Digital Commons Network^™

Place Names And Presidential Control, Austin Kruse

Northwestern University Law Review

Since the start of his second term, President Trump has issued executive orders at an extraordinary pace, using them to advance a broader ideological agenda across the administrative state. While scholarly attention has largely focused on the most sweeping of these directives, less prominent orders raise similar concerns about the reach of presidential power. This Note examines one such order: Executive Order 14,172, which directs the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and expands presidential influence over the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN).

Although geographic naming is ostensibly apolitical, place names are deeply entangled with questions of …

A Tale Of Two Credits: The Post-Nestlé Alien Tort Statute And Carbon Credit Externalities, Stephanie Mao

Northwestern University Law Review

As companies increasingly embrace carbon-neutrality commitments, many rely on the voluntary carbon market to offset their emissions rather than reduce them directly. Regulatory and consumer scrutiny has focused on the widespread use of “phantom” carbon credits, i.e., credits that fail to produce meaningful climate benefits. But less attention has been paid to what this Note terms “colonial” carbon credits: those that may technically reduce emissions but do so at the expense of communities abroad. These projects may contribute to land dispossession, human rights abuses, and threats to public and environmental health. Yet, current regulatory and legal frameworks, with their focus …

Impurity And Immigration: The Case Of Pro-Biafran Igbo Activists In Japan, Nnamdi M. Jogwe

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Binding The Visual Experience Of Law, Nicholas Mignanelli

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Citizenship As Control: Lessons From Athenian Democracy And Modern U.S. Immigration Practices, Máire Sullivan

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Detention Before Adjudication: Evaluating Its Role In Juvenile Justice Outcomes, Ella Morrow

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

Pre-adjudication detention involves confining juveniles while they await a hearing, aimed at ensuring court appearance and upholding public safety. However, the use of pre-adjudication detention has expanded significantly, which has raised concerns regarding the impact on juvenile justice outcomes. This study reviews established peer-reviewed research and observational data from internships to evaluate how this type of detention influences legal outcomes and juvenile development. The research findings demonstrate that detention is associated with harsher dispositions, higher recidivism rates, and long-term consequences. For example, a 38% reduction in high school graduation rates is attributed to pre-adjudication detention. Research has also shown that …

Advice For Incorporating Ai Tools Into Your Legal Practice, Celia Bigoness, Robert A. Mackenzie, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We have been speaking with many lawyers and law students about using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their legal practice. We are struck by the fact that many of them have not been experimenting much, if at all, with the tools that are available to them - although many acknowledge that their clients are increasingly integrating generative AI into their businesses. We have been integrating a lot of these tools into our own professional lives, and here are some tips to help lawyers and law students get comfortable with AI tools that can help them, in big ways and …

Engineered For Surveillance: Public Safety, Roadway Science, And The Fourth Amendment, Trayce Hockstad, Steven Jones

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Death Penalty & State Executions In The Mountain West, 1976 - 2024, Mia Tschan, Sydney Mitchell, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Dre Boyd-Weatherly, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents 1976-2024 data on the death penalty and state executions in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) report, “State Execution Rates,” includes data on the 36 states that have conducted state executions and the 38 states, federal government, and military institutions that imposed the death penalty between 1976 and 2024. This fact sheet focuses on cumulative executions, executions per capita, and executions per death sentence in each Mountain West state.

Battlefield Uncertainties And The Use Of Ai, Tsvetelina Van Benthem

International Law Studies

This article explores the relationship between uncertainty in armed conflict, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and the content of international law. It first provides a review of different types of conflict-related uncertainty, both internal to the party to conflict and external, and considers the interaction between these existing uncertainties and the use of AI. In so doing, it also explores the new uncertainties that can be introduced through AI. Second, it analyzes national submissions on military uses of AI and autonomous weapons to outline the uncertainties raised by States and their relevance for regulatory approaches to the use of …

Nursing Migration And The Global Workforce: How The U.S. Nurse Shortage Impacts Developing Countries, Mololuwa Faithful Lasekan

Honors Thesis

As United States (U.S.) healthcare organizations face persistent staffing gaps driven by an aging population, burnout, and limited educational capacity, many institutions increasingly rely on internationally educated nurses (IENs) to stabilize their workforce. This reliance intersects with longstanding structural challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where inadequate compensation and limited professional opportunities contribute to high migration intentions among nurses. Using a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA principles, this study synthesized evidence and five major themes emerged: (1) push factors driving nurse emigration from LMICs, (2) pull factors attracting nurses to the U.S., (3) digital globalization and post-COVID recruitment …

“The Future Of Executive Power”: An Overview, Robert J. Pushaw Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

This symposium overview examines the rapid expansion of presidential power in the modern era, culminating in what the author and contributors describe as an unprecedented assertion of Article II authority during President Trump’s second term. It argues that the Constitution’s original separation-of-powers framework—designed to prioritize legislative authority and constrain the executive—has been inverted due to the growth of presidential control over foreign affairs, the administrative state, and policymaking. The article traces this shift through historical developments such as the New Deal, the rise of independent agencies, and the emergence of the “unitary executive” theory, while also analyzing recent Supreme Court …

Reforming The Limitation Act: We’Ll Cross That Bridge When We Get There? Well, We’Re Here And That Bridge Has Already Fallen, Marianne E. Adams

University of Miami Law Review

When the M/V Dali, a Singaporean-flagged container ship, struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, the foreign vessel owners turned to a centuries-old American statute that allows shipowners to limit their liability to the post-accident value of a vessel. The Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 (the “Limitation Act” or “Act”) was originally designed to protect and promote a nascent American shipping industry from the unpredictable perils of nineteenth-century seas. Today, however, it operates in a vastly different maritime economy, where foreign-flagged vessel owners routinely rely on the Act to shield themselves from full financial responsibility. In …

Property Without Shelter: How Anti-Public-Camping Laws Violate The Substantive Due Process Rights Of The Homeless, Aaron Rissman

University of Miami Law Review

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that enforcing anti-public-camping ordinances against homeless individuals does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on status crimes. While the Court foreclosed the Eighth Amendment as a vehicle for challenging such laws, it suggested that other constitutional protections may remain available. This Note takes up the Court’s invitation and argues that many anti-public-camping laws violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive due process guarantees.

Drawing on historical sources from common-law England through the Founding and Reconstruction eras, this Note demonstrates that the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy, and protect …

The Conundrum Of Industrial Policy: Incompatibility With The Rules Of International Trade Law, Yong-Shik Lee

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Since the end of World War II, successful developing countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, more recently China, have leveraged industrial policies—notably trade measures and subsidies—to achieve economic development. However, these industrial policy tools often conflict with the rules of international trade established under the World Trade Organization (WTO law), which aims to minimize government interference and reduce trade distortions. Paradoxically, such regulatory constraints hinder the development aspirations of many countries. Meanwhile, major global economies, including the United States, China, and the European Union, have revived industrial policies to support their key industries, such as semiconductors and electric …

Parallel Proceedings Between International Commercial Litigation And Arbitration: Existing Tools And Comparative Perspective, Joanna Ma

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This Article examines parallel proceedings in international commercial disputes, focusing on situations in which the same parties and substantially the same issues are simultaneously before a national court and an arbitral tribunal. It surveys the principal tools that jurisdictions have developed to address this problem, including the priority-in-time rule, the prioritization of arbitral tribunals, tolerance of parallel proceedings, anti-suit injunctions, and anti-arbitration injunctions. After evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, the Article argues that prioritizing arbitral tribunals provides the most coherent and workable framework for managing such conflicts. In particular, the model of granting full priority to arbitral …

The Governing Law Of Unlawfully Issued Sovereign Debt, Kei Nakajima, Shiho Kato

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In October 2019, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), a Venezuelan state owned oil and natural gas company, filed a complaint against the trustee and the collateral agent of PDVSA’s bondholders, alleging that certain bonds due in 2020 issued in exchange for the defaulted bonds due in 2017 are null and void ab initio. The main cause of action was that the 2020 bonds had been issued in violation of the provisions of the Venezuelan Constitution. This contention was advanced notwithstanding that the 2020 bonds provide that “all matters arising out of or relating in any whatsoever” to the instruments shall …

The Constitution Of 1787 Had No Bill Of Rights: What Were The Framers Thinking?, James L. Huffman

Mercer Law Review

In this Article, I recount the brief history from the Philadelphia Convention, during which scant attention was paid to a bill of rights, to the ratification of the Bill of Rights only four years later. Although the delegates to the convention made frequent reference to individual liberty as central to their mission, and several of the newly enacted state constitutions included bills of rights, there was no serious consideration given to including a bill of rights in the constitution proposed for ratification by the states. In response to the occasional suggestions during the convention for specific rights guarantees, most of …

Pronouns On The Clock: The Eleventh Circuit’S Broad Limitation Of Teacher Speech In Wood V. Florida Department Of Education, Carter E. Pannell

Mercer Law Review

Few settings test the limits of free speech more sharply than public schools, where questions of personal identity, government authority, and constitutional rights often intersect. Because the government has an interest in regulating what its employees do and say, First Amendment protections afforded to government employees are diluted in comparison to those afforded to private citizens. A contemporary example of this tension is the question of whether the government may regulate a public-school teacher’s use of pronouns or titles in their own classroom.

In 2023, Florida enacted a statute forbidding teachers from using pronouns or titles that differ from the …

Delusions Of Judicial Grandeur: State V. Wierson And The Return To Statutory Sanity, Max Jordan Katz

Mercer Law Review

Georgia’s insanity defenses have long reflected tension between accountability and mental illness. The State’s statutory framework, which preserves both a “mental incapacity” and “delusional compulsion” defense, reflects this tension. Yet for decades, the Supreme Court of Georgia’s decision in Bailey v. State imposed a judicial limitation: a defendant who “brought about” her own delusion through voluntary acts or omissions could not claim insanity. The court’s recent decision in State v. Wierson marks a turning point. In Wierson, the court considered whether noncompliance with psychiatric medication preempts the defendant from invoking statutory insanity defenses. Rejecting Bailey, the court reasserted the primacy …

Deliberately Silenced, Rachel Kincaid

Mercer Law Review

The Prison Litigation Reform Act is celebrating its 30^th birthday this year. It was designed to make it harder for incarcerated people to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of their conditions of confinement and to restrict their remedies even when they do so successfully. It has been wildly effective at achieving those objectives. It has also propped up mass incarceration and facilitated the persistence of dismal conditions of confinement in carceral facilities in the United States.

The PLRA’s exhaustion requirement—arguably its most damaging provision—silences carceral voices without regard for the merit of their complaints. It does so by mandating …

The Myth Of The Immigrant As A Criminal: Rhetoric, Otherness, And The Legal Construction Of Danger, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The figure of the “criminal immigrant” occupies a central place in contemporary U.S. immigration discourse, shaping public perception, enforcement priorities, and legal doctrine. Yet a substantial body of empirical research consistently demonstrates that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. This Note examines why the narrative of immigrant criminality persists despite this evidence and how it influences the development and operation of immigration law. It argues that “immigrant” functions not only as a legal category but also as a socially constructed marker of Otherness, encompassing perceived differences in race, language, culture, and religion. Through this lens, …

Historians For Hire: Evaluating Historian Expert Witnesses After Bruen, Jake Mcauliffe

Duke Law Journal

The Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen introduced a history-and-tradition test for Second Amendment challenges, directing courts to compare modern firearm regulations to past ones. To conduct this historical inquiry, litigants and judges have increasingly turned to professional historians as expert witnesses. This Note qualitatively examines how historian experts are used and received in post-Bruen federal litigation. It finds that a small group of repeat players—sixteen historians—make up this emerging field, typically appearing exclusively for either challengers or governments. These historians serve primarily in civil litigation, leaving a relative expertise gap in criminal cases, …

Technology-Based Challenges To The Law Applicable To Trade Interdiction During Armed Conflict At Sea: The Law Of Naval Warfare And Convoy Operations, Rob Mclaughlin

International Law Studies

The practice of convoy involves the concentration of a group of merchant vessels under the control and direction of warships and military aircraft for the purpose of protecting it from belligerent capture or attack. The practice has often been described as obsolete, but asserting the demise of the convoy has been as regular as it has been premature. It is fitting that this operational practice be subject to an updated legal treatment and identification of new legal challenges. This article seeks to reassess the law applicable to convoys based on the consequences of certain post-1945 technological developments. It notes that …

Legal Pluralism And The Reception Of Trial By Jury In The Republic Of Georgia, Anna Dolidze, Valerie P. Hans

International Law Journal

This Article explores the historical, political, and socio-legal dimensions of the introduction and evolution of jury trials in the Republic of Georgia, framed through the dual lenses of legal pluralism and legal transplantation. It examines Georgia’s historical practices of peer judgment, its adoption of jury trials in the early 20th century, the abolition of jury trials under Soviet rule, and their revival after constitutional reforms in 2004. The study incorporates insights from legal pluralism theory, which emphasizes the influence of indigenous legal traditions and the dynamic interplay of official and unofficial laws. The Article describes the significant role of U.S. …

Sports Equality In The Ring: All Genders Can Catch These Hands, Gordon Chan

International Law Journal

This Article examines the intersection of sports governance, gender identity, and international human rights law, using boxing as a central case study to explore the inclusion of transgender and nonbinary athletes. Tracing the historical and cultural evolution of gender participation in sports from ancient civilizations to contemporary institutions, the Article highlights how colonial, patriarchal, and pseudoscientific ideologies have long shaped the regulatory frameworks of modern sports. The doctrine of lex sportiva, which governs international sports through autonomous legal norms, is analyzed for its exclusionary gender practices and resistance to external legal oversight. Focusing on the World Boxing Council (WBC), the …

Historical Facts And Constitutional Law: New Challenges For Lawyers, Judges, And Scholars, Joseph Blocher, Brandon L. Garrett, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr.

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Falsifying Tradition, Darrell A. H. Miller

Duke Law Journal

From cases spanning gun rights, reproductive freedom, religious liberty, and personal jurisdiction; to separation of powers and other structural features of the Constitution, courts increasingly rely on tradition to guide their decisions. Often, judges appeal to tradition in a vaguely empirical way, as “facts to study, not convictions to demonstrate about,” in the words of Justice Antonin Scalia. Yet, for a claim that purports to be factual, there’s very little agreement, or even analysis, about what renders this factual assertion—tradition—true or false. This Article tackles that basic issue.

Part I surveys the ways in which courts use tradition in different …

Interrogation Of Regents And Administrative Reliance Interests In The Context Of Vacillating Immigration Policy, Sarah Engelberg-Nolan

Fordham Law Review

Arbitrary and capricious review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) operates as an important agency-accountability tool when invoked as intended. But the recent U.S. Supreme Court case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California and subsequent lower federal court cases have opened the floodgates to a more searching and potentially activist review. In Regents, the Court held that the administration of President Donald J. Trump could not rescind the discretionary immigration program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the manner the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted, in part because DHS failed to …

All I Really Need To Know About The Ethics Of Third-Party Litigation Funding, I Learned From Watching Hulk Hogan, Alex B. Long

West Virginia Law Review

The Hogan/Gawker litigation occupies a special place in public discussions concerning third-party litigation funding, the practice of investors who fund litigation with the goal of earning a profit. While nearly a decade has passed since the conclusion of the case, the Hogan/Gawker litigation is still regularly referenced in academic literature and popular media. Since the jury verdict, the practice of third-party litigation funding has grown exponentially. Within just the past year, there have been several state legal ethics opinions concerning the practice, and several state legislatures passed legislation that addresses some of the ethical concerns associated with the practice. On …