Digital Commons Network^™

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

Addressing Legal Uncertainties In Article Versions And Institutional Copyright Policies To Support Immediate Public Access To Federal Grant-Funded Publications, Yuanxiao Xu

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

New federal public access policies—mandated by the 2022 OSTP Memo and already adopted by several key federal grant-making agencies—require authors funded by federal grants to deposit peer-reviewed publications for immediate public access. This paper explains how grant- receiving institutions and their affiliated authors can dispel legal uncertainties and comply with the new public access policies. Section I delineates how valid prior licenses enable public deposit of manuscripts notwithstanding later publishing agreements transferring copyright to the journals. Section II discusses the different versions of a manuscript created during the publication process. Section III describes the different types of third-party contributions incorporated …

Minimal Success: The Consequences Of Mandatory Minimums In Youth Sentencing, Maya Chrobot

Fordham Law Review

In New York State, children as young as thirteen can be processed as adults and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences. Mandatory minimum sentences require judges to sentence the defendant to a statutorily set minimum term of imprisonment. Practitioners, judges, and researchers question the efficacy of mandatory minimum sentences, finding that they are ineffective at deterring crime, decreasing bias in sentencing, and increasing community safety. Additionally, there is clear evidence about the damaging effects of incarceration on young adults. Instead of functioning as rehabilitative punishment, incarceration leads young adults to experience poor mental and physical health outcomes upon release, and they …

All I Really Need To Know About The Ethics Of Third-Party Litigation Funding, I Learned From Watching Hulk Hogan, Alex B. Long

West Virginia Law Review

The Hogan/Gawker litigation occupies a special place in public discussions concerning third-party litigation funding, the practice of investors who fund litigation with the goal of earning a profit. While nearly a decade has passed since the conclusion of the case, the Hogan/Gawker litigation is still regularly referenced in academic literature and popular media. Since the jury verdict, the practice of third-party litigation funding has grown exponentially. Within just the past year, there have been several state legal ethics opinions concerning the practice, and several state legislatures passed legislation that addresses some of the ethical concerns associated with the practice. On …

Guns, Guardians, & Guilt: Analyzing Family Liability In Mass Shooting Cases, Alex Robinson

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

20 Years Post-Schaffer: Why Shifting The Burden Of Proof In Idea Due Process Hearings Is The Only Way To Ensure “Fape” For Students With Disabilities, Alexa Udy

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Navigating Sustainable Burial In Southern Nevada, Kristen Gibson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Navigating Sustainable Burial in Southern Nevada investigates the accessibility of environmentally conscious end-of-life options for individuals throughout the region. Sustainable burial practices, including green burial, water cremation, and natural organic reduction, provide alternatives to traditional burial and cremation methods. Research was conducted through an analysis of Nevada statutes, local reporting, funeral service resources, and public discussions related to sustainable burial. The research revealed that although Nevada expanded legal recognition of sustainable burial by legalizing natural organic reduction, public access to clear information and available services remains limited. These findings informed the creation of a choose-your-own-adventure booklet designed to translate legal …

Code And Consequences: How Fraud Detection Algorithms Criminalize Welfare, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article investigates the growing use of automated fraud detection systems in public benefits programs, focusing on how these technologies have intensified the surveillance and criminalization of low-income individuals. Across the globe, government agencies deploying fraud detection algorithms have wrongfully accused thousands of people of committing fraud, with devastating consequences, including bankruptcy, job loss, and psychological trauma. These algorithmic systems operate as opaque “black boxes,” fueled by historical biases against the poor and largely unaccountable to the individuals they affect. Meanwhile, the private vendors that develop the algorithms reap massive profits from unfulfilled promises of efficiency and cost savings.

The …

The Entanglement Of Facts And Values: An Overlooked Problem For Legal Positivism, Stephen A. Simon

West Virginia Law Review

Scholars have long been fascinated by the relation between law and morality, and in particular by the question of whether identifying the law requires making moral judgments. H.L.A. Hart and other legal positivists insist that we can identify the law without making moral judgments. By contrast, Ronald Dworkin and other opponents of legal positivism hold that determining law’s meaning necessarily involves moral reasoning. The most prominent contemporary case against legal positivism, developed by Dworkin, argues that interpretation—giving meaning to legal language—inherently requires moral judgments. While Dworkin’s arguments are powerful, the discourse has overlooked another basis for rejecting legal positivism: one …

Consent Absent Consensus: A Principles-Based Framework For Institutional Sexual Consent Policies, Tammi Walker

West Virginia Law Review

Title IX requires educational institutions to address sexual misconduct but provides no clear standard for defining consent. In the absence of federal guidance, colleges and universities operate in a regulatory vacuum, producing inconsistent definitions, legal uncertainty, and contested understandings of what consent requires. Without a structured framework, institutions struggle to balance survivor protection, due process, and practical implementation. This Article introduces a principles-based framework that supports clearer, more coherent consent policies. It identifies three interdependent elements of valid sexual consent: (1) Respect for Choices and Autonomy, which requires voluntary agreement free from coercion or pressure; (2) Informed Expectations and Transparency, …

Training New Lawyers With And For Generative Ai: A Semester-Long Experiment Scaling Clinical Friction In The Doctrinal Classroom, Frank W. Volk

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Racing To Safety: Tax Policy For Ai Safety-By-Design, Mirit Eyal, Yonathan Arbel

Articles

The White House recently announced its vision of artificial intelligence (AI) policy: AI development is a race and America must win it. To that end, a new America's AI Action Plan directs federal agencies and states to remove regulatory barriers to AI development and accelerate innovation. This approach leaves limited room for regulatory measures that would address the safety risks of powerful AI systems: their behavior in novel domains remains unpredictable, their decision-making opaqueness, and their alignment with human values is uncertain. While experts warn of large-scale accidents, policymakers find themselves in a bind: Regulate AI and cede ground to …

Private Coverage, Public Risk: The Role Of Cyber Insurance In National Security Governance, Deborah L. Johnson

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the growing yet underexamined role of the commercial cyber insurance market in shaping the United States' approach to cybersecurity readiness. It argues that, as cyber threats against U.S. critical infrastructure and essential services increase, commercial cyber insurance has quietly come to function as a de facto governance tool in national cybersecurity. In hospitals, water and energy systems, and other public-facing sectors, policy language, underwriting questionnaires, and post-breach claims practices help define what counts as "reasonable" security, influence how organizations plan for and respond to incidents, and affect the pace and scope of recovery after an attack. Yet …

Expressive And Acquisitive Norms Of Property In The Municipal And Private Contexts: Guerrilla Gardening And Property Reform, Anna Benham

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

There exists a type of expressive property outlaw—the guerrilla gardener. Guerrilla gardening is the practice of gardening without the legal right to do so. The practice of guerrilla gardening can sometimes take on rooted permanence, and as a result, progressively higher stakes. Guerrilla gardeners can operate over years, planting plots of greenery in areas where their hard work can be removed, quite literally, overnight. Many guerrilla gardeners operate with the implicit consent of their neighbors—consent that can be revoked at any time. However, when one bends away from the light insurrections of nonoffensive trespass and examines the other end of …

Reconsidering The Take It Down Act, Cate Thorpe

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

In the past decade, there has been an increase in digital forgeries leading to the phenomena many have called “revenge porn.” This form of Nonconsensual Intimate Imagery (NCII) has been facilitated by AI-models that allow users to create false images or videos of someone’s likeness, often referred to as deepfakes. In an attempt to combat the dissemination of such forged NCIIs, Congress enacted the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The Act institutes a notice-and-removal procedure for victims to request the removal of  NCIIs depicting their likeness on covered platforms. While the TAKE IT DOWN Act sufficiently addresses some concerns, certain aspects …

The Inapplicability Of Government Speech Doctrine In School Libraries, Dallyn Edmunds

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Since 2021, the number of books removed from school libraries has risen dramatically. These removals have led to lawsuits and questions surrounding the control a state may exercise over the school library. In almost every current case, the government has argued these cases should be dismissed because of the government speech doctrine. A fairly recent creation, the government speech doctrine is the understanding that the government, in order to accomplish its purposes, may at times exercise viewpoint discrimination and regulate speech in ways that perhaps seem prohibited by the First Amendment. Evaluation in government speech cases has typically undergone a …

Fluctuating Hallucinations: On The Boundaries Of Immigration Judges’ Discretion In The Determination Of Asylum Based On Political Opinions, Yan Zhang

Immigration Law Blog

This article examines the enigmatic nature and blurred boundaries of the discretionary power exercised by immigration judges in asylum cases, highlighting how the scope of such discretion—whether broad or narrow—proves decisive for the applicants and their families. Through a comparative analysis of specific cases, the article underscores the critical importance of immigration judges seeking to discern and follow the true intent of the law—specifically, by deeply understanding and defining the threshold of “persecution,” delineating the boundaries of “political opinion,” and appropriately weighing and prioritizing immigration policies within their specific historical contexts. Furthermore, it is essential that judges conduct a comprehensive …

To Compete Or Noncompete: Lessons On The Impact Of Unenforceable Noncompete Agreements In The Entertainment Industry, Guy Mannick

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Economic and legal literature has increasingly focused on how the American legal system fails workers. One way it does so is through employee noncompetition agreements (“NCA” or “noncompete”) that limit a worker’s ability to join another company, often for better compensation and/or more responsibility. Some states enforce NCAs if they are reasonable in scope, geography, and duration; others either prohibit their application to certain types of workers or (as in California) outright prohibit them in most circumstances. More narrowly, new empirical literature about the behavioral effects of unenforceable noncompete agreements raises new questions about the behavioral impact on workers.

This …

Piercing The Algorithmic Fog Of War: Ai-Enabled Decision-Support Systems And The Responsibility Gap For War Crimes Under The Rome Statute, Karen H. Cho

UC Law SF International Law Review

This article examines how the integration of artificial intelligence-enabled decision-support systems (AI-DSS) into military conflict complicates the attribution of individual criminal responsibility for war crimes under the Rome Statute. Unlike lethal autonomous weapons systems which are intended to supplant human agency, AI-DSS augments human decision-making across the targeting cycle while simultaneously introducing opacity and bias. These characteristics risk facilitating indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, undermining t4he principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law. Through a case study of Israel’s deployment of systems such as “the Gospel,” “Lavender,” and “Where’s Daddy?” in Gaza, this article illustrates how algorithmic mediation obscures …

Securing Safe Transitions: A Policy Argument For Sb 434’S Strengthened Eviction Safeguards, Eric Brown

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Life Without Parole: How Sb 672 Reshapes Extreme Sentencing For Youth Offenders, Karina Cardenas

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching A Social Justice Approach To Leadership In Law Schools, Tamar Ezer

Articles

Leadership is critical for social justice. Our law students have the potential to serve as future social justice leaders, building strong organizations and movements to carry out this work. Drawing on both leadership theory and practical examples from clinical legal education, this piece argues for a broad definition of leadership, embracing diversity and encompassing the counter-cultural values of listening and humility. It further proposes a three-dimensional model of social justice leadership, engaging the mind, heart, and spirit, and suggests teaching practices to strengthen each component. The first dimension focuses on cognitive competencies, including substantive mastery of an area of law …

Rethinking Objectivity: The Problem Of Pretext In The Fourth Amendment, Monu S. Bedi

Indiana Law Journal

Pretextual encounters continue to erode the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Simply put, a police officer can act on personal bias or animus as long as the search or seizure is deemed “objectively reasonable.” Numerous scholars (e.g., Bennett Capers, Gabriel Chin, and David Harris) have critiqued this objective standard, contending it perpetuates discriminatory practices, particularly against communities of color. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself suggested that the Court might need to reconsider the legal precedent she helped establish. More recently, Orin Kerr has also argued that the Court’s reliance on objective determinations is inconsistent with …

Representation In Removal Proceedings, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock, Weston Ley, Christopher Levesque

Indiana Law Journal

Millions of immigrants in the United States are facing threats of mass deportation under the second Trump Administration. At the same time, the Administration has sought to end federal programs aimed at providing basic information and guidance to immigrants in removal proceedings. In addition, large numbers of immigration judges have been fired from immigration courts that already face massive backlogs. Amidst these upheavals, deportation defense lawyers have come to occupy a more central role than ever in ensuring fairness and due process in immigration courts. Are certain groups of immigrants more likely to obtain legal representation than others? Among those …

The Nondiscrimination Principle, Zephyr Teachout

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

People's Upr Written Record: Compiled By The International Human Rights Clinic At The University Of Illinois Chicago School Of Law And The Human Rights At Home Litigation Clinic At The Saint Louis University School Of Law, Sarah Dávila A., Lauren E. Bartlett

Faculty White Papers

This written record compiles the lived experiences of directly impacted persons. Directly impacted persons include people who have personally faced the conditions, policies, or practices documented in this written record in the United States and who have chosen to share their testimonies. The testimonies in this written record include those provided in-person, via video recording, which have been transcribed, or in writing. Testimonies are presented anonymously with ▊ sign as names and identifiable information has been redacted. Their accounts provide first-hand evidence of how these human rights issues operate in practice, offering essential context and depth that cannot be captured …

The Hidden Tax Game, Doron Narotzki

William & Mary Business Law Review

Taxation is not just a legal duty; it is a game, and the best players always win. While governments rely on laws and penalties to enforce compliance, corporations, high-net-worth individuals, and elite tax strategists exploit loopholes, turning complexity into opportunity. This Article argues that tax avoidance is not a flaw in the system, but an expected outcome. Modern tax law does not just permit avoidance; it actively encourages it. The more intricate the rules, the more valuable it becomes to manipulate them.

Using game theory as an analytical lens, this Article reframes taxation as a high-stakes competition, where strategic players …

What Common Themes Are Challengers Trying To Silence And What Would Be Lost Without Them?, Corrine H. Martello

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

This research paper aims to analyze the controversies surrounding The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, three commonly challenged books that are often found in high school English classes, in order to answer the question “what themes in these books are challengers trying to silence, and what would be lost without them?”. It will be broken into four sections, Alienation, Mental Health Struggles & Trauma, The Loss of Innocence, and Exploring Identity, which are common themes presented in all three books. …

The Third-Party Privacy Problem, David Sella-Villa

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Stealing Hearts, And Data: Legal Ramifications And Data Privacy Risks Of Ai Companions, John G. Browning

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.