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Taliban Charges Show US Dilemma, Double Standards in Opposing International Criminal Court
No full textOn Thursday, Jan. 23., 2025, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his Office is seeking arrest warrants for the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief Justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for the crime against humanity of gender persecution (Rome Statute, Art. 7(1)(h)). The charges are unsurprising given what is widely known about the persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban returned to power, women and girls have been banned from both secondary school and higher education, and have been progressively removed from all aspects of public life. Under so-called morality laws, the Taliban has banned women from showing their faces, or even using their voices in public. LGBTQI populations have also been targeted. For those suffering under Taliban rule, the ICC Prosecutor’s announcement is at least one sign of an international actor remaining engaged with their plight. The charges do, however, come at an awkward time for U.S. senators preparing to vote on the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (ICCA) passed recently in the House of Representatives
AI and Legal Ethics
No full textThe presentation was a practical extension of Professor Baskaran\u27s scholarship on AI use in public service and public interest work, Searching for Justice: Incorporating Critical Legal Research into Clinic Seminar, 30 Clinical L. Rev. 227 (2024)
Forced Arbitration in Tesla’s Consumer Contracts
No full textThe Supreme Court has supported the FAA’s preference for enforcing arbitration clauses and has extended it to forced arbitration provisions. In DirecTV v. Imburgia, the Supreme Court upheld a mandatory arbitration clause in a consumer service agreement, which additionally prohibited class arbitration. The Court reasoned that the FAA clearly states that written provisions in contracts that mandate arbitration are enforceable as all other contracts are enforceable. Companies throughout the United States use forced arbitration for employment and consumer contracts, including those for car leases. Forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts ensure that customers settle their disputes with a company through arbitration rather than through court proceedings. Many consumers are unaware that sellers have subjected them to these mandatory arbitration proceedings. In the automobile industry, sales contracts and leases in almost all transactions include forced arbitration clauses. All 50 states give automobile dealers the exclusive ability to decide what they include in their sales or lease contracts, including mandatory arbitration clauses
What We Can Learn from the Notorious P&ID v. Nigeria
No full textOn October 23, 2023, England’s High Court of Justice ruled in favor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Nigeria v. Process & Industrial Developments Ltd. (P&ID). Reviewing the case, the High Court vacated P&ID’s $10 billion arbitral award after finding significant evidence of fraud and bribery. While the High Court’s decision marked a victory for Nigeria, it also shook the international arbitration system. This case exposed some of international arbitration’s flaws and generated new concerns regarding the confidentiality inherent in the arbitration process
New Books in the Field: Inclusive Socratic Teaching: Why Law Schools Need It and How to Achieve It. (Book Presentation)
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Minority Day Hearing on American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework
No full textWhen we hear from the crypto industry that existing regulation is incompatible with their technology, that is a misdirection. It is entirely possible for a blockchain-based technology business to comply with existing investor protection and financial stability regulation. However, for many crypto businesses, it may be true that existing regulation is incompatible with the economics of their business model, especially if their business model depends on doing things that we have learned, over the years, tend to harm people. But we have little to lose as a society from limiting the profitability of this kind of business model; unfortunately, the contemplated bill is designed to supplant existing law in order to ensure the profitability of the crypto industry.
The bill offers fewer investor protections than the existing securities laws, and was intentionally designed in this way in order to accommodate the crypto industry’s current market structure. This bill will also give crypto assets a veneer of legitimacy, making it easier for fiduciaries operating pension funds and 401k plans to invest in them. Also, the deregulation facilitated by these kinds of bills can run both ways: by providing the crypto industry with “lighter touch” regulation than traditional finance, they encourage traditional financial institutions to refashion their services as crypto services in order to be able to take advantage of the lighter touch regime
Access to Scholarly Publications in the Global North and the Global South—Copyright and the Need for a Paradigm Shift under the Right to Science
Full text linkThis paper assesses the deficits of copyright law for digital science, and potential solutions thereto, in the light of the right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” (“REBSPA” or “right to science”), as protected in Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. While, in the shorter term, existing copyright law needs to undergo certain reforms (which would all be supported by the REBSPA) to accommodate the needs of science, in the longer term, the right to science, thus the argument here, requires something else – much more, in fact. Firstly, there needs to be a move toward “another” science, a science reconceptualized so as not to be primarily driven by instrumental and profit motives. Secondly, following from that, science would need to be genuinely open. Among other things, this requires the creation of a “true” scholarly knowledge commons, necessitating far-reaching changes in the way copyright applies, or potentially its abolition, in science. Thirdly, the envisaged scholarly knowledge commons would have to be globally inclusive in scope – which is to be achieved by recognizing and respecting the mostly ignored international dimension of the right to science. This paper questions the traditional role of the commercial scholarly publishers and argues for a paradigm shift in the sphere of copyright and science. Identifying flaws and gaps in the current official interpretations of the REBSPA, the right to science is reinterpreted in various respects here. In making the case, the deconstructive concept of “adequacy for science” is inter alia relied on. The paper is based on ideas articulated in another paper by the same author, “Reforming Copyright or Toward Another Science?,” in this paper series (PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series no. 7 (1922))
Trademark Fair Use is No Joke
Full text linkThis Article examines how the Supreme Court\u27s 2023 decision in Jack Daniel\u27s Properties v. VIP Products reveals the limitations of using parody as a framework for resolving tensions between trademark rights and free speech. While the Court\u27s ruling narrowed trademark protection in certain instances and acknowledged the importance of protecting parodic speech, it ultimately avoided addressing fundamental questions about the relationship between trademark law and the First Amendment. The Article argues that courts\u27 reliance on parody as a paradigmatic case of permissible trademark use has become a distraction that prevents necessary reform of trademark law to better accommodate First Amendment interests through a broader fair use defense. This overemphasis on parody as a safe harbor for expressive uses of trademarks has allowed courts to sidestep the development of a comprehensive framework for balancing trademark rights against free speech concerns