Cornell University Journal

The possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging— fMRI, or “brain scans”—to detect deception in legal settings has generated great controversy and, indeed, widespread resistance.  Although neuroscience-based lie-detection appears to hold out the promise of improvements to existing methods of detecting deception, most academic neuroscientists have balked, insisting that the… Read More »

In debates over civil litigation, class actions have long garnered considerable attention.  Controversy continues to rage over efforts to certify class actions in the face of objections from defendants.  Debate also swirls over their use as a vehicle for settlement, with the defendant’s consent.  All of this ferment suggests that… Read More »

Over the last two decades, the Restatement (Third) of Trusts—all influenced by modern portfolio theory—have reformulated the traditional approach to trust investing, jettisoning its ban on speculative investing.  Modern portfolio theory’s central tenet is that the prudent investor should seek… Read More »

Professor Rick Hasen’s important new article, The Democracy Canon, identifies an intriguing and, until now, largely unnoticed practice in many state courts: the construing of election statutes with a strong thumb-on-the-scales in favor of easing voters’ access to the polls, candidates’ access to the ballot, and ballots’ eligibility to be counted. … Read More »

 
Litigation challenging the amount of funding available to low-income school districts is one of several initiatives reformers have pursued to improve the quality of public schools.  This particular approach, so-called education finance litigation, is specifically focused on reducing the funding disparity that continues to persist among school districts.  The… Read More »

The Maine lobster fishery is a successful example of a managed natural resource commons.  To ensure an ongoing supply of lobsters in the face of threats to the fishery from unregulated over-fishing, over a period of years Maine lobster fishermen crafted a set of formal and informal rules to determine… Read More »

The ability of publicly available information to affect stock prices and the globalization of the world’s economies has ushered in an era of transnational securities fraud.  The United States, with its unique class-action mechanism, has become an increasingly attractive forum not only for U.S. investors seeking to recoup their losses… Read More »

Female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice of cutting or otherwise damaging the genitalia of women and girls, is a cultural tradition in some third-world countries.  Although the practice is widespread in parts of the world, many women and girls participate unwillingly.  After all, FGM has severe short- and long-term health… Read More »

The structure of the digital economy will depend on a seemingly obscure debate about the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Congress established the FCC during the New Deal and vested it with authority over all interstate communication by wire or radio.  Seventy-six years later, the FCC faces critical… Read More »

The dominant theoretical frame for conceptualizing uses of copyrighted works is the First Amendment’s protection for free speech.  Despite numerous calls for greater First Amendment scrutiny in copyright cases, there has been an almost unrelenting rejection of independent First Amendment review in copyright cases.  Even when free speech values are… Read More »