Digital Commons Network^™

Perspectives On Choice Of Law Challenges In Multistate Precision Medicine Research, Laura M. Beskow, Catherine Hammack-Aviran, James W. Hazel, Leslie E. Wolf

Law Faculty Scholarship

This empirical legal study investigates challenges related to determining applicable law in multistate precision medicine research. Through interviews with experts in law, research ethics, and human subjects protections, the authors examine how differences in state laws governing research, genetic privacy, and data protection may affect participant rights and research practices. Interviewees reported varying levels of awareness regarding state law variation and expressed differing views on its significance. The findings suggest that uncertainty surrounding applicable legal frameworks can complicate research design, informed consent processes, and institutional oversight. The study calls for further legal and policy analysis to address these challenges and …

Availability Model To Evaluate Ai Data Centers’ Role In Grid Stability, Troy Mcsimov, Trevor S. Kunz, Jeffrey Billo

SMU Data Science Review

The United States has made it clear; it is imperative that the US wins the global AI race. This paper focuses on one of the most challenging puzzle pieces surfaced at the POWER Data Center conference (San Antonio, Sept. 30.); for Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) the limiting factor is not generation alone but the need to balance generation and load to preserve grid reliability.

The regulatory landscape fundamentally changed with the passage of Texas Senate Bill 6 in June 2025, which mandates new large loads must "contribute to the recovery of the interconnecting electric utility’s costs" (Texas Legislature, …

Transnational Private Environmental Regulation: Are States Striking Back?, Errol E. Meidinger

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 11 in Research Handbook on Environmental Regulation, David Williamson, Gary Lynch-Wood & Agne Prochorskaite, eds.

Rapid global trade expansion beginning in the 1990s spawned a parallel expansion in non-state (‘private’) environmental regulatory (PER) programs. They issue regulatory standards, monitor and judge performance, sanction poor performance, and sometimes regulate state activities. PER programs constitute extensive and complex transnational governance agglomerations encompassing environmental certification, corporate social responsibility, and environment-society-governance programs, typically intertwined with governmental and intergovernmental regulatory programs.

Using forestry and climate change examples, this article analyzes key features of PER programs, how they may be growing empirically more …

Euthanasie Dan Transplantasi Organ : Suatu Tinjauan Dari Sudut Hukum Pidana, Bachtiar Agus Salim

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Abortus Provocatus Dilihat Dari Sudut Hukum Islam, Sayuti Thalib

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Beberapa Upaya Dan Perhatian Dalam Pemeliharaan Dan Pelestarian Lingkungan, N.H.T. Siahaan

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Konvensi Tentang Tanggung Jawab Internasional Kerusakan Disebabkan Oleh Benda-Benda Angkasa, K. Martono S.H., Ll.M., H. Sirait S.H.

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

The Due Diligence Standard For Preventing Trans Boundary Cyber Harm: Expectation Or Obligation?, Dafina Bucaj

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Segi Hukum Dalam Pengendalian Pencemaran Lingkungan Hidup, Soerjono Soekanto

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Cambodia’S Campaign To Recover Its National Treasures: A Unique Model Of Collaborative Restitution, Bradley J. Gordon, Melina Antoniadis, Sokunthyda Long

Fordham Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Automating Junk Science, Lisa Waters

UC Law Journal

In the late twentieth century, the boom of forensic disciplines in criminal prosecutions helped drive mass incarceration to an all-time high. Yet scientific and legal inquiry revealed a disturbing truth: Most forensic methods accepted in criminal courts are entirely lacking in empirical support or scientific foundation—in other words, “junk science.” Forensic proponents have recently turned to computer algorithms, costly equipment, and proprietary trade secrets litigation to defend dubious techniques, ushering in a second wave of forensic reliance. But automated technology has masked rather than cured the foundational infirmities in these forensic fields.

This Article examines the growing trend of automated …

Beyond The Prompt: The Social Costs Of Generative Artificial Intelligence, J. Scott Christianson, Josh Rickard

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

The rapid commercialization of generative artificial intelligence has produced extraordinary value for technology companies while systematically externalizing costs onto society. This Article provides a review of these externalities across three domains: environmental, human health, and digital infrastructure. The environmental burden includes massive energy and water consumption alongside ecologically destructive mining for rare earth elements and accelerating electronic waste. The human toll encompasses a documented pattern of AI-induced mental health crises, including suicide and self-harm linked to anthropomorphic chatbot design, raising novel questions of product liability in cases like Garcia v. Character.AI. The digital commons face degradation through industrialized data scraping …

Facing State-Created Danger In Facial Recognition Technology, Esha Jain

Washington Law Review

When the police wrongfully arrest someone, that person faces distinct harms. Various scholarship, news articles, and studies document that AI-powered facial recognition technology (FRT) disproportionately misidentifies individuals from marginalized racial groups when used irresponsibly. Many of those sources indicate that police reliance on FRT without adequate vetting results in wrongful arrests. Yet law enforcement continues to misuse FRT.

This Comment contends that the 42 U.S.C. § 1983 state-created danger doctrine offers a potential remedy for plaintiffs harmed by police reliance on FRT. To prevail under this doctrine, plaintiffs must prove affirmative conduct, deliberate indifference, and proximate causation. If successful, these …

Engendering Human Rights Through Clinical Legal Education, Caroline S. Bettinger-Lopez

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Working Families In A Riven Political And Moral Economy, Deborah Dinner

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Thoughts On Outsiders Within The Legal Academy, Jamelia N. Morgan

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Do We Have To Lose? The Lasting Legacies And Lost Promise Of Feminist Legal History, Serena Mayeri

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Origin And Future Of Shield Laws, David S. Cohen, Rachel Rebouché

UMKC Law Review

This Essay describes the origin and future of so-called shield laws—novel state legislation designed to protect legal abortion care from out-of-state attack. These laws have facilitated an increase in the number of abortions even in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Essay, after detailing shield laws’ origins (Part II) and content (Part III), highlights how shield laws have operated and succeeded over the last three years (Part IV) as well as the challenges mounted against shield laws and shield providers (Part V). Although state lawsuits and the possibility …

Law And The Self-Coordinating Market Idea, Sanjukta Paul

University of Chicago Law Review

“This emotional pronouncement of value judgments condemning emotion and value judgments seems to [me] a symptom of a defective sense of humor. The attempt to build a social science on these foundations suggests that the human race, and especially a large proportion of its ‘best minds,’ having at long last (a very long last) found out that the objects of nature are not like human beings—are not actuated by love and hate and caprice and contrariness, and subject to persuasion, cajolery, and threats—have logically inferred that human beings must be like natural objects, and so viewed by the seeker of …

Parents At The Schoolhouse Gate, Emily Gold Waldman

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyrighting Nature, Cathay Y. N. Smith -- Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article introduces a "work of nature" doctrine for copyright law. In 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle in copyright law that, while anyone can copy the original source of a copyrighted work, they cannot copy an author's copy of the original source. A century later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hinted at a "work of nature" exception, suggesting that even if copying the copy is restricted, copying elements of expression that nature displays for all observers is permissible. U.S. patent law excludes products of nature from protection, but this Article is the first …

Adoption And Parentage Inequality For Same-Sex Couples In Wisconsin In The Age Of Assistive Reproductive Technology, Isabella Barnard

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

In the age of assistive reproductive technology, same-sex couples have more avenues than ever before to become parents, but the law has failed to match pace. With the ever-growing number of same-sex couples conceiving children through artificial insemination, Wisconsin must take action to remedy the inequality of same-sex couples adopting their biological or intended children. As of the publication of this comment, it is recommended that same-sex couples follow the adoption process for their child, as a formal adoption constitutes a court order granting full parentage security because other more efficient options, such as a gender-neutral voluntary parentage acknowledgement, are …

Reconstructing The "Best Interests" Inquiry In Termination Of Parental Rights Cases: Setting The Threshold At "Affirmative Need", Vivek Sankaran, Timothy Pinto

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Squeezing The System: How The Orange Book Is Ripe For Exploitation, Sarah Kopyto

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Grants Pass: The Case For Recentering The Criminal Legal System And Its Constitutional Constraints, Scout Katovich

William & Mary Law Review

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit cities from punishing unhoused people for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go. While the holding was legally narrow, the Court’s rhetoric framed criminalization as sound policy rather than punishment, obscuring the criminal legal system implications at the heart of the case. Cities responded not to the narrow holding but to the rhetorical message: In the year following the decision, they enacted hundreds of new laws criminalizing homelessness and dramatically intensified enforcement.

This Article argues for the recentering of …

The New Necessity, Ezra Rosser

William & Mary Law Review

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, cities are free to criminalize homelessness. The 2024 case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson is the most important homelessness case in decades and was a significant blow to advocates for the unhoused. The conservative majority rejected the idea that city ordinances criminalizing sleeping in public amounted to cruel and unusual punishment insofar as they penalized status. There is no sidestepping the loss. But within the faint glow of the embers of the oral argument and of the decision itself, there is the possibility that a new understanding of necessity, supported by the same …

A Primer On International Agreements Relevant To Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal, Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This primer provides an introduction to seven international agreements relevant to marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) research activities in the ocean. Each of these agreements has implications for whether, when, where, and how in-ocean mCDR projects will go forward. The primer is intended to provide policymakers, non-government organizations (NGOs), scientists, and others working on mCDR with an introduction to the agreements and explain their relevance to mCDR. It also offers guidance to those wishing to engage in discussions regarding mCDR under the agreements, which could help resolve open legal questions on their applicability to, and governance of, mCDR.

Polygyny Between Sharia, Custom And State Law As A Persistent Dilemma In Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Zharkynbai Sebetov, Mairambek Tagaev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article presents a comprehensive study of the century-long historical and legal evolution of state-imposed prohibitions on the institution of polygyny in Kyrgyzstan. The primary objective of the research is to evaluate the outcomes of a hundred years of repressive policies – originally classified as “crimes of daily life” (bytovye prestupleniya) during the early Soviet era–and to uncover the transformed legal paradoxes of this phenomenon today. Drawing on historical archival materials, Communist Party reports, and contemporary regulatory acts, the authors investigate the fundamental reasons why polygyny persists as a resilient “shadow” institution in Kyrgyz society despite its criminalization. Within the …

Unacceptable In Any Era: The Unusual And Unconstitutional Effort To Criminalize Sleeping While Homeless, Joseph W. Mead, Shelby Calambokidis

William & Mary Law Review

Grants Pass, Oregon, effectively made it a crime for some of its homeless residents to sleep—a universal and unavoidable biological necessity. In a 2024 decision, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause posed no obstacle to this law, but it emphasized that other constitutional provisions could place important limits on how cities treat their homeless residents.

This Article argues that modern laws criminalizing sleeping— especially when no shelter is available—represent an unprecedented and unconstitutional departure from centuries of American legal tradition. Tracing the evolution of vagrancy, poor relief, and settlement laws from the Statute …

Can Legal Knowledge Save Lives? A Randomized Experiment In Preventive Health Screenings, Christopher Robertson, Wendy Netter Epstein

Faculty Scholarship

While the U.S. healthcare system typically imposes significant out-of-pocket costs, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires full insurance coverage for certain preventive health services (PHS), including cancer screenings, without cost-sharing. Despite this policy, one in four eligible Americans remains unscreened for breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer, which increases their risk of premature death. We hypothesize that a lack of awareness about the ACA’s free care requirement contributes to this gap and that explicitly informing patients could increase screening uptake. Additionally, we investigate whether prior experiences with medical debt deter individuals from seeking even cost-free care, reflecting a spillover effect of …