Science and Technology Law Commons^™

When Congress Passes The Buck: How Russia’S Invasion Of Ukraine Exposed Flaws In Granting The President Sanctioning Powers, Artem M. Joukov, Samantha M. Caspar

Seattle University Law Review

The United States (U.S.) Constitution provides few limitations on endowing the Executive Branch with powers to govern foreign trade, which was initially granted to the Legislature. In a world where global trade dominates, the power over foreign trade can be more important than the power over domestic matters. Leaving unrestrained trade authority to the Executive Branch may cause hazards for Americans and foreigners alike. Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the flaws in permitting the Executive Branch to unilaterally sanction foreign states. This Article demonstrates how reactive Executive Branch policies infringed on the welfare and safety of American citizens and foreigners …

Pedaling Backwards: Examining The King County Board Of Health’S Choice To Repeal Its Bicycle Helmet Law, Schuyler M. Peters

Seattle University Law Review

In Part I, this Comment will explain the Helmet Law itself and the timeline that ultimately led to its repeal. Part II will focus on the positive impact of the Helmet Law, the dangers associated with the repeal, why the repeal should not have occurred in the manner it did, and what societal costs stem from the BOH’s decision. Part III will address the actions that must be taken to revoke this repeal and the reasons behind these alternative pathways, including an Equity Impact Review study specifically on the consequences of repeal, a collaborative outreach program to bring helmets to …

On Facial Recognition, Regulation, And "Data Necropolitics", Antonio Pele, Caitlin Mulholland

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper argues for actual and legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition. These new technologies represent great opportunities to improve the welfare of societies. However, some of their uses can also enhance discrimination and, eventually, lead to violence. From a comparative approach (examining the European Union and Brazil), we address the current and future aspects of facial regulation, AI, and personal data. This paper shows that regulation is relevant to protect the rule of law, free markets, and individual freedoms. It also examines the looming risks unfolding from the unregulated uses of new technologies. Our concept of …

Hanging In The Balance: An Assessment Of European Versus American Data Privacy Laws And Threats To U.S. National Security, Dara Paleski

American University National Security Law Brief

Social media has quickly become an integral part of modern-day life, keeping the world connected to friends, family and current events. Social media, and the data collected from it, also play a crucial role in intelligence gathering and the safeguarding of national security. It is estimated that about 80-95% of information that is collected for intelligence missions is found freely throughout the internet or other publicly available sources. This type of information has been dubbed SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) and it has become a crucial tool within the intelligence community. After the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013 revealed a global …

Regulating The Digital Resonance, Hassan Salman

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

The proliferation of automated content moderation in social media has negatively impacted users’ (individuals, businesses, and governments) selfexpressions. Major social media platforms like Facebook act as public forums for billions of users whose content may vary in terms of acceptability and legality. User content is colored by social as well as personal norms, values and experiences. For example, though blasphemy may be objectionable in Poland, it may not be so in France. However, despite facing some mistrust over how Facebook and other platforms handle user data and moderate content, users rely on the entities like Facebook to correctly filter this …

Data Insecurity Law, Stein, David

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

By broad consensus, data security laws have failed to stem a rising tide of data breaches. Lawmakers and commentators blame these failures on some combination of underenforcement and the laws failure to recognize the full range of data breach harms. Proposed solutions would augment or expand existing data security laws.

These proposed solutions share a fatal flaw: they are rooted in traditional theories of deterrence by punishment. Data security laws come in three forms: duties to protect data, duties to notify consumers after a breach, and post-breach remedies. Almost every data security law is enforced through sanctions, most of which …

One Map To Rule Them All: Google Maps And Quasi-Sovereign Power In International Legal Disputes, Catherine Grace Katz

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

With 80% market share, Google Maps has become the most powerful digital mapping platform in the world to such an extent that users often believe Google Maps represents an objectively accurate and universally truthful depiction of the world. The desire to create a single, objective map for the whole world dates to the turn of the 20th Century, even though objectivity and cartography are inherently at odds—a notion that has long complicated the status of maps as evidence in domestic and international law. However, growing acceptance of GIS maps as evidence in both domestic and international courts highlights the importance …

Reducing Single-Use Plastic Waste: A Better Alternative To The Reduce Act Tax Proposal, Ryann Wong

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

This article will discuss the relevant and imminent need for government intervention to curb and reduce single-use plastic waste. It will look at the proposed 2019 REDUCE Act and consider potential outcomes and unintended consequences which the proposed plan may bring. The article will analyze the REDUCE Act through a discussion of: how similar policies have fared in the past, a historical survey of single-use plastics in US supply chain practices, how past tax laws have had a disproportionate impact on low-income taxpayers, the current market demands for single-use plastics, and an observation of how other countries are applying tax …

Reversing The Irreversible: Mitigating Legal Risks Of Blockchain-Based Data Breach Through Corporate Governance, Katayoon Beshkardana

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) embodies a set of enforceable data subject rights, data controller and processor obligations, and compliance requirements. The GDPR outreach is extraterritorial and impacts US blockchain-based businesses that collect and process personal data of individuals from the EU. Given the ambiguities of the law itself surrounding what is considered as personal data on blockchain, and who data controllers and processors are, this research examines the corporate governance response to the GDPR as a bottom-up solution for compliance. To secure the sustainability of the business models based on blockchain solutions there is an immediate need …

The Value Of Vehicle-To-Grid Systems In The Clean Energy Transition: Policy And Regulatory Issues, Alyssa Valentine

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

As the United States transitions to clean energy, advances in technology are making such a transition possible by enabling utility-scale renewable energy generation (primarily wind and solar) and transportation electrification. However, the growth in renewable energy generation and electric vehicles (EVs) has created new reliability issues for the electric grid due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind power and increased load on the grid from EV charging. New methods and tools are needed to balance energy supply and demand. One such tool is the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system, which uses EV batteries to help balance the grid, providing additional …

From Spying To Mindreading: Expanding Wiretapping Legislation To Protect Customers’ Privacy Of Thought From Chat Preview In Online Chat Functions, John Deming

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

When you chat online, there is a space of time between when you type out your message and when you decide to send it. During this time, you might assume that you have the chance to read over your message, edit it, or even delete it if you don’t like what you’ve written- all without the other person seeing it. However, this is frequently not the case when consumers chat with customer service representatives, thanks to ‘chat preview.’ ‘Chat preview,” which goes be several different names throughout the chat software industry, is a feature that allows the person on end …

Rulemaking 3.0: Incorporating Ai And Chatgpt Into Notice And Comment Rulemaking, Stephen M. Johnson

Articles

Technological innovations since the turn of the century have created opportunities to increase public participation in notice and comment rulemaking, increase the efficiency of the process, and increase the quality of the rules adopted by agencies. For some rules, online rulemaking and social media have facilitated increased public participation, but have not necessarily facilitated improvements in the quality of public comments. In addition, in some cases, the transformation of the process has created new challenges for government agencies by making it easier for supporters or opponents of rules to flood agencies with duplicative and potentially false comments to which the …

Bringing Dinosaurs Back: The Moral & Legal Complications, Kacey Hovden

Animal Law Review

From Hollywood blockbusters to your local natural history museums, dinosaurs have captured the attention and wonder of the public for decades. The possibility of bringing these long extinct creatures back, once a science-fiction fantasy, is now closer to reality than ever before through a process known as “de-extinction.” This Article dives into the exploitative nature inherent in the de-extinction of dinosaurs, studying the University of Montana’s Dr. Jack Horner’s “dinochicken project” and the moral considerations implicated when conducting mass genetic engineering on sentient beings. The Article then centers itself on the ecological and legal complications likely to arise if a …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Women In Shareholder Activism, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Even a cursory review of the history of American environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) shareholder activism reveals the presence of women leaders. This Article sketches some of this history and interrogates the role of women in the shareholder activism movement. That movement typically has involved claims by minority shareholders to corporate power; activists are nearly always on the margins of power, though minority shareholders may, collectively, represent a majority interest. This Article ascribes women’s leadership in shareholder activism to their longstanding position as outsiders to corporate organization. Women’s participation in shaping corporate policy—even from the margins—has provided women with …

Beyond The Business Case: Moving From Transactional To Transformational Inclusion, Jamillah Bowman Williams

Seattle University Law Review

While workplace diversity is a hot topic, the extent to which the diversity management movement has effectively improved intergroup relations and reduced racial inequality remains unclear.1 Despite large investments in diversity and inclusion training and other company wide initiatives, historically excluded groups remain vastly underrepresented in leadership and the most lucrative careers, such as finance, law, and technology. This calls the efficacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts into question, particularly with respect to reducing racial inequality in the workplace.

This Article explains why it is time for organizational leaders to move beyond the transactional case for diversity and …

Investment Bankers And Inclusive Corporate Leadership, Afra Afsharipour

Seattle University Law Review

Few major deals happen without the engagement and advice of investment bankers. Whether a company is undertaking an initial public offering or engaging in a large merger or acquisition deal, investment bankers play a central role in advising corporate executives. Successful investment bankers are devoted to cultivating relationships with executives. And these relationships place bankers in a position to earn tens of millions in fees for their advisory and service roles in connection with corporate dealmaking. Investment bankers’ constant endeavors to nurture relationships with executives, while also maximizing their own ability to enhance fees, commonly leads to allegations of double-dealing, …

Reframing The Dei Case, Veronica Root Martinez

Seattle University Law Review

Corporate firms have long expressed their support for the idea that their organizations should become more demographically diverse while creating a culture that is inclusive of all members of the firm. These firms have traditionally, however, not been successful at improving demographic diversity and true inclusion within the upper echelons of their organizations. The status quo seemed unlikely to move, but expectations for corporate firms were upended after the #MeToo Movement of 2017 and 2018, which was followed by corporate support of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement in 2020. These two social movements, while distinct in many ways, forced firms to rethink …

How Firms Turn Middle Managers Into Diversity Leaders, Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbin

Seattle University Law Review

In 2007, the Conference Board published a piece calling middle managers “the biggest roadblock to diversity and inclusion” for standing in the way of change efforts. Today, many chief diversity officers report that they have failed both to diversify middle management and to get middle managers involved in promoting inclusion. We explore popular diversity programs that create “paper” or “symbolic” principles for achieving diversity (diversity policy statements and guidelines for hiring, promotion, and discharge), as well as programs that engage middle managers in promoting diversity (special recruitment and mentoring programs, and diversity task forces). “Paper” policies often fall flat, but …

Gender And The Constitutional Theory Of The Firm, Jamee K. Moudud

Seattle University Law Review

This Article adds to the literature that has linked feminist economics to foreign trade and development. It argues that two key factors need to be in place jointly if efforts to promote gender equity are to succeed. On the one hand it argues that foreign debt is an important constraint to domestic progressive social policies of all kinds as it increases the power of international creditors who generally tend to support austerity policies. On the other hand, while alleviating the burden of foreign debt via exportpromotion policies is necessary, it is by no means a sufficient condition to promote domestic …