Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Less, Understanding More: Shifting The Use Of Machine Learning From Individual Prediction To Structural Insights In Systems That Affect Children And Families, Amanda J. Fairchild, Joshua Gupta-Kagan, Andrew Barclay

Faculty Scholarship

Machine learning algorithms have been deeply embedded across domains, valued for their capacity to analyze large-scale data and to support a range of descriptive and predictive tasks. Despite their versatility, most applications to date have focused on individual-level prediction at the expense of broader structural insights. This paper shifts that focus by using comprehensive demographic, juvenile justice, and other key data from child-serving agencies in one southern state to examine how juvenile and family court intake structures shape case outcomes in delinquency referrals. Specifically, we combine machine learning algorithms with a doubly robust, potential outcomes-based modeling procedure to estimate the …

Religious Persecution In Communist Albania Through Constitutional And Legal Acts, Sadik Haxhiu, Besard Belegu, Artan Fejzullahu

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Following the victory of the communist regime in 1944, the new Albanian state built its institutions on a materialist worldview that stood in direct opposition to the universal principles of freedom of conscience and religious belief. The state progressively restricted religious practice until it banned it altogether. This anti-religious campaign proceeded along two tracks: anti-religious political propaganda and the adoption of legal acts prohibiting the practice of religion. A 1967 decree-law banned religious belief outright, and the 1976 Constitution declared Albania the first atheist state in the world. This paper is based on an analysis of legal acts, scholarly literature, …

From Humanitarian Aid To “Counterrevolution”: Foreign Assistance To Pentecostals In Soviet Ukraine And Its Criminalization By The Gpu–Nkvd, 1932–1935, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines foreign assistance to Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR and the mechanisms of its criminalization by Soviet state security agencies in 1932–1935. Drawing on GPU–NKVD criminal investigation files, secret police reports, party-state documentation, personal correspondence, and memoir sources, the study reconstructs transnational channels of humanitarian support, practices of resource distribution, and the transformation of survival strategies into objects of political repression.

Particular attention is devoted to two distinct models of foreign assistance. The Odessa case demonstrates a centralized system connected to the former leadership of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and transnational Pentecostal networks …

The Normative Status Of States' Obligations To Mitigate The Climate Crisis: Implications For The Right To Adequate Housing, Erna Dyah Kusumawati, Sasmini Sasmini

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

The convergence of the global climate crisis, pursuant to the UNFCCC Paris Agreement and its implementing protocols as well as the fundamental right to housing has fundamentally disrupted established legal paradigms, necessitating a rigorous re-examination of the normative status of state obligations. This paper examines the scope of governmental responsibility to mitigate climate-induced threats to housing security. Drawing upon international human rights frameworks and contemporary legal discourse, the study interrogates the complex friction emerging at the intersection of environmental mandates and housing protections. Through a systematic analysis of the existing literature and recent developments in the international climate change framework, …

Territorial Representation In Fiscal Governance: A Comparative Constitutional Analysis Of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council And South Africa's National Council Of Provinces, Endah Yuniningsih, Deden Rafi Syafiq Rabbani

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This article examines the institutional role of territorial chambers in fiscal governance through a comparative constitutional analysis of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council (DPD) and South Africa's National Council of Provinces (NCOP). While the DPD was established to strengthen regional representation following Indonesia's decentralization reforms, its legislative role in fiscal policymaking remains institutionally constrained. Existing scholarship has primarily focused on the DPD's constitutional status in debates on bicameralism, with comparatively little attention to how constitutional design shapes the role of territorial chambers in fiscal governance and intergovernmental fiscal relations. Using a normative legal research method that combines statutory, conceptual, and comparative …

Geoengineering And Criminal Liability Comparative Lessons For Penal Reform, Zico Junius Fernando, Deviana Yuanitasari, Chairul Huda, Muhammad Yamani, Arimbi Fajari Furqon

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

Geoengineering has emerged as a controversial climate technology involving large-scale interventions such as cloud seeding, weather modification, and unregulated carbon capture. While these practices are promoted as solutions to climate change, they also generate significant ecological risks that remain largely unaddressed within criminal law frameworks. This article examines the absence of explicit criminal liability for geoengineering-related harms and explores how comparative legal experiences can inform future penal reform. This research uses normative research methods with several approaches, including comparative, conceptual, and futuristic approaches. The collected legal materials are analysed qualitatively, and content analysis is employed to classify and interpret relevant …

The Expansive Power Of The House Of Representatives As A Precondition For Constitutional Rot, Isnawati Isnawati, Adam Setiawan

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This study examines how the expansive powers of the Indonesian House of Representatives have contributed to constitutional rot because those powers no longer operate effectively or proportionately. It identifies dysfunction in the House of Representatives through weak legislative performance, inadequate oversight of the executive branch, and transactional political practices in appointment processes. Using a doctrinal legal method and contemporary constitutional theory as its analytical framework, this study argues that the expansive powers of the House of Representatives constitute a precondition for constitutional rot, evidenced by the poor exercise of legislative authority and institutional intervention through amendments to the Rules of …

Reconstructing Legal Certainty In Legacy Oil Well Management: A Systemic Model For Resource Governance, Azhar Azhar, Bagaskara Sagita Wijaya, Siti Darwinda Mohamed Pero, Cynthia Azhara Putri

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

Legacy oil wells present persistent legal and institutional challenges in resource-dependent regions, where ageing infrastructure, informal extraction, environmental risk, and fragmented public authority intersect. This article examines how legal certainty is weakened in the management of legacy oil wells and how it may be reconstructed through a systemic model for resource governance. Using interdisciplinary socio-legal research, the study combines doctrinal legal analysis of Indonesia's oil and gas regulatory framework with qualitative field insights from Musi Banyuasin, a subnational setting in which formally recognised legacy wells coexist with community-operated wells. The analysis shows that legal uncertainty does not arise merely from …

Bank Indonesia's Floating Rate Notes (Bi-Frn) And Federal Reserve Instruments: A Comparative Analysis From An Institutional-Legal Perspective, Abdul Madjid Podungge

Padjadjaran Jurnal Ilmu Hukum (Journal of Law)

This paper analyses the legal validity of Bank Indonesia's Floating Rate Notes (BI-FRN) following the Law Number 4 of 2023 on the Development and Strengthening of the Financial Sector (P2SK Law) from a public law viewpoint. Doctrinal legal research utilises statutory, conceptual, and comparative methodologies, augmented by literature network visualisation, to pinpoint structural deficiencies. The network analysis reveals a significant divide between technical financial transactions and administrative legal oversight. The findings indicate that Article 11 of the P2SK Law enforces a stringent priority clause that centres monetary policy solely on Rupiah stability. This legal barrier prohibits abuse of power by …

How U.S. Legal Stagnation Can Be Aided By Decolonization, Marquel Gardner

McNair Summer Research Program

Decolonization is a term often used to present a simple shift from colonial thinking, heavily maintaining the establishment of colonial systems today. However, this usage oversimplifies and overshadows the word’s key purpose. Common proclamations of the term forgo the fundamental indigenous essence behind the word. Doing so, we not only strip the word of its inherent power, but obstruct further possibilities for actual decolonization to appear in our world. Many argue that the U.S. legal system, a product of colonial factors, has reached an alarming state. Our current legal, political atmosphere gears not towards justice or morality, but fascism and …

Two Paths Of Criminal Law Reform: From Shared Colonial Legacies To Divergent Legal Trajectories In Indonesia And Malaysia, Ade Adhari, Charisse Evania Tansir

Indonesia Law Review

Despite sharing colonial legacies in the development of their criminal law systems, Indonesia and Malaysia have pursued markedly different paths of criminal law reform, reflecting their distinct legal traditions and legislative philosophies. This article examines how these divergent reform trajectories are manifested through a comparative analysis of Indonesia's Law Number 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code and Malaysia's Penal Code (Act 574). Focusing on three analytical dimensions—the principle of legality, criminal responsibility, and sentencing policy—the study adopts a normative legal research method supported by statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Legal materials were collected through library-based research and analysed qualitatively …

From Contested Rights To Perceived Threats: The Securitization Of Lgbt And Its Human Rights Implications In Indonesia, Melkias Hetharia, Basir Rohrohmana

Indonesia Law Review

Debates on LGBT rights in Indonesia have largely centred on the legal recognition of same-sex relationships and their compatibility with religion, Pancasila, and the constitutional framework. Recent developments, however, require the discussion to move beyond the question of recognition. This article examines the evolving legal and policy treatment of LGBT persons in Indonesia, particularly following Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025, which identifies the “spread of LGBTQ culture” as a non-military threat. Using normative legal research and securitization theory, the article analyses Indonesian constitutional principles, marriage and human rights law, relevant Constitutional Court jurisprudence, defence policy, and documented experiences of …

The Eu’S Copyright Legislation For Generative Ai: Relevant To Indonesia?, Yolanda Simbolon

Indonesia Law Review

Tremendously copyrighted works are used to train Generative AI (Gen-AI) at the epicenter of current sectors. In many countries, there is a dilemma as to whether the amount of data used may infringe copyright. The EU is the one that has regulations on the use of copyrighted works as text and data mining (TDM) to train GenAI.  Meanwhile, Indonesia does not yet have a regulation, even though Gen-AI has been massively developed in Indonesia. Data has been used freely to train Gen-AI, even to modify works and damage the author’s reputation. This article investigates whether the EU’s copyright of Gen-AI …

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 08.31.26, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• Notre Dame Law School Welcomes Visiting Faculty for the 2026–27 Academic Year
• ND Law Professor Nicole Garnett Participates in United Nations Consultation on Educational Pluralism
• Notre Dame J.S.D. Candidates Present at the World Congress of Constitutional Law and ICONS

Faculty Briefs

• Sadie Blanchard
• Randy Kozel & Tricia Bellia
• Derek Muller
• Jennifer Mason McAward
• Rick Garnett
• Dennis Wieboldt '26 J.D.
• Announcing Global Visitors
• Dr. Clara Martins-Pereira
• Prof. Paul Yowell
• Prof. Dr. Stephan Wernicke
• Dr. Róisín Costello

Events

• Faculty Colloquium: Mary Ellen O'Connell, Enduring Law for a New Era: Overcoming Political Realism and the Pursuit of Wealth
• Supreme Court …

Mmu: 08/31/26-09/06/26, Student Bar Association

Monday Morning Update

This Week @ NDLS

Mass Times

Commons Daily Menu

Saint of the Week

General Announcements

Law Enforcement In Providing Protection For Revenge Porn Victims On Social Media, Augustha Kwanzaa Rich Samuel Simbolon, Muhammad Rivan Subarna

Jurnal Vokasi Indonesia

Revenge porn, which is the distribution of pornographic material without the victim's consent, is a serious and growing problem online. This practice is usually carried out by ex-partners in revenge, by distributing intimate images or videos of the victim to the internet. This research aims to identify the impact of revenge porn on victims, as well as assess the effectiveness of existing legal protection. The method used is a qualitative approach through literature study. The data collected includes revenge porn cases that occurred in Indonesia, as well as a review of regulations governing the protection of privacy and victims' rights. …

New Judicial Federalism At The Crossroads: Observations Of State Constitutionalism In Rhode Island, Melissa A. Long, Geoffrey H. Cole

Northwestern University Law Review

Jurists nationwide are engaged in robust conversations about state constitutionalism and the degree to which their state constitutions are more protective of individual rights than is the United States Constitution. The Rhode Island Supreme Court, like several state supreme courts, largely adheres to the minimum standards of protection that the United States Supreme Court establishes under the federal constitution when interpreting analogous provisions under the state constitution; that is, it follows a lockstep approach with the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation of individual rights guaranteed by the federal constitution that are also protected under the Rhode Island Constitution.

Proponents of …

Geduldig's Footnote: Five-Plus Decades Of State Courts Reckoning With Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Doctrine, Martha F. Davis

Northwestern University Law Review

In Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court held that pregnancy discrimination does not constitute sex discrimination. The decision’s constitutional logic has recently been applied in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and United States v. Skrmetti. Yet over five decades, state courts have overwhelmingly rejected Geduldig’s rationale—both in construing state employment discrimination statutes and in interpreting state constitutional equality provisions. Courts in at least sixteen states have rejected Geduldig’s rationale in construing state employment discrimination laws, while only four states have followed it. Of the ten states with Equal Rights Amendments that have addressed whether …

State Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure Laws And The Dormant Commerce Clause: Leveraging The State Interest In Protecting Residents From Deception To Pass The Pike Balancing Test, Matthew Macphail

Northwestern University Law Review

Misleading corporate claims about greenhouse gas emissions pose a high risk of consumer deception, as there is currently no uniform federal standard governing how companies must measure or disclose those emissions. Without a national regulatory scheme, firms can selectively report, use inconsistent methodologies, or market vague “carbon neutral” claims, making it difficult for consumers to assess accuracy or compare companies’ representations.

In 2023, California introduced legislation requiring companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to bring transparency to this area. But such state-level mandates face a constitutional obstacle: the Dormant Commerce Clause, …

Textual (In)Difference In State Search-And-Seizure Provisions, Quinn Yeargain

Northwestern University Law Review

Over the past 250 years, state constitutional drafters have refined the scope of rights and liberties protected by their constitutions’ texts. Today, all state constitutions include a search-and-seizure provision—and though only a minority follow the layout, text, and context of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, most of them bear a striking resemblance to it. However, textual variations abound. Some of them may seem minor, like using the word “possessions” instead of “effects,” or mandating that warrants describe their intended targets “as nearly as may be” instead of requiring that they “particularly describ[e]” them. But others, like the addition …

The New Economic Liberties, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Northwestern University Law Review

Despite the lack of serious interrogation at the federal constitutional level of economic regulations, there continues to be a fairly robust, energetic attention at the level of state constitutional law to so-called economic liberties. In a number of key cases, including, for example, matters involving occupational licensing, state courts have looked to unique features of their respective state constitutions to assess whether and to what extent regulations undertaken under the police power go too far. The rationales for evaluating and, in some cases, invalidating regulations under economic liberties principles are creative, and also controversial. The development of new interpretive approaches …

Child Labor And State Constitutionalism, Andrew Hammond, Helen Hershkoff

Northwestern University Law Review

Almost ninety years after Congress banned “oppressive” child labor as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are pushing state legislatures to let them put children to work in dangerous poultry plants, at hazardous construction sites, and during late shifts on school nights. Perversely, calls to rollback federal protections are camouflaged in the rhetoric of parents’ rights, casting child labor regulation as intrusive, paternalistic, and even socialist—echoing the same corporate arguments used a century ago when the Child Labor Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went down in defeat. These arguments mask the desperate economic circumstances of a parent claiming …

Court Reform And State Constitutions, Bryna Godar, Miriam Seifter

Northwestern University Law Review

State legislatures regularly propose and enact laws that seek to shape the substantive outcomes of state courts. These maneuvers, including court-packing, jurisdiction-stripping, and more creative changes to judicial selection or authority, would amount to legal earthquakes at the federal level. At the state level, these efforts often receive virtually no attention.

This Essay brings the potent category of outcome-shaping state court reform measures into focus and evaluates it as a question of state constitutional law. We argue that state constitutions, organized around principles of popular sovereignty, do not bar measures that align state courts with popular preferences or the public’s …

State Constitutionalism's Fragile Wall, Adam B. Sopko

Northwestern University Law Review

The adequate and independent state grounds (AISG) doctrine has long demarcated the perimeter of the U.S. Supreme Court’s authority to review state court decisions, limiting review to questions of federal law. AISG maintains the Court’s primacy over federal law and state courts’ supremacy over state law. A comprehensive review of all filings on the Court’s docket from state courts over the last twenty years reveals that recent applications of AISG consist of subtle but significant departures from existing norms that, together, suggest a reformulation of the Court’s power over state courts that threatens their sovereign law development role. This Essay …

State Constitutional Rights And Judicial Power, Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern University Law Review

On the one hand, we are in a moment when interest in state courts and state constitutional law is growing. Especially, though not exclusively, among those who question the Supreme Court of the United States, there are increasing calls for state supreme courts to rely on state constitutions to expand rights. On the other hand, we are in a moment when interest in reducing the power of the courts is growing. Especially, though not exclusively, among those who question the Supreme Court of the United States, there are increasingly calls for reining in judicial power.

This Essay is not an …

Foreword: Fifty-One Constitutions In An Evolving Federal Order, Misha Bogdanov, Olivia Christ

Northwestern University Law Review

On November 6 and 7, 2025, the Northwestern University Law Review, along with the Brennan Center for Justice and State Court Report, convened for its annual symposium, titled The Power of State Constitutional Rights. The symposium brought together judges, practitioners, and scholars to consider the substantive rights protected by state constitutions, the institutions charged with enforcing them, and the democratic processes through which state constitutional law changes. Across conversations about reproductive freedom, criminal procedure, labor, economic liberty, LGBTQ+ rights, voting, federalism, and judicial design, one proposition repeatedly, and emphatically, came into view: American constitutional law is not exhausted by the …

Arming The Conflict: United States’ Complicity In Mexico’S War On Drugs, Jesus Oliveros

Pace International Law Review

Mexico’s ongoing human rights crisis during the war on drugs has been driven not only by domestic factors, such as political corruption and organized crime, but also by decades of United States (U.S.) policy and strategy. The U.S. has played a central role in shaping the policy framework governing the drug war, often unilaterally, while overlooking significant drivers of the crisis within its own control. Through sustained support for militarized strategies and permissive domestic firearm regulations, the U.S. has exercised significant influence over the conditions under which violence and human rights abuses have proliferated in Mexico. Against this backdrop, this …

Non-State Actors And The Due Diligence Obligation To Protect Healthcare Facilities In Cyberspace: Is The World Prepared For The Next Pandemic?, Dr. Ardit Memeti

Pace International Law Review

This article presents a novel approach by developing a lex specialis due diligence framework based on the elements identified in the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, which by analogy, establishes sector-specific elements to protect healthcare facilities from cyberattacks by Non-State Actors (NSAs). Cyberattacks by NSAs during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the risks, including the disruption of essential healthcare services and hindrance of positive obligations to ensure the rights to health, life, and privacy, among others. Existing instruments, including the Budapest Convention, the Tallinn Manuals, and the Oxford Statements, offer an important but incomplete framework. Meanwhile, the recent UN Convention …

Do The Members Of The Un Security Council Have An Absolute Right To Veto A Un Security Council Resolution?, Asif H. Qureshi

Pace International Law Review

The focus of this article is the exercise of the UN Security Council “veto.” This is done through an examination of the question whether members of the UN Security Council have an absolute right to veto? The author comes to this query against the background of different arguments that have been proffered thus far in the recent contemporary discourse on the issue and then presenting the author’s findings on this, including suggesting a strategic way of uncovering an authoritative answer to this vexed question that has thwarted the work of the UN Security Council in times of international crisis.

Manual Alignment—A Comparison Of The Law Of Armed Conflict Manuals Of The United States And Its Allies: How Reading Manuals Helps Military Lawyers Speak The Same Language When Planning Combined Operations, Jacob M. Fisch

Pace International Law Review

This article helps military lawyers work with allies.  By comparing the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) Manuals printed by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia, this article identifies consequential differences in the interpretation of LOAC between these five countries.  The article discusses four such differences: definitions of foundational principles, incursion into a neutral or nonparticipating State during a conflict, the role of doubt in making targeting decisions, and the degree of protection accorded to the environment from the effects of attacks.  While these differences point to possible challenges for cooperation between the United States and its …