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Internet Intermediary Liability in the Age of Algorithms
No full textThis dissertation examines Internet intermediary liability concerning algorithms, specifically Interactive Computer Services (ICS)’s utilization of machine learning-powered recommender systems. It posits that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Section 230) and product liability are potential regulatory avenues to address the harms caused by this system. This research makes three substantial arguments. First, it identifies machine learning-powered recommender systems as pivotal within the formulation of informational capitalism, serving various economic functions such as enhancing consumer experiences, enabling behavioral advertising, and fostering social networks. The algorithmic harms associated with such systems encompass discrimination harm, informational harm, and mental harm. Second, through the interpretation-construction theory, this study analyzes the text of Section 230 and argues that, first, the linguistic meaning of “publisher” does not encompass ICSs\u27 utilization of machine learning-powered recommender systems, and second, a two-factor analysis can be conducted on the meaning of “development” when platform uses algorithms. This research further proposes a legislative recommendation and explores whether such a proposal falls under the coverage of the First Amendment. Third, this research examines the intersection between product liability and AI. It proposes that the tangibility criterion for products should involve determining whether the item is a service and identifying the boundaries of the item when distributed commercially for use or consumption. In consideration of the difficulty in determining defects due to AI “autonomy,” it suggests employing the theory of “friction-in-design” to identify both design and warning defects of the product, as the user interface plays an instrumental role in causing algorithmic harms
Indiana Law supporting newly established Indiana Innocence Project
Get PDFLaw students from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law will have the opportunity to help exonerate wrongfully convicted Hoosiers through the newly established Indiana Innocence Project, which officially launched Saturday (Aug. 17).
Established in association with the national Innocence Project—which has helped free more than 240 wrongfully convicted prisoners since 1992—the Indiana Innocence Project (INIP) has been made possible through the support of the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, along with the Law School and IU’s Department of Criminal Justice.
The Indiana Innocence Project will screen and investigate cases with meritorious innocence claims, secure DNA testing when biological evidence exists, advocate for the release of the factually innocent, provide services to exonerees, educate toward reform to prevent wrongful incarcerations, and sustain academic collaborations for student learning.
“The Law School’s role is particularly necessary for the last component of the INIP’s mission statement—to sustain academic collaborations for student learning,” said Prof. Valena Beety, a member of the INIP’s Board of Directors and the Robert H. McKinney Professor of Law
Donna Nagy to receive Sonneborn Award
Get PDFFor the third time in history, a faculty member of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law will be honored with the university’s Sonneborn Award.
Donna Nagy, the C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law and executive associate dean, will be recognized with a number of other distinguished award-winners at a ceremony this fall. She follows Leandra Lederman, William W. Oliver Chair Emerita in Tax Law (2019), and Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law Susan H. Williams (2014) as law faculty who have earned the honor.
The Tracy M. Sonneborn Award honors faculty for accomplishments in the areas of teaching and research. The award, named for the late eminent scientist Professor Tracy M. Sonneborn, is given to an exemplary researcher who is also well known as an exemplary teacher
Widiss honored with COSELL Miller Award
Get PDFAn employment law scholar at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law has been honored for her remarkable contributions to the field.
Deborah A. Widiss, professor of law and the John F. Kimberling Chair, was presented the Miller Award at the 19th annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) in San Diego on September 13.
Named in honor of the late Paul Miller, who was the Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law, the Miller Award is presented annually to a senior scholar who has shown “outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment scholarship.
Corporate Civil Disobedience
Get PDFClassic theories of civil disobedience endorse the right of individuals to commit illegal acts to protest unjust laws and policies. Acts of civil disobedience have historically played a central role in exposing injustice and producing vital legal and social change. The literature on civil disobedience is vast; political and legal theorists have long recognized the contributions of individual legal resisters in the ongoing pursuit of a just society. Little attention has been given, however, to intentional lawbreaking by organizational entities that seek to protest unjust, illegitimate, or discriminatory laws. This Article addresses that gap by exploring the prospect of corporate civil disobedience and revealing its potential to transform law in furtherance of democratic ideals.
If the purpose of civil disobedience is to draw attention to perceived injustices, provoke public dialogue over controversial issues, and catalyze legal reform, that purpose can arguably be fulfilled by a corporate person equally as well as an individual one. This Article explains how corporate entities can commit conscientious breaches of law to counter problematic rules and policies. Defiance of the law comes with costs and risks, but legal resistance by entities can provide value in a society that understands the importance of dissenting voices in enhancing democratic debate. Highlighting several theoretical, normative, and doctrinal questions surrounding corporate civil disobedience, this Article sketches a framework for viewing corporate civil disobedience as a potentially useful tool in a well-functioning democratic system
The Future of Work in the Era of AI
Get PDFArtificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing both work itself and the processes of employment—hiring, recruitment, evaluation, compensation, performance analysis, retention, and job mobility. This Essay, based upon the 2024 Indiana Law Journal annual William R. Stewart Lecture, examines the effects of AI on work and argues for a holistic approach that harnesses the benefits of automation while addressing the inevitable systemic changes that AI is rapidly bringing to the labor market. The Essay examines two industries in which AI is already changing labor market demands: trucking and the performing arts. The Essay argues that while the automation can often increase efficiency and productivity, as well as accuracy and fairness in the labor market, inevitably the rapid acceleration of AI integration will bring significant disruptions. Policymakers should separately address the emergence of new forms of inequities, the necessity for reskilling, and the need to establish more robust economic security safeguards that are not dependent on fulltime, continuous employment for all. The Essay thus considers how a more equitable tax framework, publicly funded reskilling programs, safety nets like Universal Basic Income (UBI), and a proactive reimagining of work can help displaced workers adapt, thrive, and contribute to the evolving economy
Criminalizing Sexual Identities: Queer, Female, and Wrongfully Convicted
No full textThis book examines the representation and misrepresentation of queer people in true crime, addressing their status as both victims and perpetrators in actual crime, as well as how the media portrays them.
The chapters apply an intersectional perspective in examining criminal cases involving LGBTQ people, as well as the true crime media content surrounding the cases. The book illuminates how sexual orientation, gender, race, and other social locations impact the treatment of queer people in the criminal legal system and the mass media. Each chapter describes one or more high-profile criminal cases involving queer people (e.g., the murders of Brandon Teena and Kitty Genovese; serial killer Aileen Wuornos; the Pulse nightclub mass shooting). The authors examine how the cases are portrayed in the media via news, films, podcasts, documentaries, books, social media, and more. Each chapter discusses not only what is visible or emphasized by the media but also what is invisible in the accounting or societal focus surrounding the case. Lesser-known (but similar) cases are used in the book to call attention to how race, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, social class, and/or other features influence the dominant narrative surrounding these cases. Each chapter addresses teachable moments from each case and its coverage, leaving readers with several considerations to take with them into the future.
The book also provides media resources and supplemental materials so that curious readers, including scholars, students, content creators, and advocates, can examine the cases and media content further. The book will appeal to scholars and students of criminology, psychology, sociology, law, media studies, sexuality studies, and cultural studies, and people with an interest in true crime.
Includes the chapter Criminalizing Sexual Identities: Queer, Female, and Wrongfully Convicted by Maurer Professor Valena Beety.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1335/thumbnail.jp
Corporate Climate Litigation and Environmental Justice: How Green Amendments Can be Used to Advance Accountability and Equity
Get PDFThe term “Green Amendment” was first coined by author Maya van Rossum in her 2017 book The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, in which she argues that modern environmental protection laws are fundamentally failing the most vulnerable people in society and proposes the creation of new constitutional rights as a solution. The provisions van Rossum argues ought to be added to state constitutions as “Green Amendments” are also sometimes called “Environmental Rights Amendments,” and generally enumerate the right of all citizens to a clean or healthy environment. Green Amendments currently exist in Pennsylvania, Montana, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. This Note will explain how those provisions have already changed the landscape of corporate and environmental law in those states while proposing that enacting more Green Amendments will reinforce those changes.
Specifically, this Note will focus on the current and potential future impact of Green Amendments on corporate climate liability litigation—particularly litigation involving large corporations that operate in multiple states—and on how Green Amendments advance environmental justice. Today, large corporations bear the bulk of responsibility for human-caused climate change and historically underserved populations bear the bulk of climate change’s harmful consequences. Constitutional provisions that enumerate a fundamental right to a clean environment therefore have potential to provide an opportunity for states to better protect those in vulnerable positions against the environmental damages caused by large corporations.
Part I will provide a brief overview of existing Green Amendments, their current role in the intersection of environmental law and corporate litigation, and the shortcomings of enacted Green Amendments in the context of environmental injustice. Part II will discuss the potential impact that more widespread adoption of Green Amendments could have on such litigation, and how such adoption could alter this legal landscape both directly and indirectly. The Conclusion will explain why Green Amendments that hold corporate polluters accountable are a powerful means of addressing environmental injustice
