Digital Commons Network^™

The Expungement Process: Survey Evidence On Applicant Experiences, Mira Edmonds, J.J. Prescott, Sonja Starr, German Marquez Alcala

Articles

Tens of millions of Americans with publicly accessible criminal convictions face significant collateral consequences that affect their employment, housing, and family life, which not only harm these individuals but also limit society’s access to their skills, productivity, and participation. In response, policymakers have enlarged the scope and enhanced the accessibility of criminal-record expungement laws. Little is known, however, about how individuals perceive, navigate, and take advantage of these new, broader laws. This Article presents findings from a large-scale survey of 1,439 expungement applicants and recipients in Detroit, conducted in partnership with Project Clean Slate (PCS), a city initiative assisting residents …

Interview Of Naomi Cahn, June Carbone & Nancy Levit, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone, Nancy Levit, Claire Hill, Matthew T. Bodie

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

Justice Citizenship, Lauren Sudeall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In recent years, the topic of democracy has seen a resurgence-perhaps due in part to a recognition of its heightened global instability. Yet, in these pervasive discussions regarding democracy and its role with respect to governance, relatively little attention has been paid to the courts, particularly at the state and local levels where most people are likely to interact with them. In a time when the courts' authority is being questioned, it may be helpful to emphasize that courts, like all democratic institutions, are "of the people, by the people, [and] for the people." In relation to the other branches …

Analysis Of Environmental Law Scholarship 2023-2024, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Chloe C. Allen, Linda K. Breggin, Sydney C. Schoonover

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is published by the Environmental Law Institute’s (ELI’s) Environmental Law Reporter in partnership with Vanderbilt University Law School. ELPAR provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of some of the most creative and feasible environmental law and policy proposals from the legal academic literature each year. The articles that are considered include all environmental law articles published in select law journals during the previous academic year. The law journal articles that are republished and discussed are selected by Vanderbilt University Law School students with input from their course instructors and an …

Positioning Justice: A Legal Cascade Of Sexual Violence Cases In Mombasa, Kenya, Melanie Olum, Gerald Githinji, Abigael Kenga, Abel Nyabera Mokua, Morris Kiio, Nawal Aliyan, Iqbal Khandwala, Celina Kithinji, Saida Wanjiku, Marleen Temmerman

Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

Introduction: Seeking legal redress for sexual violence (SV) is a daunting process for survivors. They must navigate their personal trauma societal stigma, and flawed systems, creating an arduous path to justice. This study was conducted to assess patterns of SV within Mombasa County, Kenya, and details the legal follow-up post-SV care.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using data from SV survivors attending the Gender-Based Violence and Recovery Centre (GBVRC) at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) between 2017 and 2023. Data sources include post-rape care (PRC) forms, clinician notes, quarterly reports, police reports, counsellor …

Dentistry And The Law: What Ever Happened To The Ban On Covenants Not To Compete?, Daniel Schulte Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) rule banning most employee non-competition agreements remains held up, despite a scheduled September 2024 effective date, due to ongoing court challenges with conflicting decisions. Recent changes at the FTC, including the appointment of a new chair (Andrew Ferguson) who previously opposed the ban, suggest a potential reversal or non-enforcement by the current Trump administration. While motions have been filed to hold appeals in abeyance, the FTC's formation of a new Joint Labor Task Force complicates the outlook, indicating continued focus on antitrust issues in the labor market. A clear outcome or timeline for the ban …

Struggling Access To Justice Through Mediation In Bangladesh: Headway Lessons From Australia, Jamila A. Chowdhury, Mehnaz Siddiqui

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

Enormous case backlog and protracted delays in courts are hindering access to justice in Bangladesh. Consequently, an initiative to provide quick and low-cost consensual justice through mediation was first initiated in the family courts of Bangladesh in the year 2000. However, although after an initial success, the system has been struggling over the decades. While contemporary research has identified various constraints causing such meager disposal of cases in family courts, using expert interviews of family court judges and relevant literature review on Australian family courts, this Chapter reiterates such constraints to generate relevant headway lessons from Australia that has excelled …

Proposed Updates To Aba Standards On Distance/Remote Education, Adrien Katherine Wing

Arkansas Law Review

Outside of the legal academy, distance education has expanded greatly over the past decade and this Article provides an overview of the history of distance education, generally and in law schools. In Part III, it assesses the pros and cons of this type of education. In Part IV, it concludes as to whether the system should be expanded, remain the same, or contract.

The Rural Rescue: Tackling Arkansas’S Legal Deserts Through Proven Statutory Reform, Kathryn Totty

Arkansas Law Review

In some rural counties of Arkansas, a single attorney is responsible for serving thousands of residents, depriving many Arkansans of even basic legal representation. Imagine facing eviction, fighting for custody of your child, contesting a divorce, or navigating the complexities of probate with no attorney for miles. This stark reality exemplifies the growing “legal deserts” problem facing rural Arkansas, where access to justice has become a luxury rather than a right. To combat the growing shortage of legal professionals in rural areas, states seek new solutions—some proving more successful than others. Several states have implemented rural attorney incentive programs, typically …

Licensure As Pathway, Not Barrier, Brian Gallini

Arkansas Law Review

The legal profession knows it has an access to justice crisis. One side lacks a lawyer in approximately three-quarters of the twenty million civil cases filed across state courts every year. Against that concerning backdrop is how we license attorneys. The most common method is the written bar exam. But that exam bears little resemblance to the practice of law, produces racially disparate results, and is shockingly expensive for law graduates to prepare for and take. Its opaque scoring practices alongside its rare administration—offered just twice per year—strengthens the idea that the modern bar exam operates more as a barrier …

Demanding More From Distance Learning: The Virtual & Democratized Futures Of Legal Education, Antonio M. Coronado, Gabriela Elizondo-Craig

Seattle University Law Review Online

Antonio M. Coronado and Gabriela Elizondo-Craig examine the transformative potential of online legal education through their work at Innovation for Justice, where they lead virtual legal training programs for community-based justice workers. They trace the development and limitations of ABA Standard 306, highlighting how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed both the rigidity of traditional legal education and the possibilities of technology-enabled learning. Drawing on adult education theory and best practices in online pedagogy, Coronado and Elizondo-Craig challenge prevailing critiques of distance legal education and advocate for a learner-centered, accessible, and inclusive model. Their experience demonstrates how online legal education, when intentionally …

Flourishing: A Plan To Strengthen Public Legal Education And Information, The Bc Plei Ecosystem Project, Catherine Dauvergne, Aara Johnson, Shannon Srivastava

All Faculty Publications

The Public Legal Education and Information (PLEI) Sectoral Planning Project, headed by Dr. Catherine Dauvergne, K.C., was commissioned by the Law Foundation of British Columbia with the goal of making recommendations about how to improve public legal education and information in the province. The project was co-sponsored by the Law Foundation and the province’s Ministry of the Attorney General. We have come to understand this constellation of resources and organizations as the “public legal education and information ecosystem.” There is a wide array of high-quality, easily accessible, clearly written, legal information available in British Columbia. Ecosystem leaders are at the …

The Shadow Pandemic: The Response To Domestic Violence In The Wake Of Covid-19 And What We Can Carry Forward, Presley Sneed

Georgia Criminal Law Review

When the COVID-19 virus brought the pandemic to the United States in March of 2020, the legal system was not prepared for the increase in domestic and intimate partner violence that would follow. The United Nations (UN) later identified this social phenomenon as a second pandemic, a “shadow pandemic” that resulted from an increase in stay-at-home orders and a decrease in support services for victims. By the end of 2021, forty-five percent of women globally reported either they themselves or a woman they know had experienced some form of domestic or intimate partner violence since the emergence of COVID-19. One …

Taxing Litigation Finance, Young Ran (Christine) Kim

Articles

The emerging litigation finance industry has the capacity to expand access to justice but also raises important legal and ethical questions. Although much has been said about the industry’s potential to increase frivolous lawsuits and permit improper control over a claim by the funders, scholarly discussion on the proper tax treatment of the parties involved has fallen by the wayside. The problem arises in classifying litigation finance contracts as either a nonrecourse loan, immediate sale, or variable prepaid forward contract, all of which discretely impact the timing and character of income. Unfortunately, courts have traditionally found it difficult to draw …

Towards A Critical Legal Tech Education: A Decolonial Approach, Diego H. Alcalá Laboy

Seattle University Law Review Online

The intersection of law, technology, and decolonial theory offers a critical framework for exposing and challenging power asymmetries embedded in both legal and technological systems. Drawing from his experience as a criminal defense attorney and legal academic, Diego H. Alcalá Laboy critiques how surveillance technologies, often framed as tools for justice, disproportionately harm marginalized communities. Grounded in Latin American decolonial theory, particularly the modernity/coloniality/decoloniality triad and the concept of pluriversality, he argues for reimagining legal scholarship and pedagogy to disrupt Eurocentric and universalist assumptions. Using a colonizer/colonized framework, he advocates for bottom-up knowledge creation that centers the voices of those …

Symposium Introduction: Interrogating The Hidden Curriculum: Implications For Formation Of Professional Identity, David I. C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an introduction to the Symposium, which was held at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law on September 22 - 23, 2023. The Symposium brought together law professors who have taken up the call in the Carnegie Report and the ABA Accreditation requirement that we make broad and integrated effort to provide opportunities for law students to form their professional identities as future attorneys while they are in law school. The law professors invited to participate in the Symposium have worked and written in the area of professional identity for lawyers for many years, and are …

What's Freedom Got To Do With It? Occupational Freedom And The Illusion Of Choice, Bojan Perovic

Georgia State University Law Review

This Article critically examines the concept of occupational freedom, arguing that the legal right to choose and pursue a profession, as enshrined in many constitutional systems, remains largely theoretical for vast segments of the population. While legal frameworks recognize occupational freedom, socioeconomic barriers, systemic discrimination, and cultural norms continue to impede genuine access to professions. Using historical examples like the exclusion of women from the legal profession or racial segregation under apartheid, this Article illustrates how law can act as both an instrument of oppression and a tool for progress.

Through a comparative analysis of case law from Germany, South …

Georgia Has A New Habitability Protection For Tenants, But What Does It Mean?, Elizabeth Grant, Gordon Wayne

Scholarly Works

Georgia’s Safe at Home Act became law on July 1, 2024, and established the standard that residential premises be “fit for human habitation.” The Act strengthens tenant protections by targeting severe housing issues affecting 15% of Georgia households, particularly Black and rural communities. It adds cooling as an essential utility, caps security deposits, and mandates a three-day notice to pay before eviction filings. However, the undefined “fit for human habitation” term awaits judicial interpretation, complicated by limited legal access and rare appellate precedent. Though a key step forward, this brief Comment suggests that additional measures are needed to secure tenants’ …

Competition In The Global Law Market: Offshore Development Of The Statutory "Rule In Hastings-Bass", Andrew P. Morriss

Minnesota Journal of International Law, Vols. 28:2 onward (2019-present)

This Article examines the competitive dynamics in the global law market through the lens of the statutory evolution of the Rule in Hastings-Bass across various International Financial Centers (IFCs). Following the UK Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Pitt v Holt and Futter v Futter, which significantly restricted the judiciary’s ability to void trustee decisions under the Rule, seven IFCs (Jersey, Bermuda, The Bahamas, the Dubai International Financial Center, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands) enacted statutes to preserve and clarify the Rule within their jurisdictions. These legislative actions highlight the strategic adaptations by IFCs to enhance their legal …

Session 6: Ai Regulation: The Role Of Washington State Legal Organizations, Alicia Burton, Michele Carney, Ryan Harkins, Craig Shank, Drew Simshaw, Christon Skinner, Leslie Veloz

SITIE Symposiums

In session six of the SITIE 2025 Symposium, the panelists discuss how legal institutions in the State of Washington are responding to the challenges surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Being aware that AI is continuing to evolve and will inevitably be integrated more into the legal field, this session discusses the benefits and concerns of AI and what legal institutions like the Board of Judicial Administration, Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Committee on Professional Ethics, and the Washington State Bar Association Legal Technology Task Force are doing to educate lawyers and what changes, if any, are being done to address AI …

Democratic Lawyering: Upending The “Hidden Curriculum” To Prepare New Lawyers For A New World, Eduardo R.C. Capulong, Andrew King-Ries, Monte Mills

The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning

Multiple heightening crises reveal the deficiencies and contradictions of legal education, in particular the values it imparts. Perpetuating myths about U.S. democracy and rule of law, the enduring formalist, liberal legalist cast of law school is increasingly at odds with students’ lived experiences. As liberal democracy and the rule of law falter, no longer is relying on the “hidden curriculum” or the historically nebulous and mythical narratives of the law and our legal system sufficient to prepare tomorrow’s lawyers for the challenges faced by our profession. Instead, with a boost from ABA Standard 303, this article draws on the tradition …

Transforming The Law School Matrix, Susan L. Brooks

The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Symposium Introduction: Interrogating The Hidden Curriculum: Implications For Formation Of Professional Identity, David I.C. Thomson

The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

2025 Commencement Exercises, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Commencement Programs

Order of Exercises

Processional:

Felix Wu, JD, PhD, Vice Dean, Professor of Law, Herald

Presiding:

Selma Botman, PhD, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Yeshiva University, Chief Marshal

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President, Yeshiva University

National Anthem:

Cantor Ira W. Heller, JD, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Class of 2008

Remarks:

Melanie Leslie, JD, Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Class of 1991

Commencement Address:

Hon. Caitlin Halligan, Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals

Student Remarks:

Koral Bahat and Denise Pasi, LL.M. Class Speakers, Class of 2025

Talia N. Raoufpur, J.D. Class Speaker, …

2024-2025 Annual Report, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance

Heyman Center Reports

The Heyman Center FY25 Report highlights the Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance at Cardozo School of Law, detailing its 2024–2025 programs in business and corporate law. It showcases events with leading scholars and practitioners, a wide curriculum with clinics and specialized programs, the selective Heyman Scholars Program, and the leadership of Executive Director Fabian Eichentopf alongside faculty directors and affiliated professors, emphasizing the Center’s role in shaping ethical business attorneys and future leaders.

Responsible Realism About Artificial Intelligence: How Ai Is Shaping Legal And Dispute Resolution Practice, Education, And Scholarship, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article synthesizes the views of legal scholars examining how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting legal and dispute resolution practice, education, and scholarship. They share a perspective of responsible realism – recognizing both the promise and the perils of AI. It is already reshaping how lawyers, neutrals, educators, students, and scholars work – and its influence will only grow.

The scholars identify clear benefits: broader access, greater efficiency, and new support for professional learning. They also warn of serious risks, including bias, deskilling, and erosion of judgment. Avoiding both hype and panic, they analyze developments, offer realistic strategies, and …

Between The Sword And A Hard Place: Systemic Solutions To The Shortcomings Of The Missouri Public Defender System, Andrew A. Bohon

Missouri Law Review

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.” The attempt to solve a problem can sometimes topple a functional system entirely. The striving to improve a thing can frustrate its purpose. Limping along under the guise of functionality, however, many sociopolitical processes hinder our progress. Something works, so we cling to it in fear of making it worse. The idea has been aphorized that perfect is the enemy of good. Although a quaint and conservative philosophy, there is a countertheory: “Good is the enemy of great.”

Leadership And Antiracism In Legal Education, Danielle M. Conway

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Forever Criminalized?: How Collateral Consequences Advance Disparities In Criminal Justice, Jenny Roberts

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Competition In The Global Law Market: Offshore Development Of The Statutory "Rule In Hastings-Bass", Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the competitive dynamics in the global law market through the lens of the statutory evolution of the Rule in Hastings-Bass across various International Financial Centers (IFCs). Following the UK Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Pitt v Holt and Futter v Futter, which significantly restricted the judiciary's ability to void trustee decisions under the Rule, seven IFCs (Jersey, Bermuda, The Bahamas, the Dubai International Financial Center, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands) enacted statutes to preserve and clarify the Rule within their jurisdictions. These legislative actions highlight the strategic adaptations by IFCs to enhance their legal …