Digital Commons Network^™

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This . . . Or Did It? The Emergence Of Generative Ai In The Legal Field And Lessons From Mata V. Avianca, James H. Curlin Iv

Arkansas Law Review

It’s no secret: Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), for better or worse, is revolutionizing the world. The legal field and legal education at large are not immune to this explosion of possible uses for AI technology. However, as with any technological advancement, AI and Generative Language Models bring with them many challenges, including the implications of their use. One such challenge was vividly presented in the case of Mata v. Avianca, often referred to as “The ChatGPT Case.” Mata is a cautionary tale of the potential missteps that can trip up the unwitting user who naively relies on the lofty promises of …

Lawyers, Trauma, And Professional Well-Being: How The Legal Community Takes Back Its Mental Health, Brenda D. Gibson

Arkansas Law Review

Accompanying a notable shift in the legal academy to being more attentive to our students’ mental health, there must be an equal (or even greater) shift to focusing on trauma, mental health, and well-being in the broader profession. Significantly, trauma and its effects are compounded when combined with the challenges faced by underrepresented populations within the profession. To date, these challenges have been greeted by an ad hoc, piecemeal reaction to stress and trauma,10 which only inhibits wellness in the profession. Part I explores the current literature in both the humanities and the legal profession, beginning with a brief discussion …

Federal Habeas Corpus: Actual Innocence Or Actual Indifference, Meganne Lee-Rogers, J.D.

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

It is a fact that innocent people have been convicted of crimes they have not committed and sentenced to imprisonment or death. Habeas corpus is a long standing, fundamental right to challenge improper detention. While one intended use of habeas corpus was to seek release from custody due to innocence, federal law has made the process to obtain such relief nearly impossible.This Note explores the history of habeas corpus and its transformation of what it looks like in America today through the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). A specific focus is placed on the pitfalls created by the …

Who Does It Best? A Fifty-State Comparison Of The Laws Surrounding Methamphetamine, Trinity Bledsoe Bryant, J.D.

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

Methamphetamine abuse remains a significant public health and criminal justice issue across the United States. Despite its widespread impact, states have taken varied legislative approaches to combat possession, distribution, and use. This Note provides a comprehensive fifty-state comparison of methamphetamine-related laws, examining key legal provisions, penalties, and alternative rehabilitative procedures. By analyzing trends in legislation, the Note highlights which states enforce the most stringent or lenient policies and evaluates their effectiveness in reducing the use of methamphetamine within the state. The findings aim to inform policymakers and legal professionals on best practices for combating methamphetamine abuse while balancing public health …

Pretrial Decision-Making In Brazil Under Inter-American Human Rights Law, Thiago Nascimento Dos Reis

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In recent decades, pretrial detention has been a key contributor to Brazil’s mass incarceration. This is true, despite domestic and international norms limiting pretrial detention to exceptional circumstances and mounting evidence linking it to worse outcomes for arrestees in their criminal proceedings and post-release life prospects. As a longitudinal multivariate pretrial research in Brazil, this Article investigates the key mechanisms and factors that explain pretrial detention in relation to inter-American human rights standards. This Article conducts a quantitative case study of the first one hundred days of detention for all 2,158 non-confidential flagrant arrests in the first eight months of …

Rectifying Historical Wrongs: The Case For The Indigenous’ Inherent Right To Self–Govern Child Welfare In Canada, Ariana Kravetz

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Academic Freedom: Reflections For Advocates, Andrea Boggio

Politics, Law, and Society Faculty Journal Articles

This paper reflects on the challenges and opportunities of academic freedom monitoring from an advocacy perspective. Based on the review of two existing academic freedom indexes and the author’s experience building scientific freedom indicators, the paper discusses three challenges: conceptual, methodological, and political. The conceptual challenges are of four kinds: undertheorization, complexity, necessity of specification, and variation. The paper concludes by identifying three strategies (theory-building, interoperability, and cosmopolitanism) to strengthen monitoring and make it a more effective advocacy tool.

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

The Model Minority Victim, Chiu, Elaine M.

Santa Clara Law Review

The rise in xenophobia, hate and violence against AAPI Americans inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the criminal legal system as a tool of anti-racism. This Article traces the legal aftermath when Asian New Yorkers reported 276 possible hate crimes to the police in 2021. The analysis takes an empirical approach and a narrative approach. It relies on a unique database that followed what happened to civilian complaints of anti- Asian crimes from beginning to end. Using metrics such as arrest rates and conviction rates, the Article draws initial conclusions about the systemic …

“Take This Job And Shove It”: How Black Women’S Fight For Economic Rights Informed Their Participation In The Broader Social Movements Of The Twentieth Century, Kyndle Diane Lee

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the vital role of Black women in the American labor movement during the twentieth century, emphasizing how their leadership and union participation were central to both labor organizing and the broader fight for human rights. Black women workers navigated and resisted the effects of racism, sexism, and class exploitation in a century marked by industrial expansion, economic upheaval, and major civil rights struggles. Far from passive participants, they emerged as key organizers, negotiators, and strategists in their communities, labor unions, and national movements. Additionally, their work extended beyond their demands for better wages and safer working conditions. …

The Influence Of Money In Politics, Aminata Dieng

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

Money plays a powerful role in shaping political outcomes by significantly influencing who gets elected and which policies are prioritized. Campaign financing, which includes donations from individuals, corporations, and Political Action Committees (PACs), often determines a candidate's visibility, resources, and ability to compete effectively. Those with greater financial backing tend to dominate media coverage and reach more voters, which can tip the scales in elections.

Impact Of Remote Work On Wages In Nevada’S Labor Force, Lauren Tomlinson, Sean Atias, Renato Salazar, Ezrah Tayag

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

Remote Work Evolution and COVID-19

• In 2019, 7% of full paid workdays were done remotely. During the pandemic, that number substantially grew to 60%, and by 2023 it shrunk down to 28%. Elements of remote work have even spread to multiple industries such as healthcare, finance, and education (Barrero et al., 2023).
• Direct relationship between self-perceived job performance and remote work productivity. However, living with children under 18 negatively impacts remote work engagement and productivity (Toscano & Zappalá, 2021).
• Remote work can be associated with increases in Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Between 2019 and 2021, a 1% increase in the …

The Role Of Money In Elections, Brandon Nabbefeld

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

What if your vote mattered less than a millionaire’s donation? In every election cycle, billions of dollars flow into campaign war chests but what does that mean? Let’s follow the money and see who is truly influencing our elections. Money plays a powerful role in shaping electoral outcomes and public policy in democratic systems. In the United States, campaign funding has become increasingly dominated by large donations. This is because in 2010, Citizens United v. FEC decision opened the doors for unlimited independent political spending, sparking widespread concerns about fairness, transparency, and the influence of wealthy donors in politics.

Tax Exempt Research Guide, University Of Washington School Of Law

Rule of Law Initiative

For over a hundred years, organizations have harnessed and relied on tax exempt status to serve the public. Tax exemption is a powerful tool for social, environmental, and community well-being. This Legal Research Guide on Tax Exemption serves as a navigational compass for the public seeking to learn about tax exemption.

Why The Rule Of Law Matters For Nonprofits, University Of Washington School Of Law

Rule of Law Initiative

The Rule of Law is what keeps tax exemption from being a political weapon and allows for nonprofit organizations to provide services the government is not providing our communities.

Rule Of Law – Public Q&A, University Of Washington School Of Law

Rule of Law Initiative

Below are common questions the public may have about the Rule of Law, tax exemption status, the revocation of tax exempt status, and key cases like Bob Jones University. To understand these in more detail, browse the Tax Exempt research guide (History, Rule of Law, Revoking Tax Exemption, Secondary Materials, and Current Awareness).

A Brief History Of Tax Exemption, University Of Washington School Of Law

Rule of Law Initiative

Below is a condensed history of tax exemption. It contains an analysis of tax exemption before statutory codification in 1894. It explains how the law evolved to provide predictability and fairness in the application of an organization’s tax-exempt status.

Testimony Before The Puerto Rico Advisory Committee To The United States Commission On Civil Rights On The Role That Race And Ethnicity Play In The Treatment Of The People Of Puerto Rico By The Federal Government, Yomaira Figueroa, Carlos Vargas-Ramos

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

The Insular Cases, whether the narrow or more expansive canon, have structured the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States for more than a century. The genesis of this “third-way” of understanding and structuring the territorial relationship with the United States rested on the very ethnocentric and indeed racist ideology pervasive at the time in U.S. ruling circles, whereby there was a hierarchy of dominance and control that placed White Anglo Saxon Protestant men at the top and subordinated all other ethnic and racial groups in a gradation of subservience and exclusion.

From Great Migration To Gentrification: Heirs Property In The Urban Context, Codi Royall

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The current legal framework, including common law doctrine, individual state statutes, and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), fails to meet the needs of heirs property owners in urban communities. This oversight allows real estate speculators to exploit the law, accelerating gentrification, urban blight, displacement of heirs, and the erosion of generational wealth. While Thomas Mitchell’s scholarship has illuminated the challenges of heirs property, its focus on rural contexts neglects the distinct issues faced by urban heirs.

This Note addresses this gap by examining heirs property through an urban lens, emphasizing the unique historical and legal contexts of …

Exploring Contributions Of Partnerships Between Employers And Disability Organizations On Recruitment, Hiring, Training, Retention, And Accommodation Of Individuals With Disabilities In Mississippi, Peter Oluwadare Kalejaiye

Dissertations

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 provides equal employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities (IWDs) by prohibiting discrimination in employment. However, one out of four IWDs face discrimination in employment in the United States (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Additionally, despite establishing the Office of Disability Employment Policy and enacting the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to help integrate IWDs into the workforce, IWDs face barriers to equal and equitable employment (NASEM, 2017). Previous studies recommend partnerships between employers and disability organizations (DOs) to provide employment opportunities and benefits for IWDs through recruitment, hiring, training, retention, and …

The Law Of The Biggest Pump: Legal Consciousness And The Texas Groundwater Dilemma, Riley Hodin

Political Science Honors Projects

Texas’s localized system of groundwater regulation is complicated by its strong tradition of property rights. This paper examines the legal consciousness of the everyday people subjected to that system. It relies on interviews with local water authorities, as well as an analysis of public comments made by stakeholders. When conflicts emerge, stakeholders tend to attribute negative outcomes to a failure to properly follow legal procedure, or to the improper intrusion of some non-legal entity. Authorities, however, blame the law itself. Both groups feel the law’s presence but struggle to locate its specific source or meaning.

Layered Alignment, Spencer Williams

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Most artificial intelligence (ai) researchers now believe that ai represents an existential threat to humanity. The most dangerous threat posed by ai is an issue known as the alignment problem: the risk that a sufficiently intelligent and capable ai system could become misaligned with the goals and values of its human creators and instead pursue its own objectives to the detriment of humanity, including the possibility of extinction. The tension at the heart of the alignment problem is familiar to scholars of agency, contracts, and corporate law, though it goes by a different name: the principal-agent problem. In the traditional …

But For A Free Press: A Response To Press Freedom Skeptics, Patrick J. Charles, Kevin Francis O'Neill

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article is divided into three Parts. Part I will outline the history-in-law case for why the historical record sufficiently supports recognizing distinct constitutional press freedoms. Part II then provides a history-in-law response to some of the most common arguments made by press freedom skeptics as to why distinct constitutional press freedoms should not be recognized by the courts. Lastly, Part III makes the case for why the recognition of distinct constitutional press freedoms should become a jurisprudential reality and provides a roadmap to accomplish this.

This abstract has been taken from the authors' introduction.

Second Amendment Principles, Jamie G. Mcwilliam

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In United States v. Rahimi, the Supreme Court explained that firearm regulations “must comport with the principles underlying the Second Amendment.” This Article examines what those principles are, how to derive them, and how to apply them in concrete cases. It begins with the Second Amendment’s core principle of defense of self and community, which traces its lineage back to classical thinkers like Aquinas and Grotius. The tradition of firearm regulation that surrounded the adoption of the Second Amendment depended on this fundamental principle. But it also developed subsidiary principles that implement the defense principle in specific ways. This …

Understanding Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization: How The Modern Supreme Court Broke From Tradition And Changed The Original Meaning Of Due Process, Matthew W. Lunder

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

What follows here describes and criticizes the modern liberal and conservative approaches to substantive due process. Part I shows how substantive due process came about in the mid-twentieth century as the union of two extant doctrines: incorporation and fundamental rights. Part II then describes how modern conservatism used the doctrine to arrive at the deeply rooted-in-history-and-tradition test and shows the deliberate reconfiguration of the jurisprudence during the latter twentieth century into the novel patchwork of the modern-conservative method applied in Dobbs. Part III offers a contrast, describing and explaining the traditional due-process analysis of medieval origin and the concept of …

A Fate Worse Than Death: The Perpetuation Of Ableism Through California's "End Of Life Option Act", Skyler Powell

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Note discusses why physician-assisted suicide is inconsistent with California’s laws and how it should be remedied. First, Part I examines the history of physician-assisted suicide in the United States; the federal and Californian stances on the issue; how the EOLOA [End of Life Option Act] works today; and California’s stance on suicide prevention. Next, Part II looks at how California’s Equal Protection Clause and Civil Rights laws apply to individuals eligible for aid-in-dying medication, then analyzes a recent lawsuit brought against the state of California by disability advocacy groups regarding the EOLOA. Part III considers California and supporters’ interests …

Foreward, Edward Rubin

Vanderbilt Social Justice Reporter

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Geography And Sovereignty In The Digital Age, Melvin J. Kelley Iv

Connecticut Law Review

Fair housing advocates have already brought successful lawsuits challenging the use of property technology (“PropTech”) where it has been found to perpetuate or replicate discriminatory practices in a range of contexts including the use of automated screening tools to evaluate prospective tenants. While substantive interventions in unlawful exclusions and differential treatment via PropTech are laudatory, this Article argues that these steps do not go far enough and moreover, that insufficient attention has been paid to the procedural implications of the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) as a source of ex ante enforcement.

The nation’s first fair housing law, the 1866 …

Ethical Investments: Correcting Erisa’S Misinterpretation, Yifat Naftali Ben Zion

Connecticut Law Review

The market for socially responsible investing—commonly referred to as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing—is experiencing rapid growth. Yet a crucial question, that could shape this market’s potential to better our world, remains unresolved: can institutional investors consider ESG factors when making investment decisions? These investors hold a significant portion of global corporate equity, currently valued in the trillions of dollars. Consequently, they stand in a unique position from which they can influence the actions of corporations. But institutional investors also manage other people’s money, which binds them to fiduciary duties that govern their investment decision-making. Do these duties prevent …