Digital Commons Network^™

Nonhuman Speakers And The Constitution, Helen Norton

Fordham Law Review

Long-standing free speech law sometimes does—and sometimes does not—turn on speakers’ human character. This Essay explores how these doctrinal threads might shape the constitutional doctrine applied to generative artificial intelligence’s (AI) speech outputs if we assume that a human speaker cannot be identified as the creator of those words and images—and that those words and images are nevertheless considered “speech” for First Amendment purposes.

For example, First Amendment doctrine sometimes requires proof of a speaker’s culpable mental state before that speaker can be held liable for what would otherwise be unprotected speech. These requirements seek to prevent the chilling of …

Digital Gaze And Constitutional Democracy At 250, Catherine Powell

Fordham Law Review

The panopticon of digital surveillance undermines identity formation and realization of our authentic selves. This Essay offers a new insight by conceptualizing alienation from genuine selfhood as a form of “double consciousness.” W.E.B. Du Bois formulated the notion of double consciousness—the dual awareness inherent in negotiating between a self-defined identity and an externally imposed one. Just as Du Bois speaks of “double consciousness” for African Americans, the ever-present digital gaze to which we are now all subject—regardless of our race—creates a similar duality. I call this duality “online double consciousness,” which is compounded for people of color and other historically …

Clickwrap Accountability, Alicia Solow-Niederman

Fordham Law Review

Picture a public‑facing generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on a government website that can answer questions about benefits eligibility. Systems like these expose a sociotechnical-legal divide: They route around the standard due process framework because there has been no formal government determination, yet they induce reliance from users, above and beyond past rounds of automated legal guidance. Moreover, if there is an error, current doctrine on government errors and equitable estoppel makes relief unlikely.

This Essay focuses on government deployment of public‑facing generative AI chatbots and critically assesses the front‑end power dynamics that determine who is filtered out of government …

Algorithmic Models And The Freedom Of Speech, Alexander Tsesis

Fordham Law Review

Intentionality and reason are intrinsic features of the human mind that large language models (LLMs) entirely lack. Although LLMs generate natural-language sentences through algorithmic processes, autonomously produced machine speech lacks the consciousness of human speakers. This intrinsic distinction between natural persons and artificial machines is consequential to whether LLM-generated outputs are covered by the First Amendment. Scholars who equate the constitutional value of human speech with algorithmic outputs tend to emphasize the informational value of those outputs to audiences while giving insufficient attention to the absence of machine consciousness. The conscious underpinnings of thought and their relation to constitutional protections …

Climate Change Under Customary International Law: Must The United States Protect The Climate System?, Daniel Rees

Fordham Law Review

On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its “Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change,” concluding that “the full gamut of international law applies to climate change.” Beyond treaty-based duties, the ICJ recognized that customary international law imposes obligations on all states to protect the climate. The advisory opinion emerged from unprecedented participation by states and international organizations, reflecting a growing consensus that addressing climate change is a legal obligation. This Note explores the legal implications of recognizing a customary international law duty to protect the climate system. It posits that these …

How Ai’S Data Centers Thirst For Water Will Leave The Rest Of Us Dry If Left Unregulated, Emma Sawko

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Opening The Door: Copyrightability Of Interpreted Seismic Models After Gsi V. Tgs, David Logan

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Beneath The Surface: Addressing The Ownership And Development Rights Of Geothermal Energy Resources Under Oklahoma Property Law, Kobe K. Gipson

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Aesthetic Considerations In Nuisance Claims Against Texas Wind Farms, Ellie Duggan

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Ownership Of Produced Water And The Path To Domestic Lithium And Critical Mineral Commercialization, Emily Davis

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Eleventh Circuit’S Narrow Interpretation Of Nepa In Alligator Alcatraz, Madison Crow

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Dicta’S Danger: The Lingering Nuisance Of Abel V. United States, Meg Penrose

University of Miami Law Review

This Article urges judges and lawyers to avoid relying on dicta when making legal claims. Dicta can cause confusion and generate incorrect legal conclusions. The most recent instance of dicta’s danger involves legal guidance on immigration arrests provided by the Department of Homeland Security’s General Counsel. Counsel erroneously relies on dicta from a 1960 Supreme Court case, Abel v. United States, in advising that law enforcement can legally enter a home armed solely with an administrative immigration arrest warrant. They cannot. The cited dicta precede binding Supreme Court precedent holding that the Fourth Amendment draws a firm line at …

Cruel By Design: Reclaiming The Eighth Amendment From The Feasible-Alternative Requirement, Heath C. Newman

University of Miami Law Review

For more than two centuries, the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments” has stood as a safeguard against the barbarous and excessive exercise of state power. Rooted in the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and adopted by Framers who denounced torturous punishments, the Amendment was designed to protect the condemned from needless suffering. Yet, under the Supreme Court’s modern method-of-execution jurisprudence, that protection no longer turns on whether the state’s chosen method will inflict extreme pain, but on whether the prisoner can identify a feasible alternative way to die. The feasible-alternative requirement—developed in Baze v. Rees, Glossip …

Frictionless Fans, Fragmented Law: A Hybrid Approach To Regulating Stadium Biometrics, Janaye K.S. Dowers

University of Miami Law Review

The future of stadium entry may require no ticket at all, just a face. Across the United States, stadiums are increasingly replacing traditional tickets, credentials, and payment methods with biometric identification systems designed to move thousands of fans through gates and concessions with unprecedented speed. However, the law governing these systems remains far less seamless. In the absence of comprehensive federal biometric legislation, stadium operators, technology vendors, and attendees must navigate a fragmented patchwork of state and local laws that provides inconsistent protections and leaves fundamental questions of accountability unresolved.

Using stadiums as a case study for the expanding private-sector …

Recent Case: Equal Protection - Transgender Discrimination In Women's Sports: West Virginia V B.P.J., Joey Martinez

ConLawNOW

This Recent Case Note analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J. (2026) in which the Court upheld state laws banning transgender women and girls from competing on women’s and girls’ sports teams. By holding that the state bans were justified by concerns with physical safety and fair competition, the Court rejected a claim that the bans violated the Equal Protection Clause and applied an arguably less demanding heightened scrutiny standard than its prior cases seemingly required. The Court deferred to the state legislatures on the contested questions of medical and sports science, applying a weakened “new …

Use Of The Well-Star Model And Well-Star Graphic In Healthcare, Fidan Korkut-Owen, Zubeyde Akpakir, Dean W. Owen

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

Materiality In Saudi Real Estate Development Contracts: Comparative Jurisprudence And Cross-Border Disputes, Abdulrahman Mohammed Alzeer

Hasanuddin Law Review

The Saudi Civil Transactions Law (CTL) contains materiality-related standards that apply at different phases of the contract life cycle as separate doctrines rather than as an overarching doctrine. Article 74 uses a counterfactual analysis of partial invalidity and severability, while Articles 95 and 107 address the characteristics or purposes of contractual performance and the consequences of non-performance. The difficulty is not a conflict between Articles 74 and 107, but the absence of a unified analytical model for assessing the significance of non-performance under provisions on performance, interpretation, defect, and remedy. This article addresses these fragmented CTL elements and contends that …

From Classroom To Courtroom: Cross-Jurisdictional Legal Protections For Teachers In Student Disciplinary Cases, Sapto Budoyo, Nadea Lathifah Nugraheni, Praditya Arcy Pratama, Mahyuddin Bin Arsat

Hasanuddin Law Review

Legal protections for teachers in student disciplinary cases are increasingly urgent. This study investigates the legal protections afforded to teachers in managing student disciplinary cases in Indonesia and Malaysia, highlighting how legislative frameworks, sociocultural influences, and institutional mechanisms shape teachers' rights and responsibilities. Using a comparative legal approach, the research analyzes statutory provisions, policy directives, and educational practices in both jurisdictions. The comparison indicates that Malaysia offers a more institutionally structured framework by defining school-level disciplinary authority and separating authorized disciplinary measures from individual teacher discretion. This framework balances educator autonomy with student rights, although gaps remain in enforcement and …

Pop-Culture Simulations For Negotiation And Conflict Resolution Education, Noam Ebner

DRI Press

Simulations have long been the cornerstone of experiential negotiation and conflict resolution education. This book offers a new genre of simulations: scenarios situated within the universes and narrative arcs of popular movies, books, and television series. These simulations bring  new levels of excitement, engagement, and motivation to the classroom as students practice decision-making within familiar storylines,  negotiating new twists in beloved tales, or settling conflicts between their favorite characters. Each simulation includes all of the required roleplay material as well as a full teaching note for selecting, setting up, conducting, and debriefing the exercise.

Barrie Roberts has created special versions …

Cumulative Reasonableness: A Doctrine Of The Combined Effect Of State Intrusions, Tonja Jacobi

Texas A&M Law Review

The Supreme Court has recognized that a single state action, such as forced surgery to retrieve a bullet as evidence, can be so intrusive as to be unreasonable, even when police have probable cause and a warrant. Yet, the Court permits significant intrusions into a person’s privacy and bodily integrity when the state acts in multiple steps. It permits police to, among other things: subject a person to a stop, even when that stop was driven by racial discrimination; use evidence found in a search of the person, even when the stop was illegal; arrest that person, even when the …

Moving Beyond Worker Rights To Worker Justice, Shefali Milczarek-Desai

Texas A&M Law Review

Precarious workers’ on-the-ground realities offer a startling truth often obscured by the jurisprudence of work—that worker justice is greatly circumscribed by and often lies beyond the reach of worker rights laws. This Article is the first to evaluate whether the worker rights paradigm can fulfill the goals of worker justice and, if not, to prefigure what might.

The worker rights paradigm emerged from a quest for worker justice that has been transmuted by work law and the political economy into a workers-as-rights-holders status requiring robust enforcement of worker rights laws. This Article introduces the concept of empirical critical work law …

Energy Data Justice, Heather E. Payne, Joel B. Eisen

Texas A&M Law Review

As the energy system becomes increasingly data-driven, this Article proposes a new framework for treating access to and governance of that data—energy data justice—that synthesizes the insights of two rapidly developing bodies of scholarship: energy justice and data justice. In our view, energy data justice examines not only how data is used to shape outcomes within the energy system but also focuses on the power dynamics relating to the collection and use of energy-related data. Similarly to how scholars have advocated for curbing Big Tech’s most pernicious data practices, we argue for treating energy data not simply as a technical …

Ai And Legal Malpractice: Are We Due For A Reckoning?, John Browning

Texas A&M Law Review

As the rate of AI adoption by lawyers steadily climbs, unfortunately so has the number of incidents of AI misuse by attorneys. For some time, courts satisfied themselves with giving offending lawyers warnings, ordering them to take additional CLE, and/or administering relatively nominal monetary sanctions. Lately, however, frustrated judges throughout the country have upped the ante by not only assessing increasingly higher sanctions but also imposing case dismissals and suspensions or disciplinary referrals for the lawyers involved. As this article discusses, with their negligence exposed to the public eye and the harsh gaze of their clients, lawyers who misuse AI …

Care After Insurance, Elenore Wade

Journal of Law and Health

This essay describes the theoretical and doctrinal problems caused by viewing healthcare and medicine through the framework of risk-based insurance. It also explains how the framework affects agency and institutional behavior in non-insurance medical payment programs and how it affects public political discourse on healthcare.

Cookies Crumble: Reimagining Internet Personal Jurisdiction Post Briskin V. Shopify, Gabriel Wherley

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Punishing Homelessness: An Analysis Of Criminalizing Outdoor Sleeping, Maggie Hazelbaker

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Turning The Page Backward: Reconciling The Current Circuit Split On Whether The First Amendment Can Be Used To Challenge Modern Book Banning, Stella Brocker

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Did College Football Betting Markets Correctly Assess Game-Shortening Rule Changes?, Kevin Krieger, Justin Davis

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Established rules and norms are standard within competitive sports. However, changes are often made to create better functioning contests or improved viewer experiences. We examine the impact of one such change on sports wagering markets. To shorten college football games, starting in 2023, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) adopted rule changes that would, in part, enable the game clock to run more frequently. This decision might create games with fewer plays, and scoring in such games might also be lower. We document the impact of these changes and question whether the sports betting markets quickly ascertained the impacts of …

When The Monsoon No Longer Returns: Climate Racism And Displacement In Pakistan, Ayman Irfan

Pace Environmental Law Review

International law does not recognize climate displacement as a distinct legal category. Refugee law protects those fleeing persecution, not environmental collapse. Climate treaties regulate emissions and finance but avoid enforceable responsibility for the human consequences of warming. Human rights law intervenes only at extreme thresholds. This fragmentation leaves millions displaced by climate-intensified disasters without coherent protection. Using Pakistan’s 2022 floods as a case study, this Article argues that climate-induced displacement must be treated as a foreseeable legal consequence of atmospheric harm. Pakistan contributes less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions yet ranks among the most climate-vulnerable states. The …

Citizenship At Sea: A Comparative Perspective On Blue Justice In The Andaman Sea And The Mediterranean In The Context Of Climate Change, Emilio Cocco

Pace Environmental Law Review

Discourses of the ocean in the sociological and socio-legal world have, until recently, been approached from majoritarian, terrestrial, profane and nation-centric perspectives. These perspectives are embedded in legal and regulatory regimes to the detriment of Indigenous and marginalized maritime communities. Drawing on the blue turn in sociology and socio-legal scholarship, this Article, in comparing the experiences of the Moken people of the Andaman Sea with those of migrants, fishers, and island communities in the Mediterranean, exposes the violence of such narratives. Through a comparative analysis of maritime borders, marine protected areas, tourism, and fisheries regulation, the Article explores how governance …