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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

By Sam D. Bolstad. Full text here. Solar panels’ high upfront capital costs are the primary hurdle to widespread installation by homeowners and towns. Solar panel companies are addressing this challenge through third-party power purchase agreements (PPAs), wherein a company pays for these costs when it installs the solar panels on-site at the customer’s location.…

By Julia D. Zwak. Full text here.

By Andrea L. Miller. Full text here.