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Let Books be Books: A Campaign to Force United Kingdom Publishers to Eliminate Gender-Specific Marketing for Children.
No full textDeath by Bullying: A Comparative Culpability Proposal
Get PDFThis article explores the possibility and advisability of imposing homicide charges against bullies, a controversial approach because of the serious causation questions it poses. Nonetheless, there is precedent for holding a person criminally culpable for a victim’s suicide. A notorious case involved the head of the Ku Klux Klan who was convicted of murder after the woman he raped killed herself by swallowing poison, “distracted by pain and shame so inflicted upon her.” Some may see her shame as analogous to gay teens who commit suicide after being bullied about their sexual orientation. But perhaps the law should not demand that free will be completely lacking before a person is charged for another’s suicide. In other instances such as provocation, the criminal law recognizes that the relationship between victim and defendant shapes culpability. This article explores whether it is feasible and desirable to do so with suicides.
Part I provides background on cyber-bullying with a focus on two highly-publicized cases. Causation rules and their application in suicide-by-victim cases are laid out in Part II. Part III assesses whether homicides charges would be possible against a bully. It suggests the all-or-nothing approach to causation, and its exceptions are based on artificial and outmoded reasoning. For example, using the Stephenson reasoning, a prosecutor would have to paint a bullying victim as mentally unstable and irresponsible. For victims of bullying who are considering suicide, these prosecutions reinforce their sense of hopelessness and helplessness because they blame the bully for the victims’ suicidal acts. The goal, instead, should be to empower bullying victims to seek other avenues to escape their bullies, to feel that they have choices; and that suicide is not an option. The bully should be punished, but the focus should be on his actions, not on the victim’s response. Using a comparative causation analysis, as some scholars propose, we look to a person’s role in another’s death and punish according to the amount he contributed to the death. Factors such as the imbalance of power between the bully and his victim, and the nature and severity of the bullying should be considered in determining whether a person who has a role in another’s suicide should be punished
Trade Secrets Registry
Get PDFThe present article considers four aspects in which the trade secret method is less efficient than the patents method: litigation costs, transaction costs, financing costs, and employment costs. The main part of the article is devoted to the proposal of establishing a particular type of trade secrets registry, with the intention that it will reduce the above-mentioned costs and will improve the efficiency of the trade secret method. I propose a structure for the registration of trade secrets that is likely to solve most of the problems left unresolved by the escrow companies and the Indonesian legislation. A trade secret registry may seem to be a contradiction in terms, because the purpose of a registry is to make public the information registered with it, whereas trade secrets must be kept confidential. But the proposed registry integrates these two principles, so that a part of it remains confidential and another part is open to the public. As part of the registry, trade secrets would be deposited confidentially through coded communication, including dating of the deposit. But, the identity of the holders of the rights with respect to these secrets (including those possessing secondary rights, such as licensees and holders of a mortgage) and the identity of those bound by confidentiality regarding the secrets deposited (such as employees of the owner of the trade secret) will be public information. The proposed registry would be handled by the registrar of trade secrets, a quasi-judicial figure empowered to resolve judicial disputes when necessary
It’s Not That Difficult: The Shared Economic Growth Solution to Tax Reform
Get PDFIn this article, I outline the latest version of the Shared Economic Growth package proposal and explain how it accomplishes all of its goals, with reference to some of the recent scholarly works that support it. I then walk through the derivation of the numbers to show that it really works, based on conservative assumptions and without any reliance on economic growth or voodoo, and that it would provide a substantial addition to revenue in the coming years. These numbers are based on 2010 data, the most recent comprehensive data available, and thus prove that the proposal works in the post-2008 economy. I next compare the proposal to the emerging “corporate consensus.” Finally, I walk through an analysis of the propriety of certain offsets that can only work as part of the Shared Economic Growth package
How to Avoid Constitutional Challenges to State Based Climate Change Initiatives: A Case Study of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Corey and New York State Programs
Get PDFConsidering the decision in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey and the EPA\u27s actions in accordance with the President\u27s Plan, this comment will outline best practices states can use in creating climate initiatives based on the challenges California faced in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey. Part II of this comment will analyze the reasoning in Rocky Mtn. v. Corey. Although certiorari was denied in the case, Part II will analyze recent Supreme Court dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence to determine which cases are relevant to consider when analyzing a dormant Commerce Clause challenge to state based climate initiatives. Part III will discuss the current Federal Climate Action Plan and relevant provisions of the CAA, focusing on 111(d), and what states should consider when implementing climate initiatives to avoid constitutional challenges. Part IV will highlight New York State based climate initiatives as a case study. Like California\u27s LCFS, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) and New York\u27s Renewable Portfolio Standard (hereinafter “NYS RPS”) faced scrutiny as to whether the regulations violate the dormant Commerce Clause. Part IV will also discuss how RGGI and the NYS RPS demonstrate how States can act locally and regionally applying best practices to create legally defensible climate initiatives
Revisiting Media Richness Theory: Social Cues Impact on Understanding in a Textual World
No full textToday people are more connected by technology than ever, but the impact of changing preferences for interacting on communication is still largely unknown. Differing levels of richness in modes of communication as determined by media richness theory were examined as a function of participants\u27 accuracy and certainty in interpreting ambiguous messages. A sample of 111 undergraduate student participants were randomly assigned to text, audio, or video condition groups where they read, heard, or viewed ambiguous stimuli in four emotional tone categories (affection, aggression, sarcasm, and wit/humor) in an online survey. Findings included significant positive correlations between accuracy and certainty overall; when separated by condition, the association between accuracy and certainty was significant in the richest communication condition (video) across all four emotional tone categories and in the leanest condition (text) for affectionate messages only. Overall, there was a significant main effect for condition on accuracy scores, with the richest (video) condition having highest accuracy scores across the majority of emotional tone categories. Affectionately toned message accuracy was the exception, with higher accuracy scores in the moderately rich audio condition. Generally, the moderately rich condition produced accuracy rates that were lower than the richest condition but higher than the leanest (text) condition. Across all emotional categories, the leanest condition had significantly lower accuracy scores. There were no significant differences in certainty scores between conditions. In summary, while accuracy decreased in leaner forms of communication, individuals\u27 confidence in their ability to accurately perceive messages remained stable across all communication mediums and emotional categories. This suggests people tend to be overconfident in their ability to accurately perceive messages; they may be unaware interpretational accuracy can vary significantly both across emotional tone and by medium, with accuracy decreasing most in text-based interactions. These findings could be used to help individuals better predict when to use richer forms of communication mediums to avoid misunderstandings, or to at least be more aware when their messages may be less clear. Additionally, the certainly findings support that richness alone does not predict media choices as participants did not appear to consider richness as a factor in effectively conveying meaning in their perceived understanding of information
Show and Tell?: Students\u27 Personal Lives, Schools, and Parents
Get PDFPublic schools learn about their students\u27 personal lives in many ways. Some are passive: a teacher observes a student kissing someone, or overhears a conversation among friends. But schools also engage in more active information-gathering about students\u27 personal lives, through surveys and informal conversations between students and teachers, administrators, school psychologists, counselors, coaches, and other personnel. This Article explores the competing privacy considerations that result from such encounters. Once schools have learned highly personal information about their students, does it violate those students\u27 privacy rights to disclose that information to their parents? Or does keeping the information secret violate the parents\u27 constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children, often framed as a privacy right of its own? And what are the limits on schools\u27 ability to probe for such information in the first place?
This Article brings together the parallel lines of cases addressing these questions, showing how students\u27 and parents\u27 privacy interests converge in the context of schools\u27 extraction of students\u27 personal information, only to be pitted against each other regarding the disclosure of such information. Moreover, it explores the underlying normative question that links the extraction and disclosure issues: how should schools approach their-to some extent, inevitable-role in students\u27 personal and family lives? This Article argues that recognizing stronger limitations on schools\u27 ability to probe into students\u27 personal lives, while giving schools broad discretion as to how to handle such information provided that it has been legitimately obtained, is not only consistent with both of the constitutional privacy interests at stake, but also good policy
China and India: Globalization with Different Paths
Get PDFThis occasional paper has three essays written by professors from Pace University and Nanjing Normal University that address a host of structural challenges facing China and India in pursuit of sustainable development in the early twenty-first century. Pan Zhen gives a critical overview of China’s economic policies, and finds the top-down development model to be fraught with tensions. Joseph Tse-Hei Lee argues that the ability of China to pursue sustainable growth and social betterment is largely contingent upon many circumstantial factors, especially the negative attributes of globalization and the rise of domestic discontents. Satish K. Kolluri shifts the focus of discussion to the electoral victory of Narendra Modi in India, and examines the implications of the rise of Modi in domestic and regional politics. These essays throw light on the political and socioeconomic trajectories of China and India. Since both countries have significantly liberalized their economies in recent decades, the unprecedented expansion of their capabilities and influences is a complex phenomenon, rooted in the context of particular temporal and spatial settings, and the need to accommodate endogenous and exogenous forces of change
Criminal Responsibility for Arbitrators in Chinese Law: Perversion of Law in Commercial Arbitration
Get PDFThis article is prompted by a recent Chinese criminal provision governing the impartiality of arbitration. The goals of the article fare to critically examine the new criminal statute created by the provision and to put forward some proposals for reform, which could be employed to resolve the tension that exists between arbitrator impartiality and deference to arbitration. Although the new provision appears to eliminate the abuse of arbitral power, it may raise more questions than it resolves. This article explores the problems and undertakes a comparative analysis of the corresponding U.S. provision, as well as an analysis of some cultural and traditional elements influencing the new criminal statute in China. Ultimately it will be argued that the concerns can be addressed by fine-tuning the rule in order to keep a balance between the previous two conflicting values. Borrowing from U.S. experience, a mechanism of judicial interpretation is proposed that could well suit China’s needs because the benefits of arbitration can be retained without sacrificing the impartiality of arbitration