University of California Hastings College of the Law
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The Myth of Slavery Abolition
No full textIn many countries today, slavery and the slave trade continue with impunity. International human rights law prohibits both abuses, but states are rarely held accountable and people who are enslaved or slave traded rarely receive redress. This Article offers a novel account of why international human rights law advocacy neglects slavery and the slave trade. Specifically, this Article demonstrates that the abolition of the Transatlantic and East African slave trades was achieved through a legal framework that marginalized the human rights of enslaved persons while consolidating empire. In the wake of World War II, prohibitions on slavery and the slave trade were codified in human rights law, but advocates turned to enforcement under international criminal law, which focuses on individual perpetrators and can paradoxically entrench the structures that perpetuate slavery and the slave trade.
In recent decades, the United States has doubled down on these imperial interventionist strategies, using global power and influence to rebrand human trafficking as “modern slavery” and focusing enforcement on policing international borders while prosecuting individual perpetrators under domestic and transnational criminal law. This Article therefore argues that human rights advocates should press international legal institutions to go beyond combatting human trafficking crimes and to focus additionally on state accountability for wrongs done to the human beings still exploited, enslaved, and slave traded today. Only then can the prohibitions of slavery and the slave trade begin to unlock their emancipatory potential
The KKK, Immigration Law and Policy, and Donald Trump
No full textMany Americans know the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) for its horrific acts of violence directed at African Americans. Although generally overshadowed by that violence, the KKK’s vilification of other groups, including immigrants and religious minorities, long has been central to its quest for white Anglo-Saxon supremacy. This Essay analyzes the enduring legacy of the KKK’s immigration philosophy on contemporary American immigration law and politics. Some modern anti- immigrant advocates champion remarkably similar policies to the Klan’s with racial animus on full display. Former President, and the 2024 Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump is an example
From UC Hastings to UC Law SF: An Examination of the Renaming Process and Analysis of Institutional Identity
No full textRe(de)fining Patent Eligibility
No full textThe patent system is at the heart of America’s innovation scene, serving as the lifeline for America’s status as an industrial titan as it seeks to inspire inventors worldwide to innovate and discover. The confines of patent-eligible subject matter were set out by Congress through the power vested by the Constitution, and these boundaries have been re(de)fined as the Supreme Court has carved out exceptions to these standards including: laws of nature, abstract ideas, and natural phenomena being excluded from patentability. In response to criticisms of legal uncertainty surrounding patent-eligibility under the current regime, two senators have introduced The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 (PERA 2023). With bipartisan support, the Act has been introduced to reform the patent system most notably through abrogation of the judicially-created exceptions, replacing them with an explicitly enumerated list of what categories of invention would be ineligible for patent-protection. While the proposed legislation attempts to provide some clarity to the patent-eligibility jurisprudence and bring the patent system closer to its intended purpose, Congress must take care to ensure that they are not overstepping any possible constitutional limits, and they must carefully navigate possible interpretational difficulties to ensure the legislation has its intended practical effect. This Note explores the constitutionality of the judicially-created exceptions and how they may affect the reach of the legislation, as well as possible interpretational issues of the proposed legislation that may be guided by European patent jurisprudence, to discuss the efficacy of the bill in achieving its ultimate goal of promoting innovation in America
Pack Your Bags…We’re Moving to the Public Domain: The Expiration of Copyright Terms and Its Implications on Future Protection
No full textThe following Note addresses the expiration of copyright terms for a multitude of creative works and the various implications of that expiration for their future IP protection. It explores the conflicting perspectives of stakeholders, from the excitement of artists and everyday creatives versus the concerns of industry leaders about the potential erosion of their copyright monopolies. Drawing from landmark cases like Baker v. Selden and Dastar Corporation v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., this Note highlights the complex questions surrounding copyright expiration and the strategic use of trademark protection. The Note emphasizes the necessity for coherent legal frameworks to ensure a harmonious balance between fostering innovation and preserving cultural accessibility in a digital world
Pipe Dream: Rethinking CO2 Pipeline Subsidies
No full textGenerous government subsidies are driving major expansions of carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure throughout the United States. The fossil fuel industry stakeholders who pushed for these subsidies argue that more pipelines would support the transportation of more captured carbon dioxide from power plants and ethanol processing facilities to permanent subsurface storage sites. While such pipeline expansions could potentially reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with certain fossil fuel energy activities, they would also create unjustifiable new environmental and health threats. Major investments in new carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure likewise promote continued reliance on fossil fuels for decades to come and thereby slow the transition to low-carbon renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power. This Article highlights the potential adverse impacts of the federal government’s unprecedented carbon dioxide pipeline subsidy regime and argues that such subsidies are not cost-justifiable in an era of increasingly low-cost renewable energy. The Article then identifies specific statutory reforms capable of restoring a more sensible federal carbon dioxide pipeline policy structure
Working From 10 to 5, What a Way to Make a Livin’: The SEC’s Most Recent Amendments to Promote Corporate Governance and Curb Exploitative Hedge Fund Activism
No full textThis Note investigates the evolving regulatory landscape following the 2023 SEC amendments regarding beneficial ownership reporting. It begins by analyzing the rise of hedge fund activism and its influence on corporate governance strategies, addressing benefits, controversies, and criticisms associated with this form of shareholder activism. This Note then traces the historical development of the regulatory requirements for beneficial ownership reporting such the Williams Act and now nearly forty years later, the 2023 SEC amendments to Schedule 13(d) and Schedule 13(g). Lastly, this Note analyzes the ongoing limitations and challenges in balancing market transparency with market competition, gleaning into the future trajectory of the SEC regulatory landscape for beneficial ownership reporting. Despite the SEC’s efforts to mandate market transparency, shine the spotlight on short-term investment horizons, and slow activist campaigns, this Note questions whether the 2023 SEC amendments sufficiently advance corporate governance initiatives or merely create slight barriers to activist hedge fund campaigns
