Professor Of Law Research Articles

Brief for Amici Curiae Bankruptcy Law Professors in Support of Petitioner (In re Purdue Pharma)

Brief for Amici Curiae Bankruptcy Law Professors in Support of Petitioner (In re Purdue Pharma)

Amici Curiae Brief of Law Professors in Support of Appellant [Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft

Amici Curiae Brief of Law Professors in Support of Appellant [Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft

Brief of Amici Curiae Tax Law Professors in Support of Appellant (Comptroller of Maryland) in Comptroller of Maryland v. Comcast et al. (the Maryland Digital Advertising Case)

Brief of Amici Curiae Tax Law Professors in Support of Appellant (Comptroller of Maryland) in Comptroller of Maryland v. Comcast et al. (the Maryland Digital Advertising Case)

Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors in Support of Appellant on the Role of Bankruptcy Examiners in Chapter 11 Reorganization

Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors in Support of Appellant on the Role of Bankruptcy Examiners in Chapter 11 Reorganization

Teaching Slavery in Commercial Law

Public status shapes private ordering. Personhood status, conferred or acknowledged by the state, determines whether one is a party to or the object of a contract. For much of our nation’s history, the law deemed all persons of African descent to have a limited status, if given personhood at all. The property and partial personhood status of African-Americans, combined with standards developed to facilitate the growth of the international commodities market for products including cotton, contributed to the current beliefs of business investors and even how communities of color are still governed and supported. The impact of that shift in status persists today. The commodities markets and the nations that rose and prospered would not be possible without the slave trade, and that trade would not be possible without the legal, business, and social norms in place to facilitate private ordering and growth while reinforcing the subjugation of African-Americans. Yet, many business and commercial law professors devote class time to teaching foundational and historical material, without any consideration of the impact of slavery. To avoid slavery in business and commercial law courses is to ignore an institution that plays a pivotal role in much of what we do today. Slavery is not a frolic, it is foundational. Many American universities played a role in the slave trade—either by receiving funds from the enterprise or receiving the enslaved as donations and using their labor or disposing of them for the financial advancement of the institution. In my Core Commercial Concepts course, a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) survey class covering Articles 2, 3, 4, and 9, I devote time and space to discussions of race and the law by making the connection between the history of commercial concepts, slavery, and the role of the cotton industry in the shaping of international commercial law norms. In my simulation, described in this Essay, I teach the story of Washington and Lee University’s sale of individuals for the purpose of ensuring the institution’s financial survival, then extrapolate from the facts to review the high points of commercial law. I incorporate materials on the legacy of slavery at my own institution to provide students with a scenario based on the acquisition of real property and construction of buildings they engage with on campus. In this Essay I explain the methods I use to explore these concepts. Working in a framework that focuses on classification and status, my students consider issues of federalism and the impact of statutory definitions on private ordering, while discussing how these definitions shape the relationship of African-Americans to commerce.

Teaching Advice from a Legendary Business Law Professor

Teaching Advice from a Legendary Business Law Professor

Brief of Amicus Curiae Antitrust, Business, and Sports Law Professors in Support for the Petition of Certiorari in Tri-City Valley Cats v. The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (Sup. Ct. 2023)

Brief of Amicus Curiae Antitrust, Business, and Sports Law Professors in Support for the Petition of Certiorari in Tri-City Valley Cats v. The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (Sup. Ct. 2023)

On the use of Pretrained Language Models for Legal Italian Document Classification

Document classification is helpful for law professionals to improve content browsing and retrieval. Pretrained Language Models, such as BERT, have become established for legal document classification. However, legal content is quite diversified. For example, documents vary in length from very short maxims to relatively long judgements; certain document types are rich of domain-specific expressions and can be annotated with multiple labels from domain-specific taxonomies. This paper studies to what extent existing pretrained models are suited to the legal domain. Specifically, we examine a real business case focused on Italian legal document classification. On a proprietary dataset with thousands of diversified categories (e.g., legal judgements, maxims, and legal news) we explore the use of Pretrained Language Models adapted to handle various content types. We collect both quantitative and qualitative results, highlighting best and worst cases, anomalous categories, and limitations of currently available models.

Response to Professor Ruskola

Journal Article Response to Professor Ruskola Get access Donald Clarke Donald Clarke Professor of Law and David A. Weaver Research Professor, George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC, USA donald.clarke@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Journal of Comparative Law, avad003, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avad003 Published: 21 June 2023

Perceptions of the Korean Jury System: Current Status and Challenges

Jury trials was introduced and enforced in South Korea as of 2008 in order to increasing democratic legitimacy and trust in the judiciary, yet it is facing challenges, specifically low implementation rates and high exclusion rates. Potential reasons for these issues are limitations inherent in the system, low awareness among the public, and the tendency of law professionals to avoid jury trials. This study examined the perceptions of legal professionals, the general public, and jurors using a survey. Results showed that legal professionals do not prefer jury trials and think that jury trials do not fit the current Korean judicial system while the majority of citizens are in favor of the jury system. Based on the survey results, we emphasize the necessity of active efforts for a legislative resolution on the final form of jury trials and its implementation in the court system.

Lithuanian Postcard in the struggle against Imperial Russia

The article is devoted to a peculiar episode of the struggle of Lithuanians against the policy of persecution based on nationality which was pursued by Imperial Russia between 1864 and 1904. Its participants were representatives of the parts of the Lithuanian nation separated by the border between Germany and the Russian Empire – Martynas Jankus (1858–1946), a German citizen, a Lithuanian of East Prussia, the owner of a printing office in Tilsit (Lith. Tilžė, currently Sovetsk, a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian Federation) and a group of Lithuanian young people who were operating illegally, a group of citizens of the Russian Empire. The time under discussion is the 1890s. During that period, the Lithuanian national movement was rapidly developing and strengthening while striving to bring together both parts of the nation and the USA-based Lithuanian diaspora community. One of the most important measures of the common struggle was the distribution of publications printed in Latin characters in the Lithuanian language which were banned to be published in the territory of Russia but were legally printed in East Prussia and smuggled across the border into Lithuania. From there, the publications were sent to Lithuanian communities all over the Russian Empire. This struggle resulted in victory: the ban was lifted by Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Russia issued in 1904.
 To strengthen the political opposition, Lithuanian intellectuals printed not only books, brochures and newspapers but also various minor publications – political leaflets. Students of Russian universities and Lithuanian intellectuals graduates of these higher education institutions prepared texts and sent funds intended for their publication to the printing offices of Lithuanians and Germans in East Prussia. The number of such leaflets surviving to the present day is very small. One of these publications was an anonymous card of the size of a standard German postcard (95 x 140 mm). Thus far, three of them have been found in Lithuanian libraries and archives, and one has been discovered in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. A composition of two illustrations is printed on one side of the card: a Lithuanian countrywoman and a Cossack standing in front of her with a raised whip and a bottle of vodka as a gift for obedience. This symbolised a spread of orthodoxy and the deportation of Lithuanians from their native land. The following exclamation of the Cossack is printed: Are you a Lithuanian? Go to Russia! The explanation of the content of the illustration and the encouragement (first of all, to Catholic believers) to oppose the plans of the authorities are printed in small characters. They are related to the colonisation of Siberia. The statements are well-grounded, the exposition of the subject is logical and written in the correct Lithuanian language. Most probably, it was created by the graduate of the Faculty of Law of the University of Moscow Vladas Mačys (1867–1936).
 Vaclovas Biržiška, Professor of Law at the University of Lithuania in Kaunas and Director of the University Library, was the first to describe this publication bibliographically. The author regarded this publication as a postcard, attributed it to Martynas Jankus’ printing office and dated it ‘1892’. A more precise description was publicised in the fundamental work of Lithuanian national bibliography Lietuvos TSR bibliografija. Serija A: Knygos lietuvių kalba (Bibliography of the Lithuanian SSR. Series A: Books in the Lithuanian Language; vol. 2: 1862–1904. Book 2 (Vilnius, 1988, p. 401, No. 4065). It was compiled in the Soviet era, and the only available copy stored in Mikhail J. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library (currently renamed the Russian National Library in Sankt Petersburg) served as the basis for it. The present author amended the publication date of the postcard (1891) and specified the circumstances of its distribution, while also ascertaining that the artist of the illustrations was the lithographer of Tilsit Johann Mai.

Editorial Note: How Much Critical Distance in the Academic Study of European Law?

Editorial Note: Bruno De Witte, Emeritus Professor of European Union Law, Maastricht University, and part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute, Florence DOI: https://doi.org/10.3935/cyelp.18.2022.477 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution − Non-Commercial − No Derivatives 4.0 International License. Suggested citation: B De Witte, ‘Editorial Note: How Much Critical Distance in the Academic Study of European Law?’ (2022) 18 CYELP VII.

Lietuvių kalba kaip kalbos politikos objektas Prūsijos Karalystėje: XVIII a. pradžios diskursas

THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE AS AN OBJECT OF THE POLICY ON LANGUAGE IN THE KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA: THE DISCOURSE OF THE EARLY 18th CENTURY The article deals with the philological polemics that took place in the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1710s as the first discourse recorded in writing that addressed matters of using the Lithuanian language in social life, covering, among other things, aspects of the policy on language and language planning. Since the process concerning the public language had the involvement of governmental officials who acted in the name of the Prussian Church and the King, and had the authority to adopt different decisions, the Lithuanian language became an object of policy on language in a specific sense. The first language policy makers who in the 18th century recognised and advocated the problems of the quality of the public Lithuanian language and took to making decisions to have the public involved in the resolution of the language matters were as follows: (1) Friedrich Deutsch (1657–1709), comptroller of Prussian churches and schools, chief preacher of the palace, and theology professor at Königsberg University; (2) Johann Berent (1658–1712), councillor of the court of the palace of Königsberg and former law professor at Königsberg University; (3) George Friedrich von Kreitzen (1639–1710), chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia as a member of the government.

Pursuing Legal Harmony: Indonesianization of Islamic Law Concept and Its Impact on National Law

This study responds to a polemic on Indonesia’s formalization of Islamic law, which is inseparable from the dynamics of political authority and the internal views of Muslims. It seeks to describe, explore, construct, and analyze the ​​Indonesianization of Islamic law, as proposed by Kamsi, an Islamic law professor at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University of Yogyakarta, as one of the efforts to make Islamic law become the national law. The Indonesianization of Islamic law, namely by legislating or codifying Islamic law through the state system so that it is enforceable in Indonesia. This study is conceptual research using a legal philosophy approach to comprehend an Islamic legal thought from a sharia scholar using the content analysis method. The results of this study show that the concept of Indonesianisation of Islamic Law uses a modern knowledge system as the paradigm. This effort seeks to nationally legalize Islamic law through Indonesian legal instruments that can give birth to inclusiveness and tolerance coupled with pluralism with differentiation in unification. Its theoretical implication emphasizes a need for epistemological and axiological adjustments to realize the concept of Indonesianization of Islamic law. The idea should also apply nationally within the framework of Pancasila (the Indonesian state’s ideology) as a democratic country.
 Keywords: Kamsi, Indonesianization of Islamic Law, National Law.

Socio-Legal Inquiry of Intellectual Property Law and the Neocolonised Legal Profession in Freetown, Sierra Leone

The social task facing the Freetown, Sierra Leone legal profession requires that such a professional field should be made to metamorphose and expand in line with its growing demands and expectation. This makes Intellectual Property Law an essential relation of the Neocolonised Legal Profession in Freetown, Sierra Leone. An exploration of the socio-legal approach to the relationship between intellectual property law and the Neocolonised legal professional law in Freetown is, in plain terms, highly complex. This complexity is occasioned by the very absence, very weak theoretical construct, limited attention to creativity and novelty of Intellectual Property law as a discipline and Intellectual Property Lawyers as legal practitioners. This paper is based on the main objective of examining the sociological nature of Intellectual Property Law and the operation of the Neocolonised legal profession within the framework of society. In the methodology of this paper, respondents (163) were judgementally selected, examined the socio-legal inquiry strategically on the linkage between Intellectual Property Law and the Neocolonised legal professional law and assessed its relevance and contributions to Freetown municipal income and social growth. The data analysis draws into focus the sociological inquiry on the linkage between Intellectual Property Law and the Neocolonised legal professional law in Freetown, Sierra Leone and how both of them reinforce each other in the singular sociological mission of serving society and humanity. The findings distinguish Intellectual Property Law as both a distinct and independent field of socio-legal scholarship, filling the socio-legal lacuna in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and augment national economic growth. The paper concludes that there is a very weak linkage between Intellectual Property Law and the Neocolonised legal professional law in Freetown, Sierra Leone; The lack of a deeper understanding of Intellectual Property Law and the fact that very little attention is accorded to it by the national government and other key socio-legal actors. The researcher, therefore, recommends that there is a need for an effort to employ a comprehensive conception of law that will foster a pluralistic framework; legal pluralism should incorporate all shades of law, including Intellectual Property Law.

How to Minimize the Impact of Experts’ Non-rational Beliefs on Their Judgments on Autism

The non-autistic majority often judges people on the autism spectrum through the prism of numerous stereotypes, prejudices, cognitive biases, or, generally speaking, non-rational beliefs. This causes problems in autistic people’s everyday lives, as they often feel stigmatized, marginalized, and they internalize deficit-laden narratives about themselves. Unfortunately, experts, including health or law professionals, are not entirely immune to these non-rational beliefs, which affect their decision-making processes. This primarily happens when a mix of background knowledge, overconfidence, and haste co-occur. The resulting decisions may impact autistic people, e.g., by determining eligibility for the state’s therapeutical and financial support. This paper shows how simplified reasoning and inference may influence experts’ (medical examiners or court expert witnesses) decision-making processes concerning autistic people. It also proposes particular clues and strategies that could help experts cope with this risk and avoid making biased decisions.

Experts Share Advice for Post-Roe World: ‘We Have to Be Proactive’

Experts Share Advice for Post-<i>Roe</i> World: ‘We Have to Be Proactive’

Topic modelling of legal documents using NLP and bidirectional encoder representations from transformers

&lt;span&gt;Modeling legal text is a difficult task because of its unique features, such as lengthy texts, complex language structures, and technical terms. During the last decade, there has been a big rise in the number of legislative documents, which makes it hard for law professionals to keep up with legislation like analyzing judgements and implementing acts. The relevancy of topics is heavily influenced by the processing and presentation of legal documents in some contexts. The objective of this work is to understand the legal judgement corpus related to cases under the Hindu Marriage Act of India. The study looked into various methods to generate sentence embeddings from the judgement. This paper employs the power of the BERTopic algorithm for generating significant topics.&lt;/span&gt;

CareDx, Inc. v. Natera, Inc. United States Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit, 2022 40 F.4th 1371

Biotechnology Law ReportVol. 41, No. 6 Case in PointCareDx, Inc. v. Natera, Inc. United States Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit, 2022 40 F.4th 1371Edited for Biotechnology Law Report by Christopher M. HolmanEdited for Biotechnology Law Report by Christopher M. HolmanChristopher M. Holman is a Professor of Law at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law; a Senior Scholar at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University; and the Executive Editor of Biotechnology Law Report.*The synopsis is original content and the decision itself has been condensed for ease of readability.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:15 Dec 2022https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2022.29289.cipAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 41Issue 6Dec 2022 InformationCopyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, publishersTo cite this article:Edited for Biotechnology Law Report by Christopher M. Holman.CareDx, Inc. v. Natera, Inc. United States Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit, 2022 40 F.4th 1371.Biotechnology Law Report.Dec 2022.298-304.http://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2022.29289.cipPublished in Volume: 41 Issue 6: December 15, 2022Online Ahead of Print:November 30, 2022PDF download

집합건물법의 법체계상 위치에 관한 관견(管見)

The Korean Collective Building Act, enacted in 1984, was drafted by private law professors with the helps of legally trained public officials; in Japan, there has been a widespread idea that the Japanese counterpart was necessary to implement urban planning law. However, recently released researches successfully came to refute this idea based on travaux préparatoires, which shows that the situations in two countries were alike: private law professors and judicial officials played a leading role from beginning to end; they primarily focused on the protection of buildings, not concerned with urban planning (II). In conclusion, some theses are summed up as follows: ① Collective Building Act belongs to one of enactments mentioned in the latter part of Art. 23 para. 1 of the Korean Constitution, which established a new institution ‘strata title’, a novelty of property. ② The entitlement needs a further justification, however, from the constitutional considerations, because of several innovations quite strange to traditional legal concepts. ③ In principle, other real estate statutes as lex specialis should be strictly and narrowly interpreted, in the same way as private law(lex generalis), to respect private autonomy (Ⅲ).