Digital Commons Network^™

Aging Alone In Malaysia: Social Challenges And Legal Protections, Jal Zabdi Mohd Yusoff, Zulazhar Tahir, Siti Zaharah Jamaluddin

Hasanuddin Law Review

According to The Japan Times, nearly 28,000 elderly individuals in Japan will die alone in the first half of 2024. This alarming trend is not unique to Japan; many countries, including Malaysia, are facing the challenges of an aging population. As Malaysia approaches becoming an aging nation, issues affecting the elderly, particularly those living alone, demand urgent attention. While not all elderly people face the same circumstances, some enjoy stable finances or live with their family, while others live in isolation due to various factors, such as remaining unmarried, widowhood, or estranged familial ties. Some are simply separated by their …

Rejecting Salinas V. Texas’S Catch-22: Towards State Constitutional Protections For Silence In New Mexico, Kayla Herring

New Mexico Law Review

The landmark United States Supreme Court case, Miranda v. Arizona, protects individuals’ constitutional rights in coercive environments, like custodial interrogations, where law enforcement officers apply immense psychological pressure through specialized techniques. However, subsequent caselaw distorts Miranda’s intent to enable prosecutors to comment on silence. Doing so divorces Miranda from the reason the United States Supreme Court established Miranda warnings in the first place. This subsequent caselaw narrows individuals’ constitutional right against having their silence used against them in later criminal proceedings to imply guilt based on the custodial framework established in Miranda. Salinas v. Texas is one of those subsequent …

Decolonizing International Law, Modirzadeh’S Critique, And Homework For Islamic International Law Scholarship: An Attasian Approach, Fajri Matahati Muhammadin, Rafsi Azzam Hibatullah Albar

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Naz Khatoon Modirzadeh published an article criticizing the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) movement for its purported inability to achieve its purpose as a response to one of the major international law decolonization projects. One of her criticisms is that TWAIL lacks a cohesive counter-vision of international law, actual representation of third-world views, and organized political movements. Within the heavily diverse (which is one of the problems) TWAIL camp, among others, is the voice of Islamic law. Most Muslim nations have been at the receiving end of the brute force of colonialism. Colonialism is, in fact, responsible for …

Canada’S Contributions To International Legal Discourse: Gender, Genocide, And Neocolonial Investments (2015–2025), Heidi Matthews

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter critically evaluates Canada’s major points of engagement with international law in the period between 2015 and 2025. In partnership with European and Commonwealth allies, Canada has been an active participant in several contentious cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including against Myanmar, Syria, and Afghanistan. Canada has taken progressive legal positions in this litigation with respect to the interpretation and application of international law as it relates to sexual and gender-based crimes, as well as abuses committed against children. However, the past decade also reveals that Canada’s policy responses to its genocide and other crimes against …

Racial Privacy I: The Quest For Whiteness By European Immigrants In America, Najarian R. Peters

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Privacy law scholars have disregarded and under-theorized racial privacy practices, meaning racial/ethnic passing, in the United States of America. This article is a defining first step in conceptualizing racial passing as an indispensable privacy protection practice, that affirmed the following individual and group privacy rights of European immigrants, who became White in America: (1) the right to be let alone, (2) the right to erasure of stigmatized racial identity, and inherent in that right, (3) the right to forget an assigned racial identity, burdened by socio-economic deprivation and predation. Whiteness was required to access citizenship for the vast majority of …

The Joy And Privilege Of Social Justice Lawyering: Fulfillment Through Integrating Work And Life, Ascanio Piomelli

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Human Trafficking In Alabama, Kimberly Abrams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this analysis is to gain a thorough understanding of human trafficking in the Alabama. The illegal issue of this analysis is for those who lack a sense of human trafficking, which surrounds the communities where they reside. The theory guiding this study is due to the complexity of the issue globally around the world as it explains the causes of human trafficking amongst victims, which include those who experience poverty, lack of access to job opportunities, natural disasters, and lack of legal protection for immigrants. Additionally, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide insights into the …

The Impact Of Modern Police Equipment And Training On Reported Anxiety And Depression Of Police Officers, Matthew Roy Burford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study investigated the relationships among law enforcement officers’ access to modern equipment, their confidence in their training, and their reported levels of anxiety and depression. The study also tested whether confidence in training moderated the association between equipment and mental health outcomes. Mental health symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988). Two researchers-developed instruments to assess officers’ perceived adequacy of their equipment and confidence in their training. Participants were recruited from law enforcement agencies across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and data were collected through …

The Cruelty Is The Point: How The Extreme Psychological Effects And Punitive Ineffectiveness Of Solitary Confinement Culminate In An Unconstitutionally Disproportionate Punishment, Zachary Bosak

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note will propose that solitary confinement can be wholly abolished under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. This Amendment provides in full that “[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” When taken in a broad, isolated sense, the meaning of and purpose behind this Amendment are straightforward and uncontroversial; the founders meant to protect Americans from “methods of punishment” considered unreasonably severe and inhumane. However, when one attempts to place this Amendment within the context of a legal issue, its clarity erodes, and questions arise as to its applicability. …

Perceptions Of Legitimacy In Three Forms Of Probation Supervision For People With Serious Mental Illness, Sophia Sarantakos, Emily Claypool

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In the context of criminal-legal community supervision, standard and specialized probation officers are often tasked with coordinating services for adults diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) on their caseloads. The coordination of services varies across different programs including traditional probation, specialty probation, and mental health court. Given the proliferation of programs focused on mental health in the criminal-legal system, the perspectives of front-line workers or street-level bureaucrats in criminal-legal agencies are a rich source of information about what is happening on the ground and could provide insights into the potential translational barriers of policy to practice. A deeper examination of …

From Acrimony To Forgiveness: How Adolescents Make Sense Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katherine Irwin

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines 16 adolescents’ narratives about the abuse they experienced during childhood. To date, most research examining child abuse (CA) survivorship and recovery has been conducted with adults who look back on their early experiences. Consequently, this study fills gaps in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of survivors’ efforts to cope with CA. The data come from a 12-year qualitative study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. The findings revealed that a minority (n = 2) of the teens had negative views of their lives and futures, while the majority (n = …

A Content Analysis Of The Sutherland Address, 2001-22: A Qualitative Exploration, Phillip Shon

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Previous indicators of scholarly influence have been primarily quantitative, measuring a scholar’s influence through citation counts. This body of literature has overlooked the reflections of distinguished scholars, such as the recipients of the Sutherland Award, in the discipline as a form of scholarly influence. The current paper examines the Sutherland Address from 2001 to 2022. The key findings indicate that the majority of Sutherland Addresses reproduced existing sociological canons, while a minority of Sutherland Award winners explicitly rejected Sutherland’s sociological assumptions and their influence on criminology. Such findings suggest that Sutherland exerts a hidden influence on the recipients of the …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality In Southeast Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies, Madeline Marie Whistler, Christopher Bradley, H. Hamner Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior …

A Plea For Open Access To Qualitative Criminology: With A Python Script For Anonymizing Data And Illustrative Analysis Of Error Rates, Scott Jaques, Andrew Wheeler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Qualitative researchers are expected, sometimes required, to publish their data open access (OA). This is for the sake of science, impact, and social justice. Yet, understandably, qualitative criminologists are worried about what this means for their workload and their ability to protect subjects’ confidentiality. To be solutions-oriented, we developed an open-source Python script for anonymizing qualitative data. It uses named-entity recognition and fuzzy-rule based merging to identify and replace personally identifiable information (PII) with unique pseudonyms. This tool doesn’t eliminate the need for manual work, but it reduces the cost and associated risk. In this article, we describe and explain …

How Disability Inclusion Shapes Student Experiences In Egyptian Public Universities, Ramez Maher

Theses and Dissertations

The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a critical aspect of equity, social justice, and human rights, particularly in Egypt, where systemic barriers continue to hinder access to education for this demographic. Despite the enrollment of approximately 19.4 million students in 2018, only 38,135 students with disabilities were admitted, highlighting the significant challenges they face in accessing higher education.   Through a qualitative approach employing reflexive thematic analysis, this study explores the interplay of institutional policies, cultural attitudes, and accessibility challenges that affect the educational experiences of students with disabilities in Egyptian public universities. The analysis of 21 …

The Unspoken And The Unseen: An Analysis Of Victim Gender And Linguistic Framing Of Sexual Assault In Judicial Discourse, Sarnika Ali

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Sexual assault is a profound legal and social crisis. However, it is also fundamentally a linguistic one. The words used, or conspicuously not used, to describe victims, perpetrators, and their actions are not neutral arbiters of fact. They are powerful mechanisms that shape perceptions of harm, attributions of blame, and assignments of credibility. The central battleground for survivors is credibility, and while a “credibility discount” is often applied to female victims, the male victim is rendered nearly invisible. This research is therefore guided by one central, overarching question: how does a sexual assault victim’s gender influence the judicial language used, …

The Real Estate Question In The Urban Environment Of Morocco, Asaad Abdemajid

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

The land question in urban areas has come to occupy an important place in the human environment due to its impact on individual behavior. As a result of high demographic growth, intense rural migration, and consequent multiplied urban growth, the land question now arises in its holistic human dimension. It is not limited to the legal land system and its relationship with the individual or family occupying it, but extends to the broader framework of city dwellers' lives in their social and psychological reality. The urban land question involves multiple variables requiring the combined efforts of legal experts, economists, financiers, …

Digital Bodily Autonomy: Consent Issues, Labor Displacement, And Legal Understandings Of Ai Generated Deepfake Pornography, Mariah Barrett

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In the United States, nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes are becoming an increasingly prevalent problem as AI deepfake creation software improves and becomes widely available. Despite this, patchwork legislation across the country is inconsistent and conflicting regarding this issue. In this paper, I explore the background of pornography and obscenity laws and demonstrate how these frameworks are not properly constructed to apply to the digital sphere. Then, I address major themes within deepfake literature such as consent issues, bodily autonomy, labor displacement, and verifiable identity as a commodity through the case study of OnlyFans. I explore current and proposed legislation within the …

Shaping Egypt’S Transition To Sustainable Electric Transport: Current Policies And Future Directions, Noha A. Ragab

Theses and Dissertations

Egypt has enacted policies to promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in order to reduce their overall carbon footprint. However, the pace of transition remains limited, so the research aims to answer the following question: “How do current policies shape Egypt’s transition towards sustainable electric transport, and what additional measures can support this transition?" The study employs a qualitative analysis methodology, based on diffusion of innovation theory and conceptual framework, to analyze current policies in Egypt and identify challenges and gaps in their implementation. It also analyzes responses from 23 interviews with experts in the field, manufacturers, dealers, EV …

The Paradox Of Palestinian Exile: Unrwa, Structural Limbo, And The Manufactured Crisis Of The Right To Return, Laila Ibrahim Hassan Elkassas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the temporariness of Palestinian exile has been turned into a manufactured limbo that is sustained by international law, humanitarian governance and host- country regimes. It uses General Assembly Resolution 194 and the broader human rights regime to show how the right to return is constantly reaffirmed but structurally postponed, resulting in a gap between legal promise and political reality. Drawing on Edward Said’s notion of exile as an unhealable rift, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Didier Fassin’s thinking on humanitarian reason, the thesis constructs a multi-scalar framework that conceptualizes limbo as existential experience, embodied practice …

The Case For The Exclusion Of Exclusion: Intellectual Property, Masculine Legal Reason, And The Ethics Of Care, Ragya Shoukry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that current legal ideals of objectivity and neutrality are historically gendered and inseparable from the development of capitalist property relations and imperial expansion. It traces origins that begin with early modern witch hunts and Francis Bacon’s empiricism, where a new “scientific rationality” emerges alongside intensified patriarchal violence. The thesis then examines John Locke’s labour-based justification of property and the figure of the rational individual, showing how this framework legitimizes enclosure, dispossession and colonial appropriation under the guise of improvement and development. Building on this foundation, the analysis turns to moral psychology and how its allegedly universal stage …

Engaging Immigrant Families Of Children With Disabilities: Recommendations For Practitioners, Robai N. Werunga, John William Mckenna, Rocio Rosales

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Family involvement is essential for positive school outcomes. Yet research suggests that family engagement for students with disabilities may be marked by conflict. Furthermore, creating an environment that promotes active engagement for immigrant families may be challenging. In this paper, we synthesize existing research, legal guidance, and community-engaged insights to present four practice-oriented recommendations for educators and practitioners working with immigrant families of children with disabilities. Grounded in Hans and Love’s stages of immigrant family engagement, these recommendations aim to support meaningful and culturally responsive participation in special education processes.

Reframing Narratives: Remedies For Improved Human Trafficking Coverage, Stefanie Henriques

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The global rise in human trafficking is not receiving adequate media attention. While newspaper coverage of the topic has increased, current research argues that the issue is framed with a lack of diversity, limiting audience understanding of its complexity. Some researchers also note that coverage disproportionately focuses on sex trafficking, with minimal attention directed to other forms of trafficking such as the labor or organ trade. This paper conducts a narrative literature analysis of media research on human trafficking, drawing on framing theory to identify dominant frames in media messaging and synthesize cross-cultural factors that impact how the issue is …

A Systematic Review Of Restorative Justice In Criminal Contexts, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Restorative justice has gained growing attention within criminal justice reform as a practical alternative to approaches centered only on punishment. It emphasizes accountability, dialogue, and community reintegration, offering a different way to understand how change in behavior takes place. This systematic review examined quantitative evidence from 34 studies, selected from an initial pool of 112 records identified through databases such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, JSTOR, and institutional repositories. The studies assessed a range of interventions, including victim-offender mediation, diversion programs, community conferencing, and in-prison initiatives, which allowed comparison across different settings and populations. Across these studies, 79.4% reported statistically significant …

Scaffolding Minimum Age Thresholds, Eve Rips

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Technology Augment Order Writing Capacity At Regulators?, Natasha Aggarwal, Amrutha Desikan, Bhavin Patel, Satyavrat Bondre, Dipyaman Sanyal

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This article critically examines the opportunities and challenges of using technology, in particular Large Language Models (‘LLMs’), to assist regulatory order writing in quasi-judicial settings in India. It proposes augmenting rather than replacing human decision-makers, aiming to improve regulatory order writing practice through responsible use of LLMs. This article identifies the core principles of administrative law that must be upheld in these settings and analyses how inherent limitations of LLMs may undermine these principles. The article reviews international frameworks and case studies from various jurisdictions, highlighting common design principles. It proposes a comprehensive Problem-Solution-Evaluation ('PSE') framework for responsibly integrating LLMs …

You Must Be This Tall To Scroll: California's Questionable Approach To Parenting By Policy, Caroline M. Cuddy

Pace Law Review

This note examines California's Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976), signed into law in September 2024, which prohibits personalized algorithmic feeds on minors' accounts without pa- rental consent and restricts platform notifications during school hours and nighttime. Drawing on the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association and related federal litigation, this note argues that SB 976 is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Specifically, SB 976 is underinclusive because it fails to meaning- fully reduce minors' screen time, exempts comparable addictive plat- forms, and permits the very algorithmic feeds it deems harmful upon parental …

Bridging Covenant And Efficiency: A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Faith-Based Environmental Nonprofits Under New Public Management Reform, Jacob Berry

Journal of Law and Government

This paper explores covenantal environmental administration as a significant framework for contemporary public governance within faith-based environmental nonprofits (FENs). As New Public Management (NPM) reforms increasingly shape nonprofit administration through efficiency and performance metrics, covenantal governance emerges as an alternative rooted in mutual obligation, ethical leadership, and spiritual stewardship, concepts deeply embedded in Judeo-Christian traditions exemplified by loving fulfillment. Contrary to perceptions of incompatibility between ethical-spiritual values and data-driven accountability, this study argues that integrating covenantalism with New Public Management practices can enhance organizational performance, stakeholder trust, and ecological outcomes. Employing theoretical analysis and empirical tools (notably the Covenantal Empowerment …

The Dangers Of Unregulated Artificial Intelligence: Should The United States Adopt International Ai Regulations?, Katrina P. Perea

Widener Commonwealth Law Review

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Student Litigation & The Risk To Higher Education, Kiera R. Flannery

Widener Commonwealth Law Review

No abstract provided.