Carpenter Privacy Case Vexes Justices, While Tech Giant Microsoft Battles Government in Second U.S. Supreme Court Privacy Case with International Implications

Fall 2017 saw a major privacy case with international implications reach the U.S. Supreme Court this term, Carpenter v. United States. Now a second such case pits the Government against Big Tech in United States v. Microsoft. Carpenter is a criminal case involving federal seizure of cell phone location data from service providers. Arising under the “reasonable grounds” provision of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), the case accentuates Americans’ lack of constitutional protection for personal data in third-party hands, in contrast with emerging global privacy norms. The second major privacy case headed for Supreme Court decision in 2018 also arises under the SCA, involves criminal investigation and new technology, and implicates collision between the third-party doctrine and European privacy law. In United States v. Microsoft, however, the implications for international law loom larger

On the Wagon Train to Afghanistan: Limitations on Star Trek\u27s Prime Directive

Part II of this article acquaints the reader with the Star Trek universe, both as a mirror of Western cultural development for the last three and a half decades, and conversely as a force that has had a remarkable impact on contemporary Western culture. This acquaintance provides a foundation to understand how and to what extent the Prime Directive, a product of science fiction, can be useful in understanding future intercultural contacts right here on Earth. Part III of this article reviews specifically the appearance of the Prime Directive in Star Trek lore, for the most part with reference to Star Trek\u27s captains Kirk and Picard. This review analyzes the fictional evolution of the Prime Directive from its straightforward origin as political commandment to its fuzzy, modern complexity as an aspirational principle. Part IV.A transports the reader back to the real world to show how the Prime Directive has operated both before and since the advent of Star Trek, chiefly in international relations, but also in areas ranging from the hard science of space exploration to the thoughtful business of eco-tourism. Synthesizing the lessons learned from fictional starship captains with the practical and real world applications of the Prime Directive, Part IV.B recognizes three important and related principles in understanding and employing the Prime Directive: (1) it is not inviolable, rather its violation is inherent in its nature; (2) it is not a rule of law, rather an aspiration; and (3) it is a product of a Utopian fiction, and as such can never be fully realized on the Earth as we know it. Finally, Part IV.C applies the Prime Directive, understanding these limiting principles, in the context of the present conflict between the West and the Islamic world, concluding that the modern Prime Directive should not and cannot flatly prohibit Western involvement there. Part V concludes that the proper and modern understanding of the Prime Directive dictates that the value of cultural autonomy must be balanced with the inevitability of cultural interference and transformation. Ultimately all that the Prime Directive can teach is that when two worlds collide, people must work together to preserve the best of both

Media Law & Ethics Enter the 21st century, Introduction to Symposium

We stand now on the verge of the twenty-first century: an artificial construct yes, but a culturally significant time nonetheless. We are the world the Hutchins Commission foresaw: the world of nations seeking understanding, seeking destiny. We will not predict the future with perfect accuracy, though we will try, because that is out nature. In our effort, we must be mindful that the questions we are asking are not new; they have been asked before and will be asked again. But let us see what we have to say about them today

Time for a Top-Tier Law School in Arkansas

A simple change in state law could improve the quality of legal education in Arkansas and the quality of legal services available to our consumers - and save significant amounts of taxpayers\u27 money. With an Afterword on academic freedom. Also available from Advance Arkansas Institute website

A Form Letter

A humorous letter from Richard J. Peltz, who at the time was an Associate Professor at William H. Bowen Law School, to Professor John M. A. DiPippa, also of Bowen Law School at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock

Cat, Cause, and Kant

These are precarious times in which to launch a new law school and a new law review. Yet here we are. The University of Massachusetts is now in its first year of operation with provisional ABA accreditation. This text is a foreword to the first general-interest issue of the University of Massachusetts Law Review. Now marks an appropriate time to take stock of what these institutions mean to accomplish in our unsettled legal world

On Business Torts and the First Amendment

A gaping question in free speech law surrounds the application of the First Amendment defense in business torts. The pervasiveness of communication technologies, the flourishing of privacy law, and the mere passage of time have precipitated an escalation in tort cases in which communication, and what the defendant may allege is free speech, lies at the heart of the matter

The Development Sportswriter: Covering African Football

Football is Africa’s game, but performance in world competition reveals the sport as metaphor for African development is stymied by political corruption, infrastructure deficiency, and neo-colonial exploitation. The media-sport complex has perpetuated this cycle. Development journalism contrarily posits media as a force for good. Where the ideal of objectivity dominates traditional news, development journalism stresses nation-building. However, emphasizing news, development journalism overlooks the powerful role of sport in African life. Through meta-analysis, this article compares the values and practices of development journalism and of sportswriting. The article concludes that sportswriters are well positioned to act as development journalists. As mediator of football, the sportswriter can capitalize on the promise of sport to effect nation-building and development in Africa

The FIFA World Cup, Human Rights Goals and the Gulf Between

With Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 on the horizon, the process for selecting hosts for the World Cup of men’s football has been plagued by charges of corruption and human rights abuses. FIFA celebrated key developing economies with South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. But amid the aftermath of the global financial crisis, those sittings surfaced grave and persistent criticism of the social and economic efficacy of sporting mega-events. Meanwhile new norms emerged in global governance, embodied in instruments such as the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and the Sustainable Development Goals. These norms posit that commercial aims can be harmonized with socioeconomic good. FIFA seized on the chance to restore public confidence and recommit itself to human exultation in sport, adopting sustainability strategies and engaging the architect of the UNGP to develop a human rights policy. But a vast gulf stands between FIFA today and its stated intentions for a new model of World Cup 2026. Idle stadiums and civil unrest in Brazil prolong scepticism of mega-event hosting, even as that country readies for the Rio Olympics. The Russian World Cup recalls that country’s anti-LGBT law, not to mention the Crimea invasion on the heels of the Sochi Olympics. The vast construction projects upending Qatari cityscapes have spotlighted an alarming human toll in that country’s immigration and labour practices, not to mention escalating angst over rampant spending in a depressed oil market. Can FIFA leave behind its money-soaked track record and embrace a new agenda that puts people before profit? This chapter examines a growing incompatibility between World Cup hosting and FIFA sustainability and human rights strategies. This incompatibility illustrates the difficult course that FIFA will have to navigate to make good on its promise to reform