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Remote Repossession
Get PDFFord’s February 2023 patent application raises a new possibility: that after a default, an internet-connected vehicle might autonomously drive itself off of the owner’s premises—to a public space, to the repossession agency, or even to a junkyard. But while this “remote repossession” would minimize the risks of harm that attend in-person repossessions, it creates at least three new risks. First, a danger of bodily injury and property damage to the owner. Second, an increased likelihood of physical harm to a third-party with no obviously responsible entity. And third, most invisibly but also perhaps most importantly: further erosion of consumers’ current structural rights—which might include a right against intrusions, a right to a certain amount of due process and human engagement before a repossession, and a right to be free from foreseeable harms associated with corporate remote interference.
I employ a techlaw methodology to explore what legal changes would better protect us—as potential defaulting owners, as possibly harmed third-parties, and as consumers who must increasingly rely on corporations to take reasonable care when engaging in digital self-help
The General Assembly\u27s Consideration of the Data Center Industry\u27s Growth in Virginia
Get PDFVirginia has a decades-long history with the data center industry’s growth and development, which has been critical to the nation’s—and world’s—increasingly digital economy. The industry also has brought extraordinary benefits to state and local economies, including hundreds of billions of dollars in capital investments and tax revenues as well as tens of thousands of jobs. Yet this historic success, according to many, comes at a high cost to local communities. Data center facilities can be imposing and take up a lot of land; they require a significant amount of additional energy generation and often more transmission infrastructure; and they use tens of millions of gallons of water. Over the past two years, the General Assembly has had many data center industry growth and impact-control bills come before it. The issues are complex, and how they are considered and acted on may affect, in varying ways, this important industry, the economy, local governments, and everyday Virginians. This article looks at the data center industry’s historic origins in Virginia, how it has developed over the decades, and the related economic, infrastructure, and community and resource-impact issues facing the General Assembly now and in the years ahead
Science at risk? Considering the importance of academic freedom for STEM research production across 17 OECD countries
No full textSince 2011, a declining trend in academic freedom globally has paralleled a rising tide of neo-nationalism. We use fixed effects models to examine data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) academic freedom index and bibliometric data for 17 OECD countries across nearly three decades (1981–2007) that precede the recent decline in academic freedom. We find substantial, statistically significant, positive relationships between cross-nationally comparable and longitudinal measures of academic freedom and volume of STEM publications. Additionally, academic freedom positively influenced the quality of STEM publications as measured by journal rankings. Our findings were relatively consistent across various measures of academic freedom and model specifications. We discuss implications for safeguarding academic freedom, applying neo-institutional theory, and identifying directions for future research
Enduring Heroism in the Face of Inequality and Injustice: Who Steps Up and Why?
Get PDFEnduring heroism defined as persistent efforts to confront inequality and injustice is the focus of this article. Six exemplars are considered: Harriet Tubman, Crazy Horse, Jane Addams, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X. Similarities and differences in their pursuits are considered and linked to the larger literature on heroism. They are also contrasted with enduring anti-heroes to elevate roles of virtue and benevolence in long-term efforts to correct societal ills. What motivates enduring heroism is a central question. A hypothesis put forth is that distinct dimensions of eudaimonic well-being – especially, purpose in life, autonomy, environmental mastery, and personal growth – may be key elements that fuel efforts of enduring heroes. A final section underscores the need for such individuals in our era, drawing on wide-ranging evidence that inequality and injustice are worsening and have been exacerbated by major historical events (Great Recession, COVID-19 pandemic). Now more than ever enduring heroes are needed to help redress the enormous suffering around us
The Roberts Court Revolution, Institutional Legitimacy, and the Promise (And Peril) of Constitutional Statesmanship
Get PDFOur nation is in the middle of a constitutional revolution. While many periods of constitutional transformation have arisen out of large-scale political realignments, the Roberts Court Revolution is a product of our nation’s long (and unusual) political interregnum. Even as neither political party has managed to secure enough support to reconstruct our nation’s politics, the Roberts Court—with its young and ambitious conservative majority—has already moved quickly to reconsider key pillars of the existing constitutional regime. This represents a challenging moment for the Roberts Court and its institutional legitimacy. To counteract this danger, the Justices might return to an old idea—one that has both seduced and vexed scholars and Justices alike for generations: constitutional statesmanship. When wrestling with the statesmanship ideal, theorists are often inclined to simply shrug their shoulders, concede that a precise definition is impossible, and suggest that we often know statesmanship when we see it. We can do better. In this Article, I define constitutional statesmanship for our age of constitutional revolution. Drawing on a diverse set of theorists and methodological approaches—most notably, Ronald Dworkin’s famous concept of “fit”—I argue that constitutional statesmanship is best understood as the balance between three modes of analysis: (1) legal fit (relying on conventional legal materials and arguments); (2) popular fit (drawing on concrete indicators of current public opinion); and (3) pragmatic fit (factoring in predictions about public responses, policy consequences, and assessments by legal elites)
