Note: Inter Partes Review: Ensuring Effective Patent Litigation Through Estoppel
By Ann E. Motl. Full text here. Inter partes review (IPR) is a relatively new proceeding before the Patent and Trademark Office in which a petitioner requests administrative patent judges to review an issued patent and declare its claims invalid. After IPR, the petitioner can continue to litigate patent validity in federal court. However, this second…
Continue ReadingNote: The Case Against Self-Representation in Capital Proceedings
By Max S. Meckstroth. Full text here. In 1972, the Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, holding that the death penalty was being applied arbitrarily and capriciously—rendering its application unconstitutional. Three years later, while the death penalty was still considered unconstitutional, the Supreme Court in Faretta v. California held that the Sixth Amendment implied the right…
Continue ReadingNote: A Chilling Experience: An Analysis of the Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding Egg Freezing, and a Contractual Solution
By Alicia J. Paller. Full text here. If you Google “egg freezing,” you will find numerous newspaper and magazine articles discussing this new reproductive technology. You will also encounter countless clinics currently helping women extract and freeze their eggs. You might find an occasional warning about the potential risks associated with egg freezing, as the media…
Continue ReadingNote: Beating the Odds: The Public Policy of Drug Efficacy and Safety
By Noah Lewellen. Full text here. Decisions in the Supreme Court and, more recently, the Ninth Circuit have cast doubt on the role of statistical significance in drug development. In United States v. Harkonen, the defendant Harkonen was convicted of fraud for advertising successful testing of a drug when, in fact, the tests had not revealed…
Continue ReadingNote: Knowledge Is Power: How Implementing Affirmative Disclosures Under the JOBS Act Could Promote and Protect Benefit Corporations and Their Investors
By Laura A. Farley. Full text here. Benefit corporations are a new type of business entity that combine the notions of for-profit finances with the public and mission-based goals of non-profits, thus creating a unique business model that is just now gaining traction. Despite its popularity, the benefit corporation entity often faces financial difficulty because of…
Continue ReadingNote: Stimulating Dialogue Between the Courts and Congress: Sprucing Up the “Statutory Housekeeping” Project
By Jeff Simard. Full text here. Gluck and Bressman’s recent survey of legislative drafters suggests that judges who interpret and construe statutes are not on the same page as those who draft and revise them. This disconnect seems especially glaring in light of the rise of statute-based law and the increasing impact that judicial statutory interpretation…
Continue ReadingNote: Treating Adults Like Children: Re-Sentencing Adult Juvenile Lifers After Miller v. Alabama
By Brianna H. Boone. Full text here. Miller v. Alabama continued the trend in Supreme Court cases finding that juvenile criminal offenders are less culpable than adult offenders, by holding that states cannot sentence juvenile offenders to mandatory life without parole. The Court held that it is cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile to…
Continue ReadingNote: When Volunteers Become Employees: Using a Threshold-Remuneration Test Informed by the Fair Labor Standards Act To Distinguish Employees from Volunteers
By Emily Bodtke. Full text here. Despite the recognized importance of determining who is an “employee” for purposes of legal coverage, the concept remains unsettled. The confusion over how to define “employee” is now spreading to upset the boundary between employees and volunteers. As voluntarily unpaid workers increasingly bring lawsuits alleging discrimination under federal statutes, a…
Continue ReadingNote: Fine-Tuning the Tax Whistleblower Statute: Why Qui-tam Is Not a Solution
By Sung Woo “Matt” Hu. Full text here. Under the Internal Revenue Code, tax whistleblowers can be rewarded up to thirty percent of the collected proceeds when the IRS successfully collects delinquent amounts from tax evaders based on the information provided by those whistleblowers. However, whistleblowers are left with no remedy if the IRS decides not…
Continue ReadingNote: Treating the Disease or Punishing the Criminal? Effectively Using Drug Court Sanctions To Treat Substance Use Disorder and Decrease Criminal Conduct
By Caitlinrose Fisher. Full text here. Drug courts have been on the rise for the past few decades, providing an alternative criminal supervision system for individuals struggling with addiction and drug dependence. Drug courts provide an intensive supervision model by responding swiftly to probation violations with a series of graduated sanctions. Assuming that drug courts are…
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