Ipse Dixit

In this episode, Christopher J. Ryan, Jr., Associate Professor of Law at Roger Williams School of Law, discusses his extensive scholarship on law school rankings. Ryan uses econometric and statistical tools to evaluate a range of different data in order to help better understand legal education. In his article "A Value-Added Ranking of Law Schools," he uses data on incoming classes as well as data on bar passage and job placement to determine how schools affect the predicted performance of their students. And in his articles "A Revealed-Preferences Ranking of Law Schools" and "The 2018 Revealed-Preferences Ranking of Law Schools" (co-authored with Brian L. Frye), he created the first "subjective" ranking of law schools, designed to determine how effectively schools appeal to prospective students. Ryan discusses why rankings are valuable, useful tools for students, law schools, and policymakers, and also describes some of his forthcoming scholarship.

Keywords: Rankings, US News & World Report, Law Schools, Legal Education, Revealed-Preferences

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In this episode, Amelia Smith Rinehart, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, discusses her article "E. Bement & Sons v. National Harrow Company: The First Skirmish between Patent Law and the Sherman Act," which she wrote for the "Forgotten IP" symposium organized by Shubha Ghosh and Zvi Rosen, and published in the Syracuse Law Review. Rinehart describes the creation of the National Harrow Company in 1890, an early "patent pool," and how the Company's use of its harrow patents brought it into tension with the newly-enacted Sherman Act. She discusses the legal and policy questions at stake in the Supreme Court's opinion finding no Sherman Act violation in Bement, and how they inform the relationship between patent and antitrust law today. Rinehart is on Twitter at @ameliarinehart.

Keywords: patent law, trusts, Harrow Trust, patent-antitrust cases

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In this episode, Heidi Tandy, of counsel and intellectual property department chair at Price Benowitz LLP and legal committee member of the Organization for Transformative Works, discusses her work on the relationship between fanworks and intellectual property rights, as well as her draft article "Can You Tarnish Voldemort?: An Examination of the Intersection of Fanworks, Trademarks and Fair Use." Tandy describes the long history of fanworks and how they reflect the creativity of fan communities. Among other things, she explains how changes in copyright law have emphasized the right of fan communities to create fanworks, and how the relationship between copyright and trademark owners and fan communities has developed over time. Tandy blogs at ef yeah copyright law and is on Twitter at @travelingheidi.

You can read her post on the ebooks-tree issue she discusses on the podcast here and her post on the adult film "parody" of "50 Shades of Gray" here. She recommends this VOX article about Hamilton fanfiction. And the Organization for Transformative Works legal advocacy page is here.

Keywords: Intellectual Property, legal theory, trademarks, patent law

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In this episode, Pamela Foohey, Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law, discusses her paper "Life in the Sweatbox," co-authored with Robert M. Lawless, Katherine M. Porter, and Deborah Thorne, which will appear in the Notre Dame Law Review. Foohey explains how the the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act resulted in consumers spending ever-longer amounts of time in the "financial sweatbox," or the period of time before an inevitable bankruptcy filing, during which their assets are further depleted and their quality of life is destroyed. She and her co-authors used data from the data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project as well as data they gathered to learn who files for bankruptcy and why. They found that the narratives surrounding the use of consumer bankruptcy are largely inaccurate, and have resulted in inefficient policies that cause great harm to many consumers. Foohey is on Twitter at @PamelaFoohey.

Keywords: consumer bankruptcy, debt collection, debt, chapter 7, chapter 13, financial distress

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In this episode, Amy J. Schmitz, Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law, discusses her recent book "The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection," which she co-authored with Colin Rule. Schmitz observes that many people now conduct most transactions online, and argues that consumer protection requires new tools, designed for an online environment. Her research shows that consumers primarily want to resolve disputes quickly and fairly, which some online dispute resolutions systems accomplish more more effectively than others. She proposes a centralized dispute resolution system that would both benefit consumers and even the playing field in e-commerce. Schmitz is on Twitter at @AmyJSchmitz1 and Rule is at @crule.

Keywords: contracts, consumer protection, arbitration, dispute resolution, behavioral economics, law and society, discrimination, contract theory, remedies, e-contracts, sales, consumer contracts, e-Commerce, ADR, ODR, online dispute resolution, international law, UNCITRAL, international dispute resolution

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In 1962, Stacy Keach (presumably Stacy Keach, Sr.) produced and directed the album "Your Living Bill of Rights, As Interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court." The album is narrated by Marvin Miller, and features actors portraying the Voice of the Supreme Court, the Voice of the Constitution, a Northerner, Easterner, Southerner, Westerner, and Women. It also features music composed by Richard Armbruster. The "technical consultant" for the album was Arvo Van Alstyne, Professor of Constitutional Law at U.C.L.A. Law School.

The substance of the album consists of a description of the rights secured by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as the Reconstruction and Suffrage Amendments. With respect to each of those rights, the album summarizes and quotes from relevant opinions of the United States Supreme Court.

As the liner notes to the album observe:

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In this episode, Kevin Michael Casini, Adjunct Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law and founder of Casini Law Firm, LLC, discusses his approach to teaching entertainment law from practice. He explains how he uses materials from the news, social media, and popular culture to make legal questions more relevant and interesting to his students. Several students from his entertainment law class present their practical class projects, and reflect on their experience of the class and how it differs from their other classes. The episode ends with a performance of an original song by one of the students. Casini is on Twitter at @KCEsq.

Keywords: entertainment law, Music Business, Entertainment business

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In this episode, Deidré A. Keller, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law, discusses her current project, "Will I Be the Next Hashtag?: 'Black Death Spectacle' or Catalyst for Change?" Keller observes that Emmett Till's mother Mamie Till intentionally used the image of his mangled body to support the civil rights movement, by to forcing the public to confront the brutality of the mob that lynched him. But more recently, when Jordan Edwards was murdered by a police officer, his family asked for people to respect their privacy and not "hashtag" Edwards. In addition, some people protested when the artist Dana Schutz used the iconic image of Emmett Till as the basis for a painting. Keller asks whether privacy, publicity, and related legal rights can and should enable families and others to prevent the public from turning murdered African-Americans into symbols. Keller's work is available on SSRN here.

Keywords: privacy, right of publicity, intellectual property

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In this episode, Ruth Anne Robbins, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, discusses her influential 2004 article "Painting with Print: Incorporating Concepts of Typographic and Layout Design into the Text of Legal Writing Documents" and her 2010 followup article, "Conserving the Canvas: Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Legal Briefs by Re-imagining Court Rules and Document Design Strategies." Robbins observes that the design of a legal document affects its readability, and argues that many courts impose rules that reduce the readability of documents. Among other things, she observes that ALLCAPS headings and monospaced fonts reduce readability. She explains how legal writers can increase the effectiveness of their documents through better design. Judge Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was impressed by Robbins's article, and featured it on the court's website for many years. Robbins is on Twitter at @RA_Robbins.

Keywords: legal writing, visual, fonts, persuasion, lawyering

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