Digital Commons Network^™

Intellectual Humility By Design: How Courts Earn Legitimacy And Improve Decisions, Steve Leben

Arkansas Law Review

Courts decide disputes as one branch of our government. Their authority depends not only on getting the outcome right but also on public acceptance of their authority. In a time when confidence in institutions is under pressure, courts cannot assume that legitimacy will take care of itself. They must earn it—case by case—through both the substance of what they decide and the way they exercise authority in public view.

A large body of procedural-justice research explains one side of that equation. People are more willing to accept court decisions, even unfavorable ones, when the process communicates voice, neutrality, respect, and …

Foreword, Amanda B. Hurst

Arkansas Law Review

This Symposium, The Art of Judging, delved into the complexity of the judicial craft, discussing the intellectual, practical, and human dimensions of judicial work. The Symposium addressed courtroom management, decision-making, and opinion writing, as well as the impact of evolving technologies on these core judicial functions. Another key focus was the increasing challenges judges face in responding to litigants’ wellness issues, managing their own well-being, and maintaining the judicial persona—both inside and outside the courtroom. Though the Symposium was not born out of the aim of combating the current climate, where misinformation and misunderstanding of the judicial role threaten …

The Independence Of Supervisory Authorities: A Comparative Analysis Of Morocco's Law 09-08 And The European General Data Protection Regulation, Zakariyae Hamdani, Karim Seffar

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

The effectiveness of personal data protection presupposes the establishment of supervisory authorities endowed with substantial independence, guarantors of fundamental rights and capable of preventing the risks inherent in data processing. However, the comparison between the European GDPR and Moroccan Law No. 09-08 reveals a manifest institutional asymmetry. Indeed, European authorities operate within a substantially more comprehensive normative framework, characterised by enshrined autonomy, extended prerogatives and enhanced operational efficiency. Conversely, the Moroccan CNDP remains afflicted by structural deficiencies: institutional dependence, lack of coercive powers and budgetary insufficiency. Consequently, this comparative investigation aims to identify the cardinal principles likely to inform a …

Deepfake: A Practice On The Edge Of Legality, Bouthaïna Aaziz

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

Deepfakes – hyperrealistic videos manipulated using deep learning algorithms – raise significant legal challenges touching on human rights and legal governance. A deepfake usurps the identity of its victim to exploit their credibility and reputation. This article examines the applicable legal framework, first identifying pre-existing rules from Moroccan law (civil liability, personal data protection under Law No. 09-08, criminal provisions of the Penal Code and Press Law No. 88-13) that can be applied to deepfakes, and then advocating for the adoption of an adapted legal framework. The author distinguishes between creative deepfakes (requiring informed consent) and manipulative deepfakes (requiring criminal …

Gafam And Competition Law: The Premises Of Regulation, El Mahdi Taimouri

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

GAFAM are among those structural digital platforms whose ultra-dominant position in digital markets and the originality of their practices raise unprecedented competition issues. Their spontaneous tendency toward concentration results from the implementation of innovative business models based on massive data capture and exploitation through high-performance algorithms. The specificities inherent in these web giants raise questions about the ability of classical competition law rules to ensure efficient regulation. Indeed, competitive regulation of these platforms raises essential challenges and proves indispensable, even if the effective realization of such an undertaking appears laborious.

Requalification Of Employment Relations On Digital Platforms – Commentary On The Ruling Of The Social Chamber Of The French Court Of Cassation Of 4 March 2020, Appeal No. 19-13.316, Abdelhadi Al Hantali El Idrissi

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

Despite the efforts made by legislators to facilitate the task of qualifying the employment contract for judges, the judge's role in this qualification process remains primordial, as they face hybrid and increasingly complex situations that may fall into several contradictory contractual categories not anticipated by the law. This article examines a landmark ruling by the Social Chamber of the French Court of Cassation of 4 March 2020 (Appeal No. 19-13.316), in which the Court confirmed the requalification of a partnership contract between an Uber driver and the company into an employment contract. The analysis is structured around three complementary phases: …

From Legal Norms To Algorithmic Rules: Reflections On Blockchain And Smart Contracts, Yassine Dourhani, Fatim Ezzahra Boussetta

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

Blockchain technology and smart contracts are profoundly reshaping contract law by partially replacing traditional legal rules with algorithmic norms based on automation and self-execution. By embedding the parties' agreement into computer code deployed on a distributed ledger, these technologies promise enhanced security, certainty of performance, and the reduction of traditional intermediaries. However, this emerging algorithmic normativity confronts fundamental requirements of contract law, particularly those relating to validity, flexibility in the face of unforeseen events, and the protection of contracting parties. While automatic execution strengthens technical efficiency, it also exposes significant legal limitations, including the rigidity of code, the absence of …

The Legal Challenges Of Blockchain In Relation To The Legal Professions, Hind Tak-Tak, Hanane Jalal

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

Blockchain technology was initially conceived as a disintermediation tool based on algorithmic trust, aiming to challenge the traditional role of trusted third parties in legal and economic relationships. By relying on distributed, immutable, and transparent ledgers, blockchain claims to offer an alternative to centralized institutions, particularly in the fields of evidence, contracts, and authentication. However, a legal analysis demonstrates that this promise of disintermediation remains largely relative. While blockchain enables technical certification of data and the automated execution of obligations through smart contracts, it does not ensure valid contract formation, effective protection of the weaker party, or compliance with the …

Gender Perspective(S): Lessons From International Human Rights Law To Defend Against Pregnancy Related Prosecutions, Megan Osadzinski

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The criminalization of pregnancy outcomes—such as miscarriages, abortion, obstetric emergencies, and stillbirth—is a violation of fundamental human rights guarantees; including the right to a fair trial when read in conjunction with the right to equality and the right to health. This article outlines state obligations under international human rights law toward women charged in pregnancy prosecutions, translating them into national criminal defense strategies using a gender perspective. Using intersectional theory, this article calls for the use of a gender perspective to challenge such prosecutions as unlawful gender-based discrimination and a gendered violation of due process, using the case study of …

From Maps To Meadows: Ecologically Literate Zoning And The Regeneration Of Wildlife Habitats, Jonathan Rosenbloom

Cleveland State Law Review

For more than a century, zoning has shaped the American landscape, often at the expense of wildlife and ecosystems. Rooted in legal doctrines that treated animals as property and nature as a raw material, zoning codes have fragmented habitats, erased migration corridors, and accelerated biodiversity loss. At the same time, federal protections are narrowing, leaving critical gaps in environmental governance. This Article argues that local governments possess both the authority and the obligation to respond. By embedding ecological principles into zoning—through conservation districts, wildlife corridor protections, wetland buffers, pollinator protections, dark skies, wildlife fencing, habitat restoration, and others—municipalities can transform …

An Era Of Silent Overruling: Lack Of Transparency In The Supreme Court And The Expanding Unworkability Doctrine, Sydney Washburn

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note examines the Supreme Court’s growing practice of “silent overruling," the effective displacement of precedent without explicit acknowledgment, and argues that this phenomenon threatens transparency, stability, and public trust in the judiciary. While the doctrine of stare decisis is intended to promote consistency and predictability, the Court has increasingly relied on the vague and discretionary “unworkability” doctrine to justify departing from precedent without clearly articulating its reasoning. Focusing on the Court’s recent decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, this Note argues that the Court silently overruled Robinson v. California while purporting not to reconsider it. In …

Behavioral Drafting: Defining A Field Hiding In Plain Sight, Christopher R. Trudeau

Cleveland State Law Review

Fine print is everywhere. It governs how we bank, shop, work, travel, and even receive medical care. Yet most people never read it—and those who try often give up because they are overwhelmed by technical jargon, impenetrable legal clauses, and strategically hidden terms. Still, these documents are not neutral. Every choice of wording, structure, and design quietly shapes behavior: nudging people to click “I agree,” to remain enrolled, or to give up rights they never realized they had.

This Article gives that reality a name—behavioral drafting. Borrowing insights from behavioral science, it shows how legal documents exploit well-documented tendencies to …

A Bone To Pick: Back To The Basics In Food Product Liability With A Necessary Reformation Of The "Hybrid" Negligence Standard, Clay Cutteridge

Cleveland State Law Review

Ohio does not use the traditional negligence standard in determining negligence in food product liability cases. Instead, Ohio uses what is called the hybrid test. The hybrid test analyzes what a consumer would reasonably expect to find in their food, and Ohio courts consider the naturalness of an object to the food it is in to be the determinative factor: natural objects should be reasonably expected and cannot give rise to successful claims of negligence. This hybrid test fails to consider that food is complex, and consumers often cannot know what to reasonably expect in the food they buy. The …

Misinterpreting Immigration Law, Michael Kagan

New Mexico Law Review

Although Congress bears primary responsibility for the convoluted nature of America’s immigration laws, immigration law has been rendered even more incoherent through inconsistent interpretation. During the reign of Chevron deference, the federal courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals and various Attorneys General pushed in different directions, with textualist, libertarian, and restrictionist impulses holding sway on different major interpretive questions. The result is that immigration law is more internally incoherent and more divorced from popular opinion than is necessitated by the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The end of Chevron deference offers some potential for the federal courts to …

Pixels And Property Rights: Resolving Social Media Ownership Disputes Between Employers And Employees Through Traditional Property Law Frameworks, Brittany Kjerstad Mcknight

New Mexico Law Review

Social media accounts have become valuable business assets, yet courts remain divided on how to resolve disputes over their ownership. In employer-employee contexts, some courts have adopted multi-factor tests to determine whether an account belongs to the business or the individual. However, these tests create inconsistent and unpredictable results, leaving businesses and employees uncertain about their rights. Courts should reject ad hoc multi-factor tests and instead rely on traditional legal frameworks, specifically property, contract, and agency law, to resolve social media ownership disputes. By treating social media accounts as non-transferable, revocable licenses governed by contractual terms, courts can apply established …

Into The Black Hole: Private Prison Contractors And The Inspection Of Public Records Act, August M. Ryan

New Mexico Law Review

The New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) is a powerful mechanism for government transparency. Although private companies that contract with state agencies are subject to IPRA, the New Mexico Corrections Department and its contractors continually flout their IPRA obligations. Newsome v. Centurion Correctional Healthcare highlights a tension between IPRA’s robust enforcement provisions and its practical application to government contractors. The Newsome opinion, in denying access to records that should have been disclosed, struggles to articulate how public bodies, contractors, and designated records custodians interact under IPRA. This comment proposes an ordered, step-by-step approach to the custodian problem, seeking …

What’S Past Is Prologue: Prior Convictions As Evidence Of Dangerousness In State V. Romero, Alexander Guel-James

New Mexico Law Review

State v. Romero marked the first time the New Mexico Court of Appeals considered whether a New Mexico law disarming every person with a state felony conviction was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The court upheld the law, but only to the extent that it disarmed dangerous felons. The court found that the appellant was dangerous because he was previously convicted of dangerous crimes. This note questions whether prior convictions alone are sufficient to prove dangerousness. Criminal justice data and constitutional theory caution against dangerousness findings based on criminal history alone. Courts should determine dangerousness under the disarmament law using …

Animal Ethics And The Lowest Common Denominator, John O. Adenitire

Animal Sentience

This commentary assesses the pragmatic framework proposed in Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience (2024). Celebrating the book's exceptional clarity, scientific rigor, and profound real-world impact on UK legislation, I nevertheless have some questions about the method by which Birch arrives at his policy recommendations for animal protection. In seeking an overlapping consensus between deeply divergent ethical and credal viewpoints, the framework risks defaulting to a minimalist, lowest-common-denominator standard of protection for animals. Birch also risks drawing the standard even lower by including serious academic positions in animal ethics that deny moral status for animals altogether. A rights-based approach offers …

Decolonizing International Law, Modirzadeh’S Critique, And Homework For Islamic International Law Scholarship: An Attasian Approach, Fajri Matahati Muhammadin, Rafsi Azzam Hibatullah Albar

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Naz Khatoon Modirzadeh published an article criticizing the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) movement for its purported inability to achieve its purpose as a response to one of the major international law decolonization projects. One of her criticisms is that TWAIL lacks a cohesive counter-vision of international law, actual representation of third-world views, and organized political movements. Within the heavily diverse (which is one of the problems) TWAIL camp, among others, is the voice of Islamic law. Most Muslim nations have been at the receiving end of the brute force of colonialism. Colonialism is, in fact, responsible for …

The Impact Of International Trade Liberalization On Oil And Gas Management Policies In Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Indonesia, Bagus Satrio Utomo, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Suyono Thamrin, Donny Yusgiantoro

Indonesian Journal of International Law

This study aims to analyze the impact of international trade liberalization on oil and gas management policies in developing countries, with a focus on Indonesia as a case study. As a country rich in natural resources, Indonesia faces challenges in maintaining sovereignty over the management of its national oil and gas industry amidst commitments to international trade agreements such as the GATT/WTO. Through a qualitative approach and analysis of international agreement documents, national regulations, and oil and gas industry data, this study finds a significant influence of trade liberalization principles on oil and gas management policies in Indonesia. The results …

The Role Of National Recapitalization Funds In Sovereign Lending, Elena Gabriela Olariu, Konstantina Panagopoulou Perez

Journal of Financial Crises

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 showed that a substantial portion of funds borrowed by a state from a lender of last resort may be allocated to bank recapitalization. While national recapitalization funds are not themselves borrowers, they play a key role in recovery operations. This article analyses how lenders, such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), incorporate recapitalization funds into their lending framework and how they deal with extraordinary events, such as corporate transformations or liquidation of these funds. To do this, we formulate three key principles that a lender may consider …

Brief Amicus Curiae Of Administrative And Constitutional Law Professors In Support Of Petitioners, Robert Glicksman, Richard Pierce, Alan B. Morrison, Jeffrey Lubbers, Peter L. Strauss

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: The ninety-six temporary agricultural workers employed by respondent were allowed to come to the United States solely because Congress established the program that governs their employment. As petitioners’ brief demonstrates, in order for respondent to be eligible to bring in foreign workers, it had to submit an application to the Department of Homeland Security. As part of that process, respondent had to establish that it would not employ non-citizen workers to displace domestic workers. Included in the required showing is an agreement by respondent to pay both domestic and foreign workers the same pay, so …

Failure To Communicate: A Method To Improve Osha And Fsis Collaboration In Meat And Poultry Plants, Ty Haralson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In its 2024 annual report, the GAO recognized the overlapping functions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (“FSIS”) in meat and poultry plants and how the two agencies have failed to effectively collaborate. Although both FSIS and OSHA have vested interests in ensuring healthy environments in meat and poultry plants, the administrative agencies have not developed a thorough approach for collaboration.

Created after the passage of the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, OSHA’s primary responsibility is to “ensur[e] safe and healthful working conditions . . . ” in …

Le Régime Juridique De La Tacite Reconduction En Droit Libanais, Krystel El Hajj

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Le Contrat De Jeu Et De Pari En Droit Civil, Imad Nahas

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Canada’S Contributions To International Legal Discourse: Gender, Genocide, And Neocolonial Investments (2015–2025), Heidi Matthews

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter critically evaluates Canada’s major points of engagement with international law in the period between 2015 and 2025. In partnership with European and Commonwealth allies, Canada has been an active participant in several contentious cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including against Myanmar, Syria, and Afghanistan. Canada has taken progressive legal positions in this litigation with respect to the interpretation and application of international law as it relates to sexual and gender-based crimes, as well as abuses committed against children. However, the past decade also reveals that Canada’s policy responses to its genocide and other crimes against …

Treatment Sentences, Evelyn Lia Malavé

BYU Law Review

One of the most common mandates of a non-incarceratory sentence is to submit to treatment. Across the criminal legal system, from problem-solving courts to probation, millions of defendants sentenced to non-incarceratory sentences—including people not diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder—are required to attend drug treatment programs. After decades of policies that criminalized drug use, non-incarceratory sentences that match people with treatment may appear to be a step forward—or at least not the most pressing problem.

But criminal law scholarship has not fully reckoned with the harms of treatment sentences, including the harms of mandated treatment itself. Analysis of treatment sentences …

Regulating Deregulation: Why States Should Preempt Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Programs, Anna Bailey

BYU Law Review

Instead of easing the housing crises that exist across the country as intended, mandatory inclusionary housing programs burden development, impeding smaller projects and stunting development that in the aggregate could alleviate housing shortages. In this Note, I argue that states should preempt local governments from imposing burdensome mandatory inclusionary housing programs because they interfere with property rights and are counterproductive in their results. The Nollan-Dolan rough proportionality test requires that land-use conditions must be related to and proportional to the problem created by the land development project. The Supreme Court’s recent holding in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado clarified …

Fragile Hope And The Cultural Life Of Law, Shefali Jain

Socio-Legal Review

This review of Sandhya Fuchs’ Fragile Hope: Seeking Justice for Hate Crimes in India (Stanford University Press 2024) highlights that the book makes a genuinely original ethnographic and conceptual contribution to caste studies and hate crime scholarship. At the same time, the essay argues that there are three limitations to its framework that require greater engagement: the book’s failure to engage with the legal consciousness tradition in socio-legal scholarship, an underdeveloped account of “legal meliorism,” and an unresolved tension between the book’s stated commitment to victim-centred analysis and its ethnographic evidence that frequently discusses movement-level aspirations.

Decent Work In The Platform Economy Convention, 2026: A Preliminary Analysis, Valerio De Stefano

ILO Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, 2026 (No. 193), the first international labour standard devoted specifically to platform work. It examines the Convention’s scope, substantive protections, and principal interpretive questions, arguing that its significance lies in the cumulative architecture through which platform work is brought within the reach of international labour standards.

Particular attention is given to the Convention’s broad personal scope. Self-employed platform workers are generally included throughout the instrument, while specific provisions permit protections to be adapted to different employment statuses without excluding workers outside an employment relationship. …