Volume 46, Issue 3

When The Soul of Creativity was published nearly ten years ago, the role of human rights in Intellectual Property law was a relatively uncharted territory, and this is still essentially the case. It is also still the case that moral rights laws in the United States are relatively weak compared to the vast majority of…

In the early 1970s, the National Parks and Conservation Association (Association), an independent organization focused on advocacy related to the National Parks System, sought records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pertaining to concession operations run at National Parks around the United States. The Association had asked the Director of the National Park Service…

In Europe, important developments such as the entering into force of the Treaty of Lisbon—which placed the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union at the very top of the hierarchy of norms—and the direct applicability by national courts of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in private law disputes have been highly…

With roots in France, the minuet dance dominated the ballrooms of Louis XIV and spread throughout Europe and beyond. A social baroque dance, the minuet sees the two partners dancing separately in plain steps forward, backward, and sideways, while gradually and gracefully coming close to one another. Eventually, the pair come to hold hands, briefly…

When pharmaceutical companies create a new drug, they can usually receive a patent, which allows them to operate with patent exclusivity for the life of the patent. This exclusive period allows drug companies to recoup their massive research and development expenses and eventually become profitable. Without some amount of patent exclusivity, it becomes economically irrational…

In Warren v. Dinter, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that a physician who consulted with a nurse practitioner regarding the nurse practitioner’s patient had a duty to the patient. The court reasoned that this duty existed because it was foreseeable that the patient would rely on information provided to the nurse practitioner by the physician.…

In Olson v. One 1999 Lexus, the Minnesota Supreme Court faced the challenge of determining whether a Minnesota vehicle forfeiture statute violated due process in light of an eighteen-month delay between the seizure of a vehicle and the post-seizure hearing. Megan Olson, a repeat driving-while-impaired (DWI) offender and the daughter of Helen Olson, was driving…

How do we value ten hours of legal work performed by a discharged attorney who significantly contributes to a twenty-million-dollar settlement? In Faricy v. API Trust, the Minnesota Supreme Court provided eight factors that district courts should use to determine the quantum meruit value of services provided by an attorney under a contingent fee agreement…

In Heilman v. Courtney, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that a person convicted of a felony-level Driving While Intoxicated offense (felony DWI) is “released from prison” under Minnesota statute when he departs from prison to participate in Phase II of the Challenge Incarceration Program. The court made this determination based on the language in the…

Gill v. Gill should have been a standard case about classifying, valuing, and distributing marital property during a marriage dissolution. Instead, Gill developed into an authoritative case that usurped legislative authority and created new precedent. Creating new precedent was unnecessary because there was ample discretion provided in the governing statutes to obtain a just and…

In Cruz-Guzman v. State, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that separation of powers principles did not prevent the judiciary from ruling on whether the Minnesota Legislature violated its constitutionally mandated duty to ensure an equal education. The court reversed the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ decision, which held that the question of the legislature’s compliance regarding…