Digital Commons Network^™

What Is Happening In The World Today And Why: Humanity’S Evolving Consciousness And The Role Of Archetypal Energies As Guides During An Unfolding Weeding Out And Alignment Process, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

What is happening in the world today and why? Humanity is evolving its consciousness at individual and collective levels. Given these seemingly tumultuous times, as of this writing (January 2026), to make such a statement may sound like a strange thing to say. However, I suggest that if you are alive today and if you are reading these words, these are the very times for which you were born--to assist Humanity as it evolves its consciousness with your unique gifts, whatever they may be. That is, this period of our individual and collective human being-ness may be characterized as an …

Isaiha Duckket V. The State Of Nevada, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 9 (Feb. 05, 2026), Adrienne Jack-Sands

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

In Duckket v. State, the Supreme Court of Nevada found no error in allowing a criminal defendant to represent himself despite multiple competency evaluations before and during trial, nor was his right to a speedy trial infringed when none of the delays were caused by the State.

Seeing Beyond The Words: What Interdisciplinary Methodologies Reveal About International Law, Matthew S. Erie, Mark Pollack, Wolfgang Alschner, Beth Simmons, Katerina Linos

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

INTRODUCTION: On April 24, 2025, the International Law and Social Science Interest Group debuted at the ASIL Annual Meeting with a panel that posed a deceptively simple question: how can social science tools advance the work of international lawyers? Chaired by Chantal Thomas, the session brought together Matthew Erie, Wolfgang Alschner, Beth Simmons, and Katerina Linos— scholars who bridge doctrinal and empirical inquiry—to show how ethnography, computational text analysis, counterfactual inference, and mixed-method design can illuminate legal puzzles that doctrine alone cannot solve. The four short essays in this symposium provide parallel illustrations of this core theme: Erie’s ethnographic approach …

Emergency War Arrangements In Asean: A Comparative Analysis, Ardi Susanto, Qurrata Ayuni

Indonesian Journal of International Law

The Hague Conventions include a general participation clause and is regarded as customary international law, meaning that ASEAN countries are considered bound by the norms contained within the convention. The declaration of war as stated in the Hague Convention III of 1907 was adopted in Article 11 paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, which, to date, has not provided further regulations governing the implementation of legislative and executive powers concerning the declaration of war. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the constitutional arrangements for the state of war in ASEAN countries through comparative law …

The Structural Obligations Approach To Human Rights, David Birchall

Indonesian Journal of International Law

This paper starts from the observations that access to socio-economic rights is retrogressing in many wealthy states and that human rights argumentation is failing to address the causes of this retrogression. The paper locates a core reason for this failure in an imbalance between narrow but forceful claim rights and inclusive but imprecise structural approaches. It builds a form of rights practice that merges the strength of each approach. It is predicated on five key principles: structural obligations should identify discrete rights-based problems that engender specific obligations upon feasibly obligated duty-bearers to make practicable changes to conduct to realise rights …

Game Changer: College Athletes’ Employee Status In Light Of Johnson And The Changing Ncaa Landscape, Emily C. Bracht

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Put Your Money Where Your Vote Is: An Analysis Of Election Betting In The United States, Ellelyshia Ardo

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Fight For Your Right: An Analysis Of A Musician’S Ability To Terminate A Copyright Assignment Of A Music Recording, Ian Waldron

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

In 2019, musicians joined together to launch two separate lawsuits against Sony Music Entertainment (“Sony”) and Universal Music Group (“UMG”) after the record labels ignored the musicians’ copyright termination notices. Copyright termination is a powerful tool that allows the original owner of a work, under some circumstances, to regain possession years after they have assigned it to another party. To defend their actions, UMG and Sony countered that since the recordings were created under a record deal, they were works for hire and the musicians acted as employees. Therefore, under the record label’s theory, the musicians would have no ownership …

Pills, Powders, And Proprietary Blends: The Ip And Regulatory Battle Over Dietary Supplement Transparency, Anna Marie Saunders

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Available in the form of pills, powders, gummies, bars, and countless other options, dietary supplements have become a cornerstone of the health and wellness industry and a popular product amongst health-conscious consumers. Fueled by the rise of social media influencers and a surge in health-awareness following the COVID-19 pandemic, the supplement industry has experienced rapid growth, evolving into a multi-billion-dollar market.  While widely embraced, these products often face criticism due to labeling and marketing practices that leave  consumers with an incomplete understanding of exactly they are consuming.  This tension arises from the unique legal intersection governing dietary supplements.  These products …

No Patent Attorney In Their Right Mind: How Jepson Claims Clarify Subject Matter Eligibility Post-Mayo, Jared M. Brown

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Patent practitioners have gradually shelved Jepson claims for four decades. In those four decades, Supreme Court patent subject matter eligibility jurisprudence has taken a roller-coaster ride from an ancient point-of-novelty approach through the days of Diamond v. Diehr and back to a modernized arguably point-of-novelty-focused approach again in Mayo and Alice. In the absence of congressional action, the Federal Circuit has been left to deal with the aftermath. The inventive landscape—particularly with regard to biotech and software—is shifting fast, and our patent scheme is struggling to keep up.

In the case of software inventions, the Federal Circuit has largely …

Patents In Paradise: The Evolution Of Patent Law In The Cayman Islands, Andrew W. Torrance, Andrew P. Morriss, Lisa C. Friedman

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This study examines the Cayman Islands’ unique position in the global intellectual property (IP) landscape, contrasting its success as an exporter of financial and legal services with the inherently domestic nature of patent protection. We hypothesize that due to this limitation, the Cayman Islands functions as a strategic, cost-effective jurisdiction for augmenting patent protection initially obtained elsewhere. Our research provides the first comprehensive analysis of Caymanian patents, and through a quantitative examination of patent family data—including filing trends, economic valuation, geographic distribution, and assignee profiles—we find strong empirical evidence to support this thesis.
Our findings reveal a disproportionate presence of …

The Transatlantic Clinical Trial Transparency Gap, Gabriela Lenarczyk

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Clinical trial data occupy a contested space between private commercial assets and public goods. While the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has historically shielded these data through expansive trade-secret interpretations, the European Union (EU) has adopted a more open disclosure regime. This Article compares the two regimes and traces how the EU’s two-decade journey toward transparency has become a key reference for researchers and advocates of open data-sharing.

Focusing on EU practices—targeted redactions, time-bound access, granular disclosure guidelines—the paper shows that U.S. objections to broader transparency often rest on overstated concerns about competitive harm. A Filspari (sparsentan) case …

Vol. 70, No. 4 (February 2, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Green Rules, Fragmented Fields: Member-State Approaches To Sustainability In Eu Competition Law, Niccolò Galli, Armando Santoni

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

This article provides a comparative, normative-evaluative examination of how sustainability is being incorporated into European competition law. Combining doctrinal legal analysis with economic reasoning, it clarifies competing definitions of sustainability, maps the contest between the consumer-welfare paradigm and sustainability proponents, and evaluates the legal and institutional implications of the Commission’s 2023 Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines. Drawing on national initiatives across Member States plus the UK, the study highlights contrasting instruments, from Austria’s statutory environmental exemption to the Dutch soft-law safe harbour and Greece’s experimental sustainability sandbox, and shows how these divergent approaches produce fragmentation and legal uncertainty for cross-border cooperative initiatives. …

The Comparator Argument In Trans-Healthcare Ban Cases, Craig Konnoth

UC Law Journal

As states have increasingly restricted gender affirming care for minors across the nation (reinforced by a recent Executive Order by President Trump), and though the Supreme Court ruled on one such state ban, a powerful argument has largely been overlooked. This argument emphasizes the fact that transgender minors are not alone in receiving gender affirming care. Cisgender minors also receive such care for precisely the same reasons as transgender minors— unwanted breast tissue development, undesired hair growth, unusual vocal development, and puberty onset. Indeed, cisgender children receive such care at higher numbers than trans children, and many of the medications …

A Case Against Mass Deportation: The Japanese American Internment Camps And Recent Treatment Of Korematsu, Isaac Bloch

UC Law Journal

The large-scale deportation of non-citizens has become a preeminent policy issue. Unfortunately, executive curtailment of immigrant communities’ liberty is not without historical parallels. During World War II, federal officials sent individuals of Japanese descent to internment camps through a series of executive orders and military proclamations. Although attorneys in the Department of Justice believed aspects of these actions were unconstitutional at the time, the administration prevailed at the nation’s highest court. Can recognition of this past wrong aid challenges to contemporary immigration enforcement regimes? How do our courts formally account for the most egregious jurisprudential errors of the past, and …

Caremark Claims Following Disasters: Why Plaintiffs Should Sue The Board When It Causes A Disaster, Eli Mizock

UC Law Journal

Fire disasters have become an inevitability for California residents. After a fire disaster, the public is primarily concerned with compensating the victims. However, securities fraud class actions brought by shareholders of the responsible utilities companies also accompany fire disasters. This Note argues that, instead of securities class actions, derivative claims under the Caremark jurisprudence may better serve corporate litigants following fire disasters. Historically, surviving the initial motion to dismiss under the Caremark standard has been a challenging hurdle for plaintiffs. However, under Marchand v. Barnhill and In re Clovis Oncology Derivative Litigation, “mission critical” risks of life and limb, or …

The Equal Protection Problem: The Right To Vote, Gerrymandering, And Lessons From Canada, Gabriel Renneisen

UC Law Journal

In the wake of Rucho v. Common Cause, partisan gerrymandering remains a nonjusticiable political question. This retreat from judicial oversight leaves a significant gap in the protection of democratic governance. The United States Constitution, as currently interpreted, offers little substantive support for voters’ rights as such. Courts locate the right to vote in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, but that Clause protects equal access to voting rights—not meaningful participation, representation, or influence; it requires scrutiny only where legislatures rely on unconstitutional criteria to classify voters. Notably, at the time of this writing, California and Texas are in …

We The People: Ending Subminimum Wage Through Alternative Means Where Legislation Has Failed, Heather N. Kainz

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Legislative Update, Steven Flanders, Brianna Ford Imm, Anna Miller, Katie Taafe

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The Legislative Update tracks legislation related to alternative dispute resolution proposed and enacted in state legislatures nationwide. Under the guidance of the Associate Editor-in-Chief, Associate Members of the Journal of Dispute Resolution prepared this update. It includes articles examining specific bills and broader legislative trends across various states that the authors found particularly significant and impactful.

When Constitutional Protection For Religious Liberty Gets Lost In Translation: A Case Study From Washington State, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

Protecting religious liberty can present difficult challenges when religious liberty conflicts with laws prohibiting discrimination. Balancing religious liberty and nondiscrimination requires courts to accurately apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s complex First Amendment jurisprudence, including cases that address compelled speech, expressive association, and church autonomy. Amidst all the complexity, protection for religious liberty can get lost in translation. One important venue where protection can get lost in translation is in religious liberty cases decided by state supreme courts. The decisions of state supreme courts are especially significant because they provide the authoritative construction for state statutes and the state constitution. In …

Subsidiarity Municipalism In Action: On Vincent V. Adams, Gregory E. Louis

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Building on the author’s recent article Protecting Commoners’ Goods: Pluralist Coexistence Through the Common Good Constitution’s Subsidiarity Municipalism (PCG), this Essay deconstructs the recent New York appellate opinion in Vincent v. Adams. That case reverses a trial court opinion that PCG criticizes as an example of how current law misunderstands the proper relationship between local government and federal and state authorities. This Essay uses the appellate court decision in Vincent v. Adams to reinforce PCG’s thesis of subsidiarity municipalism, to offer another illustration of subsidiarity municipalism’s progressive potential, and to suggest how subsidiarity municipalism can inform the relationship between …

International Arbitration & Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities,Challenges,And Evolving Regulations, Martínez Quintanilla, Javier Antonio

Santa Clara Journal of International Law

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the regulatory framework; the opportunities and the challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence in international arbitration. First, it addresses relevant regulatory instruments such as the Guideline on the Use of AI in Arbitration of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIARB); the Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Arbitration of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center (SVAMC); the Principles Supporting the Use of AI in Alternative Dispute Resolution of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution(ICDR); the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act; and the New Task Force on AI in …

The Illusion Of Justice: How Criminalizing Status Undermines The Rule Of Law, Luz M. Payán

Immigration Law Blog

In May of 2025, United States Senator Cornyn introduced the Justice for American Victims of Illegal Aliens Act. The Act creates an additional aggravating factor in determining whether to impose the death sentence. The aggravating factor would only be applicable when a noncitizen is found guilty of killing a United States citizen. This Article first argues that this Act would create grave constitutional concerns and severely undermine the rule of law. Next, this Article urges that, in order to truly promote public safety, our government should focus on policies meant to empower communities.

The Illusion Of Justice: How Criminalizing Status Undermines The Rule Of Law, Luz M. Payán

Immigration Law Blog

In May of 2025, United States Senator Cornyn introduced the Justice for American Victims of Illegal Aliens Act. The Act creates an additional aggravating factor in determining whether to impose the death sentence. The aggravating factor would only be applicable when a noncitizen is found guilty of killing a United States citizen. This Article first argues that this Act would create grave constitutional concerns and severely undermine the rule of law. Next, this Article urges that, in order to truly promote public safety, our government should focus on policies meant to empower communities.

Finding Luis: A Creative Nonfiction Account Of Law & Society, Jason M. Leggett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay explores the contradictions in legal theory and human experience through creative nonfiction. Its main purpose is to argue that a truly just society requires acknowledging the profound influence of individual narratives on the law. This is supported by blending personal narratives, critical analysis, and philosophical inquiry to reveal the gap between codified law and lived realities for marginalized individuals. This unique Legal Poetics methodology employs a series of six vignettes, such as the author's and Luis's shared experiences with traumatic brain injury and the denial of justice, as data. By integrating autoethnography, law as narrative, and performativity theories, …

The 107 Longest Supreme Court Cases, Benjamin H. Barton

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Proactive Or Reactive? Defining Landlord Duties In Terry V. Public Service Company Of North Carolina, Ben Stroud

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Poly Problem In Zoning: Redefining "Family" For A Changing Society, Aric K. Short, Tanya Pierce

Faculty Scholarship

Single-family zoning has long dictated not only where people may live but also with whom. Although extensively critiqued for perpetuating racial and economic exclusion, these laws also privilege relationships defined by blood, marriage, or adoption and marginalize nontraditional families. This Article focuses on a particularly overlooked group: polyamorous families who often face legal uncertainty, social exclusion, and housing discrimination due to restrictive zoning definitions of “family.”

As polyamory gains cultural visibility and increasing legal recognition—through West 49th Street, LLC v. O’Neill and municipal reforms in cities like Somerville and Cambridge—now is the time to examine zoningÊs role in reinforcing outdated …

Transforming Blood Management Systems In Developing Countries Through Technological And Artificial Intelligence-Driven Innovations, Sandeep Bhargava, Shaun Aaron Abram, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

It is critical to ensure the safe and quality supply of blood among various stakeholders; however, this remains a significant challenge in today’s world, especially in developing countries. These countries face severe problems, including blood shortages, fragmented regulatory frameworks, and inconsistent quality control measures. To tackle these challenges, countries like India are trying to implement the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and its derivative platforms to transform blood collection, testing, storage, and distribution by enabling interoperability, real-time compliance monitoring, automated donor screening, optimized inventory management, and advanced component separation. The article argues that developing countries must adopt both regulatory reform …