Digital Commons Network^™

Abuse, Neglect, And Abandonment: The Need To Protect Immigrant Minors Through Standardized Definitions, Bailey Morris Gurr, Lila Bird Williams

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) applications are inconsistently adjudicated across states due to varying definitions of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. This inconsistency creates geographic disparities in protection, leaving vulnerable immigrant minors at risk of deportation; in the worst-case scenario, children who meet the criteria in one state may be denied in another and sent back to unsafe or life-threatening conditions. This paper argues for federal oversight to standardize SIJS criteria by amending the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to establish unambiguous definitions of abuse, neglect, and abandonment, ensuring fair and consistent adjudication nationwide. Legal scholars widely recognize the …

Holding Ground In The Cerulean Tide: Minority Party Legislators' Strategies For Advancing Climate Policies In Landslide States, Sukjae Lee

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation addresses a key puzzle: Why do states sometimes adopt nationally polarized policies, such as climate change legislation, even when doing so does not align with strict partisan interests? The analysis focuses on “landslide states,” where a single party overwhelmingly dominates, and the minority party cannot realistically expect to gain a majority. In these environments, reduced partisan conflict allows minority party legislators to break from traditional partisan paths. As a result, I argue that electoral motivations drive them to signal moderation by advancing liberal policy agendas or incorporating provisions that minimize backlash from their core constituents in landslide states. …

How Do School-Level Dynamics Impact Mainstreaming Practices In American Schools?, Natalie M. Watson

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

How do school-level dynamics impact the everyday experiences of students with disabilities, compared to their abled peers? Extant research has mostly focused on the experiences of individual students with disabilities, and their teachers. We know far less about how school-level dynamics shape students’ experiences. Historically, American schools formally separated students with and without disabilities, though the specific mode varied over time -- ranging from explicit institutionalization to segregation in special education programs. At least since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, efforts to educate students with disabilities alongside their abled peers in mainstreamed settings have increased …

Deportation And Immigration Enforcement In The United States: Analysis Of Regional And Country Variations, Exmond Ofori Sarpiah

Political Science Theses and Capstones

This study examines the motivations behind President Trump’s mass deportation policies due to the inflow of undocumented migrants from different regions in America. The study employs data visualization techniques, such as scatter plot and bar charts, to analyze regional and country variation trends in migrant removals and undocumented populations across global regions.

Exporting Equity: Lessons From The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Shanthi Elizabeth Senthe

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Credit functions as a fundamental gateway to economic mobility; however, questions arise regarding the legal and societal implications when an individual is denied access to such credit. In theory, fair lending principles dictate that equal access to credit is a legal right. The premise is reasonable but becomes convoluted when consumer credit is clouded by lender bias, resulting in credit discrimination. This Article presents a comparative perspective revealing a jurisdictional difference in legislation affecting equal access to credit between the United States and Canada. Specifically, this Article will focus on the American Equal Credit Opportunity Act (hereinafter ECOA) and …

Considering The Child’S Wishes—But How? Allowing Children To Speak In Their Custody Matters, Joshua Hanson

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In the United States, states universally may consider the child’s wishes when determining their custody placement. While their decision or preference is not binding for the judge, it allows the child meaningful participation in decisions that directly affect them. There are many ways courts can ensure a child’s voice is heard: through an interview with the judge, professional evaluations, child advocates, and even child-inclusive mediation. Yet state laws give judges broad discretion when determining how to weigh the child’s wishes.

This discretion will inevitably leave some children behind without having their voices heard. Allowing children meaningful participation in their custody …

Preserving Pixels: The Dmca And The Quest To Preserve Video Gaming’S Legacy, Samantha Ennis

Washington and Lee Law Review

Video games have fundamentally transformed how humans learn, play, and connect, becoming essential cultural artifacts that warrant careful preservation for present and future study. Yet, video game preservation has emerged as a critical challenge for cultural institutions as the medium rapidly evolves and early works become inaccessible due to technological obsolescence and legal barriers. Without immediate action to address the limitations of current Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) exemptions for video game preservation, libraries, archives, and museums risk permanently losing access to historically significant games, with studies showing 87% of pre-2010 video games are already inaccessible. Congress should amend the …

Sacrificing Financial Health For Physical Health: The Implications Of Medical Credit Cards, Emma Kerro

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Rising healthcare costs have contributed to significant medical debt increases for Americans in recent years. One way patients are paying these charges is with a medical credit card. The increase in popularity of medical credit cards can, in part, be attributed to non-profit hospitals’ insufficient charity care offerings. Some hospitals are— themselves—offering healthcare financing products to patients rather than offering charity care. As a result, low income patients often become trapped in a cycle of medical debt. While patients may need help paying for their care, a predatory lending option should not be their first or only choice. Non-profit hospitals …

Comparative And Evaluative Research On The Data Infrastructure Policies Of Central And Local Governments In China Before And After The Implementation Of The "Twenty Measures For Data", Haiqun Ma, Tongtong Yu, Hangong Wang, Tao Zhang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]To explore the direction for provincial governments to further plan data policies, with the aim of providing support for the establishment and improvement of data infrastructure systems in various regions. [Method/process] This article adopts the method of text similarity calculation to compare the policy texts of 22 provinces' data policies released before 2023 with the "Twenty Data Articles", and selects the "Twenty Provincial Version Data Articles" of 8 provinces for policy evaluation research. [Result/conclusion]The data shows that in terms of comparing data infrastructure systems, the data policies introduced by 22 provincial governments before 2023 show a relatively high overall similarity …

2025 Spring - Clihhr Newsletter, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr)

CLIHHR Newsletters

This Spring 2025 issue of the CLIHHR Newsletter highlights the Institute’s work in human rights education, advocacy, and atrocity prevention. It features student fieldwork in Brazil, national recognition at the Clara Barton Humanitarian Law Competition, major public events, faculty scholarship, and international engagement through the United Nations and academic partnerships. The newsletter reflects CLIHHR’s commitment to survivor-centered justice, Indigenous rights, and preparing future human rights practitioners.

A Systems Theory Of Tort Law: Reevaluating The Case Against “Regulation By Litigation”, Timothy D. Lytton

Missouri Law Review

For decades, critics of tort law have argued that lawsuits are a poor substitute for government regulation. These detractors compare the institutional capacities of courts and agencies, and they conclude that litigation is ineffective, inefficient, and illegitimate as an alternative to notice-and-comment rulemaking. In response, this Article asserts that characterizing tort law and administrative regulation as alternatives obscures their interdependence. By using systems theory to model this interdependence, the Article argues that any fair-minded assessment of tort litigation’s contribution to regulatory governance requires understanding it as part of a system. Ignoring the systemic impacts of tort litigation overlooks the subtle …

From Peeping Toms To Pixel Tracking: Privacy In The Digital Age, Francesca Faugno

UC Law Business Journal

No abstract provided.

The Transition Process Of Syrian Refugee Families Separated By U.S. Immigration Law, Firas Aljijakli

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Refugees are regarded as one of the most pressing humanitarian issues worldwide due to intricate social, economic, and demographic factors. Changes in U.S. immigration policy across successive administrations, particularly regarding the refugee ban and the duration of the resettlement process, have significantly impacted admission procedures. Consequently, family separations occur during the resettlement process, compelling families to navigate immigration policies while managing the challenges of being apart. This separation from their children greatly affects refugees’ ability to integrate into American society.

The research examines how Syrian refugee families cope with the separation resulting from U. S. immigration law. An important lens …

Valuing Worker Authenticity, Dallan F. Flake

William & Mary Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from discrimination because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Controversially, courts do not typically extend this protection to individual expression tied to a protected trait, such as a Black employee who wears their hair in dreadlocks or a Latino employee who speaks Spanish on the job. Judicial unwillingness to protect employee self-expression tied to a protected trait causes employees who identify with marginalized groups to suppress their identities to conform with mainstream culture—often at tremendous costs to themselves and the organizations they work for.

This Article …

Round Table (Part 3) Book Review: From Discrimination To Death: Genocide Process Through A Human Rights Lens, Andrew Woolford

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Round Table (Part 4) Book Review: From Discrimination To Death: Genocide Process Through A Human Rights Lens, Melanie O'Brien

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Responsive Democracy And The Administrative State, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

I would like to thank Dean Micheal Scharf and Professor Jonathan Entin for inviting me to Case Western Reserve University School of Law to deliver the Frank J. Battisti Memorial Lecture and thank all of you for attending. It's really a pleasure to be here and to have the opportunity to offer a talk named after such a distinguished jurist. Judge Frank J. Battisti served on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio for 33 years, and he was chief judge of that court for more than two decades. During his time on the bench, Judge …

Kendra's Paradox: Redefining The Statutory Approach To Assisted Outpatient Psychiatric Treatment In New York, Matt Donelian

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note critically examines the limitations of Kendra's Law in New York, which provides Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) for individuals with severe mental illnesses. While the law aims to balance public safety and individual rights, its strict eligibility criteria often prevent timely intervention, leading to worse outcomes for those in need. The note proposes reforming the law to prioritize clinical assessments over past actions, enabling earlier intervention while respecting individual rights. This reform would address the law's retroactive nature and promote a more proactive, compassionate approach to mental health care.

Rethinking The Litigation Boom, Charlotte S. Alexander

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article rethinks the functions and functioning of litigation booms. Using an original data set that tracks Fair Labor Standards Act cases during the 2000–2016 period, the Article shows that booms are not anomalies but are instead an expected behavior in our distributed system of civil law enforcement. Specifically, plaintiffs and their lawyers “herd” or converge on a particular type of case, fueled by information transmitted via networks, made available to the general public, or both. The data also reveal that booms can end on their own, reaching a natural tipping point without legislative or judicial retrenchment. This analysis has …

The Role Of Affordable Housing In Enhancing Tenants' Economic Stability In Connecticut: A Focus On Income, Employment, And Housing Stability, Osaid Zubi

Dissertations

This study examined the role of affordable housing in promoting economic stability among low- and moderate-income households in Connecticut. Focusing on income security, employment opportunities, and housing retention, this research highlighted the significance of affordable housing as a means to alleviate financial strain, support job retention, and foster community resilience. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, the study gathered insights from tenants, policymakers, and developers through conducting interviews and a focus group. Connecticut was chosen as the study site due to its high cost of living and affordable housing shortage, exacerbated by its proximity to New York City. Findings underscore the economic …

Exorcising Hobbes’S Ghost: A Future For Constitutional And International Law, Monica Hakimi

Michigan Law Review

A review of Law for Leviathan: Constitutional Law, International Law, and the State. By Daryl Levinson.

Some Realism About Originalism, William J. Novak

Michigan Law Review

A review of Memory and Authority: The Uses of History in Constitutional Interpretation. By Jack M. Balkin.

Taking Revolution Seriously, Zohra Ahmed

Michigan Law Review

A review of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. By Orisanmi Burton.

Biglaw's Race Problem, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

Ever since the 1970s when BigLaw firms began to hire Black lawyers into their associate ranks, these firms have wrestled with problems in both recruiting and retaining Black associates. During the ensuing decades, BigLaw firms have minimally increased the low numbers of Black attorneys who have become partners, particularly equity partners, within their organizations. Numerous scholars have explored how racial bias and discrimination, both within BigLaw firms and greater society, have contributed to such failures in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of Black lawyers. In his new book The Black Ceiling: How Race Still Matters in the Elite Workplace, Professor …

Environmental Geography And Law: Toward A Synthesis, Michaela Anang-Hadjicostandi, Sophia Borgias, Karrigan Börk, Ann M. Eisenberg, Guadalupe M. Franco, Cinnamon Carlarne Hirokawa, Keith H. Hirokawa, Jonathan London, Melinda Morgan, Jessica Owley, Shannon Roesler, Sonya Ziaja

Articles

This Article introduces the new interdisciplinary field of Environmental Geography and Law, which has deep roots in ecology, social science, and law. Environmental and natural resources laws are situated in specific times and places where the climate, ecosystems, history and political economy influence both the land and the law. These places drive and constrain the way law develops. In turn, the law shapes places, from the dispossession and forced migration of indigenous groups, to land development via railroad land grants, to patterns of resource extraction and infrastructure development. Past efforts to integrate law and geography have focused more on critical …

Lessons For The Trump Administration From The Biden U.S. National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism, Lili Levi

Articles

In May 2023, the Biden Administration issued the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism [hereinafter National Strategy] with a goal of hindering further normalization of antisemitism by increasing public awareness of antisemitism and highlighting positive Jewish contributions to America. Recent events, however-particularly the social and political upheaval over protests of the war in Gaza-have led to public contestation over Israel, increased instances of antisemitism, and the partisan politicization of Jewish issues. Now, the Trump Administration explicitly purports to fight antisemitism by widespread attacks on universities over antisemitism on campus. Does this mean that the National Strategy has become anachronistic, …

The Digitalization Of Insolvency Proceedings, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Despite the international divergences existing in the design of insolvency law, there is a common feature of insolvency proceedings that, to a greater or lesser extent, is somehow universal: insolvency proceedings are generally costly and lengthy processes. For that reason, it is not surprising that a significant body of the literature on insolvency law deals with different mechanisms to make insolvency proceedings more efficient. This article examines how technology can contribute to that goal. To that end, it starts by reviewing how countries are deploying, or can deploy, technology in different aspects and stages of insolvency proceedings and how such …

Springboard To Article V (Or Electoral Democracy And The End Of Constitutional Amendment In The Nation And States), Wilfred U. Codrington Iii

Articles

Drafted in exceedingly sparing terms and notoriously difficult to amend, the U S. Constitution is falling short in one of the most important functions of a government charter: establishing and maintaining a fair and just electoral framework-marked by rules that promote the values of equality, participation, competition, and transparency in elections. That is, the Constitution increasingly fails to preserve electoral democracy even as the nation's systems for voting and elections are plagued by a cascade of problems. State constitutions, though not uniform, are uniformly easier to amend than the national charter and tend to be better stewards of electoral democracy. …

Law And Historical Materialism, Jeremy K. Kessler

Faculty Scholarship

Since the financial crisis of 2008, left-leaning legal thought has experienced a renaissance within the American academy. From law and political economy to critical race theory to feminist legal studies to Marxist legal theory, new perspectives have flourished, and marginalized traditions have been revived and revised. These new perspectives and revisionist projects all share an intellectual debt to the critical legal studies (“CLS”) movement of the late 1970s and 1980s. That movement’s critique was focused on functional accounts of law: accounts that understood legal change as primarily responsive to the demands of extralegal social and economic forces. Some of those …

Exorcising Hobbes's Ghost: A Future For Constitutional And International Law, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

Daryl Levinson wants to liberate constitutional law from the ghost of Thomas Hobbes. More than 350 years ago, Hobbes advanced a conception of law that, for all the efforts to move past it, continues to resonate. In the strictest iteration of the Hobbesian conception, law cannot exist apart from Leviathan, a sovereign state that is the “sole source of legal authority” in a defined territory. As the only possible source of law, Leviathan cannot itself be subject to law. “[I]t exercise[s] legally limitless power over its citizens and interact[s] with other Leviathans in a lawless international arena”. It is also …