11929 research outputs found
Sort by
Lost in Transit: How Enforcement of Foreign Copyright Judgements Undermines the Right to Research
Get PDFThe ease of travel in the globalized, modern world is a doubleedged sword for the right to research: while research opportunities are bolstered due to information and data traveling extremely easily in the digital world, the right to research may be undermined by the easy travel of foreign copyright judgments between countries. This article analyzes thoroughly, for the first time, the threats posed to the right to research by private international law instruments on recognition and enforcement of foreign copyright judgments. This article uses a theoretical and doctrinal perspective to analyze the matter, demonstrating that the right to research, aimed at promoting innovation and creativity, is an integral part of, and an important balance within, the copyright paradigm. Since the right to research differs from country to country, it is especially vulnerable at the transnational level and is thus susceptible to abusive use of strategic foreign judgment enforcement proceedings. The article demonstrates that the risks to the right to research are intensified by a threefold bias that benefits the copyright holder while disadvantaging researchers, as the right holder is usually the initiator of the proceedings; has the choice of the forum; and has an incentive to request enforcement of the foreign judgment after it is granted—a bias summarized by the acronym ICE. These risks and vulnerabilities justify serious consideration in light of recent efforts to negotiate international instruments on the enforcement of foreign copyright judgments, especially in an age when national courts grant extraterritorial and even global injunctions in the realm of intellectual property. The article conceptualizes the application of private international law rules and notions to copyright law as akin to a legal transplant within copyright law, highlights the risks of such “transplant”, and demonstrates that private international law rules may not only interfere with internal copyright balances, but also undermine, and even nullify, the right to research. The article then outlines possible policy solutions to address these threats both on the national and international levels and, most importantly, proposes that the discussions on any international instrument on the enforcement of foreign copyright judgments take place under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a copyright-expert forum that will properly protect the right to research
Vulnerable Fraudsters: Reverse Affinity Fraud in Cases of Public Hoaxes
Get PDFThis Article examines reverse affinity fraud, which is affinity fraud in the context of public hoaxes. In traditional affinity fraud the fraudster targets a vulnerable group, whereas in cases of public hoaxes the fraudster portrays herself as part of a vulnerable group and targets the well-meaning and sympathetic general public. This Article explores the mindset and characteristics of vulnerable fraudsters in reverse affinity frauds by analyzing the cases of Sherri Papini and Lacey Spears. Both Papini and Spears utilized social media and online giving sites to defraud the public, and their cases highlight the unique challenges prosecutors have in proving wire fraud in certain types of online giving scenarios. This Article concludes that while Papini and Spears can properly be characterized as vulnerable fraudsters, actually charging them with reverse affinity fraud is difficult due to the current lack of guidelines under federal law
Securing Patent Law
Get PDFA vigorous conversation about intellectual property rights and national security has largely focused on the defense role of those rights, as tools for responding to acts of foreign infringement. But intellectual property, and patents in particular, also play an arguably more important offense role. Foreign competitor nations can obtain and assert U.S. patents against U.S. firms and creators. Use of patents as an offense strategy can be strategically coordinated to stymie domestic innovation and technological progress. This Essay considers current and possible future practices of patent exploitation in this offense setting, with a particular focus on China given the nature of the current policy conversation.
To respond to this use of patents as an offense tool, the best approach takes a page from cybersecurity. Patent law cannot simply exclude foreign adversaries, and so the law must be rendered secure and resilient to all potential users, foreign or domestic. Procedures for patent examination and verification, leadership in adjudication fairness, importation of competition principles into patent doctrine, and a whole-of-government approach can help to ensure that patent law is secure from exploitative abuses
Victims of Coercive Plea Bargaining: Defendants Who Give False Testimony for False Pleas
Get PDFThe last decade has seen a significant growth in academic research and literature related to coercive plea bargaining. One thread that emerges from this research is how coercive plea practices encourage innocent defendants to falsely condemn themselves, and sometimes even other innocent people to get the benefit of a “good” deal. This Article compiles and synthesizes this research to highlight how and why typical plea bargaining can lead to false guilty pleas. It also frames those who falsely plead guilty in the face of coercive bargains and those who are subject to false testimony as a result as victims of plea bargaining. In this way, we expand our conceptions of who should be viewed as a victim in our current system of pleas more broadly
Restraining the Heartless: Erosion of Corporate Liability Under the Alien Tort Statute and the Path Forward for Victims Seeking Redress
Get PDFThe Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) is a U.S. federal law dating back to 1789 that allows non-U.S. citizens to file civil lawsuits in federal courts against individuals or entities for alleged international law violations. While originally interpreted to address piracy and the safeguarding of foreign diplomats, the ATS gained new relevance in the late twentieth century when it was used to hold individuals and corporations accountable for human rights abuses committed abroad, making it a critical tool in seeking justice for human rights violations.
This Comment argues that there is no longer a realistic federal forum for ATS suits against foreign or domestic corporations. Through a series of decisions, the Supreme Court has effectively precluded federal courts from hearing suits against corporations under the ATS. Furthermore, the failure to provide a federal forum for civil tort claims against corporations for violations of international law under the ATS is a departure from precedent and the United States’ international and domestic legal obligations. Given the status of ATS claims against corporations in federal court, this Comment concludes that state courts are the most viable and necessary forum for tort suits against corporations for violations of international law
Building on Teaching Critical Legal Research with Law Librarians
No full textThe Teaching Justice Webinar series highlights new experiential approaches to teaching justice in the classroom, drawing on the wisdom of the current resistance movement and examining its intersections within a number of areas of law. This series explores the theory behind experiential faculty’s decision-making processes during an intense political movement, asking the question, “How do we show up as lawyers and teachers?” Presenters hope to develop a shared vocabulary and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a lawyer, whether we consider ourselves movement lawyers, rebellious lawyers, or transformative lawyers.
Building on Teaching Critical Legal Research with Law Librarians
October 11, 2023
Taught by Priya Baskaran (American University Washington College of Law), Latia Ward (University of Virginia School of Law), Nicholas Stump (West Virginia University School of Law), Nicholas Mignanelli (Yale Law
The Road to Brackeen: Defending ICWA 2013-2023
Get PDFFrom 2013 to 2023, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was challenged in the courts more than the Affordable Care Act. This Article lays out the history of the fight over ICWA from Baby Girl to Haaland, from my perspective as a clinical professor who has been involved with every major ICWA case since 2013, as well as my observations about why ICWA was so vulnerable to an organized litigation attack despite continued bipartisan and widespread support of the law
Sanctions as Virtue-Signaling: Transitioning from Symbolism to Reparation for Rohingya Genocide Victim
Get PDFKyi sat on the banks of the Inya Lake, saying goodbye to the place they said was no longer her home. The government of Myanmar had given her an option: leave or be arrested. She felt lucky to leave; most activists she knew did not get a warning first. A few kilometers away, her parents’ graves sat cleaned, adorned with fresh flowers. She hoped her sister would keep up the task in her absence, but she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her in quite some time. The feeling of the country was getting more concerned— frantic she explained, laughing, everyone is afraid to answer the phone, as if the doors that had swung open to the world a decade earlier were showing signs of slamming closed again
The WIPO Broadcasting Treaty: Comments on the Second Revised Draft
Get PDFFrom March 13 to 17, 2023, the WIPO Standing Committee will discuss, for the 43rd consecutive time, a possible Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. The draft treaty, which has featured high on the Committee’s agenda since its inception in 1998, would offer international protection to broadcasting organizations against unauthorized retransmission and related uses. Despite many years of discussion, stern opposition, countless redrafts and political setbacks, the controversial treaty project has never been abandoned. A Second Revised Draft Text, published on 11 January 2023, is now on the Committee’s agenda. This paper critically discusses the history, rationales, and examines the substantive content of the current draft treaty – with a special emphasis on limitations and exceptions