Digital Commons Network^™

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 11.03.25, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• ND Law Professor Jimmy Gurulé discusses Exoneration Justice Clinic's work in an interview with renowned journalist Carmen Aristegui
• The Global Human Rights Clinic participated in a series of high-level engagements during International Law Week at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Faculty Briefs

• Mary Ellen O'Connell
• Daniel Slate
• Emily Bremer
• Christine Venter
• Nicole Garnett and Maria Paz Madrid
• Derek Muller

Events

• Faculty Colloquium
• Veterans Law Presentation
• Politics and the DOJ
• The Meaning of Natural
• Justice Amy Coney Barrett Moot Court Tournament Semi-Finals
• Provost Open Office Hours
• Rice-Hasson Distinguished Lecture Series

Around the Watercooler

• Staff Spot Awards

The Case For “Constructive Gridlock” In Independent Agencies, Jeffrey Manns

Texas A&M Law Review

Critics of President Trump have alleged that he has reduced independent agencies to mere extensions of the executive branch during his second term. The reality is that Democratic and Republican presidents routinely leverage the opportunity to reshape independent agencies in openly partisan ways because presidents have majority control of the appointments for the leadership of virtu ally all agencies. I examine a large data set of independent agency votes from the Obama and first Trump terms to show that independent agency commissioners vote in predictably partisan ways when addressing substantive policy changes. The partisan design of independent agencies undercuts agency …

Major Rules In The Courts: An Empirical Study Of Challenges To Federal Agencies’ Major Rules, Libby Dimenstein, Donald L. R. Goodson, Tyler Szeto

Texas A&M Law Review

Since at least the 1990s, presidents have seen the administrative state as a key tool, if not the primary one, for achieving policy objectives. At the same time, the administrative state has faced growing scrutiny, particularly from members of the Supreme Court. Given these dynamics, do some administrations’ regulatory actions fare better in court than others? Are there any trends we can see over time? These are some of the questions we sought to answer in the first empirical study of how major rules, as defined under the Congressional Review Act (“CRA”), fare in federal court. We chose major rules …

Does The Law Ever Run Out?, Charles F. Capps

Notre Dame Law Review

Although laypeople commonly believe that a judge’s job is to decide every case as the law requires, a broad consensus exists among legal scholars that the law not infrequently “runs out,” leaving the judge to decide the case on extralegal grounds. This Article subjects that consensus to critical scrutiny. Tentatively, the Article concludes that none of the alleged sources of indeterminacy in the law—including permissive rules, balancing tests, vagueness, ambiguity, silence, contradictions, and uncertainty—actually causes the law to run out. More confidently, the Article maintains that the extent to which the law runs out, if it does at all, depends …

Foundations For Platform Liability, Kathryn E. Spier, Rory Van Loo

Notre Dame Law Review

From spreading misinformation to selling deadly products, bad actors use technology platforms to their advantage while causing devastating harms to privacy, health, and even democracy. Despite their central role in enabling these bad actors, the platforms almost entirely escape liability. This legal immunity is purportedly grounded in economics. From the beginning, courts and legislatures feared that liability would chill innovation, growth, and user access. They also speculated that platforms have sufficient market incentives to voluntarily police bad actors, making liability unnecessary.

Whereas many scholars have argued that platform immunity is blind to justice, this Article shows that it is also …

Modernizing Family Courts: How Technology-Driven Triage Improves Access To Justice For Self- Represented Litigants And Enhances Efficiency For Lawyers, Ayyoub Ajmi, Alicia Davis

Faculty Works

Family courts are overwhelmed by rising caseloads, increasing parental conflict, and limited judicial resources. With 80–90% of litigants self-represented (SRLs), case delays and inefficiencies affect all parties, including those with private counsel. High-conflict cases make up 10–30% of dockets, consuming judicial time and worsening outcomes for families, especially children. This article explores the Family Court Services Portal, a technology-driven triage tool designed to streamline family case processing, improve access to justice, and help courts allocate re- sources effectively. The portal integrates pre-screening triage automation, guiding parties through structured issue identification to support proportional judicial intervention and informed case management. Developed …

Smu To Build Open Legal Database With Support From Ministry Of Law, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The Singapore Management University (SMU) will be developing Singapore’s first open empirical legal database with support from the Ministry of Law (MinLaw). Housed at SMU’s Centre for Digital Law, the three-year project will compile and release machine-readable datasets containing key statistical information about Singapore court decisions, statutes, legal scholarship and court structures. Named Singapore Open Legal Informatics Database (SOLID), the database will be freely accessible to researchers worldwide through a public website and Application Programming Interface (API), positioning Singapore alongside leading jurisdictions around the world that have invested in building up their legal data infrastructure.

If You Love Something, Let It Go: Giving Up Government Mandated Online Age Restrictions In Favor Of § 230 Inspired Immunity, Cole Pedro

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Teaching With Ai: Insights From A Faculty Focus Group, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This report summarizes insights from a focus group of law faculty who discussed their experiences and perspectives about using artificial intelligence (AI) in legal education.  The focus group took place at the 2025 Works-in-Progress Conference sponsored by the ADR Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

The responses reflect a range of reactions, providing a snapshot of how some faculty are experimenting with AI, evaluating its risks and benefits, and considering how best to achieve their pedagogical goals.  Participants expressed interest in using AI as a teaching tool – particularly in communication exercises, simulations, and written assignments – and …

Setting International Technical Standards To Shape Digital Trade Policy: Approaches, Challenges, And Opportunities For Developing Countries, Craig Atkinson, Hanane Becha

Centre for Digital Law

Digital trade, the “intentional application of digital technologies at any stage of the trade process” (DiCaprio, 2024, p. 1), is reshaping patterns of economic growth1 and development (International Monetary Fund [IMF] et al., 2023a). As its basis, digital trade depends on internationally agreed-upon “digital technical standards”: rules and guidelines that ensure digital technologies can work together (i.e., interoperability) and be used widely (i.e., scalability) (Bergsen et al., 2022). These standards support how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are designed, interact, and are adopted across borders. Without such technical standards, digital trade would not be possible.

Copyright Law And Property Law, Keith N. Hylton

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Property is at the core of state law since it is the exclusive power of the individual state governments to define and protect property rights within their jurisdiction. In this paper I will discuss the general connection between copyright and property generally. I will argue that property law sheds important light on copyright law and can help us cut through modern controversies in copyright law. If I am correct in this view, any judge sufficiently familiar with property law doctrines could do better than the Supreme Court of the United States in resolving a new copyright controversy. Specifically, property law …

Upcycled And Rightful: Navigating Trademark Law And The Circular Economy, Irene Calboli, Gabrielle Armstrong

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article elaborates on the practice of upcycling and argues that upcycling should be considered a lawful practice under current trademark rules in the United States. Upcycling is the process of taking existing products lawfully sold on the market, in most instances, used products, and giving these products a second life by adding additional elements and decorations or by using the still viable product parts to create new products altogether. Because of its focus on reusing existing products or product parts, the practice of upcycling has become increasingly popular, also because it promotes circular and environmentally friendly production practices. However, …

A Framework To Retrieve Relevant Laws For Will Execution, Md Asiful Islam, Alice Saebom Kwak, Derek E. Bambauer, Clayton T. Morrison, Mihai Surdeanu

UF Law Faculty Publications

Wills must comply with jurisdiction-specific statutory provisions to be valid, but retrieving the relevant laws for execution, validation, and probate remains labor-intensive and error-prone. Prior legal information retrieval (LIR) research has addressed contracts, criminal law, and judicial decisions, but wills and probate law remain largely unexplored, with no prior work on retrieving statutes for will validity assessment. We propose a legal information retrieval framework that combines lexical and semantic retrieval in a hybrid pipeline with large language model (LLM) reasoning to retrieve the most relevant provisions for a will statement. Evaluations on annotated will-statement datasets from the U.S. states of …

Administration And Faculty

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward Digital Corporate Law: Revisiting Corporate Law's Responses To Technology, Chen Wang, Ke Xu

William & Mary Business Law Review

This Article examines the dynamic relationship between emerging technologies and corporate law, raising fundamental questions about whether these technological advancements require reshaping traditional legal doctrines. It investigates key aspects of corporate law—including corporate formation, governance, and finance—through a comparative analysis of Chinese and U.S. legal frameworks. This Article critically assesses the ability of contemporary corporate law to respond effectively to technological challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in relation to evolving fiduciary duties of corporate agents and shifts in the balance of power between shareholders and management. Furthermore, this Article proposes innovative strategies for future corporate law development, advocating …

Technology Transfer In The Implementation Of The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, Christine Nzambi Mulatya

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Take It Down Or Take It Too Far? The Legal Fallout Of New Online Takedown Powers, Taylor Greeno

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Code As Counselor: How Robo-Will Platforms Are Productizing Estate Planning Services, John Speirs

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Piggy Banks To Paychecks: Ensuring Child Content Creators' Protection Against Financial Exploitation By Parents And Guardians, Spencer S. Vora

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

The Contractualization Of Disability Rights Law, Yaron Covo

University of Chicago Law Review

What body of law determines the content and scope of disability rights in the United States? The conventional wisdom is that the rights of disabled individuals are enshrined in and shaped by an array of civil rights statutes. While this answer is correct, it is incomplete. As this Article shows, U.S. disability rights are also built upon contract law concepts and doctrines. For example, in interpreting disability rights statutes, courts have turned to the parol evidence rule, the duty of good faith, and the doctrines of impossibility, materiality, duress, and mistake. Although not explicitly enumerated in disability rights statutes, these …

Book Review - Board-Shareholder Dialogue: Policy Debate, Legal Constraints And Best Practices Edited By Luca Enriques And Giovanni Strampelli, Cambridge, Cup, 2024, 574 Pp., £130.00 (Hardback) Isbn: 9781009360760, Martin Petrin

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Candid Traffic Cameras: Why Illinois’S Automated License Plate Reader System Should Be Restricted, Michael Lathwell

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This article examines the constitutionality of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. ALPR cameras are permanently affixed on the highway and record the license plate number of every passing vehicle. The system is used by police to locate stolen vehicles, track fleeing suspects, and for other crime prevention purposes. In 2019, the Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act was passed by the Illinois General Assembly, which allowed for the installation of these cameras in Illinois. But the constitutionality of these cameras has been challenged as a Fourth Amendment violation, because although the camera network has many valid purposes, it also poses …

Above The Law? Exploring Satellite Surveillance Under The Illinois Bill Of Rights, Maxwell A. Ruttenberg

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Since the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957, our atmosphere has seen a boom in the number of satellites in orbit. Today, it is estimated that there are between five and ten thousand satellites in orbit, most of them owned by private corporations. Our skies will continue to be filled in the coming years as current players increase their satellite fleets, new players arise in the aerospace industry, and nations continue their focus on the uses of space exploration and technology. With the increase of satellites above, communities must now be on alert to an invasion …

Vol. 46, No. 1, Fall 2025: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 46, Issue 1 of the Northern Illinois Law Review

Cisg (2025 Survey), Wayne R. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

This survey article discusses cases during the prior year, which are decided based on one or more provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is a United Nations treaty that provides a uniform international sales law. It was adopted in Vienna in 1980 and went into effect in 1988. The CISG governs contracts for the international sale of goods between businesses located in different countries that have ratified the treaty. It has been adopted by 95+ countries, including major trading nations like the United States, China, and most European countries. …

Evicted Promises: Grants Pass Leaves Housing First Out In The Cold, Emily Cruz

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Duty To Protect: Why California Should Promptly Adopt A Cybersecurity Cle Requirement, Michaela Thompson

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Safe Or Not? A Constitutional Review Of California’S Safety Act, Avery Bernard

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hey, Bruh . . . I Mean, Your Honor—The Evolution (Or Devolution) Of Legal Communications In Modern Times, Michael J. Fleck

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The ability to effectively communicate, whether such communication is oral or written, is a primary tool in any lawyer’s toolbox. How we communicate is a reflection on our level of professionalism, both as individual attorneys, and as the legal body at large. It is how we convey ideas with our client, with our colleague, and with the court. It is how we persuade through legal reasoning. There is no doubt that the style of communication has evolved over time. One need only to read legal opinions from a century ago to see what was acceptable as proper communication. The standard …

Electronic Will Legislation: A Comparison Of The Uniform Act And Illinois, Jada Stephens

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The Illinois Wills and Remote Witnesses Act is a body of law that was created in response to evolving technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. It addresses how electronic wills and remote attestations should occur in Illinois. Picking up where the executive order allowing for remote attention in Illinois left off, the passing of this Act solidifies processes that allow for different modes of estate planning and attestation to occur. Pennsylvania will be examined as a state that exemplifies the consequences of a lack of electronic will legislation. Illinois is not the first and most likely will not be the last …