Digital Commons Network^™

Banking On Jarkesy, Jacob Cunningham, Todd Phillips

Duke Law Journal Online

The 150-year-old bank regulatory system is under threat. Following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Jarkesy, bankers have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the ability of the federal bank regulatory agencies to adjudicate cases in non-Article III tribunals. But unlike the agencies tasked with enforcing the securities, antitrust, and consumer protection laws, the banking regulators lack statutory authority to file cases in federal court. A decision invalidating their in-house adjudicative authority strips of them of any forum in which to file enforcement actions.

This essay argues that these lawsuits should fail. Because the Seventh Amendment jury trial right exempts “public rights,” …

Summary Proceedings In Real Estate Matters: A Study Of Selected Legal Issues, Khadouj Fellah

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

This article examines key issues surrounding summary (urgent) proceedings in Moroccan real estate matters. It discusses how the urgent applications judge provides temporary protective measures—without ruling on the merits—to prevent imminent harm and preserve rights in property-related disputes. The study focuses on practical applications such as provisional registration and its cancellation, precautionary seizure of real estate and lifting such measures, eviction of occupants without legal title, judicial receivership, and other special procedures. It also highlights areas of doctrinal and case-law divergence and argues for clearer legislative guidance.

Custom ('Urf) And Its Impact On Guiding Fatwas, Nabil El Ghamari

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

Keywords: custom ('urf); fatwa; Maliki jurisprudence; legal maxims; practice ('amal); Shari'a objectives (maqasid); Islamic legal methodology. مقدّمة: الشّريعة المباركة مبرّأة من كل عيب، وغير متهمّة بتقصير عن تحقيق مقصد صالح، ولا تزنّ بقصورٍ عن مواكبة أي مكان وزمان، ولا بدّ ممن أراد أن يوقّع عن الله تعالى أن يعرف عادات النّاس في الأقوال والأفعال، وإلا قصّر في تحقيق المصالح، ووقع في الشُّبه والإشكالات التي يتعذر الخروج منها إلا بهذه المعرفة. وهذه الشّريعة الغرّاء الكاملة الخالدة، اعتبرت العرف وردَّت كثيرا من الأحكام إليه، فهو أصلٌ من أصول الملّة، ودليلٌ من جملة الأدلة. 1 وقد اتفق أئمة المذاهب على الأخذ به، إلا …

Water Easements In Moroccan Law, Abdeljalil Joudat

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

This article examines the notion of easements in Islamic jurisprudence and positive law, with a special focus on water-related easements under Moroccan legislation. It outlines the legal framework governing the allocation, control, and protection of water resources, highlighting the right of aqueduct (watercourse) and the drainage easement as regulated by Morocco’s Water Law No. 10-95. It also discusses the conditions for establishing these rights, the competent procedures, and the principles of fair prior compensation, while pointing to key practical challenges in their implementation.

Workplace Video Surveillance: A Comparative Law Perspective, Imane Hilani

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

Workplace video surveillance has become widespread, raising major issues at the intersection of the employer’s power of control and employees’ fundamental rights. This article examines the legal framework governing the use of CCTV at work, with particular attention to personal privacy and the protection of personal data. It discusses the conditions of lawful monitoring (information, proportionality, purpose limitation, security and retention), as well as employees’ rights and the evidentiary value of recordings, through a Moroccan and comparative perspective supported by legislation and case law.

When Ownership Meets Licensing–New Normative Expectations And The Need For Nft Categorization: All Your Projects “Are” Belong To Us, Charles Belle

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

The current treatment of all NFTs in legal scholarship as identical digital assets fundamentally misunderstands their varied applications and the new normative expectations they create. The Moonbirds controversy of 2022, where a creator’s unilateral license change affected nearly 20,000 token holders, exemplifies the crisis: token holders believed they owned digital assets that could be controlled and commercialized, but existing copyright frameworks treat NFTs merely as licenses subject to creator discretion. Picture for Profile (PFP) Projects—community-based NFT collections involving thousands of tokens often with governance and commercial rights—combine concepts of possession, community governance, and commercialization in ways that challenge traditional intellectual …

From Prompt To Clone: Copyright Challenges In Ai Model Distillation, Claudia Philipp

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

This paper examines the legality of model distillation in the context of large language models (LLMs), where smaller “student” models are trained by mimicking the outputs of larger, proprietary “teacher” models. As artificial intelligence continues to advance rapidly, the legal framework surrounding patent, and contract law is being tested. Specifically, the paper explores whether current U.S. copyright law offers sufficient protection for frontier LLM developers and whether practices like unauthorized distillation amount to infringement. By analyzing model architecture, training data, behavioral mimicry, and reverse engineering under prevailing legal doctrines—including fair use, terms of use enforcement, and recent litigation—the paper finds …

Codifying Command: Integrating Ai Into Corporate Boards, Kennedy Kelley

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

Corporate law in the United States requires that boards of directors be composed of human individuals, prohibiting artificial intelligence (AI) from serving in a directorial role. Statutes such as Delaware General Corporation Law §141(b) mandate that directors be natural persons, while fiduciary duty doctrines, liability structures, and regulatory frameworks presuppose human oversight and accountability. This paper argues that such legal constraints are increasingly outdated and should be reformed to permit AI to serve as a board member, alongside natural persons, with full decisionmaking authority. As AI systems become more capable of complex, datadriven reasoning, corporations should not be barred from …

Center For Biological Diversity V. U.S. Bureau Of Land Management, Erika C. Rader

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Mgmt. marks the Ninth Circuit’s second time considering the Willow Project, which plans to drill oil in Alaska. Environmental plaintiffs brought a series of claims under NEPA, the Reserves Act, ANILCA, and the ESA to stop or stall the Project. Plaintiffs focused on the BLM’s use of a “full field development standard” in assessing alternatives to the Project. Despite the range of claims, the Ninth Circuit allowed the Project to move forward, but on remand required the BLM to explain its reasoning for departing from the full field development standard …

Private Money: Stablecoins, Bitcoin, And The Genius Act, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

Cryptocurrency has been legalized in the United States. The 2025 GENIUS Act provides a sensible regulatory framework for cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange while avoiding predicted monetary chaos. The Act correctly distinguishes between volatile fiat cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are unsuitable as payment mechanisms, and stablecoins backed by traditional currencies and reserves.

Historical analysis spanning American monetary systems from the “free banking era” before 1860 through modern digital payments demonstrates that private money has long coexisted with government currency but requires appropriate regulation to prevent bank runs, fraud, and monetary instability. The GENIUS Act addresses key cryptocurrency risks—technological failures, …

Masthead

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Beware The Lion’S Den: A School Lawyer’S Guide To Avoiding Pitfalls In The Texas Open Meetings Act, Kyle Stone

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Texas Business Court: Year One, Jack B. Disorbo

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication In Law School: Lessons From Medicine, Social Work, And Business, Mireille Butler, Jaclyn Celebrezze

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Legal clients in the United States are increasingly multilingual and multicultural. More than 71 million people living in the United States communicate in a language other than English. Consequently, the lawyer’s duty of shared understanding is taking on new meaning. With the advent of ABA Ethics Opinion 500, cross-cultural communication skills are a lawyer’s ethical duty and a law school’s mandate. Additionally, ABA Standard 303(c) and the potential of increased experiential learning credit requirements make clear that immediate curricular changes are needed. To prepare for the modern practice of law, tomorrow’s lawyers need to develop cross-cultural skills while in law …

Legal Representation And Public Criticism, Michael Ariens

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

Bigger Isn’T Always Better: The Texas-Size Problem Of Overbreadth In Criminal Discovery, Allison Siegwald

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

Pro Bono, Supplied And Demanded, Anita Bernstein

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

. Of the fifty-six blackletter provisions in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the rule about pro bono is the only one that tells lawyers they “should”—rather than must, must not, or may—take a particular action. This verb, which in effect says: “You deserve praise if you do it but hey, no pressure,” embodies the partial perspective that dominates pro bono—partial in the sense of both incomplete and biased. Valorizing pro bono while imposing no consequences on people who fail to perform it indulges and flatters what this Article calls pro bono’s supply side. Bar leaders, rule writers led by …

Ethics And Originalism, Michael L. Smith

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article addresses a blind spot in the theorizing and debate over originalist interpretation: the implications of rules of legal ethics. For the few originalist theorists who take the practical side of originalism seriously, attorneys’ rules of professional conduct are almost entirely absent from the discussion. These rules bind all attorneys who, in turn, construct the record, present the evidence, and make the arguments upon which judges and Justices rely. And these rules have profound, though mixed, implications for originalist theory. Some ethical duties—such as those requiring attorney competence and candor to the tribunal—might enhance the quality of originalist analysis …

Turning The Tables: Using Texas’S Stowers Doctrine To Rein In Delay, Deny, Defend Tactics, Ethan Evans

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Artificial Investments: Consumer Protection For Ai-Generated Quantitative Trading Algorithms, Eric Heyland

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Black Box: The Ftc’S New Ability And Incentive Test For Vertical Mergers, Ann P. Kreuscher

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

In-Space Servicing And The Coming Legal Issues For Inciting Innovation, Grayson Russell

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Stripes Of Glory We Wear: Reflections Of The Legal Role And Intricacies Of Citizenship In The History And Foundation Of The Malaysian State

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: The meaning of citizenship in Malaysia is a tale as old as the country itself—a thorny triangular relationship between the state; the Bumiputera majority of Malay and indigenous natives; and the non-Bumiputeras minority of Chinese and Indians who primarily migrated when the region was under British colonial rule and influence. In the present, Bumiputeras enjoy a constitutionally stipulated special status—a distinction that bestows many privileges and preferential treatment in all facets of life, from commerce to education, homeownership to government employment, that is off-limits to non-Bumiputeras. Supporters of the system argue it remains necessary—a form of affirmative action …

The Taiwanese Way To Ai Governance: Draft Basic Law On Artificial Intelligence And Future Regulatory Strategies

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: Despite Taiwan’s significant contributions to the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, its role remains underexamined in international AI governance discourse. This Article addresses this gap by analyzing Taiwan’s emerging AI regulatory framework, with particular emphasis on the Draft Basic Law on Artificial Intelligence (the “Draft AI Law”). Situating Taiwan’s approach within the broader global regulatory landscape, the Article compares the Draft AI Law with key international models, including the European Union’s AI Act and the United States’ NIST AI Risk Management Framework, while also drawing on regulatory developments in Japan and South Korea. Rather than providing a clause-by-clause analysis, …

Reviving Novorossiya: Russia’S Invasion Of Ukraine Under International Law

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: For nearly three years, the Eastern European nation of Ukraine has been entangled in a war it did not instigate, did not desire, but was forced into by its more powerful neighbor, Russia. Since the onset of the war, Russia has faced accusations of widespread atrocities, including severe violations of human rights, international humanitarian law, and breaches of other international norms. Following the inauguration of United States (US) President Donald Trump, there has been a renewed effort to bring both parties to the negotiating table and end the conflict. With the ongoing negotiations, there is no better time to …

Volume 35, Issue 1: Contents

Washington International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Litigating Workplace Sexual Harassment In China: Practical Challenges & Proposed Solutions

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: The development of China’s anti-sexual harassment laws and policies over the past few decades has raised the hopes of many. However, the sheer volume of regulations can easily create the false impression that the Chinese legal system is effectively dealing with workplace sexual harassment. Statistics show that the number of lawsuits filed in Chinese courts remains trivial, even though workplace sexual harassment continues to be widespread. This article argues that courts in China misunderstand how to apply important concepts in litigation such as how to define sexual harassment and employer liability. The difficulty of carrying the burden of …

Hybrid Warfare: A Collection Of Scenarios, Adrian Borbély

DRI Press

Hybrid Warfare is nothing new but it has increasingly made the news - even if most of it remains beyond our awareness. Hybrid Warfare gathers all methods through which countries wage war against each other beyond traditional military, diplomatic and economic battlefields (cyber attacks, disinformation, transnational organized crime, appropriation of natural resources, lawfare, corruption, etc.). Such below-the-surface foreign aggressions are not limited to localized regions where armed forces shoot at each other trying to take each other’s positions. In hybrid warfare, society as a whole is the battlefield. In other words, hybrid warfare is not the concern of a few, …

Front Matter

Washington International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Allocating Data Protection Duties The Chinese Way

Washington International Law Journal

Abstract: China has been enacting data protection laws with distinctive features at an unprecedented pace, which makes it necessary to update existing studies on the Chinese approach to data protection. Unlike its predecessors, this Article focuses on developing a structured approach to dissecting the Chinese regime, especially the Personal Information Protection Law and latest case law. It analyzes how the laws allocate responsibilities among the three major parties involved in data protection—individual data subjects, data controllers, and regulators—and draws comparisons with European Union (EU) laws that inspired the Chinese laws. It argues that the way Chinese laws allocate data …