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Touring the Lilly Library
Get PDFWhen I began my job in January 2015, I was the first person to be officially designated as the Student Services Librarian at Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Jerome Hall Law Library. One could argue that almost all the functions of a librarian at an academic law library are indeed “student services,” but I was given the exciting, and at times overwhelming, task of making the students happy on a full-time basis.
What makes students happy? Does anything (short of free food) make law students excited about the law library? I took it as a personal challenge to find out. Using existing programs, new ideas from my colleagues, and new ideas of my own, I set out to make the law library a welcoming and comfortable place for our students
Hacking for Intelligence Collection in the Fight Against Terrorism: Israeli, Comparative, and International Perspectives
Get PDFתקציר בעברית: הניסיון של המחוקק הישראלי להביא להסדרה מפורשת של סמכויות השב״כ במרחב הקיברנטי משקף מגמה רחבה יותר הניכרת בעולם לעיגון בחקיקה ראשית של הוראות בדבר פעולות פצחנות מצד גופי ביון ומודיעין ורשויות אכיפת חוק למטרות איסוף מודיעין לשם סיכול עבירות חמורות, ובייחוד עבירות טרור אם בעבר היו פעולות מסוג אלה כפופות לנהלים פנימיים ומסווגים, הרי שהדרישה לשקיפות בעידן שלאחר גילויי אדוארד סנודן מחד והשימוש הנרחב בתקיפות מחשב לביצוע פעולות חיפוש וחקירה לסיכול טרור מאידך, מציפים כעת את הדרישה להסמכה מפורשת. במאמר זה אבקש למפות הן את השדה הטכנולוגי והן את השדה המשפטי בכל האמור בתקיפות מחשבים למטרות ריגול ומעקב. יש לשים לב כי המאמר עוסק בעיקר בהיבטי איסוף מידע, ובפעולות פצחנות למטרות אחרות – רק בעקיפין. במאמר זה אבקש לבחון אם התיקון התלוי ועומד לחוק השב כ, המבקש להקל על השב כ בביצוע תקיפות מחשב כחלק מהמאבק בטרור, עולה בקנה אחד עם מחויבויותיה הבין-לאומיות של ישראל, ובייחוד לכללים המנהגיים המקיפים את הזכות לפרטיות בדיני זכויות האדם הבין-לאומיים. המאמר נשען גם על בחינתה של חקיקה משווה אגב עיון בדין האמריקאי, האנגלי, הצרפתי והאיטלקי, כדי לעמוד על קנקנם של האיזונים והבלמים המגולמים בשיטות משפט אחרות, וכיצד הם מובחנים מהמנגנון המוצע בדין הישראלי. המאמר חותם בכמה וכמה עקרונות מנחים בהסדרה עתידית של התחום בהקישו מתזכיר חוק סדר הדין הפלילי (סמכויות אכיפה – המצאה, חיפוש, כניסה ותפיסה), התשע א–2011.
English Abstract: The Counter-Terrorism Bill, 5775-2015, introduced an array of criminal law and public law tools aimed at assisting the State of Israel in effectively fighting against terrorism. Simultaneously, the Bill sought to ensure a balance between the security interests, enumerated therein, and Israel’s commitments to “human rights and to customary international legal standards.”
Of the various tools introduced in the Bill, Section 131 was one of the most controversial, as it called to amend the General Security Service Law, 5762-2002, and provide the Shabak with statutory authorization to engage in hacking of electronic devices for the purposes of preventing acts of terrorism and espionage directed against the State of Israel.
The desire of the Israeli legislator to expressly regulate the authorities of the Shabak in cyberspace, reflects a growing trend amongst western democracies to establish, through primary legislation, effective frameworks that could control the use of hacking powers by intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
The paper examines existing and proposed Israeli hacking authorities and compares them to the situation in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and France. Relying further on international human rights standards and on a review of technological capacities, the paper makes certain policy and legislative recommendations
Rethinking Standards of Appellate Review
Get PDFEvery appellate decision typically begins with the standard of appellate review. The Supreme Court has shown considerable interest in selecting the standard of appellate review for particular issues, frequently granting certiorari in order to decide whether de novo or deferential review governs certain trial court rulings. This Article critiques the Court\u27s framework for making this choice and questions the desirability of assigning distinct standards of appellate review on an issue-by-issue basis. Rather, the core functions of appellate courts are better served by a single template for review that dispenses with the recurring uncertainty over which standard governs which trial court decisions.
The error-correction role of appellate courts would be optimized by a unified inquiry into whether the appellate court\u27s likelihood of reaching the correct decision is higher than the trial court\u27s. This new standard would consider both general institutional advantages (such as the trial court\u27s superior ability to assess witness credibility) and case-specific indicia of correctness (such as the appellate court\u27s level of confidence or particular strengths or weaknesses in the trial court\u27s analysis). This inquiry can be joined with the Supreme Court\u27s long-standing view that appellate courts may always correct legal errors de novo, regardless of the broader standard of review that applies to a particular issue. That power to correct legal errors, combined with the ability to identify conditions that increase or decrease the likelihood that a court\u27s decision on a particular issue is correct, would enhance the law-clarification function of appellate decisions.
Accordingly, this Article argues for a unform approach to appellate review that permits reversal only when (a) the trial court committed an error of law, or (b) the appellate court\u27s likelihood of reaching the correct decision is higher than the trial court\u27s. These two components eliminate the need to track particular issues for either de novo or deferential review at the front end, allowing appellate courts to discard the Supreme Court\u27s problematic doctrine on standard-of-review selection while still serving the systemic goals of error correction and law clarification
Blockchain Wills
Get PDFBlockchain technology has the potential to radically alter the way that people have
executed wills for centuries. This Article makes two principal claims—one
descriptive and the other normative. Descriptively, this Article suggests that
traditional wills formalities have been relaxed to the point that they no longer serve
the cautionary, protective, evidentiary, and channeling functions that scholars have
used to justify strict compliance with wills formalities. Widespread use of digital
technology in everyday communications has led to several notable cases in which
individuals have attempted to execute wills electronically. These wills have had a
mixed reception. Four states currently recognize electronic wills. The Uniform Law
Commission approved a Uniform Electronic Wills Act in July 2019, so it is likely that
even more states will permit these documents. This Article identifies some of the
weaknesses in existing state statutes and the model law and considers how
technology can address those problems.
This Article explores how blockchain, the open-source technology underlying
cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, could be harnessed to create a distributed ledger of wills
that would maintain a reliable record of a testator’s desires for the post-mortem
distribution of estate assets. These blockchain instruments easily could qualify as
wills under existing substantial compliance doctrine or the Uniform Probate Code’s
harmless error rule. Blockchain wills would serve the true purpose of wills
formalities—which is to authenticate a document as the one executed by the testator
with the intention of having it serve as the binding directive for the distribution of
her property. By uniting blockchain technology with the innovations of the best
aspects of electronic wills legislation, a blockchain will could serve as a reliable,
authentic, and secure record of a decedent’s last wishes for disposition of her
property.
This Article’s account has important implications for the legal profession. As
financial institutions and governments have moved to develop blockchain-based
solutions for the delivery of services, lawyers have lagged behind. In some legal
circles, attorneys have become interested in “smart contracts” and the possibility of
using blockchain to create a more accurate record of real property deeds. But most
lawyers have not yet invested the requisite time and energy needed to understand
how blockchain works and to develop systems that would use the technology
effectively. By demonstrating how blockchain could make wills cheaper to prepare
and less susceptible to tampering, this Article also points to multiple other uses for
blockchain in the legal profession, including authentication of chain of ownership,
record-keeping, and drafting of all kinds. Even though lawyers have been slow to
harness blockchain’s potential, the technology holds the promise to transform the
practice of law into a form that will be unrecognizable to today’s lawyer
Emotional Well-Being During Fertility Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Use of an Online Learning Platform as a Resource
Get PDFInfertility and associated therapies have been characterized as anxiety-provoking. As emotional states can be triggered by stimuli, we assessed the impact of a visual multimedia electronic (e)-learning and e-consent platform on patients’ anxiety states prior, during, and upon completion of infertility treatment cycles
Capital Gains Tax Law and Policy in the U.S. and China: A Comparative Study
Get PDFThis dissertation provides a review of tax theories, laws, and policies of the U.S. and China on taxing capital gains. Based on the review, I draw a comparative analysis of the two countries’ laws and policies and prescribe legislative options for taxing capital gains under the individual income tax law in China.
The dissertation contributes to both the Chinese literature and the U.S. literature: For China, this research takes upon an overlooked yet increasingly important issue in China’s individual income tax—the taxation of capital gains. Though the 2018 Individual Income Tax Law brought significant changes to the classification of individual income and the calculation of taxable income, the rules regarding capital gains remain largely unchanged. Questions and concerns regarding how to further promote distributive justice, as well as how to equitably tax capital gains arise, yet little academic work in China has been devoted to these questions. On the other hand, in the U.S., there exists a large volume of literature discussing the implications of a capital gains tax policy change. This dissertation seeks to bring together the issues faced by Chinese legislators with the U.S. literature and experiences on the issue and prescribes short-term and long-term reform options for China.
This dissertation also contributes to the U.S. literature by reviewing the four tax reforms since the Reform and Opening Up in China, including China’s transition from efficiency-centered policymaking to balancing economic development with social equity. The paper also outlines the legislative route in China, introducing to U.S. readers the sources of authorities in Chinese tax law research, and providing updates on the most recent 2018 individual income tax reform.
This dissertation is structured as follows: Chapter One reviews the tax law objectives, equity, efficiency, and simplicity, to lay out the theoretical framework in which this dissertation operates. Questions explored in this Chapter include the evolution of the principle of ability to pay, the dynamics in the rank of tax equity among other competing values such as economic efficiency in China, the tension between empirical studies and economic theories, and the trade-offs among the three objectives. Chapter Two provides an overview of China’s tax system, the sources of laws, with a focus on the individual income tax law of China, and the provisions regarding taxing capital gains. Chapter Three examines the arguments in prior American literature about the capital gains tax preference and the considerations for the holding period requirement and loss limitation rules. Chapter Four proposes short-term and long-term reform options for China and provides an update on the recent valuation literature and proposals outside of the individual income tax realm to address the inequities brought by the realization system
