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Category: CLR Online Volume 105

The Soldier as an Autonomous Weapon

Or Bassok, Assistant Professor at the School of Law of the University of Nottingham

From a legal perspective, what is the difference between human soldiers and autonomous weapon systems? Eliav Lieblich and Eyal Benvenisti answer that in combat, soldiers are under the legal duty to exercise constant administrative discretion while autonomous weapons cannot exercise such discretion. I argue that in making this argument, Lieblich and Benvenisti fail to understand…

Jun 2020

Subject of a Death

Sherry Colb, C.S. Wong Professor of Law, Cornell Law School.

Tom Regan, a leading animal rights philosopher, stood firmly on the “rights” side of the “rights”/”welfare” divide in much of his writing. By contrast, a different philosopher, Peter Singer, has taken the position that individuals have no rights; the moral imperative is to maximize welfare along whatever dimension (hedonic, preference, etc.) is appropriate. In the second memorial lecture in…

Jun 2020

Bad Effects: The Misuses of History in Box v. Planned Parenthood

Mary Ziegler, Stearns Weaver Miller Professor at Florida State University College of Law.

Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky sparked considerable controversy.11. 39 S. Ct. 1780, 1782 (2019). Offering a lengthy historical narrative about the relationship between abortion and eugenics, Thomas argued that one part of a disputed Indiana law, a measure banning abortion in cases of race, sex, or disability selection, addressed a…

May 2020

Harnessing Law and Economics to Disincentivize Corporate Misbehavior

Zachary Henderson, Law Clerk, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Top-level executive compensation has increased by over 1000% over the past four decades and is now primarily based on a corporation’s market performance. The size and number of corporations is also at an all-time high, and corporate misbehavior has never been so profitable for the small handful of executives at the helms of the world’s…

May 2020

Greatly Exaggerating Dualism’s Death: Neuroscience and U.S. Law

Joseph Avery, National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellow at Princeton University

In Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities,11. Tex. Dep’t of Hous. & Cmty. Affairs v. Inclusive Cmtys. Project, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 2507 (2015). a case that considered durative confounding of the Fair Housing Act,22. Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3601 (1968). the United States Supreme Court held that even in the absence of…

May 2020

The Nature of Reasonableness

Alan Calnan

In honor of Professor Alan Calnan, a prolific and inspiring Torts scholar.  His wife and colleagues at Southwestern Law School wish to dedicate this Essay to his memory.

Though the notion of reasonableness dominates Anglo- American law, its meaning has been clouded by traditional conceptual analysis. This Essay argues that greater clarity can be gained by taking a scientific approach to the subject, exposing the natural foundations beneath the concept’s varied interpretations. Reasonable legal minds agree that reasonableness is one of the foundational concepts of American law,…

Mar 2020

Blue Lives & The Permanence of Racism

India Thusi, Associate Professor of Law, California Western School of Law

Abstract In true dystopian form, the killing of unarmed Black people by the police has sparked a national narrative about the suffering of police officers. “Blue Lives Matter” has become the rallying call for those offended by the suggestion that we should hold police officers accountable for killing unarmed Black people. According to a December 2016 poll,…

Mar 2020

Conditionality and Constitutional Change

Felix B. Chang. Professor, University of Cincinnati College of Law. E-mail: felix.chang@uc.edu. For a fuller treatment of this topic, see FELIX B. CHANG & SUNNIE RUCKER-CHANG, ROMA RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS: A TRANSATLANTIC COMPARISON (2020).

The burgeoning field of Critical Romani Studies explores the persistent subjugation of Europe’s largest minority: the Roma. Within this field, it has become fashionable to draw parallels to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.11. See generally James A. Goldston, The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Opportunity in the United States and Europe: From Brown v. Board to D.H. and Beyond, in REALIZING ROMA RIGHTS 163–84 (Jacqueline Bhabha et…

Jan 2020