Digital Commons Network^™

Resilience For A Digital Age, Danielle Keats Citron, Kristen E. Eichensehr

University of Chicago Legal Forum

A resilience agenda is an essential part of protecting national security in a digital age. Digital technologies impact nearly all aspects of everyday life, from communications and medical care to electricity and government services. Societal reliance on digital tools should be paired with efforts to secure societal resilience. A resilience agenda involves preparing for, adapting to, withstanding, and recovering from disruptions in ways that advance societal interests, goals, and values. Emphasizing resilience offers several benefits: 1) Resilience is threat agnostic or at least relatively threat neutral; 2) its inward focus emphasizes actions under the control of a targeted country, rather …

After Lebor: Can The Rights Of Nature Movement Stand Back Up?, Desmond Nichols

Florida Law Review

The Rights of Nature Movement, a global political movement that seeks to expand the legal rights traditionally granted to humans and corporations to natural entities like lakes, rivers, and ecosystems, is becoming more mainstream. In the United States, the movement has had successes in passing local ordinances that grant lakes and rivers the right to exist and flourish. The most high-profile of these victories for the movement was the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, an ordinance that passed in Toledo, Ohio, in February of 2019. This Note explores the Rights of Nature Movement in the United States. The ordinances that …

Wayne Ford Racial Impact Statement Act And The Necessity Of Minority Impact Statements, Seonwoo Kim

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

In 1968, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act (“ADAA”) in response to the drug overdose of Len Bias, a basketball star at the University of Maryland.  The Act imposed harsh sentences for crack cocaine offenses; a person charged with possession of crack cocaine faced the same mandatory minimum prison sentence as someone charged with possession of one hundred times more powered cocaine.  For example, a person charged with carrying five grams of crack cocaine would receive the same sentence as someone carrying five hundred grams of powdered cocaine. Historically, the enforcement of drug-related crimes disproportionately targeted Black Americans, and this …

Evaluating Efficiency In Laboratory Methods For Testing Sexual Assault Kits, Renee Mercer

D.U.Quark

Sexual assault kits (SAKs) are a collection of physical evidence from a sexual assault victim. SAK testing provides victims justice and helps prevent repeated crime through the addition of perpetrator DNA into criminal databases. With large numbers of SAKs being collected yearly, the limitations of common laboratory procedures and resources create a backlog of SAKs. For that reason, there is a need for more efficient testing. This review evaluates three different methods of testing throughout this process. Reverse Transcription Recombinase Polymerase Amplification and Proximity Ligation Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction confirms body fluid identification. The Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay reaction amplifies …

Prescription For Failure: Public Nuisance Claims Against The Opioid Industry, Francis A. Citera, Julia Steiner

University of Miami Law Review

Opioids have been used both medicinally and recreationally since ancient times. While their recreational functions have long since been denounced, their medicinal value remains legitimate. Yet, since the pain management revolution began in the mid-1990s, many Americans have become opioid-dependent—fueling an illicit drug market and costing many lives. The tragedy that is today’s opioid epidemic has prompted robust federal and state legislative and regulatory interventions in both the legal and illicit opioid markets—albeit with mixed success. As these initiatives have been slow to quell the opioid crisis, public nuisance claims have taken center stage. After the Big Tobacco litigation invoked …

Congressional Tribal Trust Responsibility And The Opioid Mdl: A Call To Finish The Work The Judiciary Was Forced To Undertake, Curtis E. Osceola Esq.

University of Miami Law Review

Congressional inaction has forced Native American Tribes to utilize the judiciary as a last resort to obtain relief from the crippling effects of the opioid epidemic. Tribes have received inadequate funding from settlements to abate the widespread use of prescription opiates on and around their lands of concern. Hundreds of mass tort lawyers have been navigating the In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804)—one of the largest and most valuable litigation pools in the history of the Republic—in an effort to provide relief for cities and counties, individuals, consumers, hospitals, third-party payors, and federally recognized Tribes. Based on …

Two Piecemeal Treatments For A System Addicted To Punishment, Myles Crandall

University of Miami Law Review

For decades, the American criminal legal system has failed to curtail illicit drug use and overdose deaths through punitive and selective enforcement. The federal government has prosecuted people and succeeded in securing many long prison sentences based on drug crimes. In the past two years, two amendments by the United States Sentencing Commission offered a measured reprieve through sentence reductions. Amendment 821 offered the possibility for sentence reductions based on recalculating the guidelines associated with certain prior offenses. Amendment 814 updated policy statements for assessing “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for a sentence reduction. These changes are not revolutionary; however, the …

How Safe Is Safe Enough? Analyzing The Incentive Structure Of The Products Liability Scheme On Commercial Aviation Manufacturers, Ethan Schwab

University of Miami Law Review

How do aviation manufacturers work to prevent tragedy? After tragedy strikes, how does the legal system’s imposition of a remedy change the operations and decision-making of these manufacturers, if at all? This Note explores whether the current products liability framework effectively achieves the goals of tort law—including whether it deters unsafe innovation in the high-risk commercial aviation manufacturing industry. The Note explores these topics through the lens of the recent Boeing 737 Max disasters of 2018 and 2019, using such disasters to exemplify the skewed incentive structure that manufacturers face in the modern products liability tort system. This Note argues …

Inherited Health: A Targeted Medicaid Reform To Redress Generational Health Disparities, Jessica L. Millward

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

"A Dangerous, Reverberating Silence": Racial Silence, White Money, And Scotus?, Mae Kuykendall

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don’T Bet On It: Examining State Prohibitions Of “Risk-Free” Language In Sports Betting Advertisements Under Central Hudson, Connor Edge

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Once A Fighter, Always A Fighter: Why Congress Ought To Mandate Retirement Pension Plans For Combat Sports Athletes, Brandon Li

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents - Vol. 55, No. 3 2025

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perttu V. Richards: Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Margo Schlanger

Appellate Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Perttu V. Richards: Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Margo Schlanger

Appellate Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Abortion Training In Family Medicine: A Post-Dobbs Examination, Innes Tounkel, Lauren Kasoff, Brittany Macdonald, Krys Foster, Allison Casola, Glen Atlas

Cooper Rowan Medical Journal

No abstract for this article type.

State Obligations To Prevent Torture, Madeline Cohen

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review (CICLR) Blog

The right to be free from torture is firmly recognized in international law. Freedom from torture has been enshrined in many foundational United Nations (U.N.) documents since it was founded in 1945. In 1948, The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) was approved by the U.N. General Assembly. Article 5 of UNDHR states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” All 193 member-states of the U.N. have pledged to comply with this obligation.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review on January 21, …

Of Duty And Distress: Addressing Sea Slavery Through The Duty To Render Assistance, Austin Fullmer

International Law Studies

Sea slavery—men trapped in forced labor on board illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels—exists across the world’s oceans. If confronted with sea slavery while conducting a boarding of a foreign-flagged IUU fishing vessel on the high seas, may a coastal State military officer free the victim? This article answers the question affirmatively, relying on the duty to render assistance under the international law of the sea. That duty requires all mariners who receive information that a person is in distress to proceed with all speed to assist the person in distress. In order to meet the definition of “distress,” …

Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Betsy Ginsberg

Amicus Briefs

Amici are professors of law who have studied, taught, and written about prisoner litigation and about rights to jury trials. They submit this brief to share their views, based on that experience, on the proper interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act) in light of the important jury trial rights at stake and the practical realities of prisoner litigation.

Optimising The National Strategy For Progressive Employment Absorption To Ensure The Rights And Responsibilities Of Citizens In Indonesia, Rizda Ardyati, Afridah Ikrimah

Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan

Indonesia is experiencing a demographic transition phenomenon. This can be seen from the results of the 2010 population census, which showed a positive trend in the productive age population, namely 15-64 years. In that year, the proportion reached 66% of the total population. The potential growth of Indonesia's productive population can be an engine of sustainable economic growth or a source of social conflict between classes in the future, if the government cannot handle this potential, it will become a problem related to fulfilling the rights of citizens to get decent work, because instead of being absorbed into the workforce, …

Three Implications Of Moore., Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In his majority opinion in Moore, Justice Brett Kavanaugh listed several provisions of the code that could be subject to a constitutional challenge if realization were a constitutional requirement, as suggested by Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas, and Neil M. Gorsuch. Kavanaugh wrote: In short, the Moores cannot meaningfully distinguish the [mandatory repatriation tax] from similar taxes such as taxes on partnerships, on S corporations, and on subpart F income. The upshot is that the Moores’ argument, taken to its logical conclusion, could render vast swaths of the Internal Revenue Code unconstitutional. See, e.g., 26 …

A Battle Among Sovereigns: Partnering Federal Exhaustion And Infringement Principles To Safeguard Tribal Court Jurisdiction Over Labor And Employment Disputes, Cody T. Preston

Arkansas Law Review

Since the shift in federal policy starting in the late 1960s towards Indian self-determination and self-government, Indian tribes have leveraged federal support to enter into a broad variety of commercial activities to fund their governments and community programs. Despite some of the earliest iterations of the policy of self-determination being a call to “break decisively with the past and to create the conditions for a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions” and to uphold promises to provide tribes with “a standard of living comparable to that of other Americans,” tribes have …

The Fathers Have Eaten Sour Grapes: History Is The Wrong Test For Establishment Clause Questions In Public Schools, Abigail Riddle

Arkansas Law Review

The old quip goes, “As long as there are math tests, students will pray in the schools.” There is, however, a distinction between private and public prayers; the former allows religious students to find peace and comfort in a moment of anxiety, and the latter openly divides the religious majority from the religious and nonreligious minority, ostracizing the minority and exacerbating their nerves. This Note examines the constitutionality of religious exercises initiated by public school faculty and staff at public education’s founding, arguing that the special considerations present when considering prayer in these contexts are too important to be limited …

Decriminalizing Disease: A Health Justice Approach To Infectious Diseases And Criminal Law, Sean E. Bland

Arkansas Law Review

Infectious diseases, also called communicable diseases, are largely a public health issue and should not be criminalized. This Article seeks to re-frame the discussion around the legal framework for infectious diseases in a way that moves beyond a punishment mindset and toward a health justice mindset. The focus in this Article is on health justice rather than traditional understandings of public health, defined as the science and practice of improving the health of people and their communities. The Article makes three novel contributions. First, it applies a health justice framework to the critique of infectious disease criminalization. Second, the Article …

Partisan Judges, Steve Leben

Arkansas Law Review

This article argues that both Republicans and Democrats should look for judges who have intellectual humility and an ability to work with others—even as both parties also look for judges who are generally likely to advance positions favored by them. Part I explores the divergence between the public’s perception that the political views of judges matter and the insistence by most judges that they do not. Ample evidence supports the public’s view, and for judges to be trusted authorities, they should admit this truth. Part II suggests that even after recognizing that political views matter, both political parties (and others …

The Forgotten Fundamental Right To Free Movement, Noah Smith-Drelich

Northwestern University Law Review

There is a powerful fundamental right hiding in plain sight: the fundamental right to free movement. This right goes beyond the consistently acknowledged—though infrequently applied—fundamental right to interstate travel. The true scope of the Constitution’s protection of movement through substantive due process safeguards local, interstate, and international travel. Though overlooked today, the fundamental right to free movement has deep roots in history and tradition, and in the decisions of numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

This Article is the first to examine freedom of movement using the history and tradition test for unenumerated fundamental rights. This Article …

Taking Back Control: Using The Takings Clause To Hold Animal Agriculture Responsible For Its Waste Problem, Rowan Aragon

Northwestern University Law Review

Between the mid-twentieth century and modern day, the animal-agriculture model has shifted from small farms to industrial operations. During that evolution, the negative externalities of animal-farming practices have intensified. One of those externalities—animal waste—has become particularly problematic. Because of the sheer number of animals raised in the United States for slaughter and dairy production, the magnitude of animal waste produced is overwhelming. To deal with this problem, animal farmers often liquefy the animal waste and then spray it onto open fields. In that spraying process, liquefied animal waste carries through the air and reaches nearby homes, coating those properties with …

The Healing Power Of Antitrust, Theodosia Stavroulaki

Northwestern University Law Review

Millions of Americans live in hospital deserts—communities where people lack geographic access to hospitals and primary care physicians. People living in these deserts often miss doctor appointments, delay necessary care, and stop adhering to their treatment. In this way, hospital deserts exacerbate the health disparities plaguing America. This Article demonstrates that hospital deserts are not inevitable but the result of several business strategies—including noncompete agreements and merging with competitors—and antitrust enforcers’ unwillingness to recognize these harmful practices as antitrust violations. To cure the issue of hospital deserts, this Article makes three proposals. First, antitrust enforcers and the courts should expand …

Enhancing Citizen Capacity Through Optimising Village-Owned Enterprises (Bumdes) Role In Strengthening Community Participation For Sustainable Development, Supandi Supandi, Saliman Saliman

Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan

Sustainable development at the local level necessitates active community participation, bolstered by educational innovation and the optimisation of empowering institutions such as Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes). This research investigates the impact of the Social Studies Outdoor Laboratory and BUMDes on development in the Bokoharjo, Prambanan, Sleman Regency. Specifically, the study examines three key areas: (1) the influence of the Social Studies Outdoor Laboratory on development, (2) the role of BUMDes in facilitating development, and (3) the collaborative effect between the Social Studies Outdoor Laboratory and BUMDes on regional growth. A quantitative approach was employed, sampling nine individuals from Bokoharjo Village from …

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program Fiscal Year 2024 Report And Evaluation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

In FY2024, the Commonwealth allocated $3,213,465 to the CMC Grant Program, supplemented by $149,674 carried over from FY2023, for a total of $3,363,139. Of the total funding, $2,542,100 (76%) was awarded to Centers in grants and technical assistance, with Centers leveraging these funds to secure an additional $2,199,813 from private foundations and other state, local, and federal sponsors. These grants supported Centers’ participation in CMC Grant Program related statewide programs, including the Housing Mediation Program (HMP), Reentry Mediation Program (ReMAp), Youth Conflict Resolution and Restorative Practices Program (Youth Program), and DEI organizational capacity-building initiatives. These grants bolstered staffing infrastructure, enabling …