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Recent Print Edition:
Articles
Articles
Volume 111, Issue 4
Untangling Privacy and Competition
Kenneth A. Bamberger & Ella Corren
This Article argues that competition law, contrary to the hopes of policymakers and scholars that it offers a powerful tool to combat privacy harms, operates as an anti-privacy framework. Far from a means to address widespread surveillance by market-dominant platforms and other data- intensive firms that monetize the collection and analysis of personal information, competition law’s analysis systematically privileges corporate interests at the expense of consumer protection. . . .
The Empirical Double Standard: Opinion Surveys Across the Civil–Criminal Divide
Kay L. Levine & Bernard Chao
Across different legal domains, liability doctrines recognize the value of community input. But do courts truly listen to the community’s voice when deciding these sorts of cases? This study is the first to explore how courts treat community opinion survey evidence within both civil and criminal law. . . .
The Second Patent Bargain
Christopher J. Morten
The title of this Article—The Second Patent Bargain—references a maxim that many students are taught in introductory intellectual property and patent law classes. Issuance of a patent constitutes a “bargain with the public”: In exchange for time-limited exclusive rights in an invention, an inventor agrees to disclose the invention and teach the public how to make and use it. . . .
Statutory Backups for Endangered Constitutional Rights
Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl
This Article concerns the phenomenon of “statutory backup rights,” or statutes that provide protections parallel to constitutional rights that are believed to be at risk of judicial abrogation. Proposals for backup rights gained attention in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which not only eliminated the constitutional right to abortion but called into question some other constitutional rights as well. . . .
Against the Single-Subject Rule for the Citizen Initiative
Jonathan L. Marshfield
The citizen initiative allows voters to bypass state legislatures and propose laws for a statewide referendum. It exists in twenty-four states but has national significance because initiatives drive reform on contested issues. Recently, courts have begun to clamp down on the initiative. . . .
Joint Bank Accounts: Who Needs Them?
Reid K. Weisbord & Stewart E. Sterk
Joint bank accounts, once known as a “poor man’s will,” emerged more than a century ago as a probate avoidance device. This Article contends that joint accounts no longer serve a useful estate planning function, and they pose an unacceptably high risk to banking consumers because the legal framework governing lifetime ownership rights is deeply flawed and underdeveloped. . . .
Notes
Student Notes
Volume 111, Issue 4
Protein, Profits, and Public Policy
Sidney R. Aloisi
Why Intervention by Third-Party Litigation Funders Threatens the American Civil Justice System
Third-party litigation funding, often referred to as TPLF or litigation finance, is an arrangement where a third-party lender provides financial backing to a litigant pursuing a legal claim in exchange for a payout if the case is successful. The litigation finance industry has become increasingly popular as more claimants seek to avoid the high costs of litigation, yet, despite this growth, the United States has failed to implement any formal federal regulations on TPLF. . . .
Politics, Process, and the Petition for Bypass in the Wisconsin Supreme Court
Quinn J. Kennedy
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has entered a politically tumultuous landscape. The Court has recently flipped from a long-held conservative majority to a liberal one, causing many new developments throughout the Wisconsin court system. . . .
More than a Band-Aid on a Bullet Wound: The Need for Eviction Expungement in Iowa
Spencer N. Clark
The United States is in the midst of a worsening affordable housing crisis. Poverty levels and the average price of rent are on the rise across the nation, and specifically in Iowa, which is contributing to an increase in housing instability. . . .
Wood You Rather? The Case for an Invasive Species Pathways Approach and Preventive Firewood Legislation in Iowa
Ruth H. Olson
At a time when invasive species are spreading like never before and posing increasingly greater threats to trees, government at all levels is plagued by disconnection and inaction. Instead of uniting and putting maximum effort into preserving such vital resources, the federal government has largely left the states to act on their own. . . .
Recent Online Edition:
Recent Online Edition:
Essays & Responses
Volume 111
Where Does Iowa Nuisance Law Stand After Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLP?
N. William Hines
111 Iowa L. Rev. Online 102 (2026)
This Essay examines almost forty years of interaction between the Iowa General Assembly and the Iowa Supreme Court regarding the constitutional application of Iowa’s Freedom to Farm laws to large-scale agricultural activities conducted by concentrated animal feeding operations (“CAFOs”) sued for causing nuisance harms to their neighbors. Prior to Iowa’s enactment of its so-called “Freedom to Farm” laws, aggrieved neighbors of these CAFOs successfully sued them as private nuisances for failing to properly dispose of animal wastes produced by hogs or poultry raised in tightly confined indoor facilities. . . .
The Bulletin
Peremptory Challenges on Appeal: Not Worth the Trouble
Samuel R. Reynoldson
111 Iowa L. Rev. Online 62 (2026)
This Essay argues that Iowa should eliminate peremptory challenges in jury selection in almost every type of case. While there are several good arguments in favor of elimination, and a few in favor of preservation, this Essay adds a novel argument to the mix: that the difficulty of dealing with errors involving peremptory challenges on appeal is another good reason to eliminate them. This Essay examines three major approaches to the issue, specifically of how to treat, on appeal, a lower court’s erroneous failure to remove a veniremember for cause, when the same veniremember was removed by the exercise of one of the appellant’s peremptory challenges. . . .