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.
 Sophie Lovering is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and minoring in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies.
On Thursday, March 24, the Senate concluded four days of hearings regarding Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination for the Supreme Court of the United States [1]. Nominated by President Biden, Jackson shares many characteristics of the justices that have come before her: attended an Ivy league law school, served as Supreme Court clerk, and worked as a federal appeals judge [1]. Despite her similarities to past justices, should Jackson fill the present Supreme Court vacancy, she would make history as the first public defender and the first Black woman to serve [2].
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 By Rachel Bina
Rachel Bina is a freshman in the Huntsman Program studying Business and International Studies with a focus on Russia. She is interested in global affairs, foreign languages, international law, as well as experimenting with international cuisines in her free time. As we have heard time and time again since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we are living in unprecedented times. These unprecedented times have resulted in unprecedented measures like various state and federal mandates, which have, in turn, led to new legal challenges and precedents. In the United States, the Biden administration’s push for vaccinations has led them to mandate vaccinations for federal workers. In addition to this, they announced on November 4, that January 4, 2022, will be the deadline for companies with 100 or more employees to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for their employees [1].  By Kanishka Bhukya
Kanishka Bhukya is a 2nd year B.A./LL.B student at the National Law School of India University Since Hugo Chavez’s election as Venezuela's president, the transatlantic coalition—comprising the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and the European Union (EU)—has pursued an aggressive campaign of subversion directed towards the Venezuelan government. The same tactic has been applied to Nicolas Maduro’s regime, in which the coalition has been explicit in their desire to replace the elected regime with one more accepting of the capitalist economic model. To that end, they have recognised self-proclaimed president Juan Guiadó as Venezuela's de jure president, rejecting the country's democratically-elected president, Maduro.  By Kanishka Bhukya
Kanishka Bhukya is a 2nd year B.A./LL.B student at the National Law School of India University. On October 13, 2020, eight countries (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Luxembourg) signed the Artemis Accords Principles for a Safe, Peaceful, and Prosperous Future. [1] Just after that, on November 13, 2020, Ukraine became the ninth signatory to this set of non-binding principles which actively seek to direct the behavior of countries participating in outer space exploration in the context of NASA's Artemis Program to place the first woman and the next man on the moon. [1]  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]  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. |
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