Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

From Adidas To Zenga: A Historical And Comparative Analysis Of International Intellectual Property Law In Fashion, Loren E. Mulraine

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a historical and comparative analysis of international intellectual property law as applied to the fashion industry. Tracing the development of trademark law from its common law origins in unfair competition to its modern statutory embodiment in the Lanham Act, the article examines the central role of branding in fashion’s economic and cultural influence. It further analyzes the evolution of copyright protection and its uneasy fit within a design-driven industry historically characterized as manufacturing rather than creative production. The article situates U.S. intellectual property doctrine within the broader framework of international treaties and institutions, including the Paris Convention, …

Reflections On The Effects Of Federalism On Opioid Policy, Matthew B. Lawrence

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Mhpaea & Marble Cake: Parity & The Forgotten Frame Of Federalism, Taleed El-Sabawi

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

State Regulatory Responses To The Prescription Opioid Crisis: Too Much To Bear?, Lars Noah

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In order to prevent further overuse of prescription opioids, states have adopted a variety of strategies. This article summarizes the growing use of prescription drug monitoring programs, crackdowns on “pill mills,” prohibitions on the use of particularly hazardous opioids, limitations on the duration and dosage of prescribed opioids, excise taxes, physician education and patient disclosure requirements, public awareness campaigns, and drug take-back programs. Although occasionally challenged on constitutional grounds, including claims of federal preemption under the Supremacy Clause, discrimination against out-of-state businesses under the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine, and interference with rights of commercial free speech, this article evaluates the …

The Opioid Litigation: The Fda Is Mia, Catherine M. Sharkey

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

It is readily agreed that federal preemption of state tort law alters the balance between federal and state power. Federal preemption is a high-profile defense in almost all modern products liability cases. It is thus surprising to see how little attention has been given to federal preemption by courts and commentators in the opioid litigation. Opioid litigation provides a lens through which I explore the role of state and federal courts and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in striking the right balance of power. My purpose here is not to resolve the divide among the few courts that have …

Safe Consumption Sites And The Perverse Dynamics Of Federalism In The Aftermath Of The War On Drugs, Deborah Ahrens

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In this Article, I explore the complicated regulatory and federalism issues posed by creating safe consumption sites for drug users—an effort which would regulate drugs through use of a public health paradigm. This Article details the difficulties that localities pursuing such sites and other non-criminal-law responses have faced as a result of both federal and state interference. It contrasts those difficulties with the carte blanche local and state officials typically receive from federal regulators when creatively adopting new punitive policies to combat drugs. In so doing, this Article identifies systemic asymmetries of federalism that threaten drug policy reform. While traditional …

The Drive To Advise: A Study Of Law Students At A Pro Bono Brief Advice Project, Linda F. Smith

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Total Scholarly Impact: Law Professors Citations, Michael P. Vandenbergh, J. B. Ruhl, Sarah Dunaway

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this article, we demonstrate that the citation counts and other author information available through the Web of Science database has made non-law citations possible to assemble and assess in a manner similar to the Sisk et al. methodology and the Hein legal citation study by Paul J. Heald and Ted Sichelman. A true apples-to-apples comparison, however, is not possible at this time given differences in the respective databases and search engines, as we explain in more detail in Part II.

Nevertheless, our study does serve as a demonstration project, showing that, with additional refinement of databases and search capacities, …

Borrowing American Ideas To Improve Chinese Tort Law, Yongxia Wang

St. Mary's Law Journal

As China develops its modern jurisprudence it faces a choice between emulating the legal frameworks of civil law countries or common law countries. Thus far, the civil law path has allowed for a rapid expansion of Chinese tort law, but jurists have found difficulty in applying such generalized statutory schemes with the absence of supporting judicial interpretation. Cognizant of the differences between the public policy of common law countries and China, Vincent Johnson’s Mastering Torts (Měiguó Qīnquán Fǎ) provides this guidance through the lens of American tort law. The hornbook takes care to simplify the role of judicial …

Sea Level Rise Planning For Socially Vulnerable Communities: A More Equitable Approach To Federal Buyout Programs, Travis Brandon

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the social justice implications of federal buyout programs as the United States increasingly confronts sea level rise and the necessity of managed retreat. Focusing primarily on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), as well as related programs administered under the Stafford Act and through HUD’s Community Development Block Grants, the Article argues that existing buyout mechanisms risk perpetuating and exacerbating racial and economic inequalities. Drawing on empirical studies, case examples, and interdisciplinary scholarship, it demonstrates that structural features of the HMGP—lengthy post-disaster timelines, cost-benefit analysis methodologies that privilege high-value properties, matching-fund requirements, …

Litigating Against The Artificially Intelligent Infringer, Julie Cromer Young

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the procedural and remedial barriers to recognizing artificial intelligence (AI) as a legal author under the Copyright Act of 1976 by shifting the focus from doctrinal authorship debates to questions of liability. While much scholarship has explored whether AI can satisfy originality and creativity requirements, the authors argue that a critical feature of authorship—susceptibility to suit for infringement—has been largely overlooked. The article analyzes civil procedure challenges that would arise if an AI were named as a defendant, including personal jurisdiction, domicile, service of process, due process protections, and venue. It further evaluates the feasibility of traditional …

Adding Legal Research To The Bar Exam: What Would The Exercise Look Like?, Patrick J. Meyer

Akron Law Review

Various authors have criticized the current bar exam format for not testing law practice skills. This is in spite of the ground-breaking MacCrate Report, the seminal publication of the practice-ready movement, which nearly 30 years ago listed ten fundamental practice skills. One of these ten Fundamental Lawyering Skills is legal research, which is still not tested on bar exams. The focus of this article will be on deficiencies pertaining to a lack of legal research readiness in the practice of law. My proposal is to add an interactive legal research exercise to the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), requiring applicants …

Law School News: F.A.Q. Update: Covid-19 And Rwu Law 03-30-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents & Pepperdine Law Review Masthead, Jacob Bliss

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Celebrating Robert Cochran And The Future Of "Embodied" Christian Legal Scholarship, Barbara Armacost

Pepperdine Law Review

The occasion for this Article is a festschrift for Professor Robert (“Bob”) Cochran. I celebrate Bob’s significant scholarly contributions to the maturing of Christian Legal Scholarship. He applied a Christian perspective to legal issues, hosted conferences, mentored Christian Legal Scholars, and edited books of essays featuring Christian perspectives on law. Bob’s work in this area had a huge influence on the flourishing of Christian Legal Scholarship. This Article considers the future of Christian Legal Scholarship. It enters an ongoing conversation (disagreement) between law Professors David Skeel and David Caudill. In a 2008 article, Skeel defined Christian Legal Scholarship so narrowly …

Ecumenical Evangelical Legal Thought: The Contributions Of Robert F. Cochran, Jr., William S. Brewbaker Iii

Pepperdine Law Review

This Essay organizes an assessment of Robert F. Cochran’s scholarly contributions around the theme of “ecumenical evangelical legal thought.” Professor Cochran’s work bears the hallmarks of evangelicalism in its emphasis on the Bible, its practical focus, and its willingness to cross institutional and theological lines. The Essay recounts some formative influences on Professor Cochran, discusses his methodology as a Christian scholar and specifically his use of the Bible in thinking about law, his work in legal ethics, and his work as a movement-builder. It concludes with some observations about the reconciliation of ecumenism and evangelicalism in Cochran’s work and its …

Is Law A Discipline? Forays Into Academic Culture, Gene R. Shreve

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article explores academic culture. It addresses the reluctance in academic circles to accord law the full stature of a discipline. It forms doubts that have been raised into a series of four criticisms. Each attacks an academic feature of law, inviting the question: Is law different from the rest of the university in a way damaging its stature as an academic discipline? The Article concludes that, upon careful examination of each criticism, none establishes a difference between law and other disciplines capable of damaging law’s stature.

Professional Identity Formation Through Pro Bono Revealed Through Conversation Analysis, Linda F. Smith

Cleveland State Law Review

Law school is supposed to teach legal analysis and lawyering skills as well as mold law students’ professional identities. Pro bono work provides an opportunity for law students to use their legal knowledge and skills and to develop their identities as emerging legal professionals. As important as both pro bono work and identity formation are, there has been very little research regarding how pro bono contributes to students’ identity formation. This Article utilizes a data set of over forty student-client consultations at a pro bono brief advice project that have been recorded and transcribed. It uses conversation analysis to study …

Acknowledgements As A Window Into Legal Academia, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Jonathan Tietz

Law & Economics Working Papers

Legal scholarship in the United States is an oddity—an institution built on student editorship, a lack of peer review, and a dramatically high proportion of solo authorship. It is often argued that this makes legal scholarship fundamentally different from scholarship in other fields, which is largely peer-reviewed by academics. We use acknowledgments in biographical footnotes from law-review articles to probe the nature of legal knowledge co-production and de facto peer review in legal literature. Using a survey of authors and editors and a textual analysis of approximately thirty thousand law-review articles from 2008 to 2017, we examined the nature of …

Mincing No Words: When The Court's Opinion Criticizes An Advocate's Writing, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

In recent years, court opinions have chastised counsel’s briefs or other written submissions for such structural deficiencies as improper citations; missing exhibit labels; incomplete tables of citations; mis-numbered counts; failure to cite to the record; and skirting of court rules that regulate font size, maximum page limits, mandated margins, and the like. Beyond structure, opinions have also chastised counsel for written submissions that are “riddled with misspellings, typographical errors, punctuation errors, and grammar and usage errors” and for those marked by careless cutting-and-pasting from forms or other prior work product, or by careless reliance on spell-check.

Some opinions identify the …