Digital Commons Network^™

Roger Williams University School Of Law Commencement Class Of 2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Commencement (1996- )

No abstract provided.

Covid-“14-17”: A Case For Florida Teens To Choose The Covid Vaccine Without Requiring Parental Consent, Kait Ramsay

Child and Family Law Journal

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge disruption to almost everyone, forcing many individuals to adapt to entirely new ways of life. In the United States, COVID safety protocols and restrictions, such as mask and vaccine mandates, have been met with huge political polarization and resistance.[1] Even as COVID variants have kept infections in a perpetual cycle of rising and falling, Florida has lifted mask mandates for businesses and schools, and its governor has been one of the largest vocal opponents to requiring vaccines for school attendance.[2] Furthermore, with the passing of Florida’s Parental Consent for Health …

Floridians' Right To Choose Or Refuse Vaccinations, Patrick E. Tolan Jr.

Child and Family Law Journal

Every state must strike the right balance between an individual's freedom to make medical choices and the state's role in protecting the public health and the welfare of its people. Florida, by and through its Constitution, has afforded heightened protections for individual self-determination over medical treatment decisions and evaluates infringement of these private medical rights with strict scrutiny. This article is about legal rights for adults to obtain or refuse vaccines and for parents to decide the timing or administration of any vaccine or group of vaccines proposed for their school-aged, preschool, newborn, or unborn children.

I argue that States …

The Fate Of The Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative In A Biden Administration, Seth Shepherd

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article analyzes the Biden Administration’s healthcare priorities, contrasts them with those of the Trump Administration, discusses how Presidential administrations determine whether to continue policies, and examines the proper procedures for continuing previous administration policies. This article will then examine whether the Initiative will have a place in the Biden Administration’s healthcare policy. Part II considers Biden’s overall approach to healthcare. Part III discusses what the Trump Administration’s healthcare policy accomplished. Part IV dissects the Initiative and begins a discussion regarding its effectiveness. Part V explores an administration’s decision-making process regarding retention or rejection of a previous administration’s policies and …

Epidemics And International Law: The Need For International Regulation, Claudio Grossman

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This article presents comments by the author made to open the Miami Law Review conference on Epidemics1 and International Law.2 Its main purpose is to refer to the impact of COVID-19 on different norms and legal regimes, focusing mainly on the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), addressing areas of reform as well as the interactions of those norms with international human rights law. This will include the proposals of change for the 2005 IHR, designed to better protect vulnerable peoples in future global health crises. Some of the ideas presented in this contribution are included in a proposal that I …

Comparative Laws In Public Health Unmasked, Christine Chasse

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic lay bare the vulnerabilities of some countries’ public health responses and praise for others. Comparative law review in public health responses may glean lessons for the United States. For example, the United States had not had a pandemic of this magnitude in over a century and was reluctant to institute early masking policies. Meanwhile, the world raced for a COVID-19 vaccine. This begs the question of who will take the vaccine. Will—or can—governments force their citizens to be inoculated? Global comparisons in personal liberty, freedom, bodily autonomy, and how to parent intersect at the right to (or …

International Law & Covid-19 Symposium, Joseph Candelaria, Gita Howard, Tamar Ezer

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shock waves through the international community, exposing systemic failures and highlighting injustices. At the same time, it has provided an opening to consider new approaches, including lessons for international law.
On April 12 and 16, 2021, the University of Miami School of Law International and Graduate Law Programs and Human Rights Clinic, in collaboration with the Human Rights Society, Health Law Association, Environmental Law Program, and University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review hosted a symposium on the impact of COVID-19 on international law. The International Law and COVID-19 Symposium specifically focused on the …

Planning The Opportunity Metropolis: An Agenda For An Era Of Intensifying Technology, Climate And Health Challenges, George Galster

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Urban planners focus on the spatial arrangements of residences, businesses, institutions, infrastructure and human-built amenities, and the market- and government-driven processes that shape these arrangements. They start with the basic supposition that these arrangements strongly affect individuals’ health, prosperity, and happiness as well as the overall level of opportunity, solidarity, and satisfaction in society. Their recommendations about changing the built environment should be guided by the norms of efficiency and equity, with the latter being framed as creating disproportionate benefits to those who are least advantaged.

This essay begins with an overview of the metropolitan opportunity structure theory to frame …

Envisioning Health, Safety, And Welfare For All: Retrospect And Prospect, Frederick Steiner

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This essay is a reflection on my academic career in community and regional planning as well as landscape architecture. That look back over five decades provides the basis about speculation for the future of planning and design. It addresses the major challenges of our time, including social justice and climate change, through the lens of design, ecology, and landscape.

A Rapid And Accurate Pcr Test For Constitutionality Of Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates: The Appropriate Standard Of Review Adopted By Klaassen V. Trustees Of Indiana University, Natalie Anderson

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Telemedicine Across Borders: Entrenched Issues Exposed By Covid-19, Richmond B. Wrinkle

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Covid, Contract, And Crises, Jonathan C. Lipson, Rachel Rebouché

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Pandemic Essential Worker, Mechele Dickerson

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Can Bioethics Guide Governance In Public Health Emergencies? Lessons From The Pandemic, John Conley, Arlene Davis

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

"Beef -- It's Not What's For Dinner": The Implications Of France's Newest Law For The Future Of Labeling Cultured Meat In The European Union, Nick Verderame

North Carolina Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection And Scarce Therapies: The Role Of Race, Sex, And Other Protected Classifications, Govind Persad

SMU Law Review Forum

The allocation of scarce medical treatments, such as antivirals and antibody therapies for COVID-19 patients, has important legal dimensions. This Essay examines a currently debated issue: how will courts view the consideration of characteristics shielded by equal protection law, such as race, sex, age, health, and even vaccination status, in allocation? Part II explains the application of strict scrutiny to allocation criteria that consider individual race, which have been recently debated, and concludes that such criteria are unlikely to succeed under present Supreme Court precedent. Part III analyzes the use of sex-based therapy allocation criteria, which are also in current …

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Sarah L. Adle, Joshua H. Dorminy, Elizabeth M. Brooks, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all the significant forms of passenger and freight transportation across the United States. This Article surveys significant judicial, regulatory, and legislative developments in federal commercial transportation law affecting Georgia, Florida, and Alabama during the period from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021. The first three areas discussed here are subject to heavy federal regulation due to their far-reaching effects on interstate commerce: aviation, trucking and other commercial motor vehicles, and railroads. The remaining subjects covered in this Article— autonomous-vehicle technology, shareable electric bicycles, and shareable scooters—remain regulated primarily at the state and local levels but are …

Fda's Accelerated Approval, Emergency Use Authorization, And Pre-Approval Access: Considerations For Use In Public Health Emergencies And Beyond, Christine Coughlin

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Vaccine Hesitancy Across Time: Legal And Policy Interventions From The Dawn Of The Anti-Vaccination Movement To The Era Of Social Media, Ana Santos Rutschman

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Emergency Use Authorizations In The Time Of Coronavirus, Laura Kent-Jensen

Utah Law Review

When COVID-19 first emerged in the United States, the pandemic sparked a rush to provide protective gear, develop tests to detect the disease, and implement effective containment strategies to stop the spread. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) used its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process to facilitate the rapid market introduction of medical devices (authorized but unapproved) to combat the emergent public health threat. Unfortunately, performance problems with some medical devices stymied initial containment efforts, arguably resulting in greater spread and suggesting a need for improvement in the EUA process.

By reviewing the statutory requirements of the EUA process, this …

“Categorically Unsafe” To Donate, Marielle Forrest

Utah Law Review

Plasma donation centers routinely adopt policies that preclude individuals with mental illnesses from donating blood plasma. While plasma donation centers assert that their policies are motivated by employee and customer safety, such safety concerns are unsubstantiated. These policies are based on speculation and stereotypes, rather than scientific evidence. But discrimination against people with mental illness is only unlawful if perpetrated by an entity subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and circuit courts are split on whether blood plasma donation centers fall within the ADA’s parameters. In 2016, the Tenth Circuit held that blood plasma donation centers are “service …

Unmet Legal Needs As Health Injustice, Yael Cannon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In a seminal report in 2006, the American Bar Association recognized that millions of low-income Americans have civil legal issues that go unaddressed, jeopardizing their fundamental and basic human needs for shelter, sustenance, safety, family stability, and access to health care. The pandemic has only exacerbated this crisis. When rights in these areas go unenforced for Americans marginalized by poverty and race, their health can suffer, compounding health inequities. The fundamental civil legal needs of low-income Americans must be addressed in order to ensure health equity. This Article argues that unmet fundamental legal needs serve as determinants of health and …

The Executive’S Guide To Getting Ai Wrong, Jerrold Soh

Asian Management Insights

This article explores how we see AI and argues that we mostly get it wrong. In the process, it explains the reasons backed by social science research on why we tend to get AI wrong and illustrates the dangers of doing so from a managerial and law-making perspective. Some readers may also find the article useful as a guide on how and when to manipulate portrayals of AI in your favour.

A Prisoner’S Dilemma: Why Covid-19 Must Serve As A Catalyst To Address Compassionate Release Limitations In Federal Prison, Mary M. Haasl

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

COVID-19 significantly impacted the U.S. prison population. Given concerns surrounding its rapid spread through prisons, many federal inmates petitioned for compassionate release during the pandemic’s initial months. This significant increase in compassionate release petitions has yielded an impactful case study regarding the significant limitations posed by the compassionate release statute as written—particularly related to its exhaustion of administrative remedy requirement. Under the First Step Act of 2018, inmates must exhaust their administrative remedies before petitioning the district court for compassionate release. With concerns surrounding COVID-19 spread, some federal district courts allowed the waiver of the exhaustion requirement, while other did …

Innovation Policy And Chronic Emergencies, Robert Burrell, Catherine Kelly

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the potential role of the state as a driver of scientific innovation onto center stage. Vaccines have been developed and brought to market in a timescale that seemed almost impossible when the crisis first struck. The pivotal nature of government intervention in this crisis has added to calls from academics and policy makers to adopt a more proactive, mission-oriented approach to innovation policy to tackle other key global challenges.

This Article considers the merits of these calls and argues that an important distinction must be drawn between what this Article terms acute and chronic emergencies. …

Local Public Health Legal Landscape Report, Christina Hitz

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

This report provides a framework for understanding and examining local public health authority and implications of proposed legislative changes, specifically whether a shift is occurring in public health authority from the executive to the legislative branch. It compares the public health governance and legal infrastructure of states making a shift in 2021 relative to Nebraska’s current and proposed public health infrastructure and provides a synopsis of the legal context for and the scope of local public health authority currently in Nebraska. Three resources were used to create two tables to compare both states with legislative changes in 2021 indicating a …

Religious Freedom Vs. Compelled Vaccination: A Case-Study Of The 2018-2019 Measles Pandemic Or The Law As A Public Health Response, Barbara Pfeffer Billauer Esq.

Catholic University Law Review

Following the recent decision in Roman Catholic Diocese v. Cuomo,^[1] clear guidance regarding the state’s powers to act during a pandemic is wanting. I look here to the 2018–2019 global measles epidemic, with a focus on the New York and Israeli experiences, for that guidance. Measles rates increased dramatically during the 2018–2019 season, both in the United States and globally. This phenomenon reflects a general decline in worldwide vaccination and an increase in vaccine resistance stoked by anti-vax groups. In the United States, the epidemic targeted ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, as it did in Israel. This Article evaluates the …

Protecting A Woman’S Right To Abortion During A Public Health Crisis, San Juanita Gonzalez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

As COVID-19 infected our nation, states were quick to issue executive orders restricting various aspects of daily life under the pretense of public safety. It was clear at the outset that certain civil liberties were going to be tested. Among them, the constitutional right to an abortion.

This comment explores Texas’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the limitations it imposed on abortion access. It will attempt to address the legitimacy of the “public health concerns” listed in executive orders issued throughout numerous states and will discuss the pertinent legal framework and judicial scrutiny to apply.

According to the Fifth …

Law School News: Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins To Speak At Rwu Law Commencement 04-07-2022, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Vol. 39, No. 2, Nicki Bazer, Stephen A. Yokich

The Illinois Public Employee Relations Report

Bargaining in the Time of Covid: How Collective Bargaining Impacts Schools and Their Mitigation Strategies

By Nicki Bazer

Fighting for the Living

By Stephen A. Yokich

Recent Developments

By the Student Editorial Board: Bradley Kupiec, Carrie Kumiega, Damia Marshall, Sara Rash