Digital Commons Network^™

Unfriending The Kids: The Problematic Race To Childproof Social Media, Randolph A. Robinson Ii

Cleveland State Law Review

A growing number of states have recently enacted new laws with the goal of protecting young people from potential harm allegedly caused by social media use. These laws are diverse in their approaches but broadly seek to limit youth access to social media platforms by imposing age verification and parental consent requirements. These laws directly implicate the First Amendment rights of both young users who will no longer be able to access speech or speak on social media platforms as well as adult users who must now submit to age verification to access these quintessential forums for political discourse.

These …

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 …

Aging Alone In Malaysia: Social Challenges And Legal Protections, Jal Zabdi Mohd Yusoff, Zulazhar Tahir, Siti Zaharah Jamaluddin

Hasanuddin Law Review

According to The Japan Times, nearly 28,000 elderly individuals in Japan will die alone in the first half of 2024. This alarming trend is not unique to Japan; many countries, including Malaysia, are facing the challenges of an aging population. As Malaysia approaches becoming an aging nation, issues affecting the elderly, particularly those living alone, demand urgent attention. While not all elderly people face the same circumstances, some enjoy stable finances or live with their family, while others live in isolation due to various factors, such as remaining unmarried, widowhood, or estranged familial ties. Some are simply separated by their …

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 …

Boycott Governance, Carlos Berdejó

New Mexico Law Review

Despite the power they wield in modern society, corporations are hardly democratic institutions. Their governance structure is designed to further the interest of a narrow set of stakeholders, leaving little room for safeguarding the interests of other constituencies. Moreover, the power to manage corporate affairs rests in the hands of a few individuals who enjoy broad discretion and face limited accountability. This decision-making structure fosters an environment that favors the pursuit of profits at the expense of the interests of those who lack access to the corporate governance framework. Since infiltrating this governance mechanism to influence a firm’s decision-making is …

Rejecting Salinas V. Texas’S Catch-22: Towards State Constitutional Protections For Silence In New Mexico, Kayla Herring

New Mexico Law Review

The landmark United States Supreme Court case, Miranda v. Arizona, protects individuals’ constitutional rights in coercive environments, like custodial interrogations, where law enforcement officers apply immense psychological pressure through specialized techniques. However, subsequent caselaw distorts Miranda’s intent to enable prosecutors to comment on silence. Doing so divorces Miranda from the reason the United States Supreme Court established Miranda warnings in the first place. This subsequent caselaw narrows individuals’ constitutional right against having their silence used against them in later criminal proceedings to imply guilt based on the custodial framework established in Miranda. Salinas v. Texas is one of those subsequent …

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 …

After Ratification: How Will Indonesia Navigate The Bbnj Agreement?, Febryani Sabatira, Ria Wierma Putri, Orima Melati Davey

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Indonesia’s ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) signals its entry into a new phase of ocean governance. Translating this commitment into practice requires understanding the Agreement’s scope, assessing its institutional design, and evaluating its implications for Indonesia’s marine legal framework. This paper applies a normative legal analysis and draws on international treaties, domestic laws, and policy instruments to examine the BBNJ’s four substantive pillars—marine genetic resources, area-based management tools, environmental impact assessments, and capacity building and technology transfer—and their relevance to global and national biodiversity …

Crisis Aporias In Questioning International Law’S Efficacy And Legitimacy, Swati Singh Parmar

Indonesian Journal of International Law

International law events have been sites of contestation among teachers and scholars of international law and beyond. With each unsettling international event, the international law academe faces new wine in the old bottle questions on international law efficacy based on managerial expectations of international law. Though mostly unfair and disproportionate, these questions–diffused and embodied in teaching and otherwise–weigh heavily on international law’s efficacy and legitimacy during and even beyond the temporality of such events. Before any objective and horizontal assessment of IL through crises, as international law scholars, we must try to ask ourselves a few questions. What makes a …

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 …

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 …

Breaking Down Barriers To Giving: Policy Reform Needed To Protect Donors, Volunteers, And Food Charities, Ally Depriest

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Charitable organizations often depend on public support to fulfill their missions. This is especially true in the charitable food system, a network of nonprofit organizations, including food banks, pantries, and meal programs, which provide no-cost food to those in need. Within this system, volunteers, donors, and food charities each play an important role, such as donating surplus food, directing traffic at food drives, stocking local pantries, and preparing and serving meals at soup kitchens. Together, they provide both hope and nutrition to those in need. Without this public support, many food charities would be unable to operate. Encouraging public participation …

The Soil Crisis In Modern Food Systems: Rethinking Agricultural Land Use, Antonia Moure Richard

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Feeding a larger world while preserving the resource that makes agriculture possible—soil—poses a governance problem. By 2050, food systems must support 9.8 billion people even as prevailing practices continue to degrade soils that are non-renewable on human timescales. Technological fixes (e.g., vertical farming, hydroponics) may complement production, but they cannot substitute for soil at scale. The question that follows is simple: are current uses of soil compatible with the future needs of food systems? This article argues that without a shift in governance, short-run productivity gains are achieved by drawing down the soil asset, thereby undermining long-run food security and …

Closing The Gaps: Reforming Maryland Controls On Veterinary Antimicrobial Distribution, Samantha Capaldo, Kerry Mcclaughry

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Antimicrobials have been used in livestock and other food animals in the United States (“U.S.”) since the late 1940s. An antimicrobial is “[a]ny natural, synthetic, or semisynthetic substance that can eradicate or prevent the growth of microbes,” including “[a]ntibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral medications.” Antimicrobial use in food animals is subject to a complex statutory and regulatory framework at both the state and federal levels. Antimicrobial use in food animals has been widely criticized for contributing to antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections in humans. In response to this criticism, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and several states, including Maryland, have …

Shipwrecks: A Genuine Pollution Risk, Farid Hatimy

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

Marine pollution, defined as the introduction by humans of substances or energy into the marine environment causing harmful effects, is often associated with major maritime accidents. Modern vessels carrying immense cargoes and large quantities of fuel pose significant threats when reduced to shipwrecks through incidents such as breakage, grounding, sinking, or explosion. These shipwrecks represent a genuine risk of accidental—rather than operational—pollution. The author examines how such maritime disasters endanger marine ecosystems, biological resources, human health, and maritime activities including fishing and leisure, highlighting the critical need for effective prevention and intervention measures.

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 …

Pay-To-Play, Gad Weiss

BYU Law Review

Pay-to-play clauses are a surprisingly understudied feature of venture capital financing deals. These provisions are designed to act as enforcement agents, securing investors’ long-term commitment by penalizing those who decline to provide additional funding when their portfolio startups come calling. Through an analysis of a novel dataset of pay-to-play clauses, this paper uncovers surprising patterns in how U.S. startups design and deploy them—most notably, their tendency to discriminate among investors despite legal guidance suggesting otherwise. The paper illustrates how pay-to-play clauses can increase enterprise value by addressing flaws in startups’ governance and capital structures, preventing destructive “chicken” games among investor …

Bank Stability Under Global Risk Uncertainty: The Interplay Of Internal Characteristics And External Regulatory Environment, Erfan Rachmadi, Bowo Setiyono, Bimo Saktiawan, Muizzuddin Muizzuddin

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This study examines the impact of global political and climate uncertainty on bank stability, utilizing panel data from 604 banks across 40 countries during the period 2011–2022. Through fixed effects and difference GMM methodologies, the analysis reveals that both geopolitical and climate risks adversely affect bank stability. Notably, tightening governance creates a ‘regulatory compliance paradox’ which leads to lower climate readiness and bank stability. We also identified that capital buffers matter in enhancing bank readiness to face geopolitical and climate uncertainty. However, efficiency plays a dual role. In times of geopolitical risk, it is necessary, but we also can’t achieve …

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 …

Bleeding Into Human Rights Law: The Need For A Special Procedure On The Right To Menstrual Health, Hunter Tarry

BYU Law Review

Menstruation, a fundamental biological process experienced by nearly half of the global population, remains shrouded in stigma and silence despite its critical role in sustaining human life. Many women and girls face inadequate menstrual health management and education, undermining their ability to experience a full range of human rights. While menstruation has gained increased public visibility in recent years, the United Nations (UN)—the cornerstone of the global human rights system—has been slow to meaningfully integrate this issue into its agenda. The time is now for the UN to formally recognize menstrual health as a human right by advancing global advocacy …

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. …

Until The Cages Are Empty: Transgender Criminal Defense As A Necessary Tactic Of Prison-Industrial Complex Abolition, Lark Mulligan

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This article is a practical guide in the fight to abolish the prison-industrial complex as well as institutionalized transphobia and cissexism. Focusing specifically on the practice area of criminal defense, this article proposes a model that must be replicated across jurisdictions wherever transgender people are criminalized. By instituting an interdisciplinary team approach that is non-hierarchical, strengths-based, trauma-informed, community focused, holistic, harm-reductionist, and abolitionist, practitioners will find their role in this movement as one of consensus building, knowledge sharing, community empowerment, institutional navigation, and access distribution. As discrimination and violence against trans people continues to rise, practitioners must learn to not …

Rbr Management, Llc V. Eighth Judicial District Court [State Of Nevada], 142 Nev., Adv. Op. 44 (June 18, 2026), Erika Loveland

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Emergency medical service providers and ambulances are not "provider[s] of health care" under NRS 41A.017, so claims against them are not professional negligence claims and require no expert affidavit.

The Impact Of Modern Police Equipment And Training On Reported Anxiety And Depression Of Police Officers, Matthew Roy Burford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study investigated the relationships among law enforcement officers’ access to modern equipment, their confidence in their training, and their reported levels of anxiety and depression. The study also tested whether confidence in training moderated the association between equipment and mental health outcomes. Mental health symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988). Two researchers-developed instruments to assess officers’ perceived adequacy of their equipment and confidence in their training. Participants were recruited from law enforcement agencies across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and data were collected through …

An Analysis Of Human Trafficking In Alabama, Kimberly Abrams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this analysis is to gain a thorough understanding of human trafficking in the Alabama. The illegal issue of this analysis is for those who lack a sense of human trafficking, which surrounds the communities where they reside. The theory guiding this study is due to the complexity of the issue globally around the world as it explains the causes of human trafficking amongst victims, which include those who experience poverty, lack of access to job opportunities, natural disasters, and lack of legal protection for immigrants. Additionally, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide insights into the …

Should I Supersede Or Should I Go: Individual Protection And Private Company Interests In Implementing A Federal Biometric Privacy Law, Jessica Oshanani

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Section I of this Note will define and discuss biometrics. Section II will discuss key biometrics legislation and Section III will explain the impact of BIPA on other state biometric privacy laws.

Next, Section IV will explain the impact of biometric privacy violations and separate controlling state laws on individuals, while Section V will explain the impact of biometric data laws on private companies.

Section VI will identify potential federal laws on the horizon, then Section VII will explain the concept and application of preemption.

Finally, Section VIII will discuss the benefits of administrative agency overview, and Section IX …