Digital Commons Network^™

Imitation, The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: Whether The Unauthorized Use Of A Trademark After The Termination Of A Franchise Constitutes Counterfeiting?, Rachel Auld

Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review

This Note examines whether the unauthorized use of a trademark after the termination of a franchise constitutes counterfeiting. Currently, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Sixth and Ninth Circuits are divided in answering this question. The Sixth Circuit has held that a franchisee’s use of a franchisor’s trademark following the termination of a franchise does not constitute a counterfeit mark under the Lanham Act. However, the Ninth Circuit has held that a licensee’s use of a licensor’s certification mark following the termination of the license does constitute a counterfeit mark. While certification marks and trademarks differ in name, …

Table Of Contents

Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Abortion Case The Supreme Court Has Been Waiting For?, Rachel Landis

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

This past week, Louisiana’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit, Markezich v. FDA, challenging the distribution of medication abortion to patients without an in-person doctor’s appointment. When the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA’s”) approval of mifepristone in 2024, it was considered a setback for the anti-abortion movement.  Markezich confronts the FDA’s approval of telehealth, and the Supreme Court could rule differently this time because of key differences in standing.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice website on February 26, 2026. The original post can be …

Foreword, Marlene Coss

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

When Constitutional Protection For Religious Liberty Gets Lost In Translation: A Case Study From Washington State, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Protecting religious liberty can present difficult challenges when religious liberty conflicts with laws prohibiting discrimination. Balancing religious liberty and nondiscrimination requires courts to accurately apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s complex First Amendment jurisprudence, including cases that address compelled speech, expressive association, and church autonomy. Amidst all the complexity, protection for religious liberty can get lost in translation. One important venue where protection can get lost in translation is in religious liberty cases decided by state supreme courts. The decisions of state supreme courts are especially significant because they provide the authoritative construction for state statutes and the state constitution. In …

The Merit Systems Protection Board And Removal Doctrine In The Second Trump Administration, Nathan A. Thomas

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In a federal civil service of millions, a means of adjudicating internal employment disputes objectively and efficiently is integral to the continued confidence of the federal workforce.1 This is the role occupied by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.2 On February 10, 2025, President Trump fired MSPB Chairman Cathy Harris without citing any reason, in direct violation of the good cause standard needed to remove an MSPB Board member. 3 President Trump’s unjustified firing of Chairman Harris reopens the ongoing assault on removal doctrine, but this note argues that the structure of the MSPB is constitutional under current removal doctrine. …

Egger Enter., Llc V. State Engineer, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 18 (Feb. 26, 2026), Hunter Patterson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The State Engineer needs only to address the relevant NRS 534.090(3) factors in a forfeiture proceeding, and retaining unused water rights while seeking new uses does not constitute good-faith diligence.

Our Nev. Judges, Inc. V. Dist. Ct., 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 16 (Feb. 26, 2026), Michael Martinelli

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A Writ of Mandamus cannot join claims from separate and distinct cases except in rare circumstances.

City Of Reno V. Dist. Ct. (Conrad) (Civil) [State Of Nevada], 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 13 (Feb. 26, 2026), Nathan Mackay

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Before issuing an ex parte writ of mandamus, a district court must address why regular inter partes procedure is inadequate. A district court that does not consider whether ex parte practice is appropriate abuses its discretion in issuing the writ.

Stuckey Vs. Apex Materials, Llc, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 17 (Feb. 26, 2026), William Mcadorey

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Employees pursuing prevailing-wage or overtime claims under NRS Chapter 338 must utilize the administrative remedies provided therein.

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Geofence Surveillance And The Possibility Of Radicalization, Bardia Moghtaderi Zadeh

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Violent And Property Crime In The Mountain West, 2024-2025, Sydney Mitchell, Kian Parikh, Kristian Thymianos, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents 2024-2025 violent and property crime data for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Crime data are sourced from the Real-Time Crime Index (RTCI) created by AH Datalytics. The RTCI table, “Reported UCR Part One Crimes Year to Date” compares violent and property crime rates during the time frames of January-October 2024 and January-October 2025 for states across the U.S. This fact sheet highlights the violent and property crime rates in each Mountain West state and considers how these data have changed between January-October 2024 and January-October 2025.

Meeting The Challenge Of Civic Education In Hyperpolarized Times, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

What role can civic education play in polarized times? That is the pressing question posed by Civic Education in Polarized Times, edited by Elizabeth Beaumont and Eric Beerbohm.1 As Beaumont’s introduction explains, “as political polarization has intensified across the world, civic education seems more urgent, but it has also become more challenging.” (P. 1.) The volume brings together an eminent group of education scholars, legal scholars, political theorists, and philosophers to consider challenging questions about how to carry out civic education “in a polarized era” and “for a polarized era.” (P. 2.)

Amicus Brief In Trump V. Barbara: An Originalist Defense Of Birthright Citizenship, Jed Handelsman Shugerman, Evan D. Bernick

Faculty Scholarship

For nearly all of the first 235 years under the Constitution, the citizenship of every child born in the United States to alien parents, with immaterial exceptions, was a given. Then, in 2025, the Trump administration changed course. Even though the Fourteenth Amendment makes no mention of limiting birthright citizenship to the children of domiciled parents, the Government now claims that is what “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has always meant. While the Government and its amici admit that the common law recognized the citizenship of children of transient aliens, their remaining “survey of history range[s] from the constitutionally irrelevant” …

Gendered Harms In Armed Conflict: International Legal Responses To The Gendered Effects Of The War In Sudan, Naima Dams

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis interrogates how international law conceptualizes, prosecutes, and ultimately limits the understanding of sexual violence in contexts of war and displacement. Drawing on feminist legal theory, postcolonial critique, and ethnographic fieldwork with Sudanese women displaced in Egypt, it questions the dominant legal framing of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) as episodic, exceptional, and individualized. Instead, it reveals sexual violence as structural, continuous, and embedded in the everyday realities of racialized, gendered, and colonial harm.

Through ethnographical narratives, the study exposes how survivors' experiences often exceed the legibility frameworks of humanitarian and legal institutions, which prioritize spectacular, forensic evidence over slow, …

Comments On The Draft Environmental Impact Statement On Post-2026 Operational Guidelines And Strategies For Lake Powell And Lake Mead, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Jack Schmidt, Katherine Tara, Kathryn Sorensen

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Post-2026 Operational Guidelines and Strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (DEIS). The undersigned colleagues with experience in Colorado River matters commend the Bureau of Reclamation and its consultants for the tremendous effort involved in preparing this environmental impact analysis. We are especially impressed by Reclamation’s effort to analyze policy alternatives within the context of the deep uncertainty about what future hydrology might be. Your work is novel in its effort to provide the public with a sense of what the performance, robustness, and vulnerability …

Penal Protection For Women In Jordan: How Compatible Are International Agreements And Jordanian Legislation?, Hasan Altarawneh, Hamzeh Abu Issa

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article analyses the degree to which Jordanian penal legislation conforms to international human rights standards regarding the protection of women from violence, specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations Bangkok Rules. Jordan has implemented legislative reforms targeting gender-based violence; however, these reforms are incomplete, disjointed, and frequently misaligned with international standards. This study employs a doctrinal methodology to analyse Articles 292–311 of the Jordanian Penal Code and associated procedural rules, assessing their substantive and procedural provisions in relation to international legal obligations. This analysis includes rulings from the …

Law School News: Expanding Access And Equity: Rwu Law's Cle Series Supports Rhode Island Attorneys 2-25-2026, Jane Govednik

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Rwu Law Opens Coastal Resilience Clinic To Visiting Students For Summer 2026 2-25-2026, Helga Melgar

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Stitching Up Industry Issues: Arbitration Can Offer Customized Solutions To Fashion Intellectual Property Disputes, Catherine Meng

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This comment proposes alternative dispute resolution (ADR), specifically arbitration, as a more effective mechanism for resolving fashion copyright disputes. The fashion industry has historically received limited protection for designs—primarily trademark and patent law—resulting in widespread copying and difficulty enforcing claims. In the 2017 case Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., the Supreme Court added copyright to the patchwork of protections. However, that protection is available only for aesthetic elements, not functional ones. The difficulty in distinguishing these components, along with the challenges of enforcing claims across borders and between parties with unequal bargaining power, as in Hian v. Louis …

Table Of Contents & Masthead, Grace E. Brandt

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Alternative Sacrifice: Religious Arbitration Agreements In Ministerial Employment Contracts, Grace E. Brandt

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

After decades of development in lower courts, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the ministerial exception in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C. (2012) and provided additional guidance in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020). The precise contours of the exception remain uncertain, but the doctrine—grounded in the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment—effectively bars civil courts from reviewing claims against religious institutions that implicate ministerial employment decisions. Thus, ministers are unable to pursue redress for legitimate harms that occur within the scope of their religious employment, even if unrelated to religious doctrine. This …

Off The Gridiron Conflict: Why The Nfl Should Use Mediation To Resolve Internal Disputes, Bryan Weitzman

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The National Football League (NFL) is a multibillion-dollar enterprise built on a sport that fundamentally depends on communication, cooperation, and collaboration. Yet the league resolves nearly all internal disputes through adversarial arbitration mechanisms embedded in the NFL Constitution and the NFL/NFL Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement. This comment argues that the NFL’s exclusive reliance on arbitration is conceptually inconsistent with the values that the sport instills and structurally prejudicial to players, coaches, and employees—particularly where the Commissioner retains final arbitral authority. An examination of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) principles and case studies demonstrates how the NFL’s current internal dispute resolution …

The Regulatory Framework For Crowdsourced Online Dispute Resolution: Revisiting The Dispute Resolution Triangle, Yun Zhao, Zhiming Xiao

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Crowdsourced Online Dispute Resolution (CODR) constitutes a transformative approach to digital-era disputes, fundamentally reconceptualizing dispute resolution through distributed participant networks rather than merely digitizing traditional alternative dispute resolution. Anchored in Katsh and Rifkin’s dispute resolution triangle (trust, convenience, expertise) and Perritt’s co-regulatory governance model, this paper analyzes CODR’s evolution from early systems such as iCourthouse to contemporary implementations. Case studies of eBay Community Court (contractual self-regulation prioritizing convenience) and Xianyu Small Court (state-aligned hybrid governance optimizing expertise through algorithmic juror specialization) demonstrate how platforms operationalize these theoretical frameworks. The legal analysis examines jurisdictional fragmentation and enforcement challenges, revealing how regulatory …

Hiding Elephants In Mouseholes: Judicial (Mis)Application Of The Federal Arbitration Act To Attorney-Client Arbitration Agreements, Gregory L. Smith

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article criticizes cases and commentary that assume, without argument, that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and its decidedly pro-arbitration jurisprudence apply to determine the enforceability of private attorney-client arbitration agreements, thus preempting state bar rules governing disclosures that lawyers must otherwise provide to clients when proposing private, binding arbitration in place of bar-sponsored arbitration regimes. The author argues that applying the FAA and its jurisprudence to attorney-client arbitration agreements raises significant constitutional issues regarding the states’ recognized authority to regulate the legal profession—an issue that courts and commentators have simply ignored.

Dispute Review Boards And The Construction Industry: The Song Remains The Same—Or Does It?, Daniel Mcmillan

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Dispute Review Boards (DRBs) are a unique form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) used on large and complex construction projects across the country. Although largely ignored by legal scholars, DRBs have been highly successful in resolving costly, time-consuming disputes involving hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of projects since their advent in 1975. DRBs are a hybrid form of ADR that combine facilitative and evaluative as well as coercive and non-coercive features of more common forms of ADR. But what actually makes DRBs so effective at dispute avoidance and resolution? This article analyzes: (i) the attributes that make DRBs an …

Hak-Hak Azasi Manusiasuatu Tinjauan Ringkas Dari Segi Hukum Islam, M. Tahir Azhary, S.H.

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Revisiting Eli Lilly V. Canada: Judicial Interpretation Of Ip Law And Exposure To Investor-State Disputes, Yumu Chen

Duke Law & Technology Review

Eli Lilly v. Canada was an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) case widely noted for signaling a regime shift in intellectual property (IP) protection from the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to ISDS. Its true yet often overlooked significance, however, lies in being a case of first impression on whether judicial interpretation of IP law may serve as a basis for state responsibility independent of denial of justice. To bridge that gap, this Note undertakes a close reading of the novel doctrinal discussion in Eli Lilly and related precedents, drawing implications for the broader theory of state …

Weaponizing The First Amendment: Captive Audience Laws Recast From Shield To Sword, Seth Freeman

Seattle University Law Review Online

This Comment examines the evolution and misuse of captive audience laws in the United States, particularly as they have shifted from narrow exceptions in First Amendment jurisprudence to expansive tools for ideological suppression. Originally designed to protect individuals from unavoidable and coercive speech, especially in private spaces like the home, captive audience laws have increasingly been utilized in regulating workplace speech, with a recent focus on suppressing conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Through an analysis of foundational Supreme Court cases and an exploration of recent legislative trends, this Comment reveals how state legislatures have weaponized captive audience doctrine …