Digital Commons Network^™

The Evolution Of Trust And Safety, Danielle Keats Citron, Ari Ezra Waldman

Emory Law Journal

This Article tells the inside story of the rise, spread, and evolution of trust and safety. We bring unique perspectives to this story. One of us (Citron) was on the inside, advising many tech companies over the years on how to create healthy digital environments. The other (Waldman) was on the outside, observing, through field research, how tech companies respond to and translate law into their routines, organizational structures, and practices. Together, these perspectives offer scholars and policymakers unmatched opportunities not just to see what is happening but to understand it as well. For decades, U.S. tech companies resisted legal …

Does Voluntary Manslaughter Exist In South Dakota?, Gregory Brazeal

South Dakota Law Review

The American legal tradition generally distinguishes between cold-blooded, premeditated intentional killing and hot-blooded, spontaneous intentional killing. The former has traditionally been categorized as murder and the latter as the lesser crime of “voluntary manslaughter.” South Dakota’s homicide statutes, interpreted based on their plain meaning, depart from this deeply rooted tradition. The closest equivalent to the crime of voluntary manslaughter appears in South Dakota’s first-degree manslaughter statute, which includes a prohibition on homicide “[w]ithout any design to effect death . . . and in a heat of passion, but in a cruel and unusual manner.” The phrase “heat of passion” suggests …

The Non-Punishment Principle And Restorative Justice, Rachel J. Wechsler

Faculty Publications

The non-punishment principle is a legal norm that has increasingly gained legitimacy over the past quarter-century within international, regional, and domestic law on human trafficking. At its core, this principle opposes the punishment of human trafficking victims for unlawful conduct they engage in as a consequence of their trafficking victimization. Little is known about the presence and operation of the non-punishment principle within U.S. law. This Article fills this gap as the first to comprehensively map and analyze the principle’s instantiation across state and federal law.

From this new map, three key themes emerge. First, the non-punishment principle has a …

Do-It-Yourself Reparations, Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

The magnitude of harms like white supremacy makes it difficult to precisely identify losses, let alone remedy them. Piecemeal approaches are essential, and private efforts may be the only option when public law and cultural norms deny or perpetuate the harms. This Article addresses one racial harm, the 10:1 racial wealth gap between white and black Americans, in the context of residential segregation over the past century. It contends that the equitable doctrine of restitution enables us to recognize and remedy the unjust enrichment enjoyed by white Baby Boomers caused by private law mechanisms such as racially restrictive covenants, all …

Legislatively Erased: The Failure Of Privacy Legislation To Protect People Connected To The Criminal Legal System, Chaz Arnett, Kate Weisburd

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bankruptcy’S Blind Spot: An Examination Of How The System Turns Its Back On Mentally Ill Debtors, Ashley Deady

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

The Invalidity Of The “Shock The Conscience” Test For Evidence Gathered By Foreign Police, Kevin Valleroy

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Federal courts since the 1970s have often discussed the “shock the conscience” test in the context of transnational criminal investigations. This test purports to exclude from American trials evidence gathered by foreign police through “conscience shocking” methods. No doubt its creators sought to protect the rights of defendants amidst unclear evidentiary standards. But since the test’s creation, its proponents have failed to agree on a consistent explanation for the test’s constitutionality. Moreover, Supreme Court precedent since the 1980s has heaped doubt on the prevailing explanations for the test’s existence. While a lively debate on the “shock the conscience” test’s underlying …

Illiberal Immigration Inconsistencies: Finding Unifying Principles On The Left, Sheldon Evans

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Immigration is one of the most important issues on the minds of Americans. While conservative lawmakers have rallied around the exclusionary principles of Donald Trump’s vision for America, liberal politicians have struggled to provide a unified ideological and pragmatic policy alternative. This Essay challenges that lack of identity from the political Left. By studying several inconsistencies among Democrats, I argue for realignment strategies to unify the Party to return to its traditional principles on immigration policy. These include addressing the underlying social problems causing migration, rethinking border control, providing legal pathways for immigrants, and moving towards global citizenship.

Sanctuary Standoff: Constitutional Fault Lines In Immigration Enforcement, Cindy G. Buys

Saint Louis University Law Journal

During both its first and second terms, the Trump Administration has taken aim at so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to try to encourage or force cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement. In addition to targeted immigration enforcement efforts, the Administration has waged a legal and public media campaign against states, counties, and cities that the Administration views as sanctuary jurisdictions and has attempted to withhold a wide variety of federal funds from those jurisdictions to pressure them to change their policies. While there is no definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction in any federal statute or executive order, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) …

Ice Non-Accountability In The Second Trump Administration, Sabrina Balgamwalla

Saint Louis University Law Journal

By the beginning of the second Trump administration, the tone of Know Your Rights presentations for community members had noticeably shifted. Advocates regularly tell people that they don’t have to open the door to their home to an officer without a judicial warrant and that if they are stopped by law enforcement, they have the right to ask who is conducting the stop and why. But audience members have questions informed by news headlines about various Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) practices: How can you tell definitively if a law enforcement officer is an ICE agent when they aren’t wearing …

Defending Bad Men: Public Perceptions Of Female Advocates In A Post-#Metoo Society, Grace Wallis

Saint Louis University Law Journal

As the dust settled on the heavily publicized, 2022 defamation trial of actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, an unlikely star stepped into the limelight: Johnny Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez. Over the span of the seven-week trial, Vasquez gained social media notoriety due to her frequent objections and stern trial demeanor. Vasquez’s cross-examination of Heard on May 16 and 17 of 2022 called into question Heard’s credibility and increased Vasquez’s online celebrity by a significant margin. In fact, according to Google search trends, public interest in the search terms “Camille Vasquez” reached peak popularity on May 18, 2022. Vasquez’s instant …

Table Of Contents, Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ai Advocate: Tracking The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Trial Advocacy, John G. Browning

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In his annual State of the Judiciary address on December 31, 2023, Chief Justice John G. Roberts chose to focus on the use of generative AI. He cautioned that while AI "has great potential to dramatically increase access to key information for lawyers," its use "requires caution and humility" because of the risk of "dehumanizing the law." Chief Justice Roberts' timely warning, made at the height of concerns nationally about lawyers relying on fabricated case citations caused by the "hallucinations" of generative AI, could have just as easily been targeted not only to the legal profession generally, but to trial …

Can We Close The Rhode Island Women’S Prison?, Nick Horton

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Plea Bargaining In The United States Military, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

This article offers a primer on plea bargaining in the U.S. military justice system. American military justice is like criminal justice in the rest of the country in that the lion’s share of cases are plea bargained. But there are key differences between military and civilian plea bargaining. First, a central factor of negotiations in military plea bargaining is whether the accused will keep his or her job. Second, the military has a wider range of disposition options than traditional penal sanctions, including nonjudicial punishment and administrative sanctions. Finally, the military seemingly permits more discretion and offers less binding guidance …

Institutional And Procedural Aspects Of Military Justice, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

The U.S. military justice system exists to “promote justice, to deter misconduct, to facilitate appropriate accountability, to assist in maintaining good order and discipline in the armed forces, to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the military establishment, and thereby to strengthen the national security of the United States.” It provides for disciplinary and penal sanctions of U.S. military members anywhere in the world. Given the size of the U.S. military and the scope of its operations around the world, the military justice system plays a consequential role in accountability for core international crimes, also known as atrocity crimes. The U.S. …

The Birth Of Modern International Criminal Law: The International Military Tribunal At Nuremberg, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT), the most famous and arguably most important international criminal trial in human history, almost did not occur. In fact, it might even be an accident of history that the most senior perpetrators of the Nazi regime’s atrocities eventually faced the courtroom instead of summary execution. That their fate was decided by rights over might has shaped the world; helped birth the fields of international criminal law and international human rights law; and become the starting point for conversations about international law, transitional justice, genocide, and human rights.

Imprisoned Without A Verdict: The Constitutional Crisis Of Pre-Trial Solitary Confinement, Symone R. Gibbs

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Kalief Browder’s name endures as a chilling reminder of the human cost of pre-trial solitary confinement. His story reveals the constitutional paradox and moral failure at the heart of this practice: Individuals who remain legally innocent are subjected to one of the harshest punishments the state can impose. This practice strips people of their liberty twice over, first through incarceration itself, and again through prolonged isolation that inflicts devastating psychological harm. Despite its severity, the use of solitary confinement against pre-trial detainees remains largely overlooked in legal scholarship and reform, even as it undermines the presumption of innocence, exacerbates systemic …

Bibliography On Indigenous Rights In Canada, 1995-2025, Leslie Haddock, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

No abstract provided.

Regulating Ai Beyond Product Liability, Shruti Trikanad

Michigan Technology Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by governments across the world to enforce regulatory mandates, adjudicate benefits and privileges, predict and analyze risks, and much more. Although this has significant potential to increase efficiency and responsiveness, it also comes with several risks of transparency, government accountability, and the amplification of discrimination and bias. It is crucial we oversee and regulate these AI systems effectively. This essay argues against the models that current regulatory frameworks are adopting to govern AI use: those resembling product liability.

Through the lens of the European Union's AI Act and Liability Directive, it highlights the unsuitability …

Reconceiving Safety Regulation For Ai And Ml Medical Software, Barbara J. Evans, Eric S. Rosenthal, Azra Bihorac

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the challenges of regulating AI and ML clinical decision support tools intended to assist trained health care professionals in delivering clinical care. Two old, twentieth-century regulatory models have dominated discussions of medical AI policy since 2013. Thinking inside these old regulatory boxes has not produced effective regulatory solutions to address the novel risks AI poses in clinical care. The first regulatory box treats software as a medical device, which tasks medical device regulators with making software safe but neglects the crucial roles physicians, nurses, administrators, medical practice regulators, and other health oversight bodies must also play to …

Front Matter

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gendered Outcomes In Student Loan Bankruptcy, Jason Iuliano

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Women are winning more student loan bankruptcy cases than men, a notable reversal that challenges what we know about gender and legal outcomes. Drawing on hand-coded data from over 1,300 adversary proceedings spanning 2007 to 2023, this Article documents a sharp post-2022 shift. Women now succeed in 89% of cases compared to 82% for men.

The puzzle is that financial metrics cannot explain this gap. Men and women who file these cases look indistinguishable on paper: similar debt loads, comparable assets, and equivalent incomes. Legal representation explains part of the story. Women are slightly more likely to hire attorneys, and …

The Sound Of The Police: Police Radio Encryption And Freedom Of The Press, Toluwanimi Fajolu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Social Promise Of Hybrid Entities, Frederick M. Spight Jr.

American University Business Law Review

Many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are struggling to stay afloat. These historic, and historically underfunded, institutions suffer from a chronic shortage of resources, leading to the notable closures of schools, like Concordia College. Some critics question the modern place of the HBCU as a relic of a bygone era. This article argues, however, that HBCUs are worth sustaining and provides the legal tool to do so: the hybrid entity. 

Hybrid entities arose from the social enterprise movement, which sought to harness the power of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Operating under the philosophy of “doing well, while doing …

Incentivized Delegation In Corporate Criminal Investigations: State Action, Unconstitutional Conditions, And Fifth Amendment Erosion., Ying Zhou

American University Business Law Review

This Article identifies and critiques “incentivized delegation,” an enforcement regime in which the Department of Justice (DOJ) conditions prosecutorial leniency on corporations’ completion of specified, prosecution-oriented, internal investigations of employee misconduct. While courts readily find state action when the government formally delegates investigative functions, they have not squarely addressed whether corporate investigations undertaken to secure prosecutorial leniency—without explicit governmental direction—should likewise trigger state-action scrutiny. United States v. Coburn illustrates the blind spot: by insisting that state action requires overt governmental direction and control, the decision exposes a fundamental failure to appreciate how the government can embed investigative mandates within the …

Vice, Morality, And Immigration: Critiquing And Examining The Application Of Legal Moralism In The Criminalization Of Immigrants For Vice-Related Crimes, Sofia Garcia

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

True Man, Captive Mother: Abortion As A Fundamental Self-Defense Right, Nicholle Vandy

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Abortion healthcare has faced significant challenges since the Supreme Court held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that there exists no constitutional right to abortion. Contrastingly, the right to bear arms, grounded in the right to self-defense, has strong constitutional protections, as highlighted in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The extension of the right to self-defense is exemplified by the proliferation of Stand Your Ground laws in numerous states.

This Comment examines the growing tension between self-defense doctrine, particularly through Stand Your Ground laws, and the increasing criminalization of abortion in various states. It …

Dual Purposes Of A Plea Bargaining Simulation: Pedagogical Skills Training And Controlled Data Collection Experiment About Crime Victim’S Access To Justice Via Counsel, Tung Yin

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Rewriting The Sentence: Second Look Sentencing In Rhode Island, Carter Hazzard

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.