Digital Commons Network^™

Back To Intent: Revamping California’S Flagship Environmental Legislation And Tackling The Rise Of The “Super-Commuter”, Jordan Q. Davis

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The passage of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in 1970 has long been considered a watershed moment in the evolution of government participation in environmental issues. In the years since, CEQA has played a pivotal role in protecting Californians’ access to the beautiful nature offered by the Golden State. However, the very regulation that has been repeatedly relied upon to breathe clean air and drink clean water may very well be an instrument upon which Californians could return to smog-ridden skies. In this regard, CEQA’s biggest vulnerability may come from a most unexpected place: its strength.

The tools by …

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 …

A Systematic Review Of Restorative Justice In Criminal Contexts, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Restorative justice has gained growing attention within criminal justice reform as a practical alternative to approaches centered only on punishment. It emphasizes accountability, dialogue, and community reintegration, offering a different way to understand how change in behavior takes place. This systematic review examined quantitative evidence from 34 studies, selected from an initial pool of 112 records identified through databases such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, JSTOR, and institutional repositories. The studies assessed a range of interventions, including victim-offender mediation, diversion programs, community conferencing, and in-prison initiatives, which allowed comparison across different settings and populations. Across these studies, 79.4% reported statistically significant …

Bibliographic Note: Directory Of Moroccan Legislation, Joël Moneger

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

This bibliographic note presents a directory of Moroccan legislation and underlines its usefulness as a reference tool for legal research. The contribution emphasizes the importance of systematically identifying legislative and regulatory texts in order to facilitate access to Moroccan legal sources. It is aimed at jurists, students, researchers, and practitioners who need a reliable guide to the organization and consultation of Moroccan legal materials.

Copyright Page

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

Colonial To Neoliberal Governmentality In Monument Governance: Shifting Positionalities Of The Monument Adjacent Communities In India, Ujal Kumar Mookherjee, Shreyasi Bhattacharya

Socio-Legal Review

Organised monument governance in India began during the colonial rule. The colonial governance enterprise was bureaucratic and worked through stringent laws which often came down heavily on the monument-adjacent communities. The totalising nature of Indian colonial governmentality fractured the local community, disabling their engagement with the State either as civil society, as individuals or as social groups, while on the other hand enabling such engagement through a “community” constructed on religious lines. Colonial continuities in monument governance meant that a roughly similar position continued in the post-colony. On the international plane, however, there has been a discursive shift in valorisation …

Journal Staff

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Les Conventions Réglementées Carences Et Solutions : Le Droit Libanais À L'Heure Française, Saba K. Zreik

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

No abstract provided.

Beyond Liberal Apologies, Toward Abolitionist Trans Politics, Koda Sokol, Kaden Paulson-Smith

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

In the wake of Trump’s second election, the liberal fantasy of a benevolent state reared its head: the right policy, politician, or police officer will end anti-trans oppression. This article heeds the warning from generations of abolitionists before us that violence is not a defect of the state but endemic to it. By consequence, reforms that strengthen the state by expanding avenues for criminalization, resourcing the police, and incorporating more people into the military further jeopardize those subject to premature death, trans or otherwise. The current U.S. political regime’s overt cruelty provides an opening for widespread reckoning with the state’s …

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Bearded Seals In Alaska: The Esa, Critical Habitat Designations, And Climate Change, Caitlyn Leary

Alaska Law Review

Rapid climate change in the Arctic has accelerated the loss of sea ice, threatening the survival of one of Alaska's most vital species: the bearded seal. In 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) listed the bearded seal as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Ten years later, the agency designated approximately 174 million acres of occupied critical habitat for the seals on the northern coast of Alaska, along the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. NMFS reasoned that a large designation was necessary to account for the dynamic and seasonal nature of sea ice. In 2024, however, the U.S. …

Carbon Cash Back: A Green Ubi For A Decarbonized Future, Lily Skopp

Alaska Law Review

This Note supports a framework for climate governance that transforms carbon tax revenues into equal per‑capita cash distributions for all United States residents: a green universal basic income (UBI). It examines how the institutional structure of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) can guide the design of a federal resource‑based dividend. By combining economic analyses of efficiency and distribution with legal scholarship on political salience and administrative design, the Note uses Alaska's PFD as an empirical case study to connect two often separate literatures. The Note introduces the PFD's key features—universality, independent fund management, and a narrative of collective resource …

Journal Staff

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Technology Augment Order Writing Capacity At Regulators?, Natasha Aggarwal, Amrutha Desikan, Bhavin Patel, Satyavrat Bondre, Dipyaman Sanyal

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This article critically examines the opportunities and challenges of using technology, in particular Large Language Models (‘LLMs’), to assist regulatory order writing in quasi-judicial settings in India. It proposes augmenting rather than replacing human decision-makers, aiming to improve regulatory order writing practice through responsible use of LLMs. This article identifies the core principles of administrative law that must be upheld in these settings and analyses how inherent limitations of LLMs may undermine these principles. The article reviews international frameworks and case studies from various jurisdictions, highlighting common design principles. It proposes a comprehensive Problem-Solution-Evaluation ('PSE') framework for responsibly integrating LLMs …

The Constitutionality Of The Special Trial Counsel Under The Apogee Of Judicial Deference, Josef Danczuk

Pace Law Review

Congress has undertaken some of its broadest reforms of military courts-martial in decades. The creation of the Special Trial Counsels (STCs) intentionally removes nearly all courts-martial powers from military commanders for “covered offenses,” some of the most serious prosecutions. Many commentators have expressed concern that this change untethers the courts-martial system from its historical anchor of discipline within the military—an anchor that the Supreme Court has used to grant exceptional deference to Congress for its legislation pursuant to the Make Rules Clause. However, the constitutionality of the STCs and the deference federal courts grant Congress in this realm should not …

The War For American Independence Was Biblical And Just*, Mark David Hall

Journal of Law and Government

In his essay, Mark David Hall presents an overview of Christian scholarship on the question of whether the War for American Independence is biblical and just. He then considers Romans 13 and shows that Protestants, especially Calvinists, came to interpret these verses to permit active resistance to tyrannical rulers. Finally, he discusses the conflict in light of the just war tradition and contends that the patriots had excellent reasons to believe their active resistance was biblical and just.

Was The American Revolution Biblical And/Or Just?, Gregg L. Frazer

Journal of Law and Government

The questions of whether the American Revolution was biblical and whether it was just may be necessarily intertwined. If it was biblical, then it was just. If it was unbiblical, it was necessarily unjust. If it was merely non-biblical, that is, if the Bible does not speak to the question, then it could be either just or unjust by some human standard. For the purposes of this paper, the question of whether it was just by a merely human standard will be addressed independently of, and in addition to, the infinitely more important question of whether it is biblical. We …

Bridging Covenant And Efficiency: A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Faith-Based Environmental Nonprofits Under New Public Management Reform, Jacob Berry

Journal of Law and Government

This paper explores covenantal environmental administration as a significant framework for contemporary public governance within faith-based environmental nonprofits (FENs). As New Public Management (NPM) reforms increasingly shape nonprofit administration through efficiency and performance metrics, covenantal governance emerges as an alternative rooted in mutual obligation, ethical leadership, and spiritual stewardship, concepts deeply embedded in Judeo-Christian traditions exemplified by loving fulfillment. Contrary to perceptions of incompatibility between ethical-spiritual values and data-driven accountability, this study argues that integrating covenantalism with New Public Management practices can enhance organizational performance, stakeholder trust, and ecological outcomes. Employing theoretical analysis and empirical tools (notably the Covenantal Empowerment …

Introducing The Covenantal-Noncentralization Index (Cni) For Assessing Localism, Social Capital, Community Challenges And Community Health, Kahlib Fischer, Edwin Christmann, Melissa Stewart, Todd Robatin, Zachary Federico, John Kebles, Lucy Lambert, Alex Mishra

Journal of Law and Government

Numerous indices measuring social capital and community challenges at the local level exist, but none attempt to offer a measure of community health as an independent variable in comparison to community challenges as a dependent variable. Therefore, we propose the Covenantal-Noncentralization Index (CNI) in an effort to provide a more nuanced understanding of social capital at the local level as well as to differentiate between an independent variable index consisting of family stability, religious adherence, non-profit activity, and charitable giving and dependent variables representing various community challenges: violent crime, childhood poverty, STD rate, high school diploma completion, GDP, and unemployment. …

Defending The West By Reclaiming The Past, Steven Alan Samson

Journal of Law and Government

The Western world was originally shaped by the fine arts and philosophy of Greece, the architecture and law of Rome, and the faith, morality, and prophetic traditions of Judaism and Christianity. As the West loses the religious bond that generated its culture, careful attention should be given to reclaiming and rebuilding this moral and spiritual infrastructure.

Letter From The Editor, Kahlib Fischer

Journal of Law and Government

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Jason Bohm

Journal of Law and Government

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Law and Government

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Strengthening Democracy, Lect. Dr. Majid Hamed Faraj, Lect. Dr. Mahmood Noori Matlab

Imam Ja'afar Al-Sadiq University Journal of Legal Studies

The research aims to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on promoting democracy and the associated challenges. Using an analytical approach, the findings suggest that AI can improve the accuracy and objectivity of information, contribute to strengthening the rule of law and public opinion analysis, and play a role in the legitimacy of elections by ensuring their integrity. However, the findings indicate that overreliance on technology may weaken direct interaction between government and citizens and negatively impact individual rights. There are also risks related to the collection of voters’ personal data and the unethical exploitation of AI. The study suggests …

The United States Intervention In Iraq After 1990 And Its Legitimacy From A Humanitarian Legal Perspective, Asst Lect. Saad Majed Abdulhussein Jabbar Al-Izza

Imam Ja'afar Al-Sadiq University Journal of Legal Studies

When God Almighty created man, He created him in the best manner, and honored him and favored him over many of his creatures. Despite this, man spent a lifetime on the face of the earth that was never free of persecution and the loss of dignity and rights, and all of that was the handiwork of man himself, except that the good conscience within Humans. He never accepted human aggression against one another, so they strove to codify the necessary protection against injustice, arbitrariness and tyranny. This conscience was consistent with what God honored his creation with and was reinforced …

Advocacy Matters, Richard Collins

American Indian Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s 2022 Castro-Huerta decision was wrong on the points it discussed. It was doubly wrong for a reason it ignored. But the latter error was shared because all briefs and the dissenting opinion ignored it as well. The question presented was whether a nineteenth-century federal Indian country statute provided for exclusive federal jurisdiction over interracial crimes, or for concurrent authority with states. The Court held that the statute allowed concurrent jurisdiction. But it ignored the fact that Congress and the Court, until fairly recently, avoided concurrent federal-state jurisdiction over crimes. Had the self-styled originalist Justices taken their theory …

Stability At Stake: The Effects Of Overturning Chevron On Indian Gaming, Evan Callahan

American Indian Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright to overturn Chevron Deference marks a significant change in administrative law and could have drastic consequences for the regulation of Indian gaming in the United States. This Note explores the implications of such a shift, emphasizing the importance of maintaining stability in the highly regulated gaming industry. Many stakeholders, including operators, investors, regulatory agencies, and patrons, may face significant uncertainty without doctrines such as Chevron Deference. Without agency expertise in interpreting statutes, the Court may instead directly influence the regulation of Indian gaming in the United States, presenting challenges and uncertainties for all …

Reading Between The Treaties: Why The Supreme Court Must Honor The Indian Canons Of Construction, Amelia R. Wimmer

American Indian Law Journal

This Note critically examines the Indian canons of construction as interpretive tools employed by the United States Supreme Court in cases involving treaties and statutes with Tribal Nations. Ultimately tracing their origins to Worcester v. Georgia, this Note explores how the Indian canons were designed to protect tribal sovereignty, ensure the liberal construction of ambiguous provisions in favor of tribes, and prevent the abrogation of tribal land and rights. Shifts in interpretive philosophy and the rise of textualism have led to a checkered application of the Indian canons across courts. However, a continued application of the Indian canons is necessary …

The Federal Trust ​​​Responsibility ​And Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction: Restoring Justice In Tribal Nations​​​ ​, Sofia Sallas

American Indian Law Journal

Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ), enacted through the Violence Against Women Act, was designed to address jurisdictional gaps that long allowed non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence in Indian Country to evade accountability. Yet despite restoring Tribal authority, SDVCJ remains significantly under-implemented. This Note argues that this failure is not merely a policy shortcoming, but a legal one. Congress restored Tribal criminal jurisdiction while conditioning its exercise on federal funding, coordination, and institutional support. Federal agencies, however, have failed to provide the consistent infrastructure necessary for SDVCJ to function in practice. These failures breach the federal trust responsibility, which imposes …

Tribal Nations As Lords Of The Fee: A Common Law Argument For Tribal Discretion In Spending Federal Forfeiture Funds, Kent A. Anderson

American Indian Law Journal

Federal criminal forfeiture is a powerful tool meeting at the nexus of criminal law and property law. Courts justify its use based on its English common law history. After seizing and selling assets, the federal government doles out payments from its Assets Forfeiture Fund to cooperating law enforcement agencies through equitable sharing agreements that bind recipients to use funds for law enforcement purposes. Tribal Nations have compelling legal and policy arguments for their entitlement to greater access to and discretion over forfeiture funds obtained through seizures in Indian country. These legal arguments are grounded in: (1) federal criminal forfeiture’s failure …