Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond The Legal Black Hole: Hyper-Legality, Deferral, And Detention In Northeast Syria, Grace T. Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the detention of suspected ISIS affiliates and their family members held in facilities administered by the Kurdish-led authorities in North-East Syria. Thousands of foreign nationals remain detained without trial, without repatriation, and in conditions widely criticized as inhumane. Existing scholarship and political discourse often describe these facilities as legal voids, limbo, or black holes where law has broken down or ceased to apply. This thesis challenges that characterization. Rather than existing outside the law, the facilities are governed through overlapping frameworks of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, counterterrorism security resolutions, and domestic laws. I argue …

The Contractual Womb: U.S. Surrogacy Reform Through A Federal Bioethical Framework, Yasmine A. Quinones

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Hearsay In High Definition: Body-Worn Cameras And The Future Of Intimate Partner Violence Prosecutions, Kenechukwu Okocha

Working Papers

Technological advances in documenting police encounters with the public have outpaced evidentiary hearsay rules. Specifically, the rapid adoption of body-worn cameras (BWCs), fueled by racial justice and police reform advocates, has produced previously unavailable, vivid, and timely recordings of IPV victims’ accounts of abuse. Unfortunately, state and federal rules governing hearsay often prevent juries from considering these out-of-court statements. Such restrictions carry particular force in IPV cases, where victims frequently recant or decline to testify at trial due to abuser manipulation or distrust of the criminal justice system.

Courts and legislatures have eased some evidentiary restrictions in IPV cases in …

From Global Governance To Regulatory Retreat: The Csddd, Fashion Supply Chains, And The Limits Of Eu Supply Chain Ambition After Omnibus I, Cienna Alam

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Cyberbullying And Free Speech Considerations Under The New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill Of Rights Act, Jesse R. Place

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Revising The Role Of Minors And Their Participation In Their End-Of-Life Care: An Argument For A Shared Decision-Making Model Rooted In Pediatric Patients’ Decision-Making Capacity, Taylor Talcott

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Originalism’S Impact On The Sovereignty Of Indian Nations, Julian Allber

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Bodily Autonomy And Involuntary Servitude: Applying The Thirteenth Amendment To Restrictions On Abortion In The Case Of Pregnancy Induced By Rape, Joseph Innocente

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Circulation Over Preservation: Reintroducing Temporal Limits To Intergenerational Wealth Retention, Jason Irving Galak

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Multidisciplinary Practices (Mdps) In Elder Law, Bryan Koslow

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Doctrine Of Christian Discovery: How Medieval Papal Authority Shaped U.S. Property Law And Continues To Deny Justice To Indigenous Nations, Colin Sumner

Student Works

No abstract provided.

How Traditional And Social Media Shapes Public Perception Of United States Surpeme Court Decisions On Civil Liberties, Leila P. Martin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study examines how traditional and social medai shape public perception of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Civil liberties, focusing on four landmark cases: Dobbs v. Jackson, District of Columbia v. Heller, Materpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and Obergfell v. Hodges. Using Entmans framing theory, the research analyzes how tone, language, emphasis, and ideological slant differ across media platofrms and how these frames infleunce public attitudes, insitutional trust, and civic understanding. A mixed-methods design combines archival media analysis, national polling data from Pew Rsearch Center and gallup, and an independent survery to asses how media narratives, rather than …

The Indirect Taxes, Conor Clarke, Ari Glogower

Scholarship@WashULaw

Article I of the Constitution empowers Congress to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” It is arguably Congress’s most important power. A government’s first task is to fund itself, and the absence of an enforceable funding mechanism under the Articles of Confederation was a primary reason for the Constitution in the first place. Yet scholarly and judicial attention has focused mostly on the term “taxes” (and specifically what constitutes a “direct tax” that must be apportioned) while largely overlooking the three terms that follow—the duties, imposts, and excises that are collectively known as the “indirect taxes.” 

While poorly …

From State To Nation: A Federal Framework For Breast Cancer Primary Prevention Informed By California's Paths To Prevention, Serena Padda

Master's Projects and Capstones

The United States’ federal government should adopt a primary prevention framework for breast cancer modeled after Breast Cancer Prevention Partners’ (BCPP) Paths to Prevention: the California Breast Cancer Primary Prevention Plan. The plan focuses on systemic actions to reduce breast cancer risk through a social and racial justice lens. Breast cancer is the leading diagnosed cancer among women in the United States, with incidence rates increasing annually by 1% since 2012. Disparities persist in communities disproportionately burdened by chemical and environmental exposures, contributing to unequal and preventable risk. Current federal policy focuses primarily on secondary prevention through screenings, which does …

Reasserting Congressional Authority In National Security In The Post-Chadha Era, Jacob Shaffer

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bibliographie, Poej, Pierre Vialle

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Étude D'Une Attitude Politique : Analyse Du Comportement De L'Éditorialiste "Libanius" Du Journal "Le Réveil" Face Au Rôle De La F.D.A. Au Liban (Avril 1977 – Décembre 1980), Christiane Gezrawi

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Narrowing The Path To Justice: The Impact Of Pulsifer On The First Step Act And Federal Sentencing Reform, Olivia Santora

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court’s decision in Pulsifer resolved a critical circuit split regarding the scope of the safety valve provision, but did so in a way that denied hope of reduced sentences for thousands of incarcerated individuals. The case centered on a statutory interpretation question: whether a defendant becomes ineligible for safety valve relief if they meet any one of the three criminal history conditions—A, B, or C—or only if they satisfy all three conditions simultaneously.  The Court sided with the narrower interpretation, holding that meeting any one condition disqualifies a defendant from an opportunity for relief.

This distinction …

An End To Ends?: Rethinking The Adjudication And Regulation Of Flavored Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems In The United States, Elizabeth Sack

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note will characterize the jurisdictional nuances underlying courts’ adjudication of flavored ENDS premarket tobacco product applications (“PMTAs”). Part I will detail how Congress has legislated and delegated standard tobacco and ENDS regulation to the FDA. Additionally, Part I will discuss the biochemical pathways and harm-reduction mechanisms currently associated with ENDS. Part II will review how circuit courts have handled ENDS manufacturers’ challenges to the FDA’s denials of their PMTAs. Part III will argue that the FDA must make efforts to streamline the guidance it provides ENDS manufacturers. It will recognize that the FDA’s priorities to encourage smoking prevention …

Bridging Troubled Waters: Simplifying New York’S Riparian Property And River Access Laws, John Eikamp

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Note provides a review of New York’s riparian property laws, beginning with the English common law and ending with Douglaston Manor v. Bahrakis. Part II provides an analysis of OGC-9 and its failures as an extension of the Douglaston Manor decision. Part III proposes that, to resolve this dysfunction, Douglaston Manor must be abrogated, at least in part, by statute. The statute, drawing on the laws of other states and the federal government, and informed by expert opinion, must set forth a list of the state’s navigable waterways so that anglers are no longer …

Propuesta Metodológica Para La Evaluación De La Pobreza Energética En Chiapas, México, Mario Alejandro Sánchez Trujillo, Pascual López De Paz, Marcelino García Benítez, Amina El Mekaoui, Bassam Alí

Journal of Maya Heritage

El acceso inequitativo e insuficiente a servicios energéticos de calidad constituye uno de los principales obstáculos para el desarrollo socioeconómico y el bienestar humano en México, siendo el estado de Chiapas una de las entidades con mayor vulnerabilidad socioambiental. Este trabajo presenta una propuesta metodológica cuantitativa y geoespacial para evaluar la pobreza energética de las siete subprovincias fisiográficas de Chiapas. La metodología combina datos de censos de población y vivienda 2020 (INEGI), la estandarización min-max, el análisis de correlación de Pearson y el análisis de componentes principales (PCA) para la construcción de un índice de pobreza energética (IPE) multidimensional. El …

The Myth Of Evenhanded Administration: Integrating Individual Heterogeneity Into Benefit–Cost Analysis, Richard L. Revesz, Burçin Ünel, Sarah Wheaton

Duke Law Journal

In 2025, the Trump administration ended long-standing efforts to determine the extent to which pollution has disproportionate impacts on different communities, including overburdened and disadvantaged communities. But, at the same time, it reaffirmed its commitment to performing benefit–cost analysis to analyze the consequences of regulations. These approaches are mutually inconsistent. A proper benefit–cost analysis simply cannot be done without considering the distribution of a policy's impacts.

Generally, benefit–cost analyses are conducted based on impacts on an average member of the population—that is, a person with median characteristics. Often, however, the populations affected by government policies vary from the median in …

Moving Beyond Comparators: Rethinking Title Vii Intersectional Claims, Virali Patel

Duke Law Journal

Title VII promises to protect employees from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. However, for plaintiffs who assert claims on the basis of more than one identity, that promise often falls apart in court. This Note argues that the comparator requirement is part of the issue. Courts often demand that plaintiffs point to a "similarly situated" coworker who both was treated better and resembles the plaintiff in almost every respect but for the protected trait. Because antidiscrimination doctrine most commonly analyzes race and sex as separate, non-overlapping categories, intersectional plaintiffs face an evidentiary bind: Comparators available …

Overbreadth, Facial Validity, And The Nature Of First Amendment Rights, Randy J. Kozel

Duke Law Journal

The doctrine of First Amendment overbreadth instructs judges to treat certain statutes as unenforceable even if they have lawful applications. The theory is that if a statute restricts too much protected speech, it is invalid on its face. The fact that it has some lawful applications will not save it.

This Article seeks to redefine the relationship between overbreadth, facial invalidity, and judicial review of speech restrictions. It disentangles overbreadth concerns from facial defects, shifting the focus to the underlying sources of constitutional infirmity. The Article's central claim is that it is impossible for a statute to fail as overbroad. …

Grants Pass And Its New Defendants: Looking To Drug Courts To Improve Homeless Courts, Paige Kupas

Duke Law Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson was consequential both for the judicial system and for homeless defendants. The Court's holding that ordinances punishing sleeping and camping outside were not cruel and unusual punishments under the Eighth Amendment opened the floodgates for municipalities to either pass or enhance enforcement of such ordinances. What followed was an increase in the number of homeless defendants in the court system. Not only does this Grants Pass result put more pressure on already overburdened court dockets, but it also exacerbates an already broken system in which the most …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Les Réformes Récentes En Matière D’Expropriation, Antoine Moarbès

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Attacks On Merchant Vessels Under The Law Of Economic Naval Warfare And Protection Of The Marine Environment: Lessons From The Russia-Ukraine War And The U.S.-Iran War, Alexander Lott

International Law Studies

This article examines the legality of attacks on merchant vessels during international armed conflicts, using reported Russian, Ukrainian, Iranian, and United States attacks between 2022 and 2026 as case studies. It evaluates belligerent rights to visit and search, divert, seize, disable, or, exceptionally, destroy merchant vessels under customary law. Drawing primarily on State practice, the study compares Russia’s blockade of Ukraine, Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the United States’ blockade of Iran. The emerging concept of a de facto blockade and its fusion with warning zones creates legal uncertainty and undermines humanitarian protection.

The legality of Iranian …

Voices Of Resistance: The People, The Press, And The Law, Robert S. Chang, Erica Lomeli Corcoran, Memo Torres, Gary Williams, Isais Benavides, Julie Morales, Astrid Hernandez

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

Loyola Public Interest Palooza Panel Transcription

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Bad Hombre, Sergio Teran

Loyola Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Interest Law

In 2017, I created a piece intended to highlight the divisive rhetoric used by the then 45th U.S. President to describe people of color. The piece serves as a warning of the potential consequences of such language.

"Bad Hombre" was inspired by the dialogue and language Donald Trump used when referring to Mexican Americans and immigrants during the early stages of his 2016 presidential campaign. I took some of his actual phrasing and entered it into Google. The resulting imagery became the inspiration for the tone and composition of my piece. Some of the phrases I incorporated include: #BadHombre #ExtremeVetting …