Digital Commons Network^™

Arabic Proverbs From The Perspective Of Ancient Logic: Al-Maydani's Collection Of Proverbs As A Model, Shihana Saeed Abdullah Al-Shahrani

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This research aims to reveal the manifestations of logic in Arabic proverbs, as short, condensed texts that express the Arab mind's experience in deconstructing the contents of Arabic proverbs and maxims in light of the concepts of ancient logic and analyzing them as anthropological tools for establishing cultural truths that reflect the structure of collective Arab consciousness. The research dealt with the logical structure in proverbs in terms of the relationship between premise and conclusion, signifier and signified, and induction and deduction. This demonstrates that the Arabic proverb was not merely a literary or social expression, but rather a rational …

Recentering Creativity In Copyright Law Discourse, Joshua Yuvaraj

IP Theory

Copyright discourse often centers around creativity; as a rationale for copyright, and as a threshold for copyright to subsist in songs, books, art and other creative works. Yet creativity remains an ethereal concept: if we do not know what it means, we cannot evaluate whether copyright law is promoting it, nor can we properly understand what it means for a work to be "creative" where that is required for copyright to subsist. An emerging strand of copyright discourse seeks to respond by examining scientific insights into the cognitive process of creativity to highlight how copyright law should be reshaped to …

Moral Progress In Legal Doctrine, Philip Petrov

Faculty Scholarship

This article integrates the concept of moral progress – here, moral improvement in the thinking and behavior of individuals over time – into the study of legal doctrine. The article first presents a naturalistic account of what moral progress is and describes three of its most historically and analytically important forms: (1) moral circle expansion, (2) moral domain expansion, and (3) increasing sensitivity to proportionality. The article then analyzes three historical developments in U.S. tort law that qualify as instances of moral progress: (1) the partial demise of the “suicide rule” beginning around the 1980s (according to …

Balancing The Scales Of Justice: The Unconstitutionality Of Marital Rape In India, Pallavi Raju

CMC Senior Theses

Marital rape remains an unpunished crime in India, despite decades of dispute and litigation. This thesis explores the question of why the state continues to retain the marital rape exception within the Indian criminal code, even though it commits to combat gender based violence in other areas of justice. The research begins with a broader understanding of privatization of women’s rights in the international sphere and culturally sanctioned violence to protect the institution of marriage. With a focus on the legal justifications and language of Indian court cases, this thesis determines that judges adjudicate on gender justice inconsistently. Attempting to …

Supply Chain Bargaining And Worker Voice: Reflections On The Bangladesh Accord And The Dindigul Agreement, Marlese Von Broembsen

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

Both private governance and transnational labour law scholars are concerned with the participation of supply chain workers in “enforceable brand agreements.” Much of the private governance literature is concerned with improving workers’ participation in the negotiation and implementation of enforceable brand agreements. Some transnational labour law scholars are concerned with whether transnational labour law should depart from prescripts typical of national labour law — which generally recognises trade unions as the only legitimate representatives of workers — to recognise civil society organisations as bargaining agents. This article analyses the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Dindigul Agreement …

Zero Tolerance Or Strong Cultural Diversity: The Hard Case Of Female Genital Surgery, James M. Donovan, Christiane Canant

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article applies a thesis favoring strong cultural diversity to defend a subject-centered policy regarding female genital surgeries (FGS). That idea posits that cultural variation holds an intrinsic value that should be presumptively respected when setting policy and creating law. Correlatively, cultural homogenization, especially by force, should be resisted. 

Taking as a starting point the recent celebration of the United Nation’s Day of Zero-Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, the paper reviews the context of FGS practices in various societies and critiques the inconsistencies of U.N. arguments to advance its goal of total elimination by 2030. Especially problematic for the U.N. …

Book Review: Automobiles, Cultures And The Question Of Law, Stephen M. Young

Journal of Law and Mobility

Unsettling Colonial Automobilities: Criminalisation and Contested Sovereignties is a compelling interdisciplinary and multileveled study that sits at the intersection of law, criminology, settler colonial studies, and cultural analysis. The authors are well-suited to this task. They include Professors Harry Blagg, with expertise in First Nations community-engaged criminology; Thalia Anthony, from legal and carceral studies; Wiradjuri scholar Juanita Sherwood, who studies Indigenous health and community research; and Kieran Tranter, an expert in cultural legal theory. Together, they offer a layered interrogation of how the motor vehicle and automobility shape the settler colonial ordering of Australia.

This review is comprised of three …

Zero Tolerance Or Strong Cultural Diversity: The Hard Case Of Female Genital Surgery, James M. Donovan, Christiane Canant

Emory International Law Review

This article applies a thesis favoring strong cultural diversity to defend a subject-centered policy regarding female genital surgeries (FGS). That idea posits that cultural variation holds an intrinsic value that should be presumptively respected when setting policy and creating law. Correlatively, cultural homogenization, especially by force, should be resisted.

Taking as a starting point the recent celebration of the United Nation’s Day of Zero-Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, the paper reviews the context of FGS practices in various societies and critiques the inconsistencies of U.N. arguments to advance its goal of total elimination by 2030. Especially problematic for the U.N. …

Transnational Corporate Liability Through The Lens Of Interlegality, Jaye Ellis

Dalhousie Law Journal

Pressure is mounting on courts in Canada, as in other jurisdictions, to address harms generated within global supply chains. These entities have no formal legal personality, so attempts to trace lines of responsibility and liability within them require the development of innovative argumentative strategies. Among the challenges is the integration of a range of sources, including international law, international policy initiatives, and privately constituted standards to promote human and labour rights and environmental protection. Working with the concept of interlegality, I seek to develop approaches for navigating overlapping and intersecting legal orders, and for facilitating interactions among them. Of particular …

Revlon And The Common Good: Rethinking Shareholder Supremacy In Corporate Law, Domenic Ungaro

Student Works

No abstract provided.

"Women’S Language" In Supreme Court Oral Arguments, Carolina Nunez, Lucy Williams, David Wingate, Aerin Christensen, Anna Mae Walker

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assuming Accent: Recognizing The Intersection Of Race And National Origin In Title Vii Discrimination, Eun Hee Han

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comparative Law: Cases, Text, And Materials, Francesca Bignami

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This new casebook offers a contemporary approach to the teaching of comparative law.  By integrating an up-to-date set of cases, code texts, and scholarly materials drawn from the civil law and common law traditions, as well as from Islamic law and customary law, it captures today’s dynamic legal landscape.  Beyond the western jurisdictions that typically feature in the general comparative law course, the book gives sustained attention to Brazil, Pakistan, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Subject areas covered are private law, procedural law, labor law, administrative law, digital law, and constitutional law.  Looking to professional life after graduation, this book equips …

Law As A Form Of Life: On Capitalism And Critical Theory, Justin Deystone

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Spac Clock, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are public companies organized to die. Unlike ordinary corporations, which enjoy perpetual existence by default, SPACs are legally required to consummate a merger within a fixed period--usually two years, never more than three--or else liquidate and return investors' cash.

This Article takes that clock seriously and argues that limited life is foundational to the SPAC form: it disciplines sponsors by preventing indefinite warehousing of capital, reassures investors by guaranteeing liquidity, and makes the form marketable in the first place. A perpetual SPAC would be good for nobody.

At the same time, the SPAC clock distorts …

Unsuccessful? Universal Human Rights And The United Nations: Russian Imperialism In Ukraine And The Post-Udhr International System, Sofiia Novytska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human universality has always stood as a controversial subject and remains politically contentious today. Following the humanitarian crisis of World War II, the international community was determined to protect the integrity and dignity of people worldwide by developing the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, universal human rights were not invented by the Declaration and were already conceptually established in global ancient thought, further evolved into Early Modern scholarship, and later paved the way for modern humanitarian frameworks. The UDHR was not universally well-received, and was criticized for its revolutionary legal character, postcolonial contestation, and practical ambiguity. The …

Plea Bargaining And The Destruction Of Procedural Justice: A Theoretical And Empirical Critique Of Fairness In The U.S. Legal Sphere, Emma Scillitani

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the legal process of plea bargaining as it currently operates within the criminal justice system in the United States. Through both an empirical and theoretical evaluation of this procedure, it analyzes how plea bargaining exists in practice and whether it can be considered a fair mechanism of case resolution. This project investigates the practice on a molecular level through its presence at a county-level court jurisdiction, which represents broader structural implications of the national legal system. Furthermore, it identifies three central factors that drive the overutilization of plea bargaining: power asymmetry, information, asymmetry, and case processing time. …

Predator Or Prey? The Challenges Of Enforcing Native American Usufructuary And Other Environmental Rights Against The Government, Luke Giltner

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Legal Stories Without Villains, Alison Peck

Law Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers have always been storytellers, and cognitive science is increasingly demonstrating that human beings are wired to learn through story. But legal stories may have a dark side if, as theorists have recently suggested, stories motivate pro-social action by reinforcing in-group identification and out-group hatred. In an increasingly divided polity, are we doomed to stories that drive us toward social disintegration? A solution to the legal storyteller’s dilemma may be found in an ancient source: Aristotle’s Poetics. By crafting legal stories that track the elements of the Tragedy as described by Aristotle and adapted by modern storytellers from Broadway …

The Intertemporal Law Doctrine’S Application To The Acquisition Of Colonies In The Americas, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

The intertemporal doctrine provides that international disputes have to be resolved in accordance with the international law that existed at the time the events giving rise to the dispute took place, not at the time the matter is adjudicated.1 It is thought to be impermissible to apply current standards to events that occurred in the past when different legal principles and rules were the norm. This doctrine applies as much to acquisition of colonies as to other international issues.2 So in order to determine whether a European nation acquired sovereignty over an overseas territory, it is necessary to determine and …

Reclaiming Constitutional Authority Of Algorithmic Power, Yiyang Mei, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

Whether and how to govern AI is no longer a question of technical regulation. It is a question of constitutional authority. Across jurisdictions, algorithmic systems now perform functions once reserved to public institutions: allocating welfare, determining legal status, mediating access to housing, employment, and healthcare. These are not merely administrative operations. They are acts of rule. Yet the dominant models of AI governance fail to confront this reality. The European approach centers on rights-based oversight, presenting its regulatory framework as a principled defense of human dignity. The American model relies on decentralized experimentation, treating fragmentation as a proxy for democratic …

Democratizing Restitution: Trust As An Equitable Approach To Competing Claims On Cultural Heritage Objects, Britta Redwood

Articles

As formerly colonized states began to win their independence in the mid-twentieth century, a growing chorus of voices called on museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and other European cities to return objects taken during the colonial period. Having largely ignored these requests until recently, museums throughout Europe and the United States have begun negotiating returns of these objects to their rightful owners. There is a growing recognition among Western cultural institutions that continuing to hold cultural heritage objects taken under conditions of coercion or violence is morally untenable. More recently, some scholars have argued for a human rights approach to …

The Limits Of "Punishment", Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

“Punishment” is an all-important category in criminal legal thought. Conventional scholarship adopts a narrow definition and focuses on justifying penal sanctions. Much critical work, in contrast, seeks to expand the category—defining more practices and institutions as “punishment.” In this Article, I argue that the focus on purposes of punishment and on what constitutes punishment distracts from a larger theoretical and practical issue—much of what the criminal system does probably isn’t punishment as such. Certainly, a carceral sentence is punishment. But what about a curfew requirement for a defendant awaiting trial? What about a restriction on gun ownership post conviction? What …

Seeing International Organizations In A Shifting Landscape: Law, Practice, And Authority, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This book review symposium comes at a moment of visible strain in the postwar legal order. As of this writing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has described a "rupture" in the rules-based world order, warning that multilateral institutions and the architecture of collective problem-solving are under threat. Notably, Carney issued that warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos, before an audience of "companies and countries." The setting underscores a broader shift in global governance, in which states, firms, and philanthropic actors increasingly occupy shared institutional spaces, unsettling assumptions about law and power at the international level. The books under …

Beyond Judicial Intent: The Agency Of The Defense Counsel In Ozawa’S And Thind’S Supreme Court Cases, Bret K. Luchs

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

This thesis seeks to examine how specific legal strategies by the defense counsel in Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922), and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923), compelled the Supreme Court of the United States into a reactive and contradictory position. A re-examination of Ozawa and Thind delves deeper into the legal briefs and arguments made by Takao Ozawa and Bhagat Singh Thind, alongside their legal teams. These briefs, opinions of the court, past lower court cases, and personal statements by Ozawa and Thind demonstrate how they did not surrender to the confines of …

Moréteau On Law, Language & Heritage, Agustin Parise, Mariano Vitetta, Michel Séjean

All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Specter Of Jury Nullification, Anna Offit

Faculty Publications

Attention to the trial of Luigi Mangione has renewed debate about nullification—the jury’s inviolate power to acquit a defendant contrary to the evidence presented. Jury nullification proponents hold that it is a mechanism of last resort for refusing to apply laws that conflict with the public conscience. Opponents, by contrast, argue that nullification undermines the law by diminishing its legitimacy. To prosecutors and defense attorneys, however, these arguments are immaterial: Jury nullification is part of the institutional landscape of the contemporary jury trial and thus must be treated as a potentiality—a feature of the agnostic, strategic, and ethical terrain of …

Neutralization Mechanisms In Protest-Related Vandalism: Implications For Psycholinguistic Crisis Communication, M. Agung Lyndardi

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Protest-related vandalism has become a recurring phenomenon in Indonesia’s democratic landscape, particularly during large-scale demonstrations involving students, labor groups, and civil society coalitions. Conventional legal approaches that define vandalism as a public-order violation are insufficient to explain why such actions persist, why they concentrate on symbolic state targets, and why participants frequently deny moral wrongdoing. This article analyzes protest-related vandalism in Indonesia through the framework of neutralization theory (Sykes & Matza, 1957), integrating perspectives from criminology, moral disengagement theory, collective action, political legitimacy, and public psycholinguistics. Using a structured literature review of international and Indonesian scholarship published between 1957 and …

Taking Stock Of Comparative Law Teaching In U.S. Legal Education, Francesca Bignami, Irene Calboli

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

For over 25 years, U.S. law schools have sought to globalize their curricula, reflecting the increasing interconnectedness and international scope of legal practice. Although there have been efforts to take stock of the impact of globalization on law schools, the vast majority have focused on international law, not comparative law. This U.S. National Report, written for the International Academy of Comparative Law’s 2026 Congress, fills the knowledge gap. In summer and fall 2024, we conducted a survey that examined course offerings, requirements, and opportunities for JD students. The survey was supplemented by interviews and a literature review of law schools …

Taking Legal Pluralism Seriously: Federalism, Diversity Jurisdiction, And The Erie Doctrine, Paul S. Berman, Emma Bjeldanes

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The U.S. Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins is sometimes read to require federal judges hearing claims based on federal diversity jurisdiction to apply state law, essentially as if the case were being decided in a state court. The doctrine therefore appears to create a categorical rule disempowering federal courts from ever departing from state law, despite the Constitution’s grant of federal jurisdiction. However, as the Court’s 2026 Erie case, Berk v. Choy, makes clear, sometimes the Erie analysis is used to empower federal courts to override clear state policy choices embodied in state law simply …