Monthly Archives: April, 2026
William Latimer-Sayer and others, ‘Reducing re-traumatisation of claimants in medico-legal litigation: a framework for reform’
ABSTRACT Life-changing traumatic injuries not only cause profound physical trauma but may also create psychological and emotional responses that can be reactivated during medico-legal assessments. This paper examines the neurobiological basis of trauma responses, including hippocampal downregulation and amygdala-driven memory formation, which create fragmented, emotionally laden memories, that are susceptible to triggers such as reliving […]
Amy Gajda, ‘Campbell at twenty: Campbell’s sensibilities and information privacy in the United States’
ABSTRACT This article considers the intriguing question of whether a Naomi Campbell-like claim for invasion of privacy could ever be a winnable one in the United States. While the short answer is no, the longer answer is considerably more nuanced. The article explores the way a Hollywood lawyer might bring such a privacy claim despite […]
Juliet-Nil Uraz, ‘Legal Aid in England and Wales: A Historical and Budgetary Perspective’
ABSTRACT This paper traces the evolution of state intervention in legal aid provision in England and Wales from the 15th century in forma pauperis statute to the present day, revealing a non-linear trajectory from charity to comprehensive welfare provision and back toward restricted access. Employing a process tracing methodology and drawing on legislative histories, government […]
Ciani and Pagallo, ‘No Peace After Death? The Impact of AI-Driven Memorial Chatbots on Privacy and Data Protection’
ABSTRACT This paper examines the profitable digital afterlife industry (DAI), whose aim is to monetize the digital remains of departed internet users. Among the different services offered by such an industry, attention is drawn to AI and humanoid robots that create convincing digital surrogates of the deceased. A decade ago, Google patented robots that can […]
Katy Barnett, ‘The Australian Approach to Crypto Assets: Another Block in the Chain’
ABSTRACT This article considers the current Australian doctrinal position with regard to the proprietary nature of crypto assets in the light of recent decisions by State Supreme courts. It discusses the policy ramifications of propertising crypto assets, and why the decision in Re Blockchain Tech Pty Ltd is correct to find that Australian law does […]
Constantine Yannelis, ‘Adam Smith, Human Capital and the Wealth of Nations’
ABSTRACT This essay examines Smith’s insights into human capital as a primary driver of the wealth of nations. Adam Smith is celebrated as the founder of classical economics, yet his foundational role in articulating the principles of human capital is frequently overlooked. Writing in 1776, Smith predated the formal coining of ‘human capital’ by centuries, […]
Borg and Sant, ‘Data scraping for scientific research purposes: legal bases under the GDPR’
ABSTRACT In research contexts, data scraping enables systematic collection of large-scale, real-world digital data. This article examines data scraping for research that is publicly funded or carried out in pursuit of public interest objectives, from the perspective of data protection law. It focuses on the GDPR requirement to identify a legal basis in order to […]
Sarah Morath, ‘Our Microplastic Problem’
ABSTRACT This article explores the growing threat of and the legal response to microplastic pollution. Microplastics – plastic particles less than five millimeters in size – are pervasive, persistent, and chemically diverse, making them particularly difficult to regulate using existing environmental statutes. Federal approaches, such as the Clean Water Act and Toxic Substances Control Act, […]
Joshua Yuvaraj, ‘Recentering Creativity in Copyright’
ABSTRACT Copyright discourse often centers around creativity; as a rationale for copyright, and as a threshold for copyright to subsist in songs, books, art and other creative works. Yet creativity remains an ethereal concept: if we do not know what it means, we cannot evaluate whether copyright law is promoting it, nor can we properly […]
Pamela Samuelson, ‘The Scope of Software Copyrights Revisited’
ABSTRACT This Article reviews the highs and lows of US copyright case law construing software copyright scope over the nearly 50 years since copyright protection was first extended to computer programs. When the amendment was passed in 1980, initial expectations were that the scope of copyright in computer programs would be quite thin; some early […]