Digital Commons Network^™

Two Decades Since Cms V. Argentina: Concession Contracts, Necessity Doctrine, And The Imf’S Impact On Sovereign Economic Governance, Esraa S. Saied Abdallah

Theses and Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of international trade, particularly within the framework of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), the primary aim has been to promote and protect foreign investment. The 1980s witnessed a notable increase in investment treaties, coinciding with a global shift toward privatization that was significantly influenced by the impact of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. By the 1990s, BITs had evolved to offer specific guarantees aimed at reducing the risks foreign investors faced in host states. However, despite the growth and transformation brought about by foreign investments, disputes arising under investment …

Under The Guardianship: Experiences Of Mothers In Egypt’S El Nayaba El Hesbaya, Hana Khayry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersectional lived experience of El Nayaba El Hesbaya in Egypt. El Nayaba El Hesbaya, operating under Law 119/1952, is the administrative and judicial body responsible for overseeing the financial and legal affairs of minors whose father or mother had passed. Hundreds of thousands of mothers in Egypt have (had) children under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya. This research delves into the experience of mothers whose children are or were under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya, examining how it shape(s/d) their everyday life as women, mothers, widows or ex-wives, citizens, and legal subjects. …

The Effectiveness Of Public-Private Partnerships In Addressing Residential Urban Development Challenges In Greater Cairo, Sara Nagy Abdelmessih

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the effectiveness of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in tackling the residential urban development challenges facing Cairo today. In the past two decades, PPPs have emerged as a dominant mode of housing production, positioned as collaborative ventures between state agencies and private developers. They have become integral to the expansion of Greater Cairo, producing vast new urban extensions under the promise of mobilizing private capital, technical expertise, and delivery capacity. Yet, questions remain about whether these arrangements genuinely address Egypt’s most urgent housing needs, or whether they reproduce market-driven logics that leave large segments of the population excluded.

The …

Navigating Radical Indeterminacy In The Struggle For A Global Collective Consciousness: The Question Of Eco-Justice And Law Or Universalize The Pluriverse: A Manifesto, More Or Less, Omar Auf

Theses and Dissertations

The processes of interpretation, communication, and re-interpretation leads to the emergence of an approximated collective consciousness, for which it may be struggled and contested by hegemonic. The dominant forces of this contest, capitalism and nationalism, lead to an interdivided world: one that possesses the tools to empathize with each other but is instead leading people to keep their heads down and focus on surviving their own contexts, perceived as existing within different historical times on the same timeline. This leads to legal and justice systems that fail their claim to universality and/or impartiality. Incorporating an ecological lens to justice within …

Egyptian Feminist Critiques Of Neoliberalism, Asmaa Elmalky

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines Egyptian feminist critiques of neoliberal economic policies through a Third World feminist and feminist political economy framework. It argues that neoliberalism in Egypt has produced controlling power dynamics through restructuring labor markets, social reproduction, and legal systems in ways that disproportionately impoverish women, particularly working-class women. The research maps diverse feminist engagements with neoliberal reforms, including structural adjustment programs, privatization, labor reduction, and legal liberalization. These critiques were influenced by the debates between Third World and transnational feminism, the thesis emphasizes the importance of national specific analysis in understanding how global neoliberal policies are mediated through national …

The Indeterminacy Of Customary International Law, Mohamed Diaa Tawfik

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the judicial formation of customary international law and examines how international courts oscillate between interpretive and law-making functions. It analyzes key theoretical frameworks—including Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law, Dworkin’s Law as Integrity, Kennedy’s radical indeterminacy, and Koskenniemi’s Descending-Ascending Approach—to understand how courts assert and shape customary norms beyond mere state practice and opinio juris. The work concludes that the International Court of Justice and other tribunals increasingly act as de facto lawmakers under the guise of interpretation, advocating the indeterminacy they try to avoid.

Emergency-Use Vaccine Mandates And Bodily Integrity: Assessing The Validity Of Proportionality Test In Legal Frameworks, Eman Hussien Khalil

Theses and Dissertations

Courts confronting emergency-use vaccine mandates during pandemics have revealed that existing legal frameworks are not equipped to handle the emergency context, as seen in their inconsistent description of government measures and their limited capacity to integrate evolving scientific developments on EUA vaccines into proportionality analysis. This thesis argues that when mandates concern Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccines, courts must abandon the formalistic distinction between “mandatory” and “compulsory” measures and instead focus on whether the practical consequences of non-compliance remove an individual’s genuine choice; where they do, the measure is coercive in substance and triggers the examination of proportionality. Drawing on …

The Mind Has A Firewall: An Attempt To Preserve Human Mind Integrity., Sayed G. Batran

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues for the recognition of mind integrity as a distinct human right. It contends that existing protections, such as bodily integrity, privacy, and freedom of thought, are no longer sufficient to shield an individual’s mental domain from new forms of external interference enabled by neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, and pervasive data-driven systems. Mind integrity is defined as the right to govern one’s own mental life—to form, revise, and hold thoughts, beliefs, and desires based on reasons one endorses—free from significant, non-consensual interference or manipulation, regardless of the method used. The thesis first identifies concrete risks and regulatory vacuums by …

What Are The Factors Affecting The Financial Sustainability Of Social Enterprises In Egypt?, Mina Atta Ghaly

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates what factors affect the financial sustainability of social enterprises (SEs) in Egypt, situating them within a constrained MSME, legal and sectoral context marked by informality, weak innovation and recurrent shocks. Drawing on global and Egyptian literature, it identifies ten candidate factors—business model, financial management, founders’ skills and mindset, revenue structure, sector and mission, legal framework and innovative finance, capacity building, investment mechanisms and “the right investor”, adaptability to shocks, and ecosystem conditions—and integrates them into an extended Social Enterprise Model Canvas. Using a qualitative, exploratory design with semi‑structured interviews of social enterprise founders, incubators/accelerators, investors and experts, …

California: Garment Labels Liable For Wages, Alan Hyde

Dispatches

GARMENT WORKERS IN CALIFORNIA SINCE 2022 may collect their wages, not merely from the production facility that employs them, but alternatively from the garment labels and some retailers for whom the facility produces garments. Such joint and several liability is unique in the world. It has long been the goal of garment worker activists around the world, for garment work everywhere is both low-paid and easily mobile. Wage theft, that is, nonpayment or underpayment of wages, is also common in California (U.S. Department of Labour, 2023). How is the statute working out?

A Tripartite Experiment In Australia: Seeking To Improve Compliance Through Collaboration, Tess Hardy, Stephen Clibborn, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Dispatches

In this dispatch, we examine one of the most significant strategic experiments to emerge in the recent past: a tripartite initiative launched in late 2024 in which the FWO is seeking to actively collaborate with representatives of business and unions in new and more meaningful ways. While tripartism is well established in setting standards, it remains relatively novel in the context of compliance and enforcement.

Proportionality And Theft, Christopher T. Wonnell

San Diego Law Review

Criminal law can serve a variety of utilitarian purposes including deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation.  Nevertheless, there is broad agreement among criminal justice scholars that the pursuit of these purposes should be constrained by a requirement that punishment not be disproportionately severe relative to the offense charged.  The proportionality constraint is likely to be especially important when considering the less heinous predatory crimes such as nonviolent thefts.  Recent years have seen experiments by progressive prosecutors who deemphasize theft offenses as well as statutory schemes that treat many thefts as misdemeanors.  With some empirical support, critics charge that these experiments have increased …

Copyright Extraterritoriality, Timothy R. Holbrook

San Diego Law Review

The presumption against extraterritoriality is a fundamental principle of U.S. law, yet its application to copyright law remains unsettled.  In recent years, the Supreme Court has formalized a two-step methodology for assessing the extraterritorial scope of federal statutes, culminating in RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community.  Despite this doctrinal shift, lower courts have inconsistently applied this framework to copyright infringement cases.  In an age of digital streaming and generative AI using training data globally, this state of affairs is unsatisfactory.  This Article examines the evolving state of copyright extraterritoriality in light of the Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence.  It explores …

Navigating Risk Factor Disclosures: A New, Outlier Ninth Circuit Approach Remains After The Supreme Court Declines To Resolve A Circuit Split In In Re Facebook Securities Litigation, Jessica K. Kocinski

San Diego Law Review

This Casenote examines the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Amalgamated Bank to dismiss Facebook’s writ of certiorari as improvidently granted, thereby allowing the shareholders’ securities fraud class action lawsuit to proceed in the lower courts.  Specifically, it focuses on whether Facebook shareholders adequately alleged securities fraud under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 as to challenged risk factor disclosures in Facebook’s 2016 Form 10-K under the PSLRA’s heightened pleading standard.  Part II of this Casenote provides background on the Cambridge Analytica data breach, which Facebook allegedly failed to disclose in its 2016 Form 10-K risk factor disclosures.  Part …

On The Nation’S Doorstep: How The Ninth Circuit Ruled Against Metering And Redefined The Border For Asylum Seekers, Samantha Fakhimi

San Diego Law Review

This Note examines the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Al Otro Lado and its implications on evolving federal immigration policies.  Part II analyzes the history of metering in the United States, including prior judicial treatment of the practice and its unlawfulness as determined by the district court’s prior holding.  Part III summarizes the Ninth Circuit’s majority opinion in Al Otro Lado, while setting forth the case’s legal implications within the larger federal landscape, including the broadened scope of government obligation to asylum seekers.  Part IV proposes next steps that could be taken by the legislature in response to practical constraints …

Expanding Access To Justice Through Legal Tech Innovation And Education: Aals Panel Discussions, Miguel Willis, April Dawson, Antonio Coronado, Diego Alcalá Laboy, Mark Williams, Margaret Hagan, Leighanne Thompson, Drew Amerson, Dan Jackson, Andrew Perlman

Seattle University Law Review Online

The 2025 AALS Annual Meeting featured a half-day AALS Symposium entitled, “Expanding Access to Justice Through Legal Tech Innovation and Education." Panel One was moderated by Miguel Willis and featured three panelists: April Dawson, Antonio Coronado, and Diego Alcalá Laboy. Panel Two was moderated by Mark Williams and featured two panelists: Margaret Hagan and LeighAnne Thompson. Panel Three was moderated by LeighAnne Thompson and featured four panelists: Drew Amerson, Dan Jackson, Andrew Perlman, and Miguel Willis. This article features transcripts from all three panels, edited for clarity and readability.

Adversaries And Experts: Legal Tradition Versus Empirical Science, André M. Peñalver

Seattle University Law Review Online

The modern courtroom can become a battleground between two epistemologies: the adversarial logic of law and the empirical rigor of science. Using a case involving a neuropsychological exam under Washington Civil Rule 35, this Article explores the tension between these traditions. While medicine embraced the Scientific Revolution, law remains tethered to its medieval Scholastic roots. The Article argues for humility and integration of evidence-based reasoning within the adversarial process.

Passive Choice And The Fourth Amendment, A. Shea Daley Burdette

San Diego Law Review

Does the Constitution allow waiver of Fourth Amendment rights through passive choice? What about through the choice of others? Based on current Supreme Court precedent, the answer is frustratingly unclear. For example, a copious amount of information is constantly disclosed to phone companies. The Supreme Court has recognized that having a cell phone is an inescapable choice today and that disclosing one’s location information to the cell phone company is automatic in nature. Each fact is considered relevant to determining whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information disclosed to third parties—which then affects whether the …

Father Of The Bride: Vindicating Deanda’S Claim Against 42 C.F.R. § 59.10(B), Matthew S. Mcguire

Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review

Across the judicial landscape of U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law or at the prerogative of Congress and HHS. Veiled behind the complexity of administrative law, 42 C.F.R. § 59.10(b) precludes parental consent notifications for all Title X services for all parents. In 2020, the HHS Final Rule came to light after the District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated the directive. Although the 5th Circuit affirmed and reversed in part, HHS does not enforce § 59.10(b) in Texas. For the rest of …

Fi-Fractured Policy: Problematic Preemption Provisions Under The Epa’S Fifra, Eric Mathemeier

Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review

The American people have long believed that nutrition is the main factor they should consider when purchasing produce. However, Americans are starting to worry that pesticides are infiltrating their food, namely their fruits and vegetables, and they would not be incorrect. Across many studies, surveys consistently find that 60% of Americans believe pesticides are bad for their health and have admitted to refraining from buying produce due to pesticide labeling. Only one in four Americans trusts the federal government with the responsibility of trustworthy and safe pesticide use.

Because of this, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked …

Finding Research Datasets And Evaluating Data Quality, Ibis Anette Moreno-Lozano Phd.

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

No abstract provided.

Gold Standard Ventures (Us) Inc. V. Thorson, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 10 (Feb. 12, 2026), Lauren Jung

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court affirmed the district court's dismissal of Orla's petition for judicial review, finding that a party must have an existing personal or property right affected by the challenged decision to have standing. The Court therefore found that Orla had no standing to bring suit.

Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence For Lawyers: That Is The Sound Of Inevitability: Legislatures And Regulators Step In, Cliff Mckinney

Arkansas Law Notes

In The Matrix, the evil artificial intelligence entity, Agent Smith, corners the human hero, Neo, on the subway tracks. Agent Smith says, “You hear that Mr. Anderson? . . . That is the sound of inevitability. . . .” And if there is one thing that is inevitable, it is that regulations will quickly develop around the way that we interact with and utilize artificial intelligence.

No matter how innovative or disruptive artificial intelligence may be, lawmakers and regulators will not allow it to operate unchecked. Congress recently elected not to impose a moratorium on state regulation, and California has …

Artificial Intelligence In The Prosecution Of International Crimes, Marta Bo

International Law Studies

International criminal prosecutions face growing evidentiary challenges due to the vast and heterogeneous digital material generated during conflicts, including user-generated videos, social media, and intercepted communications. This article examines the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in supporting investigations and trials before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Rather than replacing judicial decision-making, AI can assist with specific tasks, particularly in establishing contextual elements and linkage evidence central to international crimes. The article explores three main areas: AI-driven biometric tools for facial and speech recognition; AI techniques for detecting patterns of violence and mapping command structures; and applications during trial proceedings, …

Masthead, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

Valentine Act And Sherman Act: Separate And Distinct Antitrust Regimes, Thomas J. Collin

Cleveland State Law Review

The Ohio Supreme Court has held that the Valentine Act was patterned after the Sherman Act and should be interpreted in light of federal court interpretations of the Sherman Act. The Court was wrong, and its error persists. With the exception of a private right of action provision and a borrowed definition, nothing in the Valentine Act was derived from the Sherman Act. The holding ignores text and legislative history and has foreclosed development of any independent jurisprudence for a statute intended by the General Assembly to address grave antitrust abuses. This Article analyzes the Court’s error, details the origins …

The Taxing Ambiguity: Defining "Return" In Bankruptcy Dischargeability Cases, Elizabeth Tsai

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note examines the circuit split over the dischargeability of tax debts tied to late-filed returns, which has led to inconsistent bankruptcy outcomes and inequitable treatment of debtors across jurisdictions. Some courts, adopting the strict “one-day-late” rule, hold that any tax return filed even a single day past its deadline is not a “return” for bankruptcy discharge purposes, permanently barring relief. Others apply a more flexible standard grounded in the Beard test, considering a debtor’s good-faith compliance efforts. This inconsistency contradicts the fresh start principle of bankruptcy law, disproportionately harms low-income debtors, and fails to serve the government’s tax collection …

The Fallacies Of Originalism: Why Treating History And Tradition Alone As Dispositive Is Not Superior To The Tiers Of Scrutiny, Gage A. Johnson

Cleveland State Law Review

The goal of this Article is to develop the current history and tradition standard. I argue that the Bruen use of history and tradition is not a more principled or better way of interpreting the Constitution than the infamous tiers of scrutiny. This argument is supported by analyzing the way the Court has used history and tradition in reviewing restrictions on the Second Amendment and the push for it to be used under the First Amendment. I argue that Justice Thomas’s rigid application of history and tradition is essentially an ends-justifying-the-means analysis that is no different than the so called …

Take It To The Court: The Legal Tightrope Of The Nba’S Promise Of Players, Madeline M. Law

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unprotected: The Lack Of Legal Safeguards For Child Entertainers, Paul Simpson

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

No abstract provided.