Digital Commons Network^™

Ai Slop, Jessica Silbey, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

The term “AI slop” has become popular to describe the output of generative AI systems seen as voluminous, low quality, or the result of little effort. When AI-generated music and videos flood platforms, they are called slop. Peer-reviewed journals and legal tribunals are drowning in low-quality and low-reliability AI slop submissions.  Employees are seen to be producing mountains of slop in their reports and communications with each other. The term has inertia and heft, and the phenomenon has significant consequences. Most of them are not good.

But the boundaries of “AI slop” and its usefulness in policy discussions are not …

The Eu’S Copyright Legislation For Generative Ai: Relevant To Indonesia?, Yolanda Simbolon

Indonesia Law Review

Tremendously copyrighted works are used to train Generative AI (Gen-AI) at the epicenter of current sectors. In many countries, there is a dilemma as to whether the amount of data used may infringe copyright. The EU is the one that has regulations on the use of copyrighted works as text and data mining (TDM) to train GenAI.  Meanwhile, Indonesia does not yet have a regulation, even though Gen-AI has been massively developed in Indonesia. Data has been used freely to train Gen-AI, even to modify works and damage the author’s reputation. This article investigates whether the EU’s copyright of Gen-AI …

State Constitutionalism's Fragile Wall, Adam B. Sopko

Northwestern University Law Review

The adequate and independent state grounds (AISG) doctrine has long demarcated the perimeter of the U.S. Supreme Court’s authority to review state court decisions, limiting review to questions of federal law. AISG maintains the Court’s primacy over federal law and state courts’ supremacy over state law. A comprehensive review of all filings on the Court’s docket from state courts over the last twenty years reveals that recent applications of AISG consist of subtle but significant departures from existing norms that, together, suggest a reformulation of the Court’s power over state courts that threatens their sovereign law development role. This Essay …

State Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure Laws And The Dormant Commerce Clause: Leveraging The State Interest In Protecting Residents From Deception To Pass The Pike Balancing Test, Matthew Macphail

Northwestern University Law Review

Misleading corporate claims about greenhouse gas emissions pose a high risk of consumer deception, as there is currently no uniform federal standard governing how companies must measure or disclose those emissions. Without a national regulatory scheme, firms can selectively report, use inconsistent methodologies, or market vague “carbon neutral” claims, making it difficult for consumers to assess accuracy or compare companies’ representations.

In 2023, California introduced legislation requiring companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to bring transparency to this area. But such state-level mandates face a constitutional obstacle: the Dormant Commerce Clause, …

The New Economic Liberties, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Northwestern University Law Review

Despite the lack of serious interrogation at the federal constitutional level of economic regulations, there continues to be a fairly robust, energetic attention at the level of state constitutional law to so-called economic liberties. In a number of key cases, including, for example, matters involving occupational licensing, state courts have looked to unique features of their respective state constitutions to assess whether and to what extent regulations undertaken under the police power go too far. The rationales for evaluating and, in some cases, invalidating regulations under economic liberties principles are creative, and also controversial. The development of new interpretive approaches …

Court Reform And State Constitutions, Bryna Godar, Miriam Seifter

Northwestern University Law Review

State legislatures regularly propose and enact laws that seek to shape the substantive outcomes of state courts. These maneuvers, including court-packing, jurisdiction-stripping, and more creative changes to judicial selection or authority, would amount to legal earthquakes at the federal level. At the state level, these efforts often receive virtually no attention.

This Essay brings the potent category of outcome-shaping state court reform measures into focus and evaluates it as a question of state constitutional law. We argue that state constitutions, organized around principles of popular sovereignty, do not bar measures that align state courts with popular preferences or the public’s …

Cheap Talk, Deepfakes, Epistemic Injustice, False Light, And Free Speech, Cosim Sayid

Idaho Law Review

Defamation is a more or less effective tool in tort law to stop damage to one’s reputation, which can be grievous and even lead to a death of despair, but its scope is limited to content that’s literally false. Much reputational harm does not proceed via literally false content; it is a matter of images or what’s implied. Against this opponent an effective False Light tort is of much use when properly understood as a reputational—rather than privacy—tort. False Light can be wielded against conversational implicature as well as deepfakes. It fulfills our moral imperative to not succumb to cheap …

The Federal Rules Of Evidence And Adjudicating Truth To Power, Susan H. Bitensky

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intercountry Adoptions In South Africa And Uganda: Do Different Contracting Statuses Relative To The Hague Convention Matter?, Joseph Isanga

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Getting Money Out Of Politics By Putting Money Into Politics: A Few Modest Proposals To Reform Seattle’S Democracy Voucher Program, Decker O’Donnell

Seattle University Law Review

Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program offers an unconventional response to the growing influence of money in American elections: rather than restricting political spending, it seeks to amplify the participation of ordinary voters by providing publicly funded vouchers that residents may assign to participating candidates. This Article examines the program’s development, operation, and constitutional foundation within the modern campaign-finance framework established by Buckley v. Valeo and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. It argues that democracy vouchers provide a constitutionally viable means of broadening participation in campaign financing while mitigating the influence of wealthy donors. The Article identifies two weaknesses in the current system: …

Who Decides The Dead? Interpreting Washington’S Disposition Of Remains Statute, Wyatt Young

Seattle University Law Review

Washington’s disposition-of-remains statute, RCW 68.50.160, is designed to honor a decedent’s expressed wishes regarding the control and disposition of their body after death. Yet recent litigation reveals a critical gap between the statute’s intent-centered design and its practical enforceability. In Larotonda v. Blackburn, a trial court acknowledged that irreparable harm would occur if a decedent’s burial wishes were ignored but nonetheless denied relief on the grounds that the individual designated to carry out those wishes lacked standing. The result was a legal paradox: a statute that recognizes decedent autonomy in theory but withholds any meaningful mechanism for its enforcement …

Legal Malpractice In Washington: Use Of The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Angelo Tadrous

Seattle University Law Review

Legal malpractice claims are difficult to prove. They are difficult to prove because many jurisdictions require that a plaintiff prove that, but for the lawyer’s misconduct, the client would have fared better. Thus, in a malpractice suit, a plaintiff must try a case within a case. Despite this difficulty, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of the Rules of Professional Conduct when litigating a malpractice case. Washington State is one of these jurisdictions. The Washington Supreme Court held in Hizey v. Carpenter that the Rules of Professional Conduct may not be referred to during trial. This Note argues that this prohibition …

Converting Buildings Is Hard: Why Seattle’S Municipal Government Should Streamline Commercial-To-Residential Conversions, Tyler M. King

Seattle University Law Review

The conversion of commercial buildings into housing is a promising solution to the growing housing crisis in many urban areas. However, despite its potential benefits, the process of repurposing commercial spaces is often stymied by complex zoning codes, high conversion costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. This Article argues that the local and state governments in Seattle should adopt more streamlined policies and offer greater incentives to developers to facilitate these conversions. By reforming zoning regulations and providing targeted financial support, municipalities can reduce the barriers to conversion and unlock the potential of underutilized commercial properties. This article examines the legal and …

Normative Dualism And Parallel Institution-Building: The Case Of International Commercial Dispute Prevention And Settlement Organization (Icdpaso), Kun Fan, Xiaolei Han

International Law Journal

As China rises as a global power, it confronts an international legal order historically shaped by Western actors. In response, China has adopted a dual strategy: engaging with existing institutions while building “parallel institutions” to advance its influence. This paper examines the International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement Organization (ICDPASO) as a case study of this strategy and analyzes how China seeks to reshape international dispute resolution. Drawing on original empirical data—including 85 interviews with arbitrators, users, officials, and legal experts—this paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of ICDPASO’s strategic motivations, governance model, dispute resolution mechanisms, and user perceptions. We …

Review Essay: The Original Sin Of Humanity, John Sniegocki

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

What Do We Do At The End Of A World?: Cultivating Emergent Leadership In A Time Of Collapse, Brent Godfrey

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Practicing Pietas: Character Development For Lawyers As Citizens, Elisabeth Rain Kincaid

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Conviction, Character, Courage: The Case For Integrating Values Into The Professional Identity Formation Of Tomorrow's Lawyer-Leaders, Katya S. Cronin

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of The Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, And Future Of The American Legal Profession, Jennifer A. Gundlach

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Governing Conservation Beyond The Rules: Bureaucratic Discretion In Indonesia, Dedy Asriady, Muh. Ilham Nasir, Emban Ibnurusyd Mas'ud, Supratman Supratman, Syamsu Alam, Muhammad Alif K. Sahide

Hasanuddin Law Review

Conservation governance is frequently characterized as a rule-based system in which bureaucratic actors enforce standardized regulations to protect biodiversity. In practice, however, conservation policies are implemented within socially contested landscapes. Strict regulatory enforcement may generate conflict and undermine governance objectives. Although public administration research underscores the importance of bureaucratic discretion in policy implementation, limited attention has been paid to its influence on environmental governance in developing countries. This article investigates discretionary practices in Indonesian conservation area management using an ethnographic approach that incorporates interviews, field observations, and case studies across multiple sites. The findings demonstrate that discretion occupies a central, …

The Byu Advocate, J. Reuben Clark Law School

The BYU Advocate (& Annual Reports)

"Experiential learning opportunities in law school have expanded dramatically, but pressure remains for students to graduate ready to practice. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming education and legal practice, generating questions about how and what to teach and raising uncertainties about future employment. At the same time, big firms are interviewing students in their first semester and extending offers before or shortly after first-semester grades are out."

– David H. Moore

States Strip Local Governments Of Authority To Govern Causing Some Rural Communities To Suffer, Terence J. Centner

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The New Parens Patriae, Meredith Johnson Harbach

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Against First Amendment Traditionalism, Jacob M. Schriner-Briggs

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

On Being A Scholar And A Teacher In Polarized Times, Michael A. Simons

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

There’s an old expression, sometimes attributed to a Chinese curse, that says “May you live in interesting times.” That expression is very much in the air these days. One hundred years after the founding of our law school, it feels like we are in not just “interesting” but unprecedented times.

Perhaps every era feels unprecedented, but right now our country seems acutely polarized, our legal system seems to be under great stress, and fundamental assumptions we’ve held about the Rule of Law seem to be eroding. And then, to add to that, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the …

Lessons Learned For The Independent Panel For Evidence For Action Against Amr From Previous International Science Panels: Stakeholder Views From The 2025 Lagos Workshop, Iruka N. Okeke, Anthony Mcdonnell, Ayodele A. Akinyele, Javier Guzman, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In September, 2024, the UN General Assembly assigned the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) the task of establishing an Independent Panel for Evidence for Action against AMR (IPEA). To promote stakeholder views and input around the constitution and functioning of this Panel, which could feed into the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat’s consultation process, we independently commissioned seven papers to examine the lessons that could be learned from other high-level scientific panels. We then convened 85 stakeholders, primed with the background papers. The Workshop, held in Lagos, Nigeria in April, 2025, drew representation from around the world, particularly low-income or …

How Can Electronic Timekeeping Systems Provide Cost And Time Savings Compared To Manual Time Entry And Paper-Based Timesheets?, Jill Childs

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

Paper-based timekeeping methods have historically been the default way for both municipalities and businesses to document hours worked by employees. However, due to analog timekeeping’s lack of verification methods, human error and intentional dishonesty combine to make this method unreliable. These discrepancies are also costly, as human resources staff must be compensated for the time it takes to verify entries and correct mistakes, and if unchecked, the falsified time can potentially result in thousands of dollars of unearned wages lost. This article details various methods and motivations for falsification and argues for the implementation of electronic timekeeping systems, such as …

Editorial Note, Aastha Malipatil, Kedar M. Ammanji

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

No abstract provided.