most recent articles

Criminal Law and Procedure

Criminal Law and Procedure

Read Full Article (PDF)   Criminal Law and Procedure   This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate...

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Taxation

Taxation

Read Full Article (PDF)   Taxation   This Article reviews significant recent developments in the laws affecting Virginia state and local taxation. Its Parts cover legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions and other pronouncements from the...

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Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Read Full Article (PDF)   Wills, Trusts, and Estates   Between legislative and judicial activity, there have been a number of noteworthy developments and changes to the rules governing trusts and estates. Several of these developments turn on questions related to...

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Banning Noncompetes in Virginia

Banning Noncompetes in Virginia

Read Full Article (PDF)   Banning Noncompetes in Virginia   The past decade has seen a nationwide wave of reform in noncompete law, specifically the limitation of noncompete agreements. Since 2016, ten states—including Virginia in 2020— banned the use of...

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Read Full Article (PDF)  Acknowledgements   Over the past year serving as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Richmond Law Review, I have read over 1,400 pages of legal scholarship. I have reviewed over 8,500 footnotes and even more sources. I have opened the...

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A Music Industry Circuit Split: The De Minimis Exception in Digital Sampling

A Music Industry Circuit Split: The De Minimis Exception in Digital Sampling

In Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, the Sixth Circuit cracked down on digital sampling when it ruled that any use of a copyrighted sound recording amounted to copyright infringement, no matter the size of the sample taken. In 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the de minimis defense—the rule that a small amount of copying is permitted—does, in fact, apply to sound recordings. This opinion stands in direct opposition to the Bridgeport holding, thereby creating a circuit split on the issue of de minimis use of digital sampling.

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Redefining the Badges of Slavery

Redefining the Badges of Slavery

Section 2 of the Thirteenth Amendment grants Congress the authority to eliminate the “badges and incidents” of slavery. There has emerged a renewed interest in Section 2, such that the literature now abounds with proposals for eliminating contemporary badges of slavery. Section 2 has been cited as grounds for addressing hate speech, the removal of Confederate monuments, racial profiling, sexual orientation discrimination, violence against women, limitations on the right to an abortion, sexual harassment, sweatshop labor, and more.

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Completing Expungement

Completing Expungement

Expungement—the process by which the official, public data of a criminal record is erased, sealed, or made private—remains an important tool in the battle against stigma and over-punishment after one formally leaves the criminal justice system.

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Replacing Tinker

Replacing Tinker

In allowing schools to punish student speech that school officials reasonably believe could be substantially disruptive, Tinker founds students’ free expression rights on unstable ground.

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