Podcast: The Low of the Land

In the Spring of 2019, the CULR Online Team took on a new podcast initiative, “Low of the Land”, to better engage and converse with leading faculty and legal experts both on and off campus. Our podcasts aim to discover and contribute to the discourse surrounding complex legal issues. Tune in, share, and subscribe to listen to staff contributors Pagona Paige Kytzidis, Mark Gyourko, Daniela Apodaca, Tiffany Jing, and Jake Gray explore contemporary issues ranging from the future of death row prosecutions to the legal personhood of immigrants to the evolution of the seemingly capricious Supreme Court. More episodes to come in the fall!

Ep. 01: Immigration and Personhood
by Pagona Kytzidis

In this episode of "Low of the Land," Pagona Kytzidis wields a definitional and legal analysis of immigrant personhood to explore which rights, exactly, are lost at America's peripheries. Tune in for Pagona's insights on the modern police state, which is using Supreme Court precedent to assert the 'power of the border' over migrant persons themselves.

Ep. 02: Dissecting the Death Penalty
by Jake Gray and Tiffany Jing

In this episode of "Low of the Land," Jake Gray and Tiffany Jing analyze the justifications and impacts of the death penalty, assessing rationales such as retributivism, deterrence theory, and consequentialist readings of the law. The CULR podcasters are joined by Robert Dunham, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, who addresses the arguments of death penalty advocates before evaluating the ways that the most harmful cases make their way up to the highest Court today. Tune in to hear more about the rates of wrongful convictions, Scalia counterfactuals, and more.

Ep. 03: Considering the Court
by Daniella Apodaca and Mark Gyourko

In this episode of "Low of the Land," Daniella Apodaca and Mark Gyourko trace the guiding legal history and theory of the Supreme Court from the latter half of the 20th century to the present. The CULR podcasters are joined by Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, and Professor Michael Shumsky, a Columbia Law Lecturer and active Supreme Court litigator at Kirkland & Ellis. Daniella and Mark assess the role of originalism, textualism, and judicial activism in Court history, questioning whether the institution can neatly fit into either a conservative or liberal tradition. Tune in to learn more about Court's recent historical transformations, aberrations, and lessons, concluding with a consideration of how the Roberts Court deals with Trumpism today.

Know Your Rights: How To Avoid The Copyright Cost of Being a Black Creator (Part 1)

by Madison Brianna Garrett and Saiya Palmer

In this inaugural episode of the "Low of the Land" Know Your Rights edition, Madison Brianna Garrett interviews Jasmine Johnson Parker, an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law teaching Entertainment and Social Media Law, concerning the modern implications of intellectual property law for Black creators on social media platforms. Tune in to the first part of this two-part series to learn more about the extent to which intellectual property law has been shaped by the power of social media content creation as well as to hear Professor Parker’s advice on how Black creators can best protect their online content.

Copyright vs. Creativity: The Musician’s Unsung Battle

by Ashley Pelham, Julie Song, and Inna Yuan

In this episode of "Low of the Land," Ashley Pelham and Julie Song interview Professor Audrey Amsellem, a core lecturer for the Music Humanities department at Columbia University who teaches the specialized course: “Music, Sound, and the Law,” concerning the tensions inherent in the intersection between music copyright, contract, and intellectual property law and the creative freedoms of music artists. Tune in to this episode to learn more about how these areas of the law influence relations between artists and their record labels as well as artists’ sounds, the complexities of music royalties, cases of purported copyright infringement, and music plagiarism litigation.

Indigenous Irrigation: Implications of Arizona v. Navajo Nation for Tribal Water Rights

by Samantha Bateman and Russell Behr 

In this podcast episode, Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Podcast Contributor, Samantha Bateman, explores the recent Supreme Court decision, Arizona v. Navajo Nation, which has major implications for tribal water rights in the American Southwest. Bateman first speaks with Ezra Rosser, professor of law at the American University Washington College of Law, about the fundamentals of water rights in the Southwest. She then explores the arguments presented by each side in the case with Rhett Larson, the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. She ends by discussing the Supreme Court's decision in the case and its implications for the future of indigenous water rights with Camille Pannu, associate clinical professor of law at Columbia Law School.

Sonic Ownership: Copyright in the Era of AI-Generated Music

by Ashley Pelham and Lena Haber 

In this episode of Low of the Land, Ashley Pelham, along with her guest Attorney Cassandra Spangler, dive into the legal implications concerning the rise of artificial intelligence in the music industry. With musicians collaborating with Al and Al producing voice clones of real artists, there are few elements of the music world that Al has not touched. But what does this new frontier mean for the world of copyright, and is the law adequately prepared to adapt to these new technological changes? Tune in to hear more Al, the music industry, and the legal intersection between the two.

Unpacking New York City's Right to Shelter: Past, Present, and Future

by Samantha Bateman and Fatima Khanh

In this episode of Low of the Land, Samantha Bateman explores the origins, evolution, and current state of NYC's right to shelter, a unique legal protection derived from the New York State Constitution. The episode analyzes the recent settlement between the Legal Aid Society and the Adams administration, which restricts recent immigrants' right to seek shelter. Bateman interviews Professor Andrew Scherer, Professor of Law at New York Law School, Dr. Kim Hopper, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and Deborah Berkman, Supervising Attorney at New York York Legal Assistance Group. Tune in to hear a wide variety of perspectives, ranging from legal theory to public health, on how recent legal shifts will impact NYC's shelter system.

Taming the Titans: The Importance of Antitrust Law in Entertainment

by Ashley Pelham and Samantha Bateman

In this episode of Low of the Land, Ashley Pelham interviews Liam Boylan, an associate on the antitrust team at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, concerning antitrust law in the entertainment industry. They explore the legislative history of antitrust law, the role of government agencies in enforcing this law, and several landmark cases. Tune in to learn more about how regulatory agencies may respond to evolving technological advances and new players like Meta changing the landscape of the entertainment industry.