Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
DigitalCommons@University of Georgia School of LawNot a member yet
17912 research outputs found
Sort by
Paws Off My Image: Why Rights of Publicity Should Be Expanded
Full text linkIn our increasingly digital world, exposure to fame and fortune has become more accessible than ever, and many pet owners have taken advantage of this. The rise of “petfluencers” has called into question the extent of available rights of these celebrity animals’ owners to protect and maintain their pet’s commercial value, thus preventing instances of unfair enrichment from other’s exploitation of their beloved animals. This Note argues for the acceptance of an animal’s right of publicity. We begin with an exploration of the right of publicity itself and its current applications. Next, we will discuss the intellectual property rights currently available to pets, followed by an explanation and specific examples as to how these current rights are ineffective in preventing certain harms. Finally, this Note will analyze the possible implications of altering the law, both positive and negative, and ultimately craft the argument that a change is necessary with some discussion on the possible routes of implementation
Christian Realism and The Sins of Mass Incarceration
Full text linkThis article is a study of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism, a progressive school of social ethics rooted in Christian theology, and its critical evaluation of American mass incarceration. Christian Realism seeks justice in society under law, formed by love as its fundamental organizing principle. It acknowledges a world with endemic structural injustices and social immorality, but it finds temperate hope in the human potential for love, redemption, and generosity. Christian Realism reckons that any institution committed to justice must inevitably compromise to achieve incremental progress toward good. But it projects steady, hopeful progress toward justice, even as systems calibrate themselves to stave off the worse effects of human nature. On this tricky ground, Christian Realism wrestles with individual morality within flawed systems, the universal struggle to act morally when social realities drive people to self-interest and antagonism.
Christian Realism issues a call to evaluate society’s injustices, then to implement steps that approach justice, without regard for dogma or party. Niebuhr acknowledges that people will break the law and harm others and that society must protect itself from violence and disorder.
He recognizes that every choice requires grueling negotiations between liberty and coercion, free-dom and order. In this thicket, Christian Realism takes the side of the oppressed, excluded, and impoverished against entrenched powers, because a just society will provide equal opportunity for all life, rooted in an abiding love among neighbors.
Evaluating the American criminal legal system, Christian Realism critiques and condemns mass incarceration and the ascendant preference for violent retribution. The society that sustains mass incarceration fails on three fronts, at least. First, mass incarceration is maximally coercive, signaling a failure of stable, fair means for confronting conflict in society. Second, the entrenched interests of mass incarceration impose corrupting pressures on individual officers and judges invested with discretion, limiting their ability to exert moral force within an unjust system. Third, economic powers have captured the carceral system to advance business interests to the detriment of human dignity, equal opportunity, and love, calcifying the criminal justice system and suppressing movements for reform.
Retribution and incarceration are policy choices. A jurisprudence of love that grounds the law in human dignity opens the way for serious alternatives for measured punishment, public safety, therapeutic rehabilitation, community restoration, and social redemption. These may include polices of restorative and therapeutic justice; constructive reentry programs; shorter sentences; decriminalization; reformed plea bargaining; increased investment in education; or other novel ideas to address the forces that drive people to do harm, to treat people justly when they cause harm, and to advance restoration and redemption for the sake of a just society.
Christian Realism tests every policy against its commitments to justice and love and its real consequences in the world, even when compromising for incremental, sustainable progress. Thus, Christian Realism welcomes experiments to meet the needs of a just society – order through minimal coercion, fair and stable mechanisms for addressing conflict, the empowerment of the poor and dis-enfranchised, and laws founded in love
(Trans)forming The “Epidemic of Violence”: LGBTQ+ Police Liaisons and Transgender Victimization
Full text linkOver the past twenty years, police departments across the country have instated LGBTQ+ liaisons in response to overwhelming rates of violence against the transgender and gender non-conforming community. Despite the creation of this position, rates of transgender victimization remain the same, with transgender people still being 2.5 times more likely to experience violence than a cisgender person. At-lanta Police Department’s LGBTQ+ liaison has existed since 2004, however, in this time, nearly twenty brutal mur-ders of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals have been reported in Atlanta, with three high-profile kill-ings occurring in 2023 alone. Based on these findings, this Note argues that, as they exist now, LGBTQ+ police liaisons and liaison units do not protect the transgender and gender non-conforming community.
Not only is the transgender community hesitant to trust law enforcement after decades of police harassment and violence, but police departments also continue to ad-vance problematic policies that put transgender people at risk of revictimization. In reviewing the Atlanta Police De-partment’s protocol, one can find policies that prevent vic-tims from receiving services from the LGBTQ+ liaison unit and questionable search and detention protocols. Ulti-mately, this Note argues that to end the epidemic of violence against transgender people, either serious reforms to LGBTQ+ liaison units must occur, or the community must turn to non-police alternatives
Bootlegging for the Better: Livestreams and the Music Industry
Full text linkAs online presence has continued to become a more important aspect of everyday, it has become a norm in American Culture to share every aspect of life, including concert attendance. While artists expressed distaste in the past for recording at concerts, there has been a shift by musicians to acceptance of recording at concerts, sometimes being an important form of cheap promotion. Artists that do continue to express distaste for concerts being shared on social media have turned to non-legal remedies to solve their problem. Although there is a remedy available to artists for the livestreaming of concerts through the anti-bootlegging provisions, these provisions are not currently providing meaningful protection. This note explores the different options that the legislature could take to update the anti-bootlegging provisions to address livestreaming of live musical performances, and how each option would affect artists and their fans
The Pressing Need for State Sovereignty Recognition for Post-Territorial States
Full text linkThis note offers an analysis of the retention of national sovereignty by
states that have lost all of their territory, primarily by analyzing the
international recognition of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as a post-
territorial state. This analysis will be of increasing pertinence as more nations
face territorial loss due to climate change. This paper traces the development
of the Order\u27s role in world politics and its ongoing international recognition
by various nations
Ringhand publishes article in Wisconsin Law Review
No full textHosch Professor & Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Lori A. Ringhand published The Court and the Constitution in 2023 Wisconsin Law Review 547 (2023)
Rodrigues featured in Bloomberg article
No full textUniversity Professor & Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance and Securities Law Usha Rodrigues was featured in a Bloomberg article regarding special purpose acquisition companies. The article titled SPAC Mania\u27s Ugly End Yields $436 Billion of Investor Losses was written by Amelia Pollard and Johnathan Randles and was published 12/27/23
Bruner presents on global value chains at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands
No full textStembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law Christopher M. Bruner presented his working paper Prospects for a US Value Chain Due Diligence Law at the Connecting Responsible Organizations: Legal Strategies for Sustainability in Global Value Chains conference during January. The conference was hosted by the Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands
Rodrigues featured on Bloomberg Law
No full textUniversity Professor & Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance and Securities Law Usha Rodrigues was featured on Bloomberg Law regarding special purpose acquisition companies. The article titled SPAC Industry Fears SEC\u27s Rules Could Finish Off Ailing Market was written by Bailey Lipschultz and published 1/23/24