The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, a forum for incisive commentary and analysis
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
 Image Source: “The Importance of Intellectual Property (and How to Protect It).” Equinox Law Group, September 7, 2021. https://equinoxbusinesslaw.com/blog/the-importance-of-intellectual-property-and-how-to-protect-it/. By Rachel Gu
Rachel Gu is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Bioengineering. Generation Z’s most loved cinematic characters of the Marvel universe have recently become the main characters of one of The Walt Disney Company’s largest asset battles to date. Through distinguished Intellectual Property lawyer Marc Toberoff, five of the original Marvel Comics creators served Marvel Entertainment–owned by Disney–with notices of copyright termination under section 304(c) of the Copyright Act. These creators include comic illustrators Steve Ditko and Don Heck, heirs of writers Don Rico and Gene Colan, and comic writer and artist Lawrence D. Lieber–who is the younger brother of the deceased chief writer and editor of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee. Toberoff’s clients seek to reclaim copyright ownership through copyright termination for their characters Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Falcon, Blade, and the Wizard, all of which provide large sources of revenue for Disney through films, television shows, and merchandise. Consequently, Marvel filed lawsuits in return to invalidate the termination notices. If Toberoff is successful, Marvel would lose full copyright ownership as soon as June 2023. [1]
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 Image source: “Chinese Class-Flickr.” Wikimedia Commons, January 29, 2007. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Chinese_class_-_Flickr_-_%28cleverCl%40i®ê%29.jpg. By Oulai "Audrey" Pan Oulai "Audrey" Pan is a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences who plans to study political science and economics. For a nation that is notorious for academic competition, China’s announcement of its “Double Reduction” policies came as a surprise for many. In July of 2021, China announced resolutions imposing numerous restrictions on its test preparation industry, estimated to be worth over $100 billion, as well as the amount of schoolwork students can receive in a given week [1]. These new regulations were collectively dubbed the “Double Reduction.” More specifically, it entails the following:
 “Demonstration London Demo - Free Photo on Pixabay.” Accessed March 24, 2022. https://pixabay.com/photos/demonstration-london-demo-activist-4193109/. By Rachel Bina
Rachel Bina is a freshman in the Huntsman Program at the University of Pennsylvania studying Business and International Studies with a focus on Russia. The idea of environmental activism is commonplace in the present-day United States, however, this was not always the case. American environmental activism only truly began in the 1960s, when American citizens started using litigation to advance environmental goals. The 1965 case Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission is widely recognized as the beginning of environmental law. In this case, the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, a citizen group, sued the Federal Power Commision in an attempt to block a planned power plant on Storm King Mountain, New York [1]. The court’s decision supported the citizen group and the power plant was not built.  By Alana Bess Alana Bess is a freshman (C ‘25) in the College of Arts and Sciences from Los Angeles, California with an undecided major. As of May 28, 2021, an estimated 1 billion people use iPhones worldwide [1]. As that number continues to grow, it is impossible to ignore Apple’s overwhelming success and influence on today’s world. Once a new iPhone comes out, thousands of people flock to Apple stores across the globe, as well as their website, to order the most updated model. Today’s widespread trends of consumerism and overconsumption don’t draw the line at iDevices either. Apple’s yearly “September Event” performs as the widely anticipated release day of the brand’s newest iPhone and Apple Watch, contributing to the problem of pervasive, extreme obsession with technology. Apple has even been accused of planned obsolescence multiple times in order to sway their consumers to buy the newest phone, pen, watch, or anything else under the sun [2]. The Case of South-Asian American Citizenship: The Legacy of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind2/20/2022  Image source: https://www.bhagatsinghthind.com/photo-album/ By Vishwajeet Deshmukh
Vishwajeet Deshmukh is a final year law student at Government Law College, Mumbai, India. A history of racial discrimination in American naturalization law has excluded generations of immigrants from the rights of American citizenship. The Supreme Court case United States of America v. Bhagat Singh Thind is a primary example of how the American judicial system has used race to decide the citizenship of South Asian immigrants to the U.S. [1].  Abby Drey, Photograph of Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller and Jim and Evelyn Piazza, 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/03/penn-state-timothy-piazza-first-jail-terms-issued-hazing-death/3353467002/. By Lucy Jung
Lucy Jung is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Greek life is widely perceived as a staple of the American collegiate experience. In the United States, approximately 750,000 college students are sorority or fraternity members, with individual campus memberships ranging from less than five percent to more than 50 percent of a university’s student body [1]. Given the benefits of Greek life, it is not surprising that a great number of students would opt to join these organizations. Membership in a sorority or fraternity offers the opportunity to form close ties with like-minded people, expand one’s social network, and seize professional opportunities [2]. However, there exists a sadistic side to greek life that cannot be ignored: hazing.  By Jessica “Lulu” Lipman
Jessica "Lulu" Lipman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying English. “If you want to murder somebody, take them on a cruise because you are never gonna get caught,” Jamie Barnett exclaims. Her daughter, Ashley Barnett, died under suspicious circumstances on a Carnival Cruise in 2005. Ashley died from a methadone overdose, despite being vehemently against substance use. Her autopsy showed no signs of methadone use before the “overdose.” Ashley’s case is one of the thousands of crimes on cruise ships that have yet to be solved. This is due, in part, to the murky nature of maritime laws and the complexity of jurisdiction in international water [1]  By Rachel Bina
Rachel Bina is a freshman in the Huntsman Program at the University of Pennsylvania studying Business and International Studies with a focus on Russia. One of the United State’s most contentious issues is that of abortion. The most recent development in this decades-long debate is the legal battle over a new controversial Texas state law that limits access to abortions in Texas. The new law, titled Senate Bill 8 (S. B. 8) or the Texas Heartbeat Act, allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy [1]. There are no provisions for instances of incenst or rape, however, the law permits abortions for health reasons such as danger to the mother’s life [2]. Among those classified as individuals who “aid and abet” abortions are doctors, staff, or drivers who offer transport to patients to abortion clinics. Plaintiffs, provided they win the case, will receive $10,000 and their legal fees will be covered by the defendant [3]. Lawmakers wrote the law in such a way as to exclude state officials from enforcing the law and, instead, deputize private citizens to do so to avoid federal judicial review [4].  By Ally Margolis
Ally Margolis is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Political Science and History. In 1994, approximately 1 million people were killed in Rwanda over the course of 100 days. The socioeconomic differences between Rwanda’s inhabitants, Hutus and Tutsis, were later exacerbated to be seen as ethnic differences, a view egged on by colonial forces. While our narrative surrounding the events of the genocide focuses on Hutus that killed Tutsis, it is hard to know the exact breakdown of deaths because of lack of ethnic differences. However, neighbor killed neighbor, preacher killed congregant, and countryman killed countryman, often through the use of machetes. Throughout most of the genocide, the Western world looked on and did nothing, or actively made decisions that allowed the genocide to continue. While the international community should focus on its own failings during the Rwandan genocide, holding direct perpetrators accountable is the least they can do.  By Sneha Parthasarathy
Sneha is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Politics, Philosophy, & Economics and minoring in Healthcare Management, Biological Basis of Behavior, and Engineering Entrepreneurship.
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