Digital Commons Network^™

Lawyers' Client-Inclusive Negotiations: The "New Mediation"?, Nancy A. Welsh, Donna Shestowsky

Faculty Scholarship

When proponents initially urged the courts to institutionalize mediation for the resolution of general civil cases, they argued that the procedure would be superior to trial—and also to lawyers’ settlement negotiations—in terms of parties’ exercise of self-determination, satisfaction with outcomes, and opportunity for voice. These claims, however, rested on certain assumptions, particularly regarding the implementation of mediation and lawyers’ settlement negotiations. In mediation, the parties were to take center stage, with the mediator assisting them by facilitating their communication and negotiation so that they could reach a customized resolution. Lawyers’ settlement negotiations in general civil litigation, meanwhile, were assumed to …

Mda At Your Service: A Deaf Person Wants To Become My Patient, Rachel Sinacola Dds, Ms

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

The column clarifies that under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), dental offices must provide auxiliary aids or services for patients with hearing impairments, which may require a professional interpreter paid for by the dentist in complex visits. Members are encouraged to notify the MDA about practice/life changes (e.g., address changes or caseload shifts) to ensure proper benefits and dues discounts. New associates are strongly urged to utilize the MDA resource for contract review, which offers a 10% discount with Kerr Russell Attorneys. Additionally, the MDA Store provides free Labor Poster Packets, fulfilling state and federal employer requirements.

The Case For Credentialing Dental Assistants, Michelle Godofsky

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Credentialing dental assistants is presented as a method to enhance productivity and address workforce shortages; currently, only about 15% of Michigan dental assistants are Registered Dental Assistants (RDAs). A case study at Thunder Bay Community Health Service, an FQHC in Northern Michigan, illustrates success, where RDAs perform expanded functions—like placing restorations and monitoring nitrous oxide—boosting clinic productivity by 16%. The clinic supports its dental assistants by covering education and exam expenses and providing study time during work hours. This investment improves job satisfaction, confidence, morale, and patient communication among staff, strengthening employee retention.

A True Fact Should Not Be Controversial: Analyzing The Zauderer Standard And Defining “Uncontroversial”, Edina Hartstein

Fordham Law Review

In Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized an exception to the compelled speech doctrine that allowed the government to regulate commercial speech if it was “purely factual and uncontroversial.” However, the Court failed to define what it meant for a disclosure to be “purely factual” or what it meant to be “uncontroversial.” This lack of clarity led to lower courts inconsistently applying the Zauderer standard. In 2018, the Supreme Court decided National Institute for Family Life & Advocates v. Becerra (NIFLA), which held that the Zauderer standard cannot apply when the disclosure …

Understanding Mental Health Crisis Response Through The Lens Of First Responders, Ella Gibson

Student Theses

Responses to mental health crises are becoming an increasingly contentious topic as cases of extreme police violence or fatality during a crisis are publicized in the media. Although first responders’ experiences with mental health crisis response have been explored in prior literature, there remains a lack of research that gathers data from multiple first responder roles and compares their experiences across groups. There is also a significant gap in research examining the perspectives of co-response teams. This study sought to gather qualitative data on the experiences of police officers, EMTs/paramedics, and co-response team members, and to explore their perceptions of …

Democratic Integrity Under Threat: Confronting Disinformation With Legislative And Structural Reforms, Sophia Brociner

Journal of Law and Policy

In the modern digital era, disinformation has evolved from a political strategy into a fundamental threat to democratic governance. This Note contends that the absence of comprehensive federal legislation addressing political disinformation on social media has compromised both the integrity of elections and the public’s trust in government institutions. By analyzing the disinformation campaigns that shaped the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections, this Note demonstrates how false and AI-generated content, amplified by both foreign and domestic actors, has manipulated voters, deepened political polarization, and destabilized public confidence in democratic processes. The discussion examines how rapid technological development, insufficient regulatory …

Regulatory Settlement, Stare Decisis, And Loper Bright, Lisa Schultz Bressman, Kevin M. Stack

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Loper Bright v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court adopted and deployed a particular narrative about agency action in support of overruling Chevron: Agencies reverse their own statutory interpretations “as much as [they] like[],” creating pervasive instability in the law, thereby destroying private reliance interests. Based on a study of two decades of agency regulations affirmed by the D.C. Circuit under Chevron, we show how infrequently agencies reversed their interpretive positions. Our study suggests that the Court’s regulatory “whiplash” narrative is overstated and that there is an underappreciated institutional settlement for notice-and-comment rules under Chevron. Identifying this regulatory settlement …

J Mich Dent Assoc December 2025

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Each month, the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association delivers news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. It remains the main publication reaching Michigan dentists and is available worldwide through ADA Commons. The December 2025 (Volume 107, No. 11) issue of the Journal is published in a digital-only format to provide updates and insights for Michigan's oral health community and MDA members. Print editions will resume in the new year.

This issue includes feature articles on the Michigan Dental Foundation, A Case for Credentialing Dental Assistants, and a feature …

Embodied Overcrowding And Sensory Tensions: A Carceral Autoethnography Of Philippine Jails, Dwayne Antojado

Ateneo School of Government Publications

In this paper, I undertake a sensorially oriented autoethnography of two Philippine jails, illuminating the visceral textures of carceral life that conventional sociological or criminological discourses often overlook. Drawing inspiration from Jewkes and Young's (2021) examination of Kyoto Prison, I foreground the overlapping realms of sight, sound, smell, and touch, arguing that incarceration is inherently a profoundly embodied phenomenon. By weaving personal reflections, field observations, and broader scholarly insights, I reveal how overcrowded dormitories, suffocating heat, and lingering bodily odours converge to redefine detainees' spatial, temporal, and psychosocial realities in ways rarely captured by quantitative metrics. While mindful of Nelken's …

"Reeling In" The Governance Problem: How To Achieve Sustainable Fisheries On An International Scale, Louis Morais-Andrade

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2025, it was estimated that over 35% of international fish stocks were overfished, risking severe depletion of high seas fisheries. In general, countries have control over fisheries within 200 nautical miles of their coastal border. Many countries have established fishery conservation laws to help prevent overfishing. Some examples of the largest domestic fishing laws are the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the European Union’s Common Fishery Policy (MSA), which functions as an international policy that governs all of the United States’ fisheries and the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Concurrently, the United Nations has also opened …

United States Counsel Being Used In Order To Serve Foreign Entities: Service On Foreign Entities And The Relationship Between Us Counsel And Foreign Companies, Lucy Gottfried

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This Note examines the use of alternative service on foreign defendants’ United States counsel under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3) and USCIT Rule 4(e)(3). A recent challenge in the Court of International Trade has raised the issue of whether this method of service complies with the rule that service be effectuated in a foreign country. Through surveying federal courts decisions addressing motions for alternative service on U.S. counsel, this note demonstrates that courts do not apply a uniform rule. Instead, courts balance different considerations—like due process, international comity, and litigants’ behavior—based on the underlying facts. This Note synthesizes the …

National Values Matter For Ai: Comparative Analysis Of Ai Regulations In The Us, The Eu, And China, Kaori (Furuya) Kawaguchi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve rapidly, governments worldwide face increasing pressure to regulate it. This Article focuses on regulatory approaches to AI in the United States, the European Union, and China, examining the underlying rationales: why have they taken these approaches? Each jurisdiction’s unique political institutions, historical preferences, and strategic priorities shape its approach to governance. In particular, the values the jurisdiction expects in technology shape its regulation. The US adopts a decentralized, innovation-friendly model rooted in reliance on market and self-regulation in industries with its strong trust in laissez-faire philosophy; the EU asserts global leadership in regulations …

Ai Procurement As Regulatory Reconnaissance, Sam Adler

Fordham Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a black box technology in a black box industry. Some view AI as a life-changing technology capable of advancing society and perhaps even saving the world, while others fear its capacity to harm. Like Dr. Frankenstein, developers fear the unpredictability of their own creations; deployers fear the unknown risks of third-party AI tools that market pressures drive them to assume; members of civil society fear AI’s capacity to oppress the already oppressed and degrade trust in institutions; and everyday users fear the undisclosed potential of AI to cause harm by means they cannot readily comprehend. These …

Doktrin Penyalahgunaan Hak (Abus Des Droit), Syukron Salam

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The present article examines the emergence of the doctrine of abus de droit in France in the mid-twentieth century through an analysis of key judicial decisions and the debates that followed them. The study commences with an exposition of the manner in which the evolution of capitalism, concomitant with the escalating economic disparity and the propagation of societal challenges, has influenced the judicial approach to the abstract Roman-law tradition of absolute rights. In light of this, the article contends that the civil-law tradition exhibited a fundamental flaw in its conceptualisation of rights as absolute, thereby overlooking objections that were firmly …

Using Political Privilege To Profit: Insider Trading In The Government And S. 2463'S Alleged Attempt To Stop It, Allison K. Dooling

MC Law Review

Insider trading is generally illegal within the United States. However, members of Congress are notorious for regularly engaging in stock trades based on government information that mirrors insider trading. In 2023, Senators Gillibrand and Hawley proposed a bill, unlike any such proposed before, to put an ultimate ban on government insider trading: the “Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act” or S. 2463. On its face, S. 2463 appears to address the criticisms surrounding government insider trading. It not only increases regulation and reporting standards but also bans government officials, their spouses, and their dependents from owning any stock during …

What's Appealing In Mississippi?, Virginia C. Carlton

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fifth Circuit And Mississippi Law: Asked And Answered (Or Not), Caroline B. Smith, Emily K. Lindsay, Jim Rosenblatt

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Faculty List

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 12.01.25, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

Faculty Briefs

• Diane Desierto
• Jen McAward
• Rick Garnett
• Emily Bremer
• Derek Muller

Alumni News

• Mary Yu
• Adila Hassim

Events

• Law & Economics Workshop: Shahar Dillbary, George Mason University
• Faculty Colloquium: Sherif Girgis

Around the Watercooler

• November Spot Awards
• Scared Stories 2025
• ND Well-Being December

Scoring Accuracy And Differential Rater Functioning Of Large Language Models (Llms) In Evaluating Short Student Essays Under Different Conditions: A Simulation Study, Majed Mahmoud Ajoudeh

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy and differential rater functioning (DRF) of LLMs in scoring short essays, based on synthetically generated data of 270 essays with varying quality. The LLMs scored the essays under three prompting conditions: without a rubric, with a brief rubric, and with a detailed rubric. Human benchmark ratings were also generated in comparison with the automated scores. The results showed that using detailed rubric improved accuracy and consistency with human raters. Regression analysis further revealed differential rater functioning: the LLMs were more likely to award higher scores to longer essays, favored indirect writing styles, and …

Advocacy At The Front Door, Tenisha S. Hill

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project examines how integrating social work practices into the jail intake process can strengthen support for clients represented by the Public Defender’s Office. The project focuses on understanding the challenges clients face at the earliest point of contact often marked by trauma, instability, and limited access to services and how a social-work-informed approach can improve outcomes. Through direct observation, interviews with staff, and review of intake procedures, the project identifies key gaps in assessment, communication, and referrals. Findings highlight the need for more holistic intake practices that address clients’ social, mental health, and resource needs alongside their legal …

Realizing The Americans With Abilities Act: Promoting Civil Rights & Capabilities In The Service Of Individuals With Brain Injury, Zachary E. Shapiro, Tiffany Li, Kaiulani S. Shulman, Melisa Olgun, Chantelle Van Wiltenburg, Molly Teague, Emma Kromm, Brandy Allen, Elliot E.C. Ping, John D. Bowers, Rebecca Harris, Nayla Basma, Apurv Hirsh Shekhar, Gregory E. Antill, Megan S. Wright, Joseph J. Fins

UC Law Journal

Brain injuries often result in varying degrees of impairment to communication and cognitive processes, impeding an individual’s ability to engage in daily activities, participate in social interactions, and achieve independence. This paper builds upon our legislative proposal from Designing An Americans With Abilities Act: Consciousness, Capabilities, and Civil Rights, published in the Boston College Law Review in 2022. That paper proposed new legislation called “The Americans with Abilities Act” (“AWAA”), a comprehensive framework for the effective development, uptake, and utilization of advanced assistive technology (“AT”). These technologies aid individuals with brain injuries in realizing their capabilities and reintegrating into broader …

The First Amendment, Global Corporate Responsibility Standards, & The Quest For Online “Speech Nirvana”, Evelyn M. Aswad

UC Law Journal

With large and powerful social media companies operating as worldwide speech regulators, it is unsurprising that governments have attempted to not only regulate how these companies address platform speech but also pressure them to deliver preferred speech outcomes. In 2024, the Supreme Court decided two cases addressing both themes in the U.S. context. In Moody v. NetChoice, the Court explained how legislation regulating private platform curation of usergenerated content runs afoul of First Amendment protections. And, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Court appeared to erect significant hurdles to challenging alleged governmental coercion of such platforms. These cases have left many …

Wide Nets, Heavy Burdens: Unpacking Executive Order 14105’S Final Rule, Breanna Li

UC Law Journal

Executive Order 14105 “Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern” was enacted to protect U.S. national security interests in light of China’s military technological growth. This Executive Order creates an outbound investment review program that restricts investments by a U.S. person into companies in specified countries operating in certain technology sectors. This Note will discuss the background of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, review E.O. 14105, and argue that the program it creates results in burdensome unintended consequences to the U.S. economy. These unintended circumstances include: (1) high regulatory …

Brewing Solidarity: Rights Consciousness And Class Consciousness In Coffeeshop Organizing, Brishen Rogers

UC Law Journal

Almost ten thousand baristas have unionized since 2022 in cafes across the country. Their effort breaks with recent history in several respects. For example, baristas have used a novel “worker-to-worker organizing” model in which workers themselves—rather than union staff and leadership—design and manage campaigns. Also, while scholars and unionists have argued for decades that the National Labor Relations Board’s secret ballot elections process is a dead end, baristas have used that process quite effectively, winning over 85% of their elections against the major company involved. Through their organizing efforts, baristas have centered the issues and voices of LGBTQ+ workers and …

An Age Of Statutes Or An Age Of Executive Orders? Conflicting Judicial And Presidential Visions Of Policymaking, Daniel A. Farber

UC Law Journal

Two decades ago, then-Professor Elena Kagan hailed the era of presidential administration in which Presidents would launch major policy initiatives within the executive branch and end run congressional gridlocks. Since then, the President’s role in the regulatory state has snowballed. In his second term, President Donald Trump has used this authority to the utmost in a quantum leap in presidential administration. Paradoxically, the same Justices who have championed the unitary executive have created roadblocks to presidential policymaking. Overruling the Chevron doctrine, the Court has sought to cabin the role of agencies, and thus the newly supreme President, in statutory administration. …

Dei: Definitely Earned It–A Review Of Contemporary Dei Initiatives Against Emerging Legal Frameworks, Joseph Cremona

UC Law Journal

Since 2024, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have ignited a volatile political debate. Fierce opposition continues to attack their very existence. On one hand, proponents of DEI programs argue that such initiatives are a pivotal mechanism for ensuring that historically marginalized communities receive professional opportunities in America. On the other hand, opponents of DEI insist that these programs are detrimental because they prioritize the advancement of minority groups at the expense of their majority counterparts. With the recent enactment of multiple executive orders by President Trump, DEI programs have become the target of a plethora of lawsuits. These legal …

The Music & The Movement: Race, Rhythm, And Social Justice, Renee Nicole Allen -- Associate Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

From Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” to J. Cole’s “Be Free,” music has played a vital role in energizing social justice movements and elevating the legal and social issues facing Black people. An examination into the legal, historical, and social contexts for the music created during ten key movements in Black history reveals the role of lyrics and rhythm. Through the lens of music, ten movements—Freedom, Lynching, the Great Migration, Civil Rights, Black Power, Black Feminism, Police Brutality, Mass Incarceration, Black Love, and Black Lives Matter—demonstrate that Black music is more than entertainment. It is …

The Icj’S Advisory Opinion On Climate Change, Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann, Antoine De Spiegeleir

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This open-access edited volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the International Court of Justice’s 2025 Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, one of the most consequential developments in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across public international law, human rights law, environmental law, and global governance, the book examines how the Court reframed climate change as a matter of binding legal obligation rather than political discretion.

The contributions explore the Opinion’s articulation of state duties under treaties, customary international law, and general …

Constitutional Obiter Dicta On Male-Male Sex And Fundamental Rights In Singapore, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Court of Appeal held a law prohibiting male–male sexual intercourse (s 377A of the Penal Code) unenforceable on non-rights-based grounds. The court's remarks about the rights to life and liberty (including whether sexual orientation is mutable), freedom of expression, and equality are obiter. But they are significant, since in Singapore, there are few constitutional rights cases and the courts focus on spelling out the limits to executive and legislative power without necessarily striking down exercises of such power on rights grounds. Indeed, the obiter dicta prompted the Legislature to repeal s 377A. Given the repeal, the obiter dicta …