Digital Commons Network^™

Prosecutorial Guidance And Non-Prosecution Policies: A Pragmatic Path Forward For Ai In Legal Services, Jessica Bednarz, Ericka Byram, Kelli M. Raker, Jeff Ward

Duke Center on Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Police Surveillance And The Perils Of Techno-Solutionism, Prithika Balakrishnan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article charts domestic law enforcement’s use of video surveillance, beginning in the backlash to the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s, continuing through the War on Terror and, more recently, in the context of the post-George Floyd public critiques of policing. The undergirding philosophy of policing’s embrace of surveillance technology is techno-solutionism, the view that all complex social situations can be simplified to measurable data primed for quick-fix, unbiased, algorithmic answers. While technology may have initially been adopted by police to respond to specific problems, it has changed the problems themselves, altered the array of potential solutions, and …

Think Twice Before You Sign! An Experiment On A Cautionary Function Of Contractual Formalities, Monika Leszczynska

Faculty Scholarship

Contractual formalities, such as handwritten signatures, have long been viewed as serving a cautionary function that protects individuals from entering ill-considered agreements. With the rise of digital contracting, it is uncertain whether online forms of assent can play the same role. In an incentivized laboratory experiment, four modes of contract confirmation were compared: clicking “OK,” typing one’s name, entering a PIN code (analogous to a qualified e-signature), and handwritten signing. The study examined how these methods affect choices between smaller–sooner and larger–later rewards. Results show that participants were more impulsive when confirming by clicking “OK” or typing their name than …

Analysis Of The Impacts Of Propositions 41 And 42 On California Public Finance, David Gamage, Brian D. Galle, Darien Shanske

Faculty Publications

This memorandum discusses the possible collateral damage that Propositions 41 and 42 (on the ballot in California on November 3, 2026) might cause.  The two propositions were concocted very quickly by billionaires in order to trick voters that will vote for Proposition 40 (the billionaire tax) also to vote for these propositions that are designed to undermine the billionaire tax.

The basic trick is that these propositions have plausible seeming veneers but hide a poison pill that aims to frustrate the functioning of the billionaire tax.  The veneers are “plausible seeming” because they address problems that are not problems.  For …

Department Of Health Exerts Strong Control Over Cbct In Dental Offices: Regulations, Adopted Over Objection From Nysda, Take Effect Immediately., Lance Plunkett Jd, Llm

The New York State Dental Journal

On July 22, the New York State Department of Health finally adopted an entire set of new regulations covering all aspects of ionizing radiation. Contained in Article 16 of Title 10 of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (10 NYCRR), the new regulations repealed and replaced the old Article 16. It is important to note that the new regulations are in effect only in counties outside of New York City. Dentists in New York City should still rely on guidance from the city Department of Mental Health and Hygiene. The regulations contain …

Ai Slop, Jessica Silbey, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

The term “AI slop” has become popular to describe the output of generative AI systems seen as voluminous, low quality, or the result of little effort. When AI-generated music and videos flood platforms, they are called slop. Peer-reviewed journals and legal tribunals are drowning in low-quality and low-reliability AI slop submissions.  Employees are seen to be producing mountains of slop in their reports and communications with each other. The term has inertia and heft, and the phenomenon has significant consequences. Most of them are not good.

But the boundaries of “AI slop” and its usefulness in policy discussions are not …

Rebutting 38 False Claims About Solar, Wind, Electric Vehicles, And Battery Storage, Andrew Kieffer

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Achieving the United States’ ambitious emissions reduction goals depends in large part on the rapid adoption of wind and solar energy and the electrification of consumer vehicles. However, misinformation and coordinated disinformation about renewable energy is widespread and threatens to undermine the transition. In this report, the Sabin Center identifies and examines 38 of the most pervasive false claims about solar energy, wind energy, and electric vehicles, with the aim of promoting a more informed discussion.

Beyond Regulatory Compliance: Reorienting Indonesia's Post-Mining Governance Through Ecological Justice, Suryaningsi Suryaningsi, Rosmini Rosmini, Andi Luthfi, Muhammad Sayyidus Cakrawala

Hasanuddin Law Review

Post-mining governance in coal-producing regions is often unable to translate regulatory compliance into actual ecological recovery, as evidenced by East Kalimantan's environmental challenges. Therefore, this study aimed to examine implementation gaps in Indonesia's legal framework for reclamation and propose legal reforms grounded in ecological justice. A socio-legal method was used to integrate normative analysis, semi-structured interviews with 12 multi-level stakeholders, and comparative assessments of Australia, South Africa, and India. The results identified four critical gaps, namely discrepancies between administrative compliance and ecological outcomes, inadequate financial assurance, uncertain land transfer, and fragmented institutional oversight. This study showed that regulatory compliance without …

When Protection Becomes Predation: Militarized Masculinity And Sexual Violence In Northeastern Nigeria, Tosin Osasona

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The study investigates the structural and situational drivers of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) perpetrated by state security actors in the context of Nigeria’s counterinsurgency campaigns in Borno State. Drawing on militarized masculinity and strain and deprivation theories, and using a qualitative, interpretive research design, the study argues that CRSV is not an isolated or episodic form of deviance by individual soldiers and security personnel but is embedded in routine military–civilian interactions. Advancing an interactionist explanation of CRSV in Nigeria’s Islamist counterinsurgency operations, the study demonstrates that the likelihood of sexual violence increases through the interaction of gendered institutional norms, operational …

A Conventional Solution To Constitutional Stagnation?, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

Our charter of government is stuck. The last time the U.S. Constitution was revised was over 30 years ago, when the “fluky” and largely inconsequential Twenty-Seventh Amendment stole into the text two centuries after it was written. The last time Congress proposed an amendment was almost 50 years ago, when the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was sent to its demise at the ratification stage. Although state constitutions remain far more dynamic, they too have experienced a declining rate of amendment in recent years.

Reforming The Mississippi Criminal Code Part V: Justification, Judith J. Johnson

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invoking The Protection Of Pupil Rights Amendment ("Ppra") To Safeguard Student Privacy Rights: My Three-Year Battle To Enforce The Ppra Against An Intractable New Jersey School District, Patricia Montana

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Formalism Becomes Abdication: Howell, Hathorne, And The Limits Of Legislative Finality, Joe Hemleben

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Overruling Texas V. Johnson?, Natti Perelman

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Formalism, Finality, And The Judicial Role In Mississippi Post-Conviction Review, Joe Hemleben

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opposition To Renewable Energy Facilities In The United States: September 2026 Edition, Romany M. Webb, Ivonne Norman

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

For the first time in nearly 2 decades, the United States is seeing rapid growth in electricity demand, driven by the data center boom as well as expanding electrification. Total electricity use in the United States reached a record high of 4,430 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2025 — almost 3 percent above 2024 levels — and is expected to continue growing at a similar rate through 2050. Meeting this increased demand, while continuing to advance action on climate change, will require a massive ramp up in renewable energy development. Notable progress was made in 2025, with utility-scale solar generation in …

Deterring Political Deceit: A Constitutional Argument To Defend The People's Democracy (2026), David Chang

Books

More than ever, influencers and politicians communicate political messages that they do not believe to be true. This political deceit is constitutionally valueless, harms public discourse, and impedes effective public decision-making. Yet, under current doctrine, the Supreme Court would invalidate any regulation of deceitful political advocacy as an abridgment of political speech.

In Deterring Political Deceit, David Chang explores why traditional efforts to target falsity in political speech have been rooted in constitutional error. While the Court has determined that the defamation of public officials is unprotected, it wrongly declared that false statements of fact lack constitutional value, and …

Intracommunity Social Capital Systems Of Class And Caste In South Asian Intimate-Partner Violence Survivor Outcomes, Vriddhi Vinay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study theorizes how caste and class function as transnational forms of social capital that structure intimate partner violence (IPV) outcomes among South Asian diasporic women in the New York City metropolitan area. While existing IPV scholarship foregrounds migration status, gender, and legal precarity, it often treats South Asian communities as internally homogeneous and overlooks how intracommunity hierarchies mediate access to support. Drawing on social capital theory and postcolonial feminist frameworks, this research positions caste and class stratification as underexamined axes of stratification within United States-based IPV analysis. Using survey data from 24 South Asian woman-identifying IPV survivors in New …

The Nusantara Capital City (Ikn) Relocation: Autocratic Legalism And The Marginalization Of Local Communities, Imam Syafi'i, Dian Aulia

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The first phase (2022–2024) of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) relocation prioritizes the construction of the city's physical infrastructure under the “Nusa Rimba Raya” concept. During this phase, the massive development of supporting infrastructure, including government buildings, official residences, toll roads, ports, and the VVIP airport, has driven increased demand for materials and land, impacting areas beyond the delineation of IKN. However, the power-driven approach in the capital relocation policy has led to socio-ecological injustices for indigenous and local communities by disregarding meaningful public participation and environmental sustainability. Land acquisition through the Land Bank (Bank Tanah), which prioritizes investment, along …

Comparative Legal Study On Corruption In The Construction Sector: Indonesia And China, Seng Hansen, Liang Qi

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This study aims to compare the legal approaches to corruption in the construction sector in Indonesia and China. The construction sector in both countries is often fertile ground for corruption, which harms the economy and creates social inequality. This study employs a comparative legal analysis method to examine regulations, policies, and the effectiveness of law enforcement in combating corruption within the construction sector in both countries. The primary focus of this study is a comparison of applicable anti-corruption laws and the roles of law enforcement agencies, such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Indonesia and the Central Commission for …

Medical Liability In The Age Of Ai-Driven Healthcare: Ethical Challenges And Legal Framework Recommendations, Rani Tiyas Budiyanti, Roro Isyawati Permata Ganggi, Penggalih Mahardika Herlambang

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is progressing rapidly and is applied to various aspects of medical practice, including diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient care. However, the integration of AI in healthcare raises complex legal and ethical issues, particularly regarding medical liability. The growing development of AI technology is blurring the concepts of responsibility and accountability in medical practice. Furthermore, with AI systems becoming increasingly autonomous in their decision-making processes, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine responsibility in cases of medical errors or actions that harm patients. In view of this situation this article argues that it is …

The Coming Health Insurance Transition, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

For decades, the dominant form of private health insurance in the United States—by far—has been employment-based group health insurance. Somewhere in the range of 175 million employees and their families receive health care coverage through a system in which employers serve as financiers, procurers, administrators, and fiduciaries of the health insurance promise. An overwhelming percentage of those health insurance arrangements are governed by ERISA, with little room for state law.

That is going to change.

This Article explains—for the first time anywhere—why and how. Because of the tremendous and as-yet unrecognized power of an obscure-sounding funding arrangement called the Individual …

Fda Policymaking In The Trump Deregulation Era, Jordan Paradise J.D.

Utah Law Review

This Article endeavors to contribute to and continue the conversation about how the Trump deregulatory agenda is impacting a vital national public health agency, the FDA, and our national collective public health in ways that deviate from longstanding agency policy and practice. Various other FDA policy actions deserve concerted attention by legal scholars, including the agency’s recent moves in the direct-to-consumer marketing (DTC) drug space through targeted warning letters and publicity about reforming the “adequate provision” standards, food additives and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) listing processes and directives to industry, adjustments to the biosimilar interchangeability requirements through guidance document, …

Post-Approval Problems, Anjali D. Deshmukh M.D., J.D.

Utah Law Review

Sitting across from 4-year-old Jessica’s parents, I whispered the truth: the most promising drug to fight their daughter’s disease was a therapy approved for adults, not for children her age. We could estimate the dose, monitor her organs, and hope the toxicity would not outpace the benefits, but there was no high-quality clinical trial data proving it was safe for kids like her yet, despite congressional mandates. Unexpected safety issues are often identified after drugs are approved and used outside of a closely controlled clinical trial, especially in understudied populations like children, the elderly, and pregnant women. When I asked …

Religious Persecution In Communist Albania Through Constitutional And Legal Acts, Sadik Haxhiu, Besard Belegu, Artan Fejzullahu

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Following the victory of the communist regime in 1944, the new Albanian state built its institutions on a materialist worldview that stood in direct opposition to the universal principles of freedom of conscience and religious belief. The state progressively restricted religious practice until it banned it altogether. This anti-religious campaign proceeded along two tracks: anti-religious political propaganda and the adoption of legal acts prohibiting the practice of religion. A 1967 decree-law banned religious belief outright, and the 1976 Constitution declared Albania the first atheist state in the world. This paper is based on an analysis of legal acts, scholarly literature, …

From Humanitarian Aid To “Counterrevolution”: Foreign Assistance To Pentecostals In Soviet Ukraine And Its Criminalization By The Gpu–Nkvd, 1932–1935, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines foreign assistance to Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR and the mechanisms of its criminalization by Soviet state security agencies in 1932–1935. Drawing on GPU–NKVD criminal investigation files, secret police reports, party-state documentation, personal correspondence, and memoir sources, the study reconstructs transnational channels of humanitarian support, practices of resource distribution, and the transformation of survival strategies into objects of political repression.

Particular attention is devoted to two distinct models of foreign assistance. The Odessa case demonstrates a centralized system connected to the former leadership of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and transnational Pentecostal networks …

The Normative Status Of States' Obligations To Mitigate The Climate Crisis: Implications For The Right To Adequate Housing, Erna Dyah Kusumawati, Sasmini Sasmini

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

The convergence of the global climate crisis, pursuant to the UNFCCC Paris Agreement and its implementing protocols as well as the fundamental right to housing has fundamentally disrupted established legal paradigms, necessitating a rigorous re-examination of the normative status of state obligations. This paper examines the scope of governmental responsibility to mitigate climate-induced threats to housing security. Drawing upon international human rights frameworks and contemporary legal discourse, the study interrogates the complex friction emerging at the intersection of environmental mandates and housing protections. Through a systematic analysis of the existing literature and recent developments in the international climate change framework, …

Territorial Representation In Fiscal Governance: A Comparative Constitutional Analysis Of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council And South Africa's National Council Of Provinces, Endah Yuniningsih, Deden Rafi Syafiq Rabbani

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This article examines the institutional role of territorial chambers in fiscal governance through a comparative constitutional analysis of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council (DPD) and South Africa's National Council of Provinces (NCOP). While the DPD was established to strengthen regional representation following Indonesia's decentralization reforms, its legislative role in fiscal policymaking remains institutionally constrained. Existing scholarship has primarily focused on the DPD's constitutional status in debates on bicameralism, with comparatively little attention to how constitutional design shapes the role of territorial chambers in fiscal governance and intergovernmental fiscal relations. Using a normative legal research method that combines statutory, conceptual, and comparative …

Geoengineering And Criminal Liability Comparative Lessons For Penal Reform, Zico Junius Fernando, Deviana Yuanitasari, Chairul Huda, Muhammad Yamani, Arimbi Fajari Furqon

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

Geoengineering has emerged as a controversial climate technology involving large-scale interventions such as cloud seeding, weather modification, and unregulated carbon capture. While these practices are promoted as solutions to climate change, they also generate significant ecological risks that remain largely unaddressed within criminal law frameworks. This article examines the absence of explicit criminal liability for geoengineering-related harms and explores how comparative legal experiences can inform future penal reform. This research uses normative research methods with several approaches, including comparative, conceptual, and futuristic approaches. The collected legal materials are analysed qualitatively, and content analysis is employed to classify and interpret relevant …

The Expansive Power Of The House Of Representatives As A Precondition For Constitutional Rot, Isnawati Isnawati, Adam Setiawan

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This study examines how the expansive powers of the Indonesian House of Representatives have contributed to constitutional rot because those powers no longer operate effectively or proportionately. It identifies dysfunction in the House of Representatives through weak legislative performance, inadequate oversight of the executive branch, and transactional political practices in appointment processes. Using a doctrinal legal method and contemporary constitutional theory as its analytical framework, this study argues that the expansive powers of the House of Representatives constitute a precondition for constitutional rot, evidenced by the poor exercise of legislative authority and institutional intervention through amendments to the Rules of …