The New Glass Ceiling, Andrea K. Schneider, Abigail R. Bogli, Hannah L. Chin

Articles

Until the last decade, gender inequality in the legal profession was selfevident. Law school classrooms and law firm offices were overwhelmingly filled with men. In recent years, women have outnumbered men in law school classes and reached parity with men among first-year associates. These developments have created the misperception that gender equality has been achieved. In this Article, we challenge this complacency. We present new evidence from a detailed case study of law firms in a midsize city, showing that women remain underrepresented in leadership roles and underpaid relative to their colleagues. We then show how the limited opportunities and …

In Re Debra B.: The Best Interest Standard In Court-Authorized Sterilization Of The Mentally Retarded, Sheila M. Donahue

Maine Law Review

Pursuant to the Due Process in Sterilization Act of 1982, Maine courts may hear petitions for sterilization of the mentally retarded. In In re Debra B., a mother petitioned to have her mentally retarded daughter sterilized. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, vacated the order granting the petition. In a unanimous opinion, the court held that a finding of procreative capability is a sine qua non for determining whether sterilization is in an incompetent person's best interest. Through its holding, the court thereby extended the statute's clear and convincing standard of proof to a factor not …

From "Maine Law" To Model Act: Liquor Liability In Maine, William P. Shumaker

Maine Law Review

With the passage of the Maine Liquor Liability Act by the 112th Legislature, the State of Maine has completed a thorough reexamination of its public policy in the area of liability for injuries resulting from the use of alcoholic beverages. For 130 years the state's policy in this area was expressed by the statute commonly known as the dram shop act, the essential provisions of which had remained unchanged for over a century. This statute held sellers and other providers of alcoholic beverages strictly liable to any third party injured as a result of the intoxication of the recipient of …

Pornography Commissions And The First Amendment: On Constitutional Values And Constitutional Facts, David A.J. Richards

Maine Law Review

The interlinked questions of free speech, obscenity, and pornography are contextually sensitive—as are many other great issues of constitutional principle—to both normative and factual arguments; that is, much of the disagreement in the discussion of these questions centers on the proper interplay of constitutional values and facts. To what extent, for example, should constitutional values be sensitive to empirical research about the consequences of pornography distribution and use? If sensitive at all, how sensitive? Must the state, for example, satisfy a heavy burden of justification in terms of showing harm caused if it is to abridge pornography distribution and use, …

Placing The Four Rounds Of Israeli Palestinian Negotiations In The Twenty-First Century In The Context Of Ir Theory, Notably Realism Theory, Michael J. Reimer Dr

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On October 7, 2023, Hamas unleashed a vicious attack on Israeli civilians in the southern part of Israel. The plans for this attack were likely many years in the making. Nine hundred miles of tunnels crisscrossed Gaza with the terrorist infrastructure coinciding with the location of hospitals, school, Mosques and shelters above. On October 6, 2023, the history of the four rounds of Israeli Palestinian negotiations of the earlier part of the twenty-first century had been largely forgotten and completely ignored. The Likud coalition in Israel in 2023 - 2024 was in complete agreement with Hamas’ sponsor that no negotiations …

New Legal Realism At 20: Rethinking Law In An Era Of Populism And Social Movements, Jeffrey Omari, Pablo Rueda-Saiz, Richard Ashby Wilson

Connecticut Law Review

This Article critically examines the New Legal Realism (NLR) movement on its twentieth anniversary and illuminates its distinctive intellectual contributions. In evaluating NLR’s unique methodological and substantive contributions, we explore the movement's relationship to other interdisciplinary theories and empirical approaches to law. NLR approaches show a commitment to a comparative, crossnational exploration of legal phenomena while allowing for grounded generalizations about the relationship between law and society. NLR approaches embrace a diverse range of methods and emphasize the importance of “looking up, down, and sideways.” Notably, NLR embraces both “top-down” and “bottom-up” methods, providing comprehensive insights into the intricate interactions …

New Legal Realism At 20: Rethinking Law In An Era Of Populism And Social Movements, Jeffrey Omari, Pablo Rueda-Saiz, Richard Ashby Wilson

Articles

This Article critically examines the New Legal Realism (NLR) movement on its twentieth anniversary and illuminates its distinctive intellectual contributions. In evaluating NLR's unique methodological and substantive contributions, we explore the movement's relationship to other interdisciplinary theories and empirical approaches to law. NLR approaches show a commitment to a comparative, cross-national exploration of legal phenomena while allowing for grounded generalizations about the relationship between law and society. NLR approaches embrace a diverse range of methods and emphasize the importance of "looking up, down, and sideways." Notably, NLR embraces both "top-down" and "bottom-up" methods, providing comprehensive insights into the intricate interactions …

Introduction To Intellectual Property, Innovation And Economic Inequality, Daniel Benoliel, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides an introduction to Intellectual Property, Innovation and Economic Inequality. It begins by discussing the problem of economic inequality, including the scale of that problem, types of economic inequality, and extant research on such inequality. The chapter then outlines the structure of this volume, which is divided into three parts: (1) theoretical, empirical, and policy issues; (2) intellectual property and national inequality; and (3) intellectual property and global inequality.

Rwu Law Alumni Newsletter December 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Pbn Connect, Edward Fitzpatrick, Danna Lorch

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Future Of Juries And Jury Trials, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Hope Forbush, Miriam Hamilton, Jawwaad Johnson, Morgan Moffett

Faculty Publications

To preserve the future of juries and jury trials, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) convened a meeting of representatives from a broad array of justice system stakeholders as a project under the Justice for All Reauthorization Act (JFARA). To frame the stakeholder discussions, NCSC employed strategic foresight, a methodological approach designed to explore a range of possible futures of juries and jury trials within the American justice system as a vehicle for identifying critical vulnerabilities within the current jury system and proposing targeted strategies to preserve and strengthen jury trials. Critical vulnerabilities are those areas of weakness that …

Brief Of First Amendment And Internet Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Tiktok Inc. V. Garland, No. 24-656 (U.S. 2025)., Shubhangi Agarwalla, Enrique Armijo, Kevin Bankston, Susan Benesch, Ashutosh Bhagwat, Stuart N. Brotman, Ryan Calo, Anupam Chander, Erwin Chemerinsky, Alan K. Chen, David Craig, Eric Goldman, Gregory Gondwe, James Grimmelmann, Nikolas Guggenberger, G.S. Hans, Robert A. Heverly, Thomas E. Kadri, David Kaye, Heidi Kitrosser, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Edward Lee, Mark A. Lemley, David S. Levine, Yvette Joy Liebesman, Gregory P. Magarian, Jess Miers, Sean O’Brien, Mary-Rose Papandrea, Kermit Roosevelt, Jennifer Safstrom, Pamela Samuelson, Madhavi Sunder, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Jordi Weinstock

Con Law Center Amicus Briefs

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogwood, No. 8 (July 9, 1722). For this reason, the U.S. Constitution makes clear that the Government cannot abridge free speech based on its content or viewpoint absent compelling and narrowly tailored grounds. Indeed, the protection of all speech is foundational to American democracy. See United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654–55 (1929) (Holmes, J., dissenting) (“[I]f there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other …

Outlier On Lgbtq Rights: Japanese Ban On Same-Sex Marriage And Its Contradiction In The Age Of Globalization, Yumi Higashi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Japan is the only Group of Seven country yet to recognize same-sex marriage. Despite strong public support for marriage equality, the conservative dominance of the Japanese legislature and the Japanese courts’ deferential approach have stalled the change. This Note will analyze the legal issues and implications of Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage and Japan’s worldwide inheritance tax regime, with an emphasis on cross-border succession and estate planning. Specifically, the Note argues that the United States, as the only country with which Japan has a treaty in estate, inheritance, and gift tax, should renegotiate the treaty as it could have …

Human Rights Due Diligence At The Intersection Of Corporate Compliance And Corporate Purpose, Stephen Kim Park

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The concept of human rights due diligence (“HRDD”) is one part of a broad and diverse range of approaches to address the responsibilities of business to society. Through laws requiring that companies identify and address their adverse impacts on workers, communities, and the environment, HRDD expands the role of corporate compliance in making companies accountable for the welfare of stakeholders. This Article addresses the implications of HRDD laws on how corporations operationalize corporate purpose and examines the barriers posed by corporate compliance practices to meaningfully—rather than cosmetically—enhance responsible business conduct.

What Should Caremark Encompass?, Claire A. Hill, Zohreh Zakiani

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Under In re Caremark Int’l Inc. Derivative Litig., decided in 1996, directors are required to oversee corporate compliance and can be liable for breaching their fiduciary duties if their oversight efforts do not suffice. Since it was decided, Caremark has been very influential, notwithstanding its high bar to liability. Notably, its influence far exceeds the actual probability that directors would be found liable under the doctrine. Instead, much of Caremark’s force is “soft,” through extra-legal mechanisms such as norms and pressures from various constituencies. Caremark clearly covers oversight for violations of law or regulation. But what, beyond those two things, …

Data Scraping For Generative Ai—To What Extent?, Jae Yeon Cecilia Kim

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Generative AI platforms are developed by scraping data from other platforms. This raises complex copyright infringement issues that are yet to be resolved. Courts have attempted to address these problems using the fair use doctrine, which evaluates four factors to determine whether a use infringes on copyright: (1) the purpose and character of the use, (2) the nature of the use, (3) the amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work’s use, and (4) the impact of the use on the market for the original work. Despite efforts to apply this long-established doctrine, challenges persist, including difficulties in identifying the copyright …

A Call For Statutory Reform: Online Marketplaces That Profit From Product Sales Should Be Held Strictly Liable As Sellers, Mark Anderson

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Today, Americans purchase roughly 16% of all consumer goods through online marketplaces such as Amazon. While traditional brick-and-mortar retailers that sell defective products are strictly liable for harm caused by those products, online marketplace retailers, which serve analogous roles in defective product sales, can often evade liability entirely. Amazon, for instance, is immune from liability for product defects in more than 60% of sales conducted on its website in almost every state. This Note explains why online marketplaces that profit from defective product sales should be strictly liable for harm those products cause, and why courts often refuse to hold …

How Sovereign Wealth Investment May Fail To Enter The United States Sports Market: Investigating The Governance Restricting Sportswashing, Zachary J. Braverman

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In recent years, the world of sports has been disrupted by foreign nations engaging in human rights violations, masking their wrongdoings through sport-related investments. This practice, referred to as “sportswashing,” has negative impacts on both the sports industry at large and the individual victims whose suffering is perpetuated. Currently, there is no direct legislation preventing foreign investors from taking over sports franchises in the United States. However, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the United Nations, and sports leagues’ private regulations, each provide means to resist sportswashing. This Note analyzes the problem of sportswashing, the existing framework …