Digital Commons Network^™

Between Seminole Rock And A Hard(Er) Place: A New(Er) Approach To Agency Deference, Kevin O. Leske

Catholic University Law Review

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the United States Supreme Court in 2024 overruled Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., ending the Chevron doctrine’s reign as the applicable rule for courts to use in reviewing agency interpretations of their authorizing statute. Although Chevron’s demise was no great surprise, the Court’s decision leaves myriad questions that may take decades to answer. The most pressing question is: what is now the precise standard that courts must apply to determine statutory meaning in these cases? But there is a related question that is equally important to our ever-changing …

For What? Resolving The Causation Split For Fmla Retaliation Claims, Lucy Wess

Catholic University Law Review

For over thirty years, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has provided working Americans the opportunity to maintain their professional careers while juggling personal and familial health care needs. Like many other employment law statutes, the FMLA prohibits retaliation by employers against employees who exercise their rights under the statute. However, a circuit split as to the correct causation standard for FMLA retaliation claims leaves plaintiffs and defendant employers uncertain of case outcomes as well as the legality of the employer’s conduct. The Fourth and Eleventh Circuits held that the but-for causation standard is the proper standard in such …

Standing In The Shadows: Member Anonymity In Associational Standing Cases, Mitchell Brost

Pepperdine Law Review

Associational standing serves several benefits for plaintiff members: associations often have expertise in a certain field that guides the representation of their members, they have greater resources that allow them to bring lawsuits in the first place, and they can serve as the public face of the lawsuit to shield the plaintiff member from serious retaliation that may result from bringing the claim. But due to some imprecise language in Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in Summers v. Earth Island Institute, circuit courts are divided over whether associational members can remain anonymous at all. Thus, individuals who have legitimate legal claims, …

Jealously Guarded: The Right To Trial By Jury In Federal Court Under California’S Unruh Civil Rights Act, Denis Bogatin

Pepperdine Law Review

Since California adopted heightened pleading standards for high-frequency litigants alleging violations of the Unruh Act in state court, federal district courts have seen a surge of ADA and Unruh Act claims filed together to secure subject matter jurisdiction. Most courts dismissed the Unruh claims under their discretionary authority under 28 U.S.C. § 1367, but they remained divided on whether plaintiffs in these cases have a right to jury trial—statutory or constitutional. In 2025, the Ninth Circuit resolved part of the split in In re Tsay, holding that the Unruh Act provides a constitutional right to a jury trial because it …

Rights Of Nature: An Argument For Judicial Economy, Anna Belinski-Huber

Natural Resources Journal

Tracing the evolution of the “rights of nature” movement from Indigenous law and early environmental ethics to modern global applications, this article reframes the debate around codification of legal rights for nature from moral theory to legal efficiency, arguing that the United States implicitly recognizes rights of nature within its environmental jurisprudence and statutory framework. Through detailed analyses of the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act alongside corresponding case studies, the author demonstrates how courts and Congress have already expanded standing, redefined injury, and recognized nature’s inherent right to exist and flourish. …

Everything The Light Touches Is Not Your Kingdom: Understanding The Statutory Silence In The Antiquities Act To Restrict Presidential Power, Lillian A. Bourne

Natural Resources Journal

There is no greater threat to our public lands than energy dominance. The 1906 Antiquities Act gave presidents the power to proclaim national monuments on public lands, and today the federal government protects over 11 million acres as national monuments. President Trump plans to revoke and shrink monument protections so that these lands can be used for oil, gas, and mineral drilling, destroying cultural artifacts with detrimental impacts to air, water, and land. The Antiquities Act does not give the president the power to revoke or shrink national monuments designated by prior presidents; the Act reserves this power solely to …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Approaches To Shaping International Outer Space Law And Norms, Ariel G. Silverman

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores convergences and divergencies in the United States and PRC’s responses to the stalemate in the United Nations over the future of outer space resource governance. I do so by systematically analyzing these leading space-faring nations’ policy-positions and tactics deployed to shape norms around three substantive areas of outer space resource governance: rights of ownership and scope of utilization of space resources, mechanization of the “benefits sharing” principle, and the rights and responsibilities of the private sector. I theorize that these leading space-faring nations have adopted divergent approaches due to their differing historical relationships with international law and …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Analytical Framework For Understanding Broader-Based And Sectoral Bargaining Models, Sara Slinn

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Third-Party Funding: Balancing Transparency, National Security, And Access To Justice, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Seattle University Law Review

Many lawmakers who have recently become aware of the multi-billion-dollar global third-party funding industry are raising new national security concerns that further complicate preexisting, longstanding debates about transparency, disclosure, access to justice, and the best way to regulate third-party funding. In response, this Article briefly asserts three main points relating to the question of how best to regulate third-party funding. First, this Article explains the third-party funding industry, including its global regulatory landscape and how it serves three distinct populations: consumers, businesses, and law firms. Second, this Article explains that third-party funding is one tool that can help expand access …

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Kim Gyeong-Seok And The Origins Of Northeast Asia’S Corporate Accountability Movement For War And Colonialism, Timothy Webster

Seattle University Law Review

For the past three decades, a transnational reparations movement has unfolded across Northeast Asia. Hundreds of victims—assisted by attorneys, academics, and activists—seek remedies from Japan for various atrocities committed during World War II, colonialism, and other historical injustices.  They press their claims in street protests, legislative hearings, dramatic performances, and other fora.  The “comfort women” are the best known of these claimants; their global redress campaign ex-tends from noisy protests outside of Japan’s embassy in Seoul, to mute statues in raucous boroughs of Berlin.  More obscure, though larger in number, were the roughly one million Koreans who performed forced labor …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

Mitigating Procurement Risks: A Framework For Good Governance In Public Contracting, Karem Sayed Aboelazm, Raghda Raafat, Fady Tawakol, Khalid Mohamed Dganni

All Works

This paper seeks to explore internal and emerging limitations set within the public procurement system. It suggests institutional structures to oversee such a process, more than just technical fixes (Enayati & Özaltin, 2024). It also aims to move beyond the technologies themselves by bringing governance, standards, and principles into public procurement. The present paper is descriptive-analytic and was conducted based on a review of literature and research reports. It also employs a qualitative interpretive methodology for analysis of international organization reports and identifies various types of public procurements, such as procedural and contextual systemic risks. The paper draws a number …

Ames V. Ohio Department Of Youth Services: Reaffirming Title Vii’S Neutrality In An Era Of Shifting Discrimination, David P. Mcginley

Liberty University Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, emphasizing individual rights over group status. In Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, however, the district court and Sixth Circuit deviated from this bedrock principle by imposing an additional “background circumstances” evidentiary burden on plaintiff Marlean Ames, a heterosexual female alleging sexual orientation discrimination, solely because of her perceived majority-group status. This Article demonstrates that such group-based burdens contravene Title VII’s text, legislative intent, and judicial precedent, as reaffirmed by the Supreme Court’s rejection of the “background …

Mahmoud V. Taylor: A Significant Victory For The Religious Rights Of Parents With Children In Public Schools, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Liberty University Law Review

The Supreme Court’s June 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor unmistakably accomplished two things: it strengthened the Free Exercise Clause protections of the First Amendment, and it weakened the ability of schools to press an ideological agenda on matters of human sexuality and gender identity when the materials substantially interfere with the religious development of children. After Montgomery County refused to exercise its discretion to give parents notice and the right to opt their elementary-aged children out of objectional material concerning gender identity and sexual orientation, several parents and a non-profit organization sued, alleging free exercise and parental rights claims. …

From Copper To Ashes: Violations Of The Right To A Healthy Environment And Health In Tsumeb, Namibia, Sarah Dávila

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The rights to a healthy environment and health are not new human rights to the African System for Human and Peoples’ Rights. In fact, they have been protected under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights since 1981. However, outside of the established normative framework, a pressing issue arises in States where the extractive industry maintains a stronghold on the economy. The people of and around Tsumeb, Namibia, have been subjected to egregious human rights abuses and an environmental crisis. Their lives and environment have been historically and continuously destroyed due to the foreign-corporate extractive industry. The mining and …

Collateral Damage: Parental Incarceration As Family Punishment, Hatim M. Husainy

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The United States stands alone among UN members in refusing to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That absence reflects a deeper failure: the American legal system continues to allow parental incarceration to inflict punishment on children who have committed no crime. This paper explores how the structure of U.S. mass incarceration—especially within Black and Native American communities—conflicts with both domestic legal ideals and international human rights standards. It calls for legal and policy reform that recognizes families as indivisible social units and restores justice to those most affected by incarceration’s collateral damage.

The U.S. Critical Minerals List: Between A Rock And A Hard Place, Wesley Peebles

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Critical minerals are minerals found essential to economic and national security and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Congress and presidents from both political parties have actively promoted critical mineral production, offering up billions of dollars to secure mineral supply chains. The federal government has invested to increase domestic mineral production, grow global partnerships, and reinvigorate U.S. industry in an attempt to reduce the risk of supply disruptions for these valuable minerals. To identify which minerals are critical to the United States, Congress tasked the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to evaluate and identify a …

“The Needs Of The Many Outweigh The Needs Of The Few”: A Plan For A New Farm Bill That Promotes The Health And Welfare Of Humans And Nonhuman Animals, And Protects The Planet On Which We Live., John Lieberman

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The Farm Bill was created in 1933, with the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The Bill was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to assist farmers struggling with low prices during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era. Thus the era of the farm subsidy was born. Crafted in a different time, with technology, knowledge, science and an economy that today would be considered obsolete, the basic mechanisms, and financial support, have nevertheless lived on.

The myriad of problems that have arisen since that time within an agriculture industry that has flourished on the taxpayer dime …

Laudato Si’ And The Limits Of Law: Reflections On The Vocation To Protect Integral Ecology, Lucia A. Silecchia

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Confinement And Consent: A Comparative Analysis Of Sexual Abuse In Finnish And U.S. Prisons, Madison A. Greico

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The Bangkok Rules and The Basic Principles for The Treatment of Prisoners are a specific outline of protections and rights for individuals( Bangkok specifically about women) within prisons adopted by the United Nations compromising states. While The United States is a leader in the United Nations and adopted this set of rules, their failures of commitment are extremely apparent. Every year, thousands of prison rapes occur behind bars in New York alone by the very guards meant to protect them. In Finland, another United Nations member, however, has virtually no record of sexual abuse within their prisons. In investigation of …

An Empirical Dissection Of Discretionary Denials Following Bifurcation Policy, Sarah Geers, Adam J. Cook, Daniel C. Sloan, Matt Johnson

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Unsettling History Of Settled Expectations, Sara Tonnies Horton, Henry Thomas

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.