Digital Commons Network^™

Citizenship Disparities, Emily Ryo, Reed Humphrey

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Citizenship is “nothing less than the right to have rights,” wrote Chief Justice Warren in his Perez v. Brownell dissent. Yet no study to date has been able to systematically investigate agency decisions to grant or deny citizenship in an administrative process called naturalization adjudication. This Article presents the first comprehensive empirical study of contemporary naturalization adjudication outcomes in the United States. Drawing on new and unique administrative data obtained through extensive Freedom of Information Act litigation, this study analyzes over 2.6 million naturalization decisions made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) between 2015 and 2018. These decisions …

The Improvised Implementation Of Executive Agreements, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

Implementation is at the core of lawmaking in our divided government. A rich literature covers the waterfront with respect to agencies' implementation of legislative mandates, and another equally robust line of scholarship considers Congress's implementation of treaties. Missing from those discussions, however, is another area of implementation central to U. S. foreign relations: the implementation of transnational regulatory agreements.

This Article examines how federal agencies have harnessed far-reaching discretion from Congress on whether and how to implement thousands of international agreements. Agencies regularly implement agreements by relying on a self-developed menu of options, much like they do in the domestic …

Reclaiming Establishment: Identity And The ‘Religious Equality Problem’, Faraz Sanei

Law Faculty Scholarship

Since at least 2017, the Court has implicitly recognized a right of equal access to generally available public benefits based on the beneficiary's religious identity or status. In Carson v. Makin (2022), the Court went a step further and, for the first time, concluded that the “status-use distinction lacks a meaningful application” in both theory and practice. It then held that restrictions on the use of public benefits for sacral purposes amount to religious discrimination because they impose substantial burdens on free exercise rights. Carson's holding, and the rationale underlying it, contravene settled case law and effectively gut the Establishment …

Third-Party Beneficiaries Of Government Contracts: Imagining An Equitable Approach And Applying It To Broken Promises In Detroit, Gabe Chess

Michigan Law Review

Courts have widely adopted a heightened standard for recognizing third-party beneficiaries of government contracts. But the justifications offered for the heightened standard do not withstand scrutiny. Instead, courts should apply a series of equitable factors to produce results consistent with the concern for “manifest justice” that animates third-party beneficiary doctrine. Governments make contracts frequently, often to address issues of huge importance to their citizens, including housing, economic development, and healthcare. In each of these areas, third-party beneficiary doctrine may be an important avenue of relief to citizens harmed by broken promises and may encourage the government and its contracting partners …

Practice Makes Professionalism, Virginia C. Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

This column highlights three diverse examples of legal professionalism in our community.

Algorithmic Governance From The Bottom Up, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are both a blessing and a curse for governance. In theory, algorithmic governance makes government more efficient, more accurate, and more fair. But the emergence of automation in governance also rests on public-private collaborations that expand both public and private power, aggravate transparency and accountability gaps, and create significant obstacles for those seeking algorithmic justice. In response, a nascent body of law proposes technocratic policy changes to foster algorithmic accountability, ethics, and transparency.

This Article examines an alternative vision of algorithmic governance, one advanced primarily by social and labor movements instead of technocrats and firms. …

Running On Empty: Ford V. Montana And The Folly Of Minimum Contacts, James P. George

Faculty Scholarship

Jurisdictional contests are in disarray. Criticisms date back to the issuance of International Shoe Co. v. Washington but the breakdown may be best illustrated in two recent Supreme Court opinions, the first rejecting California’s “sliding scale” that mixes general and specific contacts, the second using the discredited sliding scale to hold Ford amenable in states where accidents occurred.

California’s sliding scale is one variety of the contacts-relatedness tests, used in lower courts to have general contacts bolster weaker specific contacts. Some states—Montana and Minnesota for example—use the opposite extreme requiring a causal connection in defendant’s forum contacts, often using foreseeability …

Navigating The Non-Fungible Token, Kimberly A. Houser, John T. Holden

Utah Law Review

$91.8 million, $69 million, and $52.7 million. These are the amounts associated with the three most sought after Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) sold in 2021. Although NFTs were first created in 2014, 2021 saw a massive rise in their global popularity. In fact, Google reported that in 2021, “How to buy an NFT?” was one of its most searched questions.

NFTs can alternatively represent a collectible, a financial instrument, or a permanent record associated with a person, physical or digital object, or data—each presenting an entirely distinct set of legal issues. The lack of governmental expertise in emerging technologies accompanied by …

The Court’S Gerrymandering Conundrum: How Hyper-Partisanship In Politics Alters The Rucho Decision, Vince Mancini

Utah Law Review

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Rucho v. Common Cause was the latest in a line of opinions regarding reviewability of gerrymandering claims related to the constitutionally required decennial state redistricting process. In Rucho, the Court altered the course of future electoral processes and held that partisan gerrymandering claims were nonjusticiable. In doing so, the Court failed to consider obvious pitfalls in limiting the type of review available for these gerrymandering claims. In particular, the Court failed to understand the gravity of the impact such a decision would have on minority voting power and discarded one of the few structural …

Police Reform Through Section 1983, Adam J. Smith

Northern Illinois University Law Review

For decades, members of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) engaged in a protracted campaign of corruption, terror, and violence against Black and brown Chicagoans. Intermittent efforts to reform or otherwise rein in the CPD invariably fell short. In late 2014, a CPD officer murdered a 17-year-old Chicagoan, Laquan McDonald. CPD officials and city leaders attempted to whitewash the killing as a justified use of deadly force, but—thanks to the work of local organizers and a national pressure campaign—McDonald’s death instead led to a yearlong investigation by the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). Ordinarily, such an investigation would have resulted in …

Digital Services Trade And Trade Agreements, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade agreements have become the main forum for the regulation of digital services trade issues over the past decade. This chapter provides a comprehensive examination of the regulation of digital services trade in trade agreements, first reviewing the rules in the World Trade Organization (WTO), then comparing the approaches between the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the European Union (EU), and explaining the reasons for their deep differences. This chapter further analyzes such provisions in trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific, which has become one of the most dynamic regions in terms of new …

Criminal Law And Procedure, Brittany A. Dunn-Pirio, Timothy J. Huffstutter, Mason D. Williams, Robin M. Nagel, Tanner M. Russo

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate decisions and legislation.

Brief Of Amici Curiae In Support Of Applicant' Application To Vacate The Injunction In Biden V. Nebraska, Jeffrey Lubbers

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

Amici curiae are law professors at law schools around the nation. They respectfully move for leave to file the enclosed brief in support of Applicants' application to vacate the injunction entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit pending appeal of the preliminary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, including leave to file without ten days' notice to the parties, as ordinarily required by this Court's Rule 37.2(a), and leave to file in 8½-by-11-inch format, as provided in Rule 33.2.

Prevention Of Child Sexual Abuse In South Africa: Assessing The Role Of Parents, Community Leaders, Educators, And Social Workers, Nosisa Mabetshe, Emeka E. Obioha, Ishmael Mugari, Elphina N. Cishe

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Child sexual abuse is a global problem and is prevalent in South Africa. Child sexual abuse significantly harms the victims. This study looked at child sexual abuse prevention, focusing on the community, school system, and social workers. A mixed methods research method was used. Data were collected from 115 questionnaire respondents, of which 15 in-depth interview participants were selected. The sample was selected using purposive sampling and stratified random sampling techniques. Low reporting of incidents is hindering the effective response to child sexual abuse. The study revealed the significant role parents and community members could play in preventing child sexual …

The Romantic Author As Compelled Speaker, Sonya G. Bonneau

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The romantic author trope has been extensively criticized in the copyright context, yet it threatens to emerge as a new pillar of First Amendment compelled speech jurisprudence. Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission exemplifies the trope’s rhetorical power, and the costs of that approach. Casting the baker as an artist, Justice Thomas finds that creating custom wedding cakes was speech, and that applying a public accommodations law to require service to a same-sex couple triggered strict scrutiny review. This is an extraordinary result. Although the Court never adjudicated the compelled speech claim, it will …

Just Say No? Shareholder Voting On Securities Class Actions, Albert H. Choi, Stephen J. Choi, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

The U.S. securities laws allow security-holders to bring a class action suit against a public company and its officers who make materially misleading statements to the market. The class action mechanism allows individual claimants to aggregate their claims. This procedure mitigates the collective action problem among claimants, and also creates potential economies of scale. Despite these efficiencies, the class action mechanism has been criticized for being driven by attorneys and also encouraging nuisance suits. Although various statutory and doctrinal solutions have been proposed and implemented over the years, the concerns over the agency problem and nuisance suits persist. This paper …

Analysis Of The Relationship Between International Trade And Economic Growth Of Jordan, Mohammed Ali Salem Shubeilat

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Addressing Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (Iuu) Fishing In Cambodia : The Impact Of The Eu’S Iuu Regulation, Sorphea Sok

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of Catch Documentation Schemes In Ghana’S Fisheries And Their Role In Deterring Iuu Fishing, Misornu Yaw Logo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Big Data Analytics On The Privacy Rights Of Seafarers, Adanna Nkiruka Okonkwo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Examining How Ghana's Co-Management Policy Could Tackle Iuu Fishing In The Artisanal Fisheries Sector, Ambrose Yankee

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of The Port State Measure Agreement (Psma) To Combat Iuu Fishing In The Philippines, Marilyn Labasan Jaal

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Enforcement Of Environmental Measures To Fishing Vessels Not Covered By Solas Operating In Antarctic Waters, Manuel Alejandro Fuenzalida Lopez

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Money As A Currency Of Justice, Aaron James

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Is money a “currency of justice”? That is, insofar as justice requires us to distribute something among people, is money one of those things, fundamentally speaking?

It isn’t according to many philosophers in the “currency debate,” who either assign money no fundamental importance, or at least do not unequivocally affirm its non-instrumental significance, as I’ll explain. Theory, in this respect, stands apart from ordinary opinion. Not only does money matter greatly to most of us, who has it, and who should have more or less of it—whether in dollars, euros, or renminbi—is ordinarily one of the main ways we evaluate …

Towards An Analysis Of Social Hierarchy, Niko Kolodny

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Much in our interior mental lives and in our exterior social structures presupposes that we, human beings, are conscious of social hierarchy, of differences in rank and status. We are “conscious” of hierarchy in both senses of the word: “aware” of and “anxious” about. This consciousness appears to be rooted in our natural history. Many social animals are likewise preoccupied with “pecking order.” These animals include not only chickens, who literally peck, but also our closest primate relatives. And this consciousness of hierarchy, transformed by our species’ special bent for symbol and self-reflection, has driven much of our non-natural history. …

What Is It For Us To Be Moral Equals? And Does It Matter Much If We're Not?, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The main concern here will be to clarify what it means for us to be moral equals (and thus what it means for us not to be so). Specifically, I want to address two questions about the nature and significance of basic moral equality. First, what is the difference between what I shall call epiphenomenal moral equality and non-epiphenomenal moral equality? This distinction is often ignored, or overlooked, and this is unfortunate because it hides from view a decision that many will seem a dilemma. If, in affirming the moral equality of all persons, we mean the non-epiphenomenal kind, moral …

Moral Equality?, Michael J. Perry

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The particular version of the foregoing question I address in the following pages is this: What nontheistic reason or reasons do we have, if any, to accept the morality of human rights, a core constituent of which is the right to moral equality: the right of every human being to be treated as the moral equal of every other human being in this sense: as equally entitled with every other human being to be treated—as no less worthy than any other human being of being treated—in what Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls “a spirit of …

Relevance And Equality: An Analytical Account, Pedro Moniz Lopes

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

In day-to-day life, one is compelled to compare. In replying to a question on one’s favorite things, one will group them together based on the satisfaction one is provided with, leaving out the rest. In discussing the issue of spiteful people, one is promptly reminded of some common features of individuals whose actions typically meet the required criteria (or the criteria one sets for such category). In metaphorical speech—for instance, by descriptively asserting that “no man is an island”—one grounds the assertion on past knowledge of the prototypical isolation of islands to, then, negate the transfer of such features to …

Goodbye To All That: Three No-Longer-Quite-Contemporary Theories Of Equality And Something More Up-To-Date (And Worse), Maimon Schwarzschild

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The idea of equality, and even the word equality, exercises great moral and political force, but it is a notoriously protean idea. Equality can mean many things, many of them in tension with one another or utterly contradictory to each other. Nonetheless, a Lockean idea of equality has predominated in American political thought, and—imperfectly, like any ideal put into human practice—in American life throughout most of American history. The Lockean idea of equality is roughly that human beings have equal natural rights to life, liberty, and property: with the implication that political society should ensure these rights through the impartial …

Morey And Les, George Sher

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

In my book Equality for Inegalitarians, I combined a sufficientarian approach to the distribution of resources and opportunities with an egalitarian approach to the distribution of a more abstract good that I called “the ability to live one’s life effectively.” As I defined living effectively, it requires a degree of success in the pursuit of one’s rational aims, so there is an obvious danger that even if two people both have sufficient resources and opportunities, the difference in the amount by which they exceed the threshold will cause them to differ in their ability to live effectively. However, to …