Henry Amoroso, Paula Alexander Becker, and Evan Weiss, A Social Contract: The Doctrine of Unconscionability and its Relation to Social Progress, 28 Cardozo J. Equal Rts. & Soc. Just. 51, (2021)
The current structure of American contract law may limit the availability of adequate remedies for citizens within certain socioeconomic strata who, in the formation of a contract, often experience an asymmetry of information, financial resources, and lack what is broadly termed social capital. This paper further argues that this population might be better served by expanding how the court interprets and applies the doctrine of unconscionability through a reexamination of the foundational principles that led to its codification in the 1950s in the Uniform Commercial Code. Throughout this paper, I will also consider how several foundational principles of Catholic Social Teaching closely align with the foundational principles of American law and unconscionability, namely: solidarity, subsidiarity, a clarified accounting of freedom and equality, and, most importantly, the absolute dignity of the human person. By coming to a better understanding of these foundational principles shared across the American legal and Catholic intellectual traditions, we will be better suited to judge the appropriate application of the doctrine of unconscionability itself. Applications are made to living wage and guaranteed basic income initiatives.
Eric Fleetham, Another Trip Around Article 2 Remedies: Why the U.C.C. Precludes Sellers from Recovering Market Price Damages in Excess of Resale Damages, 20 Ave Maria L. Rev. 28 (2022)
Admittedly, the Code may not be as clear as we may like it to be, and its lack of clarity has led to debate among commentators and also contributed to conflicting court opinions. While the problem presented in this article is not one to arise frequently, the failure of courts to get it right can have significant consequences, not only monetarily but also in running afoul of the Code's policy for remedies. Yet, a clearer picture emerges when we return to the text, purpose, and context of the Code. Indeed, one need not look very deep into the Code, as Section 1-305 provides the answer. The answer given there is clear and simple: any award that puts the seller in a better position than it would have been in had the buyer performed is not allowed. As one judge rightly noted, courts should be “reluctant to endorse any position that runs counter to this policy.”129 Therefore, a seller should not be awarded market price damages that exceed resale damages.
Lydia Montalbano, Brain-Machine Interfaces and Ethics: A Transition from Wearable to Implantable, 16 J. Bus. & Tech. L. 191 (2021)
BMI represents a communication system in which messages of commands sent by individuals to the external world bypass the normal brain output pathways linked to peripheral muscles and nerves.4 As predicted theoretically, BMI is supposed to support people's control of many live aspects, but they still lack practical proof.5 It *192 is agreeable that there is limited interpretation or comprehension of the consequences and impacts of BMI.6 Besides, many doubts associated with ethical, moral, philosophical, and religious thinking of how such technology transforms society have been expressed.7 The development of bioengineering has slowly diminished society's limits, science and engineering, living/non-living, health improvements, nature, technology, and machine/human intelligence.8 These transformations have made society uncomfortable since they ignore basic concepts of life, describing the world's meaning and what constitutes a human being.9 Owing to the importance of BMI in the current digital society, it is essential to gain an in-depth understanding of the concept. This article examines BMI in-depth and its associated ethical problems.
Daniel J. Morrissey, The Promise of Stakeholder Advisory Councils, 23 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 470 (2021)
Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?”-- Baron Thurlow, Lord Chancellor of England1Large public corporations have made tremendous contributions to our society. We benefit from their continuing innovations in the products and services that touch our lives many times each day. And they furnish gainful employment to large numbers of people.2 When run honestly and in a manner sensitive to the concerns of their customers and the public at large, they have been a huge asset to our common life.3
Pedro Rodriguez-Ponga, SJ, Catholic Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights. by Leonard Francis Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 300. $110.00 (Cloth); $88.00 (Digital). Isbn: 9781108486125, 36 J.L. & Religion 171 (2021)
The relationship between the Enlightenment and Roman Catholicism has historically been convoluted. In Catholic Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights, Leonard Francis Taylor successfully claims that there can be a fruitful dialogue between the two if both agree on moderating their discourses. As Taylor shows, contrary to what most people believe--that the exchange only started in the twentieth century--Roman Catholicism is inherently universal and therefore cosmopolitan. Hence, the relationship is meant to be a natural one. The book comes out in a moment in which Pope Francis is deepening the cosmopolitan trend of Catholicism and is committing himself and the whole church to a sincere conversation with secular modernity by engaging leaders of other religions, meeting with different Christian churches, visiting small countries, and dialoguing with heads of state. This work is therefore an excellent tool to understand this papacy and the role of Catholicism in the contemporary world.
Scott J. Shackelford, Inside the Drive for Cyber Peace: Unpacking Implications for Practitioners and Policymakers, 21 U.C. Davis Bus. L.J. 285 (2021)
Too often, the international community is focused on responding to the latest cyber attack, disinformation campaign, or escalation. From ransomware afflicting the City of Baltimore, to state-sponsored campaigns targeting electrical grids in Ukraine and the United States, we seem to have relatively little bandwidth left over for asking the big questions, including: what is the best we can hope for in terms of “peace” on the Internet, and how might we be able to get there? More broadly, what are the long-term implications for such pervasive cyber insecurity across the public and private sectors, and how might they be curtailed? This Article dives into the history and evolution of cyber peace, including an analysis of lessons from analogous contexts such as U.N. peacekeeping efforts and the Digital Blue Helmets Initiative. These findings are then contextualized by reviewing recent efforts aimed at promoting cyber peace, including the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, the Christ Church Call, U.N.-centered norm building efforts such as through the Group of Government Experts, Global Commission on Cyber Stability, and the Digital Geneva Convention. These efforts are conceptualized within a polycentric framework, emphasizing practical implications for practitioners and policymakers.
Ryan Snyder, Trading Nonenforcement, 39 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 777 (2023)
In recent years, federal agencies have increasingly used nonenforcement as a bargaining chip promising not to enforce a legal requirement in exchange for a regulated party's promise to do something else that the law doesn't require. This Article takes an in-depth look at how these nonenforcement trades work, why agencies and regulated parties make them, and the effects they have on social policy. The Article argues that these trades pose serious risks: Agencies often use trading to evade procedural and substantive limits on their power. The trades themselves present fairness problems, both because they tend to reward large, well-connected firms and because they often coerce regulated parties that lack bargaining power. Moreover, the agency's nonenforcement promises aren't binding thus, even if a regulated party upholds its end of the bargain, the agency can always renege on the deal. The Article concludes by identifying several possible solutions that might discourage agencies from trading nonenforcement.
