Note: Guardians of Your Galaxy S7: Encryption Backdoors and the First Amendment
By Allen Cook Barr. Full text here. Since Apple brought encryption technology into wide public use with its inclusion on the iPhone, there have been calls from law enforcement for technology companies to include backdoors—the ability to bypass the encryption and access information even if one does not have the password, fingerprint, et. cetera normally required…
Continue ReadingTie Votes in the Supreme Court
By Justin Pidot. Full text here. What should the Supreme Court do with a tie vote? A long-standing rule provides that when the Justices are evenly divided, the lower court’s decision is affirmed and the Supreme Court’s order has no precedential effect. While tie votes arise with relative rarity, the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia…
Continue ReadingKnowledge Goods and Nation-States
By Daniel J. Hemel & Lisa Larrimore Ouellette. Full text here. The conventional economic justification for global IP treaties begins from the premise that nation-states, if left to their own devices, will rationally underinvest in innovation incentives such as IP laws, grants, tax credits, and prizes (the “underinvestment hypothesis”). Under this account, nation-states will free-ride on…
Continue ReadingThe Law of the Platform
By Orly Lobel. Full text here. New digital platform companies are turning everything into an available resource: services, products, spaces, connections, and knowledge, all of which would otherwise be collecting dust. Unsurprisingly then, the platform economy defies conventional regulatory theory. Millions of people are becoming part-time entrepreneurs, disrupting established business models and entrenched market interests, challenging…
Continue ReadingTruth and Lies in the Workplace: Employer Speech and the First Amendment
By Helen Norton. Full text here. Employers’ lies, misrepresentations, and nondisclosures about workers’ legal rights and other working conditions can skew and sometimes even coerce workers’ important life decisions as well as frustrate key workplace protections. Federal, state, and local governments have long sought to address these substantial harms by prohibiting employers from misrepresenting workers’ rights…
Continue ReadingFederalism and Moral Disagreement
By Guido Calabresi & Eric S. Fish. Full text here. States form federalist unions when they want to align for economic or security reasons in spite of fundamental moral disagreements. By decentralizing policy-making authority, federalism allows such states to enjoy the benefits of union without being made to live under laws their citizens find immoral. But…
Continue ReadingNote: Address Confidentiality and Real Property Records: Safeguarding Interests in Land While Protecting Battered Women
By Jonathan Grant. Full text here. Over thirty states have instituted address confidentiality programs to protect victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse, stalking, and other crimes from perpetrators who try to track them through public records. The protections states offer vary widely. Minnesota has applied its address confidentiality program more broadly than any other state, extending…
Continue ReadingThe Missing Pieces of Geoengineering Research Governance
By Albert C. Lin. Full text here. Proposals to govern geoengineering research have focused heavily on the physical risks associated with individual research projects, and to a somewhat lesser degree on fostering public trust. While these concerns are critical, they are not the only concerns that research governance should address. Generally overlooked, and more difficult to…
Continue ReadingThe Moral Psychology of Copyright Infringement
By Christopher Buccafusco & David Fagundes. Full text here. Numerous recent cases illustrate that copyright owners sue for infringement even when an unauthorized use of their work causes them no financial harm. This presents a puzzle from the perspective of copyright theory as well as a serious social problem, since infringement suits designed to remedy non-pecuniary…
Continue ReadingOf Mice and Men: On the Seclusion of Immigration Detainees and Hospital Patients
By Stacey A. Tovino. Full text here. In its broadest sense, this Article challenges the lack of legally enforceable rights available to individuals in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. More specifically, this Article examines ICE’s widespread practice of secluding immigration detainees for lengthy periods of time for purported administrative, disciplinary, or protective reasons.…
Continue Reading