Digital Commons Network^™

Tax Talk And Taxing Sugar Babies, Blaine G. Saito

Minnesota Law Review Headnotes, Vols. 107 onward (2022-present)

No abstract provided.

The Great Writ Of Popular Sovereignty, William M.M. Kamin

Scholarly Articles

American habeas corpus, long conventionally known as the Great Writ of Liberty, is more properly understood as the Great Writ of Popular Sovereignty—a tool for We the People to insist that when our agents in government exercise our delegated penal powers, they remain faithful to our sovereign will. Once we grasp this conceptual shift, the implications for the law of habeas are profound.

In the past fifteen years, novel archival research has shown the Great Writ of Liberty’s founding myth to be ahistorical—that ideas about sovereignty, rather than individual liberty, drove the common-law writ’s development in the centuries of English …

The Human Dimension Of “Home”, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

All societies provide a legal framework that protects the pivotal functions of home and family. None provide a clear legal definition of “home”. Nor, this article argues, can they. “Home” is a concept rooted in the lived experience of human persons. In this article, the second in a series, the author employs the “human dimension” [HDIM] concept, initially developed by the U.S. military and later adopted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as the lens through which one can examine the “human element” of human rights. The framework for this analysis is the “four clusters of value-types” …

Charitable Giving And Civil Rights: A Defense Of Private Remedial Action, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

Private charitable organizations have long enjoyed the freedom to determine their mission and render appropriate charitable assistance, including by taking race, ethnicity, gender, and other traits into account when responding to the harmful effects of past discrimination, a practice this Feature terms “private remedial action.” The legality of this kind of trait-conscious assistance is strongly supported by the early American history of trait-based associations, federal tax law, and core values of free association. However, new legal and political attacks on affirmative action of all types have put charities on the defensive, leading many groups to change their programs and behavior …

Approaches To Advancing Human Rights, Carina Van Vliet, Avidan Cover, Sara Ghebremusse, Brian Gran

Canada-United States Law Journal

A panel discussion on approaches (or lack thereof) by the United States and Canada to advance human rights. Also, whether or not human rights produce wellbeing.

Climate Change And Human Rights, Jean-Francois Hould, Sonya Savage, Kristy Balsanek, Victor Flatt

Canada-United States Law Journal

A panel discussion on addressing climate change and human rights in Canada and the United States.

Peter Hay: An Academic Life In Full, Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne

Emory International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is It Possible To Draft A Universal Criminal Code?, Paul H. Robinson

American University International Law Review

The world contains hundreds of distinct communities with their own traditions and values. One might assume that, despite the best efforts of international organizations, it would be impossible to draft a criminal code that could operate effectively for all countries. Is that the case? If one tried to construct a universal criminal code, what sorts of challenges and limitations with the effort face?

The Blue Economy Comes To Green Creek, Ursula Ramsey

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

Oceans, touted as the “next great economic frontier,” are projected to contribute three trillion dollars to the global economy. Beyond their economic potential, oceans provide a host of environmental benefits: oceans supply over half of the planet’s oxygen and contain nearly all of the Earth’s water and biosphere. Especially because the high seas represent one of the few remaining global commons, oceans present a governance challenge. Meeting this challenge is the concept of the blue economy, a form of governance that combines environmental stewardship, economic development, and social equity. This article, in discussing Mulvihill v. South Carolina Department of Health …

Unraveling The Ties That Bind: How Dobbs And Loper Bright Might Reconfigure American Party Politics, Gregory A. Elinson

College of Law Faculty Publications

What happens to partisan politics when long-standing doctrinal equilibria are upended? In search of answers, this essay engages in an extended comparison of two recent landmark Supreme Court rulings: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overruled Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

It begins with the observation that opposition to abortion and judicial deference on the right, and support for abortion and judicial deference on the left, helped unite the major party coalitions, forging durable alliances among elected officials, organized interests, donors, activists, …

Beyond Agency Authority: Regulating Sulfur Hexafluoride Under An Enhanced Title Ii Framework Of The Clean Air Act, Matthew Gawley

Fordham Environmental Law Review

This paper explores the critical need for robust Congressional action to regulate sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential more than 20,000 times greater than carbon dioxide. Recent Supreme Court decisions––in West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo––to restrict EPA authority and end the Chevron doctrine have curtailed federal environmental agencies’ regulatory authority, shifting the responsibility for addressing major environmental challenges back to Congress. Despite being addressed under Title I of the Clean Air Act (CAA) through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), current SF6 regulations prove grossly inadequate. The utilities industry––the largest …

A Silence After Slaughter-House: Nineteenth-Century State Constitutional Substantive Rights, Liberties, And Privileges, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes

Faculty Publications

In rejecting federal constitutional challenges to the Louisiana legislature’s exclusive butchering grant in the Slaughter-House Cases, the United States Supreme Court opined that it was the states’ obligation to protect fundamental privileges, such as rights to acquire and possess property, engage in trade and commerce, and pursue happiness, subject only to those restraints necessary for the public good. But the states met this charge with silence. State courts across the nation consistently parroted Slaughter-House’s reasoning, even while occasionally acknowledging the decision did not bind their interpretation of state constitutional provisions guaranteeing fundamental rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities. Although two states …

The Political Question Of Public Lands, Ryan A. Semerad

Wyoming Law Review

The Property Clause of Article IV of the United States Constitution provides: “Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” Thus, among other things, the Constitution assigns the disposal of federally owned lands to Congress alone. That means the other branches of the federal government, including the courts, have no jurisdiction to exercise this power or to compel Congress to use it. Put another way, when Congress does not dispose of public lands through sale or transfer, that inaction is not subject to …

The Power To Tax, The Second Amendment, And The Search For Which "'Gangster' Weapons" To Tax, Stephen P. Halbrook

Wyoming Law Review

Congress does not have the power to ban firearms. The National Firearms Act (NFA) is based on the power of Congress to lay and collect taxes. In 1937, the Supreme Court upheld the NFA as purely a revenue measure. When it banned possession of machineguns in 1986, Congress undercut that constitutional basis. The Supreme Court has held that any ambiguities in the NFA must be read narrowly according to the rule of lenity. The 1934 House hearings barely mentioned the Second Amendment. A federal district judge upheld the NFA under the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual …

Denile On The Nile: Balancing Ethiopia's Equitable And Reasonable Utilization Of The Nile And Egypt's Desire To Maintain The Status Quo, Tyler Tipton

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

For nearly one hundred years, Egypt has maintained complete control and utilization of the Nile River under the 1929 Nile Agreement signed by Egypt and the United Kingdom. This agreement was amended in 1959, making Sudan a party but alienating the remaining Nile Basin States. Ethiopia has now posed the greatest challenge to the validity of these Agreements by constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This Note argues that the longstanding bilateral 1929 and 1959 Nile Agreements can no longer maintain their enforceability against the rest of the Nile Basin because they violate customary international water law and infringe on …

Abundance And Other Food Fixations, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Although most people in the United States no longer devote the majority of their time to food production, processing, and distribution, food remains a daily fixation. This Article explores three driving food fixations--abundance, thinness, and health--and situates each against an inverse fear--scarcity, fatness, and illness, respectively. Mapping these threats onto U.S. food policy, this Article examines, among other policy arenas, food waste policy, nutrition and health claim labeling law, and food additive regulations. Across food policy, these fixations feed what this Article calls the “politics of abundance.” This politics helps to insulate the food industry from deeper systemic reform aimed …

Criminalizing Ecocide: An Opportunity To Embed The Inseparability Of Humans From Nature Into The Law, Rebecca Hamilton

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Amid widespread acknowledgment that we live on a planet in peril, the term “ecocide” packs a powerful rhetorical punch. Extant regulatory approaches to environmental protection feel insufficient in the face of the triple threat of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. International criminal prosecution for ecocide, by contrast, promises to meet the moment, and a recent proposal to introduce ecocide into the canon of core international crimes is gaining traction. Assuming the push to criminalize ecocide continues to gain momentum, this Article argues that the primary (and perhaps, sole) benefit that international criminal law can offer in this context is …

A "One Health" Approach To Healthy Food, Katya S. Cronin

Brooklyn Law Review

Diet-related diseases are the number one killer of Americans. Nutrition and food healthfulness are increasingly seen as foundational to public health. As a result, the healthy foods industry is booming, the medical community is integrating nutrition into healthcare, and even insurance companies are subsidizing food prescriptions. The federal government invests heavily in nutrition, spending more than $166 billion a year on federal programs that provide healthy food to vulnerable populations. After the Biden Administration announced its agenda to “promote a healthy diet among Americans,” the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) sprang into …

“There Is No Fashion On A Dead Planet:”1 How A Mandatory Reporting Directive Shared By The Us And The Eu And Centered On Transparency Could Be The First Step To Increased Sustainability In The Fashion Industry, Adrienne Redman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The fashion industry hangs on self-expression and individualism, yet our methods of consumption and their resulting environmental impacts are far from an individualistic concern. This paper examines the global fashion industry’s substantial contribution to pollution, resource-depletion, and waste as evidence that the self-regulation model is insufficient to curb the environmental footprint of the industry. Self-regulation presumes that consumer awareness and the desire to purchase sustainably will be enough to limit the industry’s environmental impact. However, this presumption is undermined by a lack of standardized and enforceable regulations necessary for consumer-decision making. Instead, greenwashing and deceptive environmental claims have pervaded the …

Decentral Intelligence Agency: The Law And Autonomous Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Andrew W. Torrance , Ph. D., Dr. Bill Tomlinson , Ph.D.

Touro Law Review

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is rapidly gaining autonomy across a range of domains, such as business, education, social relationships, and warfare. This article examines the legal and policy implications of autonomous AI agents, a rapidly evolving technology that challenges existing regulatory frameworks. Drawing from tort, agency, property, contract, privacy, human rights, and constitutional law, we propose a comprehensive approach to govern these increasingly independent entities. Our analysis begins with a historical perspective, tracing both the evolution of autonomous computational systems and of legal responses to such technologies. We then conduct a comparative study of AI governance across jurisdictions, highlighting regulatory gaps …

Article Iii Standing For Cercla Private Cost Recovery Actions: How The Test's Strained Logic Belies Its Authority, Jonathan M. Palacios

Fordham Environmental Law Review

This Note examines how Article III standing doctrine applies to

private plaintiffs’ cost recovery actions under § 107(a)(4)(B) of the

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and

Liability Act. A review of judicial decisions reveals inconsistencies

in the analysis of injury in fact and traceability, and suggests that

current Article III standing doctrine is misaligned with its purported

objectives. In response, this Note proposes a structured framework

for assessing injury in fact and a refined approach to analyzing

traceability that distinguishes between different forms of causal

uncertainty. These doctrinal adjustments should better align case

outcomes with Article III standing doctrine’s constitutional and …

Cronyism In Creating Chronic Disease—A Path To Food Justice, Martha Leonard

St. Thomas Law Review

Central to this discussion is a quote often attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Today, physicians recognize the crucial role of diet in maintaining good health and preventing chronic disease, but U.S. laws fail to reflect this understanding. The health field has seen significant progress in scientific research on pathology; however, nutritional research presents a challenging and contradictory landscape. Corporate influence in scientific research leads to a lack of consensus on the most optimal diet for promoting general health, presenting a challenge for policymaking. The dark reality is that …

Intrinsic Human Equality: A Critical Overview Of Recent And Historical Theory, Robert Diab

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Causes And Impact Of Evictions In Southern Nevada, Mohit Pande

Student Research

As the Southern Nevada region continues to quickly grow, evictions have become a structural feature of the region’s rental market. The region has one of the highest eviction filing rates in the country and this trend has continued to increase in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper examines the availability of market-rate affordable housing and the expansion of subsidized affordable housing to understand how the local housing conditions contribute to the number of evictions in Southern Nevada. Additionally, the paper studies local legal processes, such as the summary eviction system and habitability procedures, to understand the relationship between …

Think Globally, Act Globally: A Review Of The Elgar Concise Encyclopedia Of Animal Law, Conley Wouters

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rahimi And The Future Of (The Rest Of) The Protection Order Prohibition, Bonnie Carlson

Articles

In the summer of 2024, the Supreme Court considered United States v. Rahimi. Scholars and lawyers watched with bated breath to see how the court would interpret and apply the foundation-shifting Second Amendment test it established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen two years earlier. Ultimately, the Court upheld the federal law which temporarily bans some protection order respondents from possessing firearms. But the Court provided little in the way of additional guidance that lower courts desperately needed as evidenced by the disparate outcomes on gun cases nationwide following Bruen. Rather, the Court opted for a …

Deference And Discretion In Bank Regulation, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron doctrine of judicial deference to administrative agencies’ interpretations of federal statutes, will impact future regulatory policy. The shape of that impact is less certain. Using bank regulation as a vantage point, this Article explores how the end of Chevron may influence legislative and regulatory outcomes. Through case studies, the Article contextualizes the impact of Chevron within the bank regulatory regime’s complex ecosystem of technical expertise, political influence, and industry capture. The dismantling of New Deal restrictions on banks’ activities illustrates how Chevron may have …

One Year Of The Clean Vehicle Provisions: International Law And Trade, Yongei Jeong

Emory International Law Review

No abstract provided.

A More Luminous Beacon, William M.M. Kamin

Scholarly Articles

Over the Supreme Court’s past four Terms, federal post conviction habeas corpus has been placed on the chopping-block. Its fate hangs in the balance of an historical debate over the maxim, oft recited by the Court between 1830–1953, that post conviction habeas reaches only “jurisdictional defects” — as opposed to “mere error” — on the part of the convicting court. Justices Gorsuch and Thomas maintain that “jurisdiction” carried then the same narrow meaning it does now: power ab initio over the offense charged and the defendant’s person. Justices Kagan and Jackson contend that, in this context, “jurisdictional defect” was understood …

Insects, Ai Systems, And The Future Of Legal Personhood, Jeff Sebo

Animal Law Review

This Article makes a case for insect and AI legal personhood. Humans share the world not only with large animals like chimpanzees and elephants but also with small animals like ants and bees. In the future, we might also share the world with sentient or otherwise morally significant AI systems. These realities raise questions about what kind of legal status insects, AI systems, and other nonhumans should have in the future. At present, debates about legal personhood mostly exclude these kinds of individuals. However, I argue that our current framework for assessing legal personhood, coupled with our current framework for …