Digital Commons Network^™

Operational Agency: A Permeable Legal Fiction For Tracing Culpability In Ai Systems, Anirban Mukherjee, Hannah H. Chang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems act with a high degree of independence yet lack legal personhood—a paradox that fractures doctrines grounded in human-centric notions of mens rea and actus reus. This Article introduces Operational Agency (OA)—a permeable legal fiction structured as an ex post evidentiary framework—and Operational Agency Graph (OAG)—a tool for mapping causal interactions among human actors, organizations, and AI systems. OA evaluates an AI’s observable operational characteristics: its goal-directedness (as a proxy for intent), predictive processing (as a proxy for foresight), and safety architecture (as a proxy for standard of care). OAG operationalizes that analysis by embedding these …

Learning By Writing: Exploring Authentic Legal Learning Through Case Summaries, Ee-Ing Ong, Wei Yang Quek, Duan Ning, Magdeleine Lew

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

We use authentic learning as a pedagogical framework in a collaboration between our law school and the national Supreme Court of a Southeast Asian country, which facilitates law students’ development of their legal analytical and writing skills, and helps them better bridge the gap between existing legal curricula and the needs of legal practice. Akin to a writing apprenticeship, students write summaries on selected Supreme Court judgments, with their output reviewed by faculty as well as judicial law clerks from the court. The results are published on the court’s website and circulated to other stakeholders. In the post-exercise survey, participating …

Offshore Philanthropy: A Critical Look At Family Offices Using Hybrid Trusts, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Family offices manage substantial wealth and often undertake philanthropic initiatives as part of their broader objectives. These offices may assume a variety of legal forms, ranging from corporations, partnerships, trusts administered by private trust companies or a combination of these forms. This article is concerned with family offices which use trusts administered by private trust companies in offshore jurisdictions. In response to competition for global wealth, several offshore jurisdictions have enacted trust laws that relax traditional doctrinal constraints to accommodate the needs of family offices. These include the creation of discretionary trusts for hybrid purposes in perpetuity ie trusts that …

Public, Private, Acquired, Alexander I. Platt, Matthew T. Wansley

Articles

For the last quarter-century, IPOs have been declining. SEC officials usually attribute the decline to startups’ choices to stay private. But that explanation is incomplete. As startups grow, they face a three-way choice between going public, staying private, and being acquired, and they have increasingly chosen the third option. In this Essay, we show how securities regulation pushes startups towards acquisitions by increasing the cost of raising capital and accessing liquidity in both public and private markets. We consider how the trend towards acquisitions could reduce competition, innovation, opportunities for diversification, and transparency. And we offer suggestions for how the …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Neurocognitive Performance And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) Among Latinx Asylum Seekers, Elsie A. Arias

Doctoral Dissertations

Asylum seekers are exposed to violence and traumatic events in their home countries at high rates, leading to mental health challenges such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD symptoms and comorbidities such as depression and alcohol misuse are associated with impacts to multiple domains of cognitive functioning among populations such as Veterans. However, the neurocognitive performance of Latinx asylum seekers who experience PTSD symptoms are under-documented in the current literature despite its meaningful impact on clinical care engagement and navigation of the legal process. This study utilized an exploratory, quantitative, cross-sectional design to examine whether higher levels of self-reported PTSD, …

Other People's Poverty, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud, Shaun Ossei-Owusu

Faculty Scholarship

Puerto Ricans have a relationship with the United States that is historically unparalleled. They have been citizens of the United States since 1917, served in every major conflict since World War I, and have been influential members of American culture, politics, and society. Yet, Puerto Rico is not fully part of the United States. The island of 3.2 million people— more than the population of eighteen states—is a U.S. territory. This means the federal government wields its complete and largely unrestrained plenary power over the Island, often treating Puerto Ricans differently than the rest of the United States. This differential …

The Risk-Assessment Case For Worldwide Public Health Regulation Of The Concussion Crisis In Sports, Marcus Moore, Charles H. Tator

All Faculty Publications

The support of the medical profession was indispensable in the USA and Canada to enacting legislation addressing public health issues such as drunk driving, smoking, and bicycle helmets. The sports concussion crisis is a major public health concern in Canada and in many other countries.

Faculty List

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Disclosure: Artificial Intelligence, Arbitration, And The Illusion Of Informed Consent, Rishi Batra

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Consider the following scenario: A warehouse worker brings a wage and hour claim against her employer under her state's labor code. Her employment contract, which she signed on her first day of work, contains a mandatory arbitration clause that she did not negotiate, did not fully read, and — like most employees in her situation — did not fully understand. An arbitrator is appointed, a hearing is held, and an award is issued in the employer's favor several weeks later, denying the employee's claims entirely. The award is well-organized and internally consistent, addressing each of the worker's claims with what …

A Decade Of Change: Technology’S Impact On Negotiation Deepens In The Age Of Ai, Noam Ebner

Journal of Dispute Resolution

When people consider the notion of negotiation changing, they tend to look first toward that magnificent negotiation construct, “the table.” Here are some immediately apparent areas of table-novelty: • There is often a screen on our table, rather than another person sitting across from us. • The table we “go” to negotiate at is not in our office or that of our counterpart; rather, it is a communications system such as email or an online platform developed by a third-party provider. • The table, in its online-platform form, sometimes structures process and facilitates communication in ways that our trusty old …

Using Ai Centaur Systems To Strengthen Professional Judgment, John Lande

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article encourages dispute resolution practitioners to use artificial intelligence (AI) “centaur” systems, which may perform better than either humans or AI tools operating independently. Centaur systems combine human and AI capabilities so that each contributes complementary strengths in decision-making. This is particularly important in managing legal disputes, where practitioners should integrate analysis of legal issues, tangible and intangible costs, strategic judgment, and ethical considerations.

The Life And Work Of Odr Visionary And Architect Colin Rule (So Far), John Lande

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Many people know Colin Rule as a pioneer of online dispute resolution. Fewer people probably appreciate the full breadth of his contributions over the last three decades. This article reviews Rule’s work as a builder of dispute resolution systems, writer, educator, entrepreneur, and institutional leader. It highlights recurring themes in his career and scholarship, including trust, fairness, usability, access to justice, and the need to keep human judgment at the center of technological innovation.

Cooling Conflict: Embedding Mediation Protocols In Data Center Land Sale Contracts, Allison Elias

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Imagine a two-thousand-acre plot of land in rural Louisiana being leveled to accommodate a 10 billion dollar data center. With the construction of this data center comes the destruction of a region inhabited by rich plant and animal life as well as 80,000 residents, a quarter of whom live below the poverty line. Alternatively, think of a $750 million data center being built next door to your home, causing sediment build-up in your water supply, water scarcity, light pollution, and destruction of neighboring forests. Unfortunately, one does not have to imagine these scenarios. Both stories come directly from recent news …

Reports Of Legal Writing’S Death Are Greatly Exaggerated: Why Generative Ai Will Not Kill The Craft, Jayne T. Woods

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In preparing for this essay, I typed the phrase “legal writing is” into Google to see how common searches finished the thought. The only completed thought to appear was “legal writing is hard.” Amen. Legal writing is an amalgamation of logical reasoning, cognitive psychology, classical rhetoric, legal terminology, legal citation, and proper grammar and style, all of which must result in a product accessible to readers of all education levels. When generative AI arrived, producing cogent, plausible legal prose in seconds, it led many to believe that writing, generally, and legal writing, specifically, had reached the end of days.

Justice After Atrocity: Lessons From Rwanda And Cambodia For Contemporary International Law And Conflict, Jennie Hubbard

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In the aftermath of mass atrocity, the question facing survivors and policymakers is not whether societies will rebuild but how rebuilding will address truth, justice, and memory. Modern transitional justice systems trace institutional and normative roots to the post—World War II order, most famously embodied by the Nuremberg Trials, which first established that individuals could be held accountable for crimes against humanity. Nuremberg did more than punish Nazi officials; it articulated a legal and moral principle that the international community could, and sometimes must, assert jurisdiction to address mass crimes when domestic systems fail. Despite that precedent, global reactions to …

Beyond City Limits: Access To Adr And Child Client-Directed Counsel In Missouri’S Rural Family Courts, Reghan Matlock

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Reba McEntire once sang, “Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods southern lawyer”—a warning that still echoes in today’s debates about rural justice and representation. The catchy murder ballad captures a story driven by dramatic family ties and a broken justice system. While the song exaggerates for effect, it taps into a realistic concern: an existing divide in access to justice between rural and urban communities. This divide impacts all areas of law, including family law—where concerns about confidentiality and privacy are heightened because small communities make it difficult to shield sensitive matters from public view. The divide is troubling, …

Reforming Mediation: The Hidden Inequities Shaped By Race, Gender, And Power, Victoria Seever

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Courts and policymakers often promote family dispute resolution as a faster, less adversarial alternative to traditional litigation. Yet for many women of color, the mediation table often replicates the same racial and gender power imbalances that the legal system claims to mitigate. Family Dispute Resolution (“FDR”) often fails women of color by reinforcing racialized and gendered power imbalances. Alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”), especially mediation, presents both an opportunity and a risk in divorce, custody, and intimate partner violence (“IPV”) cases. IPV cases become especially difficult with the various laws in different states that govern how mediation should be used and …

Konstitusionalitas Kebijakan Penanaman Modal Asing Sebagai Penerapan Konsep Hak Menguasai Negara Menurut Uud Nri 1945, Rico Novianto, Satya Arinanto, Fatmawati Fatmawati

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

This article analyzes how the state position in foreign investment as an instrument for realizing public prosperity. Throughout the history of Indonesian governance, foreign capital has been a tool that can be used and has its own constitutional basis. However, if it is too large and the lack of adequate regulation of foreign investment to maintain the investment climate, it has become one of the causes of the economic and multidimensional crisis, especially around 1998 in Indonesia. In fact, the constitution has mandated an economic system based on the concept of state control, the principles of economic democracy, and the …

คำเสนอปิดผนึกเพื่อประนอมข้อพิพาทในการอนุญาโตตุลาการระหว่างประเทศ (Sealed Offer In International Arbitration), Suwit Suwan

Chulalongkorn University Law Journal

คำชี้ขาดที่เกิดจากกระบวนการอนุญาโตตุลาการระหว่างประเทศมักจะลงท้ายด้วยส่วนที่เป็นประกาศิต 2 ส่วน ส่วนแรกเป็นคำชี้ขาดที่ว่าด้วยจำนวนค่าเสียหาย ค่าสินไหมทดแทนที่ฝ่ายแพ้คดีจะต้องชำระหรือใช้คืนให้แก่ฝ่ายชนะคดีหรือปฏิบัติการชำระหนี้รูปแบบอื่นให้แก่ฝ่ายที่ชนะคดี รวมเรียกว่าเป็นคำชี้ขาดในเนื้อความแห่งคดี ส่วนที่สองเป็นคำชี้ขาดในเรื่องค่าใช้จ่ายซึ่งมักกำหนดจำนวนค่าใช้จ่ายในการอนุญาโตตุลาการที่ฝ่ายแพ้คดีต้องชำระหรือใช้คืนให้แก่ฝ่ายชนะคดี เรียกว่าคำชี้ขาดในส่วนค่าใช้จ่าย ค่าใช้จ่ายในการอนุญาโตตุลาการมีจำนวนสูงขึ้นอย่างสม่ำเสมอ แม้ว่าเทคโนโลยีจะได้รับการพัฒนาให้ก้าวหน้าอย่างต่อเนื่องและมีการนำเอาเทคโนโลยีมาใช้ในกระบวนการอนุญาโตตุลาการอย่างกว้างขวางก็ตาม คู่พิพาทฝ่ายที่แพ้คดีอนุญาโตตุลาการระหว่างประเทศนอกจากต้องแบกรับภาระค่าใช้จ่ายของตนแล้วยังจะถูกบังคับโดยคำชี้ขาดให้เข้ารับภาระหรือชดใช้ค่าใช้จ่ายของฝ่ายที่ชนะคดีด้วย ทั้งนี้เป็นไปตามหลักเกณฑ์ที่ว่า “Costs follow the event” หรือ “ผู้แพ้เป็นผู้รับผิดชอบค่าใช้จ่าย” ที่ถือปฏิบัติกันอยู่ในวงการอนุญาโตตุลาการระหว่างประเทศ หลักเกณฑ์นี้กำเนิดขึ้นในประเทศอังกฤษ ต่อมาถูกนำไปใช้กันอย่างแพร่หลายทั่วโลกทั้งในประเทศคอมมอนลอว์และประเทศซิวิลลอว์ คู่พิพาทที่หวั่นวิตกว่าจะต้องรับภาระค่าใช้จ่ายที่สูงลิ่วหากตนตกเป็นฝ่ายแพ้คดี สามารถนำเอาวิธีการยื่นคำเสนอปิดผนึกเพื่อประนอมข้อพิพาทมาใช้เป็นเครื่องมือจำกัดหรือลดค่าใช้จ่ายดังกล่าว หลักปฏิบัติในเรื่องการทำคำเสนอปิดผนึกเพื่อประนอมข้อพิพาทถือเป็นเรื่องใหม่สำหรับประเทศไทย ผู้เขียนมีความประสงค์ที่จะนำเสนอหลักกฎหมายและประเพณีปฏิบัติในเรื่องดังกล่าวที่แพร่หลายอยู่ในสถาบันอนุญาโตตุลาการหลักของโลกให้ผู้ประกอบธุรกิจและนักกฎหมายไทยได้รับทราบและนำไปใช้ให้เป็นประโยชน์หากต้องเข้าไปเกี่ยวพันกับการอนุญาโตตุลาการระหว่างประเทศ

Ice Arrests In The Mountain West, 2025, Cason Noll, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents data from the Prison Policy Initiative briefing on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest data for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah from January to October of 2025.  This fact sheet reports the number of ICE arrests by location and arrest rates per 100,000 residents in each Mountain West state.

ความรับผิดทางอาญาของนิติบุคคลในประเทศฝรั่งเศส: วิวัฒนาการและความสำคัญทางหลักกฎหมายของแนวคิด “Personnes Morales” (Corporate Criminal Liability In France: The Evolution And Jurisprudential Significance Of The Personnes Morales Concept), Rose Charmette

Chulalongkorn University Law Journal

บทความนี้ศึกษาวิวัฒนาการของความรับผิดทางอาญาของนิติบุคคลในประเทศฝรั่งเศสผ่านแนวคิด personnes morales ซึ่งบัญญัติไว้ในมาตรา 121-2 แห่งประมวลกฎหมายอาญาฝรั่งเศส โดยศึกษาแนวคิดนี้ภายใต้กรอบของความรับผิดของนิติบุคคลต่ออาชญากรรมร้ายแรง โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งในบริบทของกฎหมายอาญาระหว่างประเทศ ซึ่งโดยหลักแล้วกำหนดความรับผิดแก่บุคคลธรรมดาเท่านั้น คำถามวิจัยหลักของการศึกษานี้คือ แนวคิด personnes morales ของฝรั่งเศสช่วยอุดช่องว่างของความรับผิดทางอาญาในกรณีที่นิติบุคคลได้เข้ามามีส่วนร่วมในการกระทำความผิดอาญาร้ายแรงตามธรรมนูญกรุงโรมได้หรือไม่ และแนวคิดนี้สามารถนำมาใช้กับความรับผิดทางอาญาระหว่างประเทศได้เพียงใด บทความได้วิเคราะห์คดีสำคัญ เช่น คดีอื้อฉาวทางเภสัชกรรม Mediator คดี Lafarge S.A. ในซีเรีย และคำพิพากษา Association Sportive ซึ่งตัดสินโดยศาลอาญาของฝรั่งเศส โดยที่ศาลได้วางหลักเกี่ยวกับเจตนาของนิติบุคคล (corporate mens rea) ผสมผสานกับความรับผิดโดยอาศัยการเป็นตัวแทนและความรับผิดโดยอิสระขององค์กร รวมถึงวิธีที่ศาลฝรั่งเศสบังคับใช้บทลงโทษกับนิติบุคคลได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ นอกจากนี้ ยังมีการอ้างอิงเปรียบเทียบกับสหราชอาณาจักรและสวีเดนเพื่อแสดงให้เห็นแนวทางทางเลือกอื่น ๆ และเน้นย้ำว่าระบบฝรั่งเศสมีส่วนช่วยในการพัฒนาแนวคิดความรับผิดทางอาญาของนิติบุคคลอย่างไร ท้ายที่สุด บทความนี้ชี้ให้เห็นว่าหลักคำสอนของ personnes morales ไม่เพียงแต่เป็นกรอบแนวคิดเชิงปฏิบัติเท่านั้น แต่ยังเป็นแนวทางเชิงทฤษฎีที่สามารถแก้ไขปัญหาช่องว่างของความรับผิดในกฎหมายอาญาระหว่างประเทศได้และเสนอข้อคิดสำคัญสำหรับการปฏิรูปในอนาคตเพื่อเสริมสร้างความรับผิดชอบของภาคธุรกิจในระดับข้ามเขตอำนาจศาล

Syarat Usia Presiden Dan Wakil Presiden Dalam Perspektif Konstitusi Dan Konstitusionalisme: Makna Dan Kriteria, Ardhes Blandhivay Leuanan, Mei Susanto

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

In order to investigate the inconsistent interpretations of the Constitutional Court regarding the age requirements for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, this study will analyze the dynamics of determining age requirements from the perspective of the 1945 Constitution and the principles of constitutionalism. A socio-legal approach is used in the normative research method to analyze the Constitutional Court's decisions in light of the social and political factors that shaped them. According to the results, Constitutional Court Ruling No. 90/PUU-XXI/2023 marks a turning point in the evolution of Indonesian constitutional law. Initially, there was no strict interpretation of the age limits for …

Penolakan Penghapusan Kolom Agama Pada Kartu Tanda Penduduk: Krítík Terhadap Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi Nomor 146/Puu-Xxii/2024, Krisna Bagas Purwopangestu, Nicholas Gerard Felix Simeone

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

This article examines the Constítutíonal Court (MK) Decisíon No. 146/PUU–XXII/2024 which rejected the request to delete the religion column on the Identity Card (KTP). The Decision affirms that every Indonesian citizen must declare their religion or belief in God as expected by Pancasila and the constitutional mandate. The Constitutional Court stated that “not having a religion or belief in God cannot be considered as freedom of religion”. The Constitutional Court Decision has revived the dispute on the urgency of including religion identity on the KTP, especially about the relation between administrative requirements, the legal system of Indonesia, and protection of …

Reorientasi Kebijakan Pelindungan Anak Terhadap Adiksi Internet Dalam Perspektif Pemenuhan Hak Konstitusional Di Indonesia, I Kadek Agus Aditya Firmantara, Bagus Hermanto

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

This article examines the paradigm shift in child protection policy in the digital environment through Government Regulation Number 17 of 2025 concerning the Governance of Electronic System Providers for Child Protection (PP TUNAS) from the perspective of fulfilling children's constitutional rights in Indonesia. The study is motivated by the increasing use of the internet by children, which not only exposes them to risks such as harmful content, sexual exploitation, and misuse of personal data, but also creates the risk of internet addiction that may adversely affect children's health, education, and overall development. Despite these concerns, internet addiction has not been …

Writing – Écriture, Peter Goodrich

Articles

This is the twentieth article in this series (and the fifth in volume 77).

Women’S Participation In Middle Eastern Politics: Between Cultural Norms And Democratic Aspirations, Siham Abidi, Thomas Sheku Marah

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

Women’s political participation in the Middle East remains shaped by the complex interaction of cultural norms, religious interpretations, and democratic reform processes. While existing scholarship has examined these factors extensively, limited attention has been devoted to explaining why women’s political participation varies across states with broadly similar socio-cultural and religious contexts. This study addresses this gap through a qualitative comparative analysis of Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Guided by Feminist Institutionalism and Political Opportunity Structure theory, the study draws on secondary data from peer-reviewed literature, legal documents, and policy reports. The findings demonstrate that women’s political participation is not determined …

Expanding The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform Through Artificial Influence Assessment (Aia): Rationale, Development, And Measurement Design, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how individuals access information, make decisions, and interact with digital environments. The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform (C.A.S.) was developed to assess attention related harms, cognitive safety, digital autonomy, and platform influence across digital systems (Clark, 2026). However, the growth of generative AI, conversational agents, and algorithmic decision support technologies has introduced new forms of influence that may not be fully captured by existing assessment domains. This paper proposes the Artificial Influence Assessment (AIA) as an expansion of the C.A.S. framework designed to measure AI mediated influence on cognition, behavior, autonomy, and information processing. Drawing on …

Governing Algorithmic Attention: Attention Safeguard Models And The Cognitive Attentional Standard As System Level Interventions In Human Computer Interaction, Behavioral Economics, And Artificial Intelligence, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Algorithmic recommendation systems and interface designs shape attention by combining visually salient cues with uncertain reward timing and low friction interaction. These conditions can sustain anticipatory checking, extend time on task, and reduce natural disengagement points through patterns such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. This paper synthesizes research across neuroscience, human computer interaction, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence to argue that attention capture is a predictable outcome of incentive driven design rather than an individual failure of self regulation. It advances the Attention Safeguard Models and the Cognitive Attentional Standard as system level interventions that regulate exposure conditions, pacing, and …

A Legal Comedy Of Errors: Foia’S Judicial Drama Over Who Controls The Oversight Script, Caroline Savini

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 06.29.26, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• Olivia Rogers ’23 J.D. to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett
• Notre Dame Law School Announces Faculty Promotions for Susan Azyndar and Msgr. John Paul Kimes
• ND Law’s Program on Church, State & Society Announces 2026 Writing Competition Winners
• Notre Dame Law School is Cultivating Hope

Faculty Briefs

• Paolo Carozza
• Francisco Urbina
• Mary Ellen O'Connell
• Jeff Pojanowski
• Haley Proctor
• Derek Muller
• Rick Garnett
• Ashley Sanchez
• Susan Azyndar & Yan Yu
• Carter Snead
• Emily Bremmer
• Emilia Powell
• Howard Glickstein

ND Law in the News

• Notre Dame Law School was mentioned in coverage of Indiana’s eviction …