Digital Commons Network^™

From Stigma To Statute: A Historical And Legal Comparative Analysis Of Involuntary Commitment Laws In Idaho, Jessica Cambron

Idaho Law Review

A lesser-known area of law in Idaho concerns the involuntary civil commitment process, a process by which thousands of people per year are committed to hospitals around the state. These laws, specifically in Idaho, govern the criteria which must be met for a person to be placed on an involuntary hold, detained in a hospital setting awaiting proceedings, or potentially committed.

Understanding the evolution of mental illness and the role of involuntary commitment – including successes, failures, and challenges – is essential to navigating reform. This Comment provides a brief history of mental illness, including key cultural events and cases …

Preserving Rural School Districts From The Threat Of Vouchers And Charters, Preston C. Green Iii

Idaho Law Review

School vouchers and charter schools are primed to grow at a time when public school systems are experiencing a precipitous decline in enrollment. Unfortunately, for many rural school districts, this challenging environment may endanger their very existence, to the detriment of the students and the communities they serve. To guard against this potential harm, this article calls for state legislatures to designate certain classes of rural districts as “education preserves.” This article also explains how states can create education preserves in a manner that can withstand Free Exercise Clause challenges.

Engineered For Surveillance: Public Safety, Roadway Science, And The Fourth Amendment, Trayce Hockstad, Steven Jones

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invisible In The Storm: Disasters And The Disability Divide, Helia Hull

Idaho Law Review

“Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to reveal a social disaster.”

Smith (Sophia) V. State, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 26, 587 P.3d 251 (Apr. 9, 2026), Karin Tidgewell

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

In Smith (Sophia) v. State, the Nevada Supreme Court held that violations of NRS 200.5099(3) should be prosecuted as one count of elder exploitation per victim, regardless of the number of acts that occur against a single victim.

Supporting Positive Interactions With Individuals With Disabilities: A Law Enforcement Guide, Brittany James Jefferson, Mary Jan Greer

Spring 2026 OTD Capstone Symposium

This capstone project developed an educational guide to support law enforcement officers in creating safe and effective interactions with individuals with disabilities. A needs assessment informed the guide’s development, which was grounded in occupational therapy principles and the Person Environment Occupation Performance (PEOP) model. The guide was implemented within a law enforcement setting and evaluated through officer feedback. Findings indicated strong baseline experience among officers, with added value in providing structured strategies to support communication, interpretation, and de-escalation. This project highlights the role of occupational therapy in promoting inclusive, community-based practice.

The Myth Of Sufficient Technological Barriers: Reevaluating The "Gates-Up-Or-Down" Analogy In Data Scraping, Yucen Zhong

Duke Law & Technology Review

In Van Buren v. United States, the Supreme Court adopted a “gates-up-or-down” analogy from physical trespass law to define “authorization” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Despite historical shifts in judicial interpretation, courts have recently relied on this binary framework to interpret authorization as it applies to online trespass. But courts have struggled to apply this binary inquiry while still accounting for complications in modern authentication technologies. When pursuing a code-based inquiry based on the gates-up-or-down analogy, courts risk oversimplifying the dynamic nature of online trespass. Such an approach fails to account for how modern authentication measures—such as …

Battlefield Uncertainties And The Use Of Ai, Tsvetelina Van Benthem

International Law Studies

This article explores the relationship between uncertainty in armed conflict, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and the content of international law. It first provides a review of different types of conflict-related uncertainty, both internal to the party to conflict and external, and considers the interaction between these existing uncertainties and the use of AI. In so doing, it also explores the new uncertainties that can be introduced through AI. Second, it analyzes national submissions on military uses of AI and autonomous weapons to outline the uncertainties raised by States and their relevance for regulatory approaches to the use of …

Hollywood Has Learned Nothing From #Metoo, Clara Sarfati

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

Following the surge of the #MeToo movement in 2017, which exposed widespread unsafe and discriminatory conditions for women in Hollywood, the industry underwent a fundamental shift in how its institutions addressed sexual misconduct and equal opportunity.  Now, with the rattles of the movement stabilizing, Hollywood is reemerging as an unsafe environment for women in entertainment.  One of the most high-profile cases of the 2020s, Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, illustrates how legal frameworks and Hollywood culture continue to fall short on protecting female victims of sexual assault.  Moreover, it underscores how survivors are often still forced to navigate complex legal …

Combatting Ai-Generated Child Sexual Exploitation And Abuse Material: An Analysis Of India’S Techno-Legal Response, Dhruv Garg, Dedipyaman Shukla

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) presents a significant threat to child safety online, enabling the rapid creation and dissemination of child sexual exploitation and abuse material (“CSEAM”) at an unprecedented scale. This paper examines legal, institutional, and technical responses to AI-generated CSEAM in the Indian context, with a particular focus on the role of digital intermediaries, law enforcement coordination through the Sahyog Portal, and judicial interpretation under Indian law. Drawing on this analysis of key stakeholders, the paper argues for the orientation of India’s CSEAM framework towards proactive detection, and better integration between intermediaries and law enforcement. The …

The Effectiveness Of Wellness Programs On Public Safety Personnel, Thomas T. Nguyen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Stressful situations have become a common theme that many first responders have encountered while on the job. As more studies have surfaced regarding the causes of stress, the ability to reduce stress while minimizing any adverse reactions that result from them have been minimal. Just as the catalysts for stress are not the same for everyone, the reactions to treatments that are offered will vary in effectiveness. Since not all agencies have programs in place to deal with the mental and physical traumas that affect first responders, the focus will be on one agency that has recently implemented multiple treatment …

How Gender Impacts Mock Jurors’ Receptiveness To Aggravating And Mitigating Evidence In Capital Trials, Jolie E. Parker

Undergraduate Theses

This study examines how gender influences mock jurors’ receptiveness to aggravating and mitigating evidence in capital trials. Drawing on prior research that highlights the critical role of mitigation in reducing death sentences and persistent gender differences in death penalty attitudes, this study addresses a gap in the literature by analyzing how gender shapes responses to specific types of evidence rather than general support for capital punishment. Using a quantitative survey of 209 participants, the research analyzes Likert-scale responses measuring how various aggravating and mitigating factors impact sentencing preferences. Results indicate a weak but consistent relationship between gender and receptivity to …

Gender And Emotional Expression In The Courtroom: Mock Juror Perceptions Of Attorney Effectiveness, Emma Cantrell

Undergraduate Theses

This quantitative study examines how gender and emotional expression influence mock jurors' perceptions of an attorney's courtroom effectiveness. Using mock jurors, this study extends previous research suggesting that assertiveness and emotional displays are evaluated differently by gender. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of four closing statements in a mock burglary trial. The videos were of either a male or a female attorney delivering a passive or an aggressive argument. Participants then evaluated the attorney’s effectiveness across four categories: competence, persuasiveness, ability to instill confidence, and emotionality. Male participants generally rated female attorneys as less effective than female participants …

Circumstances Surrounding Officer Involved Fatal Shootings, James Corrin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Over the past several years, there has been concern from mainstream media outlets, politicians, citizens, and community leaders that police officers in the United States engage in unjustified use of deadly force events within communities. This has led to violent protests across the country. Police reform and the de-funding of the police have been a crucial topic for debate and discussion. An argument has been made by some individuals that law enforcement officers involved in the fatal shootings of unarmed Black male citizens are racially motivated. The purpose of the following research is to identify if these arguments are valid. …

Property Without Shelter: How Anti-Public-Camping Laws Violate The Substantive Due Process Rights Of The Homeless, Aaron Rissman

University of Miami Law Review

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that enforcing anti-public-camping ordinances against homeless individuals does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on status crimes. While the Court foreclosed the Eighth Amendment as a vehicle for challenging such laws, it suggested that other constitutional protections may remain available. This Note takes up the Court’s invitation and argues that many anti-public-camping laws violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive due process guarantees.

Drawing on historical sources from common-law England through the Founding and Reconstruction eras, this Note demonstrates that the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy, and protect …

Head Shot, Joanmarie Ilaria Davoli

Mercer Law Review

The prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires that execution methods avoid “superadding pain.” The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the imposition of a death sentence should include no additional pain beyond that needed to kill. That means, for example, that while pain may be inherent in the method of killing, torture is prohibited. As concerns about the pain involved in lethal injections has increased, states have begun executions by shooting inmates in the heart and by suffocation through gas mask. These methods have been used despite evidence that they superadd …

Deliberately Silenced, Rachel Kincaid

Mercer Law Review

The Prison Litigation Reform Act is celebrating its 30^th birthday this year. It was designed to make it harder for incarcerated people to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of their conditions of confinement and to restrict their remedies even when they do so successfully. It has been wildly effective at achieving those objectives. It has also propped up mass incarceration and facilitated the persistence of dismal conditions of confinement in carceral facilities in the United States.

The PLRA’s exhaustion requirement—arguably its most damaging provision—silences carceral voices without regard for the merit of their complaints. It does so by mandating …

Gender-Based Violence And Botswana's Constitutional Failure To Protect Women's Rights, Cameron Mcdonald

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Gender-based violence (“GBV”) remains a pervasive human rights issue throughout Botswana. When it comes to gender equality, Botswana’s dual constitutional and customary legal system is a paradox. Despite its commitment to equality and nondiscrimination, Botswana’s Constitution allows customary courts to discriminate freely to preserve traditional practices that disadvantage women. These traditional practices affect women’s right to property, inheritance, marriage, legal representation, and personal safety. Customary law continues to constrain women’s right to economic autonomy and access to justice, leaving many women dependent on the men who abuse them. As a result, many Batswana women experience structural discrimination in both their …

The Myth Of The Immigrant As A Criminal: Rhetoric, Otherness, And The Legal Construction Of Danger, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The figure of the “criminal immigrant” occupies a central place in contemporary U.S. immigration discourse, shaping public perception, enforcement priorities, and legal doctrine. Yet a substantial body of empirical research consistently demonstrates that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. This Note examines why the narrative of immigrant criminality persists despite this evidence and how it influences the development and operation of immigration law. It argues that “immigrant” functions not only as a legal category but also as a socially constructed marker of Otherness, encompassing perceived differences in race, language, culture, and religion. Through this lens, …

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

The Evasive Epidemic Of Missing Black Children, Trinity D. Garlick

Criminal Law Society Blog

The Evasive Epidemic of Missing Black Children” brings to light the disproportionately low amount of media support for missing Black Children. It draws on examples of missing Black Children, like Adam Walsh and other Atlanta Black children, to illustrate how Black children have gone ignored by the public for too long. It discusses factors such as failure of state legislatures, lack of media exposure, unfair and racial fixed labels, and law enforcement discretionary conduct, as the leading drivers of the epidemic of missing Black children. This Article then dives into efforts to reform the American system to adequately address when …

Unwanted Histories, Christen Hammock Jones, Karen M. Tani

Duke Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s turn to history as a method of constitutional decisionmaking has both intrigued and alarmed professional historians, for reasons now well-rehearsed in the literature. This Article takes as a given that history is now part of judges’ work. It then invites judges to think more expansively about the type of history they could—and perhaps should—be producing. This task, in turn, means engaging with some of the central questions about methodology and sources that preoccupy professional historians.

This Article focuses on a source base that historians routinely rely upon but that courts have shied away from: personal accounts of …

Sports Equality In The Ring: All Genders Can Catch These Hands, Gordon Chan

International Law Journal

This Article examines the intersection of sports governance, gender identity, and international human rights law, using boxing as a central case study to explore the inclusion of transgender and nonbinary athletes. Tracing the historical and cultural evolution of gender participation in sports from ancient civilizations to contemporary institutions, the Article highlights how colonial, patriarchal, and pseudoscientific ideologies have long shaped the regulatory frameworks of modern sports. The doctrine of lex sportiva, which governs international sports through autonomous legal norms, is analyzed for its exclusionary gender practices and resistance to external legal oversight. Focusing on the World Boxing Council (WBC), the …

Addressing Legal Uncertainties In Article Versions And Institutional Copyright Policies To Support Immediate Public Access To Federal Grant-Funded Publications, Yuanxiao Xu

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

New federal public access policies—mandated by the 2022 OSTP Memo and already adopted by several key federal grant-making agencies—require authors funded by federal grants to deposit peer-reviewed publications for immediate public access. This paper explains how grant- receiving institutions and their affiliated authors can dispel legal uncertainties and comply with the new public access policies. Section I delineates how valid prior licenses enable public deposit of manuscripts notwithstanding later publishing agreements transferring copyright to the journals. Section II discusses the different versions of a manuscript created during the publication process. Section III describes the different types of third-party contributions incorporated …

A Human Rights Approach To International Criminal Liability: From The Promises Of The 1990s Criminal Tribunals To Selective Impunity, Ilias Bantekas

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since the adoption of the UDHR in 1948, it has become clear that state responsibility for human rights violations ought to be complemented by perpetrators’ individual responsibility under criminal and civil law. The concept of individual responsibility suggests that criminal liability is the “natural” corollary of conduct considered to be a violation of human rights. Even if such criminal liability does not, for whatever reason, arise under national law, this is certainly the outcome under international law. The extent to which this concept is applicable to all violations of human rights involves an examination of the legal basis of human …

Sovereignty As A Shield? The Icc’S Role In Addressing War Crimes In Nagorno- Karabakh, Grigori Sahakyan

UC Law SF International Law Review

This Note argues that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should assert jurisdiction over atrocities from the 2023 Nagorno-Karabakh offensive and pursue prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Proper International Humanitarian Law (IHL) classification places the situation in an international armed conflict—via direct interstate action and/or occupation—triggering the full Article 8 framework. Jurisdiction is grounded in Armenia’s ratification and retroactive Article 12(3) acceptance; admissibility is satisfied because Azerbaijan is unwilling to conduct genuine proceedings. While cooperation obstacles remain, targeted enforcement measures can strengthen execution of warrants. The bottom line is doctrinal, not diplomatic: sovereignty cannot shield atrocity crimes; the …

Aggressive R&D Consulting Companies Fail To Align With The Purpose Of R&D And R&E Tax Incentives., Emily Belanger

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Research and development (R&D) credits and research and experimentation (R&E) tax incentives have recently experienced legislative changes and litigation related to the questionable methods deployed by R&D consulting firms. Proponents of research tax incentives tout their potential to produce positive externalities and innovation. Critics have pushed back, questioning whether research tax incentives are successfully achieving their purpose. The shifting landscape, litigation over aggressive tax claims, and debatable success of tax incentives signal a need to reassess whether research tax incentives are properly claimed in the United States. This paper proposes stronger regulation of R&D consulting firms to ensure research tax …

Protecting Cultural Personality, J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Articles

When companies use cultural symbols or cultural heritage from an indigenous or local community without their knowledge or permission, it can lead to claims of cultural appropriation, particularly in the fashion industry. Yet, the law provides little to no remedy. Trademarks and geographical indications can be used to protect collective cultural identities. However, these intellectual property laws are not helpful if the affected cultural group has not commercialized its identity by offering goods or services to the public. This Article contributes to the literature by theorizing a dignitary-based intellectual property model for protecting cultural identities. It draws on the U.S. …

20 Years Post-Schaffer: Why Shifting The Burden Of Proof In Idea Due Process Hearings Is The Only Way To Ensure “Fape” For Students With Disabilities, Alexa Udy

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Navigating Sustainable Burial In Southern Nevada, Kristen Gibson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Navigating Sustainable Burial in Southern Nevada investigates the accessibility of environmentally conscious end-of-life options for individuals throughout the region. Sustainable burial practices, including green burial, water cremation, and natural organic reduction, provide alternatives to traditional burial and cremation methods. Research was conducted through an analysis of Nevada statutes, local reporting, funeral service resources, and public discussions related to sustainable burial. The research revealed that although Nevada expanded legal recognition of sustainable burial by legalizing natural organic reduction, public access to clear information and available services remains limited. These findings informed the creation of a choose-your-own-adventure booklet designed to translate legal …