Digital Commons Network^™

Read But Not Understood? An Empirical Analysis Of Consumer Comprehension In Homeowners Insurance, Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz, Brenda Cude, Kyle D. Logue, German Marquez Alcala

Articles

Modern contract law assumes that consumers meaningfully assent to the standard forms that govern their daily lives. However, this assumption is widely regarded as a legal fiction for two key reasons: first, most consumers do not read standard forms, and second, even those who do often struggle to fully comprehend their terms and implications. Although the lack of consumer reading has been well documented through empirical research, consumers’ ability to comprehend standard-form contracts has received surprisingly little attention.

This Article addresses the latter issue by empirically examining whether providing excerpts from the dominant standard-form homeowners insurance policy improves consumer understanding …

1981, Carliss N. Chatman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

42 U.S.C. § 1981 should have solved a pervasive problem in American capitalism—when white economic interests do not converge with the contract rights of Black people, they are excluded from the market in a way that causes systemic harm. This Article proposes that the failure to enforce 1981 in the past may render it more harmful than beneficial in the present climate of retrenchment. The realities of racism combine with the lack of economic interest convergence to make combatting contract inequality on a contract-by-contract basis legally precarious, nearly impossible to properly evaluate, and difficult to economically incentivize. This is in …

Climate Lies And Unjust Profits, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Yotam Kaplan, Yael Lifshitz, Niv Meyerson

Emory Law Journal

The climate crisis has reached a dangerous tipping point. Our dependence on fossil fuels continues largely unchecked, reinforced by corporations that use their influence to block reform and protect their profits. At the same time, the federal government has dismantled critical environmental safeguards, including by rescinding the greenhouse gas endangerment finding and rolling back vehicle emission standards. Together, these actions threaten to strip away some of the last protections standing between us and escalating climate catastrophe.

In this grim landscape, communities across the nation are turning to the courts with renewed urgency, seeking justice and reform through climate litigation. Yet, …

Law Firms As Trust Directors, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

The practice of permitting a third party, other than a settlor or a trustee, to give guidance to the trustee over some aspect of trust management reflects the trend of granting settlors increasing control over their transfers of wealth. In decades past, a few states enacted legislation permitting what is known as directed trusts, but in 2017, the Uniform Directed Trust Act was promulgated, seeking to provide a modicum of uniformity among the states, as wealth is now increasingly both interstate and international. Using the Uniform Directed Trust Act as a template, this Article discusses issues pertinent to directed trusts, …

The Pedagogy Of Legal Synthesis, Stephen Mortellaro

Scholarly Articles

The ability to synthesize implicit legal principles from many ambiguous cases is a mark of a skilled attorney. But legal synthesis is notoriously challenging to teach, and law students typically receive little explicit guidance on how to synthesize. The literature likewise offers law professors little direction on how to impart the skill successfully. This Article serves as a guide for professors to effectively train law students to synthesize implicit legal principles. Drawing upon cognitive science, the study of logic, and educational research, this Article explains the challenges of learning legal synthesis and equips professors with pedagogical methods and curricular resources …

Death Without Discretion: The Legality Of Mandatory Capital Punishment In Tanzania, Kimberly Austin

Human Rights Brief

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) recently found that Tanzania’s mandatory death penalty by hanging violates the rights to life and dignity, guaranteed under Articles 4 and 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Charter). The Court’s judgment on June 26, 2025, in Tembo Hussein v. United Republic of Tanzania demanded rapid reform of Tanzania’s criminal laws in the name of preserving human rights.

T.H. V. The Czech Republic: A Step Forward Or Back For Lgbtq+ Rights And Discourse In Europe With The First Openly Non-Binary Applicant?, Katherine Olsson

Human Rights Brief

On December 9, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a final judgment in the case of T.H. v. The Czech Republic.  The case concerned a non-binary individual, T.H., who was assigned male at birth and, since May 2012, had repeatedly petitioned to change their sex/gender marker and personal numerical code on their national identity card.  Because the Czech system does not provide for the option of a neutral gender marker, T.H. petitioned to have their registered gender changed to female.

Contested Authority: The Legal Framework For Ultra Vires Sovereign Debt And Its Implications For Public Debt Transparency, Sebastian Grund, Roshak Momtahen

Emory International Law Review

Despite the absence of a dedicated legal or institutional framework governing sovereign debt, the interests of government debtors and their creditors are balanced through a plethora of private and public ordering mechanisms. This Article examines “ultra vires” debt, or debt issued beyond the powers of the issuer, as a crucial element of the debtor-creditor relationship, and a potential source of tension. It describes a situation whereby a sovereign issues a financial obligation in violation of its own domestic laws. As recent high-profile lawsuits involving Venezuela and Ukraine have shown, the legal consequences of ultra vires sovereign debt issuance are …

Corporate Culpability And The Tragedy Of The Commons: Extraction And Enforcement Schemes In Brazil And Nigeria, Jane Ijeoma Onuoha

Emory International Law Review

Natural resources that were abundant decades ago are now at an all-time low. Meanwhile, corporations continue to benefit from using the Earth and its resources for their profit. Rather than enforcing established legal frameworks designed to protect the environment and human rights, governments often allow corruption, control, and competition to create opportunities for gain through complicity. In countries like the Federative Republic of Brazil and in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the effects of inaction are taking a toll on the natural resources that each country relies on. Multinational corporations are not held accountable for their corrupt and illegal extractive …

From Russia Without Love: A Unique Path Forward For Western Asset Holders Looking To Recover Expropriated Property In Russia, Anthony Liberatori

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Chelsea Football Club, Sean Baker’s Academy Award-winning film “Anora,” and billionaire parties in St. Barth’s: the rapid rise of Russian capital since the collapse of the Soviet Union has permeated international popular culture and underscores the modern global economy. However, Vladimir Putin’s invasions into Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 have caused the international community — particularly the West — to sanction Russia, challenging its place in an increasingly globalized supply chain, and harkening anti-Russian sentiment not seen since the Cold War. In response to sanctions, Russia has begun nationalizing Western assets left behind within its borders, leaving company owners scrambling …

Taxation And The Fair And Equitable Treatment Standard In International Investment Arbitration, Jiangfeng Li

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The recent decade has witnessed an increase of cases in which foreign investors have challenged host states’ taxation measures in international investment arbitrations, arguing that they violated investment treaty protection standards including fair and equitable treatment (“FET”). After conducting a close examination of cases involving taxation-related claims in international investment arbitration, this article reveals that in the cases involving the host states’ taxation measures, the ability of investors to invoke FET claims is very limited, and the chances of foreign investors succeeding in protecting their investment interests through FET claims are much lower compared to other types of non-taxation-related claims. …

The Labyrinth Of International Merger Regulation: A Procedural Path Forward, Michael Volkert

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In 1890, the first antitrust law was passed in the United States with the enactment of the Sherman Act. Over the past 134 years, jurisdictions across the globe have passed competition laws. One key aspect of competition law is a regulator’s ability to prevent anti-competitive M&A transactions. More jurisdictions are requiring merging firms to notify regulators prior to completing a merger through a process called pre-merger notification. As more global pre-merger notification laws develop, firms engaged in M&A will be required to file with more regulatory bodies, delaying transactions, increasing costs, and causing comity dilemmas. This Article investigates the current …

Presidential Power And Global Finance: The Rise And Limits Of Financial Warfare, Michael Glanzel

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The president’s power over global financial transactions has become one of the most potent tools in America’s foreign policy arsenal. Since the outbreak of World War I, presidents have frequently employed financial instruments to coerce or punish foreign actors. But it was President Biden’s employment of financial weaponry in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that represented the most complex and far-reaching exercise of presidential power in global finance. From weakening the Russian central bank’s access to the dollar market, to cutting off key Russian financial institutions from American lenders, to deplatforming Russian entities from the Society for Worldwide …

Family Law—When Equity Isn’T Enough: The Case For Clearer Standards In Family Law—Cavanagh V. Cavanagh, 267 N.E.3d 574 (Mass. App. Ct. 2025), Brianna Conlon

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Participation Of Non-State Actors In International Climate Change Advisory Opinions, Matei Alexianu, Hannah Sweeney

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

This Article offers an analysis of the unprecedented participation of non-state actors (“NSAs”), including nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, grassroots movements, and individuals, in the three recent landmark international climate change advisory proceedings. After mapping the distinct procedural regimes of the three international fora involved, the Article catalogues the diverse avenues through which NSAs have shaped these proceedings: initiating and coordinating advisory requests, submitting written and oral arguments, supplying scientific and legal expertise, orchestrating advocacy campaigns, and mobilizing post-decision implementation. The Article then identifies the principal benefits of expanded NSA engagement—enhanced representativeness, richer technical inputs, and accelerated norm diffusion—before highlighting the …

Opening Address For The American Society Of International Law 2025 Midyear Meeting: "No Liberty Without An Independent Jury", Hon. Leo M. Gordon

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Child Welfare And Global Governance: A New Framework For Cross-Border Accountability, Megan Ryan, Bailee Gibbs

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child has long failed to adequately protect all children, such as those separated from their families due to detention, deportation, exile, imprisonment, or death. Although Article 9(4) of the UNCRC imposes obligations on States when separations occur due to the actions of State Parties, a clear gap exists between these obligations and their implementation. Specifically, Article 9(4)’s effectiveness is often undermined by obstacles such as tensions between State sovereignty and international law, insufficient domestic measures, and weak enforcement mechanisms for holding States accountable. This Article discusses these obstacles, presents two case studies …

From Generation To Generation: Older People And Ageism In Violent Conflict, Alexis Jori Shanes

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Conflicts in every generation disproportionately impact older people. Older people are often unable to exercise their most basic human rights during peacetime, and conflicts only amplify this problem. Despite this reality, international law does not provide specialized protection for older people, and they are often excluded from international justice processes.

International law does not define the term “older,” although the word is often used to describe a group of people roughly age 60 or above. But there is no question that the median age of the global population is rising. Today, there are more than 700 million people older than …

Challenging National Security List Designations In U.S. Courts, Ruowen Shi

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

National security list designations have emerged as a prominent feature of U.S. foreign policy, directly targeting individuals and entities through administrative channels. Programs such as the SDN List, the Entity List, and the 1260H List deliberately restrict access to financial resources and critical technologies, functioning in practice as de facto sanctions. These lists span a regulatory spectrum, differing in statutory bases, policy objectives, and severity of consequences, but all share the common feature of making delisting extremely difficult. A series of cases demonstrates that such barriers stem primarily from the limited applicability of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in the …

Scaffolding Minimum Age Thresholds, Eve Rips

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Clinic Highlights 2025, University Of The District Of Columbia David A. Clarke School Of Law

Clinics

No abstract provided.

Fisc Opinion Digest 2022 - 2025, Alejandra Gutierrez

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This digest summarizes selected opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISC-R) regarding Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It covers the FISC’s annual review of intelligence agencies’ Section 702 certifications and the FISC and FISC-R’s opinions related to the statutory definition of Electronic Communications Service Providers (ECSPs). Publicly available opinions are posted on the FISC website, and further resources are available through the Intel.gov IC on the Record Database, a website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Originalism, Methodolatry, And The Only Guarantee Of Wisconsin, Chad M. Oldfather

Faculty Publications

Originalism, loosely defined, commands a majority on the Supreme Court and dominates legal discourse in a way that would have been unrecognizable a generation ago. Yet its actual constraining effect on judicial behavior remains doubtful. This Article offers two contributions to the long-running debate. First, it identifies a pathology in both originalist scholarship and practice that it terms "methodolatry"—a preoccupation with methodological refinement that threatens to elevate method over the purposes interpretation is meant to serve. Second, and more importantly, it argues that debates over interpretive method, however vigorous, fail to address the core problem. Text and history offer relatively …

Blurring The Lines: A Reflection On The ‘Relaxation’ Of The Organization Requirement Of Article 7(2)(A) Of The Rome Statute Since The Situation In Kenya Decisions, Leonardo Helman

Human Rights Brief

International criminal liability for Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) was born during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to address the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against civilians throughout the Third Reich. Since the post-World War II tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo, the definition of CAH has undergone several evolutionary stages to better reflect the circumstances in which atrocities have been committed. The ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda substantially adjusted the definition of CAH to fit the context of these conflicts. However, this evolution of CAH in the ad hoc cases did not yield a definition applicable in …

Behind The Headlines: Media Control In Bangladesh Post July Revolution, Nahida Islam

Human Rights Brief

“I have always written for truth, for peo­ple, and for my country . . . [b]ut today, when I look at my own life, I feel that living by writing the truth is not easy.” The words from Bibhuran­jan Sarkar’s suicide note echo into the minds of all Bangladeshi journalists as fears of retaliation took precedent over the work of informing the public. Journalism in South Asia has always been a toxic balance between writing what is fair versus writing what people in power want you to write. In Bangladesh, the autocracy led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina created …

Rights On Paper, Violations In Practice: Israel, The U.S., And The Failure To Enforce Judicial Pro¬Tections And International Obligations In Cases Of Arbitrary Detentions, Anjali Narayanan

Human Rights Brief

Muhammad Srur, a 34-year-old father, en­dured small cells, restricted movement, minimal family visits, and limited access to legal counsel when detained by Israel. He was beaten during arrest and interrogation, and the food, medical care, and living conditions fell below international standards. Half a world away, Abu Zubaydah remains in extreme isolation at Guantánamo Bay, following secret CIA detention where he faced prolonged confinement, sleep deprivation, stress positions, and other forms of torture. These men will never meet. Yet, their situations reflect the same legal reality: both have been placed into categories designed to fall outside the full protections of …

Corporate Responsibility In Business Dealings With War Criminals, Michael "Mac" Richards

Human Rights Brief

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a decades-long conflict has displaced over fourteen million people, killed over six million, and led to the highest rates of sexual violence among any other nation in the world. The DRC is the source of some of the most valuable resources used in the production of consumer electronics: gold, copper, and cobalt. Militia groups, such as Movement Du 23 Mars (M23) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), are taking advantage of the nation’s vast mineral reserves by seizing control of local mining operations and exporting the minerals through neighboring Rwanda. These minerals …

The Venice Commission’S Impact Regarding The Fight With Democratic Backsliding And Rule Of Law Recovery: Reflections Of The Polish Example, Adam Bodnar

Human Rights Brief

The Article examines the role of the Venice Commission — the expert body affiliated with the Council of Europe — in addressing democratic backsliding and supporting the restoration of the rule of law, using Poland as a case study. It places the Venice Commission within the broader system of European constitutional governance and discusses its role when Poland moved, after 2015, towards the system of illiberal democracy. Opinions of the Venice Commission were significant in the evaluation of reforms affecting the Polish Constitutional Court, judicial independence, the prosecution service, and surveillance powers. They had impact on policies of the European …

Beyond Borders: Transnational Repression As A System Of Authoritarian Control In Russia, Kazakhstan, And Kyrgyzstan, Jasmine D. Cameron

Human Rights Brief

This Article examines transnational repression, state-sponsored persecution of citizens, human rights defenders, journalists, members of diaspora, and critical voices located outside physical borders, as a systemic tool of political control employed by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Based on analysis of legislation, published reports, UN Special Rapporteur findings, and case files, this Article provides three case studies that demonstrate different stages of an escalating trend towards transnational repression systems. From Kyrgyzstan, where the government has started to develop and implement harmful practices to persecute its citizens abroad, to a more established system in Kazakhstan, where numerous incidents of transnational repression showed …

Visible At Last: Legal Recognition Of Children Born Of War (Cbow) And The Case Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Ajna Jusić, Gordana Subotić Ph.D.

Human Rights Brief

Children born of war (CBOW) — those conceived through conflict-related sexual violence— have long remained stigmatized, marginalized, and largely invisible in law and policy. Drawing on international scholarship and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s post-conflict experience, this Article examines the social, political, and legal mechanisms that sustain CBOW exclusion and traces the emergence of CBOW as a recognized category within contemporary international legal frameworks. Using Bosnia and Herzegovina as a case study, the Article argues that patriarchal norms, fragmented governance and legal structures, and decades of institutional silence have profoundly shaped CBOW lived experiences and access to rights. Furthermore, the Article assesses …