The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law
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European Union and United States Budget-Making: Process, Politics, and Policy in a COVID-Challenged World
No full textOn February 10, 20201, the Contemporary Challenges in American & Global Law web series tackled “European Union and United States Budget-Making: Process, Politics, and Policy in a COVID-Challenged World.” Katarzyna Stryjniak (LL.M. 2012), Legal and Policy Officer, European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation in Brussels, Belgium led the program’s discussion and comments were made by Karen A. Tramontano ’82, Chief Executive Officer, Blue Star Strategies in Washington, D. C. Professor Emerita Leah Wortham, Director of the American Law Program and the LL.M. Program at Catholic Law, once again acted as moderator of the event
Forming a More Perfect Honor System: Why the Trend of Over-Legalizing Academic Honor Codes Must be Reversed
Get PDFLegal processes dominate many honor systems at schools and universities. The negative impacts of this legal saturation include time-consuming, overly burdensome, and seldom understood honor systems as well as a shift of student focus from compliance with honor codes to a fixation on exoneration, given the increased opportunity for fighting and defeating honor allegations using legal recourses. This article is a clarion call for higher education immediate action: schools must scrutinize their honor systems to ensure they are legally efficient, not legally saturated. Authors of books and law journal articles have meticulously reviewed the academic honor system history and legal case precedent this article summarizes. None of them, however, have concluded schools have the latitude to curb and reduce legal excesses and that society’s increasing litigiousness demands immediate attention to reverse the corresponding trend within higher education honor systems.
This article emphasizes the urgency of the situation and interprets the sometimes erratic but mostly forgiving judicial treatment of academic honor systems as a sign that there is latitude to reduce legal surpluses. Acknowledging that varying institutional missions prevent uniformly recommended changes, this article posits several legal theories to help schools recognize their leeway to make changes. The Constitution demands protection of students’ due process rights. However, when legally burdensome honor systems impede swift justice and fail to inspire honorable living, it is high time for institutional introspection and change to help form more perfect and effective honor systems and better balance the interests of students and educational institutions
The Path Less Traveled: A Natural Law Critique of Justice Holmes’ Path of the Law
Get PDFAmerican law and jurisprudence fail to solve fundamental problems in our country. Every lawyer and judge practices, knowingly or unknowingly, from a particular philosophy of law. Much of the practice of law in the United States is rooted in the thought of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Holmes taught that law was not grounded in morality and logic, but rather the pragmatic rulings of judges. Our law schools and courts today follow Holmes in defining law as merely what a judge says it is. This Comment argues that Justice Holmes’ definition of law was fundamentally flawed and his jurisprudence should not be followed. Using the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the author asserts that natural law jurisprudence, understood in the Thomistic tradition, proves Holmes to be wrong about law and provides a proper understanding of law that can build a just society
Bet On It: The Complicated History and Uncertain Future of Sports Betting in the United States and How the Growing Industry Might Affect Technological Advancements
No full textIn 2018, the Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting with its decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. As a lifelong sports fan, Mark Nobile decided to research the subject after reading an article that suggested that online sports betting would potentially expose cybersecurity weaknesses if the issue was not addressed prior to states creating their own sports betting industries since the industries would have a uniquely online presence. Nobile gave a brief history of sports betting in the United States and cited several important pieces of legislation that have brought the online sports betting industry to where it is today. While the 2018 Murphy decision has allowed for states to determine the legality of sports betting within their borders, Nobile also pointed out areas that still need further consideration—like the continued use of the Federal Wire Act (1961) and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006), as well as how the federal government can provide more regulatory guidelines in order to support the industry
Information Age Technology, Industrial Age Laws
Get PDFThe United States patent system was born during the Industrial Age — at a time where the focus was on promoting innovation in machines, and tangible means of changing the world. With the dawn of the Information Age, innovation is increasingly intangible. The industrial age laws, as currently interpreted, are not well-suited for the changing and evolving technological world. Information age innovators face challenges at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, through the judicial system and at the United States International Trade Commission. It is time for a change in the system to reflect the realities of modern technology. Adequate protection is not currently provided for intangible innovations. This lack of protection has wide-ranging implications, especially now as data processing is increasingly migrating to “the cloud,” geographic boundaries are eroding, and intangible technology is advancing in importance. The industrial age laws can incentivize innovation in the information age — and it is time to recognize this before private ordering subsumes the public interest
Seeing (Platforms) Like a State: Digital Legibility and Lessons for Platform Governance
Get PDFThe growing backlash against Big Tech companies is a symptom of digital technology increasing the world’s legibility. James C. Scott’s book, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, explores how past governments responded to increased legibility – for good and for ill. This article shows how Scott’s historical lessons can guide governments and tech platforms as they seek to improve the human condition online
What\u27s in Your Box? Removing the Tiffany Standard of Knowledge in Online Marketplaces
Get PDFOnline shopping is a quintessential component of modern life. Millions of products from trusted brands are conveniently available at single-stop online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba with the click of a button from the comfort of home. But is the product delivered to the consumer’s front door actually the same as the one found on a store shelf? Pervasive trademark infringement in online marketplaces makes the answer to this question difficult, that is, until the consumer experiences negative consequences from a counterfeited product.
Under Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay, Inc., online marketplaces face almost no liability for trademark infringements occurring on their websites. As a result, trademark owners face the impossible task of constantly policing millions of product listings across innumerable websites to protect their brands from the onslaught of reputation damaging counterfeits, while online marketplaces can take a passive approach to the infringement problem. This imbalance in responsibility causes countless counterfeit, and potentially dangerous, products to find their ways into the hands of unsuspecting consumers. After reviewing the relevant legal landscape, this Comment advocates for legislative action to lower the current scienter requirement for contributory trademark infringement in online marketplaces in an effort to incentivize online marketplaces to take a more proactive role in policing trademark infringement on their websites
