Digital Commons Network^™

When Tokenized Real-World Assets Collide With Real World, Biying Cheng, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The city of Detroit filed a public nuisance lawsuit in July of last year in the Michigan Circuit Court for the Third Judicial Circuit against Real Token, its co-founders and 165 affiliated entities, alleging building code and safety violations across over 400 Detroit residential properties.[1] RealT is a blockchain real estate platform that sells fractional interests in individual U.S. rental properties through the issuance of crypto security tokens.

On July 22, the judge issued a temporary restraining order — later converted into a preliminary injunction on Nov. 4 — barring RealT from collecting rent, pursuing evictions without a certificate of …

Front Matter, Editors Of Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

Volume 45, Issue 4

Non-Waivability In Labour Law: A Foundational Principle In Transition, Guy Davidov, Cynthia Estlund

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS SECURED IN LEGISLATION cannot be waived by employee consent. This is almost a trite proposition, a truism that labour lawyers and students usually take for granted.

Non-Waivability In Labour Law: An Australian Perspective, Joellen Riley Munton

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

Australian industrial relations laws traditionally provided detailed mandatory standards through a system of arbitrated occupation-based awards. In the years since a shift to enterprise bargaining, the system has tolerated a greater level of flexibility, even in the way that legislated minima are framed. The options for waiving otherwise mandatory standards are, however, limited by procedural protections. The Fair Work Commission maintains a supervisory role to ensure that workers are “better off overall” as a consequence of their bargains. This article explains the many ways in which Australian labour standards permit flexible application, within constraints designed to preclude exploitative practices.

The Non-Waivability Principle: Possible Derogations From Collective Bargaining And Re-Assessment Of Individual Bargaining In Assisted Procedures, Elena Gramano, Silvio Sonnati

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

This article examines the evolving landscape of Italian labour law, with a focus on the principle of non-waivability and its gradual adaptation to demands for flexibility and competitiveness. Traditionally, the Italian labour law framework has been characterised by a strong non-waivability regime, which protects employees from negotiating away their rights due to inherent power imbalances vis-à-vis employers. However, recent regulatory developments have facilitated a shift towards both collective and individual agreements that allow deviations from statutory provisions, including to the detriment of employees. The article analyses the implications of this trend, exploring key regulatory models that enhance the role of …

Waiver Of Statutory Employment Rights In The United Kingdom, Hugh Collins

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

The common law endorses the principle of freedom of contract, but, with few exceptions, Parliament has explicitly prevented straightforward waivers of statutory employment rights. Nevertheless, for the sake of promoting settlements of claims by employees, it is surprisingly easy for individual employees to enter into agreements to compromise claims for breach of those rights without appropriate safeguards such as independent advice and freedom from pressure. Moreover, employers’ lawyers have demonstrated considerable ingenuity in finding ways to avoid the application of employment rights either by manipulations of employment status or by seeking contractual agreements on the facts of the case that …

Derogability By Collective Agreements In Germany And The Presumption, Eva Kocher

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

The promotion of derogability clauses, which allow collective agreements to deviate from statutory protection to the detriment of employees, has been an issue in the political debate on German labour law for some 20 years. While such derogability clauses can effectively allow for flexibility at the company or sectoral level, there are differing views on their suitability for promoting collective bargaining. This article highlights the paradox of such derogability clauses: They are legitimised by the presumption of fairness that underpins collective autonomy; at the same time, they create incentives for employers that challenge the very presumption of fairness. All in …

The International Covenant On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights And The Employment Relation By Klaus Lörcher, Niklas Bruun, Ana Teresa Ribeiro, Hart Publishing, 2025, Manfred Weiss

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

AFTER HAVING PUBLISHED THREE ENLIGHTENING BOOKS on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), on the European Social Charter (ESC), and on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU), the authors of the Transnational Trade Union Rights Expert Network of the European Trade Union Institute have now transcended the European territory and presented a publication on a global scale.

Derogability From Swedish Statutory Labour Law, Birgitta Nyström

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

The possibility for the social partners to derogate from statutory legislation in the area of labour and employment law is an important characteristic of the so-called “Swedish model” for industrial relations and labour market regulation. With a system built on collective bargaining and collective agreements, and where legislation in the labour law area was rather scarce until the 1970s, freedom for the social partners is a core element. The possibility to derogate from certain parts of statutory labour law by collective agreements also gives room to adapt rules for different kinds of businesses and trades. Sweden is a member of …

Antibiotics In Animal Agriculture, The Risks To Health, And Differences In The Us And The Eu, Li-Ting Chou

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

When Earth’S Lungs Collapse: How Wetland Loss Threatens Air Quality After Sackett V. Epa, Julia A. Hicks

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 6 (February 16, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Social Media’S Death Toll: Who Should Be Held Liable?, Sara Fradi

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

Digital Services Taxes And The Wto, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Doron Narotzki

Articles

In an excellent Tax Notes article, Claudio Cipollini argues that the United States has adopted a paradoxical stance regarding digital services taxes. On one hand, the United States has repeatedly characterized DSTs as discriminatory trade barriers that unfairly target U.S. technology firms. On the other, it has systematically obstructed appointments to the Appellate Body of the WTO, leaving the dispute settlement mechanism effectively inoperative and ineffective. Cipollini presents this as a “missed WTO route,” suggesting that a functioning WTO system would primarily serve U.S. interests by disciplining European DSTs under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

This article …

Communicative Legitimacy: The Supreme Court's Hidden Cultural Binaries In The U.S. Civil Sphere, Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

How does the U.S. Supreme Court establish its legitimacy? Over the last two hundred years in U.S. society, the Court has interpreted the U.S. Constitution on watershed issues such as slavery, segregation, and marriage equality. And yet the Constitution is just 7,591 words. A puzzle thus emerges: how does the Court intelligibly interpret this short text for U.S. society? This article develops a new theoretical and empirical cultural sociological account of such Supreme Court decision-making, which it calls “communicative legitimacy.” According to this theory, which draws on Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere theory, the Court consistently and inevitably draws on a …

Weather As A Weapon Of War: The Legality Of Cloud Seeding Under International Humanitarian Law, Fatemah Albader

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

The Double-Edged Sword Of Ai In Elections: Navigating Risks And Opportunities In Washington State, Payvand Khastkhodaei

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

Deepfake Danger: The Urgent Need For Federal Protections Against Ai-Generated Pornography, Benjamin Comfort

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

Mmu: 02/16/26-02/22/26, Student Bar Association

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Transformative Technology And Shortening The Statute Of Limitations Applicable To Taxpayers, Jay A. Soled, Leslie Book

Faculty Publications

When it comes to submitting tax returns and paying taxes, most taxpayers understand the nature of their civic duties and do so dutifully, if not willingly. However, many taxpayers fail to grasp why the IRS has such an elongated time period—namely, three years— to audit their tax returns and propose an assessment. Indeed, when the IRS exercises its oversight authority, records may no longer be available, and memories may be dulled.

Since the original institution of the three-year tax assessment limitations period nearly a century ago, tremendous technological strides have been made. Indeed, over ninety percent of income tax returns …

Kim Tolley, Vaccine Wars: The Two-Hundred-Year Fight For School Vaccinations, Dorit R. Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

Kim Tolley’s book offers several important contributions to the large literature on vaccine controversies, rich with important new information and a coherent, compelling story. First, the book’s focus is unique: rather than focus on public health (though the book also addresses the public health effects of vaccine decisions and outbreaks, and offers extensive data on that score, too), the book looks at the unique place schools occupy in the struggle around vaccination rates. Because of this focus, Tolley covers issues I have not seen in any other book — such as curriculum coverage of infectious diseases and vaccines, the role …

Stumping The Federal Effort: Southern States’ Contributions To The United States’ Leading Maternal Mortality Rate, Natalie A. Snook

Arkansas Law Review

Maternal care has reached a terrifying deficit in the United States. Masses of women throughout this nation are dying preventable deaths resulting from extremely lacking prenatal, birthing, delivery, and postnatal care. This is a silent epidemic. Why is the United States failing so miserably in comparison to its fellow developed countries? Why does the gap appear to be widening more and more each day? Various factors lend themselves to an explanation: general factors like the overall shortage of maternal care providers, as well as specific ones such as the not-so surprising fact that the United States is the only developed …

Recent Developments, Steven H. Jacobs

Arkansas Law Review

Recent Developments in Arkansas Law

Whose Water Is It, Anyway? Federalism And Texas V. New Mexico, Bryon Louk

Arkansas Law Review

When a problem erupts between two states, interstate compacts provide a solution without the need for a nationwide decision. Rather than waiting for federal consensus, the states can, with Congressional approval, compact to solve their problems. However, the Supreme Court’s decision in Texas v. New Mexico (Texas II) has threatened interstate compacts, ignored principles of federalism, and overextended its original jurisdiction. It has allowed the United States to force Texas and New Mexico to keep fighting over a compact, even when the states have resolved their issues on their own.

First, this Comment will describe the legal background of compact …

In Guns We Trust: Nfa Firearm Trusts And Silencing The Hazards Of Nfa Firearm Ownership, Carter Horton

Arkansas Law Review

Individual ownership of firearms has been one of the storied rights of our country. During the Founding Era, firearms were plentiful among the colonists, providing them with protection and the means to hunt for food to sustain their communities. With a rebellion brewing against Great Britain, the ill-equipped colonial governments primarily relied upon the personal arms of their people for defense. Arguably, this fundamental right to bear arms played an important role in sparking the American Revolutionary War at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, in which the British attempted to seize an arms cache from the colonists. The subsequent …

Collaborative Nullification: Bending Or Ignoring The Law To Free The Over-Punished, David A. Singleton

Arkansas Law Review

The United States accounts for about 25% of the world’s prisoners but only about 5% of its population. It has the fifth- highest imprisonment rate—higher than China and Russia—with people of color disproportionately impacted. This racialized mass incarceration, and the lack of political will to meaningfully address it, demands bold remedies. Certainly, sentencing reform for low-level, non-violent offenders is needed, but contrary to popular belief, these offenders are not driving mass incarceration. Instead, the problem largely results from increasingly long sentences for violent offenders.

This article proposes that the option, which I call “collaborative nullification,” can provide the over-punished needed …

Disconnected Connection, Dyane L. O'Leary

Arkansas Law Review

Lawyering is a human experience in a digital world. Lawyers have long derived pride from labels like personal counselor, trusted advisor, and steady confidant. Sure, sometimes a productized legal service or one-off Turbo-Tax-style filing is all a client needs. But it’s still a people profession, the lifeblood of which is connection with others: clients, colleagues, witnesses, and countless more. Calls for attention to lawyers’ so-called “soft” skills have grown louder in recent years, tagged with descriptors like “people” or “business” or “professional” skills. Modern communication tools facilitate connection and relationship building like never before. But that which connects us threatens …

Arkansas Law Review - Volume 78 Issue 4, Journal Editors

Arkansas Law Review

No abstract provided.

How The Rhetoric Of Borders Justifies The Erosion Of Rights, Richard Sherwin

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Law And The (Re)Production Of Class Hierarchies In Egypt, Ahmad Abdelnaby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how Egypt’s legal system, structurally tilted toward the elite and constitutive of inequality, has interacted with the country’s entrenched culture of class-based discrimination to produce a legal culture uniquely comfortable with hierarchy. It contends that class-based discrimination in Egypt has evolved from a social prejudice into a juridical condition, one in which the law does not merely mirror inequality but actively constructs and rationalizes it. By examining the intersection between legal structure and Egypt’s entrenched moral order of class-based discrimination, the study reveals a legal culture that no longer hides its hierarchies behind the veil of neutrality …