Digital Commons Network^™

From Promise To Performance: Reforming Blended Finance For Scale, Perrine Toledano, Ana M. Camelo Vega, Tucker Wilke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Blended finance has the potential to help close the sustainable development financing gap. Strategically combining public and philanthropic capital to unlock private investment, it has proven to be an effective tool to de-risk impact investments. But without bold, structural reform, it risks remaining a niche tool – promising in theory, underperforming in practice. Drawing on over 65 expert interviews and in-depth analysis, this report from the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) maps the systemic barriers preventing blended finance from operating at scale, and outlines a practical path forward. With bold leadership and coordinated reform, blended finance can become a …

Looking For The Public In Public Law, Nikhil Menezes, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

The “public” is everywhere and nowhere in contemporary public law. Everywhere, in that the term is constantly invoked to justify and explain existing arrangements. Nowhere, in that serious attempts to identify a relevant public and elicit its input are few and far between. Scholars and officials depict the U.S. public as playing myriad roles in governance — checking, guiding, approving, repudiating—without offering an account of how public preferences are formed or how they exercise influence on questions of interest.

This Article seeks to identify and call attention to the foundational dilemmas underlying this disconnect, to clarify their normative contours and …

The Administrative State's Second Face, Emily R. Chertoff, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

We often assume that there is one administrative state, with one body of administrative law that governs it. In fact, the administrative state has two distinct faces: one turned toward regulation and benefits distribution, and one turned toward physical force and surveillance. The two faces are growing further apart under the Roberts Court, which has hemmed in the first face with decisions like Loper Bright while showing solicitude for national security and law enforcement agencies.

This Article delineates the two faces of the administrative state. It provides a descriptive account of the second face and the distinctive administrative law that …

Addressing Missingness In Serialized Bureaucratic Data: The Case Of Chinese Courts, Xiaohan Wu, Margaret Roberts, Rachel E. Stern, Benjamin L. Liebman, Amarnath Gupta, Luke Sanford

Faculty Scholarship

Courts around the world are putting their data online, making information about caseloads, parties, and decisions available to the public. Yet, this data is far from complete, and often only reflects a portion of courts’ dockets. We offer and validate a set of tools for leveraging serialized bureaucratic data from courts to estimate the proportion of cases available to the public and the time courts take to make decisions. Using data from more than 3,000 courts in China, our methods allow us to assess patterns of missingness in court data across provinces and cities by type of case and to …

Presidential Supremacy Over Administrative Agencies, Gary Gensler, Lev Menand

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, the public has long benefited from the role played by administrative agencies with a degree of autonomy from the White House, each agency with distinct duties and authorities to implement the law as set out by Congress.

In its first hundred days, the second Trump administration has moved rapidly to centralise control over all administrative agencies, including so-called independent agencies, which have long operated at a greater remove from the White House than ‘executive’ agencies like the Department of State and the Department of Commerce. The administration is asserting an interpretation of the Constitution known as …

The Mda's Impact: Going Beyond Insurance Reimbursements, Todd Christy D.D.S.

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Dr. Todd Christy, MDA Immediate Past President, acknowledges that inadequate insurance reimbursement rates are a major concern for dental practices. He explains that federal antitrust laws restrict the MDA from directly intervening to "fix" these rates. However, the article emphasizes that the MDA provides significant value and advocacy in many other areas crucial to dentists. Key achievements include eliminating the tax on dental prosthetics, legislating network leasing protections, expanding kindergarten oral health assessments, and regulating mobile dentistry. The MDA also offered vital support during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocated for increased Medicaid facility fees for anesthesia procedures, and assists members with …

Symposium Introduction: Illuminating Public Health Struggles Behind Bars, Justin Iverson, Javiera Sothers

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Keynote: Promoting Disability Equality Behind Bars, Margo Schlanger

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Solitary Confinement Crisis In Immigration Detention, Sabrineh Ardalan, Arevik Avedian, Philip L. Torrey

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Confédération Des Syndicats Nationaux: A Case Study On The Reconciliation Of Equality And Freedom Of Association, Andrea Talarico

Dalhousie Law Journal

The evolution of the protection of collective bargaining rights in Canada has been marked by a tension between freedom of association (section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “the Charter”) and equality (section 15(1) of the Charter). In most cases before the Supreme Court of Canada (“the SCC”), the SCC has examined both rights separately. More recently, the SCC has treated equality as a value (rather than a right), using the value of equality to inform its interpretation of freedom of association. Both these approaches (the “Siloed Approach” and the “Charter Values” approach) fail …

Don’T Mess With Mr. In-Between, Brian Langille, Ben Mayer-Goodman

Dalhousie Law Journal

In a separate, related paper, we reveal and criticize an important “methodical error” which is commonly made in labour law jurisprudence. In this paper, we undertake a review of the attempts by Canadian and UK legislators and decision makers to overcome some of the problems of applying labour law’s traditional orthodoxy in the face of an ever more complex world by creating new categories “in between” the existing classes of employees and independent contractors. These attempts often fail precisely because they perpetuate the traditional approach and its methodological error, maintaining its perverse incentive structures. Our advice: “Don’t mess with Mr. …

Crip Time, Castoriadis, And Transcending The Duty To Accommodate In The Workplace, Ravi Malhotra, Jacqueline Moizer

Dalhousie Law Journal

Disabled people often experience time in a manner that is distinct from able-bodied individuals. Disabled people may have shorter careers, have difficulty maintaining full-time employment, and may be forced to work part-time due to the impact of their impairments. Many disabled people face considerable barriers every day in accessing services to participate fully in the workplace, including accessible transportation and attendant services. These underfunded services are often late if delivered at all, wreaking havoc on the ability of workers with disabilities to plan their day and make firm commitments. Yet disability scholars have attempted to reclaim this experience as one …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Access To Justice: Predictive Analytics And The Legal Services Market, Matthew Dylag

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper examines how developers of predictive analytics—a technology using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the outcomes of legal disputes—position their product vis-à-vis access to justice. In particular, it examines how two companies market their software to better understand how this technology is being integrated into the legal services market and to comment on the software’s potential impact on access to justice. The first part of this paper reviews the access to justice landscape and examines existing critiques of AI supported technology from an access to justice perspective. The second part briefly outlines the scope and design of the study, …

“17 Going On 23”: Sentencing Young People To Life In Canada, Debra Parkes

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canada is one of 67 countries worldwide that allows young people—those under the age of 18—to be sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness of young people as a constitutional principle of fundamental justice and invalidated a law that presumed youth should be sentenced as adults for some serious crimes, including murder. The burden is, therefore, always on the Crown to rebut the presumption and prove that a youth sentence would not be long enough to hold the young person accountable for their behaviour. Where the presumption can be …

The Role Of Advisory Opinions In International Law In The Context Of The Climate Crisis, Maria Antonia Tigre, Armando Rocha

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Between December 2022 and March 2023, three requests for an advisory opinion were submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Furthermore, a request for an advisory opinion from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCtHPR) is being prepared. As such, 2024–2025 marks an unprecedented moment in global climate litigation: as of November 2024, we are on the verge of having four of the world’s most important international and regional courts and tribunals answering crucial legal questions on the (ex …

From Human Mapping To Machine Embedding: Uncovering Key Legal Drivers And Deterrents Of Isds Filing Frequencies, Sangchul Park

Chicago Journal of International Law

International investment agreements (IIAs), while intended to prop cross-border investment, have faced persistent criticism for potentially undermining the regulatory sovereignty of developing countries. Various mechanisms have been proposed as alternatives to traditional bilateral investment treaty (BIT) models, often with the goal of curbing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) filings. While existing research has uncovered the impact of nonlegal factors, such as macroeconomic crises, little has been done to systematically examine how legal provisions in either major model BITs or ISDS reform toolboxes influence ISDS filing patterns. To address this gap, this Article analyzes the interplay between (i) legal texts of 2,148 …

Interplanetary Risk Regulation, Jonathan B. Wiener, Charles (Chase) Hamilton

Chicago Journal of International Law

Space exploration promises new opportunities but also new risks. After centuries of national settlements and international conflicts on Earth, and the Cold War era of two great power states racing to the Moon, today we see a rapidly proliferating arena of actors, both governmental and non-governmental, undertaking bold new ventures off-Earth while posing an array of new risks. These multiple activities, actors, and risks raise the prospects of regulatory gaps, costs, conflicts, and complexities that warrant reconsideration and renovation of legacy legal regimes such as the international space law agreements. New approaches are needed, beyond current national and international law, …

False Criminalization And The Erosion Of Community Equity, Deborah N. Archer, Daniel S. Harawa

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facial Recognition Ai, Margaret Hu

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Graduate School Blog - June 2025, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The June 2025 edition of the UofM Graduate School Blog helps prospective and current students make informed financial decisions with Part 1 of the Graduate School Cost Guide, breaking down tuition structures such as per-credit hour versus flat-rate models, highlighting UofM’s tuition cap for in-state students, and explaining key university fees and cost differences between online and on-campus formats. The blog also features Brianna Reilly, a Doctor of Musical Arts graduate from New York, who shares how a graduate assistantship and her passion for music education led her to continue at UofM through the pandemic. Additional resources include an …

The Moving Pieces Of Corporate Disclosure: Truth, Falsity, And Half-Truths In Between, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The half-truth doctrine is made operational in the common statutory and rule-based admonitions in the securities laws (particularly Rule 10b-5) not to omit “material fact[s] necessary in order to make . . . statements made . . . not misleading . . . .” It cabins the temptation to exploit the privilege of nondisclosure through what has been called “artful paltering.” Unfortunately, the evolution of the half-truth doctrine has become more of a poor stepsister than a muscular companion. It carries less than a full load in the complex ecosystem that exists for public company disclosure today. And it is …

Predicting Federal Third-Party Funding Regulation, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Utah Law Review

Third-party funding is a global phenomenon, although regulatory enforcement is local. Regulatory approaches vary widely from country to country and within countries, especially in federal legal systems, such as Canada, Australia, and the United States. The United States federal government is learning about third-party funding with an eye toward potential future regulation. Congress has been investigating funding, as evidenced by testimony in congressional hearings, proposed federal legislation, and a nonpartisan study on third-party funding by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, after more than a decade of observation, the United States Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee recently formed a committee …

Criminal Law, Thomas D. Church, Whitney Baker

Mercer Law Review

This Article provides a brief examination of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s most important criminal law opinions in 2024. Rather than engage in an exhaustive review of the facts and laws in each case, we focus on the key holdings from only the most noteworthy, published decisions. Section II of this Article addresses substantive criminal offenses, such as economic crimes, drug offenses, and firearm offenses, while Section III covers criminal procedure, the rules of evidence, and constitutional issues arising in criminal prosecutions. Section IV deals with the federal sentencing guidelines and other sentencing issues, and …

To Keep Our Nation Breathing: The Impact Of State Legislation And The Prep Act On Covid-19 Liability Immunity Defenses For Healthcare Providers In The Eleventh Circuit, J. Bailey Hotard

Mercer Law Review

This Comment is not intended to patronize you with statistics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The odds suggest that you or someone you love dealt with these gruesome realities in real-time. Instead, allow me to paint a picture:1 You direct hospital operations. You have built your career at a trauma hospital, so you are familiar with the stress that comes with a daily ratio of six patients to one nurse—and yet, COVID-19 brings constantly evolving challenges that no one anticipated. On a typical day, during the height of the pandemic, your consecutive twelve-hour workdays become a blur as you and …

Anything No Longer Goes: How The Eleventh Circuit Has Settled On One Standard To Determine Deliberate-Indifference Claims, Sarah Beth Scarborough

Mercer Law Review

Deliberate indifference to the medical care of a loved one, or oneself, rightly causes outrage. When such an occurrence takes place behind prison walls, inmates or loved ones on their behalf, file a deliberate indifference claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,and they allege a violation of their Eighth Amendment right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the test for deliberate indifference has been misconstrued and misapplied for decades within the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Such a malleable test leads to different standards of proof for a plaintiff to meet, and confusion among …

Repugnant Verdicts For $1000: Navigating The Intersection Of Double Jeopardy And Conflicting Verdicts In Mcelrath V. Georgia, Talia Levine

Mercer Law Review

“No man is to be brought into jeopardy of his life, more than once, for the same offense.” This ancient maxim, preserved in the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, is a hallmark of the American justice system. The Double Jeopardy Clause gives a criminal defendant the constitutional right not to be tried again for the same offense after being acquitted. This guarantee stands as “[p]erhaps the most fundamental rule in the history of double jeopardy jurisprudence.”

The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly upheld these principles; by refusing to allow retrial following an acquittal, the Court …

The Future Is In Their Care: Justice And The Washington Constitution, Steven González

Washington Law Review

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Dupe Process, Kevin Frazier

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) combined with increased documentation of human overreliance on AI recommendations demands a reexamination of content moderation processes. Social media platforms—reacting to internal values, social pressure, regulatory mandates, or some combination of all three—have carried over procedural due process norms to content decisions. One common procedural protection is a “human-in-the-loop” (HITL) requirement. These requirements insist that a human provide some oversight role prior to an automated decision becoming final.

A review of the core values of due process—namely, accuracy, fairness, legitimacy—and the nature of hybrid decisional frameworks—those that involve AI and human inputs—show that HITL requirements …

The Emerging Danger Of Ai-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material And An Unprepared Criminal Code, Jessica L. Terkovich

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The development and dissemination of child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”) using artificial intelligence (“AI”) is becoming easier and easier with technological advancements. This Article argues that traditional child pornography statutes should be extended to encompass fully AI-generated images. The Article outlines the history of the nation’s current federal CSAM laws and details the results of a nationwide survey of statutes which determined that few states have effective laws on the books regarding AI-generated CSAM. This Article also offers recommendations for constructing effective laws against AI-generated CSAM and concludes that harm comes from the very existence of CSAM, no matter how …

(De)Funding Family Separations, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

Federal foster care funding exists in tension with foundational family law principles. The law protects family integrity: the state may only separate parents and children in extreme cases, and, when it does, the state must work to reunify families. Yet the federal funding system directs billions of federal dollars to support CPS agencies and pay subsidies to foster parents, adoptive parents, and guardians. It does so via an open-ended entitlement, so that the more families a state separates, the more federal funds it receives. This system makes it relatively cheaper for CPS agencies to take custody of children, incentivizes states …