Digital Commons Network^™

An Abundant Lack Of Introspection, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

In this review Jonathan Adler critiques Abundance authors Klein and Thompson's analysis of how regulation is holding back progress in decarbonization, America's housing supply crisis, and innovation. While agreeing with the authors' assessment that regulation policy is hampering efforts in these areas, Adler objects to the book's proposals for improving regulatory bottlenecks, arguing the authors of Abundance refuse to acknowledge the role of market institutions in creating abundant supply or to admit the fault in their assumption that the failures of centralized government decision making can be repaired while maintaining centralized government decision making.

This abstract has been constructed from …

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 …

State Policy And Regulatory Approaches To Sustainable Aviation Fuel Across The United States, Somtochukwu Attamah, Mary Johnson, Lara Fowler, Michael D. Helbing

Faculty Scholarship

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) represents a critical lever for achieving near-term decarbonization of the aviation industry. SAF can be manufactured for “drop-in” use in existing aircraft and fueling systems, allowing manufacturers to achieve lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) savings relative to standard jet fuel. However, U.S. policy is still disjointed: federal incentives are accompanied by diffuse state efforts, which means uneven market-based feedback and investment risk. After outlining the federal policy context, this Article conducts a comparative analysis of SAF-related policy frameworks across the fifty states. This includes a variety of government solutions offered in the form of enacted and proposed …

Bodies In The Beds: How Reits, Private Equity Firms, And County Hospitals Monetize Nursing Home Residents As Real Estate Acquisitions, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

Nursing home residents have become monetized targets of real estate acquisitions. Established in 1960, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) were envisioned as allowing individuals to invest in commercial real estate without owning properties. That seemingly innocuous investment idea has led to the growth of a behind-the-scenes empire of little-understood conglomerates of REITs buying up nursing homes and other healthcare facilities across the country. Capitalizing on tax-exempt income incentives, exploiting “triple-net” leasebacks, funneling profits through subsidiaries, and shielding ownership and assets from the liability of operations, the corporatized owners extract cash from facilities and leave harm in their wake. And to …

A Language Model’S Capability To Make Reasoned Decisions In Administrative Law, Robert Diab

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper calls into question a common set of assumptions about the use of artificial intelligence in administrative law in Canada. While some assume that AI (AI) may be useful for assisting a decision-maker where core rights are affected, the prevailing view is that it cannot be relied upon to make final decisions, due mainly to functional limitations: AI cannot give reasons and its outcomes are fraught with bias and opacity that cannot be overcome. The prevailing view, however, took shape in response to earlier, more limited forms of AI. Large language models can be used in a way that …

Classical Liberalism And Property, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Classical liberalism is characterized by several key attributes. Its central normative criterion is the well‑being of the individual, not some aggregate like society or the nation‑state. Individuals are presumptively regarded as responsible actors, capable of judging their own best interests and accountable for their actions that interfere with the well‑being of others. Because individuals are presumptively regarded as responsible actors, there is a strong preference for imposing only minimal obligations on them through the power of the state, and these usually involve general negative duties that are universal in character, chiefly to forbear from using force or fraud to interfere …

There Is No Free Benchmark: An Institutional View Of Legal Ai Benchmarking, Neel Guha, Andy K. Zhang, Christine Tsang, Christopher D. Manning, Julian Nyarko, Daniel E. Ho

Faculty Scholarship

Despite substantial excitement around the use of AI in law, little information exists on the performance and associated risks of the domain’s widely marketed tools. Recent work, for instance, has demonstrated the significant potential for “hallucinations” — wherein models make up facts, law, and precedent — leading Chief Justice Roberts to spotlight this risk in his annual report on the judiciary. We argue that there is a need for public AI benchmarking in law. First, relative to other AI application domains, the legal AI ecosystem lacks legibility — there is little information about the design and performance of many commercial …

Dari Coattail Ke Midterm Check: Pergeseran Patologi Presidensialisme Dan Rekayasa Baru Keserentakan Pemilu, Fitra Arsil

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

This article offers a reinterpretation of the concurrent election practice in a multiparty presidential system. Traditionally, concurrent elections were designed as a constitutional mechanism to prevent political deadlock by aligning executive power with legislative support. However, the dynamics of contemporary presidentialism have raised a new problem: the threat to democracy now often comes from a president who is too powerful because he or she has succeeded in drawing nearly all political forces into an oversized coalition. This massive coalition ultimately becomes a tool of executive domination that legally narrows the space for opposition and undermines the oversight function of parliament. …

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 …

Report On The Use Of Nuclear Technologies In Morocco, Mahjoub El Haiba

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

This report summarises an information day organised by the Association of Engineers in Nuclear Engineering in Morocco on 13 June 1987 in Casablanca. The author traces the origins of the nuclear question, distinguishing natural from artificial radiation and reviewing the historical development of nuclear energy from the discovery of natural uranium to artificial atomic energy. He examines the catastrophic consequences of incidents such as the Chernobyl disaster, analyses the peaceful applications of nuclear technologies in Morocco (medicine, agriculture, industry, energy generation), and highlights the absence of a national law regulating this strategic sector and ensuring safety and environmental protection against …

Unfriending The Kids: The Problematic Race To Childproof Social Media, Randolph A. Robinson Ii

Cleveland State Law Review

A growing number of states have recently enacted new laws with the goal of protecting young people from potential harm allegedly caused by social media use. These laws are diverse in their approaches but broadly seek to limit youth access to social media platforms by imposing age verification and parental consent requirements. These laws directly implicate the First Amendment rights of both young users who will no longer be able to access speech or speak on social media platforms as well as adult users who must now submit to age verification to access these quintessential forums for political discourse.

These …

From Maps To Meadows: Ecologically Literate Zoning And The Regeneration Of Wildlife Habitats, Jonathan Rosenbloom

Cleveland State Law Review

For more than a century, zoning has shaped the American landscape, often at the expense of wildlife and ecosystems. Rooted in legal doctrines that treated animals as property and nature as a raw material, zoning codes have fragmented habitats, erased migration corridors, and accelerated biodiversity loss. At the same time, federal protections are narrowing, leaving critical gaps in environmental governance. This Article argues that local governments possess both the authority and the obligation to respond. By embedding ecological principles into zoning—through conservation districts, wildlife corridor protections, wetland buffers, pollinator protections, dark skies, wildlife fencing, habitat restoration, and others—municipalities can transform …

The Impact Of International Trade Liberalization On Oil And Gas Management Policies In Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Indonesia, Bagus Satrio Utomo, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Suyono Thamrin, Donny Yusgiantoro

Indonesian Journal of International Law

This study aims to analyze the impact of international trade liberalization on oil and gas management policies in developing countries, with a focus on Indonesia as a case study. As a country rich in natural resources, Indonesia faces challenges in maintaining sovereignty over the management of its national oil and gas industry amidst commitments to international trade agreements such as the GATT/WTO. Through a qualitative approach and analysis of international agreement documents, national regulations, and oil and gas industry data, this study finds a significant influence of trade liberalization principles on oil and gas management policies in Indonesia. The results …

Pay-To-Play, Gad Weiss

BYU Law Review

Pay-to-play clauses are a surprisingly understudied feature of venture capital financing deals. These provisions are designed to act as enforcement agents, securing investors’ long-term commitment by penalizing those who decline to provide additional funding when their portfolio startups come calling. Through an analysis of a novel dataset of pay-to-play clauses, this paper uncovers surprising patterns in how U.S. startups design and deploy them—most notably, their tendency to discriminate among investors despite legal guidance suggesting otherwise. The paper illustrates how pay-to-play clauses can increase enterprise value by addressing flaws in startups’ governance and capital structures, preventing destructive “chicken” games among investor …

Fragile Hope And The Cultural Life Of Law, Shefali Jain

Socio-Legal Review

This review of Sandhya Fuchs’ Fragile Hope: Seeking Justice for Hate Crimes in India (Stanford University Press 2024) highlights that the book makes a genuinely original ethnographic and conceptual contribution to caste studies and hate crime scholarship. At the same time, the essay argues that there are three limitations to its framework that require greater engagement: the book’s failure to engage with the legal consciousness tradition in socio-legal scholarship, an underdeveloped account of “legal meliorism,” and an unresolved tension between the book’s stated commitment to victim-centred analysis and its ethnographic evidence that frequently discusses movement-level aspirations.

Deep Seabed Mining And The Law Of The Sea: Strategic Competition, Institutional Failure, And The Third Age, Michael W. Lodge

International Law Studies

Edited and annotated speech by Michael Lodge, former Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (2017–2024), delivered at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, on March 11, 2026.

“He’S Got The Whole World In His Hands”: Seed Sovereignty And Agricultural Decision Making In Southeastern Kenya, Caroline Stahley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing corporate control of the global seed supply and restrictions to local exchange threaten the autonomy of smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities. This project contributes to agricultural sovereignty movements by examining the decisions farmers make to address climate uncertainty, market volatility, and development agendas. Specifically, how is seed saving practiced and understood in relation to sovereignty? It reimagines what global food systems might look like if investment were directed to producers rather than intermediaries, arguing that cultivators lack support, not knowledge or capacity. Across these domains, seeds act as a motif to describe the concerns, innovations, and visions of farmers.

Should I Supersede Or Should I Go: Individual Protection And Private Company Interests In Implementing A Federal Biometric Privacy Law, Jessica Oshanani

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Section I of this Note will define and discuss biometrics. Section II will discuss key biometrics legislation and Section III will explain the impact of BIPA on other state biometric privacy laws.

Next, Section IV will explain the impact of biometric privacy violations and separate controlling state laws on individuals, while Section V will explain the impact of biometric data laws on private companies.

Section VI will identify potential federal laws on the horizon, then Section VII will explain the concept and application of preemption.

Finally, Section VIII will discuss the benefits of administrative agency overview, and Section IX …

In The Race Between The Federal Government And The States To Regulate Ai, Big Tech Is The Winner, Matthew Berger

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Law Situations: Internment Of Belligerent Forces, Raul (Pete) Pedrozo

International Law Studies

This Situation examines the duty of neutral States to detain belligerent warships, their officers, and crews during an international armed conflict. At the outset of the armed conflict between the United States and Iran, Iranian warships sought refuge in India and Sri Lanka following the sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena. India and Sri Lanka, as neutrals, have a duty to detain those warships and their officers and crews for the duration of the armed conflict and take appropriate measures to render the ships and their personnel incapable of taking to sea during the conflict.

Constitutional Inferences On Emerging Technologies: Analyzing Government Overreach, The Fourth Amendment, And Democratic Process In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Alan To

McNair Research Journal SJSU

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

technologies by federal agencies presents novel constitutional questions that

existing legal doctrine has not yet adequately addressed. This paper

examines the emerging constitutional dimensions of the 2026 conflict

between Anthropic and the Department of Defense (DOD), in which the

Pentagon demanded unrestricted use of Anthropic's AI model Claude for

domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems, ultimately

designating Anthropic a supply chain risk when the company refused.

Drawing on three salient constitutional frameworks, specifically the Fourth

Amendment doctrine established in Kyllo v. United States (2001) and

Carpenter v. United …

The Non‑Penalization Machine: Mixed Movements In A Security‑Driven European Border Order, Raghda Elessawy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how the non‑penalization principle for irregular border crossing is formally upheld yet effectively undermined in contemporary migration governance. It argues that non‑penalization now operates as a narrow, conditional and status‑dependent “machine” whose protections are fragmented across refugee, smuggling and trafficking regimes and heavily mediated by open‑textured conditions and domestic discretion. Part I reconstructs this doctrinal architecture, showing how key norms convert a humanitarian intuition into limited exceptions within a legal order that otherwise normalizes the criminalization of irregular movement. Part II situates this fragile framework within security‑driven and externalized forms of European border control, where punishment is …

The Paradox Of Palestinian Exile: Unrwa, Structural Limbo, And The Manufactured Crisis Of The Right To Return, Laila Ibrahim Hassan Elkassas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the temporariness of Palestinian exile has been turned into a manufactured limbo that is sustained by international law, humanitarian governance and host- country regimes. It uses General Assembly Resolution 194 and the broader human rights regime to show how the right to return is constantly reaffirmed but structurally postponed, resulting in a gap between legal promise and political reality. Drawing on Edward Said’s notion of exile as an unhealable rift, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Didier Fassin’s thinking on humanitarian reason, the thesis constructs a multi-scalar framework that conceptualizes limbo as existential experience, embodied practice …

Shaping Egypt’S Transition To Sustainable Electric Transport: Current Policies And Future Directions, Noha A. Ragab

Theses and Dissertations

Egypt has enacted policies to promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in order to reduce their overall carbon footprint. However, the pace of transition remains limited, so the research aims to answer the following question: “How do current policies shape Egypt’s transition towards sustainable electric transport, and what additional measures can support this transition?" The study employs a qualitative analysis methodology, based on diffusion of innovation theory and conceptual framework, to analyze current policies in Egypt and identify challenges and gaps in their implementation. It also analyzes responses from 23 interviews with experts in the field, manufacturers, dealers, EV …

A Fission Decision: The Case For Extending Diablo Canyon’S Nuclear Operation, Isabelle Tyler

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article examines the regulatory decisions and policy debates surrounding Diablo Canyon in the wake of recent legislation aimed at extending the plant’s operational timeline. Presenting a balanced analysis of the arguments both for and against the closure, this Article explores how the new bill reshapes the conversation around the plant’s future. While proponents of the shutdown emphasize safety concerns and the goal of an all-renewable grid, this Article argues that closing Diablo Canyon would hinder California’s decarbonization efforts and jeopardize energy reliability amid increasing power shortages and extreme weather events. By analyzing legal precedents, energy data, and environmental impacts, …

Necessary Biosafety Precautions For Patented Gmos: Ramifications Of Inconsistent Parties Between The Cartagena Protocol And Trips Agreement, Lauren Clements

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Genetically Modified Organisms (“GMOs”) compose a class of potentially patentable biotechnology that are prominent in international markets. Developed countries like the United States, function as leading producers of these patented GMOs and therefore play a significant role in their development and transnational export. Minimum protections for these forms of biotechnology are outlined in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”), which permits the patenting of GMOs that ultimately enter the stream of international commerce. Notwithstanding the potential risks GMOs present to the environment, public health, and the economy, the TRIPS Agreement fails to address any form …

How International Copyright Approaches To Generative Ai May Influence The Development Of U.S. Copyright Laws For Ai, Tessa Chew

San Diego International Law Journal

Since late 2022, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has emerged as a vital technological tool in many industries by producing human-like content based on its trained datasets. This advancement has sparked an international debate over the ethical and legal implications of using copyrighted works for Artificial Intelligence (AI) training. Countries have taken differing legislative approaches to this issue. Japan aims to promote innovation with minimal restrictions; the United Kingdom aims to protect copyright holders by implementing strict AI copyright protections; and the European Union focuses on the transparency of the AI’s copyright use. The United States is currently at a regulatory …

Unlocking Green Innovation: Navigating Trade Secret Law In The Quest For Sustainable Solutions, Jacob Wright

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Comment explores the tension between trade secret protections and the global demand for climate-related technologies, arguing that a more balanced approach is necessary to align intellectual property law with the public interest. By examining the limits of existing legal frameworks, such as the DTSA, this analysis will highlight how these laws prioritize proprietary interests over environmental needs. It will also propose regulatory strategies that could help bridge this gap, such as expanding compulsory licensing frameworks, implementing public-private partnerships, and introducing public interest exceptions specifically tailored to clean energy technologies. Ultimately, this comment aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation …

Climate Deregulation Under Trump 2: Will It Have Any Durable Impact?, John D. Graham

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

Following through on his 2024 campaign pledges, President Donald Trump is dismantling President Biden's aggressive climate policies, including federal regulatory controls on the major sectors of the economy that account for most greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Although it is too early to make a definitive assessment of what Trump will accomplish, I present evidence that Trump is taking a more creative, radical, and legally sophisticated approach to climate deregulation in his second administration than was attempted in his first administration. I evaluate how durable climate deregulation may be. A major weakness in Trump's agenda is the lack of …