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Volume 11 All Board
No full texthttps://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/property-law-slideshow/1034/thumbnail.jp
The Other Secret Deals: Uncovering The Power of Non-Binding International Agreements
Get PDFIn recent decades, the use of traditional international treaties has declined as states increasingly rely on deformalized agreements - non binding arrangements - such as interinstitutional agreements and memoranda of understanding. These agreements allow governments to bypass the complexities of formal treaty-making while addressing shared challenges. This Article, based on four years of research and previously undisclosed agreements, examines a twenty-year database of non-binding agreements between the United States and Mexico. Through this case study, the Article demonstrates how deformalized agreements drive much of the cross-border collaboration, offering a flexible mechanism for government agencies to shape state behavior, coordinate policies, and engage in international cooperation outside the framework of formal treaties. The findings reveal that these non-binding agreements play a crucial role in shaping US-Mexico relations, influencing areas such as security, trade, and law enforcement. The Article highlights key moments, such as the response to the migrant surge at the United States-Mexico border, where these agreements led to significant policy decisions, often beyond the public’s view. The study concludes that deformalized agreements are powerful instruments in modern diplomacy, raising important questions about their legal implications and future regulation by the U.S. Congress and the U.N. International Law Commission
Colonialism and Racialization: Regulation of Mixed-Race Intimacies
No full textRacial hierarchies that shape intermarriage are rooted in histories of colonialism. Initially, European traders arrived with plans to extract natural resources and make handsome profits for shareholders. Often, a right of sexual conquest was seen as part of the entitlement to capitalize on local riches. In addition, relationships with native women could cement alliances with indigenous peoples, who could provide valuable expertise and assistance to newcomers. Later, when colonial governments sought to build long-term settlements, officials typically frowned on intermarriage as a threat to social order and stability. To justify restrictions on relationships across the color line, authorities invoked morality, eugenic science, and fitness for citizenship. Extensive monitoring and harsh punishment gave force to bans on interracial sex and marriage. Even after colonies gained independence, regimes that policed race mixing exerted powerful influence. Some independent nations continued to enforce anti-miscegenation laws, and images of racial hybridity and degeneracy justified new quests for territorial expansion. Reverse migration of the formerly colonized also disrupted norms about intermarriage in colonizing countries. The legacy of these dynamics persists to this day
The Globalization of Copyright Exceptions for AI Training
No full textGenerative AI, machine learning and other computational uses of copyrighted works pose profound questions for copyright law. This article conducts of global survey of how different countries have attempted to answer these questions in relation to the unauthorized use of copyrighted works for training. Although the world has yet to achieve international consensus on this issue, an international equilibrium is emerging. Jurisdictions with common law and civil law traditions, and with varying economic conditions, technological capabilities, political systems, and cultural backgrounds, have found ways to reconcile copyright law and AI training. In this equilibrium, countries recognize that text data mining, computational data analysis, and AI training can be socially valuable and may not inherently prejudice the copyright holders’ legitimate interests. Such uses should therefore be allowed without express authorization in some, but not all, circumstances. We identify three forces driving toward this equilibrium: (1) the centrality of the idea-expression distinction; (2) global competition in AI; and (3) the race to the middle. However, we also address factors that may upset this emerging equilibrium, including ongoing copyright litigation, partnerships, and licensing deals in the United States as well as legislative and regulatory efforts in both the United States and the European Union, including the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act).One of the key lessons of our global survey is that, globally, the binary policy debate that assumes that TDM and AI training must be categorically condemned or applauded has been eclipsed by a more granular debate about the specific circumstances in which the unauthorized use of copyrighted works for AI training should be allowed or prohibited. Countries that have hesitated to modernize their copyright laws until now have several templates open to them and no more reason for hesitation
Upcycled and Rightful: Navigating Trademark Law and the Circular Economy
No full textThis Article elaborates on the practice of upcycling and argues that upcycling should be considered a lawful practice under current trademark rules in the United States. Upcycling is the process of taking existing products lawfully sold on the market, in most instances, used products, and giving these products a second life by adding additional elements and decorations or by using the still viable product parts to create new products altogether. Because of its focus on reusing existing products or product parts, the practice of upcycling has become increasingly popular, also because it promotes circular and environmentally friendly production practices. However, upcycled products often display logos and patterns from the original product, many of which are famous trademarks, which has led to widespread opposition by trademark owners— especially in the luxury fashion industry. Specifically, trademark owners have argued that upcycled products are “materially different” from the originals and can lead to consumer confusion and dilution of their marks. This Article disagrees with this position and argues that upcycling should be considered a lawful practice under current United States trademark law. In particular, it considers current trademark defenses and how they apply to the practice of upcycling. In this context, the Article argues that upcycling should be considered lawful under a broad interpretation of the doctrines of trademark, first sale, and fair use. The Article additionally argues that upcycling activities, particularly when clearly communicated through labeling and disclaimers, warrant First Amendment protection under the United States’ Constitution as a form of expressive speech advocating for circular economy principles and environmentally conscious practices
A Reemployment Right for People in Pretrial Detention
No full textJob loss is a major collateral consequence of pretrial detention. It frequently results from even short periods of detention and can have cascading and long term effects on income, housing security, family stability, and likelihood of incarceration—all despite the fact that people in pretrial detention are entitled to a presumption of innocence and indeed may never be found guilty of an offense. Given existing racial disparities in arrests, bail determinations, and bail amounts, job loss from pretrial detention further drives racial inequalities in employment and income. While job loss from pretrial detention inflicts substantial social harms and undermines due process, current policy solutions, such as ban-the-box laws, fail to address it. This Article proposes a novel solution, reframing the issue as a matter of protected leave rather than traditional employment discrimination law, and drawing on the unexpected source of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (“USERRA”). USERRA guarantees deployed service members a right to reemployment upon return from tours of duty. This Article proposes a similar right to reemployment for people released from pretrial detention whose charges are still pending or have resulted in a disposition other than conviction, subject to certain limitations present in USERRA and potential carve-outs for certain charges or job types. Eighty years of experience under USERRA and its predecessors demonstrate that a right to reemployment is practicable for employers and an effective mechanism to ensure job stability during periods of often sudden and unpredictable leave. Such a right would promote fundamental, widely held due process values and counteract the substantial social harms of job loss from pretrial detention
WOCC Women\u27s History Month Book Display 04
No full textClose up of book display created by Women of Color Collective in the law library March 2025 highlighting the book I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala\u27s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. ISBN: 978-0316322409.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/womens-history-month-2025-photos/1004/thumbnail.jp
Copyright Law and Property Law
No full textProperty is at the core of state law since it is the exclusive power of the individual state governments to define and protect property rights within their jurisdiction. In this paper I will discuss the general connection between copyright and property generally. I will argue that property law sheds important light on copyright law and can help us cut through modern controversies in copyright law. If I am correct in this view, any judge sufficiently familiar with property law doctrines could do better than the Supreme Court of the United States in resolving a new copyright controversy. Specifically, property law can be usefully applied to resolve fair use disputes. Of course, property law alone is not enough to resolve these problems. Courts will also have to determine what constitutes an “invasion” or an “interference” with a copyright. These are matters that turn toward economics
Constitution Day Sept 2025 Poster 01
No full textClose-Up of the poster for Constitution & Citizenship Day on display in the law library September 2025.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/constitution-day-2025-photos/1002/thumbnail.jp