Digital Commons Network^™

Fair Construction To Living Constitution: Analyzing Constitutional Interpretation Throughout United States History, Joshua Lloyd

Senior Honors Theses

The proper method of constitutional interpretation has been debated throughout the history of the Supreme Court. This debate has been defined by the tension between the originalist and living constitution jurisprudences. Each has been dominant at one point in United States history. A fair construction jurisprudence was almost universally utilized by the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning until Plessy v. Ferguson. Then, due to an alliance between evangelicals and progressive scholars, a broader, more lenient living constitution jurisprudence developed which allowed justices to interpret the Constitution in light of changing social norms. Finally, …

Diffusion Of Soft Immigration Law: Evidence From Asylum Adjudication In The Wake Of Matter Of A-B-, Patrick Kennedy

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quality Control: Potomac Riverkeeper V. Wheeler & Standards For Qualitative Citizen Water Quality Data In Virginia, Jacqueline Goodrum

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article explores the issue of quality of citizen data through the lens of Potomac Riverkeeper v. Wheeler, a recent impaired waters listing case concerning the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Part I of this Article provides a brief overview of citizen science data in regulation and policymaking under the CWA. Part II discusses Potomac Riverkeeper v. Wheeler, examining Virginia’s water quality-related data standards and DEQ’s use (and non-use) of citizen water quality-related data and information in that case. Finally, Part III argues that Virginia should establish clear, reasonable, and specific data quality standards for qualitative citizen data so …

Stuck In The Net: Promoting Global Shark And Ray Populations Through National Sustainability Import Laws, Kelsey Peden

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Shark and ray populations are crucial to a healthy oceanic ecosystem, but regulation of harm is difficult to manage for these highly migratory species. The massive decline of shark and ray populations has triggered an international response, including collaborative protections against the overharvest and sale of endangered groups. However, recent studies show that protections must extend past direct harvest because an estimated thirty to fifty percent of population kills occur through “accidental by-catch” in the fishing process. The United States has attempted to fill some of the missing protections for sharks in national waters, as well as to implement bans …

Casting Pearls Before Swine: Why The Public's Darling Right To Pollute Should Have Been Overturned In Recent Scova Decision, Thummim Park

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note calls for the Virginia Supreme Court to recognize that a city’s right to freely pollute the public waterways is no longer valid under the Virginia Constitution, and to recognize that the line of Darling cases granting municipalities the public right to pollute waterways should have been overturned.

Part I will set out the foundation for this Note. It will discuss the background of Johnson v. City of Suffolk, laying the context for this Note’s discussion. Part II will engage in an analysis of the rationale for Darling. It will contextualize and compare it to current understandings …

Encouraging Sustainable Innovation: Is There Room For A Post-Grant Environmental Challenge In American Patent Law?, Samuel Habein

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note examines potential changes within the American patenting system that might renew the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) dedication to the promotion of progress through a post-grant environmental challenge to patents. There are many ways to encourage “green” innovation by challenging practices that harm the environment, but the patent system has a unique ability to discourage environmentally harmful innovation by refusing to grant exclusionary rights—rights that many industries require to thrive. However, a post-grant environmental challenge would undoubtedly disrupt the American patent system in severe ways that this Note does not address. Therefore, this Note is not arguing …

Brick By Brick: Deconstructing Pyramid-Like Companies By Requiring Disclosures From Multilevel Marketing Schemes, Alex Chumbley

William & Mary Business Law Review

Multilevel marketing companies ("MLMs") have thrived in the internet era as participants are able to market their products to their friends and followers on social media sites. Further, periods of high unemployment, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to increased enrollment in these companies. However, very few people actually make any money from selling for these companies. Beyond that, almost half of those who participate lose money due to the enrollment costs. This Note examines past case law surrounding MLMs and critiques the current regulations in place that fail to ensure that new participants are making a fully …

Chrismar Hotel Ltd V Stanbic Bank Zambia Ltd Scz Selected Judgment No 6 Of 2017 P. 160, Dunia P. Zongwe

SAIPAR Case Review

In the first semester of 2008, the appellant, Chrismar Hotel Ltd, needed finance to buy some equipment, including earth-moving equipment. It therefore solicited funds from the respondent bank, Stanbic Bank Zambia Ltd, with which it had held several accounts, obtained credit facilities (for example, mortgages and debentures), and established a longstanding relationship. The respondent bank agreed to lend money to the appellant hotel.

Thus, the hotel and the bank (hereinafter ‘the parties’) entered into eight distinct yet identically worded finance leases. For a total sum of 1.7 million US dollars, the eight leases each specified the amount that the respondent …

An Analysis Of Who Funds And Who Benefits From The Carolina Education Lotteries, Mary Reagan Crosby

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Framework For Understanding The Taxation Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

As a relatively new area, the taxation of digital tokens can give rise to several dangerous misconceptions. This article lays out five propositions to counter these misconceptions: 1) digital tokens are not a single monolithic asset class attracting uniform tax treatment; 2) the common trichotomous division of digital tokens into payment, utility and security tokens is derived from securities regulation and should not be blindly adopted into tax law; 3) the three classes are not mutually exclusive and hybrid tokens may exist; 4) the fact that an asset is a digital token rarely changes its tax treatment by itself, which …

The Gender Pay Gap And High-Achieving Women In The Legal Profession, Milan Markovic, Gabrielle Plickert

Faculty Scholarship

Although women have made significant strides in the legal profession, female attorneys continue to earn far less than male attorneys. Relying on survey data from a large sample of full-time attorneys in Texas, we find a gender pay gap of thirty-five thousand dollars at the median that cannot be explained by differences in human capital or occupational segregation. We also provide evidence that the legal market especially disadvantages women who excel in law school. Whereas high academic achievement boosts male lawyers’ incomes substantially, it does not have the same effect on female lawyers’ incomes. High-achieving female lawyers earn less than …

Getting To Phi: The Case For Excusatory Derogations From Iccpr Rights, Benjamen F. Gussen

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

This Article highlights the need for excusatory derogations from human rights. Currently, there is exclusive reliance on justification when upholding derogations from International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR ) rights. In contrast, an excusatory derogation accentuates the requisite international policy intervention to assist national and subnational governments toward a proportional response to public emergencies. The right to mobility under the ICCPR, and its renditions in the constitutions of Australia and Canada, are used to illustrate this proposition. Border closures in response to the coronavirus pandemic provide context to elucidate how different types of public emergencies dictate different approaches …

Crime Doesn't Pay But Neither Can Ex-Offenders: A Comparative Analysis Of Criminal Restitution In The United States And Canada, Justin Gendler

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note argues that the U.S. criminal restitution system is flawed, prioritizing punishment over rehabilitation, leading to significant hardships for indigent offenders, victims, and society. It proposes reforming the system to focus on disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and consider offenders' financial situations, drawing lessons from Canada's more rehabilitative approach.

Hensley V. Montana State Fund: A Shift In The Grand Bargain Of Workers’ Compensation, Brian Hagan

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sy-Stem-Ic Bias: An Exploration Of Gender And Race Representation On University Patents, Jordana Goodman

Faculty Scholarship

People of color and women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (“STEM”) fields in the United States. Through both intentional and unintentional structural barriers, universities continue to lose valuable intellectual resources by perpetuating a lack of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity as people climb the academic ladder. Identifying racial and gender disparities between university campus populations and their patent representation quantifies the qualitatively observed systemic racism and sexism plaguing STEM. Although many have written about racial and gender underrepresentation in STEM, no author has ever endeavored to simultaneously quantify the racial and gender gap at universities in the …

Protecting Terrapins With Teds In Virginia: Lessons From Other States, Bridget Verrekia, Shelby Fuchs

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This paper highlights case studies about other states' efforts to require or incentivize the use of TEDs [terrapin excluder devices] and recommends policies for Virginia to adopt that have proven successful elsewhere. First, it outlines the threats to terrapins at large, as well as the threat posed by commercial and recreational crabbing, specifically. Next, it details the efforts that other East Coast states have made to combat the problem, including policies that require or incentivize the use of TEDs on crab pots, and discusses the regulatory framework currently in place in Virginia. Finally, this paper concludes by analyzing the approaches …

Why Capacity Market Prices Are Too High, Todd S. Aagaard, Andrew N. Kleit

Faculty Publications

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and regional transmission organizations have fixated on a concern that prices in electricity capacity markets are too low. In fact, however, capacity markets are significantly overpriced. The reason for this is that the administratively determined demand curves in capacity markets create conditions that procure far more electricity capacity than what is needed to meet reliability objectives. In particular, the operators of these markets systematically overestimate both the relevant peak demand for electricity and needed payments for generators to enter the market. The result is that consumer pay billions of dollars extra for excess capacity.

The Effects Of Physical Fitness Policies On Law Enforcement Officers' Physical Fitness Levels, Tina M. Hall

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Most law enforcement agencies have minimum physical standards for new hires; however, few agencies have physical fitness standards for members once they are hired. Many law enforcement officers experience a decrease in physical fitness levels as their years of law enforcement service increase. The decrease in physical fitness levels causes a reduction in the ability to perform job duties and increases health consequences. This study explored the relationship of physical fitness levels of sworn law enforcement members from agencies with and without enforced physical fitness standards. Anonymous surveys were completed by 1240 sworn law enforcement officers from eight state law …

Creating Lightbulb Moments: Developing Higher-Order Thinking In Family Law Classrooms Through Court Observations, Sonia Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article fills a critical gap in the family law literature by arguing that teaching doctrinal family law in conjunction with the application of established learning theory and pedagogy yields a deeper engagement with the subject matter and leads to more practice-ready lawyers. ABA Standards 301, 303, and 304 do not clearly articulate the distinction between experiential education and experiential learning; doctrinal law classrooms are often bereft of experiential learning activities. By incorporating active learning and inclusive pedagogy in the doctrinal classroom and following recommendations from the MacCrate Report and Family Law Education Reform Project, students will be better prepared …

The Limits Of Law And Ai, Ryan Mccarl

University of Cincinnati Law Review

For thirty years, scholars in the field of law and artificial intelligence (AI) have explored the extent to which lawyers and judges can be assisted by computers. This Article describes the medium-term outlook for AI technologies and explains the obstacles to making legal work computable. I argue that while AI-based software is likely to improve legal research and support human decision making, it is unlikely to replace traditional legal work or otherwise transform the practice of law.

Volume Introduction, I. Glenn Cohen, Timo Minssen, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Christopher Robertson, Carmel Shachar

Other Publications

Medical devices have historically been less regulated than their drug and biologic counterparts. A benefit of this less demanding regulatory regime is facilitating innovation by making new devices available to consumers in a timely fashion. Nevertheless, there is increasing concern that this approach raises serious public health and safety concerns. The Institute of Medicine in 2011 published a critique of the American pathway allowing moderate-risk devices to be brought to the market through the less-rigorous 501(k) pathway,1 flagging a need for increased postmarket review and surveillance. High-profile recalls of medical devices, such as vaginal mesh products, along with reports globally …

Taxonomy Of Ministerial Appointment Processes, Michelle Johnston

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

In parliamentary governments, executive power rests in an executive body of ministers commonly referred to as “the cabinet” or “the government.” Cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, are tasked with researching, drafting, and proposing laws and policies to their legislative counterparts in parliament. Because cabinets are generally comprised at least partially of select members of parliament, parliamentary systems are characterized by the interactions and interdependence of the legislative and executive branches. Whereas presidential systems lean into separation of powers to restrict governmental power, parliamentary systems rely on integration of the branches to ensure that political powers remain in check. Executive …

International Trade, Brian Bombassaro, Tessa Capeloto, Sylvia Y. Chen, Dharmendra Choudhary, Shane T. Devins, Laura El-Sabaawi, Cynthia Galvez, Geoffrey Goodale, Sahar Hafeez, Alexandra Landis, Ying Lin, Elizabeth Lee, Cynthia Liu, Diane Macdonald, Yujin K. Mcnamara, David Sella-Villa, Sarah Sprinkle

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Proposed L-Shape Pattern On Ufs Acm For Risk Analysis, Abhishek Asthana, Padma Lochan Pradhan Dr

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

At this cloud age, there is tremendous growth in business, services, resources, and cloud technology. This growth comes with a risk of unsafe, unordered, and uncertainty due to unauthorized access and theft of confidential propriety data. Our objective is to model around Read, Write and Execute to resolve these unordered, unsafe, and uncertain issues. We will develop a L-Shape pattern model matching UFS ACM to minimize the accessibilities based on RIGHT & ROLE of the resources and maximize the quality of services for safety and high availability. The preventive, detective, corrective (PDC) services are the major roles for all levels …

State Courts And Education Finance: Past, Present And Future, Michael A. Rebell

BYU Education & Law Journal

Fifty years ago, few legal analysts would be predicted this spate of creative state court activity regarding educational rights.

John Serrano Did Not Vote For Proposition 13, William A. Fischel

BYU Education & Law Journal

Rather than advancing new arguments, this essay will review my work on this subject in the form of a memoir (with popular-song headings that betray my vintage) about my evolving interest in the Serrano and Proposition 13 connection.

Vedantic Basis And Praxis Of The Integral Advaita Of Sri Aurobindo, Debashish Banerji

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The integral nondualism of Sri Aurobindo can be traced to the great pronouncements (mahāvākya) of the Upanishads and later commentaries. This study examines teachings on the Supermind (vijñāna) and the other four kinds of consciousness that define human reality: Matter (annaṃ), Life (prāṇaḥ), Mind (manaḥ), and Bliss (ānanda). Through Yoga and Tantra, one learns and embodies the pathway to the divine.

Digital And Spatial Humanities Mapping: Eurasia-Pacific Early Trade And Belief Linkages, Igor Sitnikov, David Blundell

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Eurasia-Pacific is a dynamic region of rapid economic growth, cultural awareness, natural resource exploration, and military buildup. The concept of the region is relatively new, featuring contested vast areas of geo-resource space of numerous cultures and languages. The current findings in anthropology and archaeology and even its more specific subfields such as folklore are important contribution to the understanding of periodic environmental changes and technical innovations were the main forces of transformations in social structures that have determined the mechanisms and levels of cross-cultural trade activity across the region. We have traced early trade and belief linkages across Eurasia-Pacific …

Tusha Hiti: The Origin And Significance Of The Name, Deepak Shimkhada

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

In this article, the author examines the royal bath called Tushā Hiti located in Sūndari Chowk (Beautiful Courtyard) of Pātan Durbar Square, using six different methods of investigation. The question: What is in a name? started the ball of investigation rolling and along the way were added more supporting blocks such as history, iconography, function and purpose, notion of purity and impurity, and finally the hiti in popular culture to get a complete picture of the subject in question.

Copyright And Attribution Guide, Version 1.0, Air Force Institute Of Technology

AFIT Documents

The purpose of this document is to establish a guide on the use of copyrighted material, the attribution of source material, copyright protection of covered works (limited applicability only for civilian faculty), and to educate AFIT personnel on important aspects of copyright law. This guide is intended for all AFIT employees, including all AFIT faculty, staff, contractors, and students, as well as all students reporting to AFIT regardless of the school they are attending.