MJIL Blog

By Emma Janicki The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020, a bill with bipartisan and bicameral support, was introduced in both houses of Congress in March to address problems with US trademark law. [1] Its goal is to combat the rise in fraudulent trademark applications, as well as provide new procedures to cancel fraudulent registrations, and…

By Sam Logterman The current coronavirus epidemic has affected businesses across the United States. As the economy remains shuttered for an increasingly extended period of time, the United States Congress will have to determine which industries to prop up and which ones to let succeed or fail on their own. One of the industries under…

By Jay Ettinger Imagine if in response to COVID-19 the U.S. government announced a new program in which large tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon shared personal data collected through their apps with various government agencies including local law enforcement. The government then used this data to track and collect information about your…

By Tucker Windels Last fall, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development secretariat released a statement outlining a proposal called the Unified Approach that would shift taxing rights to market countries using new nexus rules and a hybrid-transfer pricing system.[1] The new nexus rules aim to address the growing concern that international taxation in the…

By Cody Humpherys Quebec’s recently passed secularism law, Bill 21, prohibits a wide array of government employees from wearing religious symbols (such as hijabs, turbans, and kippahs) in the course of their work.[1] While there may be debate as to whether this legislative measure is allowable under Canadian constitutional law,[2] the passage of the bill…

By Gloria Park On March 11, 2019, a famous South Korean singer was revealed to have circulated illegal and explicit “molka” footage in a chatroom including other male celebrities.[1] This was the singer’s second known time being accused of committing the offense.[2] Eventually, he was sentenced.[3] This allegation was one cog of the broader Burning…

By Elysia Lampert British Airways, Marriott, Google. What do these entities have in common? Each organization has been fined under the GDPR[1], or General Data Protection Regulation. It has been nearly two years since the GDPR came into effect,[2] and though enforcement has been relatively gradual[3], the regulation has proved that it has teeth. A…

By Tim Will The U.S. dairy industry is going through many changes and facing many challenges. Domestic milk consumption per capita continues a decline that has now lasted decades, and alternative milk products are crowding supermarket shelves.[1] Additionally, as domestic demand has slowed, milk production has, and continues to, increase per cow as a result…

By Caleb Harrison As the climate deteriorates and people around the world increasingly need to migrate, the United States (“US”) seeks to develop and implement migration control technologies like migrant databases and facial recognition technologies (“FRTs”) that threaten free movement.[1] For example, the US has recently begun implementing its “Extreme Vetting Initiative” (“EVI”)—an effort to…

By Mike Franken In the past weeks, there have been numerous articles condemning President Trump’s securing of oil fields in southeastern Syria amidst the United States withdrawal from the conflict.[1] Further, there has been discussion on whether or not these acts are war crimes under the United States War Crimes Act and international law.[2] There…