Monthly Archives: February, 2025
Duncan Wallace, ‘The Reality of Shareholder Ownership: For-profit Corporations as Slaves’
ABSTRACT What is the relationship between shareholders and the corporation? The present scholarly consensus is that, whatever the relationship is, it is not one of owner and owned. This article contests that consensus. It argues that corporations are owned by their shareholders and, further, that corporations so-owned are slaves. In support of this contention, the […]
Matt Blaszczyk, ‘Copyright Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science: A Response to Professor Silbey’
ABSTRACT In an important new Article, titled “A Matter of Facts: The Evolution of the Copyright Fact-Exclusion and Its Implications for Disinformation and Democracy”, Professor Jessica Silbey argues provocatively that we “‘only” know that facts are excluded from copyright protection because Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service “says so”. She argues that both the nature […]
Gordon Hull, ‘Translating Privacy for Data Subjects’
ABSTRACT This essay offers a theoretical account of one reason that current privacy regulation fails. I argue that existing privacy laws inherit a focus on judicial subjects, using language about torts and abstract rights. Current threats to privacy, on the other hand, presuppose statistically-generated populations and aggregative models of subjectivity. This gap in underlying presupposition […]
‘Navigating trade mark oppositions: the risks of weakly distinctive marks and late claims’
In the context of linguistic expression, the term ‘ultra’ refers to something bold and superlative, which goes ‘beyond’ (this is what the Latin word literally means). Being nothing more than a generic praise, unless paired with some unique elements, potential trade mark applicants looking to capitalize over the said term will likely find it challenging […]
‘The AI Act provisions relating to copyright – Possibility of private enforcement? Germany as an example’
The EU AI Act contains some provisions that have a copyright connection. Examples are the obligation for providers of general-purpose AI models to establish a policy to respect the rights reservation in Art 4(3) DSM Directive 2019/790 (Art 53(1)(c) AI Act) and their obligation to provide a sufficiently detailed summary about the content used for […]
Chris Bevan, ‘100 years of actual occupation as an overriding interest in English and Welsh land law: challenging the rationale and making the radical case for abolition’
ABSTRACT It is 100 years since the rights of those in ‘actual occupation’ joined the statute book as interests capable of binding transferees of land despite not appearing on the register. This paper seizes the opportunity to investigate and excavate the overlooked and under-examined historical origins of the actual occupation concept and to revisit the […]
Mateusz Grochowski, ‘Shadow Contract Law in the Platform Economy’
ABSTRACT The emergence of the platform economy represents a significant development in early 21st-century capitalism and is leading to a concentration of various forms of power within a small number of market entities. This concentration, accompanied by limited oversight, includes the unique ability of platforms to unilaterally establish and enforce rules governing horizontal contracts among […]
Qizi and Kamalovich, ‘Blockchain Technology Usage on Intellectual Property Rights’
ABSTRACT This paper explores the potential of blockchain technology in revolutionizing intellectual property (IP) protection and its implications for sustainable development goals, particularly those related to peace, justice, and strong institutions. By providing a transparent and immutable ledger for tracking IP ownership, blockchain offers a secure platform to combat fraud and misrepresentation in IP transactions. […]
Patrizia Giampieri, ‘AI-Powered Contracts: a Critical Analysis’
ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to the legal domain is gaining ground. AI is argued to be particularly helpful with labour-intensive activities and repetitive tasks. Amongst the various AI solutions, ChatGPT has gathered momentum and its acclaimed advantages are, amongst others, document generation and contract review. This paper wishes to assess the effectiveness of two […]
‘Reforming the law of apologies in civil proceedings – Consultation outcome’
This document is the post-consultation report for the consultation paper Reforming the Law of Apologies in Civil Proceedings in England and Wales. It will cover: the background to the report; a summary of the responses to the report; a detailed response to the specific questions raised in the report; the next steps following this consultation […]