Authoruclalaw

Monopolizing Trade: Airline Ticket Change Policies and the Thwarted Secondary Market

Suppose you have a domestic economy-class airline ticket that you can no longer use. In the 1980s and early ’90s, there was a secondary market in domestic airline tickets, carried out openly in newspaper classifieds. Though many tickets were nominally nontransferable, back then, the airlines didn’t check every passenger’s name. Problem solved. But now, American, Delta, and United will charge you...

Bakke at 40: Remedying Black Health Disparities Through Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions

In this Comment, I argue that the persistence of racial health disparities today is not only a relic of a long history of anti-Black racism in healthcare, but a consequence of the Court’s colorblind approach to affirmative action jurisprudence since U.C. Regents v. Bakke and the restrictions in access to predominantly white institutions that have resulted. In recounting the history of racism in...

Copyright Enforcement in the Digital Age: When the Remedy is the Wrong

This Article conducts a comprehensive empirical study of copyright statutory damages. An extensive examination of docket entries and case law reveals a widespread practice of overclaiming of remedies in copyright litigation. Although 80 percent of plaintiffs in all disputes claim that they suffered conduct that constitutes willful infringement, courts find willful infringement in just 2 percent...

Statutory Interpretation as “Interbranch Dialogue”?

Much in the field of statutory interpretation is predicated on “interpretive dialogue” between courts and legislatures. Yet, the idea of such dialogue is often advanced as little more than a slogan; the dialogue that courts, legislators, and scholars are imagining too often goes unexamined and underspecified. This Article attempts to organize thinking about the ways participants and theorists...

Episode 4.4: California's Climate Future - Part II

In this episode, we explore California's entrée as a global leader on climate change with UCLA Law Professor Cara Horowitz, especially following the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, an international climate conference spearheaded by former California Governor Jerry Brown. We also discuss some of the critiques of the Summit and of Governor Brown's environmental policies, particularly from...

Episode 4.3: California's Climate Future - Part I

In this episode, we talk with UCLA Professor Cara Horowitz about what's at stake as greenhouse gases rise, both globally and in California, particularly in light of a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describing the crisis. We also talk with UCLA Professor William Boyd about SB 100, a bill passed last year by the California legislature that commits California to...

Blockchain-based Digital Assets and the Case for Revisiting Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine

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.

Injustice Ex Machina: Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing

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.