The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, a forum for incisive commentary and analysis
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
By Catherine Tang
Catherine Tang is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Health and Societies with a concentration in Health Policy & Law. In December 2023, JoAnne Barrows and Susan Hagwood filed a class action lawsuit in Kentucky against Humana. The plaintiffs alleged that the health insurer had used an AI model called nHPredict to wrongfully deny medically necessary Medicare Advantage claims to elderly and disabled patients despite knowing that approximately 90% of the tools’ denials on coverage were faulty [1]. This marks one of the first formal lawsuits brought against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) specifically in the healthcare industry, yet the groundwork for AI medical applications had been laid as early as the 1950s [2]. However, nearly eight decades later, the United States still lacks a well-defined regulatory structure for AI use in medicine.
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By Tyler Ringhofer
Tyler is a freshman in the College from Orange County, CA studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. Tyler's interests include the relationship between business, law, and sports. "The future is cryptocurrency”— or is it? In November 2022, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange firms in the world, FTX Trading Ltd., went bankrupt. FTX is a cryptocurrency trading company that buys and sells crypto derivatives. This scandal, which became notorious in the digital currency world, increased public distrust in the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.[1] Thus, the ramifications of this event elicit several legal implications on the part of FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried including indictments on fraud and related crimes. Aaron Tsui is a sophomore studying computer engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science interested in technology law and intellectual property.
As the group of multinational tech companies, collectively known as “big tech,” continue to dominate the technology industry and landscape, the judicial system has seen proportionate surges in antitrust cases. Big tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook/Meta, and Amazon have all faced the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in regards to unfair competition or antitrust, with many of these cases still ongoing. By Pratama Tambunan
Pratama is an exchange student through the IGSP Program interested in international disputes and environmental law. On July 3, 2023, the High Court of England and Wales took an unfamiliar step in applying the well-known public policy exception. [1] This exception, enshrined in Section 103 of the Arbitration Act 1996, aligns itself with the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“NY Convention”) and is rarely applied by English Courts. It essentially provides a mechanism to refuse the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award on the grounds that it conflicts with certain rules of public policy. However, what was fascinating in this case was the manner in which the Court came into their opinion. Uniquely, when deciding the case, the court rejected the enforcement of a US arbitration award against a UK consumer by citing a violation of crucial provisions within the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA”) and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”) as the basis of public policy. Image Source: https://libreshot.com/cctv-camera-on-modern-building/ By Alexandra Kerrigan
Aly Kerrigan is a second-year student at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences majoring in urban studies. Amid escalating concerns regarding racial justice in recent years, police system reform has emerged as one of the most salient topics in politics. Several competing visions for the future of policing have emerged within the United States—with some cities adopting an abolition approach, others opting to defund their police systems, and many maintaining or increasing their police presence. American politicians can glean valuable insights by examining the routes taken by foreign cities that have similarly been urged to reform their police systems. In response to a 2013 terrorist attack, Hyderabad, India, is one of such cities rethinking its policing efforts. Within the last decade, Hyderabad has transformed its police system into a technologically advanced surveillance network, yielding mixed reviews from the public. By Catherine Tang
Catherine Tang is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Health and Societies with a concentration in Health Policy & Law. Despite its first human diagnosis in the 1930s, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) continues to remain a global health crisis nearly a century later. In the U.S. alone, there were 32,100 estimated new HIV infections in 2021 with an infection rate of 11.5 (per 100,000 people) [1]. Fortunately, due to modern scientific advances, it is possible to prevent infection. Treatments like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by 99% [2]. Image Source: Salarnu, Ben Franklin, Founder of U Penn, April 23, 2011, Flickr. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.flickr.com/photos/solarnu/5645779989. By Samantha Graines
Samantha Graines is a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. On Penn’s campus and other universities across the nation, students have been taking to marching, rallying, and protesting as a form of activism over the past few months in light of the Hamas-Israel war. These nationwide protests have spurred heated conversations about freedom of speech, hate speech, and their implications to resurface. In light of the rise of public hate speech, it has become evident that government officials and university administrators need to clearly establish the distinction between hate speech and freedom of speech, while simultaneously condemning hate speech and the violence it can incite. “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” By Michael Merolla
Michael Merolla is a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences studying Political Science. Locus standi, commonly known as legal standing, is the right of a person or group to be heard in court. [1] The concept of “standing” is relatively simple in theory. In order to bring a lawsuit in a court, a party must meet four conditions: interest, injury, causation, and redressability. First, a plaintiff must have a legally recognizable interest in the case. Second, the plaintiff must have suffered an injury or infringement upon their person or rights. Third, the alleged injury must have been caused by the named defendant. Last, a favorable court decision must be able to redress, or alleviate, the injury. However, the concept of legal standing becomes convoluted in the context of environmental law. In America, the environment lacks the right to stand as its own entity. As the global climate crisis worsens, the legal world may be the last resort to deliver the decisive action needed and neglected by political and economic forces for much too long. [2] The question must be asked: Who will speak for the trees in the court of law? By Paula Vekker
Paula Vekker is a Sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics. The conflict of opinion between pro-life and pro-choice groups is unwavering and has only been exacerbated after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. On October 12, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request by anti-abortion activists to have more than $2 million in damages they were ordered to pay Planned Parenthood dismissed. By Catherine Tang
Catherine Tang is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Health and Societies with a concentration in Health Policy & Law. In 2008, a black man from Louisiana was charged with a felony for intentionally exposing his partner to AIDS despite not having it. Instead, the man was diagnosed with HIV and has been receiving consistent medical care since. [1] In 2010, an HIV-positive protester in Maryland was given five years in prison for second-degree assault because he spit on a police officer. [2] From 2008 to 2013, at least 180 people living with HIV (PLHIV) have been arrested or charged under HIV criminalization laws. [3] |
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