Law Commons^™

Ai And The Legal Puzzle: Filling Gaps, But Missing Pieces, Joseph Anderson

Mercer Law Review

One of the foremost concerns arising from artificial intelligence’s penetration into the legal realm revolves around accountability and transparency. Traditional legal processes entail a human-driven decision-making paradigm, with judges, lawyers, and legal professionals accountable for their judgments and actions. However, as artificial intelligence systems grow more complex, they often operate as ‘black boxes,’ making it challenging to decipher the rationale behind their decisions. This opacity raises questions about how to attribute legal liability when AI-powered systems make errors or biased judgments. Striking a balance between the efficiency of artificial intelligence and the transparency required in legal proceedings is a pressing …

The Invisibility Of The American Emigrant, Laura Snyder

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

"I Can't Breath": A Comparison Of Racial Inequity And Police Brutality Observed In France And The United States, Jasmine Oesterling

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Disentangling War From Masculinity: A Framework For Combatting Sexual Violence In Conflict, Taren E. Wellman, Amanda F. Metcalfe, Madisen R. Campbell

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Clearing The Bar: Catharine Waugh Mcculloch And Illinois Legal Reform, Sandra L. Ryder

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Letter To Our Readers, Mecca Wilkinson, Elle Topacio, Jay Kasperbauer, Miranda Bolin, Sabrina O'Connor, Shaundranique Perkins

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Mecca Wilkinson

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Machine Speech: Towards A Unified Doctrine Of Attribution And Control, Brian Sites

University of Miami Law Review

Like many courts across the country in 2023, courts in the Eleventh Circuit were met with novel claims challenging ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools. These cases raise common questions: How should courts treat the speech of machines? When a machine generates allegedly defamatory material, who is the speaker—mortal or machine? When a machine generates expressive creations, who is the artist, and does that shape copyright eligibility? When a machine makes assertions about reality through lab analyses and other forensic reports, who is the accuser, and how does the answer impact a defendant’s rights at trial? Should those answers stem …

Gatekeeping & Class Certification: The Eleventh Circuit’S Stringent Approach To Admitting Expert Evidence In Support Of Class Certification, Pravin Patel, Mark Pinkert, Patrick Lyons

University of Miami Law Review

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 is silent on whether evidence offered in support of a motion for class certification must be admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Supreme Court has not addressed this issue, and there is currently no authoritative framework for incorporating all or some of the federal evidentiary rules into the class certification process. Resultantly, circuit courts are split on this question and have coalesced among several different approaches. The Eleventh Circuit follows a rigorous evidentiary standard in which evidence offered in support of class certification generally must be admissible under the Federal Rules of …

Choice Of Law Issues In Eleventh Circuit Insurance Cases Arising From Lex Loci Contractus, Tom Schulte, Andrea Defield, Jorge Aviles

University of Miami Law Review

A growing number of cases have emerged from the Eleventh Circuit struggling with the application of lex loci contractus to choice-of-law issues in the insurance context. And while the federal courts continue to struggle, the state courts in the Eleventh Circuit have not yet offered definitive guidance on when to apply lex loci contractus, and when to depart from it. In light of this choice-of-law issue, which can be and often is outcome determinative, this Article offers practical guidance on how policyholders can avoid application of an unfavorable state’s law to their insurance dispute, both before and after litigation …

Secrecy On Steroids: How Overzealous State Confidentiality Laws Expose Leakers And Whistleblowers To Retaliatory Prosecution, Frank D. Lomonte, Anne Marie Tamburro

University of Miami Law Review

It is well-documented that the federal government has a secrecy problem. Thousands of times a year, inconsequential documents are needlessly stamped “classified,” which can mean prison for anyone who leaks them. But the addiction to secrecy doesn’t stop with the Pentagon. State public-records statutes are riddled with their own local version of “classified information” that puts people at risk of prosecution even for well-intentioned whistleblowing.

The problem is particularly acute in Florida, where one of the state’s highest-ranking elected officials spent almost two years as the target of a criminal investigation for releasing records about an unresolved sexual harassment complaint …

Obtaining Trademark Registration For Marks Containing Political Commentary: A Look Into Vidal V. Elster, Annick Runyon

University of Miami Law Review

For decades, courts have struggled with balancing trademark law with the First Amendment—specifically with cases challenging the denial of trademark registration of certain marks. Congress codified trademark registration through the Lanham Act, also known as the Trademark Act of 1946. This statute outlines the registration process and expands the rights of trademark owners. In recent years, a string of cases have ruled certain provisions of the Lanham Act that bar certain marks from registration unconstitutional.

Currently under review by the Supreme Court, the case Vidal v. Elster involves an applicant who was denied trademark registration for his mark “Trump Too …

Addressing Mental Health In Young Adults: A Modern Approach Compared To Previous Generations, Breeha A. Shah

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

The escalating prevalence of mental health issues among today's young adults underscores the vital importance of addressing mental health in the pursuit of public health objectives. In response to this, The House Education and Labor Committee issued a report on the Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2020 (the Act), to amend the Public Health Service Act relating to school children. This revision seeks to bolster the support for students and young people by ensuring their access to comprehensive mental health programs within the school environment. The Act recognizes that safeguarding mental health is an immediate concern for public …

Bad Therapy: Conceptualizing The Teaching Of “Thinking Like A Lawyer” As Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Chelsea Baldwin

St. Mary's Law Journal

Law students and lawyers experience mental illness and substance abuse at higher rates than the general population and other learned professions. This is bad for an individual’s wellbeing as well as their clients and society because mental illness and substance abuse increases stress which in turn decreases effective decision-making and judgment, and in worst case scenarios leads to attrition as individuals choose death by suicide which has cascading social and economic impacts. This Article identifies practices in legal education that likely combine in a causal mechanism, although not a sole cause, to the higher rates of mental illness and substance …

Rawls, Game Theory, And The Multiple Meanings Of Equality, David Crump

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

To Essa And Beyond: Arc Of Education Policy Bends Toward Local Authorities & Holistic Approaches, Adam Tanielian

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article presents a mixed-methods, interdisciplinary study on educational policy and practice to offer solutions to fossilized problems extant across the United States’ elementary and secondary schools. Analysis of historic Supreme Court decisions and statutes unveil compelling trends that have shaped the legal landscape over the latter half of the twentieth century. Linguistic comparisons of two milestone revisions of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act—No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)—show Congress granted more flexibility and authority to local districts and states under ESSA, which reflected trends in Supreme Court opinions over several decades.

A …

Rethinking Culpability And Wrongdoing (In The Criminal Law—And Everyday Life), T. Markus Funk

University of Cincinnati Law Review

Determining an offender’s “culpability” is fundamental to justice systems worldwide. However, this crucial concept, built on a blending of moral responsibility with legal guilt, remains significantly diluted, including in the U.S. Model Penal Code, for instance, uses an offender’s moral culpability merely to “grade” offenses and determine sentences. This approach, which is mirrored in U.S. state and federal laws and academic discourse, not only affects individual cases but also has far-reaching societal implications.

Under this prevailing perpetrator-centric approach, “harm” narrowly refers to the concrete damage (or the “injury”), such as physical pain and damage or loss of property, the perpetrator …

Esg, Sustainability Disclosure, And Institutional Investor Stewardship, Giovanni Strampelli

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Article sheds new light on the link between sustainability disclosure and institutional investors’ stewardship activities aimed at promoting improvements in the ESG performance of investee companies. On the one hand, sustainability disclosure is one of the information elements that may be relevant to institutional investors’ stewardship activities. On the other hand, improving the quality of sustainability reports provided by investee companies is often the ultimate goal of investor engagement initiatives. The role of climate and social disclosure is problematic from both perspectives. First, institutional investors, especially those with broadly diversified portfolios, are unable to use sustainability information directly and …

The Legality Of Liberation: Exploring The Right To Organized Armed Resistance Against The U.S. State By Afro-Descendants Under International Human Rights Law, Laura Molik

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Caroline Faye Radell, Udhanth Mallasani

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Emotion Regulation Strategies And Perceived Emotional Intelligence: The Effect Of Age., Iwanna Sepiadou

Adultspan Journal

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. We also investigated the possible effects of age on the aforementioned variables. The total sample consisted of 379 people (158 men, 220 women, 1 unreported). Across participants, 273 were young (20-39 years old) and 106 were middle-aged (40-65 years old). We found statistically significant positive correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and negative primarily correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of …

Section 898: Targeting The Companies Behind Gun Violence In New York With Public Nuisance Doctrine, Mara Kravitz

William & Mary Law Review

On July 6, 2021, the New York State Legislature enacted sections 898-a to -e of the New York General Business Law (section 898), creating a clear path for public entities and private gun violence victims to sue gun industry members for their role in the gun violence public nuisance in New York. This Note explores why the legislature took a public nuisance approach to curbing gun violence, framing section 898 within public nuisance doctrine’s broader common law history and legal elements.

To unpack how and why New York took this approach, the first Part of this Note traces the history …

Interpretive Divergence In The New York Court Of Appeals, Ethan J. Leib

Journal of Legislation

This Article focuses attention on the New York Court of Appeals, which is decidedly formalist about contract interpretation but decidedly contextualist about statutory interpretation. It explores some recent exemplary cases to show where the New York Court of Appeals tends to land in what turns out to be, for this court at least, two different battlefields in the law of interpretation. Finding that there is “interpretive divergence” between statutory and contract cases, the Article then reflects on the practice of divergence more generally, revisiting assumptions about why anyone might have thought harmonization was sensible in the first place.

There Is No More New Frontier: Analyzing Wildfire Management Efforts In The United States, Morgan D. Gafford

Journal of Legislation

Congress needs to address the major wildfire problem by enacting more legislation that works alongside state governments and their own fire management goals. It is time for Congress to take wildfire suppression legislation more seriously and move it beyond the introductory phase. It is time for Congress and the other branches of the federal government to work together. It is time for everyone—but especially Congress—to fully comprehend the detrimental effects the most severe fires have on the environment, society, and the economy.

The History Of Bans On Types Of Arms Before 1900, David B. Kopel, Joseph G.S. Greenlee

Journal of Legislation

This Article describes the history of bans on particular types of arms in America, through 1899. It also describes arms bans in England until the time of American independence. Arms encompassed in this article include firearms, knives, swords, blunt weapons, and many others. While arms advanced considerably from medieval England through the nineteenth-century United States, bans on particular types of arms were rare.

The Mosaic Theory In Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence: The Last Bastion Of Privacy In A Camera-Surveilled World, Auggie Alvarado

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defiance, Lackland H. Bloom Jr

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Politics And Consequences Of State Secession, Olawale Olumodimu

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article argues that the non-express prohibition of state secession in the Nigerian Constitution does not automatically allow component states to break away unilaterally. It appears the framers of the Constitution wanted to ensure political continuity and national unity rather than allow for Nigeria’s disintegration. Beyond Nigeria, international law only allows unilateral secession in the context of decolonization and the people’s right to self-determination.

Nigeria has a responsibility to provide self-determination to its citizens; however, secession is not a legal channel to seek self-determination in the absence of targeted, widespread, or systemic criminal acts committed by or on behalf of …

Foiled Foia: The Excessive Exemption, Edward L. Wilkinson Jr.

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Freedom of Information Act permits requestors access to government information unless an exemption applies. Exemption (b)(3)(B) permits the government to protect information if there is a specific reference to a FOIA exemption in the withholding statute. Congress created this new requirement in 2009 in order to remove decision making power from administrative agencies and courts and reserve the power to disclose or withhold information with the legislative branch. This exemption poses problems to courts when there is a clear intent to protect information in the withholding statute without a clear reference to Exemption (b)(3)(B). As a result, courts have …

Considering Caretakers: An Explicit Argument For Downward Departures During Federal Sentencing Mitigation For Caretakers Of Children, Danielle Sparber Bukacheski

University of Miami Law Review

The sentencing stage of the federal legal system provides defendants with an opportunity to articulate why the sentencing judge is justified in imposing less severe sentences. Yet, under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, sentencing judges have been restricted in the characteristics and background information that can be utilized when imposing a downward departure from the recommended Guidelines sentence. More specifically, there is great variability regarding the extent to which family-related circumstances can be utilized as justification for a downward departure due to the Sentencing Commission’s ambiguous language. Considering the damaging effects of incarceration on children when a caretaker is physically removed …