David Levine advances research on transparency and intellectual property law

Elon Law Professor David S. Levine recently presented at a conference on transparency in Paris and a conference on drones at NYU School of Law. He also continued his advocacy for transparency in fracking, wrote about NSA spying and net neutrality, and published insights about effective teaching and mentoring in legal education. 

On October 26, Levine presented at The Third Global Conference on Transparency Research. The conference was hosted by HEC Paris, in France. Levine presented a work in progress that develops transparency theory in the context of federal policy formation and public input.

On October 12, Levine presented at the Drones & Aerial Robotics Conference hosted by NYU School of Law’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. Levine’s presentation was part of an Innovation Law and Policy Roundtable.   

On October 14, Levine coauthored a letter to the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), signed by 13 law professors, endorsing efforts by regulators to secure access to potential trade secret information regarding the chemical composition of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids. The letter states, “we remain concerned that the fracking industry has opposed the reasonable efforts of regulators throughout the country to have access to information about the exact chemical composition of fracking fluids. Such access should not only be uncontroversial, as trade secret information is shared with regulators at all levels of government and in a range of industries, but should be standard operating procedure for any regulatory entity charged with stewarding our nation’s natural resources.” The letter follows up on an April 1, 2013 letter to AOGCC coauthored by Levine on the same topic.

In September, Levine authored, “NSA Leaks Bring the Whole Idea of ‘Net Neutrality’ Into Question,” in Slate. This is Levine’s fourth article for Slate. In the article, Levine writes, “While it remains too early to draw any fixed conclusions about the nature and extent of NSA spying, particularly its technological meaning and implications, if the NSA spying revelations have so far meant anything, they mean that Internet consumers are likely not receiving the content neutrally and haven’t been for a while. Even a narrow definition of neutrality would be violated by a detour through and/or to the NSA.”

In July, a research publication of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University highlighted the impacts of Levine’s collaborative efforts to critique federal legislation involving intellectual property law. Discussing national efforts to prevent passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act, the Berkman Center publication states, “mass mobilization to protect the health of the Internet occurred alongside ongoing expert critique of the law, demonstrated here with the attention drawn to the Stanford Law Review article entitled ‘Don’t Break the Internet,’ authored by law professors Mark Lemley, David Levine, and David Post. This publication also offers an example of the diverse range of voices that sustained the conversation as those that linked to or reprinted this piece span tech media (TechCrunch), the right-wing blogosphere (Instapundit), and the gaming community (Kotaku).”

In addition, Levine’s article, “What can we do on Monday to improve our teaching?” was recently published in the Chapman Law Review. The article examines the benefits of student blogs as part of law school courses, and the value of professional mentoring relationships between faculty and students.

Finally, Levine’s Hearsay Culture radio show and podcast was recently cited as one of the top six “tech-ish podcasts” by Radio Berkman, an entity of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

More information about Elon Law Professor David Levine is available here.