Date of Publication:
Louis J. Virelli, Freedom of the Press and Supreme Court Ethics, 55 University of the Pacific Law Review 209 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Catherine J. Cameron, It’s Time to End the Zombie Reign of Red Lion Broadcasting, 20 Ohio State Technology Law Journal 327 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The Internet is hunkered down in a ramshackle cabin, and the only walls protecting it from the zombie case that is Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969), are the walls constructed by section 230 of the Communication Decency Act. As a creature of legislation, those walls are flimsy and could crumble at any moment. And the Red Lion Broadcasting zombie is aggressive. The premises of the Red Lion Broadcasting case that the government should be allowed to regulate the broadcast spectrum to promote the public interest because the spectrum is "scarce" were proven wrong over forty years ago, but the case has been revived in zombie form and continues to lumber around the legal landscape seeking to infect new law. The only way to save the Internet and new technologies of the future from regulatory schemes based on strained notions of scarcity is for the Court to expressly overrule Red Lion Broadcasting and dispense with arguments that scarcity of any imagined kind warrants regulation of new media.
Date of Publication:
Jaclyn Lopez, The Climate Is Changing and So Must We: The Need to Prioritize: At-Risk Communities and Ecosystems, 74 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 44 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
The climate is changing, and our laws and policies threaten to leave behind vulnerable communities and ecosystems. About half of the people and imperiled plants and animals in the United States are in coastal counties. Coastal communities' ability to cope with the impacts of climate change
will depend on how well local adaptation and resiliency laws and policies work to protect them from rising seas, flooding, saltwater intrusion, intensifying storm activity, and increased heat indices. At the same time, these very same adaptation laws and policies may inadvertently harm vulnerable communities and biodiversity. By 2040 - when today's kindergarteners graduate college - Florida's population will increase by 20% and sea levels will rise an additional foot. With its low elevation and location at the end of Hurricane Alley, Florida is "ground zero" for climate change impacts in the United States. The region's struggles with industrial pollution create additional risk factors. Marginalized communities and imperiled biodiversity are caught amid climate impacts and existing, dangerous infrastructure. Florida is an apt case study for exploring concepts such as managed retreat, social vulnerability, species extinctions, assisted migration, and adaptive management. This Article concludes by making general recommendations for local governments looking to proactively center their resiliency and adaptation efforts on the survival of vulnerable communities and imperiled plants and animals.
Date of Publication:
Will Bunting, Ductile Rights, 112 Ky. L.J. 467 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
This Article presents two important results. First, depending upon the magnitude of ideological conflict in society, a flexible right, rather than an inflexible right, can produce the socially efficient outcome. In general, if social conflict decreases as a right becomes more flexible, then the right is described as “ductile,” and not weak. Conversely, if social conflict increases as the right becomes more inflexible, then the right is described as “brittle,” and not strong. Second, a negative correlation can exist between ideological conflict in society and personal freedom. That is, the more people are negatively impacted purely by what others do, the less people are free to do what they so choose. This Article terms this result the paradox of ideological incitement and considers the cable news channels as an illustrative example. In addition, this Article contends that the State has, under certain circumstances, an obligation to resolve direct conflict that can arise in the exercise of fundamental rights. As part of this obligation, the State must provide remedial mechanisms that create the separation necessary for the exercise of two otherwise conflicting fundamental rights to coexist, spending public funds to implement a ductile right as defined here.
Date of Publication:
Darryl Wilson, Keeping Current – Property, 38 Probate and Property 12 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Date of Publication:
Ashley Krenelka Chase and Sam S. Harden, Through the AI-Looking Glass and What Consumers Find There, J. Tech. L. & Pol'y (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
While a lack of internet regulation is the norm in the United States, generative artificial intelligence presents a series of new challenges, particularly in the legal field. Those who are trained in the law know to check their sources whether they come from case law or a generative AI tool like ChatGPT, but the average consumer is not so discerning. When that average consumer is in the midst of dealing with legal issues and has to navigate those issues without a lawyer, he or she is less likely to sit back and evaluate the information they’re being given, particularly if it looks bright, shiny, and full of knowledge and the ability to help navigate the legal system quickly and efficiently. This lapse in judgment, whether conscious or subconscious, may deepen the justice gap and cause those who are unfamiliar with the legal system to become even more distrustful of not only the system, but the resources that are meant to help self-represented litigants navigate that system in a meaningful way.
This Article will begin with a brief explanation and analysis of generative artificial intelligence more broadly, as well as its current role in the legal field. It will go on to analyze global regulatory frameworks surrounding artificial intelligence and compare those frameworks to the current approaches in the United States. In Part II, the Article will discuss access to justice in the United States and the ways in which technology currently is and is not filling that gap, as well as the regulations to the industry. Part III will propose a scheme for regulating consumer-facing generative AI products and analyze the potential and pitfalls of regulation. Next, Part IV will discuss enforcement of any consumer-facing generative AI products that may be created to fill the justice gap, while Part V will look on the other side of the looking glass, and discuss predictions based on whether or not meaningful consumer-facing generative-AI reaches those in the justice gap, and whether regulating those products becomes a reality.
Date of Publication:
Elizabeth Berenguer, Designing Problems to Enhance Student Learning, 28 Legal Writing 77 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
A legal writing problem is much more than a mere assignment; it is an interactive learning experience that serves as a primary text for an entire course, facilitates learning, and results in work product that can be assessed to determine what students have learned. As such, professors must thoughtfully consider how the problem will facilitate student learning in light of the outcomes identified for the course. This Article argues that when designing a problem, legal writing professors should design the problem around rule structure because rule structure is what drives the organizational options and rhetorical choices available to the writer—other concerns, like area of law or “fun facts” are secondary considerations that may influence problem details but that should not govern the architecture of the problem itself. Designing a problem around rule structure leads to predictable sophisticated learning of analysis and organization, which makes it the most important consideration in problem design.
Date of Publication:
Robyn Powell et al., Child Welfare System Inequities Experienced by Disabled Parents: Towards a Conceptual Framework, 39 Disability & Society 291 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Parents with disabilities and their families experience pervasive inequities within the child welfare system. However, existing conceptual frameworks do not adequately explain or address the unique needs and experiences of parents with disabilities and their families involved with the child welfare system. Accordingly, we present a conceptual framework that incorporates empirical findings from existing literature while integrating and expanding extant frameworks and models. The conceptual framework, which is aimed at being a starting point from which to investigate child welfare system inequities experienced by disabled parents, includes interrelated factors measured at the contextual, institutional, and individual levels. The paper discusses areas for further research, challenges for researchers, and implications for reducing child welfare system inequities.
Date of Publication:
Angelina M. Vigliotti and Kristen R. Moore, The Electronic Brain: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence, 66 Florida Libraries 21 (2024)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.