Digital Commons Network^™

The Law Of Killing For Biodiversity, David Takacs

UC Law Journal

In the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, people kill sentient creatures—by the millions every year—in the crusade to conserve biodiversity.

I explain how laws permit, and in some instances require, killing to save nonhuman species and to keep ecosystems functioning. In Australia, the nation with the worst record of mammalian extinctions, the government has tagged various invaders as “Key Threatening Processes.” In 2023, it laid out elaborate plans to rid the nation of as many feral cats as poison and hunters could kill. Similarly, “Predator Free New Zealand 2050” is the New Zealand government’s elaborate plan to trap …

“As Judged By Themselves”: Freedom, Transformative Experiences, Law, And Testimony, L. A. Paul, Cass R. Sunstein

UC Law Journal

One way to evaluate various legal interventions in people’s lives is to ask whether they make choosers better off by their own lights, or “as judged by themselves.” This criterion can be understood to borrow from the liberal political tradition insofar as it makes the judgments of choosers authoritative. If lawyers, judges, and policymakers give ultimate authority to choosers, this might be taken as respecting choosers’ own judgments and promoting their welfare (insofar as people are uniquely situated to know whether choices make them better off). But for certain decisions, the “as judged by themselves” criterion is indeterminate. In these …

Artificial Intelligence & Defamation Law: An Excuse To Do Away With The Infamously Controversial Section 230?, Kathryn Binder

UC Law Journal

With the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in various aspects of our lives, it is not surprising that it has become a subject of legal disputes and controversy. In 2023, an individual filed the first defamation lawsuit against AI company, OpenAI, for its ChatGPT service, leaving many to speculate how the court will proceed. This Note assesses the viability of defamation actions against generative AI platforms and their broader effect on defamation law. Particularly, this Note considers how courts may characterize these platforms and how specific characterizations could further the controversy over an already polarizing and hotly debated piece …

Recent And Forthcoming

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor-In-Chief, Justin Vickers

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Legitimacy Throughlines In The Structural Design Of International & "Internationalized" Criminal Tribunals, Michael J. Kelly

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Today, the rather surprising and sudden surfeit of prosecutions for international crimes by states utilizing universal jurisdiction as we open the second decade of the 21^st Century may represent a preference for domestic over international criminal prosecution altogether. Yet, the legitimacy quotient remains a key part of the discussion. For example, as discussed in section V below, with respect to the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine, opinion is divided as to whether prosecution for this crime should proceed from a newly created international tribunal or from an “internationalized” court within the Ukrainian judicial system.[1] Ukraine backs the …

Beautiful Means For Nefarious Ends, Eric Wahoff

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This note will attempt to address the laws of art dealers and banks in a way that draws parallels with the past struggles of banks and today’s struggle in the art world to keep bad actors out. It will begin with surveying how art is currently used as a tool of criminals and the current regulatory regimes in the EU, New York, and California – the states with the most art brokers.Then the note will analyze relevant laws from the US banking industry. Finally, the note will discuss ways that banking laws that have been used to address money -laundering …

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Full Issue, Notre Dame Journal Of International & Comparative Law Volume 15

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Building Open Finance, Douglas W. Arner, Ross P. Buckley, Christine M. Wang, Dirk A. Zetzsche

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

As one of the most digitalized sectors of the economy, finance is increasingly dependent on data. Over the past decade, the implementation of Open Banking and Open Finance in an increasing number of major jurisdictions around the world, including the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), seeks to break down data silos, empower consumers, and increase competition among financial service providers, aiming to maximize the value of financial data for innovation, growth, and competitiveness. In addition to mandatory requirements, other governance approaches to Open Finance, including collaborative arrangements and voluntary initiatives, …

The Equal Rights Amendment: The 28th Amendment To The U.S. Constitution, Twiss Butler, Patrick Butler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article reviews how Supreme Court interpretations of the 14^th Amendment have allowed laws to discriminate against women. It aims to show that the Equal Rights Amendment, ratified as the 28^th Amendment in 2020, offers a constitutional basis for eliminating all forms of legal sex discrimination against women. These forms include discrimination based on pregnancy and abortion, commodifying women’s bodies, and allowing men to intrude into women’s protected spaces. The review starts with the denial of protection for women by America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, denounces the Supreme Court’s precedent-setting 1974 Geduldig decision, which ruled—quite illogically—that discrimination …

The Right To Exit Religion, Zalman Rothschild

Articles

This Article argues that just over fifty years ago, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court recognized what might be called a right to exit religion. In this decision, the Court expressed appreciation for preserving insular religious communities, while simultaneously articulating the principle that accommodations for such communities must not unduly restrict community members’ ability to exit should they wish to do so. Yet courts and scholars have largely overlooked Yoder’s recognition of a right to exit religion. To make this “right” more concrete, the Article examines impediments to it through a case study of one large insular religious community—the …

Admiralty, John P. Kavanagh Jr.

Mercer Law Review

The cases discussed herein represent decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, as well as district courts within the Circuit, issued in 2024. While not an all-inclusive list of maritime decisions during that timeframe, the Author identified and provided summaries of key rulings of interest to the maritime practitioner

Bankruptcy Law, E. Tate Crymes, Siena Berrios Gaddy, Victoria Barbino Grantham

Mercer Law Review

This Article focuses on bankruptcy opinions issued by the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Topics addressed include: (1) whether an insurer with financial responsibility for a bankruptcy claim is a “party in interest” under 11 U.S.C. § 1109; (2) appropriate remedies for a constitutional violation described in Siegel v. Fitzgerald; (3) whether the bankruptcy code authorizes a court to extinguish claims and potential claims without the consent of those affected or without martialing total assets for creditors; (4) finality of a contempt order; (5) revival under Rule 69(a) …

Class Actions, Thomas M. Byrne, Stacey Mcgavin Mohr

Mercer Law Review

Class-action controversies regularly appear on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s annual docket, and 2024 was no exception. The court issued significant opinions on class-certification requirements under Rule 23(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; on class action settlements, including those involving “coupons;” and on arbitration rights in would-be class actions.

Labor And Employment, W. Jonathan Martin Ii

Mercer Law Review

This Article focuses on recent cases concerning federal labor and employment laws. Those opinions address the Federal Arbitration Act; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Americans with Disabilities Act; and The Fair Labor Standards Act.

Trial Practice And Procedure, John O'Shea Sullivan, Leesa M. Guarnotta, Emory D. Thompson

Mercer Law Review

The 2024 Survey period yielded a diverse range of decisions impacting trial practice in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from broadening the scope of evidence eligible for consideration of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to limiting the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), to clarifying pleading standards for multiple federal statutory claims. This Article analyzes some of this Survey period’s notable and first impression opinions in the Eleventh Circuit, but it is not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of the Eleventh Circuit’s important decisions …

Prior Pay Parlay: The U.S. Federal Circuit Partly Adopts The Middle Ground Approach To Prior Pay Under The Equal Pay Act, Intisar Choudhury

Mercer Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit deepened the circuit split over whether consideration of prior pay is a non-sex-based factor that can be used when setting employee wages. In Boyer v. United States, the plaintiff sued the United States under the Equal Pay Act (EPA) for the pay disparity between her and her male equivalent. The court’s decision highlighted how consideration of prior pay alone in setting employee salary can perpetuate the historical sex-based wage discrimination in the United States and frustrate the primary purpose of the EPA which is “equal pay for equal work.” The …

Masthead

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

You Are Your Child’S Keeper: People V. Crumbley Opens The Door To Parental Criminal Liability, Abigail C. Letts

Mercer Law Review

In the spring of 2024, James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents to Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter after their son shot and killed four Oxford High School classmates. This decision marks the first time in the history of the United States that the parents of a school shooter have been charged criminally for contributing to the death of the shooting victims, and comes in the midst of an era where our nation is wracked by gun violence.

In the quarter century since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, a generation of children have lived under the …

The Impact Of Ai Bots And Crawlers On Open Repositories: Results Of A Coar Survey, April 2025, Kathleen Shearer, Paul Walk

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

There are a growing number of AI bots crawling repositories. These automated bots, or crawlers, navigate the internet, gathering data and indexing information for search engines, AI and large language models, and other purposes. While some bots are rather innocuous, others are sufficiently aggressive that they are increasingly causing service disruptions in repositories (and other scholarly communications infrastructures). To learn more about the current state and gain a better understanding about the impact of bots and crawlers on repositories, COAR distributed a survey to members in April 2025. The survey received 66 responses from repositories around the world (22 from …

Introduction: International Environmental Law And Sustainability, Timothy E. Lynch, Irma S. Russell

UMKC Law Review

Introduction to the symposium issue, International Environmental Law and Sustainability

Sustainability-Competent Lawyering In The International Context, Amy L. Edwards, John C. Dernbach

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arctic Law: Even More Sustainable? Roles Of The Us And Eu, Joseph F.C. Dimento, Jessica L. Pierucci

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Traditional Homeschooling To Pods: Evolving Legal Frameworks, Kaleb Miller

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transparency Without Teeth: An Empirical Understanding Of Data Broker Regulation, Elijah Greisz

University of Chicago Law Review

It is no secret that data has taken over the modern economy, and it is unsurprising that governments have begun acting in response. Perceiving mismatched bargaining power between firms and consumers—and certain externalities resulting from the massive quantities of data being collected by firms about those consumers— many state legislatures have passed generally applicable data privacy statutes. These laws give consumers certain rights to control the data they distribute in everyday commerce. Such regulations follow an “interaction model,” whereby consumers can exercise their rights by interacting with data-possessing firms.

But there is a key player that complicates this scheme: the …

Injury Equity: The Rise Of Future Stakes Settlements, Margaret Schaack

University of Chicago Law Review

In a changing environment in which class action defendants are turning to aggressive strategies to contain the cost of lawsuits, including using bankruptcy proceedings to limit their liability, plaintiffs’ attorneys are fighting back by seeking new ways to recover damages from illiquid and functionally judgment-proof companies. The latest development is the “future stakes settlement,” unveiled in the agreement to end a privacy law class action lawsuit against the startup Clearview AI. Under this novel mechanism, a defendant grants a privately traded equity stake to the class in exchange for a release of all claims

Future stakes settlements, though similar to …

Identifiable To Whom? Clarifying Biometric Privacy Rights In Illinois And Beyond, Hana Ferrero

University of Chicago Law Review

Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is the country’s most powerful law governing biometric data—data generated from an individual’s biological characteristics, like fingerprints and voiceprints. Over the past decade, BIPA garnered a reputation as an exceptionally plaintiff-friendly statute. But from 2023 to 2024, the Illinois legislature, Illinois Supreme Court, and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals all sided with BIPA defendants, largely for the first time. Most significantly, in Zellmer v. Meta Platforms, Inc., the Ninth Circuit dismissed the plaintiff’s BIPA claim because the face scan collected by the defendant could not be used to identify him.

It is unclear whether …

Contents, North Carolina Law Review

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Policing In The Age Of Criminal Records, Eisha Jain

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Making Of A Juvenile Record: The Insidious Consequences Of Criminalizing Race, Adolescence, Disability, And Trauma, Kristin N. Henning, Rebba D. Omer

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.