Federalism 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 ReadingPublic Enforcement Compensation and Private Rights
By Prentiss Cox. Full text here. Government enforcement actions have returned tens of billions of dollars to consumers, investors and employees. This “public enforcement compensation” is important to effective civil law enforcement, yet it is poorly understood and increasingly criticized. Recent scholarship asserts that public compensation mimics class action recoveries and raises the same concerns of accountability…
Continue ReadingNo Longer a Neutral Magistrate: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in the Wake of the War on Terror
By Walter F. Mondale, Robert A. Stein & Caitlinrose Fisher. Full text here. Since the founding of our nation, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government have struggled with maintaining an appropriate balance between gathering intelligence for national security purposes and protecting the civil liberties of United States citizens. This difficulty is compounded by the…
Continue ReadingNote: Maximizing the Min-Max Test: A Proposal To Unify the Framework for Rule 403 Decisions
By Leah Tabbert. Full text here. Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence applies to virtually every piece of evidence introduced in federal proceedings, permitting the trial judge to exclude evidence if the danger of unfair prejudice substantially exceeds the evidence’s probative value. By requiring that the danger of prejudice substantially outweigh probative value in…
Continue ReadingNote: Anticompetitive Until Proven Innocent: An Antitrust Proposal To Embargo Covert Patent Privateering Against Small Businesses
By Kyle R. Kroll. Full text here. Policy-makers have become increasingly wary of a new patent litigation strategy called “patent privateering.” Through licensing or transfers of patents, companies can sponsor and direct—or privateer—other entities (often called patent assertion entities (or PAEs)) to sue competitors for patent infringement. Unlike patent trolling, patent privateering is not purposed on…
Continue ReadingNew Economy, Old Biases
By Nancy Leong. Full text here. Alan David Freeman’s seminal article, Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Antidiscrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine, provided a pathbreaking account of Supreme Court jurisprudence. Professor Freeman observed that the law guaranteed racial equality while simultaneously rationalizing the ongoing existence of grievous inequality. This Symposium Article demonstrates that Professor Freeman’s…
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