UCLA Law Professor Xiyin Tang discusses the nexus between contemporary art on the one hand, and branding and trademark law on the other — a connection increasingly strengthened by the transformation of contemporary art into a kind of luxury good where the artist becomes the brand.
Trademark Law and the Contingent Art Object
Canvas, Issue 10
This month we highlight news of artistic freedom and the courts, the illicit antiques trade, trends in the art market, artificial intelligence in museums, and more.
Robbins Fellow Spotlight: Francesco D’Urso
The Robbins Collection welcomed Francesco D’Urso as a Research Fellow from September to November of 2023. D’Urso comes to the Robbins Collection from Italy, where he is a researcher at University of Ferrara and a lecturer teaching the History of Medieval and Modern Law. His work at the Robbins Collection centers on corporations and their […]
Robbins Fellow Spotlight: Anna Floris
Anna Floris joined the Robbins Collection as a Research Fellow from July through August of 2023. Her research topic, “Interpreting Local Law in the Middle Ages: The Case of the Carta de Logu,” originated as her PhD thesis that she completed at the Università degli Studi di Trento. The focus of Anna’s research, the Carta […]
Olson v. California: Let the Statute Speak for Itself
LAW & POLICY NOTE (March 2024)
Olson v. California—a case pending before the Ninth Circuit en banc in which plaintiffs Uber and Postmates have alleged that AB 5, California’s worker classification statute that codifies the ABC test, violates their equal protection rights—should be an easy case to resolve against plaintiffs under settled equal protection doctrine. But a panel of the Ninth Circuit found otherwise, in an astounding decision holding that the district court erred in dismissing plaintiffs’ equal protection claim. Plaintiffs’ claim essentially centers on one provision of the law, California Labor Code § 2777, known as the “referral agency exemption” from the ABC test. They object because they are carved out of this exemption and argue there is no rational basis for doing so. In this Note, we point out a key rationale for the distinctions drawn in the referral agency exemption that is clear on the face of the statute but has not received attention: the exemption’s carve-out, which excludes services provided in certain high hazard industries like the ones in which plaintiffs operate, is rationally related to one of AB 5’s stated purposes, namely, to protect workers when they are injured on the job from the harm of misclassification. This presents a straightforward path for the en banc Court to affirm dismissal of plaintiffs’ equal protection claim.
Delaware Juvenile Court Judge Cites PAC Work in Calling for End to Fees and Fines
Reason, 03/13/2024
Upcoming: 2024 Robbins Lecture in Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity
Our Golden Age: American Judaism, In Transition Join the Robbins Collection and Research Center and the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies on Wednesday, April 3 in Room 110 at the Berkeley Law Building for the 2024 Robbins Lecture in Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity. The event will begin at 6:00pm with […]
Robbins Visiting Professor: Hannah Buxbaum
The Robbins Collection and Berkeley Law welcomed Hannah Buxbaum as a Robbins Distinguished Visiting Professor in Spring 2024, where she taught an insightful course on Comparative Civil Litigation. “We focused on group litigation, and on the mechanisms (including the U.S.-style class action) that are used in different legal systems to achieve access to justice in […]
Robbins Visiting Professor: Lena Salaymeh
Former Robbins Postdoctoral and Associate Research Fellow Lena Salaymeh returned to UC Berkeley Law as a Robbins Visiting Professor for the Spring 2024 semester where she taught a popular course on Islamic Law. Speaking on her experience with the course, Salaymeh said “We began with introductory sessions on Islamic legal history and orthodox Islamic jurisprudence, […]
PAC Partners in Washington on Undoing the Injustice of Juvenile Fee and Fines
The Spokesman-Review, 03/02/2024