Discourse publishes shorter articles that are timely, interdisciplinary, and novel. Discourse strives to serve as a platform for scholars, ideas, and discussions that have often been overlooked in traditional law review settings. Because we seek to publish pieces that are accessible to legal and non-legal audiences alike, Discourse articles are generally between 3,000 and 10,000 words. Like our print journal, Discourse articles are published on Westlaw, Lexis, and in other legal databases, as well as our own website. Beginning with Volume 68, Discourse began publishing special issues of Law Meets World.
Each year, the UCLA School of Law presents the William Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching to an outstanding law professor. On April 22, 2019, this honor was given to Professor Beth Colgan. UCLA Law Review Discourse is proud to continue its tradition of publishing a modified version of the ceremony speech delivered by the award recipient.
The critical literature on copyright law’s fair use rule is enormous, with much of the recent spilling of ink bemoaning the overuse of transformativeness as a decisive factor in the case law. Many courts now consider whether a secondary user has added value to a work by including new insights or new aesthetics to be critical in resolving fair use disputes, even if the amount taken from the...
This article evaluates such an idea insofar as it could potentially constitute a bill of attainder, be applied retroactively, or violate a president’s constitutional rights. Ultimately, the article concludes that the bill would pass judicial scrutiny, whether it could be used in the way Nadler envisioned—namely going after the Oval Office’s current occupant—is a matter of timing, not...
Abstract In “Can Free Speech Be Progressive?,” Louis Michael Seidman claims that cheap speech, like that found on Twitter, is not really cheap, and is not helpful to progressives—because it relies too heavily on capital. In the era of #metoo and #blacklivesmatter, it seems that Seidman is wrong about cheap speech. Cheap speech exists, and it is associated with a number of progressive successes...
This piece takes issue with Bridget Crawford and Michelle Simon’s argument in their article about the recent Supreme Court case North Carolina Department of Revenue v. Kaestner Family Trust (argued May 16, 2019) (The Supreme Court, Due Process and State Income Taxation of Trusts (67 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 2 (2019)).
Combining the statistical data on the rapidly shifting demography of the federal judiciary under President Trump with insights from the scholarly literature on theories of procedural justice and representative bureaucracy, which posit that the diversity of judges matters to citizens’ perceptions of justice as well as to judicial accountability to minority citizens’ interests, this paper suggests...
What are the constitutional limits on a state’s power to tax a trust with no connection to the state, other than the accident that a potential beneficiary lives there? The Supreme Court of the United States will take up this question this term in the context of North Carolina Department of Revenue v. Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust. The case involves North Carolina’s income taxation of...
Various concerns about the reproducibility of intangible items have kept digital files from receiving the protections provided by the first sale doctrine of the Copyright Act of 1976. This piece breaks down blockchain technology and discusses how the new technology may alleviate some of lawmakers' concerns in extending the first sale doctrine.
Professor Solow-Niederman identifies the themes that run through the series, explores the challenges that disruptive technologies pose to current law and policy, and points to the human values at stake with each development and intervention.
Issues with record-keeping and management of records has long been a barrier to efficient administration within the government. This piece provides an overview of the technology behind blockchain and explores how it can be used to facilitate record keeping that may provide greater security and accuracy of records.
This piece argues that the use of predictive algorithms in criminal sentencing poses a threat to due process and equal treatment under the law. By exploring studies regarding algorithmic bias, as well as flaws in human decisionmaking, the Article examines how judicial reliance on predictive algorithms may serve to exacerbate societal discrimination and erode constitutional rights.
This piece elucidates how the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 may serve to stifle widespread commercial applications of technologies utilizing Blockchain and artificial intelligence. Though the requirements under the Act are designed to protect consumer privacy, they threaten the ability of companies using these technologies to innovate—or even operate—if they have any contact with...
The recent wave of commentary on Masterpiece Cakeshop sounded a common theme: disappointment, even frustration. This article contends that Masterpiece is a flawed decision because of its fundamental incompleteness. Despite being held out as an opinion on religious liberty, Kennedy’s decision omits any discussion of whether the state interest might outweigh the baker’s religious freedom.
This article considers Gitanjali Nain Gill’s recent book Environmental Justice in India, the first comprehensive look at India’s National Green Tribunal. In addition to assessing issues concerning the best ways to integrate science into judicial decisionmaking and highlighting India’s failure to maintain good environmental data, it argues that the Tribunal’s record reveals several crucial...