Automated Agencies
By Joshua D. Blank and Leigh Osofsky. Full Text. When individuals have questions about federal benefits, services, and legal rules, they increasingly seek help from government chatbots, virtual assistants, and other automated tools. Most scholars who have studied artificial intelligence and federal government agencies have not focused on the government’s use of technology to offer…
Continue ReadingThe Public Stakes of Consumer Law: The Environment, the Economy, Health, Disinformation, and Beyond
By Rory Van Loo. Full Text. Consumer law has a conflicted and narrow identity. It is most immediately a form of business law, governing market transactions between people and companies. Accordingly, the microeconomic analysis of markets is the dominant influence on consumer law. But consumer law is often described as, and assumed to be about,…
Continue ReadingThe Law Enforcement Lobby
By Zoë Robinson and Stephen Rushin. Full Text. The law enforcement lobby represents one of the most important and undertheorized barriers to criminal justice reform. We define the law enforcement lobby as the constellation of entrenched actors within the justice system—particularly police unions, correctional officer unions, and prosecutor associations—that exert an outsized role in policy…
Continue ReadingTea and Donuts
By Derek E. Bambauer and Robert W. Woods. Full Text. U.S. trademark law often permits simultaneous use of the same brand by multiple entities. Its approach to deciding when and how this concurrent use is permissible has become antiquated, rooted in outdated assumptions about trade and telecommunications. By using the physical location of mark-users as…
Continue ReadingThe Battle for the Soul of the GDPR: Clashing Decisions of Supervisory Authorities Highlight Potential Limits of Procedural Data Protection
By Jordan Francis. Full Text. For privacy professionals, 2023 got off to a big start as the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced €390 million in fines against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (“Meta”) for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violations by its services Facebook and Instagram. Meta is no stranger to GDPR enforcement, having accumulated…
Continue ReadingInterstate Cannabis Compacts: The Road to a Regional Legal Cannabis Economy
By Michael J.K.M. Kinane. Full Text. Since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, cannabis has been a Schedule I drug. Yet twenty-one states, two territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis, and even more have legalized it for medical use. Despite Supreme Court precedent holding the conduct of these…
Continue ReadingThe Ethics of Abortion Ban Exceptions: Is the “Life-Threatening” Exception Threatening Lives?
By Mary E. Fleming. Full Text. Forty-three states have laws that outlaw abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother. The exact language used in each state’s respective law varies, but for ease, this Essay will refer to all variations as “life-threatening” exceptions to abortion prohibitions. Prior to 2022, issues with life-threatening…
Continue ReadingEvolving Online Terrain in an Inert Legal Landscape: How Algorithms and AI Necessitate an Amendment of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
By Ellison Snider. Full Text. The consequences of online speech are undeniable, and yet, as the internet rapidly evolves, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), the federal law most concerned with internet regulation, stays the same. The pervasive presence of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI), sophisticated technologies used by platforms to autonomously…
Continue ReadingGrandpa Sherman Did Not See Google Coming: Evolutions in Antitrust to Regulate Data Aggregating Firms
By Michael J.K.M. Kinane. Full Text. There is a crisis of confidence regarding the regulation of Google and other Big Tech firms. In 2021, over fifty-five percent of Americans believed that under-regulation of Big Tech has resulted in these companies having too much economic influence. Seventy-five percent are not confident that government will hold companies…
Continue ReadingThere Is No Such Thing as Circuit Law
By Thomas B. Bennett. Full Text. Lawyers and judges often talk about “the law of the circuit,” meaning the set of legal rules that apply within a particular federal judicial circuit. Seasoned practitioners are steeped in circuit law, it is said. Some courts have imagined that they confront a choice between applying the law of…
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